updated 9 Jun 2025, 12:54 MDT

After our 11/15/22 emergency meeting on the Ukraine War we committed to providing near-daily updates of what we think are some of the most valuable news and analyses for fellow activists. This is that selection. If you find this page helpful please forward it to your friends and contacts. Beginning Nov 16, 2023 we will be updating this page on a semiweekly basis. Stopping this war is of critical, emergency importance. Please do whatever you can.

Unless otherwise noted, the italicized comments below are Greg Mello's.

Highly recommended resource: Judge Andrew Napolitano's video podcast on YouTube.

Highly recommended: Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics, Glenn Diesen, 2022.
Provoked, How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, Scott Horton, 2024.

Russia Ukraine War Master Class: Prof. Glenn Diesen, Prof. John Mearsheimer, Ambassador Chas Freeman, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Aug 2024

Jun 9, 2025

Featured • Russia Seeks 'Asymmetrical' Response For Strike On Its Nuclear Assets, Moon of Alabama, Jun 9, 2025
Slow walk to nuclear war, could be. Obviously, idiots in the USG mistake Russian patience for weakness. This is a very dangerous situation. By the way, if b is sure the CIA was involved in the Ukrainian drone attack, that goes a long way toward convincing me. I don't really see why US involvement would have been necessary, but I am often naive. The U.S. -- that's us -- and U.K. are not out of the forest on this one, not at all.

Featured • The Silence of the Bears, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Jun 9, 2025

Featured • Russia Prepping for a New Terrorism War, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Jun 8, 2025

As some may have realized, I am back in Moscow for a conference on the future. I’ve spent the last 24 hours on board a plane without access to internet. So, I missed a day in posting. Since my last visit on March 8, 2025, I am noticing some dramatic, visible changes in Russia’s security posture. During my previous three visits to Moscow — i.e., Decembrer 2023, February 2024 and March 2025 — I rarely saw any kind of visible police or military security presence. That has changed now. I counted four two-man teams of uniformed, armed soldiers in front of my hotel. They are armed and conducting routine patrols. This is clearly a response to Ukraine’s recent terrorist strikes on Russian territory.

Vladimir Putin has elevated Russia’s special military operation to a counter terrorism operation, which means that top Ukrainian government officials will now be targeted. That means that Vladimir Zelensky and Kyrylo Oleksiiovych Budanov, who has served as the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine since August 2020, are both now on a Russian target list.

For the third straight day, the Russians are unleashing a massive, coordinated strike on Ukrainian targets using drones, FABS and cruise missiles. I met briefly with my friend, Pepe Escobar, this evening and he confirmed that there is widespread anticipation of a significant.

There is no doubt that Britain is helping Ukraine to carry out terrorist attacks inside Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

There have been several sabotage incidents on Russian railways since the start of the month. The worst occurred on June 1 when a bridge collapsed in front of a moving passenger train in Bryansk Region, killing seven people and injuring more than 100 others.

The same day, Ukraine targeted Russian airbases across the country – from Murmansk in the Arctic to Irkutsk in Siberia – in a coordinated assault which involved explosive-laden drones taking off from commercial trucks. According to Moscow, most of the incoming UAVs were shot down, and none of the affected Russian planes were damaged beyond repair.

Speaking during the ‘Forum of the Future 2050’ in Moscow on Monday, Lavrov acknowledged that the “risk of the rise in the level of terrorist threat exists” in Russia.

“It is obvious that all this is being done by the Ukrainian side, but it would have been helpless without the support... from the British,” he said.

Such activities were previously backed by both the US and the UK, but “now we would have to do solely with the British,” Lavrov claimed.

The US has so far ignored Moscow’s call to impose limits on its deployment of intermediate-range missiles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking at the Future Forum 2050 on Monday, Lavrov stated that Washington had not responded to an offer Putin had made to establish reciprocal moratoriums after the collapse of the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

“It’s already clear they will not react to our call, in the absence of the treaty, to establish two parallel, non-interlinked moratoriums,” he said.

The INF Treaty, signed in 1987 by the US and the Soviet Union, banned land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Washington withdrew from the deal in 2019, citing alleged violations by Moscow.

Russia has denied the claims, accusing the US of developing the banned missiles, but pledged not to deploy such systems unless the US did so first.

Last year, the US announced that it would field the multipurpose Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), the Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile, and a hypersonic weapon that is still in development in “episodic deployments” in Germany starting in 2026. The two systems would have been banned by the INF Treaty, assuming they were deployed on land.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained the latest military moves in comments to the press.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the Tsentr Battlegroup had eliminated up to 530 Ukrainian troops over the past 24 hours, reaching the western border of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and continuing to advance its offensive.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its troops are pushing into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as Russian troops continue to make gains amid faltering ceasefire negotiations.

“Units of the 90th Tank Division of the Battlegroup Center have reached the western border of the Donetsk People’s Republic and continue developing their offensive on the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk Region,” the ministry said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

It’s unclear at this point if Russian troops have broken through into Dnipropetrovsk or if they’re still fighting on the border. Russian forces have also been making gains in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast as Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a “buffer zone” along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Jun 8, 2025

 • Scott Ritter: Trump Needs to Decide Whether He Supports Russia or Terrorism, Sputnik International, Jun 4, 2025

After being briefed on the Ukrainian security services' involvement in last week's rail and bridge terror attacks, President Putin asked how Russia could continue negotiating with a regime that openly engages in terrorism. Sputnik asked former US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter to break things down.

"I think the Russian president has made it clear that there are no circumstances under which Russia can consider a negotiated peace settlement with the existing Ukrainian regime, that it's a terrorist regime. He specifically said: who negotiates with terrorists?" Ritter said.

Jun 7, 2025

 • The Deep State Is Still Sabotaging Presidential Policies, Moon of Alabama, Jun 7, 2025
Many smart people don't understand that no president is fully in charge of his own executive branch including the military and especially the "Trumanite" institutions established in 1947.

 • Night Of Vengeance: Ukraine Pays With Ruins For Kyiv’s Lust For Glory, South Front, Jun 6, 2025
While exchanges of strikes may seem "normal" in this war, the scale has increased even as Russia continues to make gains all across the front. This is not "maneuver warfare," where large territorial gains and losses occur quickly, but rather "attritional warfare," where the stronger party (Russia) husbands its men and equipment while degrading the opponent, opportunistically exploiting defensive weaknesses, which gradually become general.

Jun 6, 2025

Featured • Russia is in No Rush to Retaliate, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Jun 5, 2025

As I noted in my previous piece, Russia’s military doctrine vis-a-vis Ukraine has been, until now, described as a Special Military Operation. In response to the drone attacks on Russia’s strategic bomber bases, Putin has now characterized the military mission as a Counterterrorism Operation. When the Russian government states that it is treating Ukraine as a “counterterrorism operation,” it signifies a strategic shift in rhetoric, tactics and the legal framework, allowing for expanded military and domestic security measures. Most in the West forget that Russia fought a ten-year counterterrorism war in Chechnya, prevailing in the end by exterminating the threat posed by Salafist muslims.

Under Russian law, declaring a counterterrorism operation grants authorities the power to:

• Restrict Movement: Impose curfews and control over civilian movement in designated areas.
• Control Communications: Monitor and limit media and personal communications.
• Conduct Searches: Carry out searches and detentions without standard judicial oversight.

By framing its military actions as counterterrorism, Russia aims to escalate its use of military force: This means intensified military operations against Ukraine going forward. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, today announced that Russia would no longer sit for negotiations with Ukraine about ending the war. Instead, Russia would confine its diplomatic efforts to “working delegations” that will address technical issues such as freeing POWS and returning the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers. No more Istanbul. That process is now kaput.

Ukraine’s attacks over the weekend have strengthened public support for destroying, via military means, the “terrorist” threat posed by Ukraine. I have heard from several Russian folks, as well as Pepe Escobar, that the anger towards Ukraine is widespread and that the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens are clamoring for a tough, devastating response. Putin and his generals are paying attention to the public sentiment and are now engaged in meticulous planning for launching massive strikes on Ukrainian assets implicated in these attacks. Putin made that point clearly and strongly to Donald Trump during their conversation on Wednesday. While Russia is not likely to strike outside the territorial boundaries of Ukraine, it will hit sites linked to foreign interests, which is likely to include British targets, still operating in Ukraine.

As night fell on the east coast in the United States, Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones at targets in Ternopol, Kiev, Lvov, Lutsk, Rovno and Khmelnitsky. A video from Kiev shows a Patriot battery launching at least four missiles in a failed attempt to intercept an Iskander missile. It appears that multiple Russian missiles exploded near the site of the Patriot battery. While these strikes represent a surge compared to the previous days, this is not the retaliation that Putin informed Trump was coming. The big strike is still in the planning process.

Jun 5, 2025

 • US Refuses Air Cover For European 'Reassurance Force' In Postwar Ukraine, ZeroHedge, Jun 5, 2025
Small glimpse of sanity.

 • What Did Lavrov and Putin Tell Rubio and Trump?, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Jun 4, 2025
Any conversation at this level is consequential. We are happy it happened, and Larry's take on content, with pertinent events arranged, is reasonable. The education of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.

 • Putin Tells Trump He Has To Respond to Ukrainian Drone Attack, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 4, 2025

“We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides. It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” the president added.

The Ukrainian drone attack was launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) using drones that were launched from trucks near the Russian airfields, and at least 13 aircraft were hit, including Tu-95 strategic bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

While the CIA is deeply involved with the SBU, officials are claiming the US didn’t provide intelligence for the attack. According to the Kremlin, Trump also told Putin he was not informed of the plan. “Donald Trump reiterated that the Americans had not been informed about this in advance,” said Putin aide Yury Ushakov.

During the negotiations in Istanbul Russia offered to 'unilaterally' deliver to Ukraine the 6,000 bodies of service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

....The bodies were mostly recovered by the Russians after the hasty retreat of the Ukrainian army from its incursion into Russia's Kursk oblast.

This offer is a significant problem (in Russian) for the Ukrainian government. Family members of the deceased soldiers are of course pressing to receive and to bury those bodies. But acknowledging that those dead are indeed Ukrainian soldiers would be quite costly.

The dead are currently only listed as 'missed'. If they are declared dead their families will be entitled to receive 15 million hryvnias (UAH) (US$ 1 = UAH 41,50) each (3 million at once and the rest over three years and three months).

The return of six thousand bodies of military personnel killed in battle will cost 90 billion hryvnias (~US$ 2.2 billion) of payments from the Ukrainian budget. This is almost 10% of the military budget of Ukraine for the whole of the year.

The Ukrainian government will have to take the bodies. But it is likely to declare most of them 'unidentified' to then slow walk the process of identifying and naming them.

Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, writing that the call with Putin lasted more than an hour, describing it as “a good conversation.”

“We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides,” he wrote, noting, however, it was “not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”

Trump added that the Russian president “did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

Moscow has confirmed the Trump-Putin phone call. Yury Ushakov, the top foreign policy adviser to the Russian president, told a press briefing on Wednesday that the two leaders agreed to continue contacts on Ukraine, including at the highest level and through other channels. According to Ushakov, Putin informed Trump that Kiev had tried to sabotage the direct Russia-Ukraine talks – the second round of which was held in Istanbul on Monday – by launching targeted strikes on Russian civilian sites under direct orders from the Ukrainian leadership.

Putin on Wednesday called the railway sabotage in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions “undoubtedly a terrorist act” by the “illegitimate regime in Kiev,” which, he said, “is gradually turning into a terrorist organization.”

Jun 4, 2025

 • WION (India): Russia-Ukraine War - White House Confirms Donald Trump Was Not Informed About The Attack, Gilbert Doctorow, Armageddon Newsletter, Jun 4, 2025

The interview is only 10 minutes long and I leave it to you to watch it or wait for the transcript which will be posted before long.

I use this space to expand upon one point I made in the interview: that the Spider Web attack on Russia’s heavy bombers, which form a key part of its nuclear triad, may ruin any chances for the Trump administration to enter into arms limitation talks with the Russians should the move towards rapprochement be pressed by his administration.

Just remember that arms limitation negotiations have been the key interest of Russia-haters in the USA in good times and bad. They want to be sure that their own necks are safe even if they are planning and doing their best to sabotage the Russian economy, to isolate the country and otherwise to do it harm.

There can be little doubt that the USA and Britain were active in the planning and for some time in the implementation stages of Spider Web. Most likely Britain was a participant right up to the launch of the attack.

The operation took advantage of the vulnerability of the Russian bombers out in the open that was mandated by the New SALT arms limitation treaty. The Russians have suspended their participation in that treaty but pledged not to violate its terms. Clearly, they kept to their word. And equally clearly the USA under Biden egregiously violated the treaty by enabling the Ukrainian attack on those jets.

Jun 3, 2025

Featured • Jeffrey Sachs: NATO & Russia On the Brink of Nuclear War, Glenn Diesen, YouTube Jun 3, 2025
H/t Steve Starr. We haven't listened to this but you can't go wrong with these two. No doubt very insightful, from these brilliant two men.

Featured • The Defeat of The West And Its Dislocation, Moon of Alabama, Jun 3, 2025

The defeat of the Soviet Union (and Russia) came after it had lost the economic war with the West. It had also lost a war in Afghanistan. The Soviet system had turned out to be a failure.

The West, or as Mearsheimer is arguing (vid), 'liberal hegemony', has been routed in Afghanistan. The attempts to 'liberate' Libya and Syria have failed to the point where the Western 'war on terror' launched against al-Qaeda has led to the installation of an al-Qaeda bigwig as the new president of Syria. The economic decline of the West is demonstrated by the rise of China. The West's moral self-defeat of its 'values' can be daily witnessed in Gaza.

'Liberal democracy', the system of ideas that has for decades been the leading light of the West, has failed.

Like communism in Russia, 'liberal democracy' has not only an economic side but is also a kind of religion. The failure of this belief system is upon us.

The accumulation of defeat after defeat by the 'liberal democracy' system has led to a psychological breakdown, an internal dislocation of the West. This is now leading to irrational acts and to seeking refuge in wishful thinking.

Or, as Alastair Crooke is summarizing the phenomenon and warns:

The psychological dislocation caused by ‘defeat’ may explain (but not justify) the West’s ‘curious’ inability to understand world events: The almost pathological dissociation from the real world that it displays in its words and actions: It’s blindness – for example, to the Russian experience of history and to the long history behind Shi’a defiance in Iran. Yet, even as the political situation deteriorates … there is no sign of the West becoming more reality-based in its understanding – and it is very likely that it will continue to live in its alternative construction of reality – until it is forcibly expelled.

Any progress towards a settlement will be incremental, slow and painful.

The fourth likely purpose of Kiev’s wave of sabotage and terror strikes – the strategic aspect, as it were – however, is much more disturbing: The Zelensky regime – and at least some of its Western backers (my guess: Britain in the lead) – are signaling that they are ready to wage a prolonged campaign of escalating terrorist attacks inside Russia, even if the fighting in Ukraine should end. Think of the Chechen Wars, but much worse again. This, too, would not succeed. One lesson of the Chechen Wars is precisely that Moscow has made up its mind not to bend to terrorism but instead eliminate its source, whatever the cost.

...In that sense, the talks at least helped to deflate an old piece of Western information war. Perhaps that is all that is possible for now: truly incremental humanitarian progress and a very gradual, very slow working toward a more reasonable manner of talking to each other. Better than nothing. But that’s a low bar, admittedly.

The attack was a tactical success, portraying Ukraine as a force that still has a pulse, but no more. It has no influence on the battlefield, where the Russian progress is accelerating steadily.

Whether President Putin will escalate the conflict by targeting decision centers in Kiev or even NATO-Members would be pure speculation on his Zen-Buddhist and famous patience with the West. We shall not speculate.

