updated 4 Mar 2026, 10:11 MDT

After our 11/15/22 emergency meeting on the Ukraine War we committed to providing near-daily updates of what we think are some of the most valuable news and analyses for fellow activists. This is that selection. If you find this page helpful please forward it to your friends and contacts. Beginning Nov 16, 2023 we will be updating this page on a semiweekly basis. Stopping this war is of critical, emergency importance. Please do whatever you can.

Unless otherwise noted, the italicized comments below are Greg Mello's.

Highly recommended resource: Judge Andrew Napolitano's video podcast on YouTube.

Highly recommended: Jeffery Sachs: Two Centuries of Russophobia & Rejection of Peace, Consortium News, Dec 24, 2025
Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics, Glenn Diesen, 2022.
Provoked, How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, Scott Horton, 2024.

Russia Ukraine War Master Class: Prof. Glenn Diesen, Prof. John Mearsheimer, Ambassador Chas Freeman, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Aug 2024

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.

Feb 28, 2026

Featured • Fyodor Lukyanov: Ukraine marked this major shift in global politics, RT, Feb 26, 2026

Four years ago, Russia’s decision to launch a military operation in Ukraine stunned almost everyone, including supporters and critics alike. Few believed Moscow would take such a drastic step. For decades, the prevailing assumption in global politics had been that force was no longer a legitimate way to resolve disputes. When military action did occur, it was wrapped in euphemisms such as humanitarian intervention and the defense of human rights. In practice, this meant that military power was considered acceptable only when used to reinforce the existing international order, the liberal world order, and therefore only by its architects, above all the United States. Russia broke that rule.

The operation in Ukraine was the culmination of contradictions that emerged after the Cold War....

US dominance remained the goal, but it was redefined in bluntly transactional terms: securing material advantages and extracting value wherever possible. Where the Biden administration sought to maintain the old system, albeit unsuccessfully, the Trump administration speaks openly about restoring Western power without the institutions or courtesies that once accompanied it. At the Munich Security Conference this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that Americans are “not interested in polite managed decline of the West.” The message was clear. The US has entered a struggle for a new division of the world, and intends to act while its accumulated advantages still give it leverage.

Feb 27, 2026

Featured • Moscow will respond if NATO gives nukes to ‘Nazi regime in Kiev’ – Medvedev, RT, Feb 24, 2026

 • The Guardian: Arms dealer Christopher Harborne paid #BorisJohnson a million UK pounds to convince Zelensky not to sign the Istanbul peace deal in March 2022, X, Feb 25, 2026

Feb 26, 2026

Featured • Solidarity simulacra: Zelensky’s four-year reality check, RT, Feb 24, 2026

 • Ukraine (EU) Strikes Russian Oil Pumping Station that Transmits Oil into Hungary and Slovakia, The Last Refuge, Feb 24, 2026

So, what’s going on here?Well, with the anniversary of the Russian Federation beginning the war into Ukraine, the Europeans who now control the military operations inside Ukraine are targeting European countries who do not align with their bloodlust, specifically Hungary and Slovakia. Both Hungary and Slovakia are land locked countries without easy access seaports. Because of their geographic locations, they rely on Russian oil and gas for their energy needs. Hungary and Slovakia have not wanted to expand the war against Russia. The EU is demanding Hungary and Slovakia agree to expanded war. The European ‘coalition of the willing’ is now targeting key Russian infrastructure that supplies energy products to European countries who are not in compliance with the EU dictates of war.

Putin says threats to energy pipelines sabotage peace process with Ukraine. In his televised speech, the Russian president also accused Ukraine of threatening Russian energy pipelines with the help of Western intelligence agencies. He claimed these attacks were aimed to sabotage the peace process. Putin also stressed it was vital for Russia to strengthen the defence of energy infrastructure and other strategic sectors. {source} This is why Secretary of State Marco Rubio travelled to Hungary and Slovakia last week. Essentially, now we see European leaders attacking their own European “allies” through the use of Ukraine. If you do not support the continued bloodlust, you are an enemy of the EU collective hive mind.

For Putin to have made the announcement himself likely means the intelligence on this is not some trifle to be written off. Does the West actually think threatening Russia with nuclear escalation will lead Russians to sour toward the war in the way of Afghanistan? That is simply inconceivable: it can only indurate Russians to a maximalist mindset and to the understanding that the war must be won decisively at all costs. Hell, if you think about it, the closest Russia came to ‘disaster’ in the war was literally over the argument that Russia is not fighting maximalist enough, rather than the converse, when Prigozhin marched on Moscow in attempt to supercharge the war to a higher intensity. And even all fantasies of taking out or usurping Putin lead to the same logical conclusion: that only a far more nationalistic and maximalist figure could possibly take his place. For Ukraine, there is little prospect for some kind of favorable ‘soft landing’ or off-ramp in this way.

Hungary has blocked the EU’s proposed €90 billion ($106 billion) emergency loan for Ukraine, as well as the latest package of sanctions on Russia, citing Kiev’s allegedly deliberate disruption of oil supplies to the country. Hungary placed the double veto on the initiatives on Monday as Kiev and Budapest remain locked in a bitter row over the Soviet-era Druzhba oil pipeline – which carries Russian crude to Hungary and Slovakia and has been out of commission since late January. Kiev claims that it was damaged by Russia, which has denied the allegations. Budapest has echoed Moscow’s stance, accusing Kiev of deliberately withholding supplies for political reasons and subjecting the country to an “oil blockade,” and threatening retaliation.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has rejected accusations that Budapest hates Ukraine, suggesting that it’s Kiev that’s been pursuing hostile policies toward his country for years. The remarks came in response to questions from reporters on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, as Hungary threatened to veto the bloc’s latest sanctions package against Russia. When one journalist confronted Szijjarto, suggesting that Hungary should direct its ire at Moscow, the minister offered a scolding response. “We don’t hate Ukraine. The problem is that the Ukrainian state hates Hungary,” Szijjarto said, accusing Kiev of undermining Budapest’s energy security by blocking crude oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline, among other issues.

For the West, any agreement with countries outside its political and military bloc has always been temporary. Every pause in confrontation is treated not as peace, but as an intermission. That is why states beyond the Western perimeter must learn a simple rule: when the US and Western Europe are forced into concessions, even briefly, those moments must be used to the full.

Now, by most accounts, is one such moment. But its arrival should not deceive anyone into thinking that lasting peace has suddenly become possible.

Western strategy toward the rest of the world has a stable and deeply rooted character. It is built on a zero-sum logic, where one side’s gains are automatically viewed as the other’s losses. Agreements are tactical tools, not strategic commitments. They are pauses in pressure, not its abandonment. Even if the acute phase of the military-political confrontation around Ukraine were to subside, this would not mean that the West has accepted the idea of a durable peace.

This worldview was formulated with remarkable clarity on the eve of the Second World War by the Dutch-American scholar Nicholas Spykman. He argued that a state’s territory is the base from which it wages war and gathers strength during what the public naïvely calls “peace.” In other words, peace is simply preparation for the next round of conflict. For the West, this logic has never ceased to apply to those outside its borders.

Feb 24, 2026

Featured • Ukrainian Long-Standing Obsession With Nuclear Blackmail Exposed, Sputnik International, Feb 24, 2026

Featured • The Arrival of Spring Brings Big Pressure to Ukraine, Ted Snider, Antiwar.com, Feb 24, 2026
I repeat my prediction that Ukraine cannot last the year.

Featured • Year 4: Why Russia Invaded, Consortium News, Feb 24, 2026
Lest we forget -- which even we tend to do. Totalized propaganda is very effective at inducing forgetting. Like a mass amnesia drug.

Featured • Marco Rubio’s Cecil Rhodes Moment, Consortium News, Feb 23, 2026
Well, here it is -- the appalling Rubio speech in its proper context, masterfully done. MAGA has come to this? Apparently. Trump has thrown his populist base under the bus. He works for Wall Street and Tel Aviv. Woe, woe betide us and the world, until this fit of folly be passed!

Featured • Sergei Lavrov is Right: America is ‘Agreement Incapable’, José Niño, The Libertarian Institute, Feb 23, 2026

Rebuilding credibility requires several principles. Consistency matters more than perfection. Even flawed agreements provide value if they create predictable frameworks. Constant exits signal American commitments are provisional. Consultation with allies reduces diplomatic costs. The Open Skies and JCPOA exits were particularly damaging because they occurred over partner objections.

The pattern of withdrawal creates expectations that American commitments are temporary, that multilateral frameworks will be abandoned when convenient, and that alternative arrangements are necessary hedges against American unreliability.

Russian officials now explicitly cite American withdrawal patterns when dismissing proposals. Chinese officials point to exits when arguing Washington cannot be trusted. European allies hedge by developing autonomous capabilities in case American security guarantees prove as durable as climate commitments.

The emerging world will not be one of American primacy sustained by multilateral institutions. It will be a multipolar world of rival blocs, competing currencies, and fragmented governance where the United States must be compelled to compete in. As long as the United States remains what Russian diplomats have called “agreement incapable,” every abandoned treaty and broken commitment will feed the gravitational pull toward a multipolar order that Washington can no longer prevent.

Feb 23, 2026

 • Civil War’s First Shots? Grenades and Bombs Signal the Next Phase of Ukraine’s Internal Conflict, South Front, Feb 22, 2026

The Telegram channel “A Little Ukraine” posted a comment that received a lot of likes under a post about the anniversary of the 2014 Euromaidan protests. It sums up how people in Ukraine are feeling. Translation:

“As sad as it is to admit, life was better before Maidan, under Yanukovych’s crappy government, than after Maidan. Crimea and Donetsk were still part of Ukraine: Euro 2012 and the Ukrainian national team at the Donbass Arena—ah, those were the days…”

Feb 22, 2026

 • Energy Glasshouse – Ukraine Attempts To Blackmail Hungary, Slovakia Destined To Fail, Moon of Alabama, Feb 21, 2026

 • Iran Crisis Exposes the Impotence of America’s Neoliberal War Machine, Nicolas J.S. Davies, Antiwar.com, Feb 20, 2026

Feb 20, 2026

Featured • Ukraine Is Exhausted But Plans For More Years Of War, Moon of Alabama, Feb 20, 2026
Loss of reality afflicts the West across multiple domains, starting at the top.

Featured • The neocolonial ambitions of NATO countries, Valeriy Krylko, SONAR21, Feb 20, 2026
An excellent review. Goes with Lavrov's remarks about the Nazi nostalgia in EU leadership. The basis for this is physical and material as well as financial.

Featured • EU elites driven by Nazi nostalgia – Lavrov, RT, Feb 18, 2026

Much of the Western European antagonism towards Russia is driven by revanchist aspirations rooted in the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Moscow’s top diplomat accused senior EU and NATO officials of prioritizing personal ambitions and grudges over national interests. He argued that European anti-Russian officials label dissenting politicians as Moscow’s stooges while indulging in nostalgia “for the era when their forebears steered Europe towards Nazism, whether within [Adolf] Hitler’s apparatus or in countries where Hitler conscripted nearly all for the assault on the Soviet Union.”

According to Lavrov, “this hatred has resurfaced” and drives European governments to seek Russia’s defeat through Ukrainian proxies. European support for Kiev is meant to prolong the “war against us, a war which the EU wants to continue,” he asserted. “Europe has degenerated. Yet there remain voices of reason,” Lavrov said, naming Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. “These are sensible, pragmatic leaders who prioritize their nations’ interests.”

Lavrov said Brussels wants a role in US-mediated Ukraine peace talks only to undermine them, while it simultaneously claims Moscow is avoiding negotiations despite evidence to the contrary. “What can we talk about with Europeans who openly say that Ukraine is upholding European values?” he asked.

Kiev’s ability to supply fresh soldiers to the front line has significantly diminished, putting the Ukrainian army on a downward spiral, a senior Russian military planner has said.

The Ukrainian army’s strength is being sapped by mass desertion and public resistance to mandatory conscription. The Russian military estimates Ukrainian military casualties at over 520,000 in 2025 and 1.5 million since the conflict escalated in 2022, Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of operations at the Russian General Staff, said in an interview published Friday.

“Presently, the Kiev regime has largely lost the ability to replenish its units through obligatory mobilization. The number of recruitments per month has dropped by about two times,” Rudskoy told Krasnaya Zvezda, the Russian armed forces’ official newspaper. “A trend is forming for the decrease of the Ukrainian army’s strength.”

During his nomination hearings last month, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov told lawmakers that two million potential recruits were on a wanted list for draft evasion and 200,000 troops had deserted. This month, human rights ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets reported a sharp rise in complaints against mobilization enforcers, calling it a “systemic crisis.”

Over the past two days, mutual attacks between Russia and Ukraine have not been massive in nature, being limited to pinpoint strikes on infrastructure. Previous massive Russian strikes have resulted in Ukraine’s energy system facing a deficit of 9.5 GW of new generation capacity. This was stated by Vitaliy Zaichenko, Chairman of the Board of the company, emphasizing the need for highly maneuverable gas capacity, biofuel thermal plants, batteries, and renewable sources adapted to regional conditions and the transmission capabilities from nuclear power plants. The estimated cost of the project is more than 8 billion euros. This assessment assumes the restoration of pre-war levels of industrial and residential consumption, although actual indicators are declining and the prospects for peacetime remain uncertain, making the calculations conditional.

