new banner
Ukraine War: Selected news, views, & analysis

A few good sources of news & analysis

 • Moon of Alabama, blog

 • Antiwar.com, blog

 • Consortium News, blog

 • Caitlin Johnstone, blog

 • Judge Andrew Napolitano, podcast

 • Larry Johnson, blog & podcast

 • Douglas MacGregor, interviews & articles

 •  Alastair Crooke, blog

 • The Grayzone, blog

 • Simplicius, blog

 • SouthFront, video

 •  St. Pete for Peace, website

 • The Duran, podcast

 • The Automatic Earth, blog

Ukraine's top "disinformation" sources -- we respect and read many of them.

To understand we must think and compare. We do not agree with all the postings on all these sites. That would be an unrealistic expectation anywhere.

Oppose the War billboard
updated 14 Apr 2025, 12:04 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: 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


Apr 14, 2025

Featured • Palm Sunday Attacks On Sumy And Al-Ahli, Moon of Alabama, Apr 14, 2025
Yes, the facts about the Ukraine attack are fairly clear.

Featured • Russian Strike in Sumy: Military Target or Civilian Tragedy? (18+), South Front, Apr 13, 2025

Former Ukrainian MP Ihor Mosiychuk claimed that the head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, Artem Artiukh, organized the ceremony for self-promotion, even inviting civilians—including children—to the event.“Artiukh really wanted to show off at the awards ceremony, so he arranged this gathering,” Mosiychuk stated.

The event celebrated the 7th anniversary of the 117th Brigade, with details publicly shared in advance. “I hope Artiukh and Ananchenko are already being detained in Sumy. These scum gathered civilians, including children, for their PR stunt!”

This is not the first time Ukrainian forces have been accused of using civilian infrastructure for cover and civilians as a human shield. Kyiv’s propaganda narrative was dismantled, confirming that the strike was aimed at military personnel. There was no indiscriminate attack on civilians. While any loss of civilian life is tragic, evidence suggests that Ukrainian forces deliberately mixed military and civilian presence, effectively using them as human shields.

Ukrainian officials have demanded Artiukh’s resignation, threatening to release compromising information. This internal backlash further confirms that the event was poorly planned and exploited for political gain.

While Russia’s strike was aimed at a legitimate military target, the presence of civilians, possibly encouraged by Ukrainian officials, turned the tragedy into a propaganda victory for Kyiv.
Sad. It appears that somebody on the Russian side got a little trigger-happy. There is plenty of blame on the Ukrainian side too -- somebody knew the risks, or should have, of mixing a lot of soldiers with civilians in a targetable military event.

Featured • When Alleged Western Military “Experts” Insist that Russia is Not Making Progress, Just Show Them This, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Apr 13, 2025
No matter how the West tries to polish the turd that is Ukraine, the Ukrainians lack the manpower, the weapons and the industrial capability to produce weapons and ammunition required to stop the Russian advances all along the line of contact.

The sooner the members of the US Congress, as well as President Trump, understand this basic fact, and pull the plug on any additional US material and intelligence support to Ukraine, the quicker we will see the end to the war. As long as the US and Western Europe continue to encourage Ukraine to stay in the fight, more Ukrainian soldiers will die and Russia will control more Ukrainian territory. At this point, it is a math problem… solve it! It also, in my opinion, makes Trump and the Europeans complicit in the needless deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers.
I am ashamed for the U.S. and European peace movements, which have been MIA, or Russophobic.

 • Russia and Ukraine to hold direct talks – CNN Turk, RT, Apr 13, 2025
Russian and Ukrainian representatives will hold direct talks in Ankara next week, CNN Turk has reported, citing sources in the Turkish Defense Ministry. Delegations from the two countries will meet to discuss security in the Black Sea, the outlet said in an article on Sunday. The meetings will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Turkish Naval Forces headquarters in Ankara, according to sources. During talks between Russian and US experts in Riyadh in late March, it was agreed to move towards reviving the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which according to the Kremlin, should include the removal of Western restrictions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial institutions involved in the international sale of food and fertilizers.
 • Top Kiev official wants women conscripted into army, RT, Apr 13, 2025
The Ukrainian presidential administration’s deputy head, Col. Pavel Palisa, has voiced support for mandatory conscription for women, drawing inspiration from the Israeli approach. Ukraine is facing a shortage of troops, leading enlistment officers to employ aggressive tactics shown in numerous eyewitness videos. In an interview with the investigative journalism outlet Bihus.info published on Saturday, Palisa emphasized the need for a structured transition period to help the public adapt to the idea that military service should be a universal obligation. He also proposed that individuals who have not served in the military be restricted from accessing certain government benefits and opportunities, including employment in public service roles.

”If a citizen claims to support the state, job, education, I don’t know, in general, to claim some payments from the state budget, they should serve… there is a minimum contract, let it be annual,” the official suggested. Palisa went on to state that both men and women in a modern army “have a lot of different jobs[…] No matter how wild it sounds now, maybe we need to learn the experience of Israel in this,” he explained. After the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022, Ukraine implemented martial law and announced a general mobilization, preventing able-bodied men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country. Both measures have been extended multiple times since. In response to the mobilization drive being marred by corruption and draft dodging, last year the Ukrainian government lowered the conscription age to 25 and implemented stricter penalties for evading the draft and desertion.

Since February, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has been offering enrollment incentives to men aged 18 to 24 who are not subject to compulsory service. Chief among these is compensation of one million hryvnia ($24,000) for one year of service. The ministry has also released several videos showcasing how the money could supposedly enhance recruits’ lives. However, according to Palisa, fewer than 500 men have signed such contracts. “Some agreed verbally, but never followed through with signing. In some cases, parents intervened; others thought, ‘Peace is coming soon, no need for this.’ There are all kinds of reasons,” he said, commenting on the low number.

