Tag: ukraine

US PMC involved in Kursk invasion

The US is directly involved in the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk – not only at the strategic level, but also at the tactical and operational sphere. Recent data confirm the participation of at least one US private military company (PMC), meaning that US troops are illegally operating within the 1991 Russian borders. This is likely to lead to a serious escalation of tensions between Moscow and Washington, with the Russian side already demanding formal explanations from US diplomats.

The presence of foreign mercenaries in Kursk is not new. The occurrence of foreigners among Ukrainian troops has been commonly reported, mainly Georgian, Polish and French citizens. However, so far, all reported mercenaries had been members of the Ukrainian Army’s “Foreign Legion”. It is now known that in addition to these individuals who have joined Kiev’s armed forces, there are also mercenary troops from at least one American PMC in Kursk, which represents a higher level of international aggression against Russia.

The American PMC Forward Observation Group (FOG) posted photos and videos on its Instagram showing some of its soldiers fighting on the Kursk front lines. In the photos, it is possible to see not only ordinary PMC members alongside Ukrainian soldiers, but also the founder of FOG himself, Derrick Bales – a well-known American mercenary who has participated in several conflicts. Bales is known for always using an M4A1 rifle in his operations, as well as for having a skull tattoo on his right arm. He has been in Ukraine since 2022, as FOG has been directly involved in training Ukrainian troops. However, this is the first time that a Western PMC has been reported inside the undisputed territory of Russia.

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EU states refuse Zelenky’s call to repatriate Ukrainian refugees for the frontline

European nations are rejecting calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy to repatriate fighting-age male refugees to their homeland to assist on the frontline.

Zelensky appealed to several EU countries to deport men of military age back to bolster military numbers both prior to and during Ukraine’s counter-offensive push into Russia this month.

The request was unanimously rejected by EU member states.

Ukrainian news site New Voice specifically referenced opposition from Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic because these countries have a shortage of workers. In Poland and the Czech Republic, for example, Ukrainians make up 30 percent of the workforce in the construction and transport sectors, and they would be reluctant to give up this labor.

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The Dangers of Ukraine’s Advance Into Russia

Should Americans regard Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region as a turning point in the war, one that could bring Kyiv important new leverage in bargaining over a settlement, if not outright victory? As tempting as it is to believe that the Ukrainian military can aspire to more than stalemate and compromise, there is little about the Kursk offensive that justifies such hopes.

True, Ukraine’s attack seemed to blindside the Kremlin, leading rapidly to the capture of some 30 villages and forcing the evacuation of roughly 200,000 Russian citizens. Ukrainian officials claim to control more than 400 square miles of Russian territory. This initial success has generated an impressive volume of optimistic takes on Western opinion pages and talk shows, while showing increasingly discouraged Ukrainians that their beleaguered forces remain capable of seizing the initiative on the battlefield.

To shift the course of the war, however, Ukraine’s gambit must either divert significant numbers of Russian forces from the fighting in Ukraine itself, seize or destroy strategically important assets inside Russia, or hold territory over the longer term that can become a bargaining chip in negotiations over ending the conflict. None of that appears likely.

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Nuclear War Just Got Closer

For over two years, I’ve been warning about the dangers of escalation between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine.

Well, the U.S. and Russia have now climbed another rung on the escalation ladder that could possibly lead to nuclear war.

You probably know by now that Ukraine has invaded Russia in force. Up to six Ukrainian brigades totaling between 10,000-15,000 troops with armored personnel carriers and tanks invaded a lightly defended part of the Russian border.

They began to move toward a Russian nuclear power plant near the city of Kursk. The object was to capture the nuclear power plant and hold it hostage. The Russians would not attack to regain the plant because it’s too dangerous to stage a battle in proximity to a nuclear reactor.

A repetition of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster when a nuclear reactor in Ukraine near the Belarus border exploded in the worst nuclear accident in history could not be ruled out.

