News-wise, yesterday was astonishing. Perhaps the second-most significant event of the 21st century — the launch of Ukraine's counteroffensive; the foremost event being Russia's invasion, on 24 February 2022 — went unreported by two of the U.S.'s three national newspapers. Only The NY Times carried the story, and it did so as its top story for the logical reason that ... this was the second-
most significant event of the 21st century, at least so far.
The Times reported "a flurry of military activity that American officials suggested on Monday could signal that Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive against Russia had begun." The initial push arrived in the east, the Donetsk province, which, if successful, will later permit Ukrainian troops to venture southward to the Sea of Azov in an effort to cut the land bridge connecting occupied Crimea to mainland Russia.
That the counteroffensive has indeed commenced was nearly impossible to deny. The Washington Post, however, on Monday reported nothing on the long-awaited assault on its front page — even though a Ukrainian officer leading a brigade in the Donetsk region told the Post that the counteroffensive had begun. It's unlikely that an assault-brigade commander would have been misinformed as to the counteroffensive's timing, especially since he was a part of it.
Also, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Malyar, wrote on Telegram that the nation's forces were "moving to offensive actions," adding that the "operation includes everything, including counteroffensive actions." It is true that, as the Times further reported, "Ukraine has long said it will make no formal announcement about the start of its counteroffensive." On the other hand, a formal announcement is rather unnecessary when U.S. military satellites are sighting augmented movement in Ukraine's battlefield positions.
This event-of-the-century story was and still is absent from The Wall Street Journal's front page as well. The paper's top story today only relates to the war; a report on the explosive damage done to the dam at the Nova Kakhovska hydroelectric power plant in southern Ukraine. Russia says Ukraine did it and Ukraine says Russia did it, should you wonder who actually did it.
The Daily Beast reports that "Russia likely feared that the Ukrainian army would have used the road along the top of the dam for its counteroffensive." Incidentally, President Zelensky warned last year that Putin would stage one of his famous false-flag operations on the hydroelectric dam so as to blame Ukraine for the humanitarian fallout. Q.E.D.
As for Ukraine's offensive, its opening phase largely involves probing Russia's defensive lines for weaknesses. An American official predicted that this activity would likely continue for a few days. Then "the main thrust" would come, in addition to becoming "more evident." But perhaps The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal expected a dramatic D-Day-like conflagration from the get-go, and now they're trusting nothing less. Whatever they were thinking, both national newspapers missed one of the greatest stories ever (somewhat) told.