The Orcs’ siege of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol was paused on 17 May while 265 people surrendered, some of them wounded soldiers. This nearly 82-day stand-off has been compared to the great historical sieges of Troy, Leningrad and the Alamo. But it is suspected the ‘Die Hards’ are still in there and will fight like the Spartans did at Thermopylae – to the death. This siege suspension by the Russians is thought to be a diversion from the Russian losses north of Kharkiv.
It is no longer From Russia with Love with Sean Connery and the Cold War, but now more like Timothy Dalton’s The Living Daylights from the James Bond film. The Finns have had the living daylights scared out of them by Hellboy Putin. They now want to dive into NATO along with the Swedes. The Finns have long been known for their saunas, but the temperature has soared with the ‘military operation’ in Ukraine by their border neighbour Russia.
It’s not like the Finns haven’t been invaded by the Russians before! Twice, in fact, since their independence in 1917. The first time was the “Winter War” in 1939, when the Soviets poured over the border with 400,000 troops and 2,500 tanks. The Finns had 32 obsolete Renault FTs. As in Ukraine, the Russian columns were restricted to major roads while being picked off by the Finns on skis who could ambush them from the thick forests then escape over the frozen lakes. The Molotov cocktail is supposed to have been invented for this purpose by the Finns.
The Red Army regrouped and came back with extra forces: 750,000 this time. But because of the loss of forces and threat of international intervention, the Soviets agreed to negotiate and Finland ended up losing nine per cent of its land, including the Karelian Isthmus, plus 70,000 casualties. Not having learnt their lesson, the Reds came back again in 1941 and the Finns were only saved by Nazi intervention.
The Nazis invaded Ukraine as well in 1941, which was then part of the Soviet Empire.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto has told Putin to ‘look in the mirror’. He accuses him of causing Finland and Sweden to join NATO by their inhuman actions in Ukraine. This will add another one million personnel to NATO. So you could say Putin has shot himself in the foot and caused the game to change completely. The old status quo of neutrality has gone for the two Nordic Baltic countries.
The Russian Federation have now killed twice as many people in Mariupol in this war (21,000) than the Nazis did over a two-year period. The Russians have only been there for a few months. Zelensky has said the Russians can’t destroy Mariupol as there are only stones left.
Meanwhile Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones have been causing havoc on Snake Island, destroying vehicles and a Raptor patrol boat. It’s like an episode of Star Wars.
Without weapons like these, including the British-Swedish NLAWs, the war could have gone much worse for Middle Earth (Ukraine). When they fire the NLAWs, Ukrainians recite their prayer ‘God Bless the Queen’. The Orcs have not yet learned how to cross a river in wartime. Their pontoon bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in Bilohorodka, East Ukraine was destroyed along with personnel and equipment.
Sergeant Vadim Shyshimarin, a 21-year-old from Siberia, has pleaded guilty to the war crime of shooting a 62-year-old on a bicycle during the first days of the war in Chupakhivka, a village near Sumy in Eastern Ukraine. This is the first trial of war crimes to be held in Ukraine.
The song “Stefania” has won the Ukranians the Eurovision Song Contest, probably on a sympathy vote. Soldiers were given leave to participate. It is a poignant song about a mother’s hair turning grey over the years. Some soldiers won’t live to see it. Slava Ukraini!
Because it’s Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, let’s have a song from the English group Queen, “Put out the Fire”. Possibly Mad Vlad’s lament over Ukraine.
They called him a hero In the land of the free But he wouldn’t shake my hand, boy He disappointed me So I got my handgun And blew him away That critter was a bad guy I had to make him pay You might fear for my reason I don’t care what they say Look out, baby, it’s the season For the mad masquerade Put out the fire Put out the fire Put out the fire