March 2026

Mar 31, 2026

 • US Senators Seek To Sanction Hungary Over Obstructing Ukraine Aid, ZeroHedge, Mar 30, 2026

Because US Congress is perfectly functional, and all domestic issues have been resolved (one would very ironically think), the FT reports that a bipartisan pair of US senators are set to introduce legislation calling for sanctions to be imposed on senior Hungarian officials involved in obstructing aid to Ukraine. If passed, the Block Putin act would require President Trump to impose financial sanctions and visa bans on Hungarian government officials involved in the country’s purchases of Russian oil and gas, and who have sought to block support for Ukraine.

The introduction of the bill comes as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has held up a €90bn EU loan to Ukraine as he faces a tough re-election campaign ahead of parliamentary elections next month. Opinion polls indicated Orbán, who has served as prime minister since 2010, could lose power. The opposition Tisza party’s lead stood at 23% points on Wednesday, according to pollster Median. Pro-government polls show a slight lead for Orbán’s ruling Fidesz. Orbán, historically aligned with Vladimir Putin, has accused Kyiv of disrupting the flow of Moscow’s oil to Hungary by stalling repairs to the Druzhba pipeline, which transits Ukraine.

Mar 29, 2026

 • Battle for Hungary: How the Russiagate blueprint has been unleashed against Orban, RT, Mar 28, 2026

 • Ukraine running out of money to fund its war machine — Bloomberg, TASS, Mar 27, 2026

Ukraine may run out of money in its defense budget unless it is given more international aid to buy US weapons, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. Kiev, which will need 45 billion euro in foreign financial assistance this year to keep its war machine afloat, currently has enough money to cover military spending until June. In December, the EU agreed to extend a 90 billion euro military loan to the country, and the bloc was due to give Ukraine fresh funding in April, but that timetable was disrupted after the release of loans was blocked by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban amid a squabble with Kiev over the Druzhba pipeline.

This aid package will likely remain in limbo until Hungary’s parliamentary election scheduled for April 12, Bloomberg wrote. Orban’s veto on more European funding for Kiev may complicate talks with other potential creditors, including the G7 countries at IMF meetings next month. According to Bloomberg, Ukraine expects them to contribute 30 billion euro. In addition, a political standoff between Vladimir Zelensky and Ukraine’s parliament has hampered Kiev’s fulfillment of commitments under the International Monetary Fund’s 7 billion euro loan program.

Ukraine is also asking European countries for help in securing more financing under the PURL program to purchase US weapons. While Kiev needs to buy 13 billion euro worth of in-demand weapons from the United States in 2026, only a handful of countries are paying for the bulk of this equipment, Bloomberg concluded.

US President Donald Trump has posted a link to a news story claiming that the Ukrainian government was involved in a plot aimed at financing Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. The scheme would have relied on diverting US taxpayer money allocated for a USAID project in Ukraine, the media outlet Just the News reported on Thursday, citing a recently declassified intelligence report it obtained. The plot dating back to late 2022 could have involved “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to the report. US intelligence reportedly discovered the plot by intercepting Ukrainian government communications, the outlet said.

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard reportedly learned about the intercepts only recently and ordered a summary of all the information on the case, which was partially obtained by Just the News. “The Ukrainian Government and unspecified US Government personnel, through USAID in Kiev, reportedly developed a plan that would provide hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars to fund an infrastructure project for Ukraine that would be used as a cover to send approximately 90% of funds allocated to the DNC to fund Joe Biden’s re-election campaign,” the document received by the news outlet states. The plotters expected the project to eventually be “disapproved as unnecessary,” but not before they would collect the necessary sum that would be “would be difficult to track” and “impossible to return,” the report reportedly says.

According to Just the News, it is unclear whether Kiev moved forward with the plan. Neither the DNI office nor Gabbard herself made any comments on the issue. Trump also did not comment on the link he posted. Earlier in March, a US government auditor sharply criticized the lack of oversight in the USAID-managed Ukraine aid program worth $26 billion. A March report by the auditor found that Washington sometimes reimbursed duplicate payments to Ukrainian citizens living in other nations who were ineligible. Trump dismantled USAID in 2025 after accusing it of wasteful spending. The State Department took over its responsibilities.

