Who would have believed that this face . . .

. . . would ever have left me ROFLMAO?

But, as I’ve said before, Vladimir Putin and his crew of Kremlin comics are often at their funniest when they’re being serious.

On Thursday, May 28th, a drone — in the midst of a massive Russian multi-drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Izmail — crossed the border into Romania, striking an apartment building in Galati, seriously wounding two Romanian civilians.

NATO and the EU immediately denounced Russia’s “reckless behavior,” while Romanian President Nicusor Dan expelled the Russian Consul General and shut down the consulate in the nearby city of Constanta.

But instead of attempting to defuse the potentially volatile situation by apologizing for what might conceivably have been an accident, Putin went on record the next day as saying it was too early to determine whether the offending drone was actually Russian. Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, he said:

“Who in Romania says that this is a Russian drone? No one can say what the origin of this or that drone is until an examination has been carried out.” [Reuters, May 29, 2026.]

Claiming that Ukrainian drones had previously been spotted in Poland, Finland, and the Baltic countries, he attempted to deflect blame by adding:

“The first reaction was exactly the same as it is now in Romania: The Russians are coming. Then, after a short time, it turned out that it had nothing to do with Russian drones.” [Id.]

Well, maybe . . . except for a little matter of geography.

I am the farthest thing from a military expert, but even I can see the fallacy in Putin’s so-called logic. Let’s look at the map of the region.

The area in which the missile strike occurred is circled in red, in that little space where Ukraine and Romania share a short border, next to Moldova. Galati, Romania, is located just across the Danube River from Izmail, Ukraine. So why would Ukrainian forces, who were busy repelling an attack from Russia, be firing drones toward Romania in the opposite direction? Unless they were colossally stupid — which they most assuredly are not — their anti-drone munitions would be aimed generally in the directions shown by the arrows: north/northeast.

Am I right?

Now, I realize that the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union have had a long-standing tradition of refusing to accept responsibility for anything, preferring instead to find the nearest scapegoat when things go wrong. But it seems that after so many years of dissembling they’ve run out of plausible excuses.

So why can’t Vlad — just once, to see how it feels — put on his big-boy pants, and admit that someone in his army goofed? And if that’s too painful, he can always find a general or two to take the heat.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/31/26