The most important question does not concern Moscow, but Washington. President Trump will have a major credibility issue with the Russians. Whether he knew or not is not of great importance for the Russians. The fact, however, that the above-discussed red line was crossed may have a long-term impact on the relationship. Anyway, the obvious heterogene stance towards Russia within the Trump Administration confirms once more to the Russians, that the US cannot be trusted.

The former world heavyweight champion boxer told the Times of London that Kiev City Council essentially cannot operate because of “raids, interrogations and threats of fabricated criminal proceedings.”

“This is a purge of democratic principles and institutions under the guise of war,” Klitschko declared, adding “I once said that it smells of authoritarianism in our country. Now it stinks of it.”

Jun 2, 2025

Featured • Details of Russian peace proposal revealed, RT, Jun 2, 2025

Featured • What Russia and Ukraine Agreed in 2nd Round of Istanbul Talks, Sputnik International, Jun 2, 2025

Featured • Ukraine - Strategic Escalation Intended To Influence Talks, Moon of Alabama, Jun 2, 2025

Days before negotiations towards an and of the conflict the operational tempo of the war in Ukraine has increased.

During the last week of May the Russian forces took 18 settlements and over 200 square kilometer. During the last 24 hours at least another 3 settlements have changed hands. The Ukrainian army is no longer capable to hold its defense lines. Its situation is deteriorating day by day.

On Saturday a Russian missile attack hit a Ukrainian military training camp. It killed or wounded about 100 soldiers. It was the second time the camp had been hit. Other agglomerations of Ukrainian forces had previously experienced the same fate. Still, Ukrainian forces beyond the frontline keep bunching up to become targets of long range weapons.

Taking responsibility for the repeated mistakes the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces resigned...

While the attack is of high propaganda value it will have no favorable impact on the Ukrainian position on the battle field. It will rather entice the Russian forces to hit harder, mostly likely by long range attacks against Ukrainian decision centers.

...The Ukrainian side had likely hoped that its attack on strategic Russian airfields would entice Russia to delay or break-off the talks in Istanbul. They will however take place and continue.

Both sides are expected to exchange memoranda about their envisioned paths towards an end of the war.

I do expect the Russian side to deliver some kind of ultimatum.

I expect Russia will launch a massive retaliatory strike after the talks in Istanbul on Monday conclude. The Ukrainian attacks on the bridges, the train and the airfields have done nothing to alter the situation all along the line of contact in Ukraine. News continues to pour in from the front, from both Ukrainian and Russian news outlets, painting a picture of growing desperation, even panic, among Ukrainian forces, as Russians capture more territory and kill more Ukrainian troops.

The thing to keep in mind is that the Russian leadership, not just Putin, are not going to react emotionally. I am not suggesting that they are not enraged — they are — but the Russians value brains and strategy over passion. They are calmly assessing these latest developments and will prepare and deliver some new blows on Ukraine that will signal a significant escalation in the weapons Russia will use on Ukrainian targets. I think that by the end of the week, Zelensky and his cronies will be singing a different tune.

The Russian MoD admitted in a statement that some aircraft caught fire in Oleyna and Belaya, but said that the attacks on the other three air bases were repelled.

“There were no casualties among military and civilian personnel,” the ministry added, noting that “some participants of the terrorist attacks were detained.”

There was no visual evidence confirming that Ivanovo and Dyagilevo were hit. According to Russian media, all the drones launched at the two air bases were intercepted, the launchers were found and the drivers were arrested.

Meanwhile, videos from Amur confirmed that the launcher that was meant to attack Ukrainka broke down on a road far from the air base. It is unclear if the driver was caught, but footage from the scene showed one of the two mobile houses loaded in the truck exploding.

Jun 1, 2025

Featured • Playing with Fire, Scott Ritter, Jun 1, 2025

Featured • Desperation Time in Ukraine End-Game, Gordon Hahn, May 29, 2025

Featured • How Peace-Oriented Norway Learned to Stop Worrying and Love War, Prof Glenn Diesen, X, May 26, 2025

The country lost its collective mind... Politicians called it a dangerous Russian influence operation. I had taken the side of Russia in supporting the invasion. I am an agent for Russia spreading Russian propaganda. It was argued that the national intelligence services should get involved, as I am likely financed by the Russian state. Soon thereafter, the national intelligence agency, PST, reassured the public that they are looking into people who may, at the behest of a foreign power, attempt to make Norwegians critical of the government’s policies on sending weapons to Ukraine.[1] Almost every media outlet in the country framed the issue on the premise that I am “pro-Russian” and “anti-Ukrainian”. People began tearing down the posters, and some compared their political vandalism with liberating the country from Hitler during the Second World War. People were intoxicated with self-righteousness and moral superiority as the tribe united in virtue and the fight for freedom. Their hatred of the evil “other” was celebrated as evidence of their righteousness as they formed a resistance against us, fascist agents of Russia who support the destruction of Ukraine and would like to see Russia conquer Europe.

At this point, it should be noted that I consider myself a friend of Ukraine. I have warned against war in Ukraine for the past 20 years, and I have obviously not supported the invasion of Ukraine. Much like many political leaders across the West have argued over the past 30 years, I believe that NATO expansion triggers a security competition and eventually war, much like it would if Russia established its military infrastructure in Mexico.

...The considerations of the rational individual have been defeated in Norway by the tribal mindset and groupthink. The government’s policies and war narratives represent virtue and truth, and all opposition is thus immoral and deceptive. The premise of every argument from politicians and their stenographers in the media was that they were on the side of the innocent Ukrainian victim, and I represented the evil Russian aggressor. There is no interest in engaging with arguments; rather, there is an obsession with exposing the hidden evil intentions of their opponents. Toward this end, anything is permitted in the “good fight”. The national intelligence services warned, with a not-so-subtle hint to me, that they are aware of efforts to polarise the public. Not only is it completely unacceptable for me to enter Parliament as I allegedly represent Putin, but my employment as a professor at a Norwegian university is also problematic, as I repeat "Russian narratives. How did Norway become authoritarian and gung-ho about war?

...The rational individual is humanistic, but the collective consciousness of the Norwegian has taken on sociopathic traits with a lack of empathy, chronic lying, deceit, aggression, irresponsibility, and an absence of remorse.

State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Kartapolov issued an even more pronounced statement—that Ukraine would lose Sumy, Zaporozhye, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkov, Nikolayev, and Odessa if it continues to resist...

In the longer UN statement, Nebenzya can be heard explaining a new nuance to Russia’s ceasefire terms: not only must the West cease supplying weaponry, but Ukraine must cease mobilizing new troops...

What was surprising about Merz’s comments were their naivety and that they were six months out of date. On Nov. 21, 2024, Vladimir Putin presented a huge escalation challenge to the West: are you ready for Russia to strike NATO facilities anywhere in Europe with hypersonic munitions that you don’t possess? Merz has offered less than Putin has already shown he is willing to do, offering Germany up as a sitting duck.

Back in November, much as now in Berlin, bombastic British ex-military saber rattlers had been at the forefront of calls to allow weapons free on such systems as Scalp, Storm Shadow, US ATACMS missiles, claiming they could make a battle changing difference in Ukraine.

On Nov. 19, the first salvo of ATACMS was lobbed at a military facility in Bryansk — outside the area in which Ukrainian forces were battling in Kursk. The following day, British Storm Shadow missiles were fired into Kursk, with the jubilant approval of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, no less. These strikes elicited widespread attaboy jingoism from the Western media, with hardly a word of caution.

On Nov. 21, Russia over-escalated. Specifically, they deployed a more powerful and destructive hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a well-fortified Ukrainian weapons facility in Dnipropetrovsk. This is the first time an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile had been used in combat. The claimed range of Oreshnik is 16 times greater than ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles. Its deployment put any NATO targets within Europe in the scope of a conventional strike.

May 31, 2025

 • Debunking the Ukrainian Claim About Russian Casualties, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, May 30, 2025

Russia has suffered casualties, but a fraction of those inflicted on the Ukrainians. MediaZona offers the best estimate of Russia KIA because they collect and analyze death notices from all of the Russian republics. This is data, not opinion. According to MediaZona, an estimated 165,000 Russian soldiers have died in combat or from wounds incurred in combat. Ukraine, by contrast, has lost more than a million men — some estimates are as high as 1.5 million dead. These numbers are consistent with the ratios of artillery fire (and yes, I am assuming that a shell fired by each side has an equal chance of killing or maiming soldiers on the other side).

May 30, 2025

Featured • The Vance Doctrine, James Carden, Antiwar.com, May 30, 2025

The Vice President's commencement address at Annapolis was a definitive and welcome break with the past.

The last vice president to serve during wartime was also the last president to have done so: George H.W. Bush (1924-2018). Bush’s presidency, unlike that of his son’s, was marked, mainly, by a prudential approach to foreign affairs. Bush’s warning about the dangers of unleashing the demons of “suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred” in post-Soviet countries such as Ukraine went, alas, unheeded. Yet the administration of Bush I was also the last, perhaps until now, that understood that a mature power, as the columnist and grand strategist Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) pointed out,

…will make measured and limited use of its power. It will eschew the theory of global and universal duty which not only commits it to unending wars of intervention but intoxicated its thinking with the illusion that it is a crusader for righteousness.”

Lippmann would have scorned the bipartisan fantasies of global omnipotence that came into vogue in the decades following Bush’s presidency. What in retrospect appear to be faddish, if not absurd, texts from the 1990’s, such as Francis Fukuyama’s ‘End of History’; Charles Krauthammer’s ‘The Unipolar Moment’; and Paul Wolfowitz’s draft of the 1992 Defense planning guidance (later popularized as the ‘Wolfowitz Doctrine’), served as the intellectual basis for the disastrous series of wars that were to follow.

Russia would not rule out a direct strike on Berlin if German personnel help Ukraine target Moscow with German-supplied Taurus missiles, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, has warned.

Speculation that Germany could supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles – capable of striking targets up to 500km away and potentially reaching the Russian capital from Ukrainian territory – was reignited after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin and its partners had lifted restrictions on the range of Western weapons Ukraine is allowed to use.

German officials, however, have not confirmed any decision to send the Taurus system, and a Bild report on Wednesday suggested that the government in Berlin still considers doing so “taboo.”

In a post on Wednesday, Simonyan warned that Germany could face dire consequences if the Taurus is ever used for attacking the Russian capital. “In Moscow offices, it is being discussed that if German troops strike Moscow with German weapons… the only option left for us is to strike Berlin,” she said.

She went on to explain that a Taurus strike on Moscow would have to be prepared and executed by German service members because the Ukrainians “cannot maintain [the Taurus] or program it for flight missions.”

The delegation of Russian negotiators is leaving for Istanbul, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

"I also wanted to inform you today that our delegation, the Russian delegation of negotiators, is leaving for Istanbul," Peskov told journalists.

The Russian delegation in Istanbul will be ready on Monday morning for the second round of talks with Ukraine, the official added.

The details of the Russian draft memorandum on the Ukrainian settlement will not be made public, Peskov said.

"Of course, nothing will be made public, it cannot be made public," Peskov told reporters.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico delivered a stark warning to fellow European leaders during his speech at CPAC Hungary in Budapest on Thursday, declaring that the European Union’s attempt to impose a “mandatory political opinion” on its member states signals the collapse of the European project and a departure from democratic values.“The imposition of a mandatory political opinion, the abolition of the veto, the punishment of the sovereign and the brave, the new Iron Curtain, the preference for war over peace. This is the end of the common European project. This is a departure from democracy. This is the precursor of a huge military conflict,” he warned.Fico’s remarks came as he revealed both he and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had received threats from “a particularly nervous new German chancellor,” who warned them that if they did not fall in line with Brussels’ uniform view on military support for Ukraine and sanctioning Russia, “‘You will be punished.’”

“No one in a peaceful and democratic project should have the right to treat other EU member states in this way, regardless of their size and economic strength,” he said. Fico, a veteran of Slovak politics who survived an assassination attempt last year, framed his overall remarks as a defense of national sovereignty in the face of what he described as increasing aggression from Brussels and major EU powers. “I do not want to see our sovereignty and the national identity melt away in the generalist supranational, international structures, especially those in Brussels,” he said.While acknowledging his left-wing roots, Fico distanced himself from what he called the “Brussels kind” of social democracy, instead describing himself as a “rural socialist” focused on defending Slovakia’s traditions, Christian heritage, and national interests. “As a strong leftist, I have no problem spending the night with the people on the production line to support higher night shift allowances or wage increases,” he said.

May 29, 2025

Featured • Trump getting ‘filtered’ information on Ukraine conflict – Moscow, RT, May 28, 2025

US President Donald Trump is being misled about the Ukraine conflict by those pushing Washington toward supporting the Kiev regime and taking a more aggressive stance on Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Lavrov’s remark on Wednesday followed in response to Trump’s latest criticism of Moscow. The US president rebuked Russia twice this week over strikes on Ukraine, claiming that President Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely crazy” and was launching “missiles and drones into cities in Ukraine for no reason whatsoever.” Trump later warned that the Russian leader was “playing with fire.”

Responding to a question from journalist Pavel Zarubin, Lavrov said: “One thing is clear – Donald Trump and those who actually make decisions regarding the Ukraine conflict in particular, are not being told everything.”

“The information he [Trump] is given is filtered through a sieve, which is prepared by those who want to draw America into more aggressive action against Russia, in support of the Kiev regime,” Lavrov added.

According to Russia's top diplomat, Moscow will try “to correct” the problem of information not reaching Trump.

Mushrooms reportedly are grown in the dark and covered in manure. So, to ask if Trump is getting the mushroom treatment is a colloquial way of suggesting he is being deliberately kept ignorant, misled, or given false information about the war in Ukraine. His Sunday outburst, describing Putin as crazy and accusing Putin of launching drones and missiles into Ukraine for no reason, was bizarre and disturbing. His remarks demonstrated that he had no knowledge of why Russia launched that attack and, in response to a reporter’s question about the assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin, Trump admitted he knew nothing of that.

This can only mean one of two things — i.e., Trump honestly had no knowledge about recent Ukrainian drone attacks in Russia or he was lying. I think he truly did not know… he was just told that Putin bombed the crap out of Ukraine and killed lots of civilians without justification.

...The combination of narcissism, hubris and ignorance on the part of Trump is truly staggering. I think he really believes this. He is living in a fantasy world and genuinely believe he is in a position to compel Russia to obey his diktats. He fails to understand that by allowing military operations against Russia to continue he risks World War III.

The Russian response to Trump tells me that they understand that they are dealing with a narcissistic individual devoid of curiosity, who is driven by emotion. Instead of pushing back against his outrageous, specious claims, Putin and his team opted for the high road and demonstrated world-class diplomacy.

...I think that Putin and his team know exactly how to handle Donald Trump… they will flatter him and cater to his narcissism. I think my conjecture about how Putin will approach Trump in their next conversation is valid — i.e., Putin will explain to Trump the events leading up to his decision to launch drones and missiles in response to a massive Ukrainian attack and will note that he, like Trump, faced an assassination attempt. What Putin won’t do is blame Trump and the CIA for the failed attempt to kill him. He will get the message across without backing Trump into a corner.

If you have never watched Oliver Stone’s 2016 interview of Vladimir Putin [see the link] — it is on YouTube in four parts — I strongly encourage you to do so. You will gain some keen insights into how Putin responds to threats and crises. Made me wish he was President of the United States.

Key updates from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

 • Russia proposed talks in Istanbul on June 2 – no response yet from Ukraine.

 • Ukraine’s demand for immediate disclosure of Russia’s draft memorandum is unconstructive – negotiations must remain private.

