June 9: The Ukrainian counteroffensive and war in a PR politics world

In which, Ukraine’s long anticipated offensive jumps off, Canada’s forests pollute the world (how’s that for irony?), and people are sure the aliens have shown up.

Crew, this week’s newsletter is on the shorter side and I’m making no apologies for it. First, because my wife and I welcomed our son into the world this week and it’s been a full week. Second, and related, I summarize the news here so that all of us can spend more time on those things (like family) that matter. This world events stuff helps us understand how to position ourselves and live in this world, but we live here for reasons beyond merely following the news (however, well written it is). So, consider this me walking the walk in terms of priorities. So, very quickly:

The counteroffensive begins: War in a PR politics world

The Ukrainian offensive has officially kicked off. As many speculated, the delay from spring to summer appears to have at least partially been due to getting new units trained on Western tanks to the front in an attempt to decisively punch through the Russian lines.

And speaking of punching through, the offensive jumped off with the destruction of a hydroelectric dam that caused mass flooding towards the Russian lines, which (as these things go in such a war) led to the usual accusations and counteraccusations as to who had actually taken such drastic actions as to generate an environmental disaster that could once again imperil world grain supplies. 

So, we’ve got the Russian bridge over the Sea of Azov, the Nord Stream pipeline, and now this. All dramatic attacks on critical infrastructure that all the focused intelligence of the Western world can’t seem to say anything more about than “Russia” or “Russian false flag” with very few details. At this point, it would seem safe to say it was probably the Ukrainians attempting to create some problems with the Russian line.

But herein lies an important lesson. This is not just a war. This is a war in a world of PR politics, which means the information space is critical to control for propaganda purposes. And, in a world where it’s getting increasingly harder to control narratives, you either have to censor inquisitive inquiries and/or create an alternate reality to sell your side of the story. And, the Ukrainians and Russians are quite practiced at this sort of thing.