Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Kyiv is trying to mitigate the shortage of missile interceptors that has left its cities exposed to Russia’s ballistic missiles [.] By  Alistair MacDonald, Anastasiia Malenko and Marcus Walker The Wall Street Journal July 8, 2026 10:00 pm ET [Original article contains links] KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine is running out of U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles, leaving its cities nearly defenseless against Russia’s escalating barrages of ballistic missiles. What can Ukraine do about it? It is pressing Western nations to donate more Patriot missiles faster from their stockpiles, but everyone is running low. The U.S.-Iran war has worsened the global shortage of interceptors. Production of new ones is painfully slow.  Moscow is exploiting the weakness in Kyiv’s air defenses as the Russian army struggles on the front lines. This week, Ukraine wasn’t able to shoot down any of the 28 ballistic missiles that Russia fired at the Kyiv area. The attacks are killing dozens of civilians. “This is...

Ordinary Ukrainians are adapting to the missile threat by fleeing underground. Serhii Korovayny for WSJ https://www.wsj.com/world/ukraines-six-part-strategy-to-survive-the-global-run-on-patriot-missiles-463cb8c2

The Russian president donned military fatigues as he tried to counter a narrative that Moscow is stumbling in its war after Ukrainian drone strikes set off an acute fuel shortage. Today at 4:31 p.m. EDT Russian President Vladimir Putin, shown speaking at a command post in 2025, visited the front line again on Friday in an effort to challenge the narrative that Ukraine holds any military advantage. (AP) By Mary Ilyushina ; see also Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare frontline appearance late Friday, donning green military fatigues, to claim breakthroughs in Russia’s war effort and counter what he called Ukraine’s “information and propaganda operation on illusory battlefield results.” In recent weeks, Kyiv appears to have gained momentum through medium- and long-range drone strikes that have hammered occupied Crimea and damaged oil refineries and other energy infrastructure in Russia, leading to gasoline shortages. That perception of success even drew rare praise from Preside...