Tag: ukraine

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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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As Rumors of a New Big Offensive Swirl, Putin Appoints Mordvichev as New Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces – A General that Ukraine Announced it Had Killed!

While the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are still showing a lot of promise, the war continues unabated – top Russian negotiator Medinsky quoted famed French General Napoleon to say that ‘Wars & negotiations take place at same time’.

And it seems that the longer the conflict lasts, the more painful the territorial losses of the Kiev regime will be.

As rumors have been circling around for a few months of an upcoming big Russian offensive, President Vladimir Putin made a pivotal change in the command structure of his army, elevating a young, hungry and accomplished General that – if we are to believe the Ukrainians and the MSM – came back from the dead!

Colonel General Andrei Mordvichev has been appointed the new Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces.

He was the former commander of “Tsentr” (Center) forces, responsible for the conquest of Mariupol, Avdeevka, and surrounding areas.

His nomination is incredibly awkward for the Ukrainians and their cheerleaders in the MSM, who have reported that he was killed in a strike on an airfield!

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US Opposes Ukraine’s Participation in Upcoming NATO Summit, Diplomatic Sources Say

In a revealing development that underscores shifting geopolitical tides, the US is reportedly opposing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to the NATO summit scheduled for late June in The Hague, Netherlands, according to multiple diplomatic sources cited by Italy’s ANSA news agency.

If confirmed, this marks the first time since the start of Russia’s military incursion in February 2022 that Zelensky will be absent from a NATO summit—either in person or virtually. His exclusion, in all likelihood, comes as a surprise to many European allies, with one Dutch official describing it bluntly to the NOS broadcaster as “a diplomatic disaster for the Netherlands that no speaker could justify.”

Yet, to many conservatives, nationalists, and anti-globalist observers weary of endless military entanglements, Zelensky’s sidelining may signal a long-overdue shift away from the globalist war footing that has dominated the collective West’s policy toward the Russo-Ukrainian war.

The upcoming NATO summit is being tightly choreographed to avoid offending former—and possibly future—US President Donald Trump, a well-known critic of NATO’s freeloading members.

The agenda, reportedly, has been trimmed to a single session focused on increasing military spending and adopting new defense capability objectives. Notably, Ukraine’s NATO membership—a subject that has fueled Western adventurism and provoked Russian security concerns—is not on the agenda.

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Trump envoy reveals NATO troop deployment plans for Ukraine

Washington is in talks with its European NATO allies about deploying military contingents to Ukraine as part of a possible post-conflict settlement, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Keith Kellogg, has said.

A group of European NATO member states has for months been seeking to muster a force to be deployed to Ukraine as part of a so-called “coalition of the willing,” purportedly in a post-conflict peacekeeping role. Russia has repeatedly warned it would treat any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil as legitimate targets, saying such a move could escalate the conflict.

Speaking to Fox Business on Tuesday, Kellogg said troops from France, Germany, the UK, and Poland could be part of what he described as a “resiliency force.”

“This is a force referred to as the E3, but it’s actually now the E4 – when you include the Brits, the French, and the Germans, and in fact, the Poles as well,” he said. Kellogg added the troops would be positioned west of the Dnieper River, placing them “outside the contact zone.”

“And then to the east you have a peacekeeping force, and what it would look like with a third party involved with that. So, you can actually monitor a ceasefire; we have this thing pretty well planned out,” he said.

The remarks come as preparations are underway for possible direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. Kellogg and Steve Witkoff, another senior envoy for US President Donald Trump, are reportedly expected to attend. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed conducting negotiations without preconditions in Türkiye on May 15.

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France can’t give Ukraine any more arms – Macron

France has reached the limit of its military support for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

In a televised interview with TF1 on Tuesday, Macron defended his administration’s handling of the Ukraine conflict, saying the French have done “the maximum we could” to help Kiev, given that the country’s military was not set up to conduct a protracted, high-intensity land war.

”We gave away everything we had,” Macron said. “But we can’t give away what we don’t have, and we can’t strip ourselves of what is necessary for our own security.” He noted that France’s approach, coordinated with those of other Western donors, aims to avoid direct confrontation with a nuclear-armed power.

France has committed more than €3.7 billion ($4.1 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, according to the Kiel Institute’s aid tracker. Macron highlighted efforts to scale up the domestic defense industry to continue supplying arms.

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Hungarian PM Orbán: Ukraine’s EU Membership Would Mean War in Europe

Hungary is standing its ground as the European Union’s globalist ‘leaders’ push forward with plans to fast-track Ukraine’s membership.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, perhaps President Trump’s closest allies in Europe, and key figures in the Hungarian government have issued their clearest and most urgent warning yet: admitting a war-torn Ukraine into the EU isn’t just reckless—it’s a one-way ticket to economic ruin, societal upheaval, and potentially full-blown war on European soil.

Hungary’s position isn’t new, but the stakes have never been higher. Prime Minister Orbán told public radio last Friday that Ukraine’s accession would amount to “economic suicide” for Europe. Speaking bluntly, he said the EU’s liberal leadership—led by corrupt, unelected Brussels bureaucrats like Ursula von der Leyen—is hurtling toward a catastrophe without consulting the people of Europe.

“As a neighboring country, we believe that if Ukraine is admitted to the European Union, it will mean war,” Orbán declared earlier this week at a conference of EU parliamentary speakers in Budapest. He reminded attendees that the EU has never accepted a country at war—and for good reason.

Hungary rejects Brussels’ obsession with endless military aid, calling instead for peace and realism. “The longer the war lasts, the more lives will be lost,” Orbán emphasized.

The prime minister’s sentiment was echoed by Máté Kocsis, leader of the Fidesz faction in Hungary’s National Assembly. “This will be an irreversible decision,” he said, adding: “One that will shape the fate of Hungarians for the next 100 to 150 years.”

Kocsis made it clear that Ukraine, as a country without a functioning democratic process, cannot be a legitimate candidate. “The minimum condition for accession talks is a democratic election,” he said. That requires peace—not more war.

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