Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

French General: We Must Be Ready To ‘Lose Our Children’ in War with Russia

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | November 20, 2025

The head of the French armed forces said his country must be prepared to send its children to die in a war with Russia.

“Russia is convinced that the Europeans are weak. However, we are strong, fundamentally stronger than Russia,” Chief of the French Defense Staff General Fabien Mandon said. “We have all the knowledge, all the economic and demographic strength to dissuade Moscow’s regime. What we are lacking, and that is where you have a major role, is the strength of soul to accept pain to protect what we are.”

He added, “If our country is weak because it is not ready to accept losing its children — because it’s better to say things clearly — [and] to suffer economically because the priority will be the defence sector, then we are at risk.”

He made the remarks earlier this week at the congress of the Association of Mayors of France. He urged the local leaders in attendance to inform their constituents of his assessment.

French President Macron has emerged as a firm backer of NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. European leaders have warned that Moscow is planning to reconstitute the Soviet Union and invade NATO countries.

However, Russian forces only control about 20% of Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin has offered to end the war with Ukraine only ceding the Donbas and parts of two southern provinces.

Ukrainian President Zelensky met with European leaders in France earlier this week. A significant issue that was discussed is the bloc’s attempt to cover a massive budget deficit in Ukraine. The President of the European Commission said that the EU would need to provide Kiev with $150 billion over the next two years.

Zelensky also signed an agreement to buy 100 Rafael fighter jets from France over the next two years. Paris said it would take at least three years to train Ukrainian pilots.

November 20, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

EU rejects US-proposed Ukraine peace plan

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. © Getty Images / Thierry Monasse / Contributor
RT | November 20, 2025

The European Union has pushed back against the latest US-proposed plan to end the Ukraine conflict, saying any settlement must reflect the positions of both Brussels and Kiev.

The 28-point draft framework agreement, which Western media claim was developed in coordination with Moscow, would reportedly require Ukraine to withdraw from the parts of the new Russian regions in Donbass still under Kiev’s control, cut its armed forces by at least half, surrender some weaponry and abandon its NATO ambitions. Kiev on Thursday confirmed receiving the proposal, with Vladimir Zelensky saying he hopes to discuss it with US President Donald Trump “in the coming days.”

The draft plan has drawn criticism from Kiev’s supporters in the EU, who appear to have been caught off guard and convened a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas insisted that any peace arrangement must reflect the positions of both the bloc and Ukraine, arguing that the US proposal offered “no concessions” from the Russian side. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was quoted by Reuters as saying that any agreement must not amount to a “capitulation,” while several other ministers reportedly said they had not seen the document and would need clarification before commenting.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the EU of obstructing US-Russian diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, arguing that the bloc is instead working to prolong the hostilities by supplying weapons, military equipment, and open-ended pledges of support to Kiev.

According to Germany’s Kiel Institute, the EU has committed over €65 billion ($75 billion) in aid to Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, with total pledges nearing €98 billion.

The Kremlin says it “remains open” to peace talks but says Kiev “is only seeking to keep the fighting going,” encouraged by the EU, which has severed any meaningful dialogue with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that EU states are now trying to elbow their way into the peace process despite what he called their openly hostile stance toward Russia – a “position of revanchism” that he believes should preclude the bloc from having a seat at the negotiating table.

November 20, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

EU says Ukraine needs €135 billion fast, Orbán laughs off funding proposals for corrupt Zelensky regime as ‘absurd’

Remix News | November 20, 2025

The letter sent by European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen to EU leaders urging swift action on Ukraine’s “pressing financing needs” for 2026-2027 has now been leaked for all to view.

Calling its financial gap “significant,” the EU commission leader calls for rapid, flexible and sustainable financing, with the first payments to be available  “by the beginning of the second quarter of 2026.”

“There should be fair burden sharing with international partners,” the letter, leaked by Politico, adds.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has called the letter “absurd,” especially as Ukrainian President Zelensky is facing a massive corruption scandal, amounting to close associates of his having robbed the country of some $100 million, with at least one, Timur Mindich, fleeing to Israel. Other top ministers have been implicated, including the country’s justice minister, who has been suspended from his role.

Zelensky’s polling numbers have reportedly fallen to below 20 percent, there are calls for the entire government to resign, and even ardent supporter Poland is seeing MPs draft resolutions for Ukrainian aid to end.

Meanwhile, Brussels is expecting EU member states to pony up more cash, fast.