Apr 13, 2025

Featured • UK deeply involved in Ukraine conflict – The Times, RT, Apr 12, 2025

Britain’s military leadership played a far more extensive and covert role in the Ukraine conflict than previously known, not only designing battle plans and supplying intelligence, but also authorizing secret troop deployments inside Ukraine to deliver weapons training and technical support, according to a report by The Times. While London’s political and military backing for Kiev has been public since the 2014 Western-backed coup, the extent of its involvement after the escalation in February 2022 “remained largely hidden… until now,” the British newspaper wrote on Friday. The Times claimed that British troops were sent into Ukraine in small numbers on several occasions throughout 2022 and 2023, operating discreetly to avoid provoking Russia. In particular, UK forces were deployed to fit Ukrainian aircraft with Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles and train pilots and ground crews in their use.

“UK troops were secretly sent to fit Ukraine’s aircraft with the missiles and teach troops how to use them,” the publication wrote, noting that it “would not be the first time British troops had been deployed on the ground.” The UK had been delivering thousands of NLAW anti-tank missiles to Kiev and sending instructors to train Ukrainian soldiers in their use since 2015. While British troops were pulled back from Ukraine shortly before the escalation in February 2022, the deteriorating battlefield situation and the urgent need for technical expertise saw small teams of UK personnel redeployed quietly alongside fresh supplies of missiles, the newspaper reported.

London also reportedly played a key role in helping Ukraine prepare its much-touted 2023 “counteroffensive” against Russia – and in mediating between Kiev and Washington when the operation failed to meet US expectations. The newspaper claimed that “behind the scenes” the Ukrainians referred to Britain’s military chiefs as the “brains” of what they called an “anti-Putin” coalition. Former UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was even ereportedly nicknamed “the man who saved Kiev” by Ukrainian military officials. “The Americans went to Ukraine only on rare occasions because of concerns that they would be seen to be too involved in the war, unlike Britain’s military chiefs who were given the freedom to go whenever necessary,” The Times wrote. “Sometimes their visits were so sensitive they went in civilian clothing.”

Moscow perceives the Ukraine conflict as a Western-led proxy war against Russia, in which Ukrainians serve as “cannon fodder.” It considers foreigners fighting for Kiev as “mercenaries” acting on behalf of Western governments. Senior Russian officials have suggested that more complex weapon systems provided to Kiev are highly likely operated by NATO staff. The presence of current and former NATO troops has also been tacitly admitted, but never openly confirmed, by Western officials. For example, last year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed the involvement of British and French forces in preparing Ukrainian missile launches, as he explained why Berlin would not supply similar weapons to Kiev. Earlier this month, a New York Times investigation found that the administration of former US President Joe Biden provided Ukraine with support that went far beyond arms shipments – extending to daily battlefield coordination, intelligence sharing, and joint strategy planning, which were described as indispensable to Kiev’s fight against Russia.
 • More 'Trump-Proofing' The War: Europe Pledges $23BN In New Military Support For Ukraine, Kyle Anzalone, ZeroHedge, Apr 13, 2025
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) pledged to send 21 billion euros ($23.7 billion) in future military aid for Kiev. Under the Joe Biden administration, Washington led the UDCG and was the largest contributor to the Western proxy war in Ukraine.

Following a meeting of the UDCG on Friday, the bloc announced the new military aid for Kiev. The majority of the aid was pledged by Berlin and London. Germany agreed to send Ukraine €11 billion over the next four years. The UK plans to send £4.5 billion this year.
 • Kellogg Blasts Times for Misrepresenting His Words on Ukraine 'Partitioning', Sputnik International, Apr 12, 2025
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg accused the Times newspaper of misrepresenting his words about control zones in Ukraine, clarifying that he did not mean “partitioning” the country itself.

The Times wrote in an article that Kellogg suggested partitioning Ukraine into control zones after the end of the conflict like Berlin after World War II, but without US ground forces. Kellogg, the report said, proposed dividing Ukraine into several control zones, where the military of several countries would be located: British and French troops could be deployed to western Ukraine as a “reassurance force.” Between them and the Russian forces there could be “Ukrainian forces and a demilitarized zone.”

On March 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Russia does not see any possibility for a compromise on the issue of deploying foreign peacekeepers in Ukraine. As the Russian minister specified at the time, if a foreign contingent is deployed in Ukraine, Western countries will not want to discuss the terms of peaceful settlement. The Russian Foreign Ministry previously said the plans of some EU countries to send “peacekeepers” to Ukraine are a provocative step aimed at maintaining unhealthy illusions in Kiev.
 • Kremlin reveals content of Putin’s talks with Trump envoy, RT, Apr 11, 2025
During a White House meeting with President Donald Trump last week, Witkoff argued that recognizing Russian ownership of Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson was the swiftest path to halting the war, the outlet’s sources said. General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, reportedly pushed back, stressing Ukraine would not accept full territorial concessions.

The meeting reportedly concluded without a decision from Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants to broker a ceasefire by May. Witkoff subsequently traveled to Russia on Friday for talks with Putin.

The episode has deepened rifts within the Trump administration, as officials debate how to resolve the Ukraine conflict, Reuters wrote. Witkoff’s approach, previously outlined in a March interview with Tucker Carlson, has reportedly alarmed both Republican lawmakers and US allies.

“They’re Russian-speaking,” Witkoff told Carlson of the eastern territories. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”

Several Republicans reportedly contacted National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to raise concerns about Witkoff’s stance, criticizing him for echoing Russian rhetoric.
 • Trump’s Kiev envoy clarifies proposed ‘zones of responsibility’ in Ukraine, RT, Apr 11, 2025
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg, has rejected the notion that he proposed partitioning Ukraine like post-WWII Germany, accusing The Times of misrepresenting his remarks about a Cold War-style post-ceasefire security arrangement. Kellogg told The Times in an interview published on Friday that British and French – but not American – troops could lead Western military force positioned west of the Dnepr River, while Ukrainian forces would hold territory further east. He also suggested establishing a demilitarized zone (DMZ) roughly 18 miles (30 kilometers) wide along the current lines of control to prevent direct clashes with Russian forces.