Against this backdrop, other difficulties have arisen. Slovakia and Hungary have suspended diesel fuel exports to Ukraine in response to the blocking of oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó stated that supplies will not resume until oil transit is restored, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to also halt electricity exports, noting that in January, Ukraine received twice as much energy from Slovakia as was planned for the entire year 2025.

EU leaders are wrong to believe that they can exhaust Russia and help Ukraine win the conflict, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. The remarks came in response to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s statement at the Munich Security Conference last week, where he suggested that Brussels exacting “unprecedented losses and costs on Moscow” could weaken it and force it to “agree to peace.” “Who believes that the Russians will run out of steam sooner than Ukraine? It’s a fantasy, an illusion, and irresponsible,” Orban said in a speech on Tuesday, criticizing Brussels’ continued financial and military aid to Kiev.

Feb 19, 2026

Featured • Sergey Karaganov: The EU is playing with nuclear fire, RT, Feb 17, 2026
Many people in the U.S. hate Putin and want to get rid of him somehow. This is what a real Russian hawk talks like. Let us hope the neocons in the U.S. do not get what they ask for. We may all "get it," in that case.

 • Under Intensifying US Pressure To Reach Deal, Zelensky Explodes: No Time "For All This S**t", ZeroHedge, Feb 18, 2026

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has increasingly made his frustrations with the Trump administration public, but he may have just crossed the line with the US President, who Zelensky admits can be tough and unbending. Zelensky has newly complained amid the latest Geneva trilateral talks that the US delegation could pressure him to make “unsuccessful decisions” and he is urging Washington to back off, even using expletives to make his point. For starters, he claims that the Ukrainian public won’t let him cede territory to Russia for the sake of peace even if he wanted to, as we highlighted previously.

But the latest colorful verbal broadside, cited by Axios on Tuesday as Russian and Ukrainian delegations convened in Geneva, saw Zelensky take direct aim at the head of Moscow’s negotiating team, Vladimir Medinsky. Kiev’s frustration at the state of dialogue has been boiling over. Medinsky has argued – along with numerous Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin – that the conflict’s historical roots must be addressed as part of any settlement, especially given the bulk of the Ukrainian population in the east (Donbas) has always been Russian speaking and looked to Moscow historically.mZelensky dismissed that approach outright: “We don’t have time for all this shit,” he told the outlet. “So we have to decide, and have to finish the war.”

Regardless, the Kremlin has lately made clear its aims to take the full Donbas either through talks or by force. Ukraine’s military still holds 10% of the Donbas, however, and Kiev is rejecting a US proposal for it to draw back its forces as part of a conflict freeze leading to settlement. The White House this month has finally appeared to be ratcheting up the pressure directly on Zelensky to make some kind of serious land concession. This was evident in the latest comments by President Trump on the topic of Geneva issued near the start of the week. Frustration with Kiev was evident when he told reporters aboard Air Force One, “Well, we have big talks.” He stated that “It’s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far, Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”

Zelensky after this bitterly complained that it’s ‘not fair’ for Trump to take aim at Ukraine and not Russia, and suggested maybe it’s simply easer for Trump to do this given he doesn’t want to upset the far larger, more formidable country. Meanwhile, Medinsky has said Wednesday that the U.S.-mediated peace talks in Geneva had been “difficult but business-like, and that a new round of talks would be held soon,” according to Reuters.

Russia’s response to “Western piracy” targeting its maritime trade should be forceful and not limited to diplomatic means, an aide to President Vladimir Putin has said. Nikolay Patrushev, a veteran national security official who heads a naval policymaking body, called for stronger action against Western moves targeting vessels described as part of an alleged Russian ‘shadow fleet’. Attempts to paralyze Russian foreign trade will only intensify, Patrushev warned in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty published on Tuesday. “Unless we push back forcefully, soon the English, the French, and even the Balts will get brazen enough to try and block our nation’s access to at least the Atlantic,” he said.

“The Europeans are in essence making steps to impose a naval blockade, deliberately pushing towards a military escalation, testing the limits of our patience and provoking our retaliation. If the situation is not resolved peacefully, the Navy will be breaking and lifting the blockade,” Patrushev said. “Let’s not forget that plenty of vessels sail the seas under European flags. We may get curious about what they are shipping and where,” he added. Patrushev expressed skepticism that tensions could ease, saying “there is little hope that the West has an ounce of respect for diplomacy and the law.” He argued that “the old practice of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ is being revived,” citing US operations targeting Venezuela and Iran.

The Ukrainian military is secretly using a squadron of veteran NATO pilots to fly donated US-made F-16 fighter jets, the French outlet Intelligence Online reported on Monday. Moscow has long warned that Western nations are moving closer to direct conflict with Russia. The report, which Kiev has denied, said the covert mission relies primarily on experienced US and Dutch air force veterans. The foreign personnel are deployed far from the front lines and focus on intercepting Russian long-range weapons, the outlet said. They are no longer part of their original militaries and reportedly work for Kiev as civilian contractors, without military ranks and outside the Ukrainian chain of command.

A shortage of trained Ukrainian pilots was previously identified as the main obstacle to using F-16s donated to Kiev. Training courses were reportedly undermined by language barriers, a lack of qualified trainees, and other issues, and were simplified for speed. Shortly after the first F-16s arrived in Ukraine in August 2024, Kiev began losing pilots in botched air defense missions, with four such incidents acknowledged. The secret foreign squadron provides pilots with the experience needed to operate advanced F-16 equipment, Intelligence Online said.

Moscow views the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war against Russia, in which key elements of Kiev’s military effort – including intelligence, planning, troop training, and maintenance of complex Western hardware – are handled by foreign personnel. Western specialists were reportedly involved in Ukrainian strikes using Storm Shadow/SCALP air-launched cruise missiles on Russian territory. German officials opposed supplying Taurus missiles because Ukrainians cannot launch them independently. Russia also says Western nations tacitly support Kiev’s recruitment of mercenaries from among their military veterans. Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik estimated that around 20,000 foreign fighters have taken part in the conflict on the Ukrainian side.

Feb 18, 2026

Featured • State Department Official: No ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ With Russia on Maintaining New START Limits, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Feb 17, 2026

Featured • The war party takes Munich, Konstantin Kosachev, RT, Feb 16, 2026

This year’s Munich Security Conference was not merely disappointing; it was pointless. It produced no new ideas and no added value. Instead, it resembled a rally of a self-styled “coalition of the willing” for war. That, unfortunately, is consistent with Germany’s long tradition of failing to draw the right lessons from history.

Western European leaders spoke almost exclusively about rearmament and the creation of an independent military capability aimed, openly or implicitly, at confrontation with Russia. The tone was unmistakable: preparation for war, not peace. At the same time, participants repeated the familiar mantra that “more must be done” to ensure Ukraine’s victory. The contradiction went largely unnoticed. What emerged instead was a disturbing impression that Western Europe’s war party has overwhelmed everything else, including common sense and the instinct for self-preservation.

After last August’s meeting between the Russian and American presidents in Alaska, a new phrase entered diplomatic circulation: the “spirit of Anchorage.” The substance of the talks was never officially disclosed and can only be reconstructed from selective leaks. The form, however, was striking: a personal greeting, an honor guard, a shared limousine. Symbolism mattered. It was meant to signal seriousness.

Yet the question remains: what exactly was born in Anchorage? And does it belong in the lineage of earlier diplomatic “spirits” that once defined entire eras?

...Formally speaking, the Alaskan talks focused on Ukraine. That immediately raises a fundamental question. How realistic is it to reach a durable settlement without the direct participation of one of the warring parties? Such an approach is only viable if one of the interlocutors, in this case the United States, is both willing and able to compel Kiev to accept decisions taken without it.

Events since August suggest that Washington lacks this capacity, despite its considerable leverage. A more convincing explanation, however, is that it lacks the motivation. Donald Trump has made resolving the Ukrainian conflict a matter of personal prestige. But prestige is not the same as strategic necessity. For Trump and the narrow circle around him, the precise configuration of a settlement matters less than the avoidance of an outright Russian victory. Beyond that, the exact line of demarcation, and the conditions under which it is maintained, are not critical.

Feb 17, 2026

Featured • Listen to What the Russians are Saying About Novorossiya, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Feb 16, 2026

Featured • U.S. Calls For New Colonial Era, Moon of Alabama, Feb 16, 2026

In a perfect world, all of these problems and more would be solved by diplomats and strongly worded resolutions. But we do not live in a perfect world, and we cannot continue to allow those who blatantly and openly threaten our citizens and endanger our global stability to shield themselves behind abstractions of international law which they themselves routinely violate.

This is the path that President Trump and the United States has embarked upon. It is the path we ask you here in Europe to join us on. It is a path we have walked together before and hope to walk together again. For five centuries, before the end of the Second World War, the West had been expanding – its missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers pouring out from its shores to cross oceans, settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe.

But in 1945, for the first time since the age of Columbus, it was contracting. Europe was in ruins. Half of it lived behind an Iron Curtain and the rest looked like it would soon follow. The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come.

Against that backdrop, then, as now, many came to believe that the West’s age of dominance had come to an end and that our future was destined to be a faint and feeble echo of our past. But together, our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice, and it was a choice they refused to make. This is what we did together once before, and this is what President Trump and the United States want to do again now, together with you.

Feb 16, 2026

Featured • Trump Kabuki theatre in Ukraine: Nothing of substance gets resolved, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 16, 2026

So what is going on?

Firstly, underlying Trump’s approach to his ‘business strategy’ are several distinct parameters — the principal one being the deal-making culture centred on a ‘financial rewards system’. This approach ignores reality. The issue of Russia’s relations with Ukraine (and the U.S.) are not centred on the notional cutting up of a billion dollar re-construction cake.

The crux rather, is the imperative to reach an agreement on where exactly the boundary to NATO’s sphere of interest should be limited. And by extension, to where Russia and Central Asia’s boundary extends.

But matters are moving in the opposite direction: Lavrov’s frustration is very evident in these interviews. Trump is becoming more and more focussed on American domination (driven in no small part by the U.S.’ dollar and debt crisis).

Trump’s debt-driven focus on domination lies in diametric contradiction to a multi-polarity of powers based on respect for each other’s national security interests.

This leads to the second parameter — it is simply that conflicts and wars are not all susceptible to monetary buy-offs. There is ‘history’ and lives sacrificed. Only a resolution that encompasses an understanding of the full context which brought the conflict into being in the first place is likely to succeed.

And it is the root causes to the dispute that are precisely what is excluded under the Witkoff framing.

Separately, the legacy culture of European and U.S. banking and financial interests provides the predisposition to preserving the Ukrainian status quo as parcel to their historic stance.

The ‘taking care of stakeholders’ approach then automatically devolves into seeking a continuation of existing structures of power and authority in Kiev, without which the monetary worth of Ukrainian bonds — many of which are held by European governments – will fall to zero.

This deal-making appeared to be supported by recent statements by top DC energy consultant Bob Mcnally who was virtually salivating in a recent speech over the potential of the US anarcho-extortion vulture capitalism bandwagon alighting in Iran, whose oil and gas fields he believes hold far more plunder potential than those of Venezuela:

...Rubio’s speech made new waves due to what appeared to be a call for the US-European ‘civilization’ to take back the reins of global dominion. Ben Norton writes:

This is insane.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio just gave one of the most explicitly pro-colonialist speeches I have seen in the 21st century.

The US empire wants Europe to help it recolonize the Global South.

...What Rubio appears to be doing is shoe-horning the West’s cultural decline due to globalism and its spawn of mass-migration into some kind of new ideological call-to-action meant to justify the US’s erratic abrogation of MAGA’s promises and to continue the neocon plunder of the Global South.

...The other elephant in the room is that Rubio’s post hoc justifications contradict Trump and the MAGA movement’s earliest core principles and promises.

...It’s part and parcel to a larger Western initiative against the Global South, for instance the one being developed and trialed by the UK and its European partners to completely shut out Russia’s economic life lines:

...This all as the US seized another two tankers—Veronica III and Aquila II—all the way in the Indian ocean, reportedly again related to Venezuelan oil. It’s clear that the Western order is plotting to escalate its piracy as a last resort to shut down the Global South’s economic life lines because there is no other way for the West to compete; all these other fancy post hoc rationalizations and sophistic moral-philosophical sciolisms are just vain attempts to fashion a ‘legal-sounding’ framework for what is at its base raw piracy and criminal acts of aggression against sovereign states.

...Another way of simplifying it: the Trump administration campaigned on being non-interventionist and ‘America-first’, but then something happened. That something seems clear: Trump had a “talking to” by Miriam Adelson on behalf of Israel, and here we are. Now, Trump’s gophers like Rubio are forced to whip-up sloppy post hoc rationalizations to make it sound like this new “doctrine” was the plan all along; it wasn’t. Trump was merely “turned” by Israel—whether by kompromat or other means—and is now forced to pull the wool over our eyes as to why the US should continue “spreading defending Western culture” all over the globe.

This fact is easy to discern from Trump’s statements, like in the earlier video wherein he fumbles for an excuse as to why Iran must be attacked again. He cannot come up with a valid reason because one doesn’t exist: he’s simply following orders.

Feb 14, 2026

 • Munich Security Conference Evangelizes European War, Simplicius, Feb 13, 2026
War, war, war. Idiotic. Desperate.

 • EU Weighs Deploying Training Sites In Ukraine As Kremlin Warns: 'Legitimate Targets', ZeroHedge, Feb 13, 2026

The European Union is weighing plans to set up two military bases inside Ukraine to train fresh troops – a move Moscow has already warned could make them targets of military strikes. “We have been discussing the training of the Ukrainian soldiers, also on the soil of Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Wednesday. “We have identified two training centers that could be used for that purpose.”

The Kremlin made clear just a month ago: “The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns that the deployment of military units, military facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries on Ukrainian territory will be classified as foreign intervention, posing a direct threat to the security of not only Russia but also other European countries,” according to the warning of spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Western governments have already trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops over the course of the four-year grinding war with Russia – but this has been concentrated in countries like Britain, Denmark, and Poland.

On Thursday, Colonel General Andrey Serdyukov accused Europe of accelerating preparations for direct confrontation. “The militarization of Europe is continuing at an accelerated pace, openly aimed at preparing for a military confrontation with Russia,” he said. He added that “The territories are being rapidly fortified, and the relevant infrastructure is being improved.” The alleged ‘NATOization’ of Ukraine was a prime reason Moscow listed for going to war in the first place. Since Putin’s ‘special military operation’ next door, the opposite trend has happened: NATO is firmly ensconced in Kiev, in terms of the billions in weapons, equipment, and funds already poured in.

Meanwhile, the EU has just this week approved a fresh $100 billion loan package for Ukraine. As for proposed ‘EU bases’ – it’s hard to see this as in reality less than a full NATO established outpost in Ukraine. Russian leadership will see it as a recipe from taking the proxy war toward a full blown conflict directly with NATO.

Holding a wartime vote, therefore, presents Zelensky with the best possible chance of clinging to power. His secret police can bar candidates and arbitrarily close polling stations under martial law, nearly a dozen opposition parties have been banned since 2022, and there is no infrastructure in place for the millions of Ukrainian citizens living in Russia to vote. Furthermore, Zelensky has no clear challenger at the moment. Former commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny is widely viewed as his main rival, but he is currently a safe distance away in London. Former military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov is often portrayed as a viable candidate, but is now tied to Zelensky by heading his office. Former President Pyotr Poroshenko and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko are both facing corruption cases, which Timoshenko has described as fabricated in order to “purge” potential contenders for the presidency.

Should Zelensky face a public backlash for using an unfair election to stay in power, his team has a ready-made excuse to roll out: Trump made them do it.

The Ukrainian authorities are preparing a draft law to take all Russian and Russian-language books out of circulation, Ukrainian Culture Minister Tatyana Berezhnaya told Interfax-Ukraine in an interview published on Thursday. Moscow maintains that Kiev’s discriminatory policies against ethnic Russians in Ukraine, as well as its persecution of the Russian language and culture are some of the fundamental causes of the current conflict. According to Berezhnaya, Ukraine’s media authority is working on a bill to ban Russian books with the support of her ministry. She did not specify whether the measure would only remove them from store shelves or include confiscations from private collections.

Vladimir Zelensky’s predecessor, Pyotr Poroshenko, banned the import of books from Russia and Belarus in 2016, long before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict six years later. Kiev has since systematically purged Russian literature from state curricula, and intensified a purge of cultural monuments, memorials, and inscriptions to remove historical links to Russia. Kiev has also steadily cracked down on the use of the Russian language in public life, restricting or banning its use in media and in professional spheres. Nevertheless, it remains the first and primary language for many people in Ukraine, especially in metropolitan areas and in the east of the country. In December, the Ukrainian parliament stripped Russian of its protection under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Feb 13, 2026

Featured • Russia’s ‘Collapsing’ Economy, Moon of Alabama, Feb 12, 2026

Feb 11, 2026

Featured • EU Approves Massive $100 Billion Loan for Ukraine, Kyle Anzalone, The Libertarian Institute, Feb 11, 2026

Featured • NY Times Reports Russian Capture of Ukrainian Cities Months After It Happened, Moon of Alabama, Feb 11, 2026

So what has happened to the New York Times?

Why is it reporting on February 10 that Russia is “poised to complete the capture” of the three cities when all three of them, according to pro-Ukrainian sources, had fallen weeks and months ago?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow will in good faith stick to the nuclear limits outlined in the now-expired arms control treaty, provided Washington does the same.

...Lavrov said Russia has no intention of rapidly expanding or deploying additional weapons, clarifying remarks from his ministry last week that suggested Moscow no longer considered itself bound by the treaty.

"We proceed from the fact that this moratorium, which was announced by our president, remains in effect, but only while the United States does not exceed the outlined limits," Lavrov told Russia's parliament.

Some key aspects to the treaty have gone unobserved for some time, especially the regimen of mutual nuclear site inspections. (emphasis in original)

The Russian president knew that the “rules-based” order would drag the world into war.

Feb 10, 2026

Featured • Russia’s Trust in Trump and the US is Fading Fast, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Feb 9, 2026
Please read the whole thing. Not just the magisterial Lavrov but also the insightful Larry Johnson should command our close attention, as for example in his closing remarks:

A new economic and political order is being assembled, piece-by-piece, with Russia and China working as partners and leading the way. The reign of US hegemony is dead… The only way America can be “Great Again” is that it must reject militarism and violence and turn instead to adopting policies that are based on genuine collaboration with the BRICS nations. Lavrov was not expressing his opinion in this interview… He was explaining how the government of Vladimir Putin views the world. Will Trump listen and comprehend the message? I doubt it.

Feb 9, 2026

 • US wants total control over global energy supply routes – Lavrov, RT, Feb 9, 2026
Always.

Feb 8, 2026

Featured • They tortured, murdered, committed ethnic cleansing. Meet Ukraine’s ‘national heroes’, RT, Feb 7, 2026
Lest we forget. The Nazi-CIA-MI6 legacy is one of the biggest obstacles to peace in Ukraine.

Featured • How Western Europe learned to stop worrying and talk casually about nuclear war, RT, Feb 7, 2026

It is difficult to imagine any comparable [i.e. existential] threat facing Europe today. No major power is preparing to annihilate the continent. Russia, in particular, seeks something far more modest: an end to Western interference in its internal affairs, the cessation of security threats on its borders, and the restoration of economic ties destroyed by political confrontation. EU leaders understand this perfectly well, yet continue to behave as if they require protection from an impending apocalypse.

This leads to a second conclusion. Western Europe’s nuclear rhetoric is not about security at all. It is a symptom of growing fractures within the West itself. While American rhetoric has changed sharply, US nuclear weapons remain stationed in Europe. Washington talks about reducing its military footprint and pressures allies over Ukraine and even Greenland, but it has not withdrawn its deterrent.

Still, these signals have provoked panic in European capitals. Macron’s statements and the enthusiastic support they receive from German strategists reflect anxiety, not strategy. Talk of nuclear weapons has become a tactical move in Europe’s quarrel with Washington, little more than a rhetorical lever.

If matters ever became serious, neither France nor Britain would surrender control over their nuclear forces to Berlin, let alone Brussels. The British, in particular, prefer to avoid risks themselves while encouraging others to step forward first. Everyone understands this, yet the discussion continues because Western Europe no longer treats the most consequential questions of global politics with due seriousness.

Accustomed to limited influence and dependent security, the half-continent now reaches for the atomic bomb as a way to frighten the Americans. As if Washington does not understand perfectly well what such talk signifies. Nuclear weapons become another prop in political theatre.

This is where the danger lies. Western Europe has become an inexperienced and irresponsible actor, and widespread nuclear rhetoric inevitably appears threatening to others. Ironically, the region that once shaped international law and diplomacy now displays less strategic culture than many former colonial states in Asia and Latin America.

The main targets were around Kiev and in western Ukraine. The attack, especially in western Ukraine, was mostly by drones and subsonic cruise missiles. Except for Kiev air defense seems to have been absent or out of munitions.

Click here for larger image

For various reason the acting president of Ukraine and European leaders currently do not want a peace agreement in Ukraine. That the U.S. is in a hurry to conclude one plays in their favor. Unless the U.S. immediately starts to use very severe pressure there is not chance for coming close to ending the conflict.

Kiev has imposed emergency power shutdowns across the entire country, local officials say.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in televised comments and at a press conference, described the shooting as a “terrorist act” orchestrated by Ukraine’s leadership… He specifically accused President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He claimed it was a deliberate provocation to “disrupt the negotiation process” on ending the Ukraine war, sabotage peace talks, and influence Western backers amid ongoing diplomacy (e.g., recent Abu Dhabi rounds and broader US-Russia/Iran-related discussions). Lavrov said such acts confirm Kyiv’s unreadiness for substantive talks.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incident. He stated:

“It is clear that such military leaders and high-level specialists are at risk during wartime.

Peskov added that ensuring their safety is a matter for the special services (not the Kremlin directly), wished the general survival and recovery, and noted the special services are “doing their job.”

I won’t be surprised if Russia decides that Zelensky — whose persistent opposition to a diplomatic settlement shows no signs of weakening — must be eliminated.

Feb 6, 2026

 • Kiev Thermal Plant Said to Be "Gone" in New Post-"Truce" Strikes, + Detailed BDA Analysis, Simplicius, Feb 5, 2026
Always an interesting take on events.

 • How Arms Control Went Out The Window, Moon of Alabama, Feb 5, 2026

Feb 5, 2026

Featured • Scott Ritter : Trump Ignites a New Nuclear Arms Race, Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, Feb 4, 2026
Because this excellent commentary centrally deals with U.S.-Russian strategic nuclear relations, we are putting it here. The Ukraine War, the history of which we track here, came from the same fountainhead of folly that produced the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, the US-created 2014 Maidan coup, and the endless provocations that finally provoked the 2022 Ukraine War.

Featured • Moscow: US and Russia ‘No Longer Bound’ by New START Limits as Treaty Set to Expire, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Feb 4, 2026

Featured • Peace won’t save Ukraine: What comes after the war may be worse, RT, Feb 4, 2026

History suggests the country’s physically and mentally decimated population is in for years of prolonged social strife.

Four years after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, some sort of peace deal appears to be somewhere around the corner as Moscow, Kiev, and Washington have started holding trilateral negotiations. But while these developments suggest peace could potentially soon be at hand, history shows that the struggles for Ukraine are likely far from over as the ‘echo of war’ is sure to ring out for some years to come.

The prolonged fighting has seen many Ukrainian men forced to the front line by the Kiev regime with estimates suggesting some one million Ukrainians have been mobilized since 2022. The physical and mental toll on these soldiers, many of whom did not want to fight in the first place, has been immense.

Coupled with an influx of weapons to the country, many of which have made their way to the hands of civilians and criminal groups, Ukrainians appear to be in for many more years of internal strife, as has been the case in numerous countries following prolonged conflicts.

PTSD and substance abuse

In June, The Lancet Regional Health medical journal reported alarmingly high rates of PTSD and other mental health conditions among Ukrainian soldiers who had been “relentlessly” exposed to violence, trauma and death, while also noting a lack of adequate support systems in the country.

According to the Lancet, many combat-exposed Ukrainian soldiers, two-thirds of which already have PTSD, have been resorting to alcohol and drug abuse, particularly cannabis and synthetic ‘bath salts’ which cause severe health effects including behavior change, violence, depression, and suicide. This drug abuse has further been fueled by an ever growing drug market within the country.

Another study published in October by the New Line Institute, authored by several clinical psychologists, found that the issue extends to civilians as well, with 76% of respondents meeting PTSD criteria and 66% exhibiting significant moral injury between 2022 and 2023.

“Trauma exposure, including PTSD and moral injury, can increase aggression among affected populations, creating a feedback loop in which societal violence escalates even in areas not directly attacked by military forces,” the authors noted citing extensive research on the issue.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the so-called “coalition of the willing” will deploy forces across Ukraine – on land, at sea, and in the air – once a peace agreement with Russia is signed, making clear that Western boots, jets, and naval assets would follow any ceasefire. Rutte said Ukraine needs binding commitments and security guarantees in order to prevent future Russian aggression. This is to include the deployment of European forces and a “crucial” US “backstop”. His words are consistent with the Western position – and specifically the European view – on what a final Ukraine peace deal would require.

The Kremlin has as expected consistently rejected this ‘option’ as a non-starter, given this is why Russia went to war in the first place: to stop a NATO troop outpost right on its border, and constant NATO expansion. What Moscow will find doubly alarming is that Rutte issued the words directly before Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (the unicameral parliament of Ukraine). Other NATO states, Rutte laid out, would continue to assist through additional channels in a support role to Western boots on the ground.

Feb 2, 2026

Featured • Gaza reconstruction; Ukraine reconstruction – ‘It’s all business’, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Feb 2, 2026
Ever more complicated. Of greatest interest to my simple mind is the claim that Iran has graduated into having a comprehensive military deterrent. Let us hope so. Also: is Putin, in effect, offering to buy peace and the remainder of the Donbass, with some of the funds Russia is likely to lose anyway, or has lost already, saving lives and infrastructure?

 • Peace with Russia? Not until the EU changes its political class, Vitaly Ryumshin, RT, Feb 2, 2026

Jan 31, 2026

Featured • Dmitry Trenin: America First goes global, RT, Jan 30, 2026
Trenin is not just offering his personal views here. In my opinion, this is also a fair estimate of the thinking around him, It also happens to be an accurate rendering of U.S. policy as well. That policy is not, however, personal to Trump. Trump is the catalyst and communicator of a prior incipient policy change. Failure of the Ukraine gambit, the catastrophically-rising U.S. debt, and the rise of China impel this direction, given the power of various Deep State factions. Trump is an equilibration engine, not a statesmen. His inconsistencies represent not just his personal madness but also the need to reconcile the contradictions around him and in this country.

