I read that Ukrainian forces have broken through the first line of Russian defences in the southeast. Just a small puncture for now, it took that long to demine. They're having to do it by hand, one at a time, in the dark, because the Russians can still shell demining vehicles to pieces. Hoping this leads to more rapid progress.

Something about 30 year old, long since written off, American missiles being used to destroy choppers being protected by the best of modern Russian AA systems seems to bode ill for the Russians. Especially since there are over a thousand of the ATACMS missiles sitting around, all of more recent production and type, that are similarly worthless to the US because they've been formally written off as well.

Mind you, Russian AA systems will be trading at a marked discount going forward.

I know this is old news, but I have to ask.

Putin totally had the Wagner Group leadership killed, right?

It seems the way to bet. Not that they didn't have other enemies that can get cute; but when a bomb shows up on a Russian plane flying from Russia to Russia the first folks to consider would be the Russian government.

Looks to me like Putin let Prigozhin walk away after the attempted not-exactly-coup just so that he could kill him when he didn't see it coming.

Anyway, it's October, which I guess means it's going to be too cold to fight soon? The Middle East just exploded again, so Ukraine's allies are going to be distracted. Not to mention the mess in the House of Representatives. I think things are going to get rougher for Zelensky.

Oh was it a bomb? I though the plane had been shot down by a missile or something.