Moscow has repeatedly warned the West against deploying troops to Ukraine under any pretext, specifically objecting to forces from any NATO countries ending up in the country. Last month, former Russian president and deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said that the potential emergence of any NATO “peacekeepers” in Ukraine would mean a war between the bloc and Russia.
Kellogg has negative value.

 • NATO needs Romania to launch WWIII – Georgescu, RT, Apr 11, 2025
Calin Georgescu, a former Romanian presidential candidate whose bid was controversially invalidated earlier this year, has claimed that NATO wants to “launch World War III from Romania.” In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, he said his staunch pro-peace stance was among the main reasons why he was barred from running for president. The right-wing politician, known as an outspoken critic of NATO, the EU, and Western support for Ukraine, scored a surprise win in the first round of November’s presidential election, receiving 23% of the vote. However, the country’s Constitutional Court swiftly moved in to annul the result over alleged “irregularities” in his campaign. Later, Georgescu was stripped of his right to run for office.

Appearing on Carlson’s podcast on Thursday, the former Romanian presidential candidate alleged that NATO wants to “launch… World War III from Romania.” The politician cited the fact that the “largest military base of NATO is in Romania,” coupled with the 380-mile (612 km) long border that his country shares with Ukraine. “In this situation of course Romania is the asset for [the] European Union, for [French President Emmanuel] Macron in order to launch the war,” Georgescu insisted. “They want to turn NATO [into] an offensive force” and are “pushing for war,” he alleged, adding that “my position was exactly against them.”According to Georgescu, “all my campaign was just concentrate[d] on peace[.] When I said… the word ‘peace’, they immediately alerted… because they need war.” The right-wing politician went on to say that the “majority of Romanian people… have this position against any intervention and any participation [in] war.”


Apr 11, 2025

 • Trump envoy in Russia for high-level talks – media, RT, Apr 11, 2025

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin, Axios has reported. If confirmed, the meeting would be the third since Trump initiated the normalization of relations with Moscow following his inauguration in January. Last week, Witkoff was among several senior White House officials to host Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s aide for international economic cooperation, who traveled to Washington to continue the high-level discussions. According to services monitoring air traffic, a plane associated with Witkoff has traveled from Florida to St. Petersburg overnight.
 • ‘Some states’ opposed to using frozen Russian assets – EU’s top diplomat, RT, Apr 10, 2025
Several EU member states are “strongly opposed” to handing Russian assets frozen by the bloc over to increase military support for Ukraine, foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has admitted. The objections to the proposed move, which Kallas supports, are based on legal concerns and financial risks. Western countries froze around $300 billion in Russian sovereign and state-linked assets following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, with the bulk under EU jurisdiction. Brussels has since been exploring ways to use them to benefit Kiev, including by giving Ukraine the interest earned on the assets. Moscow has strongly condemned these efforts, calling them “theft.”
 • US, Russia Hold Talks in Istanbul on Normalizing Relations, Say Progress Made, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Apr 10, 2025
The US and Russia also conducted a prisoner swap on Thursday.

US and Russian officials held talks at the Russian consulate in Istanbul on Thursday that focused on normalizing diplomatic relations.

The meeting marked the second round of normalization talks since the first was held in Istanbul on February 27. According to Russia’s TASS news agency, the talks lasted about five and a half hours.

The Russian delegation was headed by Alexander Darchiev, the Russian ambassador to the US, who said after the meeting that good progress was made toward normalizing the work of the two countries’ diplomatic facilities.

Apr 10, 2025

Featured • US ‘just lost a war with Russia’ – Tucker Carlson, RT, Apr 10, 2025

American policymakers are too arrogant to acknowledge that they have “lost a war with Russia” over Ukraine, US journalist Tucker Carlson has said. Russian officials perceive the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war – a notion that some Western politicians, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have openly agreed with. In an interview with Alex Jones published on Wednesday, Carlson accused those perpetuating the hostilities of ignoring that Russia has emerged victorious. ”We just lost a war with Russia,” the former Fox News host declared. “The US was running that war – the US military, the Pentagon, State Department, CIA – running the war against Russia. It was not… was never about Ukraine.”

Carlson expressed concern that “nobody will say that out loud – that we’re overstating our power.” He likened the US to a divorced 60-year-old man attempting to woo a 25-year-old woman, oblivious to how absurd and humiliating he appears. “That’s called hubris and that’s how empires get destroyed and populations vaporized,” Carlson warned. “Maybe we should readjust our expectations a little bit.” Jones argued that many advocating for unconditional support of Kiev are “militarily ignorant,” mentioning actor Sean Penn’s dismissal of nuclear escalation risks with Russia. He emphasized that the scenario of major nuclear conflict is termed ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ for a reason.

In response, Carlson referenced a Pentagon assessment indicating that at one point the risk of the Ukraine conflict escalating to nuclear war reached 50%, arguing that any policymaker comfortable with such odds belongs “in prison for the criminally insane.” Senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly asserted that Moscow will employ all tools at its disposal against what it perceives as an existential threat. Ukraine and its Western supporters have dismissed the Russian leader’s statements as “nuclear blackmail.”
Carlson is absolutely right on all these points, communicated so well. Also, Americans generally do not understand the scale of the war this country just lost, or for how long and by whom it was prepared, let alone its historical importance. Trump and Co. do not seem to understand how few cards they have to play in Ukraine. Trump's stated concerns about Ukrainian lives are not transforming into realistic peace proposals.

Featured • ‘European aggression’ behind all global tragedies – Lavrov, RT, Apr 9, 2025
Western European countries have once again “taken up arms” against Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, commenting on the increasingly hostile stance of many governments toward Moscow. Addressing the constant calls to prepare for a presumed Russian attack – a notion which Moscow has dismissed as baseless – Lavrov said all previous global conflicts were sparked by similar aggressive actions from Europe. “We are witnessing another wave in which Europe is taking up arms against Russia, and by the looks on some faces, even growling at Russia. After all… all global tragedies began with aggressive actions by Europeans: The Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II,” he said in an interview for the TASS Children project released on Wednesday. Lavrov added that during World War II, nearly all “neutral” European countries, in addition to those officially aligned with Nazi Germany, fought alongside Germany – including France.

