Bitter Winter
The cold war
Father Frost, ©2026 William L. Brown.
5_Minutes_With explains the situation in Dnipro, Ukraine in her vlog entry, January 12, 2026. She reports daily on conditions there. I recommend following her Substack account.
“This January has started in Dnipro pretty grim because starting from the beginning of the month Russians decided to bomb the energy infrastructure and the temperatures are no dropping significantly. And because of this we have a huge problem with the electricity … that when you don’t have electricity you don’t have the running water because there are no pumps. And all the pumps are electrical, and also for the same reason, if you don’t have the water, you don’t have the central heating.”
The sewage system is also working on using the specific filtration and specific pumps. Basically, when you don’t have the electricity, you don’t have anything.”
The Russians are using the colder-than-usual Ukrainian winter as a weapon. They have concentrated their drones and missiles on energy and utility infrastructure. These weapons are getting deadlier: packed with more explosives, faster, and smarter.
Ukrainians are suffering, worn out and psychologically battered, but Russia is not winning. Making their lives miserable doesn’t bring them closer to defeat, they are only angrier with Russia. They know capitulation would not bring relief. A Ukrainian interviewed on the street by BBC news said she knew that under Russian occupation, the infrastructure would never be fixed. Better to endure and fix it later themselves.
My students and friends are stressed, but they keep working. Often, work is the best place to keep warm. Generators are in wide use for businesses. But, they are not an option for the vast majority because of the exhaust. Most Ukrainians live in apartment buildings.
Instead of generators, they use car-battery-sized power banks, such as made by EcoFlow (US site), that can not only charge devices, but run computers, lights and heaters. This kind of power bank has been popular since Russia began targeting energy infrastructure in 2022. This is the Ukrainian EcoFlow website.
Ukraine is not helpless. Europe is providing defensive and offensive weapons, and supporting Ukraine in plans for a post-war security arrangement. Not that many have hopes for the current peace negotiations. It’s likely Ukraine and Western Europe are going along with the charade to keep Trump on side. Trump’s most recent comments on Ukraine were not positive. Last week he said Ukrainian president Zelensky was blocking a deal.
Zelensky responded, “Ukraine has never been and will never be a stumbling block to peace. It is Russian missiles, Russian shaheds and Russia’s attempt to destroy Ukraine that are clear evidence that it is not agreements at all that Russia is seeking.”
Fortunately, perhaps, Trump’s attention shifted to other issues. Ukrainians watched with chagrin and envy as US military acted forcefully against Venezuela’s vote-rigging, authoritarian president Maduro. And, as Trump threatened Iran with another military strike. These are the sort of actions that we’d all love to see taken against Russia.
Then, Ukrainians noted how Trump dropped his promises like used Kleenex. Instead of installing the party that actually won Venezuela’s last election, he allowed the authoritarian government to remain because they were willing to make business deals. Under Saudi pressure, he dropped his dramatic tough-talking vow to help Iranian street protestors. Expecting a US military intervention, they died by the thousands. Trump’s Bay of Pigs.
How can Ukrainians trust Trump-brokered peace negotiations and security guarantees after that?
Laser Toy, ©2025 William L. Brown.
Meanwhile, the American president is exhausting the world population by attacking and threatening smaller countries, heedless of the diplomatic damage. Bringing down the international rules-based order seems to be the goal.
I don’t agree with the people who say Trump is a Russian asset. In my opinion, what’s happening is that Trump and Putin just happen to want the same thing. They want to replace international rules-based order with spheres of influence. In the world they are crafting might makes right, powerful countries can intervene in weaker countries if election results, policy or trade decisions don’t meet the powerful country’s interests.
The rules-based world order is not a legal system, it’s more of an agreed-upon set of conduct. Institutions such as the United Nations, the World Trade Association and the World Bank are seen as part of this system.
At it’s heart is free-trade, it favors democracies and human rights. Critics say it is a kind of soft-imperialism that promotes globalism. They have a point, but given the choices: spheres of influence vs. right of self-determination, might-makes-right vs. human rights, and hegemony vs equality-among-nations, I’ll take rules-based order.
Recommended podcast:
Ukraine Without Hype. This episode goes deep into the unique history of Huliopole, a small city in Ukraine, razed to the ground by Russia’s war.
it is indeed a very cold war. Your cartoon 'Laser toy' is right on point.
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulwells/p/the-carney-doctrine?r=n511g&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay