More on the above:

Drones from Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SSO) and Security Service (SBU) disrupted oil pumping stations in Russia on the night of September 20. The stations targeted are involved in exporting oil through Novorossiysk, according to RBC-Ukraine sources.

 

Long-range drones from SBU and SSO struck several oil pumping stations on the Kuibyshev-Tikhoretsk. These facilities are used to export oil through Novorossiysk.

 

The following facilities were hit:

・Zenzevatka station (Zenzvatka, Volgograd region, Russia);

・Sovkhoznaya-2 station (Progress, Samara region, Russia);

・Samara linear production dispatch station (Prosvet, Samara region, Russia).

 

Ukrainian drones strike Russian oil pumping stations linked to Novorossiysk exports, sources

 

Illustrative photo: Russian refineries and fuel stations continue to be destroyed (Russian media)© RBC-Ukraine (UK)

 

Russia continues to see a decline in the recruitment of contract soldiers. Currently, there are not always enough recruits to cover losses, said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation (CCD).

 

He reported that in the second quarter of 2025, only 37,900 people signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. This is the lowest figure in the past two years. It is 2.5 times lower than the same period in 2024, when 92,800 people enlisted.

 

"Contract soldiers are no longer always sufficient to cover the weekly irreversible losses of the Russian army. I remind you, according to General Staff data, Russian daily losses average over 1,000 personnel," Kovalenko said.

 

 

Russia sees record low contract enlistments while army faces high casualties

 

Photo: Contract signings fell 2.5-fold over the past year (Getty Images)© RBC-Ukraine (UK)

A bottomless pit - Europe is struggling, the U.S. has checked out, and even in the unlikely event of victory, who would invest in a bankrupt country riddled with corruption? Rival warlords and armed paramilitaries, fed by narratives of betrayal, would inevitably rise, while millions of refugees who will never return remain scattered abroad. When this war finally ends, Ukraine could resemble one of those Central African republics, rotting away , unloved, forgotten, and far from the world’s care or attention and another victim in the 21st Centuries equivalent of the "Great Game". 

 

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/60349

Zelensky: End the War or Find $120B to Hold Off Russia – Ukraine’s Two Options

Zelensky said he hopes to end the war but admitted it’s “a challenge.” Ukraine needs $120B to keep fighting Russia, with half from its budget and half still expected from partners.

 

 

 

https://x.com/United24media/status/1969660158583165398?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1969660158583165398|twgr^57245a85c57f3070890db51191a1b637869f6f65|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Funited24media.com%2Flatest-news%2Fukraines-f-16s-crush-majority-of-russian-missiles-in-massive-overnight-strike-video-11816

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 9/21/2025 at 4:43 AM, beautifulthailand99 said:

who would invest in a bankrupt country riddled with corruption?

I'll never visit Russia, that's for sure. 

Is Putin's poodle getting yippy?

Trump has never said such things about the war before.

As the video queries, is he bipolar?

How many minutes do you think this will last after when one the maga isolationists gets his big, beautiful ears again?

 

 

BTW -- Personally I am not there yet to predict Ukaine will win or Ukraine can realistically get all their land back even if they win. My only current assertion is that the momentum in the war is currently on Ukraine's side.

 

 

The Russians are using donkeys for transportation. LOL

and then there is my President in action (words)

 

hopefully he stays the course...

 

am I dreaming...

 

i forgot Epstein ...

 

Ukraine is not winning the war without trumps help. And if he does help you will say ukraine did it on their own

1 hour ago, angryguy said:

Ukraine is not winning the war without trumps help. And if he does help you will say ukraine did it on their own

Nasty.

6 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Nasty.

It's only an angry guy running out of arguments.

 

btw: 40% of all weapons are produced by Ukraine itself. And the US isn't the biggest supporter (anymore). So just let him be angry and don't react to such weak statements.

5 hours ago, sharot724 said:

and then there is my President in action (words)

 

That the man is insane is evidently clear to those that aren't and if there was any logic in his failing words which there isn't the only conclusion I can make from this is he would rather Europe follow Ukraine into the abyss whilst the US profits on the side.Europe has fallen - he said so himself at the UN and he's half right on that.

 

Putin and Trump have struck a deal to somewhat de-escalate the Ukraine proxy war and normalise relations. Europe gets to inherit the conflict, as became clear at the beginning of the year. Rhetoric will continue to flow, but I strongly suspect there will be no real substantive action against Russia the deal is that this war will be decided by force alone.
I also suspect that current Russian territorial demands won't be impeded by Trump, and perhaps even anything Russia can take by force will be tacitly accepted. What was the Russian concession? Perhaps this deal is simply an off-ramp for Trump he gets to throw it all onto Europe and claim he bears no responsibility.
This talking point about "let them get their land back" might as well be mockery, as if Trump is saying "you want your land back? Then go get it back" a clear signal that no real help will come from the USA whilst he's in power.
Ukraine is definitively being sacrificed here, and Europe to a large degree alongside it. Perhaps Europe will get this out of its system for a century at least, providing some respite of peace. Or perhaps this war is merely a prelude to something far bigger.