“They did have a resistance movement, but like most other European countries, the official authorities in Paris meekly surrendered to the will of the victors… and French troops fought battles on the side of Hitler’s Germany, taking part in a number of punitive operations,” he said, adding that “there were many examples of this.” Lavrov went on to say that France and the UK are “obsessed” with “defeating Russia on the battlefield,” as evidenced by the billions they have spent on Kiev’s war effort and recent discussions about deploying troops to Ukraine, supposedly in a peacekeeping role. He accused the West, including Washington, of installing what he called an “openly Russophobic Nazi regime” in Ukraine as part of its goal of defeating Russia. “Some want to quickly and finally erase from history the pages of their national shame, collaborationism, connivance with the Nazis,” he said.
More of the same strong but clear vintage.

Featured • Ukraine ‘betrayed’ its history – Lavrov, RT, Apr 9, 2025
Ukraine has “betrayed” its own history by allowing the West to bring a Nazi regime to power in Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview for the TASS Children project released on Wednesday, the diplomat said the West’s actions were deliberate, aimed at bringing about a “strategic defeat” of Russia. “The forgetting of history, their spiritual and moral values, their roots, if you like, all this has become one of the main reasons for what we are now seeing in Ukraine,” he said, referring to the ongoing conflict, which he described as one that pitted the authorities against their own people from the outset. Lavrov accused the West of trying to rewrite history by “instilling oblivion of Russian roots” and promoting ideas in Ukrainian society that led to what he called “social amnesia.”

“This was used by the Americans and Europeans to bring an openly Russophobic Nazi regime to power in Ukraine that declared war against its own people, seizing power through an illegal coup d’etat, calling those who disagreed with this coup terrorists, and starting a real war against them,” he said. Lavrov noted that among European countries, there are two views on confronting their own history with Nazism – some seek to “quickly erase the pages of their national shame,” while others see Nazi ideology as a “tool for maintaining their positions on the European political scene.” He pledged that Russia would continue to fight both trends. “Our ambition is to ensure that this sacred memory never leaves history, never leaves the memory of all generations, that it remains unchanged. And we are convinced of our historical, moral and human rectitude,” he concluded.

Commemorations of World War II-era nationalist figures with ties to Nazi Germany have been common in Ukraine. Ukrainians hold annual torchlight marches in honor of Stepan Bandera, a leader in the militant Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany and was involved in the massacre of more than 100,000 Poles, Jews, Russians, and Soviet-aligned Ukrainians. Less than two months ago, the Ukrainian city of Rivne marked the 120th birthday of Ulas Samchuk, a Nazi collaborator and anti-Semitic propagandist who welcomed the mass killings of Jews during the war. Moscow has repeatedly warned of a Nazi revival in Ukraine, citing “denazification” as a central aim of its military operation against Kiev. Western officials and media, however, have largely downplayed such concerns, often dismissing the allegations as “Russian propaganda.”
Not holding back. Lavrov's strong words reinforce this longstanding Russian requirement for genuine peace. Someone caricatured Russian goals in 2022 as "No nukes, no NATO, no Nazis" in Ukraine and its government. They were goals then. They are requirements now. They were and are reasonable and desireable and we should back them.

 • Some Fall-Out From The Tariff Wars, Moon of Alabama, Apr 9, 2025
When the U.S. launched its proxy war in Ukraine against Russia it thought that it could defeat Russia by economic means. A wall of sanctions and other restrictions were to destroy the Russian economy. But Russia was prepared and much stronger than the U.S. had anticipated. Its economy did better than those of the countries which opposed it.

A similar miscalculation seems to have happened with regards to China.

Trump is not knowledgeable about China's mighty economy. Vice-President Vance recently called China's highly qualified work force 'peasants'. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is likewise ignorant:
I advised Scott Bessent, now Trump's Secretary of the Treasury who is leading the tariff war, in 2013 when he was still with Soros. An investment bank engaged me to advise Bessent on China's economy and consumer trends and go over my book The End of Cheap China.

I took an instant disliking - Bessent was one of the most arrogant and ignorant on China people I had ever met. He was uber bearish on China and was largely ideologically driven in his analysis. Communist countries couldn't succeed was basically the jist of his views.

Data and rational analysis did not reign supreme....

He thinks America has the upper hand with China right now. I worry for America. We have one of the most ignorant on China yet arrogant people I've ever met running a trade war against China.
Now I am beginning to think the shit may have well and truly hit the fan and is now flying in the air. Import replacement is not going to happen soon -- or ever -- for a vast variety of goods. The thing about U.S. leaders of every stripe, is that one cannot fully calibrate in their arrogance and resulting stupidity. Arrogance is a wired-in feature of U.S. governance, but Trump's lack of caution and misdirection of government reform (e.g. not touching the Pentagon, or Israel) may finally take the cake.

 • Kiev targeting Russian gas supplies to southern Europe – Moscow, RT, Apr 9, 2025
The Ukrainian military has launched multiple drone attacks overnight, targeting a a Russian gas pumping station which supplies fuel to southern Europe via the TurkStream pipeline, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said. The ministry has accused Kiev of continued violations of an energy ceasefire agreed by Russia, the US and Ukraine last month. On Wednesday, the Russian military announced that it intercepted eight Ukrainian drones targeting the energy facility near the town of Korenovsk in the southern Krasnodar Region. The attack on Tuesday night was detected by defenses and caused no damage, as all aircraft were successfully intercepted, the report stated.

“This was a deliberate attack by the Kiev regime against an international energy site,” the ministry emphasized, adding that since Russia accepted a US-proposed moratorium on strikes targeting energy infrastructure, Ukrainian forces have not paused such attacks “for a single day.” Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an immediate suspension of strikes on Ukrainian energy sites following a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump in mid-March. Moscow maintains it is observing the partial ceasefire, despite Ukrainian violations, in a bid to foster goodwill with Washington.