 • The Kremlin condemns threats against Medinsky’s family, and if this is linked to Ukraine, then it is outrageous.

The Russian delegation is ready to provide the necessary clarifications on the memorandum during the second round of renewed direct talks in Istanbul on June 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Full statement by Sergey Lavrov on the second round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine:

As is known, with the support of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, conditions were created to resume direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. The first round since the renewal took place on May 16 this year in Istanbul. According to the agreements reached there, a prisoner exchange was conducted on a "1000 for 1000" basis. It was also agreed in Istanbul that Moscow and Kyiv would prepare documents outlining each side’s position to achieve a sustainable settlement.

The Russian side, as agreed, promptly developed the relevant memorandum, which presents our position on all aspects of reliably overcoming the root causes of the crisis. Our delegation, led by Vladimir Medinsky, is ready to present this memorandum to the Ukrainian delegation and provide the necessary explanations during the second round of renewed direct negotiations in Istanbul next Monday, June 2.

On a bevy of issues, ranging from joint rare-earth mineral development deals to space exploration, a healthy and productive relationship between the U.S. and Russia is infinitely better for American national security than one of acrimony.

Not only will Trump walk away from Ukraine and let the geopolitical pieces fall as they may, he should let that happen. Trump campaigned as a non-interventionist president who favored commerce over war. It’s time we start living up to those promises rather than just talking about them. Because, as Trump rightly said of Ukraine, this is not his war. Nor should it be America’s.

May 28, 2025

Featured • U.S.-Supplied Air Defenses Fail In Ukraine, Moon of Alabama, May 28, 2025

Featured • Recycling Old News Media Push For More War In Ukraine, Moon of Alabama, May 27, 2025

There was thereby nothing new in Merz' talk. He had not even mentioned Taurus missiles which will NOT be delivered to Ukraine for several good reasons:

• Taurus contains components which are under U.S. export restrictions. The U.S. would have to green light a delivery of those.

• Taurus is air launched. Ukraine does not have the means, i.e. the right airplanes, to launch • Taurus from high attitudes.

• Taurus requires other German systems, and, most crucial, German specialists to be targeted and used.

Merz was clearly surprised that his mentioning of the release of restrictions, which had happened months ago, was suddenly presented as a new development or policy change. Today the chancellor was pushed to clarify it:

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the decision to lift restrictions on the range of weapons supplied to Kiev was made several months ago, RIA Novosti reported.

"As far as I know, and I repeated it yesterday, the countries that imposed range restrictions have long since abandoned these conditions. Therefore, yesterday in Berlin I described what happened several months ago, namely that Ukraine has the right to use the weapons it receives, including outside its borders, against military targets on Russian territory," Merz said at a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

The media who carried yesterday's sensational headline have yet to wake up to this. I doubt that they even want to do so. They will most likely ignored Merz' clarification.

There is an unmissable war-frenzy in the media. Even the tiniest side remark by Trump, Merz or someone else is immediately explained as a war escalation.

The journalists writing those headlines, and the bloggers repeating them, seem eager to push for it.

Who told them to do so?

May 27, 2025

Featured • SITREP 5/26/25: Russia Unleashes Saved-Up Fury as Ukrainian Air Defense Woes Come to Light, Simplicius, May 26, 2025

Increasingly the theme of discussions has turned toward Russia’s growing advantage in the drone field. For a long time Ukraine held the claimed advantage, but now a growing number of sources in both Ukraine and the West contend that Russia has finally broken through the parity and has taken the lead in everything from surveillance to FPV drones.

...Merz made waves by claiming there are no further ‘limitations’ for weapons to Ukraine, leading everyone to assume the Taurus will now be sent. On the other hand Germany’s Vice Chancellor appeared to immediately refute this:

German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil denied that Berlin had changed course on the range of weapons supplied to the AFU: "There is no new agreement that goes beyond what the previous government did."

Whether it’s true or not, we previously reported Germany had 400-500 total Taurus missiles, with only 250 of them functional, out of which 150 would allegedly be handed to Ukraine. Such volumes are simply barely relevant, particularly given that Russia just fired almost that many missiles in a single day at Ukraine.

There was one interesting report that claimed the UK would buy the Tauruses from Germany and thus ‘absolve’ Germany from responsibility for the missiles’ programming and use against Russian targets. Either way, this is not expected to have any effect whatsoever.

....Lastly, mush-brained cereal-man Kellogg imagines himself a brilliant strategist while invoking the Art of War against Russia:

...I’m not sure Sun Tzu had in mind needlessly provoking a non-hostile ideological ‘adversary’ into heavily industrializing into a military powerhouse for no reason, all while already engaged in a losing two-front conflict against China. That doesn’t sound like the ‘acme of professionalism’, but more like strategic suicide.

The United Kingdom, France, the United States and now Germany have lifted range restrictions on military supplies to Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

"There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine — not by the British, not by the French, not by us, not by the Americans. This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, including, for example, by striking military positions on Russian territory. Until a certain point, it could not do this," Merz said in an interview with the WDR TV channel.

If lies about Russia’s status in the war in Ukraine were valued at $1 million for each lie, this article from Washington Post reporters would reduce the US multi-trillion-dollar debt by at least 10%. Let’s call this article, Chicks on Parade, since it is written by Karen DeYoung, Catherine Belton and Mary Ilyushina. Not a military analyst in the group and, based on their reporting, all are devoid of any ability to do critical thinking.

...Slowing? These three WAPO ladies were spoon-fed Ukrainian propaganda, dressed up as impeccable intelligence from Western sources, and gobbled it down like ravenous vultures. Note, on the very day that this article appeared, Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike all across the breadth of Ukraine. Slowing? Multiple independent sources report that Russia is attacking and advancing all along the 1200-mile line of contact. This article is not an honest assessment of the war. It is a political hit piece designed to pressure Donald Trump into pumping more money and weapons into Ukraine.

Donald Trump grabbed headlines on Monday with his Sunday outburst directed primarily at Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Here’s his rant:

I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia! Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop. This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not “Trump’s.” I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.

Gee, why would Putin order massive strikes on Ukraine on May 24 and 25? “No reason whatsoever?” It appears that no one briefed Trump on what Ukraine did, starting May 19. Between May 19 and May 25, 2025, Ukraine conducted a significant escalation in its drone campaign against Russia, launching over 700 drones across various regions.

...Just imagine how Donald Trump would react if Mexican drug cartels launched 700 attack drones into the United States. We all know the answer… the US would be bombing Mexico as we speak. Trump’s failure to acknowledge the precipitating actions of Ukraine is a reminder that this man is driven by emotion, not thought or reason. Trump’s outburst, in my opinion, is a disgrace.

...What Donald Trump has accomplished with this juvenile outburst is to inflame US public opinion against Russia in general and Putin in particular. Painting Putin as an insane leader who uses violence for no good reason, is simply feeding the neocon narrative and is likely to generate more pressure for Trump to endorse imposing more sanctions on Russia and its trading partners.

The EU’s latest decision to reinstate import duties on Ukrainian exports will leave Kiev begging for money, according to Dmitry Natalukha, a member of the nation’s parliament. His claim comes shortly after the European Commission (EC) announced that the bloc won’t extend the current duty-free trade regime that is set to expire in early June.On Friday, the EU executive branch said that the bloc’s member states have backed the reimposition of import quotas on Ukrainian agricultural goods that were suspended in the wake of the escalation of the country’s conflict with Russia in February 2022.

“This could create an idiotic situation where we will be forced to come and beg you [the EU] for money, instead of simply earning money through trade – which, in my opinion, is a very wicked and twisted situation, because rather than trading and profiting both from the trade in a normal way, Ukraine is being pushed to become a beggar,” Natalukha, who heads Economic Affairs Parliamentary Committee, said on Friday in an interview with Euractive.

Leaving millions in Ukraine under the rule of a “junta” which has banned their native language would be “a major crime,” according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Speaking at a conference in Moscow on Friday, the minister pointed out that Kiev’s authorities have effectively banned the use of the Russian language despite it being the native tongue of a large proportion of the population. “We cannot leave people under the rule of the regime that is currently there,” Lavrov emphasized. If Vladimir Zelensky’s “junta” expects that “somehow an agreement will be reached to end the hostilities, and what remains of Ukraine will live according to the laws that they adopted, this is an illusion” the minister said. “This cannot be allowed under any circumstances,” he stressed.

George Kennan must be rolling over in his grave in light of the 19 May article in Foreign Policy journal, written by Michael Klimmage, director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. Here is a classic example of an academic who learned to speak Russian, but does not understand a damn thing about Russia. Klimmage is caught in a Cold War time warp, and insists that Putin is a diehard commie intent on world revolution.

...He pushes the lie that Russia is focused primarily on killing and maiming civilians, yet provides not one piece of evidence to substantiate that specious claim. He cites Russia’s “failure” to take Pokrovsk in a timely manner as proof of Russia’s faltering military effort. Klimmage apparently does not know how to read a map. Rather than conduct a frontal assault on Pokrovsk, Russia is focused on operations that minimize risks to its soldiers while enveloping Pokrovsk in a cauldron. Southwest of Pokrovsk, Russian troops have made significant gains in settlements such as Zvirove and Kotlyarivka. Northeast of Pokrovsk, Russia has cut the T-0504 highway, a critical supply route, and its forces are advancing near Vozdvyzhenka and Tarasivka. These advances are part of a broader strategy to encircle Pokrovsk from multiple directions… a fact that escapes Mr. Klimmage.

...Klimmage is a symptom of a disease that infects the Washington foreign policy establishment. They are slaves to an official narrative that is totally divorced from the reality on the ground in Ukraine. It is ironic that during this week, when Klimmage’s piece was published, Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO announced that Russia is producing in three months the amount of ammunition that the entire NATO alliance produces in a year, describing this gap as “unacceptable” and “unsustainable.”

Klimmage and the foreign policy establishment are still in the first stage of grief… i.e., denial. Russian operations in May, June and July will dispel any notion that this war is a stalemate or that Russia is losing.

Thus we can only conclude that the current battlefield trends will continue unchanged, except that Ukraine’s position will merely deteriorate further. The only question remaining is how long Ukraine can hold out before ‘shock’ breakthroughs start totally crumpling entire frontlines in ways more resembling Ukraine’s own Kharkov offensive on Izyum, where vastly outnumbered Russian forces were forced to give up vast territories in record time. The entire collapse of the AFU as a fighting force will probably not happen any time soon, but such ‘localized’ collapses may not be far away, which would presage the end.

If Zelensky and his European backers believe that the beleaguered Ukrainian Army can continue to fight, indefinitely, losing thousands of troops every month, and there will never be a break in the lines – or a revolt from the troops – they are playing, pardon the pun, Russian Roulette. No one can suffer those kinds of losses and fight like robots forever.

Consider also that the fact that after Biden’s $61 billion aid package from May 2024 runs out, there is no more American aid coming. Europe clearly cannot make up the absence of American military aid on its own. Therefore, potentially within months, battlefield math will start to increasingly weigh against the Ukraine side, while Russia will only continue getting stronger and bigger militarily.

A collapse of the Ukraine ability to defend its country grows increasingly possible as we get into the summer fighting season.

The only thing that makes any military or diplomatic sense at this point is to acknowledge the ugly truth that there is no path to a Ukrainian success. The West writ large does not have the capacity or leverage to force Russia into any concessions. If we keep with the fiction that strong words will stop actual Russian armed forces, we unwittingly make more likely the nightmare scenario for Kyiv and Brussels: the military defeat of Ukraine.

May 23, 2025

 • Lavrov: Zelensky Legitimacy Will Make or Break Ukraine Peace Deal, Sputnik International, May 23, 2025

Russia is ready to negotiate with Vladimir Zelensky and his administration on the principles of resolving the Ukrainian conflict, but the question of his legitimacy will be decisive when it comes to signing the settlement documents, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The President [of Russia Vladimir Putin] clearly outlined our position regarding the degree of legitimacy of Zelensky and his regime. He emphasized that we do not refuse contacts with him and his administration in order to agree on principles of settlement that are acceptable to all. The other matter is when it comes to signing that where the question of legitimacy will be decisive, because if those sign who, to put it mildly, no longer convince anyone of their legitimacy, then successors may challenge the agreements reached, Lavrov said at the conference Historical South Russian lands, national identity, and self-determination of peoples.

Russia stands for negotiations with Ukraine, and there will be a second round of talks, Lavrov added.

"We have always stressed at the highest level and at other levels that we are ready for peace talks that will be devoted to understanding and eliminating the root causes of this crisis," Lavrov said.

The dates and the venue of the next round of negotiations with Ukraine have not yet been set and are being determined, Lavrov added.

"I want to say do not waste mental abilities on working out options that are not very realistic. Imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations, it is a bit inelegant, I would say, when Orthodox countries will discuss issues related to the elimination of root causes on a Catholic platform... I think it will not be very comfortable for the Vatican itself to receive delegations from two Orthodox countries in these conditions," Lavrov said.

Lavrov noted that Russia is working on a memorandum on Ukrainian settlement, which is at an advanced stage, Moscow will in any case submit its proposals to Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that Russian forces have been instructed to create a buffer zone along the Ukraine-Russia border as fighting continues to rage despite President Trump push for a peace deal.

I have already said that a decision was made to create the necessary security buffer zone along the border. Our armed forces are currently solving this problem. Enemy firing points are being actively suppressed, the work is underway, Putin said in a meeting with members of his government.

Putin previously floated the idea of creating a buffer zone in March during a visit to Russia Kursk Oblast, which was invaded by Ukrainian forces last year. Russian forces have pushed out the invading Ukrainian troops, but Kursk and other border regions frequently come under Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks.

US President Donald Trump has reportedly rejected demands by EU officials that negotiations on the Ukraine conflict should result in an unconditional ceasefire, the Wall Street Journal has reported citing sources. Following a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Trump held phone calls with Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and British PM Keir Starmer. The European leaders reportedly insisted that Trump should apply more pressure on Putin and demanded that the next round of talks on resolving the conflict must end with an unconditional truce.

Trump, however, reportedly indicated that he did not like the use of the term unconditional, particularly in the context of discussing measures to resolve the Ukraine conflict. The WSJ claimed that the European leaders eventually agreed to drop their insistence on the adjective.

Ukraine has proposed that EU member states allocate a fixed portion of their GDP to fund the country armed forces. The bloc leaders have pledged continued military support for Kiev despite a policy change by US President Donald Trump, who aims to mediate a truce. Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko outlined the proposal during this week G7 finance ministers meeting in Canada, according to a Facebook post published on Thursday. What we are proposing is partner participation in funding Ukraine Armed Forces, which would effectively integrate them into Europe defense structure, he wrote. Marchenko added that the cost would represent only a small share of the EU GDP and could be distributed among countries willing to join the initiative.

Kiev wants to launch the new scheme in 2026, with contributions counted toward NATO defense spending targets.Marchenko appeal comes as Ukraine struggles with rising fiscal pressure and an uncertain outlook on foreign assistance. On Tuesday, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said the country 2025 budget includes a shortfall of 400500 billion hryvnias ($9.612 billion) for financing its armed forces. Fellow lawmaker Nina Yuzhanina warned that military support was at a critical level and called for sweeping domestic budget cuts to redirect resources. Ukraine mounting debt has also raised alarm. Total state debt is approaching $171 billion, with public debt nearing 100% of GDP.

Earlier this month, Marchenko said the country would be unable to repay foreign creditors for the next 30 years but intends to continue borrowing.

