Ukrainian forces destroyed a storage and maintenance site for Russian Orion strike-reconnaissance drones in temporarily occupied Crimea, near the settlement of Kirovske, reported Robert Brovdi, commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, callsign Madyar.

 

According to him, fighters of the Madyar's Birds unit struck the enemy on the night of November 13. It was this unit of the 1st Separate Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces (previously the 14th Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Forces – ed.) that carried out the operation, as a result of which the enemy facility was destroyed.

 

Earlier, on September 13, 2025, fighters of the 414th Brigade of Madyar's Birds had already shot down one of these Orion drones in the air. According to Madyar, the elimination of the storage site in Crimea became a logical continuation of that operation.

 

Ukrainian unmanned forces destroy Russian Orion drone base in occupied Crimea

 

Ukrainian military drone unit Madyar's Birds destroys Russian Orion strike-drone base (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)© RBC-Ukraine (UK)

 

Remember when Zelenskiy dismissed his anti-corruption chief and then reversed the decision after mass street demonstrations and pressure from the EU? Now some of his close, long-term associates have reportedly left the country but apparently there’s nothing to see here.

And, of course, Ukraine’s allies seem to understand that if the full truth about what has really happened to a whole lot of money over the past few years were ever laid bare especially in the context of this Slavic civil war their own populations might start asking, ‘What the hell is going on? Oh and the fact that Israel is for many ot them their convenient bolt hole - anybody remember Dame Shirley Porter !

 

Who is Timur Mindich, Zelensky's secretive associate at the center of a major corruption probe?

 

https://kyivindependent.com/who-is-timur-mindich/

 

Mindich is also a long-time friend of Zelensky, with whom he co-owned production company Kvartal 95 until Zelensky transferred his stake to partners after being elected president in 2019.

Mindich also co-owns Green Family Ltd, a Cypriot firm that co-founded film production companies in Russia, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Kolomoisky told Ukrainska Pravda in 2022 that Mindich had introduced him to Zelensky before he became president.

In 2019, Zelensky drove an armored car provided by Mindich, RFE/RL reported.

Mindich visited the President's Office at least three times in 2020, RFE/RL reported then. He told the media outlet that he had met with Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak.

In 2021, Zelensky celebrated his birthday in Mindich's apartment, according to the Schemes investigative journalism project. Later the same year Mindich attended a birthday party held by Yermak at the Synyohora presidential residence in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukrainska Pravda reported. 

 

The scandal that could bring down Volodymyr Zelensky -THE SPECTATOR

 

https://archive.ph/dufVH

 

One sad takeaway of this murky story is that in many ways Ukraine continues to live by the same rules as prevailed in the wild 1990s under Leonid Kuchma or in Boris Yeltsin’s Russia. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union it became commonplace for wealthy businessmen to buy control over elements of the security forces and put them to work recording private conversations between leading politicians or business rivals and use the resulting ‘kompromat’ as a political tool. This time round the players are the Western-backed Nabu duking it out with the Zelensky-backed SBU – but the crossover of corruption and high-level politics feels depressingly like a trip back to the future.

 

Major corruption scandal engulfs top Zelensky allies - BBC 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8vw62j3g9o

 

According to Nabu, the people involved systematically collected kickbacks from Enerhoatom contractors worth between 10% and 15% of contract values.

The anti-corruption bodies also said the huge sums had been laundered in the scheme and published photographs of bags full of cash. The funds were then transferred outside Ukraine, including to Russia, Nabu said.

 

Ukraine corruption scandal explained: The $100M plot rocking Zelenskyy - POLITICO

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-corruption-scandal-explained-100m-plot-rocking-volodymyr-zelenskyy-energy-sector/

 

Businessman Timur Mindich, a close ally of Zelenskyy, might be the most interesting name in the crosshairs of prosecutors — but more on him later.  

The most prominent is current Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who was suspended from his post Wednesday morning. He was energy minister until July before Zelenskyy reshuffled his government.

Prosecutors said Galushchenko assisted Mindich in his money-laundering schemes and was influenced by the businessman. Although he has not been charged, the accusations triggered his suspension. Galushchenko said he supports the suspension, but added he will defend himself in court if needed.

Oleksiy Chernyshov, former deputy prime minister of Ukraine and a close ally of Zelenskyy, was identified in NABU recordings under the codename “Che Guevara.” NABU charged him with illicit enrichment, alleging he received about $1.2 million and nearly €100,000 through the money-laundering network. 

Merz asks Zelensky to reduce outflow of young Ukrainian men to Germany

 

https://kyivindependent.com/merz-asks-zelensky-to-reduce-outflow-of-young-ukrainian-men-to-germany/

 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he told President Volodymyr Zelensky that the number of young Ukrainian men coming to Germany should be reduced, AFP reported on Nov. 13.

Following a phone call with the Ukrainian leader, Merz said that young Ukrainians should remain to "serve in their own country."

"They are needed there," the chancellor added.

Close to 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees have been recorded in Germany as of October 2025 after fleeing Russia's full-scale invasion. This represents the highest number among all EU countries.

Brazilian foreign fighters in Ukraine sound alarm about infiltration by South American gangs

 

https://kyivindependent.com/from-rios-favelas-to-the-front-line-soldiers-in-ukraine-sound-alarm-after-brazilian-gang-linked-fighter-appears-in-video/

 

There’s no official data on the number of South Americans fighting for Ukraine, but thousands are believed to have joined since 2022, with Colombians being the largest group and Brazilians a distant second.

Concerns over possible infiltration by drug cartels are not new: Intelligence Online, a French publication, reported July 29, 2025, that Ukraine’s domestic counterintelligence was investigating Spanish-speaking volunteers linked to Latin American drug cartels who allegedly joined the International Legion to learn first person view (FPV) drone tactics.

The groundwork for a new narrative is being laid one that draws a haunting parallel between Zelensky’s Ukraine and the final corrupt regime of South Vietnam. Volodymyr Zelensky came to power promising to purge Ukraine of graft, yet under his watch, serious corruption scandals persist: procurement fraud, war-time bribery, and cronyism among his closest officials. 
Meanwhile, in the final years of South Vietnam, corruption under the regime of Ngô Đình Diệm and particularly his brother Ngô Đình Nhu was deeply entrenched. Nhu ran secret police and private armies, controlled business contracts, and allowed nepotism and graft to flourish. 
The result in both contexts? The ordinary people pay the price. In Ukraine, citizens live amid war while public funds disappear into the pockets of elites. In South Vietnam, U.S. military assistance enriched a small ruling family while much of the population suffered. The contrast is stark a reminder that even leaders who declare themselves reformers or allies of democracy can enable, or become, the very corrupt systems they once decried.

 

Ukraine’s most perilous winter so far

The big question is whether the country will emerge in good enough shape to resist a bad peace deal being foisted on it.  - POLITICO

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-winter-kyiv-war-russia-volodymyr-zelenskyy-defense-frozen-assets/

 

That might leave a “coalition of the willing” to try to raise funds against the backdrop of political turmoil in Kyiv and a mounting hue and cry over corruption allegations. This week, a former business associate of Zelenskyy fled the country as independent corruption investigators charged him and six others over an illegal scheme to control key state-owned enterprises, including Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency. 

Defense procurement corruption is also in the sights of investigators and, according to people close to the investigation, who asked not to be identified, more raids will take place shortly on the Ukrainian defense ministry as part of a probe into inflated procurement contracts.

While Ukrainians expressed anger and disbelief at the unfolding scandal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would disburse Thursday a 6 billion euros ($7 billion) loan to Ukraine and promised more money for Kyiv.

 

“We will cover the financial needs of Ukraine for the next two years,” she said in a speech to the European Parliament.

The EU and other foreign partners have poured money into Ukraine’s energy sector. Russia has relentlessly bombarded the power grid, which requires repeated repairs.

 

The EU is looking into how it can come up with more money for Ukraine, either by seizing frozen Russian assets, raising funds on capital markets, or having some of the 27 EU nations raise the money themselves.

