Tag: russia

European Kakistocracy Locked In a Forever War Against Russia

Never interrupt your enemy when he is committing serial suicide (in reverse American gore-style, when the serial killer always resurrects). In the case of the EU kakistocracy, serial self-destruction is always a given, and always skyrocketing.

So the EUrocrats in Brussels have just adopted their 17th round of sanctions against Russia – the sky is the limit – targeting nearly 200 tankers of the so-called Russian shadow fleet. The package, endorsed by EU member states, includes proverbial scores of asset freezes and visa bans.

The EU + UK combo is also scheming how to tighten the oil price cap on Russia to $50 a barrel, aiming to “hurt” Russia’s energy revenue.

Cue to a monster pipeline of laughter from the whole Global South, especially India and China. As if they would impeach any vessels of the shadow fleet, or if OPEC+ would care about a puny unilateral EUrocrat oil price cap.

To qualify EU actions as self-destructive anti-intellectualism is actually benign. The IQ of people at the top in Brussels is at dismembered worm level, exemplified by the Estonian batshit crazy chick in theory representing the foreign policy of 450 million EU citizens. Brussels has been reduced to a pathetic Estonian propaganda snake pit with a whiff of British accent.

The SVR has noted how there is a groundswell of despair in Brussels for the “mistake” of appointing the imbecile Estonian, universally known for “absolute incompetence” and a cringing “inability to build bridges” with EU leaders. She has already been removed from EU strategic defense policy planning.

Still, the sanctions package dementia will keep rollin’ on – redacted by careerists with fat salaries who only care about their own retirement gold package.

The next, the 18th, is supposed to be the largest sanctions package in History, according to the Brussels rumor mill, not only accusing Russia of multiples stances of Hybrid War and alleged use of chemical weapons (when it’s actually the neo-nazis of country 404 who resort to it) but targeting several Russian defense sector companies plus companies and intermediaries from third countries supplying sanctioned products to Russia.

Add to it the German BlackRock chancellor actively lobbying for an EU ban on the Nord Stream pipeline – blocking any possibility of a U.S.-Russia business cooperation, already signaled by Trump. This ban will be part of the 18th package.

Cue to Grandmaster Sergey Lavrov, who recently felt the need to emphasize that political EUro-trash banning the return of NordStream are “either sick or suicidal.”

Keep reading

German chief of defence orders swift expansion of warfare capabilities

Germany’s Chief of Defence, Carsten Breuer, has ordered the German military to be fully equipped with weapons and other material by 2029, a document seen by Reuters on Sunday shows.

By 2029, Russia may have reconstituted its forces sufficiently to attack NATO territory, according to estimates by Breuer and other senior military officials at NATO.

The latest document, entitled “Directive Priorities for the Bolstering of Readiness”, which Breuer signed on May 19, said Germany will meet the goal with the help of funds made available by the loosening of the country’s debt brake in March.

The defence ministry in Berlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the directive, Breuer sets priorities for the weapons that should be acquired or developed most urgently, reflecting in part priorities NATO has previously laid out.

Among them, Breuer lists the strengthening of Germany’s depleted air defences, in particular with a view to intercepting drones.

Last year, sources told Reuters that NATO will request Berlin to at least quadruple its air defences, ranging from systems with a longer range, such as the Patriot, to short-range systems.

Another priority is a capability to launch deep precision strikes, according to the document, effectively hitting targets at a distance of more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) and far behind enemy lines.

In addition to pushing for Germany’s ammunition stocks to be replenished, Breuer also orders Germany to raise its stockpiling targets for all types of ammunition.

Other priorities listed in the document are the swift expansion of Germany’s capabilities in electronic warfare and the establishment of a resilient system of “offensive and defensive capabilities” in space.

In a speech in mid-May, Army Chief Alfons Mais said a large-scale social and industrial mobilisation meant Russian forces were rapidly gaining firepower.

Keep reading

BBC’s ‘independent’ Russian partner begged UK govt for funds, files show

Leaked documents show the supposedly self-reliant anti-Kremlin outlet Mediazona asked the UK gov’t for £300,000. With foreign funding drying up, the “independent” news site now faces financial crisis.

Mediazona, the self-styled “independent” Russian outlet which partners with the BBC to track the deaths of Russian troops, requested hundreds of thousands of pounds directly from the British government, according to a tranche of leaked official documents.

Having mainly targeted Russians since its founding in 2014 by members of the Western-backed troupe of provocateurs known as Pussy Riot, Mediazona has largely remained off the radar of news consumers in the West. But that changed with the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine. Since the first day of the conflict, Mediazona has collaborated with the BBC Russian Service on a project tracking the deaths of Russian servicemen through open source methods. Mediazona describes “the work [as] meticulous and time-consuming,” requiring “relentless efforts of journalists.”

Who or what was footing the bill was left unmentioned in the description of the initiative, which was clearly designed to foment dissent and opposition to the proxy war among Russian citizens. Now, leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone indicate that between 2020 and 2023, Mediazona was in line for vast, secret grants for anti-Kremlin agitation from the British Foreign Office, under the official auspices of London’s opaque “Global Britain Fund.”