As analysts and traders continue to assess the Gulf energy shock and its implications for the global economy, another alarming development has emerged across the energy sector: Ukrainian kamikaze drone strikes have reportedly disrupted a significant portion of Russia’s oil export capacity, according to Reuters. Reuters calculates that recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s oil and fuel export infrastructure, including attacks on all three of Russia’s major western oil export ports, Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, have eliminated 40% of Russia’s oil export capacity, or around 2 million barrels per day, in just a matter of weeks.

Taken together, the twin disruptions of Gulf and Russian energy flows (in Eurasia) materially tighten the global energy supply outlook in the coming weeks and months. The convergence of these shocks suggests crude prices are likely to remain elevated as traders price in a sustained geopolitical risk premium and reduced global spare capacity. Kiev has also targeted pumping stations and refineries as part of its effort to squeeze Moscow’s oil revenue, which funds a quarter of Russia’s state budget and its war machine.

This month’s attacks on Russia’s oil and fuel export infrastructure have forced Moscow to divert more flows to eastern export supply channels. Flows to China via the Skovorodino-Mohe and Atasu-Alashankou pipelines, plus ESPO Blend shipments from Kozmino, remain solid at 1.9 million barrels per day.Russia is also still exporting around 250,000 barrels per day from Sakhalin and sending roughly 300,000 barrels per day to Belarusian refineries. When two separate conflicts involving major powers begin to degrade energy infrastructure across Eurasia, we are left with one very big and unsettling question: At what point do both of these conflicts start to look less regional and more like the early stages of a world already at war?

The rhetorical escalation between Budapest and Brussels continues to grow. Now, the EU accuses Hungary of actively sabotaging Europe by passing strategic information about the bloc to the Russian side. This type of serious accusation could never be made without proof, yet it has become common practice for the Western liberal regimes to accuse its rival countries of “collaborating with Russia” even without any evidence. In a recent statement, the Hungarian Foreign Minister responded to recent European accusations of pro-Russian “espionage” by Hungarian authorities. According to the Hungarian minister, the EU is spreading lies and fake news about Hungary to try to influence the anti-Orban opposition, hoping to obtain a pro-EU result in the upcoming Hungarian elections.

Mar 26, 2026

Featured • Russian SMO Enters Doldrums Under Shadow of Iran Conflict, Simplicius, Mar 26, 2026
The bulk of this analysis lies behind a paywall. It is balanced and excellent, IMO. To summarize: drones now dominate the battlefield completely. No mechanized, or for that matter unmechanized, large advances can be made by either side without wasting soldiers' lives. One Russian military journalist with impeccable credentials suggests that this and other wars will be won by whichever side can make and produce fresh technological advantages, given the vulnerability of human soldiers. Wunderwaffen, in other words, e.g. truly effective anti-drone technology. The war, in other words, has reached the limit of what human soldiers, who more and more don't see each other, can do.

Meanwhile the situation in Ukraine -- political, in terms of energy supply, and military -- has stabilized somewhat. Some smart, patriotic Russians are now saying that the era of Putin's "stability" is drawing to an end -- and this is a good thing, they say. Stability, as in complacency among the public. In a more measured way than Paul Craig Roberts or Alexander Dugin or Sergey Karaganov -- whose writings in the latter two cases embrace cultural and spiritual aspects of the conflict and of Russia's future, to the tiny extent I have seen them -- they are asking whether Putin's legalistic way of fighting, with its patience and openness to negotiation and its orientation to economic matters, was -- and more importantly, is -- actually the right grand strategy. The longer the war drags on, and the more that Europe invests in it, the tougher the military slog for Russia and the more ambiguous the outcome is likely to be, say some of these observers.

Not mentioned in this essay but mentioned in previous ones is the reality that Russia needs to "win the peace" that follows the war, not just win the war itself. That means not trampling too hard on what is left of international humanitarian law. Creation of a hostile, highly-militarized, de facto NATO-aligned and -supplied rump Ukraine run by Russophobic neo-Nazis and equipped with long-range missiles must be about the last outcome Russia desires. Avoiding this scenario was the raison d'etre for the SMO in the first place. Into this situation comes a potential Trump/Putin "deal" that gives the rest of Donbass to Russia in return for less intel and aid to Iran, so Trump can claim to have settled this conflict in time before the midterms.