The Korenovskaya compressor station targeted by Kiev is part of the Pochinki-Anapa pipeline, which entered service in July 2022 to enhance supplies for the TurkStream link under the Black Sea. The ground section of the pipeline has a maximum capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of gas per year, though the Defense Ministry noted it is currently functioning at about half that flow rate. TurkStream is one of the primary export routes for Russian natural gas directly to Türkiye, facilitating further supplies to Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece. In late February Hungary accused Kiev of threatening its sovereignty by jeopardizing its energy supplies, after a Ukrainian drone raid targeted the Russkaya gas compressor station, which feeds fuel into TurkStream.
 • The Enemy Within, Scott Ritter, Apr 4, 2025
The close collaboration between the UKKA and the US Government over the years cannot be overstated. Throughout the 1990’s, Ukrainian “influencers” (radio and television hosts, journalists, and aspiring politicians) were recruited under programs fully funded by USAID that brought these individuals to the United States for “orientation” (i.e., guided visits to the White House, Congress, the State Department, and the Pentagon) where they met and coordinated with US policymakers on issues pertaining to Ukraine. In every instance, those who participated in such visits were assigned an “official” US government representative, and a “Banderist” from the UKKA.

The bottom line is that every aspect of US policy toward Ukraine in the lead-up to President Trump’s second term has been closely coordinated with the most extreme virulent form of Ukrainian nationalism imaginable—that espoused by Stepan Bandera and embraced without question by his loyal followers.

Apr 9, 2025

Featured • Trump-Putin: a deal, Yalta or no deal?, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Apr 9, 2025
Long, and quite a good overview, IMO. Where a change of emphasis might be needed is in his treatment of Israel's aggression and Trump's facilitation thereof, which is morally and legally incandescent, transcending other geopolitical issues in those ways. The self-harm harm being inflicted by the West in the Middle East cannot be overstated. It is a poison that goes very deep.

Featured • Russia says the future of nuclear arms control with US and others looks bleak for now, Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Antonov, Reuters, Apr 8, 2025

Senior Kremlin officials on Tuesday said there was little chance of striking a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States soon because there was not enough trust and cautioned that a host of other countries would gain nuclear weapons.

The bleak assessment from Moscow comes amid the disintegration of the tangle of arms control treaties which sought to slow the arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war, and the swift expansion of China's nuclear arsenal.

The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here.

Asked about the prospects for a replacement to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which runs out in February 2026, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was very difficult right now to imagine even starting such talks.

"At the moment, it is very difficult to imagine the beginning of such negotiations," Peskov, who also serves as a deputy chief of staff in the presidential administration, told reporters.

To discuss such complex strategic issues, Peskov said, there needed to be a certain level of mutual trust - and that trust had "yet" to be restored between Moscow and Washington but could be if Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had the political will.

Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, with about 88% of all nuclear weapons, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Let us not be surprised. This has been our reading all along. It is the biggest part of why we have focused a little time on Ukraine and related developments. Trump has not taken the steps he needs to take, and he is in the meantime stirring up trouble elsewhere in Russia's backyard, as Peter Heanseler writes today. In Russia, the U.S. is not perceived as "agreement-capable" -- and isn't. Russia needs to see lasting security improvements guaranteed to outlast Trump and also not be negated by the Europeans and the UK, just for starters, or negated new wars in the Middle East, in part designed to disrupt Russian and Chinese transport corridors. The arms control community, dominated as it is by empire-friendly narratives, has uniformly failed to understand this dynamic.

Apr 8, 2025

Featured • Hegseth Says Pentagon Will Get Its First $1 Trillion Budget, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Apr 7, 2025

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Monday that the Pentagon will soon have its first $1 trillion budget despite the Trump administration’s pledges to cut government spending.

Hegseth made the announcement on X while sharing a video of President Trump saying that his administration approved a plan for a $1 trillion military budget. “Nobody’s seen anything like it. We have to build out military, and we’re very cost-conscious, but the military is something we have to build, and we have to be strong,” he said while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump said he was “proud to say” it will be the biggest military budget “we’ve ever done.”

Hegseth wrote on X, “Thank you Mr. President! COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar [Defense Department] budget.”

Hegseth said the Pentagon would “spend every taxpayer dollar wisely,” but he is currently overseeing a massive bombing campaign in Yemen that’s failed to achieve its stated goal of stopping Houthi attacks and will soon cost over $1 billion in just a month of operations.

While the Pentagon has never had a $1 trillion budget, the actual cost of total US military spending has exceeded $1 trillion for years.

The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which President Biden signed into law in December 2023, totaled $895 billion. According to veteran defense analyst Winslow Wheeler, based on the $895 billion NDAA, US national security spending for 2025 is expected to reach about $1.77 trillion.

Wheeler’s estimate accounts for military-related spending from other government agencies not funded by the NDAA, such as the Department of Veteran Affairs and Homeland Security. It also includes the national security share of the interest accrued on the US debt and other factors.

Trump and Hegseth’s comments suggest the president will request a $1 trillion NDAA for 2026, which would really bring total US military spending close to $2 trillion.
 • Germany to prepare children for war – Handelsblatt, RT, Apr 7, 2025
The German Interior Ministry is advising schools to prepare children for crises and war, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Monday, citing a ministry spokesperson. A raft of calls for “civic readiness” have been made by Western European governments since US president Donald Trump took office and the beginning of US-brokered Ukraine peace talks, described by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as “deadlocked.”. “Given the recent developments in the security situation, a greater focus should be placed on civil defense, including in school education,” an interior ministry spokesperson told Handelsblatt. According to the outlet, a Russian attack on NATO territory “in four to seven years” is considered “a realistic scenario” by German military, the Bundeswehr.

Schoolchildren should be “prepared for the worst,” crisis response training should be introduced into school curricula, and emergency supplies should be stored in every home, the German ministry spokesperson reportedly proposed. Moscow has repeatedly rubbished the claim it could attack a NATO country, since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict three years ago. However such “civic readiness’ calls have been made across the EU and in the UK in the last week. The European Commission has recently recommended that EU citizens stockpile essential supplies, including food and water, to sustain themselves for at least three days in case of emergencies.