Control of a Russian reactor by Ukraine would give Ukraine leverage in forcing peace negotiations with Russia or even destabilizing the Putin regime.

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US, UK, Poland Took Part in Preparing Ukraine’s Operation in Kursk – Russian Foreign Intel

On August 6, Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, which was slammed by President Vladimir Putin as a large-scale provocation. The Kiev regime planned the attack with the participation of the US and NATO, Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev earlier said.

Ukraine’s operation in Russia’s Kursk region was prepared with the participation of the US, UK, and Polish intelligence services, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said.

“According to available information, the operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of the US, British, and Polish intelligence services. The units involved in it underwent combat coordination in training centers in the UK and Germany. Military advisers from NATO countries are providing assistance in managing Ukraine’s units that have invaded Russian territory, and in using Western weapons and military equipment,” the agency told Russian media.

NATO countries are also providing the Ukrainian military with satellite reconnaissance data on the deployment of Russian troops in the area of ​​the operation, the SVR added.

As the situation on the front deteriorates for Ukrainian troops, Kiev’s Western handlers have been pushing it to move combat operations deep into Russian territory in recent months, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said. One of the goals was to provoke an upsurge in anti-government sentiment and influence domestic policy in the country.

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Zelensky Officially Bans The Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, has adopted a law allowing a ban on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The law was backed by 265 MPs with 226 needed for a majority.

The chairman of the Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said that as a result of the adoption of this law, the UOC “will be prohibited”, and that “the bill provides for its immediate ban.” The law is expected to come into force 30 days after its publication. The move is the latest example of the outright disdain for democratic values and the freedom of religion exemplified by the regime of Ukraine’s unelected leader Volodomir Zelensky.

The bill was drafted on direct instructions from Zelensky. It passed a first reading in the Rada in October 2023, but a second reading was delayed due to fears that it would not have enough votes from MPs and that it would cause discontent in the West. On 16 August 2024, final amendments to the document were made, giving it a new Orwellian name, “For the protection of constitutional order in the field of religious organizations.”

The new state sponsored church organized by the Ukrainian regime had forcibly taken over the churches of the UOC, as well as those of ethnic minorities, and attacked priests. Local authorities deprived the canonical church of the right to lease land to churches. The Security Service of Ukraine, as of November 2023 admitted that authorities have opened 70 criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, 19 of which resulted in convictions and stripping the clergy of citizenship, something unheard of in the civilized world.

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Ukraine’s Two Wars

As the Russia–Ukraine conflict continues well into its third year, we naturally focus on the military struggle. A less visible but equally important battle is being waged within Ukraine’s religious communities. This conflict reveals the complex interplay between faith, nationalism, state power, and the ongoing war. 

Ukraine has historically been at the center of the Eastern European Orthodox world. It is on the banks of the Dnieper River in Kyiv that Eastern European Orthodoxy was born in 988 as a Slavic offshoot of Byzantium’s Greek Orthodoxy. It adopted Slavonic, a proto-Slavic tongue, as its liturgical language—a language the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the largest religious organization in the country, still uses. 

In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was founded in accordance with then President Petro Poroshenko’s “one nation, one church” vision. Poroshenko believed that an independent, national church was essential for national security, as opposed to the traditional UOC church, which was independent in governance but retained its legacy ecclesiastic connection with the Russian Orthodox Church based in Moscow. One way that the OCU displayed its nationalism was by replacing Slavonic with Ukrainian as its liturgical language. 

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian government announced a series of measures identifying the UOC  with the Russian Orthodox Church and seeking repressive measures against it. On December 2, 2022, during his nightly address President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a decree that banned the activities of religious organizations “affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia and said that state services would examine the links between the UOC and the Russian church. 

If you were a Ukrainian patriot, President Zelensky signaled, the UOC could not possibly be your spiritual home. 