Keep reading

Ukraine Tried To Attack Putin’s Helicopter Mid-Flight, Russia Alleges, Responds With Massive Strikes On Kiev

The Kremlin as well as Russian state media are alleging a huge, potentially conflict-altering incident which will surely escalate the war in Ukraine – an attempted attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.

A high-ranking Russian military commander on Sunday described that last week, as Putin traveled to the Kursk region for the first time since is liberation after 6+ months of Ukrainian occupation, Ukraine tried to attack Putin’s helicopter mid-flight, sending a wave of drones to swarm the flight path of the chopper.

The presidential helicopter was caught in the “epicenter” of a massive Ukrainian drone attack, commander of an air defense division in Kursk, Yury Dashkin, told Russian media. The headline is the top featured story of English-language RT on Sunday, something which suggests the allegations are largely aimed at grabbing the attention of the West.

The incident is said to have happened Tuesday as the helicopter transported Putin to tour Kursk – a southern oblast which has suffered much destruction since the initial Ukrainian cross-border incursion of last August.

Commander Yury Dashkin told Russia 1 in an interview which aired Sunday said that Putin’s helicopter had found itself “in the epicenter of an operation to repel a massive drone attack by the enemy” in Kursk Region.

He went on to describe that this “unprecedented” attack was successfully repelled by anti-air defenses in the region. Air defense units in the area had to “simultaneously conduct anti-aircraft combat and ensure the safety of the president’s helicopter in the air. The task was accomplished,” Dashkin stated. “The attack of the enemy drones was repelled, with all aerial targets being hit.”

While this could just be a mid-level officer’s attempt to toot his own horn, given the world is just hearing about what’s tantamount to an ‘assassination attempt’ on one of the world’s most powerful leaders being alleged – and coming belatedly a number of days after the incident in question – this seems part of Moscow’s ongoing messaging that the UAV incursions are an attempt to derail the US-brokered peace talks between Moscow and Kiev. 

The drones are being launched on Russia in record numbers, with literally multiple hundreds sent over the past week, in some cases halting inbound and outbound flights at major airports, including in the Moscow area. Ukrainian officials have boasted that the operations is trying to disrupt and destabilize daily life in Russia, in hopes that the government could lose control.

Keep reading

Closer To Peace? Watch Russian Ballistic Missile Destroy US Patriot System In Ukraine

There’s been little progress in Russia-Ukraine talks, which the Trump administration has backed – the latest held in Istanbul a week ago – and by all appearances the war continues to heat up and possibly expand.

Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) has published battlefield footage which purports to show a Russian Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system destroying a US-supplied Patriot air defense system operated by the Ukrainian military.

A Thursday Telegram post by the MoD showed the strike on a position in Dnepropetrovsk region, which it says destroyed a multifunctional AN/MPQ-65 radar, a control unit, as well as two Patriot launchers.

Russian state media has touted that this amounts to a loss of advanced military hardware worth over $1 billion. President Zelensky has already for months been complaining US-supplied air defense systems

European allies, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain – have long worked to donate and transfer the anti-air system with Washington’s approval.

Greece has continued to refuse to send Ukraine any of its Patriot batteries, citing the need to defend its homeland, also given Turkey is an ever-present threat amid a spat over maritime rights and sovereignty. Likely Greece also realizes any Patriot it donates could just as quickly be destroyed by Russia’s superior aerial power.

Keep reading

Putin Orders Army To Establish Big Border Buffer Zone Inside Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin is revisiting a strategy first proclaimed last year, but which appeared to be thwarted or put on hold by Ukraine’s Kursk invasion. But now with Kursk liberated from the over six-month Ukrainian troop occupation, Putin is talking a ‘buffer zone’ along the southern border once again.

Russian troops are seeking to carve out a large security buffer zone along the Russia-Ukraine border, Putin announced Thursday during a meeting with ministers and Kremlin officials. “We have approved the creation of a necessary security buffer zone along our borders. Our armed forces are actively working to accomplish this task,” the Russian leader stated.

Putin is fresh off his in-person tour of Kursk region, which happened Tuesday, which was a first since the August cross-border invasion by Ukraine. 

Yet the southern oblasts are still threatened by near-daily artillery and drone fire. A big part of the rationale for a buffer zone is for full stability to return to Russian border towns and villages, for example especially in Belgorod:

He emphasized that, given the recent developments in the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions, immediate efforts are required to restore and rebuild areas affected by recent events. This includes assisting local residents in returning to their native villages, provided security conditions allow. Furthermore, it is essential to rehabilitate transportation networks and other infrastructure, ensure the smooth operation of industrial and agricultural enterprises, and support entrepreneurs and their employees.

This month alone has seen hundreds of drones launched from Ukraine onto southern oblasts, with some drones targeting as far as Moscow, which has resulted in commercial flight stoppages this week (not for the first time).