Thus the situation is quite fluid. The two wars are linked -- the much larger war in Ukraine and the smaller one in Iran, the latter more immediately consequential around the world and much more directly involving U.S. forces. They are indeed two of the fronts in a much larger war ignited by, and being prosecuted by, the U.S. for planetary domination. In Trump's version of this war, a temporary peace can be arranged with Russia while the U.S. sews up total control of critical hydrocarbons, thereby postponing for a while the fiscal and economic reckoning that is coming for us. All that said, and returning to the military aspects of the situation, what happens in Ukraine when the ground dries out will tell much of the tale.

Or should I say, some of the tale. Should Iran and its allies be able to force oil and LNG prices higher for longer, as I for one hope will be the case, this will accelerate political change everywhere. Trump would not be approaching Putin for a deal if Iran was not making his approval rate plummet, now to just 36% in a recent Reuters poll.

 • Zelensky: Trump Pressuring Him To Give Up On Donbas And End War Soon, ZeroHedge, Mar 26, 2026

With the Ukraine war now marching into its fifth year, and with the next weather-driven "fighting season" underway, a frustrated Ukrainian President Volydymyr Zelensky says the Trump administration is pressuring him to give up the Donbas region in exchange for US security guarantees. He also claims that Russia is offering to stop providing intelligence to Iran if the United States stops giving intel to Ukraine.

Last week, we reported that trilateral talks about the Ukraine war had been suspended, thanks to the United States now having to focus on executing Trump's war on Iran with Israel. However, in an interview with Reuters, Zelensky said that Trump is now pressuring Ukraine to cave on its biggest demand just to wipe the war off his to-do list. In his 2024 campaign, Trump told voters that he'd have the war settled "before I even arrive at the Oval Office."

“The Middle East definitely has an impact on President Trump, and I think on his next steps. President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy to put more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” he told Reuters. The principal thrust of that pressure: Ukraine giving up on its demand that the eastern Donbas region be returned to Ukraine, in exchange for US security guarantees for what's left of the Ukraine after the shooting stops. Comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, the great majority of the Donbas is already under Russian military control.

Russia fired over 900 drones into Ukraine on Tuesday, which was followed by the largest Ukrainian drone attack on Russian territory.

Russia and Ukraine traded massive drone attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday as Russian forces in eastern Ukraine appear to have launched a new spring offensive, as much of the world’s attention is on the US-Israeli war against Iran in the Middle East.

The Russian military bombarded Ukraine with drones overnight Monday into Tuesday and during the day on Tuesday, launching nearly 1,000 drones in a 24-hour period, killing at least seven people across the country.

On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that its forces shot down 389 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions. Russia’s TASS news agency described it as the largest Ukrainian drone attack on Russian territory yet. Several residential buildings were damaged by the barrage, but no casualties were reported.

Mar 25, 2026

 • Hungary to halt gas deliveries to Ukraine – Orban, RT, Mar 25, 2026

 • Ukraine plotted to put bombs in Russian soldiers’ shoes – FSB (VIDEO), RT, Mar 24, 2026
This is perfidy, a war crime.

Mar 18, 2026

Featured • Ukrainians Sound Alarm Over Coming Russian Spring Offensive, Simplicius, Mar 18, 2026

Mar 17, 2026

 • EU Admits Talks With Russia on Ukraine and Security Are Inevitable, Sputnik International, Mar 17, 2026

Mar 15, 2026

 • Zelensky plotting suspending elections for years – media, RT, Mar 12, 2026

Vladimir Zelensky has ordered his advisers to plot out a scenario where elections in Ukraine are suspended and the country commits to years of war, Ukrainskaya Pravda has reported, citing government sources. The tenure of Zelensky and of the Ukrainian parliament has long expired, but the Ukrainian leader has refused to hold elections since early 2024, citing martial law imposed amid the conflict with Russia. The situation has prompted international concerns over the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, particularly from Moscow, which has repeatedly questioned Zelensky’s authority and suggested he may not be in a position to sign any peace agreement should a deal ultimately be reached.

