“Any debate on where Israel should stand in this bloody conflict has come to an end,” Nachman Shai, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs said, adding:

“The time has come for Ukraine to receive military aid as well, just as the USA and NATO countries provide.”

This statement was made soon after the Washington Post reported Iran is to supply Russia with ballistic missiles:

“An intelligence assessment shared in recent days with Ukrainian and U.S. officials contends that Iran’s armaments industry is preparing a first shipment of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, two well-known Iranian short-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets at distances of 300 and 700 kilometers, respectively, two officials briefed on the matter said. If carried out, it would be the first delivery of such missiles to Russia since the start of the war.”

Shai did not specify just how Israel will assist Ukraine, but the first tech war in Europe is also now becoming, among other things, a proxy war between Israel and Iran.

That’s while there are numerous suggestions that a major offensive has began in Kherson, with some indicating that a media blackout has been ordered.

“Active fighting continues in Kherson region,” Iuliia Mendel, former spokesperson to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, said earlier today.

The Ukrainian army has liberated a huge area of land in the Kherson region in recent weeks, seen above in light blue.

They’re now fighting Russian fortifications in a village aptly named Mylove, on the northeast by the river just where the red area begins above.

If they manage to advance there, then the Kherson city will be effectively surrounded, but according to reports last month Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has ordered no retreat from Kherson.

Ukrainians however have seemingly been able to strike deep within Russian controlled areas with ten explosions reported in Nova Kakhovka, as shown by the symbol above.

In addition it looks like Ukraine has liberated a village located above at the center of the map just where that missile is closest to the red area. We can watch this live:

This is the first video of its kind that we have seen, showing operational management and coordination of an entire battle, bringing to the public the weirdness of war in some ways in that it all looks ‘nice’ and quiet while two armies are facing each other, or in this case one of them is fleeing.

It also shows just how much of this war is effectively a tech war. The recent brouhahas in regards to Starlink can be seen in that context, with SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk now backing down in stating he will continue donating to Ukraine.

Putin himself once said that the stone age did not end due to a lack of stones. That was in the context of him learning about the blockchain, but arguably it can apply just as much to new tech more widely.

Thankfully Israel has much of it. They are thought to have some of the most advanced drones, as well as some of the most advanced missiles.

They can’t just stand and watch Iran show off their arms, so soon we may get an exposition of just how advanced these Israeli drones and missiles are, plus of course intelligence and whatever else they’ll provide.

Making this also the first global local war. Local as it is very limited to the very east of Ukraine, with only occasional ‘disturbances’ in Ukraine more widely as well as in Russia with the airport in Belgorod hit recently, after some depots were hit there and after their own anti-missile systems mistakenly hit this Russian area that has by far seen most of the Ukrainian attacks as it appears to be the logistics frontline for Russia.

But it is also a very global war in as far as everyone is paying very close attention to every single thing happening there, and therefore everyone now knows about Starlink after finding out about Turkish drones and just what Himars are.

To the point that it might even be a bit surprising McDonalds has not taken the opportunity to advertise themselves by sending tons and tons of burgers with chips to the frontline soldiers.

The equivalent of that is happening for military gear and so soon we may learn about Israeli weapons and just what they can do.

This new tech may also be changing the numbers game. While for anglo-saxons numbers were everything as masses of men collided, it has been the case for decades that in the West a professional army was favored over conscripts, and to extend that professional army, tech investment has been not just considerable, but the source of many innovations, including the internet and of course drones.

In Russia however conscription remains and they’ve even instituted a partial mobilization. Some of those mobilized two or three weeks ago have already been sent to the battlefront and have not withstood it.

To the point it seems they’re just taking people straight from the farm or offices, making them spend a week or two to learn just what are weapons, and then off to, well be offed for quite a few of them.

One was from the civil administration in Moscow. Already gone, sparking some mass resignations among his colleagues.

In addition, Russian state media itself reports some 600 drafted men were sent back home because, among other things, they were minors.

Children, with just a week of training, raising the question as to whether this mobilization will achieve anything.

It is probably too late for Kherson anyway where rumors suggest 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers are advancing, among them potentially some freshly trained 10,000 in the King’s country.

That raises anticipations that Kherson will be liberated, a victory so big that some may well say it would effectively be the end of the war, symbolically anyway since Ukraine would have gone from ‘it’s not over until it is over’ in its darkest days in February, to ravaging Belgorod supply lines and taking back its land.

Yet, Russia is now receiving a bit of help from the few allies it has, with it to be seen whether Israel’s entrance cancels out much of it as a fog descends in regards to Kherson take two.

Where markets are concerned, a liberation of the city would probably be a fairly big event. It would signal a closer end to the war, and so markets may well respond, but it does sound it is such a big task that it appears unbelievable it can happen in days.

The speed with which they have been moving in the Kherson region, however, does suggest weeks if they can keep the pace because if the Russian front falls on the north of Kherson, then it may well get into a matter of days.

On the other hand there’s all these new conscripts, which may well suggest now is the time to fortify Ukraine as there’s probably a window of three or four months until spring to prepare for whatever Putin might be planning with these farmers and office workers.

The European Union on that front has announced they will start training Ukrainians, as has France, and according to an intercepted phone call of a Russian soldier, even Australia has amazed them in sending weapons.

He thought there’s only kangaroos there, in Sydney where they spend $12 billion on their military budget, a fairly small portion of their $1.3 trillion GDP.

Yet combined with Israel’s $20 billion military budget, just these two countries amount to half of Russia’s military budget, and far surpass it if you add their Kangaroo.

This war therefore has entered a new stage with Ukraine now potentially getting the support of the Israeli army which knows a thing or two about fighting forces far more numerous than theirs, especially when faced with the survival of the nation itself.