 • Ukraine hit by nationwide blackouts (VIDEOS), RT, Jan 31, 2026

 • SITREP 1/30/26: Putin Flatters Trump With Kiev-Energy Ceasefire, Simplicius, Jan 30, 2026

Jan 29, 2026

 • Unprecedented: Trump Gets Putin To Halt Strikes On Kiev For One Week In Call, ZeroHedge, Jan 29, 2026

Jan 27, 2026

 • Zelensky tells military to focus on killing Russians, RT, Jan 27, 2026

Jan 26, 2026

 • What may be the Greenland endgame?, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Jan 26, 2026

But behind the scenes – as always these days in western Europe – lies ‘Project Ukraine’. ‘Coalition of the Willing’ European members are still fixated on coercing Trump to agree that U.S. military forces will backstop European security guarantees (in the unlikely event of an Ukraine ceasefire coming into effect).

What will be the initial ‘Greenland’ endgame? Trump will ‘take’ Greenland. In the longer timeframe this may lead to the dismemberment of Europe and some European states pursuing individual defence policies. The European élites however, will be more intent on preserving NATO and the semblance of being American ‘allies’, than ‘saving Greenland’.

Jan 24, 2026

Featured • Scott Ritter: Getting it Wrong on Russia, Consortium News, Jan 23, 2026

 • Is it time to START worrying? Nuclear restraint is about to fade without a fight, RT, Jan 23, 2026
You may find this article useful. It comes from a Russian journalist and others would tell this history somewhat differently, although with heavy overlap and agreement in many places, with some of the holes at least partially filled in. It doesn't really fit exactly into Ukraine War theme here but this is the only place we can put it, and the demise of New START is indeed very important. I find most U.S. stories about this too partial to official U.S. views. Nothing is going to happen in arms control until the Ukraine War is settled -- and settled in a way that makes Russia secure enough, which will need to involve much more than a handshake. Said differently, the need for an enduring mutual peace has moved to the front of the line. Arms control will come later, as a result. Nuclear disarmament is not on the horizon. Nonproliferation can no longer be taken for granted, given what just happened in Venezuela and what is likely to happen soon in Iran. Which is: war. Given increasing U.S. thuggishness, small countries may want big deterrents.

Jan 23, 2026

Featured • Blackrock boss working on $800 billion plan for Ukraine’s economy – Witkoff, RT, Jan 23, 2026

Featured • Jeffrey Sachs: Davos - US Empire Unhinged & Europe Subordinated, Glenn Diesen, Jan 22, 2026

Featured • Hoodwinks and Hijinks: Trump 'Nabs' Greenland at Davos, Simplicius, Jan 22, 2026

Featured • Witkoff and Kushner Spend Almost Four Hours with Putin, but No Diplomatic Breakthrough, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Jan 22, 2026

Jan 21, 2026

Featured • Situation Goes Critical as Kiev Begins Emptying Out, Simplicius, Jan 20, 2026

Zelensky himself announced over one million people in Kiev alone are without power, while numerous other reports give the figure as 80% of Kiev in a total outage.

Almost all of Kiev and the Chernigov region remain without electricity and heating

 • 87% of consumers in the Chernigov region are without electricity, according to “Ukrenergo”, all emergency disconnection queues are simultaneously in effect in the region, reports the regional energy company.

 • Meanwhile, a monitoring map of Kiev has appeared, where more than 80% of subscribers remain without electricity and heat.

But the most shocking figure came from mayor Klitschko, who said that just in January alone, 600,000 residents have fled Kiev, with more being urged to flee...

Jan 20, 2026

Featured • Ukraine – The Mood Is Changing – Pep Songs Are No Longer Welcome, Moon of Alabama, Jan 20, 2026

Jan 19, 2026

Featured • Dark Kiev, Moon of Alabama, Jan 17, 2026
I hesitate to split out any teaser from this short report, which would risk separating current facts from their background. Again and again we need to say, where have all the peacemakers in the world's NGOs gone? In the so-called "anti-nuclear" community? It's a given that there are essentially no peacemakers in Congress. What about the churches? What about all the people signaling their virtue in various mobilizations and marches? What about the universities? Not a peep. Realistically, how did anyone imagine this would end? That is still unclear but now it is war, not a "special military operation." Again and again we have kept saying, the strong forces on Putin and the Russian security council are calling for stronger military action, not another fake peace so Ukraine can rearm again. Again and again we and so many wise voices have cried, "do not torment the mama bear on the doorstep of her den." For years Russia fought a very careful war, while Ukraine resorted to terrorism and false flag operations. After Ukraine, with U.S. help, targeted Putin's residence with drones during peace negotiations, and Russian-flagged vessels were seized on the high seas, the gloves have come off. Now, comfortable chickenhawks who dreamed of defeating Russia on its doorstep -- in Washington, Brussels, and European capitals -- are turning away and condemning Ukraine to death. On December 31 I predicted Ukraine would not last through 2026. I'll stick by that prediction. We'll see.

Jan 17, 2026

Featured • Vladimir Putin Puts Donald Trump and NATO on Notice, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Jan 16, 2026
Putin put on a master class in diplomacy and made three critical points:

1. Criticized those countries relying on the might-makes-right principle to assert their unilateral narratives, which was a barb directed at Donald Trump.

2. Reiterated the importance of respect for international law and lamented the West ignoring Russia’s legitimate interests and a deliberate policy of creating threats to our security, including the advancement of the NATO bloc towards Russia’s borders – contrary to the public promises made to us. I want to emphasise this: contrary to the public promises made to us.

3. Reaffirmed Russia’s support for Cuba’s sovereignty and independence.

Jan 16, 2026

Featured • Russia says it awaits US response on 'important' issue of expiring nuclear treaty, Dmitry Antonov, Reuters, Jan 15, 2026
At least the door is not yet closed. Not yet. FYI, all the good liberal folks cringing about this looming end to restraints need to reexamine how Russophobic they have been over the past 4 years. What did they think would be the result of the frankly total -- as in, totalitarian -- unanimity and resulting cancellation of facts and alternative views they helped create? They didn't think, is the answer. They went along with the crowd.

 • SITREP 1/15/26: "Winter Break" Over? Russian Campaign Stirs Back to Life, Simplicius, Jan 15, 2026
I hate war reporting as if death and destruction were not the coin of it, but that is the reality. Russia will take all of those provinces eventually, and won't stop there if that leaves a major threat on its doorstep. Neither would the U.S. in the same situation. Dear Ukraine, to stop the killing, just stop. Give up those eastern lands, declare neutrality in a treaty, break your fascination with mass murderers like Stepan Bandera and all those who love Naziism today, and aim at fate like Austria. If you don't, tens if not hundreds of thousands more lives will be lost, ultimately to no purpose as far as you are concerned. In short, surrender.

 • Ukraine Reports 200,000 Soldiers AWOL, 2 Million Ukrainians Avoid Conscription, Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com, Jan 15, 2026

 • Germany’s Merz changes stance on Russia, RT, Jan 15, 2026
Along with Macron and Meloni. When in a hole....

Jan 15, 2026

 • Fantasy "Loan" for Ukraine Gets Adjusted Again as EU Faces Priorities Reality Check, Simplicius, Jan 15, 2026

Jan 14, 2026

Featured • Scott Ritter : How Close Is Putin to Escalation?, Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, Jan 13, 2026

Jan 13, 2026

 • Day 1,419: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Just Surpassed Soviet War With Nazi Germany, ZeroHedge, Jan 12, 2026

 • Ukraine's Power Grid Woes Worsen, + New Oreshnik BDA, Simplicius, Jan 12, 2026
Best to ignore his take on Oreshnik engineering. He doesn't know.

 • UK to develop new deep strike ballistic missile for Ukraine, Gov.UK, Jan 11, 2026

Jan 10, 2026

Featured • Winter Strikes Kiev, Moon of Alabama, Jan 9, 2026

Featured • Kiev mayor urges residents to evacuate, RT, Jan 9, 2026

Half of the apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital have been left without heating, Vitaly Klitschko has said.

FILE PHOTO. Firefighter crews work to extinguish flames following a Russian strike on Kiev, Ukraine. © Getty Images / Anadolu / State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has urged the city’s residents to evacuate, stating that some 6,000 apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital have been left without central heating.

Klitschko blamed the “extremely difficult situation” in the city on overnight Russian strikes. Moscow has said it targeted drone production facilities, energy infrastructure, and other military-related facilities across Ukraine in response to an attempted “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in late December.

“I appeal to residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city, where there are alternative sources of power and heat, to do so,” Klitschko wrote on his Telegram channel, stating the overnight attack became the most “painful” for the city of three million amid the Ukraine conflict.

According to the mayor, nearly half of Kiev’s residential buildings ended up without central heating after the strikes. An unspecified number of buildings have also been hit by water supply disruptions. He said that the city’s authorities “hope” to restore central heating for “some” of the affected buildings by the evening. The situation in the city is further aggravated by heavy snowfall and low temperatures.

READ MORE: Ukrainian strikes have left 550,000 without power in western Russia – governor

In a follow-up post, Klitschko urged those residents who still have access to amenities to help less fortunate citizens and “invite them to warm up or cook food.” The mayor also reminded the residents that the capital has some 1,200 heating stations, so-called “points of unbreakability,” where people can warm up, get hot food, and charge their electronic devices.

Russia has ramped up its long-range strikes campaign against Ukraine’s military and dual-use infrastructure in recent months. According to Moscow, the ongoing wave of strikes comes in response to the continuous effort of the Ukrainian military to attack Russia’s energy infrastructure, as well as to indiscriminate strikes on civilians.

In Russia’s Belgorod Region, over half a million people were left without power after overnight Ukrainian airstrikes, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, with temperatures near freezing. In addition, over half a million were left without heat and over 200,000 were let without water and sanitation services. The city of Oryol reportedly also faced heavy blackouts.

Jan 9, 2026

 • Swift Retaliation: Putin Launches Oreshnik Strike on "Largest Gas Storage Site in Europe" in Ukraine's Lvov Region, Simplicius, Jan 8, 2026

The even bigger story is the fact that Dnipro and Zaporozhye—both cities of nearly one million people, have reportedly been without power for days...

...As stated before, while the Oreshnik ‘stole the show’ and provided a flashy spectacle, the much bigger story is Russia’s ongoing systematic campaign of taking out Ukrainian infrastructure in general. This is putting major strain on Europe, as it faces increased isolation from “daddy” US, forcing Europe to divest more and more of its citizens’ funds to up-keeping Ukraine. This pursues a simultaneous Russian strategy of destroying Ukraine while greatly weakening Europe, particularly its political leaders, who face increased pressure at home for their disastrously mismanaged public finances.

By the way, the crew of the Marinera consists of two Russians, eight Georgians and 20 Ukrainians. US Attorney General Pam Bondi added fuel to this potential conflagration when she announced on Thursday that the crew members were “under full investigation” for failing to obey U.S. Coast Guard orders and that “criminal charges will be pursued against all culpable actors.”

I don’t know who told Trump that seizing a Russian-flagged ship was a good idea, but the action is not just pointless and stupid… It is dangerous. If you’re sitting in Moscow and reflecting on the actions of the United States since December 28 — i.e., the failed drone attack on Putin’s residence, the illegal abduction of Venezuelan President Maduro, Trump’s threats to attack Colombia and Greenland, and yesterday’s piracy of a Russian ship — you are likely to conclude that Trump is not serious about normalizing relations with Russia and that he is looking for a confrontation. It is foolish to poke a cranky bear because you are only going to further provoke the animal and incite him to eat you.

Jan 8, 2026

Featured • Escalation-Mad Trump's Coast Guard Seizes "Russian" Ship 5,500 km From US Coasts, Simplicius, Jan 7, 2026

Jan 7, 2026

 • Did Russia Just Send a Message to Donald Trump? Who Ratted out Maduro?, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Jan 7, 2026

 • US Seizes Russian-Flagged Tanker In North Atlantic, ZeroHedge, Jan 7, 2026
Steve Starr: "The US continues to escalate its acts of war against Russia."

 • George W. Bush Missed the Chance for Peace With Russia, James Carden, Antiwar.com, Jan 7, 2026
The dialogue is interesting but needs a bit of supplementation. Apparently the final meeting between GW Bush and Putin (April 6, 2008) took place a few days after the fateful NATO meeting in Bucharest (April 2-4, 2008), in which the intent to add Ukraine to NATO was endorsed. How this all fits together needs to be supplied by the reader.

Jan 5, 2026

 • Zelenski’s Choice As New Head Of Office Moves Scale Towards Peace, Moon of Alabama, Jan 2, 2026
Interesting observations and theories, which we must take with a grain of salt for now.

Jan 2, 2026

Featured • Did CIA's Secret Aiding of Ukraine's Refinery Strikes Do More Harm to Ukraine Than Russia?, Simplicius, Jan 1, 2026
Good discussion of Berletic's style of analysis, and all analysis that treats the USG as a monolith. It's value depends on how much magnification one wants. Generally, antinuclear activists treat the relevant parts of the USG as a monolith. It isn't, though it tries to be and is mostly successful. The exacdt state of play is generally opaque from the outside.

Featured • PATRICK LAWRENCE: New Year’s Notes on Purported Leaders, Consortium News, Dec 31, 2025

Two, it is no use hoping for any alteration in the collective West’s course so long as this crowd of self-interested second-raters remains in office. These people have condemned us, while acting in our names, to regimes of wanton brutality.