Ukraine’s European backers want Kiev to continue fighting for up to two more years, though the country is facing a “financial catastrophe” that will consume not only its war budget but also its economy as a whole, the newspaper reported on Thursday. “The Europeans said: ‘Fight for another year and a half or two. We will give you money.’ Under their influence, [Vladimir] Zelensky gave the task to the political leadership to develop a plan to hold off elections in Ukraine for several more years and how the parliament will work in such circumstances,” an anonymous source from Zelensky’s administration told the outlet.

The risk of Kiev running out of cash has been growing rapidly. With a proposed €90 billion ($105 billion) EU emergency loan remaining blocked by Hungary, growing dissent within the Ukrainian parliament has slowed down the adoption of measures needed to receive funding from the International Monetary Fund, the newspaper warned on Thursday. The EU emergency funding scheme ended up derailed amid the oil standoff between Ukraine and Hungary and Slovakia. In late January, Kiev halted the Druzhba pipeline, which used to carry Russian crude to the two EU nations, citing alleged damage to the artery. While Moscow has denied attacking the pipeline, Budapest and Bratislava have accused Kiev of deliberately disrupting supplies for political reasons. Hungary has vetoed the €90 billion loan in retaliation, while Slovakia warned it could opt to block the proposed package as well.

Mar 13, 2026

 • Ukraine attacking Russian gas pipeline to stop deliveries to Europe – Defense Ministry, RT, Mar 11, 2026

Kiev has been deliberately attacking the infrastructure of the TurkStream gas pipeline in an attempt to halt deliveries to European consumers, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. The statement comes after pipeline operator Gazprom reported on Wednesday that the Russkaya compressor station in southern Krasnodar Region, which serves as the starting point for supplies through the TurkStream, came under attack overnight. The company said the Beregovaya and Kazachya compressor stations were also targeted the day before, adding that its facilities in southern Russia were attacked 12 times in the past two weeks.

On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry confirmed the attacks, saying: “the Kiev regime, in order to stop gas supplies to European consumers, launched another attack using strike aircraft-type UAVs on the infrastructure of the Russkaya compressor station.” The ministry stated that four Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian air defense systems in the airspace adjacent to the station, two more were intercepted by fighter aircraft, and three were destroyed by mobile fire teams. The TurkStream transports Russian gas to Türkiye via the Black Sea, with one line dedicated to the Turkish market and another supplying countries in Southern and Southeastern Europe.

Last month, President Vladimir Putin said Russia has become aware of plans to attack the TurkStream and Blue Stream trans-Black sea gas pipelines, adding that the goal is to jeopardize the peace process to end the Ukraine conflict.

A Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Bryansk using UK-made long-range Storm Shadow missiles would have been impossible without the direct involvement of British military specialists, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The regional governor, Aleksandr Bogomaz, initially said the attack on Tuesday killed six people and injured 42, slamming the bombardment as an “inhumane terrorist act.” On Wednesday, he reported that the death toll had risen to seven, while confirming that the strike had involved Storm Shadow missiles. Peskov said on Wednesday the missiles “couldn’t have been launched without British specialists.”

He added that the strikes again show the necessity of the continued military campaign against Ukraine, as its success will ensure that “these barbaric actions by the Kiev regime don’t continue.” “One of the goals is to demilitarize Kiev and strip it of the ability to carry out attacks like this,” Peskov stressed.

Mar 12, 2026

 • EU members discuss €30bn Ukraine bailout to circumvent bloc split – Politico, RT, Mar 11, 2026

Cash-strapped Ukraine could receive as much as €30 billion ($35 billion) from individual EU members, Politico reported on Wednesday. The idea is being discussed as Hungary and Slovakia pressure Kiev to resume Russian oil supplies by blocking a joint €90 billion EU loan. Kiev claims supplies through the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline are suspended due to damage from a Russian attack, with repairs not expected until late April – after key elections in Hungary. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukraine of orchestrating an energy crisis to boost the opposition.

Ukraine has failed to explain why an armored convoy carrying tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold, and supervised by people with ties to Ukrainian intelligence, was transiting through Hungary, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. He also implied that the funds may be a sign of Ukrainian plans to meddle in Hungary’s upcoming elections. Tensions between the two countries escalated last week when Hungarian officials impounded two trucks belonging to Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank near Budapest, seizing $40 million and €35 million in cash and 9 kg of gold as part of a money laundering investigation. The funds were being transported from Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank to Ukraine.