 

Ukraine's army chief visits besieged city as Zelenskyy confronts graft scandal

On 11/12/2025 at 12:56 AM, Seppius said:

 

Let's hope he is eventually found hiding in a dirty hole in the ground with a long beard, then hung like Saddam

Can they stick a mop handle up his rectum like they did to Gaddafi?

1 hour ago, gargamon said:

Can they stick a mop handle up his rectum like they did to Gaddafi?

I see not only banderites like those methods, Brainwashed zombie halfwits from US, UK, France and Canada took their "democratic values" to Libya, and turn thriving independent country into the total chaos.

18 minutes ago, t0mt0m said:

I see not only banderites like those methods, Brainwashed zombie halfwits from US, UK, France and Canada took their "democratic values" to Libya, and turn thriving independent country into the total chaos.

There are several intertwined narratives at play here. First, the belief in the supremacy of the American empire and Western rules-based international order now under almost terminal threat by the US effectively pulling out of the post-WW2 pact oh and Gaza - let's never forhet that. Second, the persistence of the declining Russian empire under Putin to defend their sectional interests close to the motherland and his ability to ruthlessly hold onto power. Third, the assault on Western European living standards at the end of an unprecedented post-war boom, now assailed by immigration, a declining economic share and huge entitlements, with a political class frozen by their inability to understand this paralysis whilst coming up against the expectations of their voters. And fourth, the unravelling of the political binary narrative of good versus evil in supporting actor-comedian Zelensky, who believed both the Western promises and his own conviction that they could take Russia on.
This crisis and it is one, firstly for Ukraine in an existential sense but moreover for the West represents a pivot moment when the levers stop working and the narratives fall away, faced by the brutal reality of the limits and reach of their rapidly declining powers. We are at that inflexion point it's downhill for the west almost terminally from hereonin. 

Mad Vlad is using North Korean troops as mine-clearing cannon fodder in the Ukraine war. Kim Jong-un's soldiers are being sent on deadly land mine clearance missions for Russia, putting them at risk of being blown up.

 

All the while, these troops sing patriotic songs about their dictator, attend political classes and stick to their own national food. Commanders insist that "every single Korean soldier is loyal only to their Supreme Commander-in-Chief and is determined to carry out his orders, even at the risk of their own lives."

 

Around 14,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to the front line, of which over 4,000 are believed to have been killed in combat. Many did not know they were being sent to Ukraine. A further 100,000 are said to be "in the queue" to join.

 

Putin using Kim Jong-un's troops as 'mine-clearing cannon fodder' in Ukraine

 

The soldiers are known to burst into song, chanting patriotic lyrics about their love and respect for North Korea© KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a key outlet for Russian commodity shipments, suspended oil exports on Friday after what authorities said was a major Ukrainian drone attack, two industry sources told Reuters.

 

The attack, one of the biggest on Russian oil-exporting infrastructure in recent months, comes after Ukraine in August stepped up strikes on Russian oil refineries in an attempt to degrade Moscow's ability to finance its war.

 

Russian pipeline oil monopoly Transneft has also been forced to suspend supplies to Novorossiysk, the sources told Reuters. The company declined to comment.

 

Ukrainian drone attack halts oil exports at Russia's Novorossiysk port, sources say

 

The Kyiv Independent isn’t pulling any punches, even with the crosshairs practically on their backs and USAID long gone. They continue to speak out, and that kind of courage deserves real respect.

Meanwhile, countless Ukrainians many of them terrified conscripts are being fed into the meat grinder like expendable bodies, dying in mud and fire, while those in power line their pockets and feast on the spoils of a war they themselves don’t fight.

 

At some point the West must face reality: either pull the plug on this disastrous project or accept responsibility for tens of thousands more lives thrown away. For what? Burned-out cities, shattered families, and the triumphant shouts of armchair warriors sitting comfortably oceans away from the devastation. This war has become a grinding, senseless machine and it will keep devouring people until someone has the courage to stop it.

