Radio War Nerd EP #450 — Ukrainocracy, feat. Peter Korotaev
Guest: Peter Korotaev, Events In Ukraine
Recorded: June 17, 2024
We talk to Peter Korotaev about his substack Events In Ukraine, an unvarnished look at how Ukrainians report on life in George Packer's democratic dreamland.
Listen to EP #319 with Peter, "Escape From Kiev"
Total time: 1:43:54
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (21)
Americans are dying of heat (something we mock Europe for every summer) and no one is hearing about it or cares. Hmm
Love the show - but you guys complain about the weather too much. A few days of 95 degree weather in the summer is probably not a harbinger of the apocalypse. Relax!
You must have missed the part about it being the hottest month in history every single month for the past year and thousands dying in a span of a couple days at the Hajj.
Stupid story: My in laws made me and my partner watch this year's "So You Think you can Dance" because the guy they liked looked like their son (my partner, he also didn't look like him, they both just have long hair) and the contestant is Ukrainian (cue cable tv propaganda about Ukraine) but all I could think was "so this is where the men of fighting age are." He did not dance well.
Regarding the bombing: I think it’s mostly become an effort to pull off/destroy air defense systems, sort of similar to what happened with the Allied bombing campaign in WWII. That and just making them burn up western aid in the least economical way possible. I don’t know if it started with that intent, and sometimes they do try to shut down the power grid to keep reserves from being transferred for a few hours while they’re going for a breakthrough. But my sense is the Russians have always had a bunch of priorities nested into one another, and they don’t seem to mind switching between them based on how things are going at any given time
Cops sure get it all. Is there a thin blue line in Ukraine?
Not that thin, it seems
I'd be curious to hear more about the role of orthodoxy in Ukraine; i.e., what is the relationship between the Ukrainian church and Moscow, has orthodoxy been used as a means of state-formation in Ukraine as it has been in Russia, are devout believers seen as having questionable loyalty to Ukraine, etc.
So there’s a couple different churches in Ukraine. In context of orthodox, theres the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Both orthodox, but different leadership. If I recall correctly, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church falls under the Russian orthodox jurisdiction. Since the Russian orthodox patriarch has basically condoned the war, naturally there is going to be some strife between parishioners of the different churches. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine wants to be independent (there’s so so many reasons why orthodox churches are nationalized, won’t go into it right now) from Moscow, and some in Moscow think this as well, which causes strife in Moscow. How one solves all this, and the war ultimately, is to convert everyone over there to Catholicism via the byzantine rite, best compromise for everyone. Haven’t listened to the episode yet but looking forward to it.
Rich man's war, poor man's fight, same as always etc etc I wonder how many of these mobilization forces are foreign mercenaries haha whoops I mean western training advisors haha
That would be an atomic bombshell
Why is Russia taking out utilities now? Its TIRING. Its wearing down, Its not worth doing anymore.
Imagine having close friends tortured and dissappeared by the SBU. I would be absolutely enraged by not just Zelensky's admin but the western media's total blindness.
What is being black in America?
Lovely to hear from Peter, those inter-familial dynamics sound like a nightmare.
You'd think the government would expand it's control of the economy instead of shrink it during a war.
Yeah maybe if you’re a doggone pinko commie. Free markets are a way more efficient and responsive way to run an economy. How would the GOVERNMENT know what it needs to fight a war!?
Saw an article in the Washington Post saying "Ukrainians adopt Russian tactic of freeing prisoners to fight" where they said using prisoners as soldiers was a cynical Russian tactic. Seriously, these people... I don't think anyone reading this needs to be told, but using prisoners as soldiers is hardly a "Russian" tactic. As far as I know it's a standard military practice all over the world, including the United States.
My assumption is that Russia didn't target energy infrastructure in Feb 2022, because they assumed a quick regime change operation. If the assumption is that a friendly government will soon be in power, you want to limit the damage, save on reconstruction costs, and refrain from doing things that will undermine the viability of the friendly government. Even into the spring of 2022, the Russian assumptions seemed to be overly optimistic about near-term success. It was really only with the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Fall of 2022, that Russia was forced to recalibrate for a long(er) war.
That’s been my understanding for the duration. They wanted to keep relations with the people good because they are kin and they will have to be neighbors with each other until humanity kicks it.
Always great to hear from Peter