Three and more significantly and imposingly, it follows that the systems and political processes that thrust them into positions far beyond their capacities have to be dismantled or otherwise radically reformed before there is a chance of restoring ourselves to any kind of just, humane order.

Four and reading out of Nos. 1, 2, and 3, post-democratic disempowerment and the West’s sponsorship of rampant disorder burdens citizens with great responsibilities.

Chas Freeman, the emeritus ambassador and energetic commentator, surprised me this past autumn by stating during a podcast that we—we Americans—have entered a pre-revolutionary period in American history. I will let Chas’s remark stand as an explanation of what I mean by responsibilities. The future is up to us, to put this point another way.

Three Ukrainian drones attacked a hotel and cafe in the Kherson region, with one drone carrying an incendiary device. Regional governor Vladimir Saldo stated the strike intentionally targeted civilians leaving 24 dead, 29 injured, including 5 children.

"This morning, alongside their croissants and poached eggs, the presidents and prime ministers of the collective West should have reports on their breakfast tables detailing how billions of their taxpayers' money have been spent, how many New Year's gifts — purchased with those funds — were used to kill civilians, and how they have been complicit in the destruction of children," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"We accuse all those who sponsor terrorist bastards in Ukraine! We accuse them of murdering children and destroying civilians! We accuse them of corrupting Ukrainian statehood, which has turned into a killing machine!" she stressed.

The Ukrainian strike on a cafe in the Kherson region must receive the harshest legal and political condemnation from all countries for which the norms of international humanitarian law still mean something, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large on the Kiev Regime's War Crimes Rodion Miroshnik said.

..."We are dealing with absolute moral ugliness. With creatures organically devoid of connection to the inner moral law with which the Lord endowed a man. And therefore, they have no moral right to represent power in a normal society or claim popular support. They should certainly have no political future," she said.

The Ukrainian armed forces knew that there were peaceful vacationers, families with children in the cafe, however carried out a deliberate strike, she added.

So why has this latest attack by Ukraine sparked such fury on the part of the Russians? This is something more than orchestrated outrage. I think it is a combination of factors, starting with the fact that the attack began while Ukraine’s Zelensky was meeting with Donald Trump for the ostensible purpose of trying to craft a peace proposal for Russia. Whether Zelensky was witting of the plan is not relevant. This was an attack planned and executed with the assistance of Western intelligence, possibly including the CIA, and the timing and the intended target removed any doubt on the part of the Russians that the West could be trusted to negotiate an honest deal.

We still do not know if President Putin was at the residence… If he was, then it is not out of the question for the Russians to conclude that this was a deliberate attempt to kill Putin using the peace talks as a ruse. We will soon find out how pissed off the Russians are when they carry out their promise to retaliate. I believe Russia is planning something more dramatic than launching a 1,000 missiles and drones at power plants and military targets in Ukraine… They have been doing that for more than two years.

How does the CIA know that the Ukrainians were aiming at a military target near the Putin residence since all of the drones were shot down? Did the Ukrainians tell their CIA handlers or was it something more sinister. Let’s start with the fact that the CIA tacitly admitted that, as the Russians claimed, 91 drones were shot down. If no drones had been launched — which the Russians already had debunked by showing the flight paths of each — then the CIA should have simply said, “No drones were launched.”

I think it is something potentially more sinister… Did the CIA know about the intended target because CIA personnel provided Ukraine with the targeting data? This may be the reason that the Russians are so furious about a drone attack that didn’t kill anyone.

Dec 31, 2025

Featured • NY Times Expose: CIA Fights Russia – Trump’s Peace Deal Runs on Illusion, Moon of Alabama, Dec 31, 2025

Featured • Some thoughts regarding the Ukrainian drone attack that targeted President Putin, Scott Ritter, Dec 31, 2025

The attack meets two of the criterion set forth in the “Fundamentals of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence”, published on December 3, 2024, regarding acts of aggression designed to be deterred by Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces.

This includes “Aggression by any state from a military coalition (bloc, alliance) against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies is considered as the aggression by this coalition (bloc, alliance) as a whole”, and “Aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies by any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack.”

Ukraine operates as part of a NATO bloc whose stated objective is the strategic defeat of Russia. Ukraine’s targeting of the Russian President constitutes “actions by an adversary affecting elements of critically important state or military infrastructure of the Russian Federation, the disablement of which would disrupt response actions by nuclear forces.”

Had the Ukrainian attack succeeded, Russia would have carried out massive nuclear retaliation against all of Europe.

I don’t think the world understands how close it came to nuclear Armageddon.

Then there is the infrastructure aspect. Ukraine’s energy grid, industrial, and economic infrastructure is being targeted by Russia like never before: from railways, ports, factories, power plants, etc. This will likewise continue to worsen to unseen levels and add to the questions of how much longer Ukraine can hold out amidst worsening conditions from all of the mentioned fields.

...Then there is the political aspect. This past year has brought major political pressure, from the corruption scandals slowly tightening the noose over Zelensky himself, to major figures being forced out, from Podolyak, Yermak, and many others. How much longer can Zelensky’s regime bear this pressure and societal exhaustion, particularly with the pressures of elections growing more intense as well?

So the real question is not how much territory Russia seizes, per se. That’s just one of the many elements of Russia’s overall hybrid war which will add intense pressure to the teetering structure of Ukraine as a whole.

Imagine, for a moment if Ukraine makes it to the end of 2026, politically speaking, and the AFU manages to hang on as well. The situation will likely be terminally dismal, and nearing a breaking point. Now imagine precisely at this time of greatest despair—with energy infrastructure totally destroyed, complete political and societal exhaustion, economic collapse or near-terminal hardship, etc.—and right at this moment, Russian troops capture Zaporozhye and Kramatorsk-Slavyansk. The blow from these liberations could reverberate so loudly as to finish off any remaining morale in the nation, or at least send it veering into the final death spiral.

Dec 30, 2025

Featured • Ukraine – Negotiations At A Standstill, The War Progresses, Moon of Alabama, Dec 29, 2025

The speed of progress Russian troops are making has increased. During the last weeks several significant Ukrainian cities – Kupiansk, Siversk, Pokrovsk, Myronograd, Huleipole – have fallen into Russian hands. The Ukrainian command seems to ignore this reality. It took weeks to admit that Siverks had fallen. It still claims to hold ground in Myrnograd and Huleipole. It loudly claims a successful counteroffensive in Kupiansk while its troops there get bombed to smithereens.

Meanwhile Russia has widely succeeded in de-energizing Ukraine. Electricity in Ukraine’s big cities is limited to less than 12 hours per day. The countryside has largely been turned off completely. Central heating and water supply barely function.

The Russian side keeps emphasizing that its attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine are in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on oil processing facilities in Russia. Russia has a significant overcapacity in the refining business. It can afford the losses the Ukrainian side is able to inflict. Ukraine however can not afford a total blackout. Nevertheless it continues its self-destructive efforts.

The war has gone on much longer than I had expected nearly four years ago. The reasons were a very careful Russian campaign that had tried to avoid civilian casualties and damage on one side and, on the other side, an immense amount of support Ukraine has received from its allies.

Both parameters are changing. The campaign to de-energize Ukraine is hurting those civilians who so far could avoid to be impacted by the war. The U.S. has largely stopped its delivery of weapons to Ukraine. The Europeans are cutting back their provisions of arms and money.

In the new year we can expect that the Ukrainian public willingness to continue the war will break down. At the same time the Ukrainian army efforts to defend against Russian onslaughts will falter. Troops will revolt, commanders will leave their positions.

But when, where and how this will end are still open questions.

A new Ukrainian government must be elected by a legitimate inclusive vote before a peace treaty can be signed with Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Presidential and parliamentary elections have been suspended in Ukraine under martial law, with Vladimir Zelensky’s mandate to lead the country expiring last year. In an interview with Rossiya Segodnya media group, Lavrov dismissed the idea that a temporary ceasefire is needed so that the current Ukrainian administration can hold a referendum on peace terms.

“The leadership in Kiev needs a mandate to seal a peace agreement. Only an election following a transparent and fair electoral campaign, in which all interested political forces take part, can provide that,” Lavrov said.

“The Ukrainian people, including many who live in Russia, have to finally be given an opportunity to determine their fate,” he added. “Organizing the ballot must not be used as a pretext for a temporary ceasefire to rearm the Ukrainian army.”

Russia’s response to a failed Ukrainian drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s state residence will not be diplomatic, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that on the night of December 28-29, “the Kiev regime launched a terrorist attack using 91 long-range strike unmanned aerial vehicles on the state residence of the president of the Russian Federation in Novgorod Region.”

He noted that all 91 UAVs were intercepted, with no casualties or material damage reported.

Lavrov noted that while Moscow remains committed to the US-mediated peace process, “Russia’s negotiating position will be revised” in light of Ukraine’s “reckless actions.”

“Targets for retaliatory strikes and the time for their implementation by the Russian Armed Forces have been determined,” the minister warned.

“The answers will not be diplomatic. Let them not get their hopes up,” Zakharova told Russian media late Monday, calling the attempted attack unprecedented.

The Ukrainian claim that Russia did this in order to “harden its negotiating position” does not pass the smell test because Russia’s position is already hardened. Moscow was not looking for an excuse to hit Ukraine harder… They already are doing so.

Did Zelensky approve the attack? I doubt it. I think this was ordered and executed by Ukrainian intelligence, with assistance from at least the British services, in order to sabotage the talks and damage Zelensky. This was not an actual attack to kill Putin because he has been living in the Kremlin for the last four years in order to reduce his vulnerability to an attack like this. The Ukrainian officials who ordered this were more intent on embarrassing Zelensky than on killing Putin.

I believe this is one more indicator that Zelensky’s days are numbered as his opponents in Ukraine, with encouragement from Western intelligence operatives, appear to be maneuvering to replace him and keep the war going. News broke over the weekend that General Zaluzhny, who has been in London for more than a year as the ostensible Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, is heading back to Kiev at the end of this week. The chess pieces in this iteration of Game of Thrones are moving.

US President Donald Trump has condemned the attempted Ukrainian drone strike on the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating the attack made him “very angry” and came at a “delicate period of time.”

Earlier on Monday, Moscow said Putin’s residence in Novgorod Region came under a concentrated long-range drone attack overnight. A total of 91 kamikaze drones were used in the strike, all of which were intercepted. Top Russian officials condemned the attempted strike as a terrorist attack, vowing retaliation and signaling the incident was bound to affect Moscow’s position in the ongoing negotiations to settle the Ukraine conflict.

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the White House, Trump confirmed he learned about the attack from Putin during a phone conversation earlier in the day. The incident made the US president “very angry,” particularly since it came during “a delicate period of time,” he said.

“Early in the morning [Putin] said he was attacked. It’s not good. Don’t forget, you know, the Tomahawks. I stopped the Tomahawks. I didn’t want that,” Trump said, referring to US-made cruise missiles that have been repeatedly requested by Kiev.

The exchange between the two presidents was earlier confirmed by Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, who said Trump was “shocked” by the attack on Putin’s residence and said, “Thank God, we did not give the Tomahawks” to Kiev.

Dec 27, 2025

Featured • Netanyahu’s new slant to lure Trump into war with Iran, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Dec 26, 2025

What this suggests is that the National Strategy Statement (NSS) in respect to China (it states that Washington views China as no longer constituting a ‘prime threat’, but only as an economic competitor) is meaningless rhetoric. China is being treated as an adversarial threat and will respond as such.

China and Russia will ‘read’ the Trump Administration by its actions, rather than its NSS rhetoric. And the signals speak plainly to escalatory steps.

Put all this into the context of ‘leaks’ by senior Trump officials which Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says are “lies and propaganda”. She says the claims that “the ‘U.S. intelligence community’ agrees to, and supports the EU/NATO viewpoint, that Russia’s aim is to invade/conquer Europe (in order to ‘gin up support’ for their pro-war policies)” — that these are lies being pushed by what she terms “Deep State warmongers and their Propaganda Media … to undermine Trump’s efforts to bring peace to Ukraine”.

“The truth”, Gabbard writes on Twitter, is the opposite:

“[That] the U.S. intelligence community has briefed policymakers, including the Democrat HPSCI member quoted by Reuters, that U.S. Intelligence assesses that Russia seeks to avoid a larger war with NATO. It also assesses that, as the last few years have shown, Russia … does not have the capability to invade and occupy Europe” — and that “U.S. Intelligence assesses that Russia seeks to avoid a larger war with NATO”.

So, what Gabbard is telling us is that there is open intra-warfare at the top of the Trump Administration. On one side, there is the CIA, the hawks and their European collaborators, and on the other, Gabbard’s Intelligence analysts and a larger U.S. constituency.

Where is Trump in this brew? Why is he positioning himself at the cusp of another round of conflict with China? Why would he do that when U.S. economic structures are so fragile, and when China has shown that it has economic leverage with which to fight? Is the explanation the simplistic response that it is a diversion from the release of further Epstein images?

US President Donald Trump’s envoys in negotiations with Moscow, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, see Russia as an “El Dorado” with vast natural resources and rich investment opportunities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with their thinking.

Both believe that lifting sanctions and reintegrating Russia back into the world economy could make money for US investors and smooth out its relations with Ukraine and Europe, the newspaper wrote.

The West imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, which Moscow maintains have only served to strengthen the Russian economy.

US firms could return to Russia after a peace deal with Ukraine is reached, Witkoff has stated.