May 22, 2025

 • Ex-Ukrainian presidential adviser shot dead in Spain media, RT, May 21, 2025

Former Ukrainian lawmaker and presidential adviser Andrey Portnov was fatally shot in a suburb of the Spanish capital, Madrid, on Wednesday, local media has reported. The circumstances of the murder suggest it may have been an extrajudicial execution, as Portnov may have had access to information that could threaten figures in Vladimir Zelensky administration, Rodion Miroshnik, Russia ambassador-at-large overseeing a special mission on alleged Ukrainian war crimes, has said. The killing occurred in Pozuelo de Alarcon, according to the newspaper El Pais. Portnov, 51, was reportedly approached by two or three assailants and shot at least five times, including three times in the head, while inspecting the trunk of his Mercedes car, near a private school attended by his children.

May 21, 2025

 • It Aint Just Putin Key Russians Singing from the Same Sheet of Music, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, May 20, 2025
In case this isn't obvious.

 • EU quietly complains Ukraine is all on us now FT, RT, May 20, 2025

European leaders backing Ukraine were reportedly stunned by US President Donald Trump refusal to support their efforts to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a phone call between the two leaders. He [Trump] is stepping away, a senior European diplomat said, as cited by the Financial Times on Tuesday, describing the impression the US president produced. Supporting and financing Ukraine, putting pressure on Russia: that all on us now. The conversation between Putin and Trump on Monday was their third public engagement since Trump took office in January, with both describing it as positive. Trump reiterated his call for continued direct talks between Moscow and Kiev, and said the conflict is a European situation in which the US should never have been involved.

Russia will not abandon Orthodox believers in Ukraine in the face of ongoing religious persecution by the authorities in Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has promised. Speaking at a Russian Foreign Ministry reception on Tuesday dedicated to Orthodox Easter, Lavrov condemned Kiev for cracking down on believers in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), calling it proof of the Ukrainian authorities human-hating essence. The authorities in Kiev have brought [the UOC] to the brink of legal liquidation Churches continue to be seized, vandalized, and attacked, along with priests and parishioners, Lavrov alleged. He pointed in particular to Ukraine attempts to wrestle control over the iconic Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the country oldest monastery.

These acts are being carried out with the connivance and even support of many European countries, where the ghosts of neo-Nazism and Satanism are again lifting their heads, the diplomat stated. Russia will not leave the Orthodox people of Ukraine in trouble, Lavrov stressed, adding that Moscow will ensure that their lawful rights are respected and that canonical Orthodoxy regains its central place in Ukraine spiritual life. Ukraine has accused the UOC of maintaining ties to Russia despite the church declaring independence from the Moscow Patriarchate in May 2022. The crackdown has included numerous arrests of clergymen and church raids, one of the most notorious of which took place in the catacombs of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra where holy relics are kept.

Exclusive analysis by Igor Korotchenko (Editor-in-Chief of Russian military publication National Defense) on the content of the two hour conversation between Presidents Putin and Trump aimed at ending the Ukrainian conflict. The Russian president came to the table with four non-negotiables, Korotchenko says. These are:

• Recognition of new territorial realities (4 new regions = Russia)
• Complete Ukrainian withdrawal from these territories
• Halt in all Western arms shipments
• Ukraine neutral/non-bloc, non-nuclear status

The main thing conveyed is that Russia has a consistent policy which does not change or vacillate, is absolutely clear and consistent, the veteran Russian military observer explained. Essentially, Putin message was that everything we say, we implement and carry out. The non-bloc status point accounts for Russia long-standing position on the need to address and eliminate the root causes of the conflict, namely NATO expansion, Korotchenko said.

Most importantly, the call was meant to convey realism from the idea that accepting the conditions formulated by Russia and their support in the US would allow for peace to be achieved quickly. One way or another, Russia will realize its aspiration, so its easier to recognize them, accept them and move forward, the observer emphasized. Korotchenko stressed that the Putin-Trump phone call had no parties trying to dictate their will to each other, but a respectful discussion in which each side could express their position. I think Trump at the very least heard Putin. And crucially, he was convinced that Russia is consistent in its readiness to reach a peace agreement. But this process will not come through some unilateral concessions, the observer summed up.

Dmitry Suslov, deputy director at Russia Higher School of Economics and the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, breaks down the key takeaways from Monday potentially historic telephone conversation between the Russian and US presidents. First and foremost, Suslov said, the US and Russia agreed that peace must be sought through direct bilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine not an immediate ceasefire as demanded by Kiev and the Europeans. That is Russia top priority, and the United States has agreed that this should be the main focus, the observer explained. In effect, Trump essentially stepped back from his previous calls for an immediate ceasefire, and now backs negotiations aimed at a final peace agreement, with a possible ceasefire as part of the process. As for the demands by Kiev and its European patrons that Russia agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, Monday talks confirmed that this will not happen, Suslov said.

Putin in his remarks after the talks announced plans for Russia and Ukraine to start drafting a memorandum outlining the peace deal and ceasefire terms a step toward a comprehensive settlement, not just a freeze. Suslov found it notable that Trump statement omitted any mention of bone-crushing anti-Russian sanctions threatened by the Europeans and his proxies at home. Essentially, Europe was once again sidelined and discredited, with Moscow and Washington taking the lead, the observer said. The Europeans have once again found themselves out of the picture, once again disgraced and marginalized, given all their howling about the need for an immediate ceasefire, and demand that if Russia refuses, the United States should introduce tough sanctions on Russia.

May 20, 2025

Featured • Ukraine Negotiations Still Hover Around Its Root Cause, Moon of Alabama, May 20, 2025
Trump is failing so far to end this war, and pretending the U.S. is not the main cause and supporter of the war doesn't help.

Featured • Rooting Out the Root Causes in Ukraine, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, May 19, 2025

The root causes bear repeating here. 1) NATO expansion; 2) Forward deployment of NATO troops and missiles in Romania and Poland; 3) NATO training and equipping Ukraine as a proxy with the intention of bringing Ukraine into NATO; 4) the 2014 unconstitutional change of government leading to attacks against Russian speakers in the south and east of Ukraine; and 5) the outsized influence of Neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine.

[For a detailed discussion, see: Ukraine Timeline Tells the Tale]

Many useful analogies have been made about a Russian-backed overthrow of the Mexican or Canadian governments and Russian missiles pointed at the U.S. being deployed in either country. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis showed how the U.S. reacted when missiles were deployed near its borders.

Meanwhile, establishment media have worked overtime to root out the root causes from the public mind.

They bury them by airbrushing out of the story a) NATO expansion; b) the U.S.-backed unconstitutional change of government in Ukraine in 2014; c) Ukraine, with NATO backing, starting the war against ethnic Russian Donbass the same year; d) Ukraine and the West failure to abide by the Minsk accords in 2015 to end the war; e) Ukraine pulling out of the Istanbul agreement in 2022 under U.S. and U.K. pressure; and f) ditching its 2014 coverage of the role of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis in this.

The root causes bear repeating here. 1) NATO expansion; 2) Forward deployment of NATO troops and missiles in Romania and Poland; 3) NATO training and equipping Ukraine as a proxy with the intention of bringing Ukraine into NATO; 4) the 2014 unconstitutional change of government leading to attacks against Russian speakers in the south and east of Ukraine; and 5) the outsized influence of Neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine.

The big questions emerging from today telephone conversation are 1) After two hours of, no doubt, careful explanation by Putin to Donald Trump, did the American president finally allow these root causes to penetrate his mind? Is he prepared to instruct U.S. negotiators to address these causes in a final peace agreement?

...What required is a full, sustained comprehension that Trump may be incapable of. He must be prepared to stand up to (or dismiss) the hardliners on his team namely Gen. Keith Kellogg and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and to use U.S. leverage to press Ukraine to accept that these root causes must be resolved to bring peace.

May 19, 2025

Featured • Baltic Provocations Heat Up: Estonia Again Plays with Fire, This Time Gets Burned, Simplicius, May 18, 2025

Here a perfect reply to the above, which underscores what Ive been sayingread very carefully:

[T]he so-called shadow fleet a) isn't even Russian and b) isnt illegal. It refers to oil tankers operating without Western insurance often older ships, flagged to third countries, avoiding sanctions compliance. Theyre just outside the Western regulatory and insurance framework, which is not inherently unlawful.

Third, these ships are sailing through international waters including the Danish Straits and other key routes in the Baltic. Under UNCLOS, they have every right to pass. No law is being broken.

This is all that Europe has left in their game plan: they failed to out-produce Russia in war, they then failed to trick Russia into an early ceasefire, now they plan to orchestrate an endless escalation spiral so thatwith the help of their totally captured and non-independent state media organsthey can propagandize their citizenry with the threat of the Russian specter in order to try and build a concensus toward utilizing all remaining public funds to mobilize a vast war machine to stop Russia. It is existential for them: if Russia wins this war, the European cabal will crumble, and the sun will set on the Western Liberal Order forevermore.

A massive influx of weapons from Ukraine will hit Europe black markets after the conflict with Russia is over, according to a new report by the Eurasia Observatory, which tracks the conflict long-term impact on organized crime. Western-supplied weapons and thousands of battle-hardened Ukrainian veterans are expected to fuel a wave of crime, arms trafficking, and instability across the continent as talks between Moscow and Kiev to resolve the conflict raise hopes for a ceasefire the document warns. Stockpiles of weapons, including heavy arms, are being amassed throughout Ukraine, the report says. Should the fighting stop, martial law in Ukraine will presumably be lifted, reducing the resources and powers of the state to police the civilian sphere and opening up the field for organized crime to operate more freely.

Kiev received over $363 billion (326 billion) in NATO aid by February 2025, according to the Kiel Institute. Porous borders and weak oversight may fail to stop smuggled weapons such as rifles, grenades, and missile systems, according to the document. Earlier this year, US journalist Tucker Carlson claimed that the Ukrainian military was selling American weapons systems on the black market, including to drug cartels. Western media and officials have acknowledged that weapons sent to Kiev have ended up in criminal hands. Europol reported in April 2022 that arms were being trafficked from Ukraine into the EU for organized crime groups. Later that year, the Finnish authorities confirmed that these weapons had surfaced locally, with similar findings in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

By mid-2024, Spanish media reported gangs in southern Spain had acquired modern weapons allegedly smuggled from Ukraine. The return of Ukrainian soldiers skilled in sabotage, drones, and cyber warfare poses a threat, with the report warning that they could become a valuable resource for criminal networks in Europe. Corruption in Ukraine is a major concern, with the most recent estimate showing Ukraine will require $524 billion to repair the damage from the war. The report warns that criminals could exploit the process to launder money and gain influence.

May 18, 2025

Featured • The Istanbul kabuki decoded, Pepe Escobar, Strategic Culture Foundation, May 17, 2025

All the barking by the European chihuahuas of war cannot disguise the fundamental geopolitical/military fact: a massive NATO humiliation. Trump humongous problem is that he has to manage it and sell it to domestic public opinion and the global public opinion as some sort of deal he struck with Putin. It enlightening once again to go back to Grandmaster Lavrov, always the uber-realist, back in September 2024: In April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached agreement in Istanbul. If that agreement had been observed, Ukraine would have preserved part of Donbass. But every time another agreement, always accepted by Russia, is broken, Ukraine shrinks in size.

Now back to the (Great) Game. Kiev negotiators eventually admitting Ukrainian capitulation means a NATO capitulation and an Empire of Chaos capitulation. That the ultimate anathema for the US ruling classes. Even an ultra-negotiated, carefully managed Ukrainian surrender will be an impossible sell not to mention Washington under Narcissus Drowned Trump acknowledging a strategic defeat.

Because that will mean the Empire of Chaos losing Eurasia for good: the ultimate Mackinder/Brzezinski nightmare. Coupled with the consequential solidification of the multi-nodal, multipolar world. The Russia-China stategic partnership is very much aware of every nook and cranny in this larger-than-life process. Beyond the current Turkish kabuki, they clearly understand the Big Eurasia Equation. Beijing is fully aware NATO real goal was always to confront it via Russia. Ukraine was NATO pawn to take down Russia then get to China from the West. The goal of the US ruling elites as they configured their thalassocratic empire remains to blockade China from the West by land and sea, using Russia; then use Taiwan as a staging area to blockade China from the East by sea. No wonder control of Taiwan is a Chinese strategic imperative.

Enter Mackinder panic all over again: the China-Russia strategic partnership can beat NATO hands down and Russia, by itself, is already doing it. Xi and Putin once again discussed the chessboard in detail, in person, prior to the Victory Day parade last week in Moscow. The endgame, once again, is clear: the US losing the entire Eurasian land mass. Ukraine, under these immense geopolitical imperatives, is only a sovereign-deprived pawn in the (Great) Game. As for the tantrum-addicted clown in Kiev, he is merely an actor with no authority whatsoever, negotiations included. He is completely dominated by Ukrainian neo-Nazis who will kill him if and when the war is over. He merely fronts for them and gets paid off. And that why enthusiastically supported by inconsequential London, Paris and Berlin he obsessed to continue a Forever War destroying the very nation he claims to represent.

It was Putin who, on May 11, suggested, in essence, two things: First to start direct talks without preconditions. And second this is the part everyone in the West pretends to miss to do so by re-starting talks where they were held earlier and where they were interrupted. That was, of course, a clear reference to the Istanbul negotiations in the spring of 2022.As intelligent observers suspected immediately, these first Istanbul talks ended without results because the West instructed the Kiev regime to keep fighting. This is not a matter of opinion anymore. The evidence is in and unambiguous....

And second, that it was indeed the West that told Zelensky to bet on more war instead. And to his eternal shame, Zelensky chose to betray his country by obeying the West. That means like it or not that Putin offer of re-starting the Istanbul talks amounted to a second chance for a Kiev regime that judging by its atrocious record of sacrificing Ukraine to brutal Western geopolitics it certainly does not deserve. But ordinary Ukrainians do. Regarding Zelensky, he should have been elated and grateful to get a chance to, if not make up for his horrific decision in 2022 (that impossible), at least to finally correct it. But Zelensky has remained Zelensky. His response to the Russian offer was as so often stunningly narcissistic, megalomanic, and dishonest. Instead of seizing the chance for his country and himself, Zelensky started a transparent maneuver to put Russia in the wrong so as to impress, above all, US president Donald Trump.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin recently remarked that Russia and Western Europe would sooner or later restore constructive relations, it was less a statement of policy than a reminder of historical inevitability. For now, there are no signs of readiness on the part of the EU....

The West cold war fantasies are now detached from the material realities of global power. The EU elite fundamental miscalculation is assuming that Russia still views the western part of the continent as a model to emulate. But today Russia has little reason to aspire to European institutions, politics, or economic design. Indeed, in areas such as digital governance and public administration, Russia is ahead. Western European efforts to modernize Russia through consulting and institutional outreach have long since lost relevance. EU stagnation is not just political but also technological. Strict regulations and cautious legislation have stifled innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation. In fields where other European nations could once have partnered with Russia, different global actors have already stepped in.

The reality is that Western Europe has little to offer that Russia cannot obtain elsewhere. In education, too, Western Europe attraction has faded. Its academic institutions increasingly serve as conduits for intellectual siphoning, rather than genuine exchange. What was once a strength is now perceived as an instrument of cultural dilution. To be clear, Russia is not rejecting diplomacy with other European powers. But such diplomacy must be grounded in mutual benefit and right now, Western Europe offers little. The real tragedy is that many European leaders were raised in a post-Cold War world that taught them they would never face consequences. That arrogance has calcified into a kind of strategic illiteracy. Figures like Emmanuel Macron and Britain new prime minister, Keir Starmer, exemplify this reality: performative, insulated, and disconnected from the costs of their decisions.

