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| A house in Mala Tokmachka damaged by shelling, April 19, 2022 - Ed Jones / AFP / Scanpix / LETA |
Ukrainian media outlets and bloggers, meanwhile, have turned Mala Tokmachka into a symbol of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ resilience. By their count, the battle has lasted more than 1,500 days, ostensibly longer than any successful defense in world history.
Then I wondered just where this place is.
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| Mala Tokmachka, Ukraine |
An attempt to tow the drifting Russian LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz to a Libyan port has failed, Libya’s Ports and Maritime Transport Authority said on April 2.The tanker broke free from the tugboat in rough weather. Strong winds and high waves made it impossible to reattach the tow line. The authority declared the vessel “out of control” and warned other ships to stay away from it.
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| Arctic Metagaz Left to right: Arzew Algeria, Malta, Damietta & Port Said Egypt, Tienshangang China |
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| The 80th Air Assault Brigade captured a T-90M Proryv tank in the Kursk region |
Four years after Russian troops crossed into Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the war has settled into something more troubling – a grinding conflict that continues to destroy lives and livelihood, and test the limits of international law. The early drama of invasion has given way to sufferings and anxieties, and there is hardly any substantive move toward peace.The front line stretches for roughly 1,200 kilometres. Russia today controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, but its gains since 2022 have been slow and costly. Estimates suggest that up to 1.8 million soldiers on both sides have been killed, wounded or gone missing. Civilian losses remain severe. The UN has documented nearly 15,000 civilian deaths and more than 40,000 injuries, while warning the true number is higher.
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| Russian Project 21631 Buyan-M Kalibr cruise missile carrier |
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| Ukrainian reconnaissance ship Simferopol |
Ukraine and Russia are still shooting at each other, nothing new there, but today Defence Blog reports that we have two mirrored cases:
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| Simferopol on left, Kaliber on right |
I was kind of hoping that when we cut off aid to Ukraine, the war would come to an end. I don't know what happened but the fighting continues and the blowhards are continuing to blowhard. This story from Aljazeera sheds a little light on the situation.
Ukraine’s sovereignty was violated long before Trump by Peter Korotaev
For years, Ukrainian governments have been pressured into implementing policies that are not necessarily in the interests of the Ukrainian people.
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| US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025, after signing a deal that gives the US preferential access to Ukrainian minerals [Yulia Svyrydenko's Facebook page via Reuters] |
On June 16, the Ukrainian government started the process for opening bids for foreign companies to mine lithium deposits in the country. Among the interested investors is a consortium linked to Ronald S Lauder, who is believed to be close to United States President Donald Trump.
The bid is part of a minerals deal signed in April that is supposed to give the US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth. The agreement was negotiated over months and was touted by Trump as “payback” for US military support for the Ukrainian military.
The final text, which the Ukrainian side has celebrated as “more favourable” compared with previous iterations, paves the way for US investment in the mining and energy sectors in Ukraine. Investment decisions will be made jointly by US and Ukrainian officials, profits will not be taxed and US companies will get preferential treatment in tenders and auctions.
Trump’s demand for access to Ukrainian mineral wealth was slammed by many as infringing on Ukrainian sovereignty and being exploitative at a time when the country is fighting a war and is highly dependent on US arms supplies. But that is hardly an aberration in the record of relations between Ukraine and the West. For more than a decade now, Kyiv has faced Western pressure to make decisions that are not necessarily in the interests of its people.
Interference in domestic affairsYou can read the rest of it here.
Perhaps the most well-known accusations of Western influence peddling have to do with the son of former US President Joe Biden – Hunter Biden. He became a board member of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma in May 2014, three months after Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president of Ukraine, fled to Russia during nationwide protests.
At that time, Joe Biden was not only vice president in President Barack Obama’s administration but also its pointman on US-Ukrainian relations. Over five years, Hunter Biden earned up to $50,000 a month as a board member. The apparent conflict of interest in this case bothered even Ukraine’s European allies.
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| Aleksey Zubritsky (left), Sergey Ryzhikov (center), and Jonny Kim before blasting off at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, April 8, 2025. © Aleksey Filippov / Sputnik |
I am wondering how long it will be before Zelensky is crushed like the bug he is. I expect he will wait until Russian tanks are rolling down his street before he decides to take the Zelenion dollars he has stuffed into his pockets and bolt for the exit. I don't expect him to stand his ground and wait for the hammer of doom, but one can only hope.