Von der Leyen gave three possible solutions to do this: non-repayable grants from member states, a preferential loan from EU credit market sources, and a “compensation loan” linked to frozen Russian assets.

She especially emphasizes that the security of all of Europe is linked to that of Ukraine.

“The bottom line is that Europe needs a sufficiently strong defense posture to credibly deter its adversaries, as well as respond to any aggressions. An essential and inevitable pillar of this defense posture is the security and the strength of Ukraine,” she said.

According to the EU commission, Kyiv expects a total financial deficit of €135.7 billion over the next two years, on top of the aid already promised. However, even before the latest bombshell scandal, EU and German authorities were pointing out rampant corruption across Ukraine, with even polling from Ukraine itself showing the vast majority of Ukrainians blame Zelensky for the corruption issues facing the wartime country.

According to IMF forecasts, the Ukrainian economy will need significant external resources even if the war ends in 2026.

The commission describes in detail the three financing options: direct support from EU member states would require “€45 billion per year, i.e. at least €90 billion;” the EU credit market facility would require mandatory member state guarantees; and the model based on frozen Russian assets would risk contagion of financial and legal risks, especially if it were interpreted as “confiscation” by third parties.

The letter also discusses using all three options separately or in combination, as long as Ukraine gets what it needs when it needs it.

Von der Leyen closes her letter with a call to “rapidly reach a clear commitment on how to ensure that the necessary financing for Ukraine will be agreed at the next European Council meeting in December.”

Orbán had a terse response to all three options and the letter in general, which he posted on X. Calling the “magic trick” of joint borrowing “absurd,” he dismissed money tied to Russian assets as a path filled with “lengthy legal wrangling, a flood of lawsuits and the collapse of the euro.”

As to member states offering up funds, the Hungarian prime minister laughed it off: “As if they had nothing better to do.”

“So let’s choose common sense. Let’s stop funding a war that cannot be won, alongside the corrupt Ukrainian war mafia, and focus our strength on establishing peace,” he concluded.

November 20, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

Sandu ‘following the same instructions’ as Zelensky – former Moldovan president

By Lucas Leiroz | November 20, 2025

The recent corruption scandal in Ukraine has many people who reflect on the danger of having their countries allied with the regime of Vladimir Zelensky. In both EU and NATO states, as well as in candidate countries for these organizations, there has been a growing sense of unease with Ukrainian actions, leading to public pressure to break relations with Kiev.

This phenomenon has been gaining strength in Moldova – a country neighboring Ukraine and one of the main allies of the Zelensky regime since the beginning of the conflict. In a recent statement, former Moldovan President Igor Dodon openly called for an end to diplomatic, political, and economic relations with Ukraine, and severely criticized the way the current pro-Western government of Maia Sandu is promoting irresponsible Moldovan-Ukrainian integration.

Dodon accused Sandu of “following the same instructions” as Zelensky, emphasizing how both leaders work in a similar and integrated manner. Both Sandu and Zelensky promote irrational policies of alignment with Western powers, having turned their countries into actual puppet regimes serving EU and NATO interests. Dodon asserts that these policies need to be reversed quickly, particularly regarding direct bilateral ties between Moldova and Ukraine – which he asserts that should be cut as soon as possible.

“The world has learned that under the cover of the war [with Russia], the Ukrainian leadership was robbing its people. Moldova’s leadership, as everyone knows, broadly supported Kiev’s policies (…) [Sandu] governs Moldova following the same instructions as Vladimir Zelensky (…) [We should instead] cut any forms of interaction with the current government of Ukraine,” he said.

Dodon’s sentiments are not uncommon. The Kiev regime has increasingly caused unease among its own allies. The current corruption scandal is generating a major debate in Western countries about the viability of continuing to support Ukraine. Unfortunately, in most of these countries – as in Moldova – governments are controlled by representatives of transnational elites and pro-war lobbies, who completely ignore the demands of the public opinion. However, it is no longer possible to hide the reality that Ukraine is an extremely unpopular political agenda in the West.

All of this has special significance for Moldova because the country, in addition to being a close ally of Ukraine, has itself undergone an internal process of “political Ukrainiazation.” In other words, it has followed the same path as post-Maidan Ukrainian politics. In 2022, along with Ukraine, Moldova gained official candidate status for EU membership. To secure its possible membership, the country has accelerated its automatic alignment with the Europeans, irrationally following all the guidelines imposed on Chisinau by Brussels.

