The propaganda war between Russia and Ukraine continues, with conflicting stories about victories and defeats. But then propaganda is always part of war. Watching the numerous videos of attacks by Russian forces, counterattacks by Ukrainian forces, and drone strikes by Ukrainian drones taking out Russian tanks, tracks, and trucks.
Watching video of Russian helicopters attacking Ukrainian positions and being shot down in turn by US-supplied Stinger missiles was reminiscent of similar scenes of Soviet helicopters and strike aircraft being shot down in Afghanistan by earlier generation Stingers supplied to the majuhadeen by the US. (As a side note, one of the missile programs I worked on back in my defense days was the FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS missile system. My work dates back to the early 1990’s and I have to assume there have been at least two or three generations of the Stinger since then.)
As much as the Russians try to make it sound as if everything is going swimmingly, reports from inside Ukraine from foreign media tell a different story. So who do we believe? I know I am disinclined to believe anything coming from Moscow, particularly in light of their more recent attempt at a false flag operation to drag Belarus into Ukraine. (The Russians really like using false flag operations to justify actions they want to take or to force others to act in ways they want.)