Dec 25, 2025

Featured • Highly recommended: Jeffery Sachs: Two Centuries of Russophobia & Rejection of Peace, Consortium News, Dec 24, 2025

 • Kremlin responds to Zelensky’s ‘unhinged’ Christmas address, RT, Dec 25, 2025

Vladimir Zelensky’s “strange” Christmas address raises concerns over the Ukrainian leader’s ability to make any rational decisions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Zelensky published a video on his Telegram channel on Wednesday in which he wished Ukrainians a happy upcoming Christmas. However, in the same video, he also wished for a certain unnamed person – presumably Russian President Vladimir Putin – “to perish” before urging everyone to pray for peace.

Commenting on the video, Peskov said it appeared “uncultured, embittered, and coming from a seemingly unhinged person.”

“One wonders if he’s capable of making any rational decisions towards a political and diplomatic settlement,” the Kremlin spokesman added, referring to the ongoing Russia-US efforts to end the Ukraine conflict. Moscow has accused Kiev and its European backers of repeatedly undermining peace talks by making unacceptable demands.

Reprinted from The Realist Review:

Recently, the New York Times relayed Tucker Carlson’s view that, “The most depressing thing about the United States in 2025 is that we’re led not just by bad people, but by unimpressive, dumb, totally noncreative people.” This is unarguable – and the Times made no attempt to counter the point. Indeed, this judgement applies doubly to the team of grifters and double-digit IQ Machiavellians who staff upper echelons of the Trump administration.

Yet, a fascinating new book by the scholars (and brothers) William and Philip Taubman shows that even smart and impressive people can, if they lack vision, character and empathy, lead the country to disaster. One such leader was Robert S. McNamara, the architect of the war in Vietnam...

Dec 23, 2025

Featured • What Russia Could Do, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 23, 2025
An outstanding piece. If you have a hankering for authoritative clarity on the subject of theft of Russian assets and the interest thereon, and what that means under EU law and ALL law, you can find it here. The historical glances are shocking, but make sense because of Merz's important and apparently defining relationship with his Nazi grandfather. Absent 1984-level lack of freedom, Merz would be political toast. the whole tyrannical package goes together: war, theft, imposition of debt by the unelected, censorship and democracy prevention.

Featured • No Treaty, No Deal (With Apologies to Bob Marley), Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 22, 2025

Many in the West, especially among US politicians and the US-mainstream media, harbor the fantasy that there will be a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine that conforms with the 28-point plan that was leaked to the press more than a month ago. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Donald Trump is serious about reaching a deal with Russia that meets the demands that President Putin outlined last Friday during his end of the year press conference (see here, Vladimir Putin Leaves No Doubt About Russia’s Demands to End the War in Ukraine… Do Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff Understand?).

I believe there is one demand that Putin did not mention and, to my knowledge, has not stated in public… The deal with the US must be a treaty that is ratified by the US Senate. Unless the agreement is concluded as a treaty, any promise by Donald Trump comes with an expiration date and will be ignored or rejected by US politicians and the Deep State.

Why do I say that? Let’s review what Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press where he discussed ongoing efforts to negotiate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. He expressed support for a deal but emphasized strong conditions and consequences if Russia rejects it. Graham said that he wants a peace deal “that would prevent a third invasion” of Ukraine by Russia (referring to the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 full-scale invasion). He even conceded that not all Russian-occupied territory would be returned: “We’re not going to evict every Russian out of Ukraine, I understand that.”

But he called for robust security guarantees for Ukraine, including potential European troops on the ground and US commitments. That is a deal breaker for the Russians.

Dec 21, 2025

 • Despite Dire US Predictions About a Collapsing Russian Economy, Russia is Doing Just Fine… But the US Ain’t, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 20, 2025
I am not sure how Larry manages to put all this together so quickly. AI must help, guided by his own in-depth knowledge? In any case I wish Trump would read this.

Dec 20, 2025

Featured • The EU’s ‘Russian Asset’ Scam Failed But Warmongers Still Grab Other’s Money, Moon of Alabama, Dec 20, 2025

They threatened Brussels, launched a campaign of anti-Russian propaganda and came up with fake legal reasoning to justify their attempt of the biggest bank robbery in history.

On Thursday night, December 18, their plan crashed:

European governments failed to reach a deal on sending Russian frozen state assets to Ukraine after a 16-hour summit in Brussels, in a major setback for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Countries were forced instead to agree on an emergency backup plan based on EU joint debt that was pushed for weeks by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and was deemed a long shot until hours before the deal was done. In a further blow to EU unity, three countries - Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - won’t take part.

…

Though the accord allows everyone to claim victory, this wasn’t the solution that Germany and the Commission had been pushing for in the lead-up to this summit.

…

For weeks, the EU executive and Berlin have been pressuring member countries to finalize a controversial plan to use up to €210 billion Russian frozen state assets to finance Ukraine. De Wever ensured once again that didn’t happen after already derailing the Russian assets scheme during a previous summit in October.

Instead, leaders agreed to jointly borrow €90 billion to fund a loan to Ukraine over two years. This will be guaranteed by the common EU budget.

The original plan was to take €135 billion from the Russia assets of which €45 billion would be used by Ukraine to pay back an older loan it had received from the EU. €90 billion would thus go towards Ukraine’s budget.

The new plan is to give Ukraine €90 billion. How much of that will have to be used to pay back the old loan to the EU has not yet been mentioned. Could it be that the EU will have to pay for the total €135 billion? Why didn’t anyone write about it?

Ukraine will only have to pay back the new loan if Russia agrees to pay reparations to Ukraine. As Prime Minster Viktor Orban of Hungary notes:

For this money to ever be recovered, Russia would have to be defeated. That is not the logic of peace but the logic of war. A war loan inevitably makes its financiers interested in the continuation and escalation of the conflict, because defeat would also mean a financial loss. From this moment on, we are no longer talking merely about political or moral decisions, but about hard financial constraints that push Europe in one direction: into war.

The Brusselian war logic is therefore intensifying. It is not slowing down, not easing, but becoming institutionalised. The risk today is greater than ever before, because the continuation of the war is now coupled with a financial interest.

As Russia can not be defeated by the rest of Europe (not even with U.S. support) the €90 billion will have to be paid by EU tax payers. One wonders how national parliaments of already overextended states (see France) will handle this issue.

Those are not the only problem with the new loan. No details have been spelled out yet how it will be structured or financed. The official Conclusions of the EU meeting ominously notes:

The European Council will revert to this issue at its next meeting.

Dec 19, 2025

Featured • Jeffrey Sachs: European Security Includes Russia, Consortium News, Dec 19, 2025

Featured • EU’s plan to steal Russian assets for Ukraine fails, RT, Dec 19, 2025

The EU’s plan to steal Russian assets held in the bloc in order to fund Ukraine’s military and prolong its disastrous war has failed to get the backing of bloc leaders. The other key EU summit pillar – approving a contentious trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur – was also aborted at the last minute amid chaotic protests by several thousand farmers in the Belgian capital.

Following some 14 hours of talks, during which the deep divisions within the bloc were exacerbated by legislative overreach pushed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her compatriot German Chancellor Friederich Merz, the European Council talks finished without conclusion.

Dec 18, 2025

Featured • Russia Is In A Security Dilemma – Europe Pretends To Be In One, Moon of Alabama, Dec 18, 2025

Belousov echos this (machine translation, emph. add.):

Analysis of the military-political situation shows that threats to military security have changed significantly over the past three years. The North Atlantic Alliance continues to build up its coalition forces, actively preparing for the deployment of intermediate-range missiles, updating the range of nuclear weapons, modernizing air and missile defense, and changing the system of mobilization deployment. The efficiency of the transfer of alliance troops to the eastern flank is increasing, for which it is planned to introduce the so-called military “Schengen”.

Military spending is increasing significantly. Today, the alliance has an annual budget of $ 1.6 trillion. Taking into account its gradual increase to five percent of the national GDP, the NATO budget will grow by more than one and a half times – up to $ 2.7 trillion.

All this indicates that NATO is preparing for a military clash with Russia. The alliance plans to achieve readiness for such actions by the turn of the 2030s. This was repeatedly openly stated by official representatives of the NATO bloc. We don’t threaten – we are threatened.

In accordance with the significant threats to military security, the construction of modern and high-tech Armed Forces is being carried out. I will focus on the most important points. …

Followed by Putin in his second part with regards to Ukraine:

They engineered a coup, initiated military operations, and deliberately – I am convinced, deliberately – precipitated a war.

President Trump has said that had he been in office at the time, none of this would have happened. He may well be right. Because the previous administration deliberately brought matters to an armed conflict. And I think the reason is clear: they believed Russia could be swiftly broken up and dismantled. European “swine underlings”1 immediately joined the efforts of that previous American administration, hoping to profit from our country’s collapse: to reclaim what had been lost in earlier historical periods and to exact a form of revenge. As has now become evident to all, every one of those attempts, every destructive design against Russia, has ended in complete and total failure.

Russia has demonstrated its resilience in the economy, finance, domestic politics, the state of society, and, ultimately, in its defence capability.

…

And our Armed Forces are on the rise. I repeat, much remains to be done, but it will all be done. We have always stated – and I want to reaffirm this – that we remain ready for negotiations and ready to resolve all the problems that have arisen in recent years through peaceful means. The United States administration has demonstrated such readiness, and we are engaged in dialogue with it. I hope the same will eventually occur in Europe. It is unlikely with the current political elites, but it will be inevitable as we continue to strengthen, if not with the present politicians, then with a change of political elites in Europe.

1 ‘swine underlings’ is a verbal translation from the Russian ‘under-pigs’. It means ‘small piglets’ who are completely depending on the mother sow.

Dec 17, 2025

Featured • Trump’s geo-politics: Correcting the imperial model & shaping the incoming economic architecture, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Dec 17, 2025

How does this new business approach work geo-politically? In Ukraine, the ‘business approach’ presumes that the solution to the protracted conflict requires a system where the opportunity for financial benefit continues. i.e. that the strategic problem is about dividing the ‘Ukraine economic cake’ between ‘stakeholders’.

“Written in polite diplomatic terms, the continued payments are identified as “the prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction; the mooted joint US-Ukraine economic initiatives and the Ukraine recovery projects.” (This is code speak for the US Senate and EU retaining a financial mechanism to exploit for personal benefit”. (i.e. how to continue the usual boondoggle laundering of pay-offs).

“From the language, it appears that Witkoff and Kushner are confident they can construct a financial reward system for western banks, investors, politicians and Ukraine officials that will retain the benefits of war without the ancillary ingredient of bloodshed”.

“If the U.S. delegation can pull this off, then Russia can gain the territory they want, corrupt Ukraine officials can keep skimming investment money, the EU can retain the power it wants to extract financial payments, American politicians can use the “long-term recovery projects” for money laundering and quasi-public/private investment banks can benefit from the exploitation of Ukraine resources”.

This obviously is derived from experience in putting together a New York real estate deal.

Whilst it is true that financial interests are present in the Ukraine conflict, they are not the only interests at stake: Russia has an existential interest in creating a solid, water-tight security environment and in defeating NATO and its European adherents in a lasting fashion. And the Euro-élites have an equal and opposing desperation to land a crushing defeat on Russia.

The whole delusion plan the European leaders have put out in their joint statement is designed to prolong the conflict. As Elijah Magnier summarizes the joint statement:

Rather than integrating Ukraine into a post-war European security order, the EU plan institutionalises Ukraine as a frontline security asset, not a normalised state. The EU want Ukraine to become a permanently militarised society.

The current negotiated parameters can not lead to a peace agreement with Russia.

The Trump administration needs to take a step back. It can deliver the currently negotiated package to Russia which will study it and ask for negotiations of ‘details’ that will take several years to find some end point. Or it can put the whole issue aside for now and go for a retry in six to twelve months.

By then Ukraine will be much worse off than it is today: All of Ukraine will have been de-electrified, Zelenski may well be gone, Zaparozhia and Kerson may well have fallen to Russian forces, European willingness to support Ukraine will have dwindled further.

By then resistance to a peace agreement, be it by Ukraine or Europe, will have decreased. Only then will peace in Ukraine and Europe become a real possibility.

Putin in his Wednesday remarks remained undeterred, vowing that Russia will accomplish its goals in Ukraine by diplomatic or military means. Currently, Moscow forces are expanding a "security buffer zone" there.

"First, the goals of the special military operation will undoubtedly be achieved. We would prefer to do this and address the root causes of the conflict through diplomacy," Putin said.

"If the opposing side and their foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive discussions, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means. The task of creating and expanding a security buffer zone will also be consistently addressed."

Among the more interesting parts of the speech came as follows:

"And the European piglets immediately joined in this work of the former American [Biden] administration, hoping to profit from the collapse of our country. To regain something that had been lost in previous historical periods and try to take revenge.

As is now obvious to everyone, all these attempts and all these destructive plans against Russia have completely failed."

The aforementioned 'historical lands' at the very least is a reference to the Donbas, and Putin could have in mind up to one-third of all of Ukraine. Already, Russian forces are said to control some 20% of Ukraine.

The EU nations’ leaders, who have spent more than €100 billion (over $118 billion) on Ukraine, now hope to confiscate frozen Russian assets in order to prevent the collapse of their governments, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.

Last week, the EU temporarily immobilized roughly $230 billion in Russian central bank assets by invoking Article 122, an emergency treaty clause that allows approval by a qualified majority rather than unanimity. Moscow has condemned the freeze as illegal and called any use of the funds “theft,” after European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen proposed using the money to back a loan to Ukraine.