Today my readers have the chance to spend their Saturday reading about western gamers at the frontlines, demonic Ukrainian commanders beating and killing their subordinates (in the same unit the foreign gamers are being sent!), badly built fortifications, the war for logistics, and close analysis of the battles for Kostiantynivka and Pokrovsk, as well as a postmortum of a suicidal Ukrainian counter-offensive at the city of Toretsk.

Ukraine has a chance to end the conflict now. But to do so it must respect the reality of the moment.

Unfortunately, the same friends and allies which encouraged Ukraine to walk away from the Minsk Accords and the Istanbul communique are now urging Ukraine to do the same when it comes to Istanbul 2.

But the promise of European support is illusorythe armories have long since been stripped bare, and the potential for meaningful military intervention never existed, either militarily or politically.

Moreover, any European action would, by necessity, require backing from the United States. While this may have been a possibility during the presidency of Joe Biden, it is a non-starter under the new administration of Donald Trumpeven as the Istanbul 2 meetings were underway, the US announced that it was going to be withdrawing its forces from Europe.

Russia is to be taken seriously. While the challenges that Russia will face in occupying the four new territories it has put its sights on if Ukraine balks yet again regarding a peace agreement are many and not to be minimized, this is a military question which is best answered by the political resolve of the Russian leadership and nation, which at this juncture is unassailable.

Western politicians and media denying Russia perspective are delusional or duplicitous. To claim that the conflict is all about unprovoked Russian aggression against democratic Ukraine and Russian expansionism towards Europe is a travesty.

It a bogus narrative that precludes peaceful resolution. Trump seems to be aware of that. But he needs to go beyond a superficial peace broker charade. If Trump wants a gimmicky big summit with Putin for PR ratings, as his tour of the Middle East this week illustrates his egotistical wont, he can forget it.

...Macron, Starmer, Merz, Von der Leyen and Kallas were desperately trying to insult the Russian president, indulging Zelensky PR stunt demanding a face-to-face meeting with Putin in Istanbul. The European Union also timed an announcement this week to double its supply of heavy-calibre munitions to Ukraine. Another provocation.

France Macron sought to impose a precondition for the talks by demanding a 30-day ceasefire. That was a flagrant attempt to sabotage the negotiations before they even started. These people are not honest about ending the worst war in Europe since the end of World War Two. Disgracefully, they want the bloodshed to continue for their political survival and gratifying their obsessive Russophobic fantasies. If Trump wants to end NATO proxy war against Russia, he will have to sideline the European naysayers and the Kiev puppet regime. Their involvement is counterproductive. One suspects that Trump already knows that. An American and Russian agreement at the highest level is the only way to bring the war to an end. It is no use for the American side pretending that they are mere peace brokers. They are the main protagonist, not the European lapdogs nor the Kiev regime. Preliminary talks are all very well. But they are just that. Preliminary. If the talks have any chance of succeeding, the American side must take responsibility for the war it started and fueled.

May 17, 2025

Featured • PATRICK LAWRENCE: Diplomatic Chess, Ukraine the Pawn, Consortium News, May 17, 2025

We view these talks as a continuation of the peace process in Istanbul, which was unfortunately interrupted by the Ukrainian side three years ago, Medinsky said at a press conference as he set out of Istanbul Thursday. The aim of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is ultimately to secure lasting peace by addressing the fundamental root causes of the conflict.

The phrase is too ubiquitous in the Russian discourse to ignore. The question now is whether Donald Trump, in any summit he may have with Vladimir Putin, will be at all equipped to address Russias concerns.

If he does, he will fundamentally alter relations between the Western powers and Russia for the good a diplomatic triumph. If he does not, he is unlikely to get anything more done than negotiators accomplished in Istanbul this week.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmers ultimatums and sanctions threats just demonstrate that the UK wants to undermine the settlement of the Ukraine conflict, the Russian Embassy in the UK has said. Last week, the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, and Poland met in a Kiev and threatened to impose more sanctions on Russia if Moscow did not agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire by Monday. That date has come and gone, and no truce was agreed upon during Fridays direct Russian-Ukrainian talks. Now, having issued that ultimatum, we must be prepared to follow through, because if Russia wont come to the negotiating table, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin must pay the price, Starmer said at a security meeting in Albania on Friday. The Russian position is clearly unacceptable, and not for the first time.

The Russian Embassy in London has pointed out that Downing Street is not part of the talks between the belligerents. The British Prime Minister hasty statement claiming that Russias position at the talks in Istanbul is unacceptable and that a response is being prepared causes outright bewilderment, the embassy said in a statement on Friday. The British have been behind all the escalatory moves by the West, from supplying offensive weapons to Kievs military and to using Western long-range missiles against civilians deep in Russian territory, the embassy wrote. London was the first of Kievs Western sponsors to send domestic long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Now, such ultimatums, made against the backdrop of the negotiation process, are obviously aimed at complicating or undermining the settlement, the statement said. It seems Downing Street is not aware of the self-incriminating nature of its actions. The UK has also scuttled previous peace talks, the embassy noted. It was London that made a considerable effort to disrupt the first negotiation process in 2022, and to subsequently keep the conflict hot, it wrote. The unsuccessful 2022 negotiations in Istanbul were torpedoed by then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who convinced Ukraine to pull out, according to the Ukrainian delegations top negotiator at the talks, David Arakhamia.

May 16, 2025

Featured • Russia-Ukraine Talks Wrap Up In Under 2-Hours: 'Nothing Meaningful To End War', ZeroHedge, May 16, 2025

Neither side has so far offered no major concessions, and issues like permanent control over Crimea and the four eastern territories remain sticking points for Moscow.

During the Istanbul meeting, according to WSJ's foreign correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov:

Russia demanded in Istanbul that Ukraine withdraw its troops from four regions areas that Moscow has been trying to conquer but failed since 2022 as a precondition for ceasefire. That is an area twice the size of the country of Lebanon and home to more than a million Ukrainians. Not going to happen.

Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson were annexed in 2022, declared part of the Russian Federation, but Moscow forces still don't have 100% control over them.

And it doesn't look like there was any progress on achieving a Trump and Zelensky-backed 30-day ceasefire. Moscow sees this as a tactic for Ukraine forces to simply rearm and regroup, at a moment they are in dire need of more manpower and artillery.

President Zelensky has meanwhile been making clear that Ukraine will not surrender its territory as "this is Ukraine's land" - and he isn't so much as ready to even offer Crimea. Zelensky and European leaders are reportedly holding a phone call with US President Trump in the wake of the Istanbul meeting.

They will likely try to convince the US leader that attempts to negotiate an end to the war with Putin are futile. This seems to have been Zelensky's aim all along: getting Washington and Trump back on his side, and securing the unending flow of weapons, cash, and intelligence.

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine have started their first direct peace talks since April 2022. The meeting in Istanbul, , follows a renewed offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to resume dialogue and international calls for a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing conflict.

May 15, 2025

 • Russian delegation will be waiting for Ukrainians in Istanbul Kremlin, RT, May 14, 2025

Moscow will be sending a delegation for direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday and expects Kiev to do the same, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to resume direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev to find a lasting settlement to the conflict between the two countries. After his proposal was supported by US President Donald Trump, Ukraines Vladimir Zelensky, who had previously ruled out any talks with Moscow, also expressed his readiness. Kiev earlier stated that the only official Zelensky would talk to is Putin. The Russian president has so far made no indication that he is planning to travel to Istanbul.

When asked by journalists on Wednesday if the talks in were still on the cards, Peskov replied by saying: Indeed, the Russian delegation will be waiting for the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul on Thursday, May 15, that is tomorrow. I can confirm once again that everything that the president said in his statement on May 11 remains relevant, he stressed. Peskov declined to reveal the lineup of the Russian delegation that will travel to Istanbul. It will be announced when we receive instructions from the president. So far, there have been no such instructions, he explained.

On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that, during potential talks, Moscow wants to discuss a sustainable settlement of the situation, first of all, by addressing the very roots of this conflict, resolving issues related to the denazification of the Kiev regime, ensuring recognition of the realities that have developed recently, including the entry of new territories into Russia. Ryabkov refrained from making any forecasts on the outcome of discussions, but stressed that Moscow is committed to negotiating seriously and responsibly.

Kaja Kallas delusional and laughably ill-timed announcement, made the day after Russias 9 May Victory Day triumph in Moscow, that European puppet leaders are planning to establish a special tribunal within the framework of the Council of Europe to judge Russia for aggression and other alleged crimes in Ukraine jogs some memories from the Hague. ICTY, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, is located there, as the new Tribunal Kallas has mentioned will also be. This writer had spent some of the most interesting years of his life there. An enduring memory is former Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was abducted by the vassal regime installed in his country after the October 2000 colour revolution and sent to the Hague to be put on trial. During his initial appearance in the courtroom, addressing the judges and Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, Milosevic referred to the court as a false tribunal.

That phrase stuck in my mind. Milosevics English was adequate, but it was not flawless. Hence the picturesque turn of phrase he used. Had he been more fluent in idiomatic English he would have called it a phony or bogus tribunal. Instead he translated what he meant to say directly from his native Serbian with a result that was more amusing than academically precise. But no harm was done. In fact, under the circumstances the glaringly unidiomatic locution made his profound point even stronger. Regrettably, Kaja Kallas has not disclosed technical details about the projected Tribunal which should be made available before the credibility of this venture can be properly assessed. There are several parameters that must be established before any such court can be taken seriously.

The first of these is a clear definition of the new judicial bodys mandate. It is not enough merely to say that it shall deal with war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from the conflict in the Ukraine since February 2022. Whose crimes will be the subject of the courts investigation and ultimately judgment? Kallas rationale behind the creation of this court raises serious issues in that regard. She refers exclusively to Russian crimes, a reference also echoed by EU Commission President Ursula van den Leyen and EU Rule of Law Commissioner Michael McGrath. Has no one else been observed committing crimes in Ukraine during the period under consideration, or perhaps going back a bit further, to 2014? If there are any lingering doubts concerning this matter, which directly impacts the Tribunals objectivity, they were settled by the clarification on the European Commission posted on its website:

The Tribunal will have the power to investigate, prosecute and try Russian political and military leaders, who bear the greatest responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

Vladimir Zelenskys regime enjoys relative stability only because of the conflict with Russia, and so may be reluctant to seal a peace agreement with Moscow, former director-general of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergey Ordzhonikidze, has told RT. The untrustworthiness of the Ukrainian leadership will loom large for the Russian delegation during an expected meeting in Istanbul, , on Thursday, the veteran diplomat predicted on Tuesday. The talks were originally proposed last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who offered to resume direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev without any preconditions to reach a lasting settlement to the Ukraine conflict.

Zelensky has expressed his readiness to engage in dialogue with the Russian side, but has insisted that it be preceded by an unconditional 30-day ceasefire a demand Moscow has repeatedly rejected. Zelensky has also said that he would only come to the meeting in Istanbul if Putin attends in person. Ordzhonikidze told RT that should a peace accord be reached during the negotiations, I dont know how long the Zelensky regime will [last]. It may fall apart. He obviously will have many internal problems because he has some Nazi, fascist organizations that would [convict] him of betrayal, he predicted, claiming that its not a stable regime in the sense that it can be stable only during war. The seasoned Russian diplomat also predicted that once Western leaders see Zelensky as a liability, they will get rid of him without a second thought.

History shows that months and in some cases even years of homework have underpinned successful negotiations. While overnight breakthroughs have also happened, much is determined by the level of trust between the parties concerned, Ordzhonikidze stressed. Ukrainian authorities have a poor track record in this respect, he told RT, citing the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, which were supposed to grant Donetsk and Lugansk regions special status within the Ukrainian state, but were never implemented. Obviously, we need a country that would act like a guarantor of the possible agreement, if any at all, Ordzhonikidze stated, noting that even if some nation, most likely the US, assumes the role, there is not much room for optimism as to whether Kiev would honor any agreement.

May 14, 2025

 • Trumps top officials going to for Russia-Ukraine talks Reuters, RT, May 13, 2025

US President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to send Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg to this week to attend the potential talks between Moscow and Kiev, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources. The talks, which are expected to be held in Istanbul on Thursday, were originally proposed last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who offered to resume direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev without any preconditions in order to reach a lasting settlement to the Ukraine conflict. Vladimir Zelensky has expressed his readiness to engage in dialogue with the Russian side, but has insisted that it be preceded by an unconditional 30-day ceasefire a demand Moscow has repeatedly rejected. Zelensky has also said that he would only attend the meeting in Istanbul if Putin comes in person.

Trump has also supported the proposal to renew talks between Moscow and Kiev. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday ahead of his Middle East tour, the US President stated that he might even personally attend the negotiations in , especially if Putin decides to attend. I was thinking about actually flying over there. Theres a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, Trump said. Dont underestimate Thursday in Turkey, he added. Moscow has not commented on the possibility of Putin traveling to Istanbul. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also has yet to confirm who would be representing Moscow during the talks, stating that the Russian presidents decision on the matter will be announced in due time.

According to Reuters, regardless of whether Putin, Zelensky or Trump decide to take part in the talks, Kellogg and Witkoff have been ordered to go to Istanbul on Thursday to attend the meeting.

May 13, 2025

Featured • SITREP 5/12/25: More 'Talks' Games as Russian Machine Barrels Forward, Simplicius, May 12, 2025

Featured • An Immediate Peace Is The Best One Ukraine Can Ever Get, Moon of Alabama, May 12, 2025
This excellent military-diplomatic analysis, which concisely summarizes the picture developed on this page over the previous two and more years, deserves to be widely shared. In it, and on this page and its sources more broadly, readers have access to better intelligence than that which is available to the President of the United States. Apart from the military analysis, in which I have no experience but certainly can read, the geopolitical and historic aspects and how they affect EU leaders' approach to negotiations are spot-on, in my view.

In my own tiny way, I experienced this phenomenon first-hand in the late Obama Administration, when I, ant-like, was allowed into the precincts of the National Security Council in the Old Executive Office Building to discuss the situation in Ukraine. In my judgment, the official I spoke with was poorly informed because he relied on classified intel that was basically crap, prepared within the required Russophobic political framework, which he fully shared. The Blob, to put it bluntly, is stupid.

May 12, 2025

Featured • Putins Speech Announcing the Special Military Operation, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, May 12, 2025
Very worthwhile reading, in its entirety.

Featured • The defeat of Nazi Germany, why history is alive in Russia but dead in the West, Editorial, Strategic Culture Foundation, May 10, 2025

Eighty years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, this week the world witnessed a spectacular, solemn and joyous event to commemorate that historic achievement. The victory parade in Moscows Red Square was a glorious pageant incomparable to anywhere else.

Rightly so, because the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9, 1945, was largely the result of heroic sacrifices of the Soviet and Russian people.

The annual commemoration remains as poignant and proud to Russians as ever.

...We often hear American people and some politicians complaining about the phenomenon of endless wars. Rarely do we hear the simple question of why the U.S. is such a relentless warmongering state.

The victory against Nazi Germany in 1945 by the courageous Soviet Red Army was a hugely momentous one. It liberated Europe from a heinous regime. But the more profound fact is that the war did not destroy fascism. Fascism was deftly redeployed by its root sponsors in the Western capitalist system and manifested in the Cold War and countless neoimperialist wars across the planet.

The war system continues unabated and, indeed, with even more vigor and grotesque incarnation. The so-called Jewish State of Israel that supposedly was created in reparation for the Nazi Holocaust is today waging a genocidal extermination of Palestinians, whose land the Western-backed Zionist colonial project stole in 1948. The deliberate starving and bombing of Palestinian babies is carried out with American and European weapons and political support, as the Western propaganda machine known as the news media, damningly, turns a blind eye to the horror. Distorting, minimizing, obscuring, and whitewashing as usual.