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| Pleasant Beach Scene |
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| A few seconds later |
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| Two of the biggest shitheads around: the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenesky (left) and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (right) - Peter Nicholls/Getty |
Europe’s reckless bid for victory - Wolfgang Munchau
It is dangerous for Europe to insist, instead, on victory. For while Trump has talked a lot of nonsense about Zelensky and the war, he is right in one critical aspect. Without America, there is no road to victory for Ukraine. This is not primarily about weapons, ammunition, and financial aid, but about satellite support and intelligence. If the US were to switch off the satellites and stop the flow of information, the Europeans have no way of plugging the gap. Without the US, it’s over for Ukraine.
A couple of terms I had to look up:
Hobbesian world - A Hobbesian world is a world without government where people are in a constant state of war, competing for resources and power. This concept is based on the ideas of political philosopher Thomas Hobbes.
the single market - A single market is a trade bloc where most barriers to trade have been removed. It's also known as an internal market or common market.
A couple of well written essays about problems in other places.
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| Meeting at Diriyah Palace, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Feb. 18, 2025 |
Looks like Zelensky, the grifter / puppet, has been sidelined. Lots of people talking about this meeting, but identification was neglected, so I decided to investigate. Note that the three countries represented at this meeting are the world's largest energy producers.
Participants, left to right:
A wonderful take on Ukraine from RT:
Trump ejects from the Ukraine joyride, leaving the EU screaming in the backseat by Rachel Marsden
Western European leaders are having a meltdown because shutting them out from talks is the only way to peace
The European Union was never in the driver’s seat on the Ukraine conflict. And now that same toddler sitting in the back with the plastic Fisher-Price steering wheel is throwing the kind of full-blown crimson-faced meltdown that makes adults chuckle.
How many times was the EU told, including by its own citizens with sledgehammer subtlety at the ballot box, to stop kissing Uncle Sam’s butt and start covering its own? Instead, its leaders cribbed America’s talking points, completely oblivious as they indulged in economic seppuku.
The EU’s entire economy-wrecking “strategy” over Ukraine was based on the fantasy that they were America’s little bro, not being used as naive pawns in a grand game that would knock them right off the chessboard. If Washington had picked peace over profit from the start, the closest thing that the Euroclowns would have seen to a military confrontation with Russia in Ukraine would have been playing Sergeant Savoir-Faire back home, armed with a map of the nearest coffee shops and a five-course lunch.
And now the previously unthinkable has happened. The jig is up on Biden’s ridiculous scam of vowing to do “whatever it takes” for Ukraine to beat Russia on the battlefield – mainly by dumping cash into US weapons which miraculously get lost en route to the frontlines after the cheque clears.
Nice racket. Too bad it’s getting people killed – something Trump’s made it clear he’s not exactly a fan of. Looks like he’s finally asked himself if there’s a way for the US to keep feasting on cash without a body count in Ukraine. Spoiler alert: he found a way, apparently. Several, in fact.
Cutting to the chase through all this messy death and destruction stuff, Trump just wants to wrap up the fighting and have Ukraine hand over its resources to cover US spending — most of which has already gone straight into the pockets of American weapons industries. And can he keep the weapon sales flowing, even without active conflict? Absolutely. Just tell NATO countries to cough up some cash for the sake of “preventive defense,” like he’s been doing relentlessly. A solid 90% of EU-bought weapons are already American, according to last year’s EU competitiveness report. And that’s not changing anytime soon – unless the EU’s itching for a tariff-spanking.
A group of European foreign ministers have issued a statement insisting that Ukraine and the EU must be at the table for any peace talks. Yeah, they’re at the table alright – the bib-wearing kiddie table, along with Ukraine. And while they’re busy twisting balloon animals and tossing around buzzwords like ‘enhancing support for Ukraine,’ totally immersed in their ‘choose your own adventure’ game where they’re obviously ‘winning,’ it turns out that Russia and the US – Putin and Trump – did something totally wild. They picked up a phone. Probably even a landline, like something out of a history book. All while the EU was bravely ‘sticking it to Putin’ by flaming him on social media while wiping croissant crumbs off their keyboard between sips of overpriced lattes.