Mar 10, 2026

Featured • In a sane world, Zelensky’s mafia regime would be isolated, Tarik Cyril Amar, RT, Mar 8, 2026

Politics can be very rough. Yet, usually, as long as they don’t collapse into war, at least in public a certain minimum pretense of decorum is maintained. Especially by governments vitally dependent on others’ support. Ukraine under the rule of never-reelected Vladimir Zelensky, however, has anything but a normal political system.

It is in this context that Vladimir Zelensky’s latest folly needs to be seen: Zelensky has threatened Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban, telling him he will hand the prime minister’s address over to “our guys” in the military so that they could “communicate with him in their own language.” Obviously, this is not even a hint of violence anymore, but the equivalent of a mafia godfather placing a dead horse’s head on your pillow or leaving a bullet on your doormat. The reason: Orban is exercising his right within the EU not to agree to yet another insane “loan” – the kind that will never be paid back, at least not by anyone in Ukraine – for Zelensky’s astronomically corrupt regime.

...Thus, it may be a coincidence, but it is a remarkable fact that just one day after Zelensky’s open mafia boss fit, Hungary hit his ultra-sleazy regime where it hurts by striking at its money: In a certainly deliberately spectacular operation – balaklavas, body armor and assault rifles included, and all carefully caught on camera – Hungarian anti-terrorism forces stopped a Ukrainian currency and gold shipment that was crossing their country in two armored transporters. Arresting and temporarily detaining seven Ukrainians, the Hungarian officials found $40 million, €35 million, and about nine kilograms of gold. While the detained have been released and are back in Ukraine, the money and gold as well as the transporters have stayed in Hungary.

...Budapest’s customs agency has also made public some intriguing figures: In the first two months of this year, the total of currency and gold shipped to Ukraine via Hungary has already amounted to over $900 million dollars, more than €420 million, and 146 kilograms of gold. Clearly, the amounts finally stopped and, it seems, seized were only a small part of a much larger, ongoing flow.According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, these funds may be linked to the “mafia,” here obviously meaning not just organized crime in Ukraine but Zelensky’s circles themselves, which may be one and the same thing, of course. Also, Szijjarto is a smart man; he may well have sent an implied message to Kiev as well: If you talk like the mafia, we will treat you as mafia. Rest of Europe: Watch and learn.

Hungarian authorities have detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized tens of millions of dollars, euros, and gold that were being transported through the country in armored vehicles, triggering the latest diplomatic dispute between Budapest and Kyiv. Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) confirmed on Friday that criminal proceedings had been launched on suspicion of money laundering following an operation carried out on March 5. Authorities intercepted two armored cash-transport vehicles traveling through Hungary from Austria toward Ukraine. According to the Hungarian authorities, the vehicles were carrying approximately $40 million, €35 million in cash, and 9 kilograms of gold.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the case raised serious questions about the movement of large quantities of physical cash through the country. “Since January, a total of $900 million and €420 million in cash has been transported through Hungary, and 146 kilograms of gold bars have also been transported through the country,” he said, as cited by Magyar Hírlap.“We have a number of serious questions about this. First of all, this is a huge amount of cash, and we wonder why Ukrainians need to transport such a large amount of cash. If it is true that this is a transaction between banks, then the question rightly arises as to why the banks do not settle this between themselves by bank transfer, why it is necessary to transport such a large amount of cash, and why it has to be transported through Hungary,” Szijjártó added.

“These questions arise mainly because these cash shipments are accompanied by people who have clear ties to Ukrainian secret services.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, also commented on the case, raising concerns about the purpose of the funds. “Hundreds of millions in cash and gold moving through Hungary toward Ukraine — escorted by people linked to Ukrainian intelligence. Armored vehicles, suitcases full of money, staggering sums,” he wrote on X. “Whose money is this? What was it meant to finance? Who benefits from it? And why must such enormous amounts of cash travel across our country instead of being transferred through normal banking channels?”

Mar 9, 2026

 • The end of Russia’s gas era, Dmitry Lekukh, RT, Mar 6, 2026

The current discussion about redirecting Russian gas flows away from Europe and toward other markets should not be understood as a short-term political maneuver. Judging by Vladimir Putin’s remarks on Wednesday, the signal is much deeper and primarily aimed at a domestic audience.