Speaking to the Patriota YouTube channel on Tuesday, Orban said EU leaders were “chasing their money” after spending heavily on the conflict and having previously assured voters it “won’t cost them a single penny” because support for Ukraine would be financed from Russian assets rather than taxpayers.

Orban said that if taxpayers end up footing the bill after all those promises, it could trigger an “explosive realization in Western Europe” and the “immediate fall of several governments.”

He argued that EU leaders are now trying to secure financing “outside taxpayers’ pockets,” pointing to frozen Russian assets as the target and warning of political trouble if Brussels fails to obtain them.

Orban has previously accused EU officials of “raping European law in broad daylight,” by invoking Article 122 to bypass his country’s potential veto, and said Budapest would take the matter to the bloc’s top court. He also noted that Washington opposes the confiscation and wants the issue handled as part of a broader settlement with Moscow.

Russia’s central bank has filed a lawsuit against Belgium-based depositary Euroclear, which holds most of its assets. The EU insists that freezing the funds complies with international law, however, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has warned that using the money to back a loan to Kiev raises legal risks for the country.

International financial institutions, including the European Central Bank and the IMF, have also cautioned that using immobilized sovereign assets could undermine confidence in the euro.

Dec 16, 2025

Featured • Ukraine's Energy Grid Reaching Final Tipping Point as Fears Rise Kiev May Face Total Blackout, Simplicius, Dec 15, 2025
Good review as usual. No country can indefinitely withstand the collapse of most of its electrical grid, in winter no less. The news clips from the UK and EU are shocking.

 • Watch: Ukrainian Sea Drone In Direct Hit On Docked Russian Submarine, ZeroHedge, Dec 15, 2025
Russia claims the damage was less. Attacks by sea may strengthen the hand of those in Russia who argue for a military solution for Odessa.

 • It is Time to Dissolve the European Union!, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 15, 2025

You know it is a serious matter of egregious abuse of power when Dr. Gilbert Doctorow and I are in firm agreement… Here is part of a message Gil sent to Judge Nap and several of us who regularly appear on the Judge’s podcast:

An hour ago one of my subscribers sent me notification that the EU has just put Jacques Baud on its sanction list along with traders in Russian oil! Baud is nailed for ‘disseminating false information’ about the Kiev regime. Below I have a quote from Radio Free Europe’s website today.

The sanctions mean that Baud, who is Swiss, may not receive a visa to enter the EU. And more.

The sanctions now imposed on Baud can with the same justification be applied to any and all persons hosting and/or appearing on Judging Freedom as well as on most Alternative Media.

This has to be brought to the attention of J.D. Vance and Elon Musk – it is grist for the mills of those who rightly say that the European Union should br dissolved since it has become a War Project and is practicing vicious censorship inside and outside its borders.

I share Gil’s outrage. Colonel Baud is a scholar and a gentleman. Telling the truth about the neo-Nazis who infest the Government of Ukraine is not a crime… It is the duty of every person committed to truth. The lilliputian cretins that serve in leadership positions in the EU are nothing more than neo-fascist authoritarians who project onto Russia their own malevolent intent. It is up to the people of the countries that are members of the European Union to remove these clowns and reaffirm the right of free expression.

Dec 15, 2025

Featured • EU Sanctions Swiss Intelligence Expert Jacques Baud, Moon of Alabama, Dec 15, 2025

 • Karaganov’s Vision for Russia’s Future is Becoming Reality, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 14, 2025

Sergei Karaganov’s advocacy for Russia’s strategic pivot toward the East (particularly Asia and Eurasia) is a reaction to Western hostility, moral decay, and economic decline. He views the Greater Eurasia focus as essential for Russia’s survival and resurgence. In his 2025 article “Eastern Turn 2.0,” he argued that Russia must reject Western liberalism—characterized by individualism, consumerism, and “moral degradation” like LGBT rights and multiculturalism gone awry—and instead embrace a “civilizational turn” toward Eurasian alliances, emphasizing state devotion, traditional values, and partnerships with rising powers like China and India. Karaganov’s view is not just an academic exercise… It is a concrete vision to galvanize the Russian belief in cooperation and collaboration, rather than exalt individual achievements or pursue imperialist objectives, to create a viable foreign and economic policy that produces tangible benefits and security for Russia and its partners.

Dec 13, 2025

Featured • Brussels "Crosses Rubicon" in Final Act of Self-Destruction to Seize Russian Assets, Simplicius, Dec 12, 2025

The problem is, as I have been outlining in the past two articles, the US has ramped up its pointed war on the current EU superstructure in quite surprising but logical ways. According to new reports, the US intends to pull Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland from the EU, pulling the rug from under the decrepit bloc.

The USA wants to achieve the withdrawal of Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland from the European Union.

This is stated by the publication Defense One, citing an unpublished version of the US national security strategy, which was privately sent to journalists.

...In fact, Trump’s team has had some surprising ideas of late, like the new C5 (Core Five) to replace the outmoded G7. The C5 countries would be the five biggest economic superpowers: China, US, India, Russia, Japan—a tad humiliating for Germany to be left out of such a group, but reality isn’t ‘polite’ or pleasant.

Trump is reportedly going even farther:

Another appendix offers America’s broad-strokes vision for bringing Russia’s economy in from the cold, with U.S. companies investing in strategic sectors from rare-earth extraction to drilling for oil in the Arctic, and helping to restore Russian energy flows to Western Europe and the rest of the world.

...For a long time skeptics scoffed at the more speculative sides of ‘BlackRock’ conspiracy theories vis-a-vis Ukraine—that BlackRock was taking a driver’s seat in selling off and pillaging the country’s assets, etc. Now, it seems, the rumors have come to absurdist fruition, with Zelensky himself posting a meeting with Witkoff, Kushner, and Larry Fink—via video link—on the ‘reconstruction of Ukraine’:

...Meanwhile, Ukraine’s energy situation continues to be dire according to reports:

The situation in Kiev according to my contacts, is terrible. 4 Hours of electricity that start at 1 am in the morning. So many people cannot flush the toilets or have showers unless between their scheduled electricity slot.

Time slots vary, but everyone is limited to about 4 hours per day...

As of this writing new strikes on Odessa have reportedly brought the region to 95% power loss.

Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Malta have urged the EU to explore alternatives to seizing frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine, Politico Europe reported on Friday, citing an internal document.

The European Commission hopes to pressure individual member states into approving the plan ahead of the European Council meeting on December 18-19.

Dec 12, 2025

Featured • Russia Counters EU Shenanigans To Steal Its Frozen Assets, Moon of Alabama, Dec 12, 2025

The prime minister of Hungary Victor Orbán posted this morning:

Today, the Brusselians are crossing the Rubicon. At noon, a written vote will take place that will cause irreparable damage to the Union.

The subject of the vote is the frozen Russian assets, on which the EU member states have so far voted every 6 months and adopted a unanimous decision. With today’s procedure, the Brusselians are abolishing the requirement of unanimity with a single stroke of the pen, which is clearly unlawful.

With today’s decision, the rule of law in the European Union comes to an end, and Europe’s leaders are placing themselves above the rules. Instead of safeguarding compliance with the EU treaties, the European Commission is systematically raping European law. It is doing this in order to continue the war in Ukraine, a war that clearly isn’t winnable. All this is happening in broad daylight, less than a week before the meeting of the European Council, the Union’s most important decision-making body, bringing together heads of state and government. With this, the rule of law in the European Union is being replaced by the rule of bureaucrats. In other words, a Brusselian dictatorship has taken hold.

Hungary protests this decision and will do everything in its power to restore a lawful order.

...When the war in Ukraine started it was quite obvious that it would damage NATO and probably lead to its demise. But I did not expect how much damage it would do to the EU. Brussels is de-legitimizing itself. That damage will last and may well lead to significant changes in whatever is by then left of the European Union.

...In a set-up bathed eerily in red and black light, at the historic Independence Hall, Biden unequivocally extended the threats from abroad to warn against the threat of a different terror, closer to home – from “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans”, who he said, “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic”.

The core precept to this apocalyptic message duly crept across the Atlantic to capture and convert the Brussels’ leadership class. This should not be surprising: The EU’s regulation-based internal market was precisely intended to replace all political ‘contention’ with Tech-Managerialism. The Euro-élites were in desperate need of a Values System to fill the EU identity lacuna. The solution, however, was at hand:

“Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased. They must be opposed. Autocrats only understand one word: “No.” “No.” “No.” (Applause.). “No, you will not take my country.” “No, you will not take my freedom.” “No, you will not take my future … A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never be able to ease [erase] the people’s love of liberty. Brutality will never grind down the will of the free. And Ukraine — Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never”. (Applause)”.

“Stand with us. We will stand with you. Let us move forward … with an abiding commitment to be allies not of darkness, but of light. Not of oppression, but of liberation. Not of captivity, but, yes, of freedom”.

Biden’s later speech (above) in Warsaw – complete with lighting effects and a dramatic backdrop reminiscent of his Liberty Hall speech – sought to portray the domestic MAGA opposition as a grave security threat to America and lent on radical Manicheanism to depict – this time – Russia (Russia being the external counterpoint to the related U.S. MAGA threat). This was his framing to the epic battle between the forces of light and of darkness that needed to be fought endlessly and won crushingly.

Once again, Biden was trying to cement America’s deep-seated missionary ethos as the ‘City on the Hill’ a beacon to the world – to a ‘forever’ cosmic war against Russian ‘evil’. He hoped to tie the American ruling class to the metaphysical struggle for the ‘light’.

...Put plainly, this thought-code precisely gave the Euro-élites their shiny new cult of absolute purity and stainless virtue – filling the for the EU its all too evident identity-gap lacuna. It resulted in the summoning of a vanguard whose proselytizing fury is to be focused on ‘the Other’.

...Despite the cleaving together of the American ‘Bobos’ with the EU liberal warriors, many around the world nonetheless were astonished at the sheer alacrity by which the leadership in Brussels embraced the Biden ‘line’ advocating for a long war against Russia – a compliance that appeared so clearly to run contrary to European economic interests and social stability.

Simply put, it was a war of choice that seemed to be rooted ultimately in radical Manicheanism.

...Thus, the European élite’s outcry at the NSS’ devastating critique of Europe is not just that of America very obviously turning its back on an European ruling class who had dropped all to fawn on America. The NSS castigates their subversion of democracy – and even questions whether they will be suitable as allies for the future.

NATO is now declared to be “not forever”.

The European ruling strata now stand isolated, widely unpopular and bereft.

Dec 11, 2025

Featured • Ukraine and EU: Buckling Bedfellows Together on the Ropes, Simplicius, Dec 10, 2025

It feels like things have sharply taken a turn for the worse in the unraveling of the doomed ‘star-crossed-lovers’ of Ukraine and its tipsy European maiden.

...Options are running out fast, with Brussels’ flunked high-noon piracy attempt, and the Euro-circus-roadshow’s increasingly spastic and humiliatingly empty huddles and desperate powwows, virtually no options remain beyond the self-flagellating throes of despair we’re now being made painfully witness to.

The club of losers with combined approval rating below 50%.

The sad thing is, this carnival hardly even has an audience any longer—who, precisely, is this overextended charade for, anymore?

It is clear there remains no vision forward, no workable contingencies, and the last few stalwart globalist puppet holdouts of Macron, Merz, and Starmer are merely play-acting chickens with their heads cut-off as they gadabout from one slumping European capital to another for their endless procession of humiliation rituals.

We can only assume that the narco-fuhrer’s sole remaining mandate is to clear out of dodge in a way that would not make him a target for vengeful elimination by Ukraine’s turbo-militant nationalist groups. That means he’s likely ready to give up the throne “democratically” so long as he can first secure a ‘favorable’ ceasefire which would appease the Banderist bloc, which has already recently threatened him multiple times.

The collapse of the EU – an artificial construct to start with - is as inevitable as death and taxes: looming in the dark horizon is a toxic cloud of Brexit-style exits; an ungovernable euro-zone; serial capital flights; rising and rising bond yields; unsustainable public debt; a collapse of the single market; institutional paralysis; and total, irretrievable, final loss of the legitimacy they never had in the first place.

A book just published in Italy by a young economist, Gabrielle Guzzi, tells it all in the title: Eurosuicidio. Spengler remarked that every civilization sooner or later dies; this current European project may be the swansong – political, military, spiritual - of a geographical area, a peninsula of Eurasia, playing its final role in History, after learning nothing from two previous suicide attempts: WWI and WWII.

Does the Empire care? Not at all. The Beauty expires as the Beast moves on.

Dec 10, 2025

Featured • Zelenski Defies Trump, Rejects Peace Deal, Moon of Alabama, Dec 9, 2025
Is comment necessary?

 • Do You Believe in Coincidence… Was the CIA Involved in Operation Spiderweb and Israel’s June 12 Attack on Iran?, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 9, 2025

Dec 9, 2025

 • Zelensky Definitively Shuts Door On Trump Peace Plan, Won't Cede Territory, ZeroHedge, Dec 9, 2025
Includes the EU counterplan. What a joke. Only intense arrogance and ignorance could produce such an outline.

 • The new US National Security Strategy respects those who stood up to Washington, but expects vassals to keep obeying, Tarik Cyril Amar, RT, Dec 8, 2025

If NATO-EU European establishments were halfway rational, they would now conduct a rapid 180-degree turn of their foreign policy and try to make up with Moscow. (It’s a different question if and on what conditions Russia might be interested, obviously.) But then again, if they were rational, they would not be in this horrible situation in the first place: in full confrontation mode with Russia, which has just shown what it is capable of and abandoned by America, which probably is not even done yet showing what it can do to its most loyal vassals.