Poland and Norway have reinstated Cold-War-era measures such as bomb shelters and bunkers and mass military training. Sweden and Finland already have guides available to citizens on how to respond if they come under attack. On Monday, the Kremlin said Russia was open to discussing a full ceasefire to end the Ukraine conflict, as long as there are guarantees that Kiev will abide by it. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump held a phone conversation last month, following which Moscow agreed to a 30-day moratorium on strikes targeting energy infrastructure, with Ukraine also signing off on the proposal. Moscow, however, has since accused Kiev of repeatedly violating the agreement while stating it will honor it anyway.

Apr 7, 2025

Featured • ‘Break-a-Leg’ (that old Mafia warning) – Trump has threatened Iran over an ultimatum that likely cannot be met, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Apr 7, 2025

Trump’s venting against Russia may, perhaps, have an element of reality-TV to it. For his domestic audience, he needs to be perceived as bringing ‘peace through strength’ – to keep up the Alpha-Male appearance, lest the truth of his lack of leverage over Putin becomes all too apparent for the American public and to the world.

Part of the reason for Trump’s frustration too, may be his cultural formation as a New York businessman; that a deal is about first dominating the negotiations, and then quickly ‘splitting the difference’. This, however, is not how diplomacy works. The transactional approach also reflects deep conceptual flaws.

The Ukraine ceasefire process is stalled, not because of Russian intransigence, but rather because Team Trump has determined that achieving a settlement in Ukraine comes firstly through insisting on a unilateral and immediate ceasefire – without introducing temporary governance to enable elections in Ukraine, nor addressing the root causes of the conflict. And secondly, because Trump rushed in, without listening to what the Russians were saying, and/or without hearing it.

Now that initial pleasantries are over, and Russia is saying flatly that current ‘ceasefire’ proposals simply are inadequate and unacceptable, Trump becomes angry and lashes out at Putin, saying that 25% tariffs on Russian oil could happen ANY moment.
Middle Eastern policies and Ukraine War outcome are woven together. The former are Israeli policies -- lock, stock, and barrel. It is difficult to see how Trump can get himself and the U.S. out of the chute Trump has continued to build. Trump is NOT approaching either conflict with creativity, imagination, an appreciation of reality, or compassion. Between the Deep State and Israel, he is basically walking his presidency on a plank toward war. He could turn around, but will he? What can be done? Tulsi, now is the moment of truth, the kairos.

 • Hollywood legend Oliver Stone blasts ‘Russiagate lies’, RT, Apr 7, 2025
Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone has said that the claims that Russia had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election were nothing but lies. For years, Democrats have claimed that the Kremlin had waged a covert campaign to sway the race in favor of President Donald Trump. The 2019 report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller alleged that the Russian government interfered in the election “in sweeping and systematic fashion,” mostly through hacking and messaging on social media. The investigation, however, “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” according to the final report.

A Fox News reporter asked Stone last week whether he thought that Trump was right to “take on” the FBI and the CIA after “what happened to him with the Russia probe.” “I know. Look at Russiagate; we paid for it,” the filmmaker replied. “I applaud [what Trump is doing].”“I hate what they did with Russiagate. I really do. I think it’s, again, the lying, the lying, the lying, and selling that to the American people,” Stone said. “And the whole thing with hating Russia is so negative. It’s so un-American. They are potentially our best partners. As are the Chinese, actually. We have this mentality that they are the enemy. That’s all been inoculated by propaganda,” the director of Platoon and JFK said.
The damage from Russiagate continues. Will it be a major factor in sinking the U.S. ship of state? If history were determined by blind momentum, that would be likely. But thankfully it is not. The new always appears in the guise of a miracle, wisely says Hannah Arendt. There are human actors. For many humans, heroism comes as naturally as breathing. This reality is another historical factor which can be counted upon. What is not known, and can never be known, is how and in what guise the new will appear. Momentum has its sway, but events need only harmonize with it, with many a blue note.

 • Putin supports Ukraine ceasefire – Kremlin, RT, Apr 7, 2025
Russia is open to discussing a full ceasefire to end the Ukraine conflict, but for this to happen, there must be guarantees that Kiev will abide by it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Peskov responded to comments by US President Donald Trump, who said he “would like them [Russia] to stop” their attacks on Ukraine. “I don’t like the bombing, the bombing goes on and on, and every week, thousands of young people are being killed,” Trump said.

Peskov stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “supports the idea of the need for a ceasefire,” but first, certain conditions must be met.

“A whole series of questions needs to be answered… This is related to the lack of control over the Kiev regime and the inability of the Kiev regime to control the actions of a number of extremist and nationalist units that simply do not obey it,” he explained.

Another major issue is linked to Ukraine’s plans for further militarization, Peskov said. “All these aspects are still on the agenda. While we are in solidarity with the idea of establishing a ceasefire as soon as possible, we have to secure our interests and clarify these very aspects that I have just spoken about.”
 • SITREP 4/6/25: Hint of Spring as Russian Pressure Rises on Every Front, Simplicius, Apr 6, 2025
What’s interesting about the above [Telegraph] piece, besides the ultimatum claim, is that for the first time we’re beginning to see major Western publications begin realistically acknowledging the possibility of Ukraine losing all five of the regions demanded by Putin, including Kherson and Zaporozhye in whole. Until now these long-standing Russian demands were virtually ignored or dismissed out of hand by MSM, which only spoke condescendingly enough about the prospects of Russia keeping Crimea, Lugansk, and Donetsk, let alone the others.

But now, reality is beginning to dawn on them. The Telegraph piece breaks the omerta and broaches the delicate eventuality:
How would the map of Ukraine change after such a one-sided ceasefire? Putin claims five provinces: Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The last three are still only partially occupied by the Russians.
Trump will be trapped by domestic politics until and unless he decides he isn't. In any case, it would be much better for Ukrainian people to simply give Russia what Russia demands and be done with the war, Zelensky, and rule by Nazis.