Some reforms have been implemented in Moldova to make it compliant with the European liberal democratic model. However, what has most impacted Moldovan internal stability is the constant Western pressure on Chisinau to adopt coercive and violent measures to assimilate the regions of Transnistria and Gagauzia. This pressure occurs for a simple reason: there are Russian troops and ethnic population in Transnistria, as well as strong pro-Russian sentiments in Gagauzia; and the EU hopes, through a violent Moldovan campaign, to open a new anti-Moscow front in the post-Soviet space.

Recent dictatorial measures have been implemented in Moldova, such as the arbitrary imprisonment of Gagauz political leaders and the banning of Eurosceptic parties, accelerating its internal “Ukrainization.” Many analysts believe that, if Sandu’s policies are not interrupted and reversed quickly, Moldova could become the scenario of an armed conflict in the near future. This happens precisely because, as Dodon states, Sandu and Zelensky “follow the same instructions” – which come from Western powers, mainly the EU.

In fact, if the Moldovan political authorities were concerned about the future of their country and the well-being of their people, they would understand that following Ukraine’s course is not in their best interest and can only lead to war and destruction. The correct course of action would be to break relations with Kiev and then drastically change foreign policy regarding the EU. Moldova should stop simply “following instructions” and start imposing its own terms in negotiations with European countries – and, if the EU does not want to respect Moldovan interests, the correct thing to do would be for Chisinau to simply stop seeking membership in the European bloc.

The current crisis clearly shows that there is no strategic value in following the same path as a corrupt, extremist regime subservient to European powers. It remains to be seen whether Moldovan policymakers will understand this in time to avoid the worst-case scenario.

Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.

You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

November 20, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Ukraine is drowning in a swamp of corruption – and the West is trying to make it look like a good thing

By Tarik Cyril Amar | RT | November 19, 2025

In Ukraine, the front lines are crumbling and so is the Zelensky regime. While Kupyansk and Pokrovsk are falling, the shockwaves of the Energoatom Mafia scandal keep reverberating, internationally and at home in Kiev.

At this point, two ministers have resigned. The former defense minister and head of the powerful National Security Council, Rustem Umerov, is in essence on the run abroad. According to the usually well-informed journalist Anatoly Shariy, Umerov is offering the FBI in the US to turn – protected – witness. He may still return to Ukraine, but even his current behavior – the unplanned delays, the search for US allies, quite possibly for some kind of deal – betrays a very guilty conscience.

Likewise, Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko has declared her readiness to cooperate with Ukraine’s own anti-corruption prosecutors at NABU, which is in reality a branch of the FBI implanted in Ukraine. Clearly, Sviridenko is also looking for a deal, letting it be known that she is ready to talk and name names, as long as they let her get away with the absurd claim that she knew it all but wasn’t part of it.

Zelensky’s most intimate companion, chief consigliere, autocratic enforcer, and overbearing eminence grise, Andrey Yermak, is also deeply – and unsurprisingly – implicated, under the gangster slang name ‘Ali Baba’, in the Energoatom Mafia scandal, and his head is clearly on the political chopping block.

Details could be multiplied ad nauseam. Take, for instance, the fact that we now know that the gangster pseudonym ‘Professor’ did not stand for former Justice Minister German Galushchenko – no worries, though: He’s still an Energoatom mobster, just not that one – but the wife of former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, Svetlana.

While her husband features as ‘Che Guevara’ in the Energoatom scandal, ‘Professor’ Svetlana – in real life (or pretend?) an academic at Kiev’s prestigious Taras Shevchenko University – happens to be very close besties with Elena Zelenskaya. Yes, that would be Vladimir Zelensky’s spouse (when his intense schedule with Yermak leaves time for her). According to Shariy, Svetlana-bestie-of-Elena is implicated in shady deals around the habit of Kiev’s elites of building themselves palaces, and she also received a cool $500,000 (in cash) from ‘Sugarman’, aka Aleksandr Tsukerman, another key Energoatom player on the run.

In short, if they think they have a swamp in Washington, they haven’t seen Kiev yet. But of course, they have. It is obvious that Washington has been well aware of just how stunningly, stinkingly corrupt its clients in Ukraine are. Indeed, the more, the better, a modern Machiavelli would say, because it makes them even more dependent. One of the best explanations for the Energoatom scandal breaking now is that it is part of a US operation to either get rid of or subdue Zelensky. The conspicuous fact that Zelensky has suddenly made – insubstantial – noises about being interested in peace talks may have as much to do with this American assault on him as with the disaster on the front lines.