 

https://kyivindependent.com/you-cant-hide-the-elephant-in-the-room-zelensky-knew-corruption-scandal-was-coming-arrested-energy-chief-says/

 

President Volodymyr Zelensky knew a major energy scandal involving his allies was about to break and moved to pin the blame elsewhere, according to the recently detained former head of Ukrenergo, who is accused of failing to protect Ukraine's infrastructure from Russian attacks.

 

"The President’s Office felt that this investigation was coming," Volodmyr Kudrytskyi, Ukrenergo’s ex-CEO, told the Kyiv Independent on Nov. 10 in an exclusive interview.

"They wanted to find a scapegoat quickly, hoping to prevent this <deleted>storm."

 

The strikes have left millions of Ukrainians suffering blackouts, weighing down morale, while energy companies scramble for funding to replace damaged equipment. But instead of taking responsibility, Zelensky sought to protect corrupt officials loyal to him, like Halushchenko, Kudrytskyi said.

"Kudrytskyi’s arrest was a play by Halushchenko and Mindich to find someone to blame for their failures to build fortifications for energy infrastructure," opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak told the Kyiv Independent on Nov. 10.

Untergang

 

Zelensky’s Image Is Stained as Corruption Inquiry Shakes His Inner Circle
The revelations are a remarkable reversal for the Ukrainian president, who once presented himself as a leader who would clean up the country’s politics - NYT 

 

https://archive.ph/CbkUH

 

The next day, Mr. Zelensky’s office pressed Parliament to vote on legislation curtailing the anticorruption agency’s independence, also citing the risk of Russian spies.
Law enforcement officials who reported to Mr. Zelensky followed up by sweeping up others in Ukraine’s anticorruption community. A founder of a leading nongovernmental group and a former director of a state electric company who had spoken out about political pressure on its management were arrested.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the former director of the company, Ukrenergo, was arraigned last month on financial crimes charges that he denies. He said in an interview that he had been targeted after speaking out about his refusal to hire managers who might embezzle money, as is alleged to have happened at the nuclear company.
Mr. Zelensky “doesn’t like people who argue with him or have their own ways of doing things,” Mr. Kudrytskyi said.

The next EU package of sanctions against Russia would be the 20th. The 19th came into force in October and, like the US sanctions, is aimed in particular at further reducing Russia's revenues from the sale of gas and oil.

 

A complete ban on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia will apply as early as 2027, one year earlier than originally planned. In addition, further punitive measures will apply in the financial sector, and the freedom of movement of Russian diplomats will be restricted within the EU.

 

 According to Brussels diplomats, further Russian energy companies and ships belonging to the so-called Russian shadow fleet could be targeted.

Moscow has been using the so-called shadow fleet to circumvent a price cap on Russian oil introduced by Western supporters of Ukraine. This usually involves using outdated ships and various methods to conceal the origin of oil shipments.

 

EU working on 20th package of sanctions against Russia

 

High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas attends a press conference of the Group of Five meeting at the Ministry of Defense. The German Minister of Defense meets with counterparts from France, Great Britain, Italy and Poland, as well as the High Representative of the European Union. Fabian Sommer/dpa© DPA International

 

Revelations of systemic corruption at the top are demoralizing the Ukrainian public. Millions are sitting without electricity while Zelensky’s inner-circle loots the energy sector. Tens of thousands die at the front while the president’s allies move bags of cash.  Slava Ukraine baby.  🇺🇦

18 minutes ago, connda said:

Revelations of systemic corruption at the top are demoralizing the Ukrainian public. Millions are sitting without electricity while Zelensky’s inner-circle loots the energy sector. Tens of thousands die at the front while the president’s allies move bags of cash.  Slava Ukraine baby.  🇺🇦

Why don't you go spout your russian propaganda elsewhere?

 

35 minutes ago, jvs said:

Why don't you go spout your russian propaganda elsewhere?