The timing of Putin’s buffer zone plan is very significant, as President Trump is currently being widely perceived as ‘stepping back’ from pursuit of a final peace settlement.

Keep reading

Trained and Sponsored by France, the 155th Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade ‘Anne de Kyiv’ Is Under Investigation for Corruption, Embezzlement and Mass Desertion

A brigade idealized by French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, trained and equipped in France, has become an endless source of scandal.

Ukrainian and French media report on the mass desertion in the 155th Ukrainian mechanized brigade ‘Anne de Kyiv’, where almost a quarter has deserted.

Le Figaro reported (translated from the French):

“This unit was intended to be a successful combat force of the Ukrainian army. But since its deployment to the front, it has been multiplying controversies over equipment shortages, including drones, and mass abandonment of posts among its soldiers.

The Ukrainian army announced on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, that it was launching an inspection of the “Anne of Kiev” brigade, trained and equipped by France to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, but which has been at the heart of scandals concerning embezzlement and desertions for months.”

The brigade was hailed by Macron and Zelensky as ‘a symbol of military cooperation between Kyiv and Paris’.

Ukrainian magazine Ukrainska Pravda revealed on Monday (19) that Colonel Tarass Maksimov was involved in a case of false payments and extortion of money from his troops.

“The brigade is also facing some 1,200 abandonments of posts, while its numbers include less than 5,000 soldiers, about half of whom were trained in France. ‘After the publication of the article in Ukrainska Pravda, I ordered an additional official inspection of the facts revealed by the journalists’, the commander of the ground forces Mykhailo Drapaty was quoted as saying by the newspaper.”

The ‘Anne of Kiev’ Brigade has been criticized since its deployment to the front, with the Ukrainian General Staff using its soldiers to ‘plug holes’ in other units.

“About 2,300 of the brigade’s soldiers were trained on French soil and equipped with French VAB transport vehicles, AMX-10 tanks and Caesar self-propelled guns, as well as ammunition and anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles. Emmanuel Macron had visited the soldiers of the Ukrainian 155th Brigade in October 2024 during their training in France.”

Keep reading

Zelensky to Trump: ‘Ukraine Is Ready for a Full and Unconditional Ceasefire’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared in a statement following a conversation with President Donald Trump on Monday his country “is ready for a full and unconditional ceasefire,” asserting that Russia, the invading country, must be convinced to agree to one.

President Trump spoke to Zelensky on Monday before and after a separate phone conversation with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, which the American president spoke favorably about. Trump’s direct conversation with Putin followed a chaotic week for Ukraine peace talks in which Putin initially proposed a ceasefire, Zelensky responded by flying to Turkey and challenging Putin to meet him in person, and Putin rejected the invite. Low-level Ukrainian and Russian delegations held talks in Istanbul of Friday that did not lead to any meaningful reduction in violence.

“Russian demands are detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed. They include ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from its territory for a ceasefire and other non-starters and non-constructive conditions,” an unnamed Ukrainian official complained, the U.K. Times reported.

Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing its Crimean peninsula, and has been actively backing “pro-Russian” separatists in the eastern Donbass region since. In 2022, Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, arguing that Zelensky, who was democratically elected, was an illegitimate “Nazi” dictator. That invasion has led to the Russian conquest of the entire Donbass region and the Ukrainian territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Under former President Joe Biden, the United States effusively financed the Ukrainian war effort and did not effectively advocate for an end to the conflict. President Trump has prioritized dialogue leading to an end in the video and proposed several potential mediating entities in addition to America, including Turkey and the Vatican.

Zelensky announced in a message posted to social media on Monday that he held two separate phone conversations with Trump, the second a conference call also featuring several heads of government around the world including French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Keep reading

Russia outlaws Amnesty International in latest crackdown on dissent and activists

The Russian authorities on Monday outlawed Amnesty International as an “undesirable organization,” a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.

The decision by the Russian Prosecutor General’s office, announced in an online statement, is the latest in the unrelenting crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists that intensified to unprecedented levels after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The designation means the international human rights group must stop any work in Russia, and it subjects those who cooperate with it or support it to prosecution, including if anyone shares Amnesty International’s reports on social media.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said the move was part of the Russian government’s efforts to silence dissent and isolate civil society. “The authorities are deeply mistaken if they believe that by labeling our organization ‘undesirable,’ we will stop our work documenting and exposing human rights violations – quite the opposite,” she said in a statement. “We will not give in to the threats and will continue undeterred to work to ensure that people in Russia are able to enjoy their human rights without discrimination.”

Keep reading

US should never have intervened in Ukraine – Trump

US President Donald Trump has rebuked his predecessor, Joe Biden, for funneling vast amounts of American taxpayer money into a foreign conflict that “should have remained a European situation.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Trump expressed frustration over the “crazy” scale of US involvement in the Ukraine conflict. He reiterated that it is “not our war” and stressed that his administration is working to end it through diplomacy.

“This is not our war. This is not my war… I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off – and maybe the whole thing would have been better off – because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,” Trump said.

Keep reading