Attention to the Unseen

Phillips Payson O’Brien writes: For the past four months, people around the world have witnessed the macabre process of Russian forces making repeated assaults near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for only the tiniest of gains. By some counts, Russia has lost about five of its soldiers for every Ukrainian soldier lost—to say nothing of massive equipment losses. Although in theory a country can win a war by using its military forces to make forward assaults against an enemy’s forces,…

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  A string of mysterious explosions and a poisoning have targeted Bulgaria’s arms industry, which has been a crucial supplier of weapons to Ukraine. But amid mounting evidence of Russian involvement, critics accuse Bulgarian authorities of dragging their feet in their investigations of these unsolved blasts. A new @svobodna-evropa documentary looks into evidence of Russian sabotage, claims that there have been cover-ups by Bulgarian authorities, and whether Bulgarian arms depots are still at risk as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine…

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Douglas London writes: Vladimir Putin seeks to prevail in Ukraine through an exhausting war of attrition in which he outlasts his opponents, or so the expert consensus has it. The U.S. is supplying weapons to Ukraine at a remarkably slow pace, perhaps for fear of provoking a calamitous Russian escalation. It seems as if Washington is playing right into Mr. Putin’s hands. But maybe not everything is as it seems. If I learned anything from decades as a Russian-speaking Central…

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The New York Times reports: They rushed to Ukraine by the thousands, many of them Americans who promised to bring military experience, money or supplies to the battleground of a righteous war. Hometown newspapers hailed their commitment, and donors backed them with millions of dollars. Now, after a year of combat, many of these homespun groups of volunteers are fighting with themselves and undermining the war effort. Some have wasted money or stolen valor. Others have cloaked themselves in charity…

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The New York Times reports: A U.S. contractor was killed and another contractor and five U.S. service members were injured when a self-destructing drone struck a maintenance facility on a coalition base in northeast Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said in a statement. U.S. intelligence analysts concluded that the drone was of “Iranian origin,” according to the Pentagon statement, which said the attack took place near Hasaka at 1:38 p.m. local time. In response, at President Biden’s direction, Defense Secretary…

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