 

Ahhhh, the wonders of an open forum where members can share opinions and ideas.  You consider my views as "Russian Propaganda."  I consider my views to be a combination of personal experience from 8 years in the military, the vast majority of my youth as a military brat, seeing the really vehement pro-war, pro-war-hawk, pro-power-projection, pro-overthrow-small-countries-for-fun-and-profit, pro-Military-Industrial-Complex, pro-Ledeen-Doctrine - and - anti-Russia, anti-China, anti-Shia-Muslim, anti-every-country-who-fails-to-bend-a-knee-to-the-self-named-Greatest-So-called-Country-On-Earth.  And I study American history, world history, and the histories of the countries that the US and its allies tell us that we "must hate."  Ironically, "hate-speech" is not tolerated in the West, well, unless it is directed at Russia, China, the DPRK, Iran, and their allies.

So I'm not spouting "russian propaganda," I expressing an opinion based on observable facts and their historical precedents.  I don't expect everyone to agree.  We will just have to agree to disagree, and then engage in robust debate. 

49 minutes ago, jvs said:

Why don't you go spout your russian propaganda elsewhere?

 

FYI - there is no "russian propaganda" in the news of Zelenskyy and friends engaging in corruption.  It's easily found in Western main-stream media news sources.

Example:  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8vw62j3g9o Which really is just the tip of the iceberg.  However, I fully expect the same Western MSM sources to begin writing Op-eds calling the corruption overblown and rationalizing the endemic corruption in Ukraine.

11 hours ago, bannork said:

The next EU package of sanctions against Russia would be the 20th. The 19th came into force in October and, like the US sanctions, is aimed in particular at further reducing Russia's revenues from the sale of gas and oil.

 

A complete ban on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia will apply as early as 2027, one year earlier than originally planned. In addition, further punitive measures will apply in the financial sector, and the freedom of movement of Russian diplomats will be restricted within the EU.

 

 According to Brussels diplomats, further Russian energy companies and ships belonging to the so-called Russian shadow fleet could be targeted.

Moscow has been using the so-called shadow fleet to circumvent a price cap on Russian oil introduced by Western supporters of Ukraine. This usually involves using outdated ships and various methods to conceal the origin of oil shipments.

 

EU working on 20th package of sanctions against Russia

 

High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas attends a press conference of the Group of Five meeting at the Ministry of Defense. The German Minister of Defense meets with counterparts from France, Great Britain, Italy and Poland, as well as the High Representative of the European Union. Fabian Sommer/dpa© DPA International

 

That Kaja Kallas - the Baltics yap away about the Russian threat rather than work at building better relations with their pyscho neighbour. If they want to build a wall , trenches and spend half their GDP on defemce great - do it -  just don't drag the rest of Europe into their beef. They are like small dogs - they yap away hoping that noise substitutes for size. Their Waffen SS legions in WW2 out nazied the nazis in their brutality and cruelty - rules for thee not me.

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/kaja-kallas-husband-russian-business-ties-estonia/

 

"The business activities of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’ family member vis-a-vis Russia have raised many questions in the media and in society and have put the spotlight on the head of the government and the values that Estonia must follow,” Karis added, warning of a credibility crisis.

Last week, Estonian public broadcaster ERR found that Kallas' husband Arvo Hallik held a stake in Stark Logistics, which has maintained operations in Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last February. Stark Logistics continued to supply an aerosol container factory in Russia once or twice a week since Moscow's onslaught began, Stark Logistics' CEO Kristjan Kraag admitted.

19 hours ago, t0mt0m said:

I see not only banderites like those methods, Brainwashed zombie halfwits from US, UK, France and Canada took their "democratic values" to Libya, and turn thriving independent country into the total chaos.

As Gaddafi once to a massive crowd; ''If we don't stand together, they will pick us off one by one."

1 hour ago, connda said:

FYI - there is no "russian propaganda" in the news of Zelenskyy and friends engaging in corruption.  It's easily found in Western main-stream media news sources.

Example:  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8vw62j3g9o Which really is just the tip of the iceberg.  However, I fully expect the same Western MSM sources to begin writing Op-eds calling the corruption overblown and rationalizing the endemic corruption in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy's Western handlers need to start looking for another sock-puppet to place into power.  

Financial Times now majoring on the Zelenskiy corruption scandal. 