This week, at its pale imitation of a victory parade in London, the British royals, politicians and military were joined by Ukrainian NeoNazi forces waving their odious Wolf Hook flags. In essence, the four-year proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, fully instigated and weaponized by the Western powers, is but a continuation of World War Two. This time, however, there is no pretense about whose side the Western powers are on.

In the West, history is dead because it is used to bury crimes past and present.

For Russia and other people who seek the truth and genuine international peace, history is very much alive and worth fighting for.

One hour after Russia ended its three-day ceasefire with Ukraine, President Putin met with a gaggle of reporters in Moscow at 0135 hours Moscow time and made news by offering to meet Ukrainian officials, without preconditions, on May 15 in Istanbul. Putins offer is a shrewd move, but it is unlikely to be accepted by Ukraine. First, Volodymyr Zelensky will have to repeal his September 2022 decree prohibiting any Ukrainian official from talking to the Russians. Second, the US and the Europeans are now demanding an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. I think Putins offer for direct talks with Ukraine was a way to politely, but firmly, reject the Western demand. The West, in turn, is not going to let their organ grinder monkey Mr. Zelensky accept such an offer.

Vladimir Putin repeats the phrase, root causes. While Mr. Putin has not consulted me, nor am I privy to his thoughts on the matter, let me attempt to explain what I think that means. The root cause of this conflict dates back to 1997, when NATO made Ukraine a de facto member of its alliance. That is when the first formal agreement on military cooperation was signed, and it marks the time when NATO and USEUCOM began using Yavoriv, the Ukrainian military base near the Polish border, as a headquarters and operations center for military exercises. In other words, the expansion of NATO to the East is the root cause of this current war.

Ending the war in Ukraine will require more than Ukraine making a pinky swear that it will never join NATO. If I am the Russian negotiator, I will demand that all NATO personnel be withdrawn from Ukraine; that all Ukrainian military and intelligence personnel will be proscribed from training with NATO forces; that all Western military aid supplied to Ukraine be destroyed; that all intelligence sharing with Ukraine cease; and that NATO bases in Poland and Romania be closed.

Russia prefers to achieve these objectives thru negotiation, but if that avenue is closed, Russia will do it militarily. Russia must make NATO too costly to continue operating.

The leaders of the United States, Turkiye, and Russia will be able to navigate Ukraine into a peace settlement, renowned American economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs told RIA Novosti. These are very positive developments I believe that Presidents Putin, Trump, and Erdogan can steer the conflict to a peace agreement, Sachs replied when asked for his view of the latest announcements on the issue of Ukraine. I very much hope for this outcome. On Sunday, Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to meet President Putin in Turkiye on May 15, an hour after US President Donald Trump urged Ukraine to immediately accept Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks in Istanbul.

The US has approved the transfer of 100 Patriot air-defense missiles and 125 long-range artillery rockets from German stockpiles to Ukraine, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing a congressional official. Under US export rules, American-made systems cannot be re-exported without prior approval from Washington. The move follows Russias declaration of a 72-hour unilateral ceasefire from the start of May 8 to the end of May 10 to mark Victory Day, as well as President Vladimir Putins proposal to hold direct peace talks in Istanbul on May 15. Ukraines Vladimir Zelensky has long advocated for long-range missiles and Patriot systems. He recently stated that Kiev is prepared to spend $30-50 billion on US weapons or obtain production licenses, and has instructed his government to pursue a Patriot deal. Each unit costs over $1 billion and requires around 90 personnel to operate.

Since returning to office in January, US President Donald Trump has not authorized new military aid for Ukraine. Shipments previously approved under former President Joe Biden have been nearly exhausted. According to the New York Times, the Trump administration has shown little interest in pursuing further assistance, instead urging European NATO allies to take on a greater share of the burden in supporting Ukraine.

Peace negotiations with Ukraine should consider both the current realities on the ground and the groundwork laid during the 2022 Istanbul talks, an aide to the Russian president, Yury Ushakov, has said. He made the remarks after Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Kiev the opportunity to resume direct talks without any preconditions. Speaking in the early hours of Sunday, Putin proposed a new round of talks that would take place on May 15 in Istanbul. Ushakov told Russias Channel 1 that any peace talks with Ukraine should take into account the points that were worked out by the sides during the 2022 negotiations, which Kiev unilaterally walked away from. The real situation on the ground should obviously be considered as well, he added.

Also on Sunday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the objectives of negotiations are clear to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to protect Russian interests. He went on to suggest that Ukraine is not really independent, and much would depend on the decisions of its Western backers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that his country is ready to host talks between Moscow and Kiev. In a televised address, Putin stressed that Moscow is set on serious negotiations with Ukraine, and is seeking a long-term, sustainable peace that addresses the root causes of the conflict. He did not rule out that the talks, if resumed, could yield a new ceasefire honored by both sides, which could pave the way to a comprehensive peace settlement.

US President Donald Trump has urged Ukraine to immediately agree to the proposal of direct unconditional talks put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Sunday.Writing on Truth Social, Trump suggested the proposed direct negotiations would, at least, help to clarify the positions of the sides of the conflict and show whether or not a deal is possible. President Putin of Russia doesnt want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY, the US leader wrote.If it becomes clear that reaching a deal is not possible European leaders, and the US, will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly, Trump stated. starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin, he added.

From WWIIs forgotten heroes to the UKs suicidal Ukraine policy, seasoned politician, Workers Party of Britain leader and prolific political commentator George Galloway doesnt hold back in his interview with Sputnik. Without the Soviet people, entire nations would have been wiped out, and survivors would be speaking German, Galloway said. The extraordinary lengths to which British leaders have been ready to go to drive a wedge between erstwhile WWII allies Russia and Britain comes down to rivalry and jealousy, Galloway says. The British government wrecked the 2022 Russia-Ukraine peace deal in Istanbul as the conflict was just getting started, and proved more than willing to freeze its own seniors to death to grant Zelensky 1.5 billion pounds in aid, the prolific commentator recalled. Now, Galloway says, London is talking about putting 20,000-30,000 troops in Ukraine, a move that would constitute an act of war against Russia.

Thats a declaration, literally, of national suicidethat presupposes a Russian nuclear response that would end the existence of the British people and effectively put an end to our islands story, Galloway emphasized, when asked what would happen if Britain used a Ukraine troop deployment as a nuclear tripwire. The UK cant even be sure that its in control of its own deterrent, Galloway said, much less rely on support from the US. I remind you that Britain no longer has even a steel industry, the veteran statesman said, commenting on the glaring gap between the governments loud bark and its actual military bite.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly proposed renewed peace talks with Ukraine to be held in Istanbul on May 15, accompanied by an expressed willingness to negotiate without preconditions, a former senior US security analyst has offered a stark assessment of the political pressure facing Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky will reject Putins proposal in order to stay alive, warned Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst at the Pentagon, in a blunt analysis of the Ukrainian leaders predicament.Moscows latest offer comes in the wake of what it claims were several attacks by Ukrainian forces even during Russias proposed Victory Day ceasefire. Despite these incidents, Putin has insisted that Russia remains open to talks aimed at achieving a lasting peace and addressing the root causes of the conflict.

Zelensky does not want to meet alone with Mr. Putin, Maloof explained. And I think that if he decides to go ahead and negotiate something, and first of all, I question whether hell be ALLOWED to do that because of internal politics I think the Azov* group and his military will rebel, he emphasized. Putin has basically put Zelensky in a really tight position. Between that proverbial rock and hard place, Maloof stressed. Moscows proposal has stirred debate globally, particularly in Europe, where the political appetite for reconciliation with Russia remains minimal. Maloof was sharply critical of the European approach, describing it as counterproductive and self-destructive.Turn that down, because thats not the way, the direction they wanted to go, because the Europeans are very anxious and interested in wanting to pursue their antagonistic approach toward Russia, not only in containing, but trying to overthrow the government and wanting to impose these even additional sanctions, he said.

He argued that despite thousands of sanctions, Russias economy has adapted: I think Russia is basically immune now because theyve had over 20,000 sanctions already imposed. And yet they want to impose some more that are not working. According to Maloof, Western policies have backfired, particularly on energy: And this is where the Europeans are just absolutely nuts that if they wanted to impose sanctions that would go after the oil deliveries by Russia, that will automatically, literally overnight, raise the prices that would actually benefit Russia and hurt the Europeans.

He did not hold back in his criticism: They just want to continue a conflict with Russia that, frankly, particularly the UK, that has been going on for almost 250 years. Their antagonism toward Russia is historic. Maloof pointed to recent international events to underscore Russias continued global standing: If they thought that their new sanctions were going to isolate Russia, I think the Victory Day parade demonstrated, as well as the BRICS conference last October in Kazan, demonstrated that Russia is not isolated. In fact, it has drawn the support and the backing of more than half the people world, from the global south, all of Asia. As the proposed date for talks nears, all eyes will be on Kiev and its Western allies, whose responseor silencemay define the next stage of the war.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has openly criticized the EUs continued military support for Ukraine, warning that Kievs path to victory against Russia is doomed. He made the remarks in a Facebook post on Friday, timed with Russias Victory Day celebrations in Moscow marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Radev called it the tragedy of our time that decades after World War II, international disputes in Europe are once again being resolved by military means. Europe does not have its own vision for the end of the [Ukraine conflict] and the establishment of peace, but continues to invest in a cause that, in my opinion, is doomed, the Bulgarian leader wrote. He added that pouring more weapons into Ukraine would not bring peace closer, calling it a utopian hope that leads instead to the opposite even more victims, destruction and lost territory every day.

Ukraines European sponsors lack the manufacturing capacity to replace US arms supplies to Kiev, the New York Times wrote on Saturday. The administration of US President Donald Trump has shifted from spending billions on supporting Ukraine to focusing on domestic issues. It has also signaled to its European NATO allies that Washington has no interest in propping up the military bloc alone. The NYT noted that the US has not announced a new arms package for Ukraine for more than 120 days. While the Pentagon still has $3.85 billion in armaments earmarked for Kiev under the previous administration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to answer when asked if the arms would be sent to Ukraine, the newspaper wrote.

Russia is used to Western pressure and is not concerned about new sanctions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He was commenting on a new round of sanctions recently imposed by the UK. We already know what we will do once the sanctions are announced and how we will minimize their effect, Peskov told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Saturday. Russia has learned effective ways to counteract Western pressure, he said. Therefore, scaring us with sanctions is pointless. On Friday, the British government announced what it called the largest-ever sanctions package against Russia, targeting its oil transportation network in order to deliver a blow to the countrys energy revenues. The new measures blacklisted up to 100 oil tankers that the West claims are part of a Russian shadow fleet, older vessels operating outside Western insurance systems.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict over three years ago, successive British governments have introduced more than 2,000 sanctions on Russian individuals and entities. Moscow has said the move will not harm Russias economy and will instead increase energy costs and inflation in Europe. Earlier, US President Donald Trump called for an unconditional ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev, threatening punitive measures if the truce is not observed. The US and its partners will impose further sanctions if it is violated, he said. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that a total of 28,595 sanctions were imposed on Russian companies and individuals in recent years more than the total number on all other countries combined. According to the president, the West sought to eliminate Russia as a competitor but its economy has only grown more resilient under pressure.

The Kremlin has rejected what it describes as external pressure surrounding the 30-day truce demanded by Ukraines Vladimir Zelensky and supported by Western leaders. Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia had already declared a three-day ceasefire earlier in the week, which was met with silence from Kiev. Actually, a couple of days ago, Putin announced a ceasefire for three days, Peskov said. Did you hear any reaction from Kiev? No, we didnt either. Did you hear any criticism of Kiev for not being able to respond or not willing to respond? No. Leaders from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Poland gathered in Kiev on Saturday for high-level talks with Ukraines Vladimir Zelensky. According to him, the gathering also included virtual participation from more than 30 countries.

Following the meeting, Zelensky wrote on X that participants agreed a full and unconditional ceasefire must begin on Monday, May 12, and last for at least 30 days. Together, we demand this from Russia, he stated. He warned that if Moscow refuses the truce, stronger sanctions should be imposed on Russias energy and banking sectors. Preparations are already underway for a 17th package of EU sanctions, which will be coordinated with measures from the UK, Norway, and US, Zelensky claimed. Peskov told CNN that the Kremlin was still evaluating the latest developments. We have to think about that. We have our own position. He also criticized what he described as an increasingly hostile posture from Western European states. Yes, definitely we see that Europe is confronting us. We feel it, we know it, and we are quite accustomed to that.

The Kremlin spokesman reiterated Moscows willingness to engage in talks. We are open for dialogue. We are open for attempts to have a settlement in Ukraine, he said, expressing appreciation for the mediation efforts coming from the Trump administration. But at the same time, its quite useless to try to press upon us, he added. Kiev has repeatedly called for an immediate 30-day ceasefire in recent months, framing it as essential for starting diplomatic efforts. Moscow argued that such a pause would primarily benefit Ukraine by allowing its forces to regroup and replenish weapons stockpiles. Speaking to ABC News on Friday, Dmitry Peskov also stressed that any truce would require a halt to Western arms deliveries, saying, Otherwise, it will be an advantage for Ukraine.

May 10, 2025

Featured • Putin doing whatever possible for Ukraine peace Kremlin, RT, May 10, 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing whatever is possible to pursue peace in the Ukraine conflict, but has no other choice than to continue its military operation as long as Kiev refuses to hold talks with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. In an interview with ABC News on Friday, Peskov said Ukraine is trying to escape from negotiations despite declaring that it is ready for a ceasefire. However, Moscow believes a truce will only give Kiev the opportunity to regroup its battered troops. Ukraine will continue their total mobilization, bringing new troops to [the] front line. Ukraine will use this period to train new military personnel and to give a rest to their existing ones. So why should we grant such an advantage to Ukraine?

Another issue, he said, is arms shipments from the West, which should be ceased during a truce. Otherwise, it will be [an] advantage for Ukraine. President Putin is doing whatever is possible to solve the problem, to achieve a settlement through peaceful and diplomatic means, Peskov said. But having no peaceful and democratic means at hand, we have to continue [the] military operation. The Kremlin spokesman went on to say Moscow is hopeful that US President Donald Trump could play a role in mediating the conflict. Trump, he suggested, could help bring a little bit more flexibility and a little more political will and wisdom to [the] Kiev regime.

Russia offered a 72-hour ceasefire from midnight May 8 to midnight May 11 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Moscow described the offer as a humanitarian gesture aimed at paving the way for direct peace talks without preconditions.Ukraine has dismissed the overture as manipulation and demanded a 30-day ceasefire instead. Russian officials have said the pause would allow Ukraine to regroup and strengthen its military. The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine has launched thousands of attacks of various kinds, including four cross-border incursions into the Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin after attending the Victory Day parade on Red Square and other festivities marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. During talks at the Kremlin on Friday evening, Fico criticized what he described as a new Iron Curtain being imposed by Western nations, calling the obstacles he faced en route to Moscow due to airspace restrictions by some EU member states a childish joke. There is a huge desire to build a new Iron Curtain in various forms, Fico said, according to a Kremlin transcript. We will do everything to ensure that we can shake hands through this curtain.

Amid systematic desecration and destruction of World War II memorials in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, Fico reaffirmed Slovakias commitment to preserving Soviet memorials and proposed erecting a monument to Marshal Ivan Konev, a Soviet commander involved in the liberation of Czechoslovakia during the war. Putin welcomed Ficos efforts to restore long-standing ties between Russia and Slovakia that were effectively frozen by the previous government in Bratislava, which strictly followed the collective line of the West. The Russian president noted that those in the EU who tried to prevent Fico from attending the event in Moscow have once again been convinced that it is better not to do this You achieve your goals no matter what. Fico also expressed skepticism about the EU sanctions on Russia, arguing they harm the bloc more than Moscow. He stressed Slovakias interest in maintaining pragmatic relations with Russia, particularly in the energy sector. He noted that Slovakias nuclear power plants are not compatible with fuel from Western suppliers and warned that halting Russian gas and oil imports could destabilize the countrys energy infrastructure.