The cynical genius of this arrangement is its plausible deniability. Trump can claim he's ending American involvement in "endless wars" whilst Putin gets a free hand. Europe, meanwhile, inherits an impossible burden: either escalate dramatically without American backing, or watch Ukraine fall piece by piece whilst maintaining the pretence that Western values still matter.
The real question isn't whether Ukraine survives this betrayal, but whether European resolve will outlast American indifference. History suggests it won't and Putin is counting on exactly that calculation.

Thank God there are still sane voices in the Western commentariat. Here’s one I came across in today’s Telegraph. The sugar rush of Trump's lates volte-face will barely last to the weekend the inexorable logic of cold hard facts not hopium or fine words is always where to look for the truth. 

 

https://archive.ph/a0IAT

 

Nations seldom gain back at the negotiating table what they have lost on the battlefield. The longer this war goes on, the more territory Ukraine is likely to lose. Economic sanctions, no matter how harsh, will not change the policy of a leader like Putin whose parents lived through the siege of Leningrad in which over a million Russians died, many of them starved to death. The maths in this war of attrition does not favour Ukraine. Seeking a decisive Russian defeat is both a virtually impossible goal and presents serious and unwarranted risks. A path to peace, however, could come through Ukrainian neutrality and acknowledging the right of self-determination for the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine.

 

Harsh economic sanctions have not ended the war because, unlike most nations, Russia is largely self-sufficient in food, energy and armaments. The Russian economy continues to grow and the rouble is worth now roughly the same as what it did when the war started.
China and India have replaced Europe as Russia’s leading trading partners. Efforts to punish China and India with sanctions would likely ignite a global trade war. Donald Trump has made it clear that the United States will not tighten sanctions further until Europe completely cuts off Russian energy imports. Meanwhile Iran, Turkey, China, North Korea and Kyrgyzstan all send microchips, drones, cars and much else to Moscow

As I was saying ...

 

https://archive.ph/MEKpr

The Telegraph appears to have an editorial policy now of Ukarine war "enough is enough". Though they will keep Hamish De-Bretton Gordon for his drunken flights of fancy no doubt. All these articles are from today btw. Oh and Kaja Kallas the biggest of the Baltic yap dogs of war husband continued to have extensive business interests in Russia long after the invasion. Look at what people do not what they say. 

 

https://archive.ph/8CaAc

 

The result is that Europe’s signals are not so much mixed as positively Babel-like. Which is perhaps exactly the point that Putin is trying to make. What if, rather than preparing to attack Europe, Putin was actually indulging in some heavy-metal trolling by sending unarmed decoy drones into Poland, or a trio of jets to take a 10 kilometre deep sort cut through Estonia’s airspace? What if his point was to ruffle feathers rather than prepare for a future invasion?
If so, Europe’s reaction has ended up being the worst of all possible worlds. Rather than mocking and disregarding Putin’s sabre rattling as a pathetic attempt to pose as a superpower, some Europeans have rung five-bell fire alarms and called for any warplanes that transgress in the future to be shot down.

1 hour ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Thank God there are still sane voices in the Western commentariat. Here’s one I came across in today’s Telegraph. The sugar rush of Trump's lates volte-face will barely last to the weekend the inexorable logic of cold hard facts not hopium or fine words is always where to look for the truth. 

 

https://archive.ph/a0IAT

 

Nations seldom gain back at the negotiating table what they have lost on the battlefield. The longer this war goes on, the more territory Ukraine is likely to lose. Economic sanctions, no matter how harsh, will not change the policy of a leader like Putin whose parents lived through the siege of Leningrad in which over a million Russians died, many of them starved to death. The maths in this war of attrition does not favour Ukraine. Seeking a decisive Russian defeat is both a virtually impossible goal and presents serious and unwarranted risks. A path to peace, however, could come through Ukrainian neutrality and acknowledging the right of self-determination for the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine.

 

Harsh economic sanctions have not ended the war because, unlike most nations, Russia is largely self-sufficient in food, energy and armaments. The Russian economy continues to grow and the rouble is worth now roughly the same as what it did when the war started.
China and India have replaced Europe as Russia’s leading trading partners. Efforts to punish China and India with sanctions would likely ignite a global trade war. Donald Trump has made it clear that the United States will not tighten sanctions further until Europe completely cuts off Russian energy imports. Meanwhile Iran, Turkey, China, North Korea and Kyrgyzstan all send microchips, drones, cars and much else to Moscow

 

Excellent article.