Shortly after Zelensky’s speech, I attended liturgy at the Russian church in Geneva, where I was visiting, hoping to better understand the overlay of the war and religious identity. There, I met both Russians and Ukrainians, including Ukrainians from the Russian-speaking east and ethnic Ukrainians from the west. I met a veteran of the Ukrainian special forces, the SBU, who shared that he fought in the Donbas in 2014 and later went to Russia on a spiritual visit. He was highly critical of what he claimed was the persecution by the Ukrainian government of his church at home, the UOC. Clearly, there was more to it than President Zelensky’s narrative portraying the UOC as a political fifth column—a narrative echoed by the media in Europe and the United States.  

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Ukrainian Forces Stopped Across All of Kursk Region, Main Forces Destroyed: Akhmat Commander

Ukraine’s NATO-backed military began a large-scale surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk region in early August, sending crack troops, mercenaries, PMC fighters, and an array of Western equipment into the border region amid an accelerating Russian advance through Donbass and flagging Western support.

Attempts by Ukrainian forces to advance have been stopped across the entirety of the Kursk region, with the enemy’s main resources destroyed and Russian troops working to clear settlements of the enemy, Akhmat special forces commander Apti Alaudinov has announced.

“It’s worth nothing that from the moment our units entered…The first days we were busy stopping the enemy’s main forces, and we succeeded. The enemy was completely stopped along the entire perimeter,” Alaudinov said in an interview with Russian TV on Tuesday.

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Ukraine, Kosovo Not Independent in Decision-Making – Expert

The inconsistency of Ukrainian diplomacy on Kosovo, which according to international law is part of Serbia, is becoming more obvious. Contrary to Kiev’s public assurances that it will not reconsider its non-recognition of the independence of the southern Serbian province, the Zelensky government is trying to empower Pristina as a sovereign state.

Relations between Belgrade and Kiev cannot be called good and sincere, although the rhetoric is different in press reports and during meetings between Serbian and Ukrainian officials, Dusan Prorokovic, political analyst and former state secretary of the Ministry of Kosovo and Metohija, told Sputnik Srbija.

Belgrade is not going to impose sanctions against Russia, despite Kiev and its sponsors condemning it, Dusan Prorokovic said.

Commenting on whether Ukraine acts how its Western sponsors tell it to regarding Kosovo, Prorokovic says that Kiev is dependent on the help of the US, UK, and other European countries in every respect, whether it be weapons, finances, political decisions, or instructions from international organizations.

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US/NATO’s sloppy attempts to hide involvement in Kursk incursion

The August heat is becoming far more dangerous than we usually expect, with “outside temperatures” reaching a boiling point much faster than we’re accustomed to. Unfortunately, this isn’t a simple metaphor and things are bound to get a lot worse if nothing changes anytime soon. Namely, we all know about the Kursk oblast (region) incursion that the NATO-backed Neo-Nazi junta has been conducting for around two weeks now. Somewhat surprisingly, the mainstream propaganda machine has been ambivalent about the Kiev regime’s latest adventure, with many media outlets showing concern that their favorite puppets are wasting precious resources, while others adopted a more cheerleading approach and are intentionally inflating the “successes” of the Neo-Nazi junta forces, presenting this as a “major victory” when it’s actually a minor nuisance aimed at diverting attention away from the Kiev regime’s collapsing defenses in the Donbass.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that the Kursk oblast incursion, no matter how strategically insignificant, is being conducted in a way that’s far too well coordinated for the Neo-Nazi junta to be able to do it all alone. As per usual, the “plausibly deniable” (and yet, very visible) hand of the United States and NATO is slowly being uncovered in the tiny area that the Kiev regime has occupied. Obviously, this was to be expected after the political West participated in organizing not only terrorist attacks on hundreds of Russian civilians, but also the direct attack on beachgoers in Sevastopol. The targeting of regular Russian troops has been going on for around two and a half years now, with the US and NATO providing ample ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) support, including through advanced AI systems. All this is proof that the political West is determined to provoke a violent Russian response.

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