The Slovak prime ministers visit drew condemnation from Brussels, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen describing his attendance as regrettable. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called it unthinkable for an EU leader to stand alongside Putin at the celebration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Fico maintained that his presence in Moscow was a gesture of respect for the Soviet soldiers who sacrificed their lives to defeat fascism. For me, it was a moral obligation to come here and commemorate, he said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as heroes for defying EU pressure. These days it is simply an act of heroism showing ones sovereign will to pay tribute to the memory of Victory Day, despite blatant, frenzied pressure, Peskov said.

Eighty years is a long time. Over such a span, the world changes almost beyond recognition, and events that once felt close fade into legend. Yet while history may become distant, its imprint remains. The Second World War created a political order that shaped global affairs for decades an order many assumed was permanent. But today, the world is shifting rapidly and irreversibly. The events of the first half of the 20th century are no less significant, but their role in contemporary politics is no longer the same. The wars outcome, culminating in the defeat of Nazism, defined the modern world order. In many ways, it was seen as a near-perfect struggle: a battle against an unquestionably aggressive and criminal regime that forced nations with deep-seated ideological differences to set aside their disputes.

The Allied powers divided by political systems and long-standing mistrust found themselves united by necessity. None of them entered this alliance out of pure goodwill; pre-war diplomacy was focused on self-preservation and maneuvering to deflect the worst consequences elsewhere. Yet when the existential threat became clear, those ideological rifts were temporarily bridged. It was precisely because of this that the post-war order proved so resilient. This framework weathered the storms of the Cold War and even lingered into the early 21st century, despite major shifts in the global balance of power. What helped hold it together was a shared moral and ideological narrative: the war was seen as a fight against absolute evil, a rare moment when the divisions between the Allies seemed secondary to their common cause. This consensus centered around the defeat of Nazism and symbolized by milestones like the Nuremberg Trials gave moral legitimacy to the post-war order.

But in the 21st century, that shared narrative has started to fray. As it weakens, so too does the stability of the world order it helped create.

...The decades of relative peace that followed were built on a clear understanding: such devastation must never be repeated. A combination of legal norms, diplomatic frameworks, and nuclear deterrence worked to uphold that principle. The Cold War, while dangerous, was defined by its avoidance of direct superpower conflict. Its success in averting World War III was no small achievement. But today, that post-war toolkit is in crisis. The institutions and agreements that once guaranteed stability are fraying. To prevent a complete breakdown, we must look back to the ideological and moral consensus that once united the worlds major powers. This isnt about nostalgia its about remembering what was at stake and why that memory mattered. Without a renewed commitment to these principles, no amount of military hardware or technical measures will ensure lasting global stability.

The British government has announced its largest-ever sanctions package against Russia, according to an official statement. The measure aim to deal a blow to the Russias oil transportation network and reduce Moscows energy revenues. The announcement was timed to coincide with Russias celebration of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany on Friday. London, one of Kievs staunchest supporters providing it with military and tactical support and billions in cash has long claimed that Moscow poses a threat to the UKs national security. Various British governments have implemented over 2,000 sanctions against Russian individuals and entities, since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict over three years ago. The threat Russia poses to our national security cannot be underestimated. To ramp up the pressure on Putin, announcing the largest package of sanctions yet, Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X.

May 9, 2025

 • Berlin bans Soviet flags on 80th anniversary of Nazi defeat, RT, May 8, 2025

A Berlin court has upheld a ban on displaying Soviet flags and symbols at World War II memorials during the citys events marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, citing concerns over public peace and the Ukraine conflict. Moscow, has decried the degrading and discriminatory prohibition. Earlier this week, Berlin police issued a ban on the demonstration of numerous Soviet-linked symbols during the May 8-9 events in the capital, including singing Soviet songs in public. An unidentified local association filed an appeal against the ban, arguing that it unfairly restricted freedom of assembly for their planned commemoration at a Soviet Memorial in Treptow. Berlins Administrative Court ruled on Wednesday that the police prohibition, which applies to Soviet flags, the Victory Banner, St. Georges ribbons, historical military uniforms, and even wartime songs, stands.

The symbols, according to the court, could be interpreted as an expression of sympathy for the [Russian] war effort against Ukraine and endanger public peace. The Russian embassy in Berlin strongly criticized the ban, saying it violated the rights of descendants of Soviet soldiers and concerned residents to honor the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism. Up to 27 million Soviet citizens died in their efforts to defeat Nazism. We deem the ban unjustified, discriminatory, and degrading to human dignity and view it as clear manifestations of historical revisionism and political opportunism, the embassy statement read.

Trump warned that if a ceasefire is reached but is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions.

Ukraine will be unable to repay its foreign creditors in the next 30 years, with public debt nearing 100% of GDP, Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko said on Thursday. He added, however, that Kiev intends to continue borrowing. Since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, Ukraine has received billions in military, financial, and humanitarian aid and loans from the US, the EU and other donors. Kievs mounting state debt, which is approaching 7.1 trillion hryvnas ($171 billion), has raised concerns about the countrys fiscal stability and its capacity to meet future obligations. According to Marchenko, before 2022, Ukraines debt-to-GDP ratio was quite safe at 55%, however, the country is now approaching 100%. The minister downplayed the situation, stating that the public debt was not a problem as the funds that Kiev received from foreign creditors came on preferential terms.

That is, we are talking about the fact that in the next 30 years we will not pay these debts, Marchenko said. In any scenario we need additional sources of fundingwe will not be able to hold the situation together on our own, whether there is war or peace, he added.

May 8, 2025

Featured • Trump warns of decisions on Russia-Ukraine talks, RT, May 7, 2025

President Donald Trump has expressed displeasure over the pace of the US-brokered negotiations with Russia and Ukraine regarding the current conflict, stating that decisions need to be reached soon. According to US Vice President J.D. Vance, Washington currently considers Russias demands for ending the conflict unacceptable. The Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions, in order to end the conflict. We think theyre asking for too much, he said at a Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Trump was asked to comment on Vances statement in a press briefing in the White House later in the day. Its possible that hes right, the US president replied. not happy about it, Trump said.

Senior figures in the current US administration, including the president himself, have stated that Washington may have to step back from trying to mediate talks over the Ukraine conflict if sufficient progress is not made. At some point in time, it either has to be something that can happen or we all need to move on. Thatll be a decision the president will have to make, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News last week. Washington has reportedly prepared a fresh set of economic sanctions targeting Russias energy and banking sectors, as potential leverage in the talks.

Moscow has repeatedly declared that it remains open to peace talks with Kiev. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a 72-hour ceasefire around the upcoming Victory Day celebrations. Ukraine rejected the initiative, demanded an unconditional 30-day truce and increased UAV and missile attacks on Russia. Despite this, the ceasefire offer is still on the table, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Russias demands for ending the conflict have remained stable: Ukraine must demilitarize, denazify, abandon ambitions to join NATO, stay neutral and remain free of nuclear weapons. In addition, Kiev needs to recognize the Russian regions of Crimea, Kherson and Zaporozhye as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics, Moscow has stated.

Washington wants to move away from the obsession with a 30-day ceasefire proposed by Ukraine, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said. The US is more interested in shaping a durable peace agreement with Moscow, he told a Munich Leaders Meeting on Wednesday.

Ukraine had floated a one-month ceasefire as a counter to Russias 72-hour truce proposal to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

However, Moscow has rejected Kievs plan, arguing that Ukrainian troops, which have been on the backfoot for months, would use it to regroup and strengthen their military posture.

Vance stressed that the US remains interested in a long-term settlement of the conflict rather than a short-term one. We've tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the what would the long-term settlement look like? And we've tried to consistently advance the ball, the vice president said.

Vance also noted that the US has deemed Moscows initial negotiation proposals as excessive. Certainly, the first peace offer that the Russians put on the table, our reaction to it was youre asking for too much, he said. But this is how negotiations unfold.

The European Parliament has warned the European Commission (EC) that it could take it to court if it bypasses EU lawmakers to create a ââšÂ¬150 billion ($170 billion) loan program to boost defense spending across the bloc.

In March, EC head Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a plan to raise ââšÂ¬800 billion to expand military potential across the EU in response to what she described as a threat coming from Russia a claim rejected by Moscow.

A 72-hour ceasefire proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially come into effect, with Russian forces halting offensive operations from midnight on Thursday, despite a surge in Ukrainian drone attacks in the hours before the truce. The pause in fighting, set to last until midnight on May 10â€âœ11, is described as a humanitarian gesture marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The Kremlin says the ceasefire also aims to create space for direct peace talks with Ukraine, without preconditions. Yes, this is an initiative by the Russian side, by President Putin. It remains in force, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Wednesday, stressing that Moscow is committed to honoring the truce despite Ukraines record-breaking drone assault ahead of its start.

Ukraines Vladimir Zelensky has refused to back the ceasefire, denouncing it as an attempt at manipulation and accusing Russia of using humanitarian overtures for tactical advantage. Instead of pausing hostilities, Kiev intensified its drone campaign, with high-ranking Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik stating that Ukrainian UAV strikes over the past week caused a record number of civilian casualties 15 killed and 142 injured. Earlier in the week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Zelensky of engaging in classic terrorist behavior by threatening civilians in Russia while soliciting additional funding from Western donors.

Peskov condemned the continued attacks, accusing the Kiev regime of revealing its essence and inclination toward terrorist actions. He noted that Russian special services and the military are taking all necessary measures to ensure Victory Day events proceed safely across the country. Despite calls from some lawmakers for an asymmetrical response to the drone strikes, the Kremlin has reiterated its position: All instructions have been given, there are no new elements here, Peskov said when asked about potential retaliation during the ceasefire window. Victory Day, celebrated on May 9, commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and remains one of the most significant public holidays in Russia.

Ukraine EU accession talks should be launched in 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed on Wednesday. She argued that such a step would enhance Kievs negotiating position against Moscow while also opening the door for more investments in the countrys military industry. Kiev has repeatedly expressed its desire to join the EU. However, Ukraines immediate accession has been consistently opposed by several member states. Hungary has voiced concerns over corruption, the treatment of ethnic minorities, and economic competition, particularly in agriculture. Other EU nations, including Slovakia, France, and Germany, have also expressed reservations, emphasizing that Kiev must meet existing reform benchmarks before talks proceed. Speaking at a Europe Day event on May 7, von der Leyen said that the EUs current task is to help Ukraine stand strong, defy Putins intimidations.

Today, I would like to focus on how we can do so, and on three priorities for our action. First, support Ukraines defense. Second, complete the phase-out of Russian fossil fuels. And third, accelerate Ukraines accession path to our Union.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that the European Unions desire to completely abandon Russian energy resources was economic suicide. On Tuesday, the European Commission presented the REPowerEU roadmap for ending Russian energy imports. It proposed a halt to all remaining Russian gas contracts by the end of 2027, as well as restrictions on imports of enriched uranium from Russia. This is an economic suicide: to come to the point where [there is] no gas, no oil, no nuclear fuel, nothing [from Russia] just because some new iron curtain is being set up between the Western world and perhaps Russia and other countries, Fico told a news conference.

The European Commissions plan to completely phase out Russian fuel imports violates the sovereignty of EU member states by depriving them of the right to choose their energy sources, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. Brussels has outlined plans to end the blocs energy reliance on Moscow by completely eliminating imports of oil, gas, and nuclear fuel in the coming years. Hungary obtains over 80% of its gas from Russia via pipeline, with LNG playing a supplementary role. Budapest has continued to strengthen its energy ties with Moscow despite the sanctions introduced by the EU in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

The forced, artificially ideological-based exclusion of natural gas, crude oil, and nuclear fuel originating from Russia will lead to severe price increases in Europe, seriously harming the sovereignty of European countries, and cause major difficulties for European companies, Szijjarto said in a video he shared on his Facebook page on Tuesday, adding that what was announced is absolute insanity. Everyone in Brussels has lost their common sense, the foreign minister exclaimed, emphasizing that Budapest would not allow the European Commission (EC) to violate Hungarys sovereignty and would uphold the right to source energy from where it reliably arrives and where it arrives at a low cost. Earlier in the day, the EC published a roadmap outlining its ambitious strategy to end reliance on Russian energy by the end of 2027.

With the benefit of hindsight, I think it is now clear that the US and NATO were engaged in a coordinated campaign to destroy Russia. This campaign came to a head in 1999. Russian leaders awakened to the threat and realized they needed someone other than Yeltsin to confront the Western subversion. It took Russia 10 years, under Putins leadership, to defeat the Chechen terrorist campaign a campaign which I believe was aided by Western intelligence.

Now that you understand this history, I think you can appreciate why Putin and his colleagues look with a jaundice eye at an unprovoked terrorist attack in Kashmir as something more than a small band of Islamic radicals stirring up trouble. The West is continuing its efforts to subvert and destroy Russia. But, in contrast to 1999, Russia is winning and the West is panicked.

May 5, 2025

 • Why doesnt the Deal-Maker close the deal?, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, May 5, 2025

The story, both on Ukraine and Iran, is that President Trump wants a deal and both deals are available yet he seems nonetheless to have boxed himself in. Trump presents his Administration as being something rougher, meaner, and far less sentimental. It aspires to emerge, apparently, as also something more centralized, coercive, and radical.

...One creative way out of the dilemma and which might restore at least some semblance to a classical arms limitation treaty exercise would be for Trump to air the notion that now is time for Israel to enter the NPT and to have its weapons inspected by the IAEA.

Will Trump do that? No.

It then becomes obvious why.

This Trump transformation of America was intended to be rebuilt as America First.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia did not initiate its military operation in Ukraine any earlier because it believed in the Minsk agreements and aimed to resolve the Donbass issue peacefully. Russia did not prepare specifically for a military operation, but instead sought a peaceful resolution to the Donbass conflict, Vladimir Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin in a documentary dedicated to the 25th anniversary since the presidents first inauguration. The country could not proceed with drastic action on Ukraine without first addressing key issues in the spheres of security and the economy. The president pointed out that the United States is now openly acknowledging that the West is engaged in an existential war with Russia. Putin emphasized that Russia is essentially standing alone in its confrontation with the collective West.

Until 2022, Russia had approached agreements with its Western partners with cautious trust. The signing of the Minsk agreements was a hopeful moment for Russia, expecting compliance from all parties. However, Putin pointed out that the country was ultimately deceived. The West used the pause under the guise of complying with the Minsk agreements to rearm Ukraine and prepare for war with Russia, he added. Putin said that as Western companies began to leave Russia, many risks loomed over the countrys economy. But despite these challenges, Russia did not fall into crisis, thanks to strong economic fundamentals that kept the country resilient. The president underscored the danger of a nation becoming too dependent on external factors, stressing that if Russia doesnt rely on its traditional values, it risks losing its identity, and, ultimately, its existence.

May 3, 2025

Featured • War In Ukraine - The Mineral Deal Pulls Trump Back In, Moon of Alabama, May 3, 2025
Astute and important. Does Trump know what is going on? He must, surely. This is his métier.

Featured • Zelenskys Ceasefire Rejection is a Terrorist Threat on Global Scale - Moscow, Sputnik International, May 3, 2025
No kidding. Zelensky not only refused Putins initiative, but explicitly threatened world leaders planning to visit Moscow on May 9. Yes, the mask has slipped, at least.

