Zelensky's Lackluster DC Tour Upstaged by Another Mass Russian Air Attack on Ukraine
As expected, the establishment has hailed Zelensky’s latest “victorious campaign” against Russian warehouse chain Wildberries as a momentum-shifting PR operation that has reportedly brought him back into good graces with Trump:
Politico takes great indulgences in writing that Zelensky “convinced” the Washington establishment that Ukraine can now “win the war”. In doing so, they admit quite openly that the brilliant plan is simply to ‘irritate’ the Russian people into pressuring Putin to come to the negotiating table:
“The whole program here is to bring Putin to the negotiating table,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said following a meeting with the Ukrainian president, senators and some House lawmakers. “Zelenskyy believed that Putin would think a little bit more about trying to negotiate a settlement if the sanctions were in place and actually creating more irritation and, as he put it, I believe, ‘anger’ with the war with the Russian people.”
This is apparently the depraved strategy cooked up by MI6, CIA, and co.: endlessly bomb Russian civilian properties until the people get fed up of the war. How well did that turn out in Iran?
We saw in Iran a marked shift in even the staunchly anti-clerical civilian population on the ground after the US began bombing schools, hospitals, etc.—or, in essence, the very people the US claimed to be “liberating” from the “oppressive regime”. The sentiment quickly turned against the US in even the most diehard Westernized Iranians.
How anyone could expect any different in Russia is a most baffling mystery.
But Zelensky seems to believe his plan is working:
As a slight aside, insiders are now even admitting that Ukraine is being forced to shift its campaign against Russian refineries from simply creating empty PR optics via smoke plume ‘spectacles’, to actually hitting significant components of the refineries themselves which could take them out of action:
It’s an admission that the campaign has failed: as we reported last time, Russian refineries are coming back online in full, and Ukraine is now scrambling for a Plan B. The problem is, many Russian refineries are starting to enact countermeasures, such as placing nets and other anti-drone obstructions around critical components which could make Ukraine’s pivot less successful than expected by optimistic script-writers.
One of the chief goals of Zelensky’s visit was to secure more Patriot missiles for what is feared to be the hardest winter for Ukraine yet:
Kind of counterintuitive, then—one would think—that Zelensky chose to prolong the Iranian conflict by hitting an Iranian ship, the very conflict which is eating up his precious and most-coveted Patriot missiles. The longer the Iran war drags on, the less Ukraine is prioritized for such weaponry—but low-hanging fruit is one temptation too many for the Kiev mastermind, it seems.
But Zelensky’s big PR tour of Washington—wherein he rubbed shoulders with establishment figures, hobnobbed with neocons in Congress, and was laundered through the late-night circuit, appearing on shows like Sean Hannity—was nothing more than another performative circus. Even Ukrainian media is reporting that Boeing will not allow Ukraine to license production of the homing heads it is responsible for in the supply chain:
"There is a main bottleneck: the homing head for these Patriot missiles, and especially for the PAC-3 model. Boeing produces these homing heads, and as far as I know, Boeing is unwilling to provide licenses to third countries," Wanner stated.
In the above Euromaidan Press piece they even admit it takes several Patriots to stop a single Iskander, which Russia produces 70 of per month:
Additionally, the US signed a seven-year agreement with Boeing in April 2026 to triple production of the PAC-3 guidance heads. Lockheed Martin, the sole current PAC-3 producer, plans to triple its own production by 2030. Global PAC-3 MSE production currently runs at about 550 units per year, while Russia produces about 70 ballistic missiles per month, each of which typically requires two to three Patriots to stop, analyst Oleh Katkov says.
As Zelensky dances and flirts his way across Washington, even neutral analysts and cartographers have announced that Russian advances across the front have been gaining momentum to levels unseen since last year:
BILD analyst Julian Roepcke was shocked that Russia has been able to continually snare Ukraine in the same age-old tactic, winning fortress-city after fortress-city repeatedly:
Seems Gerasimov is running the “If it aint’ broke, don’t fix it” strategic line.
In particular, Roepcke is most concerned over the news that Russians are encircling Nikolaevka, essentially the last populated settlement before the gates of Slavyansk:
Dim-witted Julian doesn’t appear to understand how war works, or deliberately blinds himself to the realities on the ground in order to cling to the illusion that Ukraine still has a chance. It’s clear that Ukraine has no ability to counter Russian encirclements not because of some strategic deficiency, but because Ukraine simply does not have the manpower or resources available. But admitting to this fact would force propagandists to be self-aware enough to acknowledge the reality that Ukraine is taking far heavier casualties—which is one of the strictest enforced taboos of the war for the pro-UA side.
