Dispatches From Exile: Weekly Mind Dump 5/14-20/2023
Who’s Blowing Stuff Up Inside Russia? Drop me a line.
I just watched a riveting clip profiling a Ukrainian sniper. Ukraine has a cadre of incredibly skilled marksmen. What makes this one stand out is she’s female and was carrying out missions during her first trimester of pregnancy. The short documentary, “From Sniper to New Mom: A Remarkable Journey in War-Torn Ukraine,” by Jason Bellini, profiles a young woman, Yevheniya, popularly known in her country as “Joan of Arc” because of her heroism. I encourage you to watch it. You’ll be glued to it and, as I, likely to view it again.
Yevheniya gave up a career as a big city glamour marketer known as “Emerald” to take up arms when Russia invaded last year. She learned marksmanship as a little girl from her father — a unique skill much in demand by the Ukrainian Army. So, she traded her cosmetics kit for a Snipex Alligator 14.5mm sniper rifle and her fashion gowns for standard issue cammies. She won’t divulge the number of kills she’s racked up, but the tally is known to be high. “I do it out of a thirst for revenge,” she says.
Yevheniya fell in love with a fellow citizen-soldier. They married near the front line, she with a cammo jacket draped over her chiffon wedding gown and combat boots adorning her feet. Two months into her pregnancy, she was reassigned to rear echelon duties until giving birth to a healthy baby girl. One wonders how a woman can take lives while carrying one to term. It’s for her child. She is taking enemy lives so that her child won’t grow up as a slave to a foreign hegemon.
Yevheniya isn’t Ukraine’s only female sniper. Another young woman, code-named “Charcoal” and popularly known as “Lady Death,” holds a similarly high kill count. Some of the Red Army’s deadliest snipers during the Second World War were women.
“In times of war,” declared the Roman orator Cicero, “the laws fall silent.” When fighting for survival, he was suggesting, nations may use violence without legal restraint.
We witness this in Ukraine’s charismatic, though enigmatic chief of military intelligence Major General Kyrylo Budanov, described by a senior U.S. intelligence official as “George Smiley meets Jason Bourne.” If you haven’t viewed an interview with this man, I encourage you to do so. Ukraine’s youngest general at 37, he radiates a fierce and uncompromising determination. Someone on whose bad side you wouldn’t want to land. He recently told reporters, “We’ve been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.” He added, “We have already gotten many [Russian targets], including public and media personalities,” asserting they were largely carried out “by citizens of the Russian Federation” happy to work with Ukrainian intelligence for “patriotic reasons.”
Which gets us to a growing spate of mysterious attacks carried out inside Russia in recent months. The daughter of a prominent Russian war hawk, herself a vociferous pro-Putin propagandist, was killed with a car bomb. Another pro-Kremlin propagandist was blown up inside his favorite Moscow café. Scores of military recruiting offices and other government facilities have been torched as were two fighter jets this week. Collaborationists in Russian occupied territories are being assassinated. Fiery sabotage attacks, including train derailments, are carried out in these areas and in Crimea. And, of course, there’s the exploding drone over the Kremlin this month. Naturally, Ukrainian officials either deny or “can neither confirm nor deny” responsibility.
Budanov reminds me of the legendary Mossad chief, Meir Dagan. Under the Ukraine-born, vegetarian, art-loving Dagan’s tenure, multiple Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated in their own country, numerous Hamas and Hezbollah operatives were blown to bits in their bedrooms and at other seeming sanctuaries. His lethal reputation was such that he was dubbed by his Arab adversaries as “Superman.” Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Some people have a knife between their teeth. Meir has a rocket-propelled grenade between his teeth.”
I’m intrigued by the growing number of attacks inside Russia. At least two nebulous, avowed anti-Putin groups are claiming responsibility. I don’t rule out domestic anti-Putin groups being behind some of the acts. But I’m putting my money on Budanov and company.
This will be the subject of my next article, “Who’s Blowing Stuff Up Inside Russia?” And here’s where I can use your help. Any readers out there who may have some solid info on who’s conducting anti-Kremlin attacks inside Russia, feel free to message me via this platform.
Meanwhile, the MAGA wing of the GOP continued this week to register their isolationist opposition to aiding Ukraine. A recent Axios/Ipsos survey found that 57 percent of Republicans opposed providing weapons and financial support to Ukraine. So far, those Republicans in Congress who fall into this camp are fairly few in number. The original “America First” movement fell flat on its face after a good run in the 1930s. Let’s hope the same fate befalls Trump’s copycat following.
Finally, the reaction to my last piece, “Sleepwalking to Fascism: America Flirts with Anti-Semitism,” has been very positive. If you haven’t read it, take a minute to do so. It’s my latest on the danger of the U.S. sliding toward fascism.
The opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions of the U.S. government.