Tag: ukraine

Donald Trump’s Dangerous Tilt Towards War at Home and Abroad

Donald Trump’s speech yesterday at Quantico to the assembled General Officers of the US militaray was a tour de farce of narcissism (not a tour de force). His attempt to emulate the late George C. Scott in his iconic role in Patton was a bust because, instead of delivering a pithy, punchy message, Trump droned on for more than an hour repeating many of his standard lines — e.g., this war never would have started if I was President — but he did so with little enthusiasm. Definitely a low-energy moment.

Although the generals and admirals assembled sat in stony silence throughout his rambling address, none of them had the courage to stand up, walk out and resign in protest. It was a bad bobble head convention… And a lot of bald heads to boot. They are more interested in securing a lucrative retirement package than they are in refusing to obey an illegal order — i.e., bombing a civilian boat that was allegedly carrying drugs that had not fired on US ships or personnel.

In christening the Department of Defense as the new Department of War, Trump is not sending a message of peaceful intentions to the other nations that inhabit this world. Just the opposite. While he appears to have handed off the responsibility for waging war against Russia to Europe, there are disturbing indicators that he has not fully disengaged from the dream of defeating Russia. For example, just a few days after vowing never to refer to Russia as a paper tiger, he did it again.

Some European leaders are still toying with the idea of seizing Russian assets. We have this today in a short piece from Bloomberg: Moscow prepares a counterstrike in case of confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets. Here are the key points:

▪️Russia may nationalize and quickly sell foreign assets under a new privatization mechanism in response to any European moves to seize Russian assets abroad, the publication writes, Bloomberg reported a source close to the government.

▪️On Tuesday, Putin signed a decree allowing accelerated sale of state assets in a special procedure.

▪️If the European Union starts seizing Russian assets, Moscow may respond with symmetrical measures.

▪️Hundreds of Western companies operating in various sectors — from banking to consumer goods production — still operate in Russia, including UniCredit SpA, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, PepsiCo Inc, and Mondelez International Inc., the agency reminds.

▪️So far, Russia has refrained from nationalizing the assets of international corporations. Instead, it has taken some companies under temporary management.

Meanwhile, France appears to have grabbed the war-flag and is leading the charge in stirring up an expanded confrontation with Russia. The French Navy detained the tanker Boracay off the country’s coast on Tuesday, allegedly from the so-called Russian “shadow fleet.” The vessel is under sanctions by the UK and the EU. Earlier this year, it was already detained in Estonia for sailing without a valid flag.

According to MarineTraffic, the Boracay departed on September 20 from the Russian port of Primorsk carrying oil, passed through the Baltic Sea, went around Denmark from the north, entered the North Sea, and proceeded through the English Channel. The tanker is currently anchored near Saint-Nazaire in France.

In tandem with this, the French Army Chief of Staff announced that French troops must be ready for the start of intense warfare as early as tonight. This may be in response to a report from Borzzikman today that the Russians struck a maritime target in Odessa and killed 20 French engineers.

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Chinese ‘golf carts’ repurposed as remote-controlled battlefield robots by Russia 

Russian forces have converted Chinese-made all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) into remotely operated battlefield platforms. The 36th Guards Combined Arms Army of Vostok carried out this experiment, converting the Desertcross 1000-3 utility vehicles into remote-controlled battlefield systems.

The adapted systems were reported in early October 2024, with operations occurring on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine. The vehicles have been designed to reduce troop exposure by automating dangerous roles like laying fiber-optic communication cables.

The vehicles are modified using commercially available components and 3D-printed parts, enabling troops to control them remotely and minimize the risk of casualties from artillery, drones, or small-arms fire.

A safety concern

Signal troops are highly vulnerable at the front while establishing communication lines. The modified ATVs aim to mitigate this risk by helping lay fiber-optic cable through remote control. It can lay up to five kilometers of cable across varied terrain.

By deploying modified Desertcross platforms, the Russian military aims to maintain secure network connectivity while reducing frontline exposure and logistical bottlenecks.

From golf carts to battlefields

Built in China, the Dessertcross 1000-3 was never intended for war. It was positioned as a recreational off-roader and commercial utility vehicle. Manufactured by Shangdong Odes Industry, it features a 72-horsepower gasoline engine, a 50-liter fuel tank, a 916 kg mass, and a cargo capacity of around 300 kilograms.

According to Russian reports, the country purchased thousands of dessert crosses in 2023. Their affordability, availability, and adaptability have made them a cost-effective option for a military struggling to balance cost with operational necessity.

In practice, the vehicles are already being used not only for logistical roles but also during assault operations on Ukrainian positions.

According to some defense reports, some of these ATVs have been fitted with weapons like PKM machine guns, NSV or Kord heavy machine guns, and AGS-17 grenade launchers.

In some cases, units have also added anti-drone gear such as nets or cages to protect against aerial attacks.

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Ex-UK defense minister calls for Crimea to be made ‘uninhabitable’

Kiev’s Western backers must help make Crimea “not inhabitable,” former UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said.

Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday, Wallace argued that Russia views the Black Sea peninsula as a “Holy Mount,” and that Ukraine should strike where it can inflict the greatest damage.

“We have to help Ukraine have the long-range capabilities to make Crimea unviable. We need to choke the life out of Crimea,” Wallace said.

“If it is not inhabitable or not possible for it to function… I think, if we do that, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will suddenly realize he’s got something to lose.” 

He suggested that Kiev should prioritize attacks on the Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects Crimea with Russia’s Krasnodar Region. Ukrainian forces struck the bridge in October 2022 and July 2023, temporarily halting traffic.

Wallace, who served as defense secretary from 2019 to 2023, previously urged Ukraine to mobilize more of its population to fight Russia.

Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia shortly after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. Since then, Ukraine has imposed an economic blockade, cutting electricity and water supplies to the region. Home to around 2.5 million people, the peninsula also hosts Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The Kremlin has described the UK as “one of the leaders of this pro-war camp” due to its military aid to Kiev and calls for tighter sanctions on Russia.

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Europe Plans $165 Billion Loan for Ukraine Using Frozen Russian Funds, Moscow Vows Response

The European Union is planning to provide Ukraine with a $165 billion loan to support the war effort. The loan will be backed with Russian assets frozen by Western nations. The Kremlin stated that the EU scheme amounted to theft and pledged a response. 

Under the plan, European nations would lend Ukraine $165 billion. Kiev would not have to begin repaying until Ukraine receives war reparations from Russia. It is unlikely Moscow will make post-war payments to Kiev unless Russia loses the war. 

The EU holds about $200 billion in frozen Russian assets. Some nations have already tapped into those funds to send arms to Ukraine. 

The Danish Prime Minister said the bloc is making progress in implementing the planned loan; however, legal hurdles remain. Some members of the EU are hesitant to implement the scheme, and the European Central Bank is concerned that using frozen Russian assets will hurt the credibility of the Euro. 

Europe sees the loan as necessary to fund the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelensky has said that the war will cost $120 billion, and Kiev can only provide $60 billion. Previously, Washington paid for the bulk of the Western military aid to Kiev, but President Donald Trump has demanded that Europe arm Ukraine by buying American weapons. 

The European Commission’s president stated that the loan was necessary to continue funding the war. “We need a more structural solution for military support,” EU President Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday. “This is why I have put forward the idea of a reparations loan that is based on the immobilized Russian assets.”

Russia responded sharply to reports of the EU scheme. “We are talking about plans for the illegal seizure of Russian property. In Russian, we call that simply theft,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “The boomerang will very seriously hit those who are the main depositories, countries that are interested in investment attractiveness.”

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CIA Officers Helped Block Investigation into Ukrainian Energy Company that Employed Hunter Biden

n February 21, 2019, a confidential source told the FBI that two CIA officers went with Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that appointed Hunter Biden to its board, to the office of Yuriy Lutsenko, the prosecutor general of Ukraine from May 2016 to August 2019.

According to a newly declassified document released by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), the CIA men told Lutsenko that Zlochevsky was “protected by the U.S.” and urged Lutsenko to stop the investigation on Zlochevsky and let him back into Ukraine.

Subsequently, a deal was made whereby Zlochevsky could pay $3 million in damages to get back into Ukraine while avoiding prosecution for an assortment of white-collar crimes.

The same source told the FBI that then-Vice President Joe Biden had met directly with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “to protect the interests” of his son and, by extension, Zlochevsky, who was paying Hunter around $1 million per year between May 2014 and April 2019 to serve on Burisma’s board.

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Warsaw Moves To Make Cult of Stepan Bandera a Crime – Ukrainian National Hero Is Considered a Nazi Collaborator and a War Criminal in Poland

Banderism to become a crime in Poland.

Ever since the war in Ukraine started, neighboring Poland has absorbed over a million citizens fleeing the conflict.

While most are contributing to Polish society, many are just enjoying social benefits, and – what’s much worse – some bring with themselves the neo-Nazi cult of Kiev regime hero Stepan Bandera.

Any neo-Nazi cult would be bad enough, but Bandera is the man responsible for the WW2-era Volyn massacre of Poles that took over a hundred thousand lives.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki sent to the Sejm (parliament) an amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance and to the Criminal Code.

The aim is to preventing ‘propagation of the ideology of Banderism’ and the denying the Volyn war crime.

RMF 24 reported (translated from the Polish):

“The amendment proposed by the president to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is aimed at ‘clarifying the provisions defining the concept of crimes committed by members and collaborators of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of the Bandera faction and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and other Ukrainian formations collaborating with the Third German Reich’.”

Changes to the Criminal Code will add, for the penalty of up to 3 years in prison for propagating totalitarianism and inciting hatred, the phrase: ‘The same punishment is imposed on anyone who publicly propagates (…) the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of the Bandera faction and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or an ideology calling for the use of violence to influence political or social life’.

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Tomahawks for Kyiv: a dangerous idea

The US is poised to “sell” Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. The US special envoy to Ukraine, retired general Keith Kellogg, says only the final decision has to be made. The US has already agreed, Kellogg said, for deep attacks on Russian territory, and only the release of the Tomahawks is pending, a decision left to US President Donald Trump.

While it may be regarded as an open and shut case by Washington, that does not take away the decision as reckless and escalatory. It puts the US on a direct collision course with Russia, one that could lead to a war in Europe.

The Tomahawk cruise missile was originally intended to give the US nuclear triad a system that could successfully deliver nuclear weapons against the USSR. The idea was to create a system that was nearly impossible for Soviet air defenses to counter, after it became clear that conventional bombers – especially the B-52 – could not operate from high altitude over Soviet territory.

Tomahawk was designed to fly “nap of the earth: missions. That is, once it was over Soviet airspace, it was designed to drop down to near tree-top heights and follow the contours of the earth, making timely detection difficult if not impossible.

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West at war with Russia – Polish PM

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is also the West’s war, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said. The most important task for EU leaders is to make people aware of the threat that Russia supposedly poses, he told the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday.

Tusk has taken a particularly hardline stance on the conflict, in which Warsaw has been a key supporter of Kiev. Earlier this month, he complained that fellow Poles have developed “antipathy” towards Ukraine, which he blamed on Russia, while urging Polish politicians to “stem this tide.”

On Monday, he said, “the biggest and most important task for European leaders today is to make Western societies aware” that the Ukraine conflict is the most serious risk they face in the 21st century.

“This war is also our war,” Tusk stated, claiming that it is “of our fundamental interest,” as a defeat would affect all of Western civilization from Poland to the US. He called for “solidarity and unity” within the EU and NATO to counter this.

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Poland Arrests Ukrainian Diver Over Nord Stream Sabotage Explosions

The plot surrounding the mystery of the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage explosions and secret op continues to thicken, as Poland has on Tuesday issued a surprise announcement saying it has arrested a suspected connected with it.

“A Ukrainian man suspected of being involved in causing undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022 was arrested in Poland, a spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw said Tuesday,” The Associated Press reports.

Without irony or satire, the AP identifies further that “Volodymyr Z. was detained in Pruszkow, central Poland, according to Polish radio station RMF FM, which first reported his capture” – based on a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities. 

The man in custody has elsewhere been described, including in Reuters, as a Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany… and his name is Volodymr Z… though the reporting is not based on The Onion.

This is the second recent arrest related to the Nord Stream sabotage investigation, as last month another Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy in connection.

The mainstream media narrative on this major event which came early in the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically several times. In the opening months, the MSM was lockstep in collectively assuming Russia must have bombed its own key pipelines, effectively economically sabotaging itself and a (at the time) leading European energy export partner.

Then, as we highlighted, there was in 2024 the “bombshell” WSJ Nord Stream report which was a shift, but yet another attempt by mainstream gatekeepers to put official distance between President Zelensky and his supposedly ‘rogue’ top general at the time who ‘oversaw’ the covert op.

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Russia Says It’s ‘Analyzing’ the Possibility of the US Sending Tomahawk Missiles to Ukraine

The Kremlin said on Monday that it was “analyzing” the possibility of the US providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, a step that would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war.

The comments from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov came after US Vice President JD Vance said that President Trump was considering the possibility of supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks, which have a range of over 1,000 miles, by selling them to European NATO countries.

“We have heard these statements. We are thoroughly analyzing them. Our military specialists are closely monitoring it,” Peskov said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Peskov also downplayed the idea that Tomahawks would make a difference for Ukraine. “Even if it happens that the United States sends its Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, currently there is no cure-all that could be a game changer on the front lines for the Kiev regime. No magical weapons exist, and Tomahawk or other missiles simply won’t be a game changer,” he said.

With a range of over 1,000 miles, Tomahawks would put Moscow well in range of Ukrainian missile strikes, and Vance’s comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened attacks on Kremlin officials if the war in Ukraine continues. But it’s unclear how Ukraine would fire the missiles since they’re designed to be launched from advanced US warships.

The US has, in recent years, developed two land-based missile launchers that can fire Tomahawk missiles: the Typhon and the Long Range Fires (LRF) systems. These systems were previously prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019.

The Typhon system has been deployed for military drills in Asia and in Europe, but the LRF has been abandoned by the US Marine Corps due to maneuverability issues. A report from Defense Express suggested that the retired LRF launchers could be refitted and sent to Ukraine for the Ukrainian military to use to fire Tomahawks.

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