 

 Zelenskyy and his closest aides had tried this summer to neuter independent anti-corruption agencies as they were finalising a sprawling probe targeting the president’s inner circle. But the Ukrainian president and his allies were forced to abandon the attempt after mass protests and outrage from the country’s western partners.

Undeterred, investigators this week released a trove of detailed evidence, including damning claims that senior figures were taking kickbacks on construction projects to protect power stations from Russian missile attacks, at a time when Ukrainians are living with daily rolling blackouts.

The revelations prompted a wave of public anger — “how the president’s friends robbed the country in wartime” read a typical headline on the news website Ukrainska Pravda — and forced a change of tack.

 

https://archive.ph/8INJ8

 

 

 

35 minutes ago, connda said:

Zelenskyy's Western handlers need to start looking for another sock-puppet to place into power.  

He is desperately trying to firewall this  but it involves massive endemic corruption from his longest and closest friends and allies, and he clearly knows the whole house of cards is about to collapse.

 

The Kolomoisky Connection:

The 2021 Pandora Papers exposed the foundation of the con. Zelensky and his Kvartal 95 comedy partners created a web of offshore shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Belize, and Cyprus starting in 2012 - the exact year they began making content for TV channels owned by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
Here's the kicker: $40 million flowed from Kolomoisky's Privatbank (through its Cyprus branch - a known money laundering operation) straight into Zelensky's offshore network as a mysterious "capital contribution." Kolomoisky is accused of looting $5.5 billion from his own bank and is now sanctioned by both the US and EU for fraud.

Three weeks before his 2019 election victory - won on an anti-corruption platform - Zelensky quietly transferred his stake in the central offshore company (Maltex Multicapital) to Serhiy Shefir, who immediately became his top presidential aide. This network owned three luxury London properties worth $7.4 million. His current Security Service chief signed the trust declarations.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy

 

On the campaign trail, Zelenskiy pledged to clean up Ukraine’s oligarch-dominated ruling system. And he railed against politicians such as the wealthy incumbent Petro Poroshenko who hid their assets offshore. The message worked. Zelenskiy won 73% of the vote and now sits in a cavernous office in the capital, Kyiv, decorated with gilded stucco ceilings. Last month, he held talks with Joe Biden in the Oval Office.

The Pandora papers, leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with the Guardian as part of a global investigation however, suggest Zelenskiy is rather similar to his predecessors.

 

 

Fast Forward to This Week:

The corruption hasn't stopped - it's accelerated. Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau just exposed a $100 million kickback scheme at Energoatom, the state nuclear company. The mastermind? Timur Mindich - yet another Kvartal 95 co-owner and Zelensky's oldest friend from his comedy days. Mindich fled to Israel hours before the Monday raids.
The scam: contractors protecting Ukraine's energy infrastructure from Russian attacks were forced to pay 10-15% kickbacks or lose their contracts. While Ukrainians sit in the dark during blackouts, Zelensky's cronies were skimming millions off the top.
Two ministers have resigned. Wiretaps played in court this week show Mindich bragging about having Zelensky on speed-dial, able to get the president to call and pressure ministers whenever needed.
 

Here's the most damning part: just this summer, Zelensky tried to gut the independence of NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office - the exact agencies now exposing his inner circle. It triggered Ukraine's first mass protests since the war began and he was forced to retreat.

Ukraine was and remains one of the most corrupt nations on Earth, and we've poured hundreds of billions in Western money and advanced weapons into this black hole.
The image carefully constructed by Western media - amplified by his own skills as an actor and comedian has hidden an existential truth: Zelensky is just another corrupt politician surrounded by corrupt cronies looting a nation at war.