Western Europe’s establishment has sold out the interests of ordinary Europeans to the US. Now the US seems poised to sell Europe out to a great new alignment with the great powers Washington actually has earned to respect, Russia and China. The price of foolishness and spinelessness will be steep.

Dec 8, 2025

Featured • Bait and switch stage two – Shooting the breeze in Moscow, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Dec 8, 2025

Putin thus explicitly renounces ‘a deal’. Witkoff and Kushner were intent on seeking to extract concessions from Russia: they sought a temporary ceasefire (rather than any binding settlement), sweetened by sanctions relief that would incremental: i.e. as ‘periodic rewards’ for continued Russian good behaviour (rather as rats in a laboratory are trained to press the food button).

Why is the U.S. so stuck on a ceasefire rather than a comprehensive security framework including a new security architecture for East Europe?

The answer is that Trump wants a ‘win’ – an outcome that can be presented to the American public as another war ‘stopped by Trump’ (he claims it would be the eighth), whilst simultaneously sold to the deep powers as merely a hiatus in a conflict that will be resumed after a pause – when the Europeans (‘security guarantors’) have rebuilt the Ukrainian army. It would represent ‘a win’ for the ‘hawks’ because it can be ‘narrated’ that resumed military conflict would eat into the Russian economy, and might even end with Putin’s removal from office.

Wishful thinking, of course. But so many western narratives are wishful, rather than realist thinking.

In short, the overall aim to the American opaque and ambiguous ‘talking points’ is to corner Putin, and push him off his fundamental principles – such as his insistence on eliminating the root causes to the conflict, and not just the symptoms. There is no hint in this or earlier drafts or of any recognition of root causes (expansion of NATO and missile emplacements), beyond the vague promise of a “dialogue [that] will be conducted between Russia and NATO, mediated by the United States, to resolve all security issues and create conditions for de-escalation, thereby ensuring global security and increasing opportunities for cooperation and future economic development”.

The Sherlock Holmesian ‘dog that significantly did not bark in the night’ consists in the odd absence of Rubio, who is the formal Secretary of State, and the man, who, in normal circumstances would negotiate a legal and binding treaty.

Instead, we have Trump’s New York real estate friend and his son-in-law. Neither are formal members of the U.S. Administration; neither are mandated by the official organs of the U.S. state to negotiate on behalf of the United States.

So should America decide to resume its war on Russia, it would be possible to say, as per the “not one inch eastward” (as after the reunification of Germany), ‘but was that not-an-inch further’ commitment written on paper?

Witkoff and Kushner? ‘They were but Trump’s friends shooting the breeze during a visit to Moscow’.

From Zelensky's former press secretary:

Every subsequent deal for Ukraine will only be worse — because we are losing. We are losing people, territory, and the economy.

The EU (which by the way has paid Russia more than €311 billion for energy and goods since February 2022) has no real strategy, no way to stop fueling Russian budget or support Ukraine enough to win, no direct dialogue with Moscow, and no meaningful leverage over either the Kremlin or Washington.

Arguments that "Russia has gained so little land" sound almost childish when you consider the human cost. We have lost more people in three years than some European nations have as the whole population.

My country is bleeding out. Many who reflexively oppose every peace proposal believe they are defending Ukraine. With all respect, that is the clearest proof they have no idea what is actually happening on the front lines and inside the country right now.

War is not a Hollywood movie. I will never abandon the values that God and democracy both place at the very foundation of human existence: human life is the highest good, and people — living, breathing people — are the ones who must be saved.

Dec 7, 2025

 • Ukraine – Roadblocks To A Peace Agreement, Moon of Alabama, Dec 6, 2025

 • A War Of Exhaustion: Russia Pushes Forward As Ukraine’s Reserves Run Thin, South Front, Dec 5, 2025
About right, I ween.

Dec 5, 2025

 • Damage Control: Major Blows to EU as von der Leyen's Rotten Regime Teeters, Simplicius, Dec 4, 2025
Good review of recent developments. Want mutual nuclear disarmament -- as, for example the NPT requires? First, enter the real world. For many people poisoned by propaganda, that step is seemingly insurmountable. Bonhoeffer said that for many "stupid" people, including the highly-educated ones, such an awakening would require a change "in material conditions." For many, those changing "conditions" included the sound of artillery heard from their Berlin homes. That's when many Germans woke up, in the spring of 1945. We must do better. It is no wonder that many observers as diverse as Emmanuel Todd and Jane Jacobs speak of the collective loss of reality in Western elites as causative of our downfall.

 • So Much for the Claim that Russia is Only Making Incremental Gains, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 4, 2025

Based on consolidated reports from Russian, Ukrainian, and international sources as of December 4, 2025, Russia has returned 13,300 Ukrainian bodies to Ukraine while Ukraine delivered the remains of 350 Russian bodies to Russian authorities during 2025… That is a ratio of 38 dead Ukrainians for one dead Russian soldier. That metric alone reveals the dire situation confronting the Ukrainian military and, if the war continues, it will get much worse for the Ukrainians.

Dec 4, 2025 Featured

 • Russia will liberate all of Donbass – Putin, RT, Dec 4, 2025

Russia will drive Ukrainian troops from Donbass and fully liberate the region, whether through military action or diplomatic efforts, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Putin made the remarks in an interview with India Today on Thursday, ahead of his state visit to the country and two days after talks in the Kremlin with US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff which centered on an American-drafted peace plan for the Ukraine conflict.

The initial 28-point version of the roadmap leaked to the media last week reportedly asked Kiev to relinquish territory in the Russian Donbass regions of Donetsk and Lugansk still under its control, abandon its NATO ambitions, and limit the size of its military – conditions Kiev has rejected.

Putin, however, signaled that the Ukrainian Army will soon lose the parts of Donbass it still controls.

He also suggested that the devastating fighting in the area was entirely avoidable. “We told Ukraine from the start: ‘The people don’t want to stay with you, they took part in referendums [in 2022], voted for their independence; pull back your troops, and there will be no fighting’. But they chose to fight,” Putin said, adding that Kiev’s mistake is now becoming obvious.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the incidents during a press interaction in Moscow. His remarks, broadcast on state-run Rossiya 24 TV, framed the attacks as “piracy” and outlined a tiered escalation ladder for Russian retaliation. These comments came shortly after his five-hour meeting with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Putin’s response was direct and escalatory, responding to a reporter’s query about the strikes on vessels in the Black Sea. He structured his remarks around immediate, conditional, and “radical” countermeasures. Putin said:

Russia would first “expand the range of strikes” on Ukrainian ports and ships entering them.

Secondly, if this continues, we will consider the possibility – I’m not saying we will do this, but we will consider the possibility – of retaliatory measures against the vessels of those countries that assist Ukraine.

The most radical option is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle.

I hope that the Ukrainian military leadership, the political leadership, and those behind them will consider whether it’s worth continuing this practice.

Dec 3, 2025

 • Putin Again Signals Defiance While Invoking War with Europe, Simplicius, Dec 2, 2025

 • Ukraine must accept ‘tactical defeat’ – former foreign minister, RT, Dec 2 2025

Kiev must accept an “agreement that no one will like” if it wants to avoid many more years of conflict with Russia and a potential complete collapse, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said.

Speaking at a conference in Kiev on Monday, Kuleba, who held his post between 2020 and 2024, said both Ukraine and Russia have the resources to keep the fight going for years, while predicting that the front line “will move every year” without a political decision.

“We are in a situation where Russia has the ability to destroy us, and we are not strong enough to fully protect ourselves,” he said, adding that only a deal “that no one will like” which locks in a “tactical defeat and strategic victory” could prevent “many more years of war… even worse.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law and unofficial diplomat Jared Kushner have been at the Kremlin on Tuesday for high-level talks with President Vladimir Putin. The Americans are presenting Trump's Ukraine peace plan in its current form after the high stakes Miami meeting with the Ukrainian delegation, which focused on ceding territory and what future boundaries might look like in the Donbass.

President Putin's public words in the context of the meeting wherein the US side is formally pitching the plan have presented an opportunity for him to lash out at Europe. If Europe starts a war with Russia, soon there will be "no one left to negotiate with" - he warned after several EU and NATO officials have lately issued hawkish words and threats.

Russia is not planning to fight European countries, but if Europe starts a war, Russia is "ready right now" - the Russian leader said.

Dec 2, 2025

Featured • In the Russia/Ukraine War, Economic Power is Just as Important as Military Power, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Dec 2, 2025
What part of this was not obvious years ago?

Featured • NATO Thinks Of ‘Pre-emptive Strikes’ Against Russia To ‘Defend’ Against Something That Did Not Happen, Moon of Alabama, Dec 2, 2025
It's really frightening what state propaganda can do when they set their minds to it.

 • Another Russian Shadow-Fleet Tanker Hit By Drones, ZeroHedge, Dec 2, 2025
Sunflower oil? Not a legitimate target.

 • Ukraine must accept ‘tactical defeat’ – former foreign minister, RT, Dec 2, 2025

Kiev must accept an “agreement that no one will like” if it wants to avoid many more years of conflict with Russia and a potential complete collapse, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said.

Speaking at a conference in Kiev on Monday, Kuleba, who held his post between 2020 and 2024, said both Ukraine and Russia have the resources to keep the fight going for years, while predicting that the front line “will move every year” without a political decision.

“We are in a situation where Russia has the ability to destroy us, and we are not strong enough to fully protect ourselves,” he said, adding that only a deal “that no one will like” which locks in a “tactical defeat and strategic victory” could prevent “many more years of war… even worse.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law and unofficial diplomat Jared Kushner have been at the Kremlin on Tuesday for high-level talks with President Vladimir Putin. The Americans are presenting Trump's Ukraine peace plan in its current form after the high stakes Miami meeting with the Ukrainian delegation, which focused on ceding territory and what future boundaries might look like in the Donbass.

President Putin's public words in the context of the meeting wherein the US side is formally pitching the plan have presented an opportunity for him to lash out at Europe. If Europe starts a war with Russia, soon there will be "no one left to negotiate with" - he warned after several EU and NATO officials have lately issued hawkish words and threats.

Russia is not planning to fight European countries, but if Europe starts a war, Russia is "ready right now" - the Russian leader said.

Dec 1, 2025

Featured • Ignoring JFK’s Warning on Russia, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, Dec 1, 2025 (updated from Nov 26, 2024)

Featured • Going on the 'Offensive' Against Russia: Desperate Europe Dreams of Changing Calculus of Its Decline, Simplicius, Nov 30, 2025

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 • Vandals destroy peace sign at long-time New Mexico peace group for 6th time, press release, Aug 18, 2025
 • Bulletin 360:Five Russian strategic airfields attacked, planes destroyed; possible Putin assassination attempt, terrorist attack on Russian passenger train, call Congress and the President, Jun 1, 2025
 • Peace in Ukraine - How Do We Get There?, LASG virtual discussion with Scott Ritter and Dr. Dmitri Trenin, Jan 15, 2025
 • "Peace in Ukraine -- How Do We Get There?" A discussion in Los Alamos with Scott Ritter and Dmitri Trenin, Jan 7, 2025
 • Stop the War in Ukraine While We Can, Greg Mello, LASG Vlog, Jun 24, 2024
 • What were up to, and reflections on some opportunities and dangers at hand, Greg Mello, VFP Webinar, Jun 20, 2024
 • Can U.S. seize the moment for peace?, Greg Mello, Santa Fe New Mexican, Jun 16, 2024
 • Bulletin 346: Momentous events, and two op-eds, Jun 16, 2024
 • Press backgrounder: U.S. Considers Expanding Its Nuclear Arsenal, Jun 10, 2024
 • Bulletin 345: Ukraine strikes Russian early-warning radar against nuclear attack, May 25, 2024
 • "Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons," LASG presentation, Peter Kuznick, Steven Starr, & Greg Mello discuss the dangerous phenomenon of "Russophobia" in the West in the context of the potentially widening war in Ukraine, with its attendant nuclear dangers, video, Apr 16, 2024
 •Bulletin 342: Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons," panel discussion in Santa Fe Tuesday April 16, 6 pm / Pit production: myths and contradictions, Apr 10, 2024
 • LASG friends ltr: "Russophobia, the Ukraine war, and nuclear weapons" -- panel discussion Tuesday April 16, 6 pm, St. John's United Methodist Church, Santa Fe, Apr 8, 2024
 • Bulletin 341: Pit seminar materials available; Russophobia seminar postponed; big jump in FY24 warhead spending as arms race takes hold; Ukraine losing war sparking panic in West, Mar 4, 2024
 • Bulletin 340: "Year in Pits;" Zoom update & discussion on pits 2/27; rich opportunities in the land of nuclear (dis)enchantment; end the Ukraine carnage and genocide in Gaza, Feb 22, 2024
 • The Real Purpose In Making The Bomb Was To Subdue The Soviets. Now Its Happening Again, On A Vast Scale. Why? July 22 At Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos Reporter, Jul 19, 2023
 • LASG friends ltr: Ukraine over the tipping point; more on July 22 event in Los Alamos; comment on generic "nuclear disarmament," Jul 12, 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
 • LASG friends ltr (06/15/2023) Pit production zoom today; halt military "aid" to Ukraine, which just kills more Ukrainians, accept peace
 • 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, Greg Mello, Current Concerns, Mar 7, 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