This is the context that also explains a recent trend in Western spin-for-Ukraine. Absurd as it is, the claim that the Energoatom mess is really a good sign if you only look close enough is spreading as if on cue. The underlying logic is not only daft but simple. Take, for instance, a recent specimen of the genre: According to Polish TVP quoting the American Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), the Energoatom scandal “hurts Ukraine yet proves it’s on the right track,” because “a case of this scale exposed by domestic institutions is proof of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system working.”

Where to even begin? Let’s just break it down in order of appearance: ‘A case’ – as in one case – only proves that there is much more to come. In Ukraine, there is widespread consensus that what happened at Energoatom is peanuts compared to what has been going on in the defense sector, bloated with literally hundreds of billions of euros and dollars from the West. This is exactly why ex-Defense Minister Umerov is running scared. The first evidence of his personal involvement in corruption is emerging already. Energoatom is merely the crack in the dam. When the dam breaks, so will the system, all of it.

‘Domestic institutions’? That one is genuinely funny. The only reason NABU and SAPO – Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies – are still alive is that they are not domestic. In reality, for those who don’t believe in Santa Claus, they are US implants – in the case of NABU, explicitly so. They survived Zelensky’s attempt to raze them this summer only due to Western support.

‘Proof’? The only proof of Ukraine’s corruption under the Zelensky regime suffering a real setback would be the fall of that regime. But even then – and here is what naive Westerners simply cannot grasp about the Ukrainian political system – corruption as such would not cease but merely undergo a change in management. How do we know? Because this law of Kiev politics has been tested again and again. The last time, by the way, in 2014, when then-President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in a regime change operation made easier by his flagrant graft and nepotism. And yet, here we are again.

There is added irony in Poland channeling an American think tank to spread absurd spin about Ukraine’s hyper-corruption: According to X post by former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, the Polish authorities may well have helped one of the very worst Energoatom Mafia leaders, Timur Mindich – aka ‘the president’s purse’, that is, Zelensky’s – to evade arrest. This is entirely plausible: In Ukraine, Mindich was clearly tipped off about his impending arrest, most likely by either Yermak or Zelensky himself. Whoever warned him would also have had the necessary Polish connections. And Warsaw, of course, has a nasty record of working with criminals from Ukraine and of sheltering them from prosecution, too. Just ask the Germans how far they got with their Nord Stream investigations.

Ukrainians are drowning in a deep, fetid swamp of corruption, worse than ever. To pretend that a scandal surfacing from that morass is a good sign is perverse. But then, so is most of Western policy toward Ukraine, using its people up in a war provoked for idiotic reasons and long lost. Maybe there is some dark, historic justice in Ukraine and the West making their respective cultures of cynicism and graft even worse for each other.

Tarik Cyril Amar is a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.

November 19, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | , | Leave a comment

EU defense chief wants to use Ukrainian military as ‘security guarantee’

RT | November 18, 2025

EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has suggested using Ukrainian troops as an “additional security guarantee” to defend the bloc from the alleged threat of a Russian attack once the current conflict is resolved.

Western officials, particularly representatives of the Baltic states, have increasingly invoked the supposed Russian threat to justify major military spending spikes in recent months. Moscow has rejected claims it plans to attack anyone as “nonsense,” arguing the West is using Russia as a “monster” to stoke tensions, ramp up military budgets, and distract from domestic problems.

Speaking at the ‘Defending Baltics’ conference in Vilnius on Monday, Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister, said the bloc needs Ukraine’s “battle-tested” military to strengthen its borders.

“It would be good that a battle-tested Ukrainian army, after peace has been established in Ukraine, would be ready to be present in all the countries of our frontier region… next to the German brigade and the rotating US battalions as an additional guarantee for our security,” he stated.

Kubilius claimed Russia could attack the EU – starting with the Baltic states – within two-to-four years, and said Ukrainian troops can offer the bloc “the most precise answers” on how to defend itself. He suggested Brussels should find ways to integrate Ukrainian defense capabilities, soldiers, and industry into its military ecosystem.

The commissioner did not explain how Brussels could use the Ukrainian military without Kiev joining either the EU or NATO. While Kiev has demanded NATO accession, Moscow has opposed it, insisting Ukrainian neutrality and demilitarization must be part of any future settlement. The US and several other of Kiev’s backers are opposed to its membership.