In an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin, the president noted that Russia could theoretically stop supplying gas to Western Eur opean markets immediately rather than in a month, as proposed by the EU. Moscow, he suggested, could instead concentrate on more promising markets elsewhere.

Formally, no final decision has been made. Putin has only instructed the government to study the issue. But even this preliminary statement should not be dismissed as rhetorical flourish. It carries a clear meaning.

Contrary to what some observers assume, the signal is not primarily directed at the EU or other external players. It is addressed to economic actors inside Russia who still hope for a return to the old model, one in which the country’s energy industry was built around “traditional markets” in the West.

In more human terms, the message could be interpreted as follows: are you certain that Western Europe remains a reliable partner?

Mar 7, 2026

 • Orban Intercepts Zelenskyy’s Money Laundering Operation – Zelenskyy Threatens to Send Ukraine Special Forces to Assassinate Orban, The Last Refuge, Mar 6, 2026

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stating that “since January, $900 million and €420 million in cash, as well as 146 kilograms of gold, have been transported across Hungary.”

The shipment apprehended by Hungary included 40 million U.S. dollars as well as 35 million euros and 9 kilograms (19.8 pounds) of gold — worth around $1.5 million at current prices — according to a separate statement by Oschadbank.

Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration confirmed Friday that it had detained the Ukrainian citizens and seized the two armored cash-transport vehicles. It added it was conducting criminal proceedings on suspicion of money laundering. {LINK}

Upon hearing of the intercept yesterday, a highly angered Volodymyr Zelenskyy then threatened to send Ukraine “special military operators” to the home of Viktor Orban to extract revenge.

Mar 4, 2026

Featured • Iran under fire: Lessons Moscow cannot ignore, Ivan Timofeev, RT, Mar 4, 2026

Iran is not defenseless. Its missile and drone strikes demonstrate capacity and resolve. Actions such as attempting to restrict navigation through the Strait of Hormuz show a willingness to raise costs. Yet the US and Israel appear to judge Iranian retaliation as painful but acceptable.

Deterrence depends not merely on capability but on the adversary’s sensitivity to damage. In prolonged confrontation, tolerance for loss can increase. The 20th century demonstrated how political escalation can erode restraint even in the nuclear sphere.

Russia possesses far greater retaliatory capacity than Iran. But that alone does not guarantee stability. An opponent who calculates that the damage is bearable may continue escalation. The Iranian crisis reveals a deeper mood emerging in global politics: fatalistic determination. Major powers appear increasingly willing to absorb risk and accept instability, which may be the most troubling lesson of all.

The events in Iran are not an isolated regional episode. They are part of a broader transformation in the international system. It’s one in which sanctions evolve into strikes, negotiation coexists with attrition, and leadership itself becomes a target.

For Russia, the message is sober but clear: endurance, internal cohesion, credible deterrence, and strategic patience are far more than temporary necessities. They are the defining conditions of the era.

Sachs, a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, described the recent escalation as the continuation of a decades-old strategy he linked to Israeli and U.S. intelligence objectives dating back to 1996.

“This is a long-term plan. This is a Mossad CIA plan for American control of the Middle East and Israeli military hegemony in the Middle East that has been underway since 1996,” Sachs said. “This is madness. This is murderous delusion.”

The professor pointed to a series of U.S.-backed or U.S.-involved conflicts across the region, from Libya and Sudan to Somalia and the ongoing crisis in Gaza, as evidence of a consistent pattern aimed ultimately at confronting Iran.

“It has involved wars across the Middle East. It has left rivers of blood from Libya to Sudan, Somalia, the genocide in Gaza,” he said, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal since the mid-1990s has been “the destruction of Iran.”

Sachs reserved some of his strongest language for Trump, whom he said reversed course on key foreign-policy pledges after taking office.

“Trump… is an utter disgrace to our nation. Utter disgrace. He lied to us. Every word about America first… And he did exactly the opposite of what he said,” Sachs stated.

The economist also criticized Washington’s approach to diplomacy more broadly, arguing that the United States has abandoned genuine negotiation in favor of coercive tactics.

“The United States does not negotiate. It cheats… Now they kill you because if you negotiate, it means you’re weak,” he said.

On the domestic front, Sachs connected the country’s infrastructure challenges to the enormous costs of overseas military engagements.