Featured • Donald Trumps Grotesque Lie About the US Role in the European Theater in World War II, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, May 2, 2025
With this lie, Trump missed a critically-important opportunity to do the right thing. Johnson does not allow the possibility that Trump is just that ignorant. I agree. On this fundamental matter, it's too late for him to plead ignorance before the court of history.

Featured • Core Trump, Michael Brenner, Consortium News, May 2, 2025
This well-reasoned but one-sided critique will resonate with many. I would more strongly emphasize the continuity of U.S. foreign policy from Biden to Trump and Trump's failures to move the needle. Against the narcissistic volatility Brenner describes, there is long-standing, pre-Trump momentum and a Washington, DC Zeitgeist that affect his personnel choices as well as his own. He's got too many Israel-firsters and too many neocons, typically the same people, in his inner circle. And he's got to work with captive senators and representatives in his own party to get anything done in Congress. His own ample weaknesses aside, he's in a box, flailing. On foreign policy, Biden was in a similar box, sleeping. Too many people think the U.S. government can be commanded from 1600 Pennsylvania. The Blob is not called a Blob for nothing.

 • Russian Troops Tighten Noose Around Pokrovsk In Pivotal Donbass Offensive, South Front, May 2, 2025

With the end of the nine-month Kursk campaign, the focus of Russias military operations has shifted back to the Donbass front, specifically, the strategically vital Pokrovsk direction. The cities of Pokrovsk (formerly Krasnoarmeysk) and neighboring Myrnograd serve as critical logistical hubs for Ukrainian forces defending the northern reaches of the Donetsk Peoples Republic. These urban centers, with the former combined population of over 100,000, anchor supply routes running from Dnipropetrovsk region to Ukrainian strongholds in Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk. For Russia, capturing Pokrovsk is not just a tactical objective but a necessary step to sever Kyivs grip on the region.

Rather than launching a direct assault, Russian forces have adopted a strategy of gradual encirclement, mirroring their successful approaches in Ugledar, Avdeevka, and Krasnohorovka. Over the past months, troops from Russias Center group of forces have systematically eroded Ukrainian supply lines, isolating defensive positions before moving in.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) unloaded a heap of criticism Friday on recent actions and inactions by the Trump administration and fellow Republicans, bringing up the Ukraine minerals deal, talks with Iran, and more while being sure to not criticize President Trump personally.

I represent the base and when frustrated and upset over the direction of things, you better be clear, the base is not happy, Greene said Friday in a lengthy post on the social platform X

The minerals deal that gives the US access to Ukraines natural resources will count future US military aid as a contribution to a joint investment fund, suggesting the agreement could increase US weapons shipments to Ukraine.

...Its unclear if the Trump administration would continue funding the proxy war if negotiations fail, but the terms of the minerals deal and the movement on a US arms sale to Ukraine suggest that it will.

May 2, 2025

 • US ready to spend another 100 days on Russia-Ukraine peace Vance, RT, May 2, 2025

The Trump administration is prepared to dedicate another 100 days to mediating a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, US Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News in an interview published on Wednesday. He said the US has made progress by getting both sides to present their ideas for resolving the conflict. Weve got this first step, the vice president said, reflecting on the first 100 days of President Donald Trumps second term. Weve got the peace proposal out there and issued, and were going to work very hard over the next 100 days to try to bring these guys together. Vance noted that before the Trump administration got involved, Moscow and Kiev werent even talking not to each other, not to anybody. They were just fighting.

He added: Now, the work of diplomacy is to try to sort of bring these two sides closer together, pointing to the very big gulf between what the Russians want and what the Ukrainians want. During last years election campaign, Trump vowed to end the conflict within 24 hours of entering the White House which he later described as an exaggeration. Since taking office in January, he has pressed both sides to reach a ceasefire and has recently shown frustration over the lack of progress. Although Russia praised Trump and his team for better understanding its position than the administration of former President Joe Biden, Moscow insisted that any comprehensive ceasefire must include an end to Ukraines mobilization and a halt to foreign weapons deliveries.

The US has rejected Ukraines request for security guarantees as part of a newly signed mineral resources agreement, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the talks. The nine-page deal, signed the same day after months of negotiations and published on Thursday by the Ukrainian government, gives Washington preferential access to Ukraines mineral projects, including rare-earth metals. It also establishes a joint investment fund to support Ukraines post-conflict reconstruction. Despite its scope, the final agreement contains no formal pledge of future US military support, a key demand from Ukraine during negotiations. Instead, it vaguely mentions a long-term strategic alignment and promises US backing for Ukraines security, prosperity, reconstruction, and integration into global economic frameworks.

One source told the NYT that the US dismissed the idea of providing Kiev with explicit security guarantees early in the talks. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce defended the agreement, suggesting that US involvement alone offers implicit protection. When America is your friend and your partner, your nation is going to be better off. And there is a security component just in our presence, she told Fox Business.

Ukraines Vladimir Zelensky has openly threatened to target the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Russia has announced a unilateral three-day ceasefire next week to coincide with the celebration commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Kiev has rebuked the move, instead demanding an immediate unconditional 30-day truce. On Tuesday, Zelensky described targeting Russian pressure points to push the country towards diplomacy as he reiterated the ceasefire call. They are now concerned that their parade is in jeopardy and rightly so, he remarked, referring to the event scheduled for May 9 in Red Square. What they should worry about is that this war continues.

Zakharova reacted on social media on Wednesday, asking what kind of truce Kiev can offer, given that the Zelensky government is literally planning terrorist attacks on air. She added that boasting about such intentions is exactly what typical terrorists do. Officials in Kiev claim that the offer of a unilateral suspension of hostilities by Russia is not real and merely aims to pressure Ukrainian forces into granting their adversaries a respite during the Victory Day festivities. Ukrainian nationalist figures who were allied with Nazi Germany during World War II are treated as heroes by the current government. Those who commemorate Adolf Hitlers defeat on May 9 rather than May 8, as observed in Western Europe and the United States face harassment in Ukraine for perceived disloyalty.

The prospect of striking Red Square while President Vladimir Putin and foreign dignitaries observe the parade is being actively discussed in Ukrainian media. MP Roman Kostenko, secretary of the countrys parliamentary Defense Committee, stated in an interview on Tuesday that Kiev possesses the necessary weapon systems for such an operation, asserting that planning it would not be difficult. The same lawmaker recently suggested that if the two nations were to reach a peace agreement, Kievs secret services might embark on a decades-long campaign of assassinations against Russian officials.

The first 100 days of US President Donald Trumps second term in office have marked a profound shift toward searching areas of cooperation with Russia instead of confrontation, Rhode Island University Professor of Political Science Nicolai Petro told Sputnik. Trump officially took office as the 47th president of the United States on January 20. Upon entering the White House, the president and his team resumed direct contact with Moscow that has been cut off by their predecessors from ex-President Joe Bidens team after the start of the conflict in Ukraine. President Trump has a very different view of Russia from his predecessors. Rather than assuming that Russias interests must clash with American interests, he assumes that the two can find areas of cooperation, and that such cooperation has the potential to expand, Petro said.

The expert described this as a very profound shift that is not shared by most of the American political elite and media, who continue to portray Russia as a threat to the United States. During the first 100 days of Trumps second term, he had phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Russian and US officials held meetings in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Part of the renewed diplomatic push also includes visits by US Special Envoy Steven Witkoff to Russia and by Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev to the United States. So far, the sides have been actively working on resuming the normal operation of their respective embassies while also discussing the issue of resumption of direct flights between the US and Russia.

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 • Bulletin 360:Five Russian strategic airfields attacked, planes destroyed; possible Putin assassination attempt, terrorist attack on Russian passenger train, call Congress and the President, Jun 1, 2025
 • Peace in Ukraine - How Do We Get There?, LASG virtual discussion with Scott Ritter and Dr. Dmitri Trenin, Jan 15, 2025
 • "Peace in Ukraine -- How Do We Get There?" A discussion in Los Alamos with Scott Ritter and Dmitri Trenin, Jan 7, 2025
 • Stop the War in Ukraine While We Can, Greg Mello, LASG Vlog, Jun 24, 2024
 • What were up to, and reflections on some opportunities and dangers at hand, Greg Mello, VFP Webinar, Jun 20, 2024
 • Can U.S. seize the moment for peace?, Greg Mello, Santa Fe New Mexican, Jun 16, 2024
 • Bulletin 346: Momentous events, and two op-eds, Jun 16, 2024
 • Press backgrounder: U.S. Considers Expanding Its Nuclear Arsenal, Jun 10, 2024
 • Bulletin 345: Ukraine strikes Russian early-warning radar against nuclear attack, May 25, 2024
 • "Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons," LASG presentation, Peter Kuznick, Steven Starr, & Greg Mello discuss the dangerous phenomenon of "Russophobia" in the West in the context of the potentially widening war in Ukraine, with its attendant nuclear dangers, video, Apr 16, 2024
 •Bulletin 342: Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons," panel discussion in Santa Fe Tuesday April 16, 6 pm / Pit production: myths and contradictions, Apr 10, 2024
 • LASG friends ltr: "Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons" -- panel discussion Tuesday April 16, 6 pm, St. John's United Methodist Church, Santa Fe, Apr 8, 2024
 • Bulletin 341: Pit seminar materials available; Russophobia seminar postponed; big jump in FY24 warhead spending as arms race takes hold; Ukraine losing war sparking panic in West, Mar 4, 2024
 • Bulletin 340: "Year in Pits;" Zoom update & discussion on pits 2/27; rich opportunities in the land of nuclear (dis)enchantment; end the Ukraine carnage and genocide in Gaza, Feb 22, 2024
 • The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets. Now Its Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023
 • LASG friends ltr: Ukraine over the tipping point; more on July 22 event in Los Alamos; comment on generic "nuclear disarmament," Jul 12, 2023
 • Bulletin 330: "'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?" A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick and Greg Mello in Los Alamos, July 22, Jul 7, 2023
 • Ukraine War Makes it Harder to be a Nuclear Dove | Our Land, Laura Paskus, New Mexico in Focus, Jun 30, 2023
 • Bulletin 329: Russia rules out nuclear disarmament negotiations; second week of Ukrainian offenses fail; what will US and NATO do? Build 60 projects in LANL's Pajarito Corridor?, Jun 17, 2023
 • LASG friends ltr (06/15/2023) Pit production zoom today; halt military "aid" to Ukraine, which just kills more Ukrainians, accept peace
 • Ukraine; Biden's Manicheism; the U.S. cannot even conduct a nuclear arms race, let alone win one, LASG friends ltr, Mar 16, 2023
 • Ukraine protest and updates, pit production delays and cost increases in NNSA's new budget, LASG friends ltr, Mar 14, 2023
 • Antiwar rally 2 pm Saturday in Albuquerque; LANL pits delayed, endorse the "Call for Sanity"; Ukraine update; the Nordstream investigation (and likely impeachment) "imperative" LASG friends ltr, Mar 11, 2023
 • Ukraine losses mount toward critical point; ANSWER rally against the war is now 2 pm (not 1 pm), March 18, Albuquerque; nearly half U.S. citizens believe WWIII is near, LASG friends ltr, Mar 7, 2023
 • Ukraine news and views; antiwar rally March 18; pending guest editorial; pit production precis, LASG friends ltr, Mar 3, 2023
 • Bulletin 325: Understanding the Nordstream sabotage and punishing those responsible, Feb 18, 2023
 • Ukraine news with comments and excerpts; bookmark for future reference if desired,LASG friends ltr, Feb 8, 2023
 • Bulletin 324: Opposition to Ukraine war gains visibility in New Mexico and via our web site, more broadly, Feb 6, 2023
 • Anti-nuclear activist opposes helping Ukraine, encourages peace, Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb 5, 2023
 • Bulletin 323: "Nuclear Hotseat" interview / Ukraine war updates, Feb 4, 2023
 • Bulletin 322: Right and Left To Join in D.C. Protest: Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine / Bulletin of Atomic Scientists resets clock, blames Russia, Jan 25, 2023
 • $10 Trillion for Nuclear War: Racing to the Nuclear Cliff, The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, Jan 10, 2023
 • Bulletin 321: Last day for 2022 donations! / A few quick updates, Dec 31, 2022
 • Bulletin 320: Neocon humiliation -- or nuclear exchange / The centrality of war resistance in moral politics / 3 days left for 1:1 donation match!, Dec 29, 2022
 • Bulletin 319: Ukraine; NDAA: omnibus appropriations bill; fundraising --thank you; some matching funds still available, Dec 21, 2022
 • Stop the war now, Jean Nichols, The Taos News, Dec 19, 2022
 • Bulletin 318: Speak out now against further U.S. escalation in Ukraine; daily updates for your use, Dec 14, 2022
 • Agenda for tonight's emergency Ukraine meeting in Albuquerque, and by Zoom, Nov 15, 2022
 • Bulletin 314: Reminder re next week's antiwar, disarmament, & nuclear safety events: come if you can or tune in, outreach needed; pit interview on KNME tonight 7 pm; fundraising drive continues; erratum, Nov 11, 2022
 • Bulletin 313: Important meeting about Ukraine next week; DNFSB hearing in Santa Fe; more, Nov 7, 2022
 • Biden Administration releases aggressive nuclear strategy envisioning "first use" of nuclear weapons in wars like Ukraine, press release, Oct 27, 2022
 • Bulletin 310: Speak up! We urge you to take up the call for peace in Ukraine, Sep 25, 2022
 • Pope Francis: "World War III has been declared." We agree. Stop LANL's pit factory; Stop the U.S. war against Russia, presentation, Jun 15, 2022
 • Bulletin 301: Oppose the war! Demand and create accountability for lawmakers who fund and promote more war in Ukraine, May 16, 2022
 • Grave dangers loom in Ukraine war votes and escalations; opportunities open for journalists and citizens; We urge news media to widen debate, pose questions, create accountability, press release, May 16, 2022
 • LASG friends ltr: Thursday evening public discussion in Albuquerque: Ukraine, propaganda, progressives supporting Nazis and war, May 10, 2022
 • Escalation in Ukraine: The Nuclear War Danger is Real, Brian Becker & Greg Mello discuss the U.S. policy of waging proxy war on Russia, BreakThrough News, May 4, 2022
 • Bulletin 299: Emergency call to action: stop Biden's proposed $33 billion war escalation, Apr 28, 2022
 • Bulletin 298: Talk on pits & renewed U.S. nuclear weapons production Tuesday evening 4/26/22; antiwar billboard; what you can do, Apr 25, 2022
 • The core debate, Searchlight New Mexico, Mar 23, 2022
 • Bulletin 294: Please consider forwarding this fine statement from UNAC re Ukraine, Mar 23, 2022
 • Nuclear expert speaks on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Website, Mar 15, 2022
 • A Proposed Solution to the Ukraine War, Consortium News, Greg Mello, Mar 7, 2022
 • Bulletin 293: Ukraine conflict: If you want a ceasefire (as we do), stop firing, Mar 5, 2022
 • Bulletin 292: Statement on the Ukraine conflict and war with Russia, Mar 1, 2022
 • "What can we in New Mexico do?," LASG letter, Feb 23, 2022
 • Bulletin 288: US nuclear weapons since 2020: continuity and change, Dec 7, 2021 (see discussion of US, NATO, and Russia)
 • Nuclear experts speak on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Web Site, Apr 15, 2017
 • US Leaders Reject “Nuclear Winter” Studies, Ignore Existential Danger of Nuclear War. Turn a Blind Eye towards Armageddon, Steven Starr, Global Research, Nov 1, 2016
 • The Ukraine Conflict: What's Behind It? Why Is It Important?, Sep 26, 2015
 • Bulletin 200: Warhead budget bloat; U.S.-caused Ukraine catastrophe at the brink; hello peak oil, Feb 8, 2015