European Crypto Capital in Crisis: Part 15 MiG Fighters Destined for Ukraine, Another Russian General Dead, and Russia's Continued Failure to Advance.

As the Russians continue their invasion of Ukraine they are increasingly showing an increase in brutality and a decrease in actual advancements. For the most part, gains have been minimal in Ukraine for Russia for the last 24-36 hours. In different areas across Ukraine, the Russians have actually been pushed back leaving a trail of destroyed Russian military vehicles. One city in particular though is facing increasingly difficult odds of not just holding out but preventing an absolute slaughter of civilians. Mariupol is a pretty important port city in eastern Ukraine however it has held out against all odds. It has been encircled now for a few days and for the most part the city is without power or water as Russian strikes took out the infrastructure. Russia has offered a "ceasefire" and corridors for civilians to exit the city out however Russia has been accused and caught on camera now even by a New York Times team of bombing these very corridors killing unarmed civilians including children. 

MiG Fighters and Russian Oil

After running into some snags along the way Poland has announced it will turn over all of its MiG fighters to Ukraine for free. This was initially discussed a few days ago but the countries that have MiGs that they could give up wanted jets to replace them. Now, this issue has been fixed at least with Poland which had over 20 MiG fighters. The addition of these MiGs cannot be understated as Ukraine has lost jets over the course of the invasion and now they will get an influx of them to better be able to continue to contest the airspace. Ukraine has been shown to be able to hit Russian columns and destroy them when they have the ability to fly their attack drones and/or launch their air-to-surface missiles. When you mix in the stinger missiles that the West has also sent in this allows these new MiGs to be better protected! 

While the US does not import much Russian oil it does do so. There are several economic factors that lead to this but an underlying issue is that the US refineries need a certain amount of a type of crude oil called "heavy crude". This is what is in the Canadian Oil Sands and is lower grade but is needed to be mixed with the most common grade pumped out of the ground in the US called "sweet crude". When the Keystone XL Pipeline was first proposed and approved it was going to bring this heavy oil to the Gulf Coast refineries however when the XL part was canceled that was stopped. Because of shipping costs, it became cheaper to send the crude oil that the US was pumping abroad since we had too much of it. This Russian oil was brought in to alleviate the heavy crude shortage. Now President Biden has banned all oil, gas, and coal imports from Russia. The US actually pumps more natural gas than it uses and produces more coal than needed so we already do not import those two Russian products but the Russian oil will hit us and force the Federal Administration to either work to get the pipelines canceled restarted or deal with unfriendly regimes like Venezuela and Iran. 

Russian Military Leaders Are Getting Wiped Out at an Alarming Rate

In the last week, two senior Russian generals have been killed in Ukraine. This is almost unheard of to happen in modern times yet it has been confirmed from a variety of sources that a sniper took out the General of the Russian 41st Army. Even more disturbing for Russia is that they are also losing Colonel and Sergeants as well so the people who would have the leadership and experience as getting taken out. Ordinary Russian soldiers are now having to face the image of the most qualified people getting taken out and I don't have half of the experience they have what does that mean for me. This is believed to be a contributing factor to the massive decline in morale for the soldier. 

Russian Troop Advancements

Any sort of gain from the Ukrainians has almost all been directly tied to southern Ukraine. However, most of those have been either in small villages or rural land. The northern part of Ukraine continues to have repelled attacks and even regain ground in the suburbs. The most recent general was killed in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Kharkiv is located right along the Russian border but has defied the odds and held out repelling a series of attacks against it since the start of the invasion. With huge losses like senior commanders, it is easy to see why the Russian army cannot seem to get anything going to take the city. They have bombed the crap out of it and it was the first place videos showed cluster munitions being used but still it holds out and remains standing strong! 

North of Kyiv the Russian column has been attacked in different places cutting the column into pieces. The column continues to be pretty much stopped where it was and the Ukrainian forces have taken advantage of this for some ground-based attacks. This will only make getting it moving again worse for the Russians as they have to navigate damaged vehicles or even abandon them altogether. In the city of Mykolaiv which is on the way to the third most populous city and major port for Ukraine on the Black Sea, Odessa Russian forces have been pushed back in the last day. Previously, Russia had gained control of a major airport however the Ukrainians were able to push them out of it and miles away from it. The civilians there have participated in ramping up the defensive structure building for if Russia tries an all-out assault on the city building massive piles of tires in each intersection that would be lit on figure to prevent vehicles from accessing different roads. This city is not encircled either so it is still able to receive supplies and support from the West. It is expected though Russia will make a huge move on it as it is the big obstacle in the way of getting to Odessa a city that has now been spending the last two weeks preparing their beaches for invasion as well as the rest of the city. 

Final Thoughts

Due to his invasion taking so much longer Putin has a whole other issue to deal with now. It is estimated nearly 100,000 Ukrainians have returned to the country to pick up arms and fight the Russians. That is not all though as over 20,000 foreign nationals have joined as well from countries across the globe including the likes of Chile, Japan, Australia, and more. More often than not these individuals have served for their respective country before meaning that they are trained soldiers and will only make the battle harder for the Russians. It has been mentioned that in the next few days it could be harder to get munitions into the country however the US has already delivered all of the initial supplies and arms they had allotted and now what coming in is extra to build upon. Over 2 million Ukrainians have fled the country and most of them have crossed into Poland. To help Poland with the humanitarian crisis countries across the EU are taking in these people including the UK and Canada which are not part of the EU. Vast sums of money have been raised by nonprofits to help get clothing and medication to these people and to provide some sort of shelter as the number of refugees just keeps climbing and will do so. 

Crypto continues to make a positive impact on the situation in the country as well. With over $60 million raised $15 million worth was spent on bulletproof vests and night vision goggles for their forces. Millions more in crypto has been raised by different NGOs who have spent their funds on a variety of humanitarian supplies. Things bought have ranged from first aid kits to food supplies for those in Ukraine that are trapped and unable to make it out of the country like millions have already done.