The Russian side has been advancing at the southern edge of the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomerate as well, with the recent capture of Torske at geolocation 48.549385469103385, 37.42144381324859, seen here:
Torske is just under the Toretske seen circled in red below:
Note the area highlighted by a white rectangle: here Russian forces have collapsed the pocket between northernmost Konstantinovka and Chasov Yar and are now finalizing the clearing of that entire area.
Also, it can be seen on the eastern side near Malynivka and Vasyutynske, Russian forces are now a mere ~6km from Kramatorsk’s outskirts. Julian would be befuddled to learn that Russia is again encircling the entire agglomerate, and there is little Ukraine can do to stop it, apart from divert attention via Zelensky’s spectacles.
Just southwest of there Russian forces have been finally encircling Dobropillya, which they have tried to take from as far back as the battle of Pokrovsk of 2025. Geolocated flag plantings were seen just south of Dobropillya:
Сливочный каприз@creamy_caprice
Dobropolie area. Russian Federation flags raised in Vodyanskoe. 48.40910,37.10893 48.41031,37.10861
8:00 AM · Jul 29, 2026 · 8.24K Views
1 Reply · 20 Reposts · 131 Likes
Vodyanskoe is in the red-circled area below:
Reports from Ukraine’s northern border are even more worrying. Russian forces have been advancing for weeks not only in Sumy but most notably in Kharkov region:
#UPDATE 🇷🇺🇺🇦 Geolocations confirms that Russian DRGs have advanced significantly in the Kharkiv region east of Volchansk. Keep in mind, these are just DRGs, this does not mean that Russia was able to consolidate these positions. However, it is still concerning.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 Something interesting may be happening in the Kharkiv region. Russian sources report that yesterday DRGs either made entry or captured the settlements of Ivashkyne and Zakharivka. This comes after they reported to have captured the settlements of Artilne and Volohivske,
4:35 PM · Jul 29, 2026 · 3.25K Views
1 Reply · 5 Reposts · 51 Likes
DRGs were spotted near Kupino seen circled below:
The intent is clear: Russian forces are set to soon collapse the entire pocket north of the yellow arrows and join the two separate fronts stretching from Kupyansk region to Vovchansk.
Here’s a wider view for perspective—Kupyansk can be seen in white below:
Now thanks to Trump’s continued Sunk Cost Fallacy in Iran, while Ukraine’s Odessan ports continue to be fully blockaded, Russian oil sales are doing better than ever:
Reuters reports that Russian Urals crude is now being sold at nearly the same price as Brent—only a dollar or two behind:
MOSCOW, July 29 (Reuters) - Discounts on Russian Urals crude oil delivered to India have dropped to between $1 and $2 a barrel against the dated Brent benchmark this week because of supply concerns, three trade sources said.
Ukrainian economic experts on the other hand predict an economic disaster if sea ports are not reopened:
Global Thinker@talkrealopinion
The All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council warns of enterprise bankruptcies and production cycle disruptions if Russian blockades of Ukrainian ports remain intact for a longer period. Agricultural products accounted for 60% of Ukraine's total export revenue in the first half of 2026.
5:36 AM · Jul 29, 2026 · 3.05K Views
3 Replies · 7 Reposts · 31 Likes
As of this writing, Russia has finally carried out its large-scale missile strike against Ukraine that has been anticipated with dread by Ukraine for the past week.
Dozens, if not more than 100, missiles of every variety have hit Kiev as well as—for the first time in a long while—the far western regions of Ukraine, such as Lvov.
AMK Mapping 🇳🇿@AMK_Mapping_
NASA FIRMS data indicates that multiple large fires are burning in an industrial zone of western Kyiv following ~4 Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile strikes.
10:30 PM · Jul 29, 2026 · 7.2K Views
1 Reply · 11 Reposts · 114 Likes
It’s safe to say that such an attack featuring potentially over 100 missiles and perhaps hundreds of drones is more devastating to Ukraine than a single Wildberries warehouse being hit is to Russia. Anyone arguing this point likely has an agenda to grind, or is simply concern-trolling. In the “race to the bottom” of damaging each other’s economies, Ukraine stands no chance against the orders of magnitude-greater Russian firepower.
Lastly, Medvedev issued an update on Russian recruitment, again citing nearly 250,000 total contracts and volunteers joining the Russian Armed Forces through the first half of 2026. He again vehemently reiterates that any talks of a “major mobilization” this fall are nothing more than propaganda narratives from a desperate Zelensky, and that Russia continues to consistently hit all recruitment quotas.