Apr 6, 2025

Featured • The News that was Fit to Print Yesterday Doesn't Fit Today, Patrick Armstrong, Russia Observer, Apr 4, 2025

Featured • Neocons Attempt To Stall U.S.-Russia Talks, Moon of Alabama, Apr 4, 2025

Featured • America’s New Lost Cause by Michael Vlahos, The Realist Review, Apr 3, 2025

Featured • Biden Lied About Everything, Including Nuclear Risk, During Ukraine Operation, Matt Taibbi, Racket News, Mar 31, 2025

 • US research highlights RT’s role in media landscape, RT, Apr 5, 2025

Since 2014, the New York Times has published more than 500 articles about RT, a review by Johns Hopkins University has claimed.
Methinks the Old Gray Lady doth protest too much.

 • Zelensky contradicts Trump on NATO membership, RT, Apr 4, 2025
Ukraine could still become a member of NATO despite opposition to the idea from the administration of US President Donald Trump, Vladimir Zelensky has insisted. Trump lashed out at the Ukrainian leader earlier this week, saying “he wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that.” However, during a meeting with the heads of territorial communities of Chernigov Region, Zelensky made it clear that he has not yet given up on his long-standing ambitions of joining the US-led bloc. “You know who does not support Ukraine’s membership in NATO so far, but in any case, no one is removing this issue from the table for the future,” Zelensky said, as cited by the Ukrinform news agency.

“At least, we are talking about the fact that even if now someone does not want to support [Kiev joining the bloc], we will see what happens in the future,” Zelensky added. According to the Ukrainian leader, until Kiev becomes a member of the bloc it should be provided with “NATO-like security guarantees” by its Western backers.
Playing to Europe and the fumes of support here. Won't work.

Apr 4, 2025

 • Third parties trying to derail US-Russia talks – Putin envoy, RT, Apr 4, 2025

Certain countries want to throw a wrench into the normalization of Russian-American relations, President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, has said. He made his comment during a rare trip to Washington, where he met with top US officials. “Different countries are trying to derail this dialogue, derail the restoration of the Russian-American relations,” Dmitriev told reporters on Thursday evening. He noted that the negotiations have been accompanied by “a lot of rumors, incorrect quotes, and incorrect interpretations.” “A lot of people are interested in preventing the development of our relations. We are seeing a coordinated campaign in the media, attempts by various politicians to undermine the reglations between Russia and the US, and attempts to distort the statements made by Russia,” the diplomat said. “It happens on a daily basis.”

“The best way to overcome disinformation is direct dialogue,” he stressed. Dmitriev reportedly met with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has been one of the key US negotiators on Ukraine. According to NBC News, the Russian diplomat also met with Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Markwayne Mullin. According to Dmitriev, the sides mostly discussed steps to gradually amend the cooperation severed by the Biden administration in 2022. The agenda included possible partnership in the Arctic, the development of rare-earth minerals, and the resumption of direct flights between the countries, he said.
There is not much in the way of solid news to report on U.S.-Russian relations and the Ukraine war. Events are in flux, relatively quietly.

 • General Cavoli’s Schizophrenia on Ukraine, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Apr 3, 2025

Apr 3, 2025

Featured • Von der Leyen is afraid of the European Parliament, Lorenzo Maria Pacini, Strategic Culture Foundation, Apr 1, 2025

Re-armament Ursula, a plan costing almost a thousand billion euros, will be Europe’s economic grave.

There is money for everything, except for what is really needed.

The European plan “ReArm Europe”, presented by the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen and widely supported by the Member States, is based on a strongly militaristic vision. The initiative is based on the assumption that Europe is about to face a sort of Third World War against Russia and its allies, without being able to count on the support of the United States. This perspective seems more like a political fantasy that lacks concrete evidence. However, the rearmament strategy requires a narrative centered on defense against a possible Russian invasion, especially after the suspension of American aid to Ukraine. This implies a radical change, according to which Europeans should allocate most of their public spending and private capital to war production.

Peace demonstrations are quickly reinterpreted within a logic in which arming oneself becomes an obligation, almost a moral duty, considered as the only effective deterrent against war. This is a disastrous historical model, which has always led to devastating conflicts. Russia is described as an absolute enemy, with whom there can be no dealings until its final defeat. Consequently, any space for mediation or dialogue is eliminated, replaced by warmongering rhetoric that demonizes the adversary. This pragmatic attitude of the so-called “armed pacifists” ignores the fact that peace is built first and foremost by eliminating the “spirit of war” from international relations.
 • Kiev commits new breaches of US-brokered energy ceasefire – Russian MOD, RT, Apr 3, 2025
Four facilities have been damaged in the last 24 hours, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
 • Report: US Officials Don’t Expect Ukraine Peace Deal To Be Reached Soon, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Apr 2, 2025
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Trump administration officials are discussing the likelihood that a peace deal to end the Ukraine war will not be reached within the next few months and are drafting plans to increase pressure on both Russia and Ukraine.

US officials told Reuters that neither a full ceasefire nor a lasting peace deal is imminent, meaning the war will drag on, and Ukraine will require more Western military support. The US continues to fuel the war by providing weapons and intelligence to Ukraine.

...Amid the faltering negotiations, a group of 50 bipartisan senators introduced a bill to place a huge 500% tariff on any country that purchases Russian oil, gas, or uranium if peace talks fail. The bill includes additional sanctions and was introduced by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal, two staunch supporters of the Ukraine proxy war.

“We are pleased to announce that we have received overwhelming bipartisan support for our primary and secondary sanctions legislation against Russia. The sanctions against Russia require tariffs on countries who purchase Russian oil, gas, uranium, and other products. They are hard hitting for a reason,” Graham and Blumenthal said in a statement.
Not a good idea. Shoot, self, foot.


Apr 2, 2025

Featured • Russia Says It Cannot Accept US Proposals on Ukraine in Current Form, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Apr 1, 2025

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday that Russia couldn’t accept US proposals on ending the Ukraine war in their current form since they do not address the root causes of the conflict.