 

 

 

21 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

There are several intertwined narratives at play here. First, the belief in the supremacy of the American empire and Western rules-based international order now under almost terminal threat by the US effectively pulling out of the post-WW2 pact oh and Gaza - let's never forhet that. Second, the persistence of the declining Russian empire under Putin to defend their sectional interests close to the motherland and his ability to ruthlessly hold onto power. Third, the assault on Western European living standards at the end of an unprecedented post-war boom, now assailed by immigration, a declining economic share and huge entitlements, with a political class frozen by their inability to understand this paralysis whilst coming up against the expectations of their voters. And fourth, the unravelling of the political binary narrative of good versus evil in supporting actor-comedian Zelensky, who believed both the Western promises and his own conviction that they could take Russia on.
This crisis and it is one, firstly for Ukraine in an existential sense but moreover for the West represents a pivot moment when the levers stop working and the narratives fall away, faced by the brutal reality of the limits and reach of their rapidly declining powers. We are at that inflexion point it's downhill for the west almost terminally from hereonin. 

Ukraine didn't take Russia on. 

Russia took Ukraine on, expecting to overcome the nation in a few days.

Yet here they are, the 'mighty' Russia, 3 years, 8 months later, still unable to complete their 'special military operation'.

On November 13, eight European countries announced the allocation of 500 million dollars for the purchase of military equipment and ammunition for Ukraine within the PURL initiative. Overall, partner contributions to cover Ukraine’s priority defense needs have already reached 2.82 billion dollars.

 

In addition, at the end of October, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine may soon receive additional Mirage 2000 aircraft from France. The decision has already been made.

 

Earlier, on October 24, French President Emmanuel Macron said after a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing that France would provide Ukraine with additional Mirage fighters and Aster munitions for the SAMP/T air defense systems.

 

Ukraine finalizes another historic military aviation deal, says Zelenskyy

Russia plans to bring in up to 12,000 North Korean workers to work at enterprises in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan, where Shahed/Geran drones are manufactured, which are used to attack Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, according to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR).

 

The recruitment of workers from North Korea is planned for the end of 2025. The issue of so-called importing labor was discussed at the end of October at the Russian Foreign Ministry, where Russian officials met with representatives of the North Korean company Jihyang Technology Trade Company, which is involved in the selection of workers.

 

North Korean workers are promised to be paid approximately $2.5 per hour, with shifts lasting at least 12 hours.

 

Russia to recruit 12,000 workers from North Korea to assemble drones, Ukraine's intel says

 

It's a proxy war. Ukraine is the Nigeria of the white man.  The technology and know how come from developed countries.  Where are the F16s?  The Ukies lack the intelligence to operate and maintain them.  

 

Pinging the Ghost of Kiev. Come in Ghost. 

17 minutes ago, bannork said:

On November 13, eight European countries announced the allocation of 500 million dollars for the purchase of military equipment and ammunition for Ukraine within the PURL initiative. Overall, partner contributions to cover Ukraine’s priority defense needs have already reached 2.82 billion dollars.

 

In addition, at the end of October, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine may soon receive additional Mirage 2000 aircraft from France. The decision has already been made.

 

Earlier, on October 24, French President Emmanuel Macron said after a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing that France would provide Ukraine with additional Mirage fighters and Aster munitions for the SAMP/T air defense systems.

 

Ukraine finalizes another historic military aviation deal, says Zelenskyy

I have never denied Ukraine's agency we all need to calculate our best way to navigate the world in which we find ourselves. But what I don't support is a declining West and Europe choosing to fan the flames of a conflict that is not theirs, particularly when it leads to the destruction of the country they profess to support and impoverishes us all in the process.

And here we are: Europe closer to conflagration than at any time since WW2, and Ukraine destroyeda country that, once the funding stops, will collapse. And I won't be cheering at that outcome in any way. As Philip Larkin might have put it ; 

 

The Helpers

They said they came to lend support,
To stand beside the brave and free,
But what they brought, when all is thought,
Was ruin dressed as sympathy.

The speeches rang through marble halls,
The cameras caught each solemn vow,
While back at home the plaster falls
From our own walls. We're poorer now.

And there, the fields they swore to save
Lie churned to mud and scattered bone,
Each city block becomes a grave—
This help that leaves you more alone.

What calculations did they make,
These declining powers playing strong?
What country must we choose to break
To prove that we were never wrong?

The funds will stop. They always do.
The helpers find some fresh concern.
And we'll pretend we never knew
That everything they touched would burn.