In the wake of that call, Trump announced the start of immediate negotiations for peace. And now the EU is acting like it’s just been dumped by Uncle Sam, who’s committing the added insult of hanging around with the guy on whom they’ve been obsessively hating. “If there is agreement made behind our backs it will simply not work because you need for any kind of deal, any kind of agreement, you need Europeans to implement this deal. You need the Ukrainians to implement this deal,” said the bloc’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas.
The agreement is actually being made right in front of your face and ours, for once – unlike the back-room shenanigans between bloc officials and the Biden administration, which ultimately lured the EU economy off straight a cliff with EU “leaders” serving as willing lemmings, sanctioning their own Russian supplies of virtually everything critical to their economy.
Now the German defense minister is yelling from the kiddie table over to the adult table, trying to tell Trump and Putin how they should be conducting their negotiations. “From my point of view, it would have been better to talk about Ukraine’s possible membership of NATO or the country’s loss of territory only at the negotiating table and not take it off the table beforehand,” said Boris Pistorius. Everyone’s really keen to hear advice for peace from folks whose strategy so far has resulted in perpetual war. That’s barely a step above Elon Musk’s toddler, X – the one who was chiseling away at Mount Nostrildamus for the cameras while standing beside his dad and Trump in the Oval Office the other day – offering Trump and Putin his take on negotiated peace in Ukraine.
Sounds like Western European leaders are currently experiencing all five states of grief at once, while frantically refreshing their inboxes to see if either the US or Russia have noticed their total meltdowns and slid into their DMs – and not just taken their freakouts as confirmation that ghosting them entirely was maybe the best way to handle the situation when they’re sounding like they’re on the verge of throwing every dish in the cupboard straight across the room right now.
“All we need is peace. A JUST PEACE. Ukraine, Europe and the United States should work on this together. TOGETHER,” insisted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on social media. ”Russia has to be forced to peace,” said Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze. No, dear, YOU have to be forced to peace. Now, please just go back to the kiddie table and wipe the spaghetti off your face.
European ministers and delegations had been meeting in Paris earlier this week for what they thought was an important strategy session – only to realize that they were basically just holding the equivalent of a corporate teambuilding exercise. While they were making all kinds of grand public proclamations in their echo chamber, like they were all jockeying for roles they could play in any eventual peace negotiations, it turns out that Trump and Putin were already finalizing the casting, and were even talking about bringing the curtain up. And they were suggesting that would be a two-man show, not an ensemble slapstick comedy featuring the EU big top circus troupe.
European diplomats are now telling the Financial Times that they figure they’ll be expected to foot the bill for Ukraine’s reconstruction – because Trump will insist on it – and also send troops to enforce a deal they had zero say in while the US refuses military involvement. Which is like getting handed a massive dinner check for a meal you didn’t even get to touch. Just picture it: EU soldiers walking around Ukraine at EU taxpayer expense to protect American resource ventures while US troops stay home, as Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has already stipulated, by adding that the EU needs to honor its commitments.
And Vice President J.D. Vance joined in the Trump administration’s stereoscopic spanking of the EU during their visit to the bloc by telling Europeans repeatedly – both during an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and before the Munich Security Conference – to stop censoring information and views they don’t like under the guise of it somehow being a peril to democracy.
The EU media has already suggested that it looks like the EU’s role is basically to shut up and accept the result of negotiations – like it has been kicked right out of the group chat before it even had a chance to log on, and still has to comply with the outcome of the meeting. Basically, at this point, Trump sees Europe as an ATM. Putin sees Europe as background noise. And Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky probably just sees his gravy train’s looming derailment.
Trump and Putin are already debating between caviar and steak for their peace talks while the EU stands outside like a rejected clubber, begging the bouncer to “check again, bro” – meanwhile, Zelensky is eyeing that tablecloth like a pyromaniac.
I could be completely wrong, but I don't think Russia is bent on world domination, they just want a secure place in the world. The war mongers in the White House seem to think that Russia must be destroyed and if we destroy Western Europe along the way, well, that's just too bad.
