We’re checking in on Ukraine today, and it appears that Mother Nature is keeping temps cold, the ground frozen, and enabling operations to continue. This means the Ukraine War will shift towards a war of logistics – which the Russians are notoriously bad at. As for the Ukrainians, it means support from outside countries will be even more critical in the coming months.
With that in mind, on behalf of the entire Zeihan on Geopolitics team and everyone at MedShare International, thank you to those who participated in our November fundraiser. ZoG subscribers – and especially those who offered matching donations of their own – were able to raise over $500,000. With this infusion of cash, MedShare will be able to deliver nearly $25,000,000 worth of life-saving medical supplies and equipment, including spinal surgical kits, directly to healthcare providers in Ukraine before the end of the year.
This is because of all of you – whether you subscribed, helped share the word, or were able to donate – we helped MedShare do what they do best: partner with organizations in the US and abroad to maximize our donations by a couple orders of magnitude and deliver vital equipment where it’s needed most. And while our November campaign is over, the people of Ukraine will continue to need our help. We will continue to have a link posted if any of you want to donate to MedShare in the future.
And our last order of business today, Cindy Crawford is a fan of my books (see the clip attached in today’s video)!!! Now that I know she’s a reader, I wanted to remind her (and everyone else) that the updated version of my first book – The Accidental Superpower – will be released on December 26th. You can preorder it using the link below!
Here at Zeihan On Geopolitics we select a single charity to sponsor. We have two criteria:
First, we look across the world and use our skill sets to identify where the needs are most acute. Second, we look for an institution with preexisting networks for both materials gathering and aid distribution. That way we know every cent of our donation is not simply going directly to where help is needed most, but our donations serve as a force multiplier for a system already in existence. Then we give what we can.
Today, our chosen charity is a group called Medshare, which provides emergency medical services to communities in need, with a very heavy emphasis on locations facing acute crises. Medshare operates right in the thick of it. Until future notice, every cent we earn from every book we sell in every format through every retailer is going to Medshare’s Ukraine fund.
And then there’s you.
Our newsletters and videologues are not only free, they will always be free. We also will never share your contact information with anyone. All we ask is that if you find one of our releases in any way useful, that you make a donation to Medshare. Over one third of Ukraine’s pre-war population has either been forced from their homes, kidnapped and shipped to Russia, or is trying to survive in occupied lands. This is our way to help who we can. Please, join us.
Hey, everybody. Peter Zeihan here coming to you from the Chicago River Walk. I figured I owed you an update on what’s going on in Ukraine. Really? This is a weather thing. So normally, what happens when it turns from summer and fall to winter is you get a six week period kind of mud season where everything gets all gooey.
Well, it looks like that’s not really happening this year. It’s been much colder and as a result, operations can continue. But if there’s going to be a limiting factor in the war, it’s probably going to be equipment. Most of the Western countries have already provided the Ukrainians with all of the spare gear that they have and anything they provide at this point, they have to dig into their stocks of what is actually operational equipment.
And that’s a very different decision making process. So we’re probably not going to see the sort of big camera fences that we’ve seen of the attempts this year in the Big Apple operations we saw last year. Instead, this is likely to turn into a war logistics. Now, the Russians are have never been very good at that. And the Ukrainians have proven that they’re able to take basically garage project missiles and take out Russian flagships.
So expect the Ukrainians to be going after rail nodes, especially in the areas of Crimea and southwestern Russia. There was this massive storm in the Black Sea last month that did a lot of damage in those areas that the Russians are still cleaning up, which makes it’s kind of a perfect time for the Ukrainians to snarl things as much as possible.
And if you consider how poorly the Russian soldiers have fought and how badly they’ve been equipped to all of a sudden lose access to resupply is something that can really hit them where it hurts. The Russians have made it very clear what sort of targets they go after. Their guidance isn’t nearly as good as what the weapon systems are that the U.S. has provided to the Russians.
So they go after static emplacements, specifically power nodes and rail junctions. So you should expect large scale brown and black outs to be carpeting Ukraine over and over and over again. Which brings me to you. In the month of November, we had a matching program for donations to Medicare, which is a charity that provides medical assistance to communities who are under threat in some way.
Specifically, we were giving to the Ukraine fund and a number of people wrote in to help us with our matching. And ultimately we matched the first $100,000 of donations. Well, including that 100,000 donations from all of you hit us up to 500,000, which just blows my mind so much. Has it been given millions, $25 million in surgical kits and they now have the cash necessary to get these into the hands of doctors and provide training to save God knows how many lives.
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, do have one other announcement. There was a book fair in New York recently and it came to my attention that Cindy Crawford, of all people, has read my book. I’m Cindy Crawford. And the most recent best book I read was called The End of the World Is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan.
I believe, and it’s fascinating, but a little depressing. Cindy Crawford knows what I mean. So two things. Number one, call me. And second, if you like books, if you like my book personally, Crawford likes my book. There’s this bad boy. About ten years ago, Accidental Superpower, my first book was published, and we have been working in the last few months on an updated version that kind of fills the gap in those ten years and give you an idea of where it was right, where I was wrong and why and what is next.
And it publishes and it is available for you the day after Christmas. So, you know, everyone by 14 copies, that would be great. But mostly I want to make sure is Crawford gets one.