“Why do the roads not work and the bridges not work in the United States?… It’s because we spend trillions of dollars in war,” he said. “China just completed its 50,000th kilometer of fast rail because China doesn’t go to war.”

Sachs concluded by expressing deep skepticism about the current state of American governance.

“We’re in the hands of gangsters. We’re not in the hands of a constitutional system,” he said, noting that only a handful of lawmakers - citing Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) as one example - have pushed back.

At least ten tankers have reportedly been hit by IRGC forces in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran's semi-official Mehr News. At the same time, the battlefield appears to be widening beyond the Gulf region. A Russian-flagged LNG tanker, Arctic Metagaz, carrying fuel from Russia's blacklisted Arctic LNG 2 project, was reportedly hit by Ukrainian drone boats in the Mediterranean.

The attempted obliteration of Iran is part of a systematic attempt to eliminate by physical force all pockets of resistance to American hegemony.

We have seen Rubio’s astonishing assertion of Imperialism as a positive force. Matthew Lynn in The Washington Post exemplified the new Western doctrine. He mocked China for its pacific policy. He argued that for China to build infrastructure for the Global South was futile because the United States might simply seize, blockade or destroy any infrastructure by military force. This he viewed as not shameful, but a great triumph.

What long-term lessons China, Russia and the Global South are learning from the abandonment by the entire West of the principles of international law, we shall see in the decades to come. None of this is going to be good for anyone.

It is not just a Trump phenomenon. Biden fully supported the Gaza genocide. Almost all major political parties throughout the West are under firm Zionist control, as is all of the significant major media and the ownership of every significant alternative media platform.

Iran has provided, directly and through proxies, the only military opposition to the creation of Greater Israel. This war is for Greater Israel. But it is also a wider effort to re-establish the failing economic dominance of the United States by military control of key resources.

There is no part of the world which will be safe from the fallout.

This isn’t the first time the world’s attention has shifted away from the Ukraine war, but it certainly marks the biggest other conflict to erupt throughout the four-year long war in Eastern Europe. Every time there is a ‘distraction’ – President Zelensky takes pains to try and refocus attention on Kiev’s plight, quite naturally. At a moment the depth of American arms supplies and ammo stockpiles are in question given the rate of expenditure in the new Iran war, the Ukrainians are rather nervous to say the least. Zelensky has freshly warned that deeper US involvement in the conflict with Iran could disrupt the steady flow of American weapons that Ukraine depends on in its war against Russia.

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 • ‘The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets.’ Now It’s Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? – July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023

 • Bulletin 330: "'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?" A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick and Greg Mello in Los Alamos, July 22, Jul 7, 2023

 • Ukraine War Makes it Harder to be a Nuclear ‘Dove’ | Our Land, Laura Paskus, New Mexico in Focus, Jun 30, 2023

 • Bulletin 329: Russia rules out nuclear disarmament negotiations; second week of Ukrainian offenses fail; what will US and NATO do? Build 60 projects in LANL's Pajarito Corridor?, Jun 17, 2023

 • Ukraine; Biden's Manicheism; the U.S. cannot even conduct a nuclear arms race, let alone win one, LASG friends ltr, Mar 16, 2023

 • Ukraine protest and updates, pit production delays and cost increases in NNSA's new budget, LASG friends ltr, Mar 14, 2023

 • Antiwar rally 2 pm Saturday in Albuquerque; LANL pits delayed, endorse the "Call for Sanity"; Ukraine update; the Nordstream investigation (and likely impeachment) "imperative" LASG friends ltr, Mar 11, 2023
 • Ukraine losses mount toward critical point; ANSWER rally against the war is now 2 pm (not 1 pm), March 18, Albuquerque; nearly half U.S. citizens believe WWIII is near, LASG friends ltr, Mar 7, 2023

 • Ukraine news and views; antiwar rally March 18; pending guest editorial; pit production precis, LASG friends ltr, Mar 3, 2023

 • Bulletin 325: Understanding the Nordstream sabotage and punishing those responsible, Feb 18, 2023

 • Ukraine news with comments and excerpts; bookmark for future reference if desired,LASG friends ltr, Feb 8, 2023

 • Bulletin 324: Opposition to Ukraine war gains visibility in New Mexico and via our web site, more broadly, Feb 6, 2023

