Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
Huge escalation overnight as Russian launched three rounds of attacks in Kyiv over a 24 hr span.
Meanwhile the FIRST EVER barrage of strikes happened in Moscow.
Let's get into the latest dramatic developments.
Explosions were heard in Moscow early Tuesday a.m. in an apparent Ukrainian retaliation, the first serious barrage of strikes on the Russian capital since Vladimir Putin authorized the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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A war correspondent's open notebook, reporting live from Kyiv. Compelling human stories that illustrate what’s happening during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Click to read The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
While the Ukrainian government has not claimed responsibility, the attacks in Russia come immediately after the head of GUR, the military intelligence arm of the Ukrainian government, promised retribution for the constant attacks on Kyiv.
Russia launched an unusual daytime attack against Kyiv Monday, just hours after Ukraine claimed it intercepted a barrage of strikes on the capital and other parts of the country overnight. Kyiv military officials said the daytime raid shows Moscow has "changed its tactics" from night attacks to target civilians.
The strikes in Moscow are sure to exacerbate divisions already within Russian society about the execution of the war.
The head of the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, issued a furious, epithet-laden video cursing out the Russian Ministry of Defense:
We weren't planning on publishing an issue of The Counteroffensive today.
But the development and escalations were so dramatic that Ross and I quickly filmed a ten minute update of the overnight developments, and pushed out a special edition in the early AM.
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A war correspondent's open notebook, reporting live from Kyiv. Compelling human stories that illustrate what’s happening during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Click to read The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
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Something big is happening out here: http://Counteroffensive.news
A war correspondent's open notebook, reporting live from Kyiv. Compelling human stories that illustrate what’s happening during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Click to read The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
Meanwhile, Kyiv residents awoke groggily after the third series of major strikes in a 24 hour period – an obvious escalation in the tempo of attacks on the capital city.
There were attacks yesterday morning in central Kyiv, then another in the afternoon, and again overnight
Ukrainians have begun calling the drones ‘scooters,’ for the buzzing sound they make as they fly through the city. The bangs we heard were unmistakably the sounds of air defense working.
It sounded like an active firefight -- here's the audio of it:
The strikes and explosions occurred over a period of nearly two hours, continuing until the sun began to rise at around 4 a.m.
I eventually fell back to sleep in an interior room with walls on all sides.
In his overnight address Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted that the timing of the much-anticipated counteroffensive has already been set – but gave no more clues.
“The decisions have been made,” Zelenskyy said.
We’ll be watching closely.
Today’s Dog of War is Фінік, or date fruit, spotted at a market in Kyiv over the weekend.
Stay safe out there.
Tim Mak
The Febrile Muse
Dean Farrar
Makyris
Arne Brasseur
katzenberger