A couple of revealing news from “great Russia”
1. Chicken disappeared from stores in Russia: officials came up with a ridiculous excuse. In Russia, against the backdrop of sanctions, the economic system continues to collapse, one of the manifestations of which has recently become a periodic shortage of chicken in stores. To justify themselves, Russian retailers and officials are inventing ridiculous reasons why poultry meat has disappeared from the shelves.
Thus, residents of a number of regions of Russia – in particular, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Chelyabinsk and Ulyanovsk – faced a shortage of the most affordable meat. Russia's largest retail chain X5, which owns the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Chizhik store chains, blamed bad weather.
2. Prices for eggs in Russia increased by 61% over the year and continue to rise. Inflation for 2023 met official forecasts, but many goods have risen in price by tens of percent, Rosstat reported. Beyond competition are eggs, prices for which increased by 61.4% and continued to rise in the new year.
Eggs rose in price by 18.2% in December, and by 61.35% in just a year. They became a symbol of inflation; President Vladimir Putin had to apologize for the rise in prices. In his characteristic manner, he asked how Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev was doing with his eggs, and he promised to improve: “I felt that I needed to work better <...> I hope that in the near future, at the beginning of the year, the price should go down.”
Since January, the government has zeroed out import duties on eggs, and supplies have begun from Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Russia is a country that has defeated common sense
No sources again... probably seen it in your dreams as always?
Anyway, nice eye-opening article in New Your Times, some truth about situation in Ukraine. Here are some quotes of the key points:
Ukrainians are weary, short of ammunition and outnumbered, and their prospects look bleak. “We can stop them for now, but who knows,” one soldier said. “Tomorrow or the next day, maybe we can’t stop them.”
Ukraine’s military prospects are looking bleak. Western military aid is no longer assured at the same levels as years past. Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive in the south, where Jaeger was wounded days after it began, is over, having failed to meet any of its objectives.
And now, Russian troops are on the attack, especially in the country’s east. The town of Marinka has all but fallen. Avdiivka is being slowly encircled. A push on Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, is expected. Farther north, outside Kupiansk, the fighting has barely slowed since the fall.
For now, Ukraine is in a perilous position. The problems afflicting its military have been exacerbated since the summer. Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted by long stretches of combat and shorter rest periods. The ranks, thinned by mounting casualties, are only being partly replenished, often with older and poorly trained recruits.
One Ukrainian soldier, part of a brigade tasked with holding the line southwest of Avdiivka, pointed to a video he took during training recently. The instructors, trying to stifle their laughs, were forced to hold up the man, who was in his mid-50s, just so he could fire his rifle. The man was crippled from alcoholism, said the soldier, insisting on anonymity to candidly describe a private training episode.
“Three out of ten soldiers who show up are no better than drunks who fell asleep and woke up in uniform,” he said, referring to the new recruits who arrive at his brigade.
Kyiv’s recruiting strategy has been plagued by overly aggressive tactics and more widespread attempts to dodge the draft. Efforts to rectify the problem have spawned a political argument between the military and civilian leadership.
Military officials reinforce the need for wider mobilization to win the war, but the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is apprehensive about introducing unpopular changes that could end with a drive to mobilize 500,000 new soldiers. That number, analysts say, takes into account Ukraine’s staggering losses and what is likely needed to push back the Russians.
While Ukrainian casualties remain a closely guarded secret, U.S. officials over the summer estimated deaths and injuries to be well over 150,000.
“We’re tired,” a Ukrainian platoon commander said, speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of his comments. “We could always use more people.”
The shortage of troops is only one part of the problem. The other and currently more pressing issue is Ukraine’s dwindling ammunition reserves as continued Western supplies remain anything but certain. Ukrainian commanders now have to ration their ammunition, not knowing whether every new shipment might be their last.
Only when a truck carrying two artillery shells arrived could the crew get to work for the first time in days. They quickly loaded the shells and fired toward Russian soldiers attacking Ukrainian positions three miles away.
“Today we had two shells, but some days we don’t have any in these positions,” said the crew’s commander, who goes by the call sign Monk. “The last time we fired was four days ago, and that was only five shells.”
The shortage of ammunition — and the shifting battlefield momentum — means the gunners are no longer supporting Ukrainian attacks. Instead, they only fire when Russian troops are storming Ukrainian trenches.
“We can stop them for now, but who knows,” Monk said. “Tomorrow or the next day, maybe we can’t stop them. It’s a really big problem for us.”
Near Kupiansk, a deputy battalion commander from the 68th Brigade, who goes by the call sign Italian, echoed Monk’s concerns.
“I have two tanks, but only five shells,” said Italian, as he walked through a denuded tree line splintered by shelling about 500 yards from Russian positions in the Luhansk region. “It’s a bad situation now, especially in Avdiivka and Kupiansk.”
This ammunition imbalance has been felt across much of the more than 600-mile front line, Ukrainian soldiers said. The Russian units are in a position similar to the summer of 2022, where they can simply wear down a Ukrainian position until Kyiv’s forces run out of ordnance. But unlike that summer, there is no longer a frantic scramble in Western capitals to arm and re-equip Ukraine’s troops.
Outside Avdiivka, where Russian forces are concentrating much of their forces in the east, the rumble of artillery on one recent afternoon was almost nonstop. It was a soundtrack not heard since the war’s earlier months, when Russian paramilitary forces assaulted Bakhmut, eventually capturing it.
Washington’s suggestion for Ukraine to go on the defensive in 2024 will mean little if Kyiv does not have the ammunition or people to defend what territory it currently holds, analysts have said.
“Our guys are getting pounded heavily,” said Bardak, a Ukrainian soldier working alongside Jaeger next to the derelict tank. “It’s hot all over
now.”
Source: Russia Regains Upper Hand in Ukraine’s East as Kyiv’s Troops Struggle (
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/13/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war.html).
Still worried about chicken meat and eggs?