Ryabkov said Moscow hasn’t seen the US send a “clear signal” to Ukraine that it’s time to end the war.

“What we have today is an effort to find a framework that would make it possible to ensure America’s vision for a ceasefire. The idea is to then move on to some other models and frameworks, which, as far as we can see, leave no room for Russia’s core demand, that is, the need to resolve the issues stemming from the root causes of this conflict,” he said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Ryabkov said Russia takes the US proposals very seriously but that they couldn’t be accepted “as they are.”
 • Houthi Update with Pepe, While Scott and I Debate Trump’s Threat to Bomb Iran, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Apr 1, 2025
Lastly, I want to alert you to a ridiculous article written by George W. Bush’s former speech writer, Marc Thiessen. To call Mr. Thiessen an ignorant hack, is an insult to the hacks that infest Washington, DC.

His op-ed in the Washington Post is titled, Putin is stalling and Trump is angry. It’s time for ‘maximum pressure.’ The accusation that Putin is stalling, which I addressed in my recent article, Trump’s Negotiators Fail to Understand Russia and Europe Crashes and Burns, is a lie. Putin is not stalling. He is waiting for the US to deliver on its part of the agreement regarding the Black Sea and exports of grains and fertilizer… namely, lift the sanctions and reconnect the Russian bank that handles payments for these exports to SWIFT. And then there is the issue of Zelensky’s decree, which makes it illegal for ANY Ukrainian to negotiate with the Russians.

I will only subject you to three paragraphs from Thiessen’s incredibly obtuse and ignorant prose...

Au contraire, Mr. Thiessen. Mr. Putin holds all the cards. Trump does not even hold a trump card. Unlike the US economy, which grew by 2.8% in 2024, Russia’s economy is clicking along at a rate of 4.1%, notwithstanding being hit with a tsunami of Western sanctions over the past three years.

The reason I’m drawing attention to the work of this cretin, is that Thiessen’s views reflect the beliefs of the Washington establishment. This wrongheaded thinking explains why Trump and his national security team are unable to hear and comprehend what the Russians are saying to them behind closed doors. When you enter negotiations armed with a mountain of false assumptions regarding Russia’s economic and military strength, then the odds that you can secure a meaningful peace deal are slim to none.

If Trump is foolish enough to ramp up military and intelligence support for Ukraine, especially in the wake of the NY Times article by Adam Entous — where a host of US officials confirmed they have planned and helped execute attacks on Russian territory and Russian personnel — and, at the same time, attack Iran, his Presidency will end in utter failure. Trump needs a serious adult capable of sitting him down and explaining reality to him, i.e., the US has limited supplies of HIMARS, ATACMS, Patriot missiles and battle tanks. He will not secure peace by threatening military action. Unfortunately, I don’t think President Trump is in the mood to listen.
Emphasis added.

 • Whiplash Effect as "Pissed Off" Trump Flips Again, Simplicius, Apr 1, 2025
Russia-partisan, but useful nonetheless. Team Trump is heavily salted with amateurs (under the unresisted control of Israel). Important in this update is Simplicius' push-back against the idea, which is widespread in Washington, that a future conflict with China overshadows the showdown in Ukraine -- that the "real enemy" is China, with the dust-up in Ukraine merely a preliminary of some kind, that some kind of peace can be made with Russia in order to prepare for the greater threat from China. All that is delusional on multiple levels, but suits MIC interests.

Apr 1, 2025

Featured • Trump’s Negotiators Fail to Understand Russia and Europe Crashes and Burns, Larry C. Johnson, SONAR21, Mar 31, 2025

But Trump and his negotiating team have a bigger problem — they don’t understand that Russia will not, under any circumstances, accept a complete ceasefire, and it will not compromise on the positions that Vladimir Putin laid out to senior officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry in June 2024. Marco Rubio and his team fail to grasp this point...

Many inside the Trump administration, along with the pundits and analysts that populate Washington think tanks, continue to wrongly believe that Russia is suffering terrible military losses and that the Russian economy is on the verge of collapse.

You may be familiar with the old adage: a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is true, then a video must be worth a book the length of War and Peace. Check out this video, which compares the NYC subway with the Moscow metro system. Then tell me whose economy is stronger...
Featured • Transactional weakness tips the balance of power – ‘Hold to no illusions; there is nothing beyond this reality’, Alastair Crooke, Strategic Culture Foundation, Mar 31, 2025
Our [Russian] challenges exist, ‘yes’ – “but theirs are abundant also. Western dominance is slipping away. New centres of global growth are taking centre stage”, Putin said.

These [challenges] are not the ‘problem’; they are the opportunity, Putin outlined: ‘We will prioritise domestic manufacturing and the development of tech industries. The old model is over. Oil and gas production will be simply the adjunct to a largely internally circulating, self-sufficient ‘real economy’ – with energy no longer its driver. We are open to western investment – but only on our terms – and the small ‘open’ sector of our otherwise closed economy will of course still trade with our BRICS partners’.

What Putin outlined effectively is the return to the mainly closed internally-circulating economy model of the German school (à la Friedrich List) and of the Russian Premier, Sergei Witte.

Just to be clear – Putin was not just explaining how Russia had transformed into a sanctions-resistant economy that could equally disdain the apparent enticements of the West, as well as its threats. He was challenging the Western economic model more fundamentally.
 • Depleted In PR Attacks, Ukrainian Army Lost Chance To Counterattack, South Front, Mar 31, 2025
Ukraine is largely fighting a PR war, driven by the Zelensky circle's desire to retain power and the delusional ideas of their Western patrons. Crude, but doesn't it come down to that?


February 2025

January 2025

December 2024

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

December 2023

November 2023

October 2023

September 2023

August 2023

July 2023

June 2023

May 2023

April 2023

March 2023

February 2023

January 2023

December 2022

November 2022

LASG products & presentations

 • 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 we’re 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, 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

about us home contact contribute blog twitter search