 • Anti-nuclear activist opposes helping Ukraine, encourages peace, Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb 5, 2023

 • Bulletin 323: "Nuclear Hotseat" interview / Ukraine war updates, Feb 4, 2023

 • Bulletin 322: Right and Left To Join in D.C. Protest: ‘Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine’ / Bulletin of Atomic Scientists resets clock, blames Russia, Jan 25, 2023

 • $10 Trillion for Nuclear War: Racing to the Nuclear Cliff, The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, Jan 10, 2023

 • Bulletin 321: Last day for 2022 donations! / A few quick updates, Dec 31, 2022

 • Bulletin 320: Neocon humiliation -- or nuclear exchange / The centrality of war resistance in moral politics / 3 days left for 1:1 donation match!, Dec 29, 2022

 • Bulletin 319: Ukraine; NDAA: omnibus appropriations bill; fundraising --thank you; some matching funds still available, Dec 21, 2022

 • Stop the war now, Jean Nichols, The Taos News, Dec 19, 2022

 • Bulletin 318: Speak out now against further U.S. escalation in Ukraine; daily updates for your use, Dec 14, 2022

 • Agenda for tonight's emergency Ukraine meeting in Albuquerque, and by Zoom, Nov 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 314: Reminder re next week's antiwar, disarmament, & nuclear safety events: come if you can or tune in, outreach needed; pit interview on KNME tonight 7 pm; fundraising drive continues; erratum, Nov 11, 2022

 • Bulletin 313: Important meeting about Ukraine next week; DNFSB hearing in Santa Fe; more, Nov 7, 2022

 • Biden Administration releases aggressive nuclear strategy envisioning "first use" of nuclear weapons in wars like Ukraine, press release, Oct 27, 2022

 • Bulletin 310: Speak up! We urge you to take up the call for peace in Ukraine, Sep 25, 2022

 • Pope Francis: "World War III has been declared." We agree. Stop LANL's pit factory; Stop the U.S. war against Russia, presentation, Jun 15, 2022

 • Bulletin 301: Oppose the war! Demand and create accountability for lawmakers who fund and promote more war in Ukraine, May 16, 2022

 • Grave dangers loom in Ukraine war votes and escalations; opportunities open for journalists and citizens; We urge news media to widen debate, pose questions, create accountability, press release, May 16, 2022

 • LASG friends ltr: Thursday evening public discussion in Albuquerque: Ukraine, propaganda, progressives supporting Nazis and war, May 10, 2022

 • Escalation in Ukraine: The Nuclear War Danger is Real, Brian Becker & Greg Mello discuss the U.S. policy of waging proxy war on Russia, BreakThrough News, May 4, 2022

 • Bulletin 299: Emergency call to action: stop Biden's proposed $33 billion war escalation, Apr 28, 2022

 • Bulletin 298: Talk on pits & renewed U.S. nuclear weapons production Tuesday evening 4/26/22; antiwar billboard; what you can do, Apr 25, 2022

 • The core debate, Searchlight New Mexico, Mar 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 294: Please consider forwarding this fine statement from UNAC re Ukraine, Mar 23, 2022

 • Nuclear expert speaks on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Website, Mar 15, 2022

 • A Proposed Solution to the Ukraine War, Consortium News, Greg Mello, Mar 7, 2022

 • Bulletin 293: Ukraine conflict: If you want a ceasefire (as we do), stop firing, Mar 5, 2022

 • Bulletin 292: Statement on the Ukraine conflict and war with Russia, Mar 1, 2022

 • "What can we in New Mexico do?," LASG letter, Feb 23, 2022

 • Bulletin 288: US nuclear weapons since 2020: continuity and change, Dec 7, 2021 (see discussion of US, NATO, and Russia)

 • Nuclear experts speak on the dangers of war between the US and Russia, World Socialist Web Site, Apr 15, 2017

 • US Leaders Reject “Nuclear Winter” Studies, Ignore Existential Danger of Nuclear War. Turn a Blind Eye towards Armageddon, Steven Starr, Global Research, Nov 1, 2016

 • The Ukraine Conflict: What's Behind It? Why Is It Important?, Sep 26, 2015

 • Bulletin 200: Warhead budget bloat; U.S.-caused Ukraine catastrophe at the brink; hello peak oil, Feb 8, 2015