Deception, manipulation, sabotage: What the UK does to keep the Ukraine war going by Tarik Cyril Amar
Leaked papers expose a secret military operation that includes planning attacks, suppressing media and brainwashing the British public
[Lieutenant General Charlie Stickland] – boasting of his pirate ancestors and in charge of “UK-led joint and multinational overseas military operations” – and his motley crew have just been the object of an investigative exposé by Grayzone reporter Kit Klarenberg. In, for now, two articles, the Grayzone has detailed how, in 2022, Stickland set up a below-the-radar network of “an assortment of leading academics, authors, strategists, planners, pollsters, comms, data scientists and tech.” Under the name Project Alchemy and overlapping and liaising with another group of wannabe keyboard Ninjas calling themselves – I kid you not – “the Elders,” this conspiratorial group has worked on, in essence, keeping the Ukraine war going at any price and by means foul and fouler.
. . .
Doing what exactly? All kinds of things, really, and all based on one stupid yet once immensely popular assumption: that the proxy war in Ukraine could be leveraged to defeat Russia, reduce it to geopolitical insignificance, impose regime change on it, and even break it up. Some, including the new de facto foreign minister of the EU, Estonia’s Kaja Kallas – imagine Annalena Baerbock, but without the brilliant intellect – still seem to be on that political equivalent of an LSD trip gone terribly wrong. What a hangover it will be one day, probably soon.
People mentioned here:
Excellent article about the current situation in Ukraine. I looked for a couple of key paragraphs to excerpt, but I couldn't find any that stood out. The whole thing is excellent. Or maybe I just haven't had enough coffee yet. Go read.
Risking Nuclear War by Christopher Roach
Escalating brinkmanship might be justified if victory were in sight or if any of this contributed to American security. But none of these things are true.
Who's to blame for this stupidity? Christopher suggests it might be these people:
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 21, 2024
New video shows a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) striking Ukraine.
The video shows reentry vehicles from its MIRV hitting the city of Dnipro.
It’s the first time in history that an ICBM is used in war. pic.twitter.com/o198cJXvXm
This footage captures a major attack unfolding in Ukraine, with Zelensky claiming it was caused by an ICBM—missiles designed to deliver nuclear or conventional warheads and nearly impossible to intercept.
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) November 21, 2024
This marks the first-ever deployment of an ICBM just days after Ukraine… pic.twitter.com/kaLwLIDFsd
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| Emergency workers stand amidst the rubble after a Russian attack that hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 24, 2024. AP Photo/Andrii Marienko |
Better than average story about the war in Ukraine:
Conrad gives us some history of Ukraine and speculates on the outcome of the current war. One item that surprised me:
Ironclad guarantees of Ukraine’s revised borders would represent three quarters of a loaf for that country and one quarter of a loaf for Russia, for whom the war is a terrible strain—Russia has taken over 600,000 casualties, and Ukraine approximately 250,000, about a quarter dead in each case, and Russia’s GDP is smaller than Canada’s.
I expected casualties to be about equal, and they may be. Estimates of casualties are big fat guesses. Western guesses are going to be slanted one way and Russian estimates are going to be slanted the other way. The Wall Street Journal [paywall] puts the total number of casualties at one million, which is in the same ball park.
I don't know about this business regarding the GDP. I think he's picking nits. The GDP of Russia and Canada are each around two trillion dollars which is less than one-tenth of USA's.
I don't understand the war in Ukraine. I've been trying to figure it out, but I'm not having much luck. But this week I came up with a couple of new ideas.
My favorite is that somebody with serious clout, he might even be running the country, though with all the infighting going on I don't think anyone is really in charge, and certainly not effing Joe Brandon. Anyway, this mythical big shot has got a personal hard on for Ukraine and he just wants to destroy the country. Somebody pissed him off so bad, made him so angry that he is going to lay waste to the entire country. So far he's doing a pretty good job.
This might even be why he decided to start poking the bear back in 2014. Irritate the Russians enough and they are likely to retaliate, and that would suit Mr. Big just fine. Also, don't allow Ukraine to actually retaliate against Russia because that would mean war and we don't really want to hurt Russia, we want to confine all the death and destruction to Ukraine.
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| Ukrainian Oil and Gas Reserves and War Zones |
