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Thanks to @GrenadesW for commissioning this art, it's been ages since the last time someone commissioned me to do something I'm passionate about.
Do please give her book a read, link provided above!
Remember that epic raid by Ukrainian military helicopters striking the Russian oil depot in Belgorod on April 1st, 2022 -- exactly four years ago today?
That was literally the first such high-profile strike by Ukraine and it made an absolutely thunderous impact.
It was incredible: Ukrainian helicopters flying at ultra-low altitude before dawn, punching through Russian air defenses into Russian territory, taking out oil storage tanks with R-8 missiles, delivering breathtaking footage to world media along the way, and pulling off an epic escape without losses.
Against the backdrop of Russia's defeat near Kyiv and its withdrawal from all of northern Ukraine, that video sent the morale of the entire country straight into the stratosphere. It seemed unbelievable that Ukrainian army aviation was capable of something like that.
And now, four years later, devastating strikes on Russian territory aren't just real -- they've long been a routine fact of this war.
If someone had told us back then that four years on, entire oil ports in Russia would be going up in catastrophic flames from Ukrainian strikes we'd never have believed it.
Ukraine has signed defense agreements with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. They are working on deals next with Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.
Ukraine's defense industry is about to get a serious injection of $$$$ to fight the Russians!
Ukraine is America's war because it is the US that forced Ukraine to dispose of its nuclear deterrent in 1990s in exchange for fake "security guarantees." US engaged in economic & political coercion against Ukraine, which would've bankrupted Ukraine had they not complied.
This is why this language appears in the Budapest Memorandum: