Tag: ukraine

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up – Ukraine Wants To Pay For Its Bombs With OnlyFans

Ukraine’s parliament is weighing a bill that would legalize pornography production so the state can tax OnlyFans creators and funnel the proceeds straight into the defense budget. The measure, co-authored by opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak, cleared its first reading in July and now sits awaiting a second vote. Fenix International, the parent company of OnlyFans, already handed Ukrainian tax authorities records showing 7,900 locals pulled in $131 million on the platform last year. Zhelezniak claims legalization could yield roughly $25 million annually, enough to buy about 30,000 drones.

That figure looks microscopic next to Ukraine’s stated annual defense requirement of $120 billion. The gap underscores how far the country has been reduced to scraping for loose change while the larger conflict grinds on. Current law still treats pornography as a criminal offense, with penalties reaching seven years in prison for production, distribution, or even possession. Tax officials, however, have been chasing the same creators for unpaid levies on their earnings. The result is a perfect trap: pay the taxes and risk prosecution for the underlying activity, or withhold the taxes and face charges for evasion, writes the Wall Street Journal.

One prominent creator, Svitlana Dvornikova, who claims over a million subscribers, has flown repeatedly to France and Spain to film content and says she has already remitted $900,000 in taxes. Police raided her home anyway, seizing electronics and $200,000 in cash she had set aside for further payments. She filed a petition to President Zelensky that gathered 25,000 signatures. Tax lawyer Lesia Mykhalenko, who has represented more than 100 OnlyFans models, notes that the existing statutes simply overload the courts at a moment when resources should be directed elsewhere. Separate reporting from Ukraine’s general prosecutor indicates police departments in three regions each collect over $20,000 a month in bribes tied to the adult industry.

Former waitress Iryna Mosiychuk now runs Beezone, a company registered as a consulting firm that actually operates webcam studios outside Lviv serving mostly American clients. Models there reportedly clear $2,000 to $7,000 a month. The arrangement illustrates the parallel economy that has taken root while official policy remains frozen in contradiction. As the Wall Street Journal documented, these arrangements persist precisely because the legal framework offers creators no safe path forward.

Keep reading

Russian Drone Strikes Ukraine’s SBU Headquarters in Kiev – Zelensky Calls It ‘an Assassination Attempt’ on the Security Agency Head Oleksandr Poklad

This comes a day after Russian Aerospace Forces General Nikolai Varpakhovich was shot by an assassin in Engels.

Today marks the eighth straight day of drone and missile strikes in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities.

Russia has increased fivefold the number of jet-propulsed drones involved in attacks, and has spread those along the whole day, so there’s multiple air-raid alarms sounding, totally disrupting life in the country.

But, today (4), a drone has struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s security service SBU in Kiev, in what regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky called ‘an assassination attempt’ on Oleksandr Poklad, the head of the service.

“Heavy black smoke rose in Kiev city center following the attack, which Ukraine’s foreign minister said marked a ‘major escalation’ of the war.

‘Unfortunately, a Russian drone hit the central building of the SBU on Volodymyrska Street in Kiev, opposite the St Sophia Cathedral’, Mr. Zelensky said on social media. ‘The drone was aimed directly at the office of the head of the security service in that building’, he added.”

Keep reading

The Ukraine Money Pit — Estonia’s €70 Million Scandal

Estonia’s Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur has resigned after a €70 million ammunition deal intended to supply Ukraine blew up into a procurement scandal. Estonia agreed to purchase artillery shells from Datasel, an Italian-registered company owned by India’s Neco Defense Munitions, despite the companies having no established history of selling artillery shells. Millions were paid in advance, deliveries ran into problems, Estonia terminated the contracts, and the dispute has now gone to arbitration. This is what happens when government declares everything an emergency and suddenly the normal rules surrounding public money become inconvenient.

Pevkur says he did not negotiate the contracts and had not even read them. His explanation was rather revealing: “The defence minister does not conduct contract negotiations. The defence minister does not count socks and ammunition.” He said his responsibility was making the fundamental political decision to support Ukraine. He nevertheless resigned because the National Audit Office’s findings raised the question of political responsibility. At least somebody in government still remembers what that phrase means.

The scandal goes directly to the problem with Europe’s entire approach to Ukraine. The politicians declare that Ukraine must be supported at any cost, and once you use those words, cost ceases to matter. Due diligence becomes something bureaucrats complain takes too long. Money must be spent immediately because politicians tell everyone that Europe itself will fall if another artillery shell does not reach Ukraine yesterday.

Estonian officials have essentially admitted that extraordinary risks were accepted because of the urgency surrounding Ukraine. One official told reporters that they knew these procurements involved “greater risks than usual” but believed those risks were justified by what was at stake. There is the entire problem in one sentence. When government decides that the political objective is important enough to justify greater financial risk, taxpayers become the insurance policy when something goes wrong.

Keep reading

Trump Will Demand Repayment From the EU Over Biden’s Massive Military Aid to Ukraine

Rather belatedly, but it will be demanded.

In the context of a social media burn against ‘SCUM’ journalists who are suggesting that the missile and ammo stockpiles would be dangerously low, President Donald J. Trump suggested that the European Union should repay the US for the untold billions that creepy Joe Biden’s administration sent to Ukraine.

Le Monde reported (translated from the French):

“Donald Trump on Thursday criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for providing Ukraine with hundreds of billions of dollars in aid and ammunition for free, believing that the Europeans should have borne the cost and announcing his intention to ask them for the money.

‘Hundreds of billions of dollars have been given for free to Ukraine and NATO, money that Europe would have paid if it had just been asked, but we will claim this money, even if it’s a little late!’ the US president wrote on Truth Social.”

Keep reading

Norway Seizes Russian Cruise Ship in the Arctic

Norway seized the Professor Molchanov at the request of Ukrainian authorities.

We have been reporting here on TGP on how Western powers have been intercepting and seizing cargo vessels suspected of being part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’.

The official justification is that these are sanctioned ships transporting Russian oil under false flags but, in fact, these ships provide the perfect soft targets for the European warmongers to show some semblance of ‘victory’ over bogeyman Vladimir Putin.

These ‘shadow fleet’ tankers are invariably released to continue their voyages after a few days, after the Globalist ‘leaders’ have postured enough.

But yesterday, the stakes were raised considerably as Norwegian forces seized Russia’s Professor Molchanov, a much more benign ship.

The Professor Molchanov is a Russian Arctic oceanographic research vessel that has been repurposed as a cruise ship.

The Norwegians seized the ship in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard at the request of Ukraine’s energy firm Naftogaz, enforcing a $4.22 billion arbitration award.

Keep reading

Crackhead Hunter Biden Admits He Used Burisma Cash to Fund His Drug Binges — Joe Biden ‘Showed Up’ at His DC Crack Den With a Secret Service Motorcade

Hunter Biden just confessed that the millions he collected from the corrupt Ukrainian energy giant Burisma didn’t just sit in some consulting account. He used that foreign cash to keep his crack pipe lit.

And while he was living in a Washington, D.C. drug den with a homeless crack dealer nicknamed “Bicycles,” his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, rolled up in a taxpayer-funded motorcade of six SUVs, Secret Service agents at his side, and knocked on the door, Page Six reported.

Hunter dropped the details on the addiction podcast Dopey with host Dave Manheim. When asked how he never went broke during years of crack, prostitutes, luxury bungalows at the Chateau Marmont, and motel benders, Hunter didn’t hesitate.

“I never went broke… Well, I still had the residual. Like for instance, I still was on the board of Burisma.”

He stayed on that board for years after his father left the vice presidency. The requirement? Show up four times a year.

“Even when I was a crack addict and out of my mind, I could show up for four meetings a year,” Hunter bragged.

Keep reading

Kiev Shootout Between Ukrainian Security Services SBU and GUR Leaves One Dead and Two Wounded – Zelensky Orders Full Investigation on ‘Absolutely Disgraceful’ Incident

Night chaos in Kiev.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded accountability and ordered a full investigation on the Kiev firefight between the personnel of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and soldiers from Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (GUR).

The incident took place on Yuriya Shumskoho street on the left bank of Kyiv, in the city’s Dniprovskyi district.

The man reportedly clashed with soldiers from GUR while working on disrupting a Russian plot against the deputy commander of the pro-Ukraine Russian Volunteer Corps.

The SBU deals with domestic intelligence and counterterrorism activities, whereas the GUR is tasked with foreign intelligence and reconnaissance.

Financial Times reported:

“Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reprimanded state agencies after a shootout involving two rival security services broke out on the streets of Kyiv.

Keep reading

Zelensky Threatens To Make Russian Airspace Unsafe For Civilian Aviation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a warning to airlines, their insurers, and airport operators around the world Monday — saying Ukraine’s drone campaign over Russian territory has made it too dangerous for commercial flights to enter Russian airspace.

The statement was notable for its candor. Zelensky insisted Ukraine was not threatening civilian aircraft — but then made clear that Ukraine’s drone operations would intensify to a point where civilian planes simply have no safe place in Russian skies.

“Drones in Russian skies will be such that this must be taken into account. There are no more safe moments in Russian skies. Civilian aviation has no place among drones.”— Volodymyr Zelensky

Zelensky added that Russian airspace “will de facto be closed — the war Russia started is closing its skies.” The framing offers political cover, but the operational reality is plain: Ukraine is deliberately escalating drone operations over Russian territory in ways that endanger commercial aircraft, and Zelensky is telling the world to plan around it.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry announced it will brief international aviation bodies including ICAO, pressing for a formal airspace closure designation. The move affects dozens of airlines — primarily from Asia and the Middle East — that have continued routing flights over Russia to save fuel costs. Zelensky is now putting them on notice: fly over Russia at your own risk.

The warning came the same day Ukraine launched what Russian officials described as a 516-drone assault across multiple Russian regions. Some of those drones crossed into Estonian airspace — NATO territory — prompting a scramble of alliance fighter jets. Ukraine also struck Ust-Luga, Russia’s largest Baltic Sea oil export terminal.

Whether framed as a warning or a threat, the effect is the same. Zelensky is deliberately creating conditions in which civilian aviation cannot safely operate over Russian territory — and using that as a weapon of economic and diplomatic pressure. The airlines, insurers, and regulators who ignore that signal do so at their own risk.

Keep reading

India’s Modi Presses Putin to Wrap Up Ukraine Invasion: ‘Move Away from Endless War’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to “move away from endless war” and find a resolution to his ongoing invasion of Ukraine during a meeting on Monday.

The two — along with the heads of state of several other neighboring countries, most prominently China and Iran — are in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to attend a high-level summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The China-led, Central Asia-based SCO is a loosely affiliated security and common interests group, sometimes described as an attempted counterweight to NATO but lacking the strict membership requirements and mutual defense responsibilities of that group. Modi, Putin, and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping are all expected to meet Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to discuss that country’s war with the United States during the span of the SCO summit, but appear to have prioritized meeting with each other.

Both Indian and Russian media emphasized that Modi used his time with Putin to discourage him from continuing the Ukraine invasion. The comments were notably more pointed than past remarks by the Hindu nationalist leader, who has rejected attempts to sanction or otherwise economically isolate Russia in response to it belligerence and remains a key Russian oil partner.

“Every day spent in war sets humanity back, whereas every step taken towards peace fills humanity with new hope and enthusiasm. We must move away from endless war towards an end to the war. This is essential for the well-being of humanity,” Modi told Putin, according to India’s Economic Times.

“We have consistently discussed the issue of Ukraine. When we met previously, you briefed me in detail on all aspects of the matter. As you know, India supports all efforts towards peace and will continue to do so,” his comments continued.

Modi separately published an image on social media of his meeting with Putin in which he only vaguely suggested conversation linked to Ukraine and emphasized the bilateral relationship with India.

“Discussed the full range of the India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership. It is gladdening to see significant progress across various sectors in recent years,” he wrote. “Focus areas for the India-Russia friendship remain energy, innovation, space, fertilisers and people-to-people linkages.”

Keep reading

Ukraine Says Russia is a Planning Ground Invasion of Kyiv as War Grinds Towards Fifth Year

Ukraine says it has intelligence indicating Russia is preparing for a fresh ground offensive against the capital of Kyiv.

The claim raises the prospect of another attempt to threaten the Ukrainian capital more than four years after Russia launched its invasion.

Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said Russian military leadership have been instructed by the Kremlin to plan and prepare offensives targeting Kyiv and Chernihiv.

Ukrainian intelligence has received and verified information about the preparations, according to Palisa.

However, officials have not yet detected Russian forces massing in sufficient numbers to launch such an operation.

Keep reading