Moscow has not yet responded to Kubilius’ remarks, but Russian officials have long accused the West of intending to fight “to the last Ukrainian” in their proxy war against Russia. Moscow has also warned that increased militarization only risks a wider conflict in Europe.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week that Russia does not seek a confrontation with the West but could be forced to take measures to ensure its security in response to its increasingly “militaristic” rhetoric.

November 18, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

Western countries insist on failed strategy to defeat Russia – Mearsheimer

The US and its allies want to subordinate Moscow to their interests

By Lucas Leiroz | November 18, 2025

Western countries continue to insist on an irrational strategy of weakening Russia through military encirclement and economic pressure. This type of strategy has proven unsuccessful over the past few years, as Russia has managed to circumvent sanctions and embargoes, and is winning the conflict in Ukraine. Nevertheless, Western countries refuse to change their plans.

According to John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, the goal of defeating Russia is so important to the West that the US and its allies are even risking losing their own status as a global hegemon in this attempt. Moreover, Mearsheimer made it clear that Ukraine is not important to the West, being merely “cannon fodder” in this policy of hostilities against Russia.

He emphasized that Western countries even want to “defeat Ukraine” along with Russia – in other words, they want to neutralize the political and economic potential of a future integration between Ukraine and Russia. In this sense, the Kiev regime works as a junta in service of foreign powers that want the worst for the Ukrainian people – which explains the draconian policies of forced mobilization, which decimate thousands of Ukrainians without any effective military or strategic gain.

Mearsheimer stated that the West wants to “bring the Russians to their knees.” He acknowledges that so far no clear opportunity has arisen to do this, but makes it clear that the US and its allies would immediately take any opportunity to quickly defeat Russia. According to Mearsheimer’s assessment, the intention behind the conflict in Ukraine and the constant economic sanctions is simply to use military and economic pressure to progressively weaken Russia – but, unlike Western propagandists, he admits that these measures have not been sufficient to “finish Russia off as a great power.”

Mearsheimer also acknowledged the legitimacy of the Russian diplomatic position. He states that Russian President Vladimir Putin has sufficient reasons to distrust the intentions of the Collective West during the diplomatic dialogue. He praised Putin’s political abilities, describing him as a smart leader who understands the real international political situation and who acts considering the possibility of a worst-case scenario. Mearsheimer seems to believe that these virtues, which should be typical of any political leader, are currently rare in the West – which insists on strategies that have already proven useless.

“[The goal is] to defeat Russia and Ukraine, wreck the Russian economy with sanctions, and bring the Russians to their knees (…) We’ve been unable to do that, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to do it, of course, we want to do it (…) If the opportunity to do it popped up tomorrow, we would leap at it in a second, we would love to finish Russia off as a great power (…) [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, the last time I checked, has a triple-digit IQ, and that means he’s figured this out, he understands what he’s dealing with (…) [Putin] is assuming worst case in good realist fashion,” he said.

It is important to remember that Mearsheimer is one of the most renowned authors in the field of International Relations in the West. Until a few years ago, he was widely recognized for his work as an academic, but now he has been frequently rejected and criticized in many Western universities for continuing to conduct realistic analyses and refusing to be a mere NATO propagandist. He does not speak as someone “pro-Russia” or “pro-West,” but as an international analyst trying to understand how states deal with global problems. And that is why he speaks publicly about the West’s real intentions regarding the conflict in Ukraine.

It seems increasingly clear that Ukraine has been used by the West since the beginning of the crisis, with no real intention ever to “militarily defeat Russia.” The Western objective is a long-term strategy focused on extinguishing Russian capabilities as a great power. In this game, Ukraine functions as a proxy whose objective is to “wear down” Russian defenses, but it has always been clear to the West that the Ukrainians would be defeated in this move.

On the “economic front,” the sanctions were similarly an attempt to isolate Russia from its traditional European partners – which failed to have an economic impact on Russia, since it is a self-sufficient country, with all the resources it needs, and a strong presence in the emerging Asian market.

Insisting on failed strategies is a serious mistake that could have an existential cost for the West. The path of pressure, isolation, and escalation can only lead to total war – which, in the case of Russia and NATO, would threaten the entire world. The best course of action, from a realistic point of view, is to negotiate while there is still time and establish mutually favorable terms of coexistence in a multipolar world.

Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.

You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

November 18, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Zelensky Signs Deal to Buy 100 Fighter Jets From France

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | November 17, 2025

During a meeting with French President Macron, Ukrainian President Zelensky signed a major weapons deal for Rafale fighters and drones. The warplanes will be delivered over the next decade, and Paris said training Ukrainian pilots will take at least three years.

“One of the most productive visits of this year, and certainly a new step in our strategic partnership with France. We have signed a historic agreement providing for a new fleet of fighter jets for Ukraine: 100 Rafales,” Zelensky wrote on X Tuesday.

He continued, “We will also receive highly effective French radars as well as new SAMP/T air defense systems, designed to precisely counter the types of missiles used against Ukraine. We have also agreed on the supply of air-to-air missiles and guided aerial bombs.”

The letter of intent signed by Zelensky will also see the transfer of drones and anti-drone systems to Ukraine.

Marcon and Zelensky did not provide a timeline on the transfer of the Rafales or who would pay for the weapons. Rafales cost over $100 million per plane. A French official said it would take at least three years to train the Ukrainian pilots.

Zelensky said Paris agreed to provide Kiev with some immediate security assistance. “France is additionally preparing a new package of military aid, which we will receive by the end of the year,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.

Zelensky was in France to attend a meeting of the “coalition of the willing.” The group is a bloc of European countries working to fill Kiev’s massive budget deficits. On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sent a letter to the leaders of the European Union’s member states, arguing that it was essential for the bloc to plug Ukraine’s $157 billion budget gap over the next two years.

Part of von der Leyen’s proposal calls for European nations to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort. Zelensky said he believed the coalition of the willing would be able to come to an agreement on this issue.

“I believe that in the end we’ll reach an agreement to push this topic to the end and be able to use Russian assets for the European defense package, for Ukrainian production, and for the most part for the air defense systems from the United States of America,” he said.

November 18, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

EU to spread legal costs of attacking Russian assets – Politico

RT | November 17, 2025

The EU has pledged to spread the financial and legal risks of using Russia’s frozen central-bank assets to fund the government in Kiev, Politico reported on Monday. Belgium, where most of the money is held, has rejected the plan without such guarantees.

The European Commission is seeking to issue a €140 billion ($160 billion) loan secured against the immobilized sovereign assets held at the Euroclear clearing house in Belgium. The scheme is based on the assumption that Moscow will eventually pay reparations to Ukraine, an outcome widely seen as unlikely. Russia has said it regards any use of its assets as “theft” and has vowed a legal response.

According to Politico, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has circulated a memo to EU capitals spelling out how member states would share the risks with Belgium. The document says the bloc is prepared to cover potential legal and financial fallout even if disputes arise years later.

Belgium, which has a bilateral investment treaty with Russia dating back to 1989, has warned it could face lengthy and costly litigation if Moscow mounts a legal challenge. Von der Leyen said the guarantees would also cover obligations stemming from bilateral investment treaties.

Around $200 billion of the roughly $300 billion in Russian sovereign reserves frozen by the West since 2022 are held at Euroclear. The clearinghouse has threatened to sue the EU if the bloc attempts to confiscate the assets.

The memo reportedly also set out two fallback options should governments ultimately decide against using the Russian funds. Both alternatives would require the EU to pony up its own resources to support Kiev, thus shifting the burden onto European taxpayers.

European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said last week that the bloc cannot continue providing loans to Ukraine in light of growing concerns over Kiev’s ability to repay them.

The Kremlin has warned that channeling Russian funds to Ukraine would “boomerang,” and threatened to target up to €200 billion in Western assets held in Russia in retaliation.

November 18, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

European countries create joint fund to send new weapons to Ukraine

By Lucas Leiroz | November 17, 2025

Apparently, the war plans of European countries are far from over. Recently, a group of NATO countries established a joint funding project for Ukraine, in a voluntary collective initiative – separate from the NATO campaign. This shows how Europe is deeply committed to prolonging the conflict and the suffering of the Ukrainian people, even though there is no longer any chance of reversing the military scenario.

Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced that a group of European countries is jointly creating an extra military aid package for Ukraine valued at over 430 million euros (500 million dollars). The participating countries are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. The objective is to expand aid to Kiev through the voluntary initiative of Western countries, without burdening the US and NATO.

The plan works as follows: each of the aforementioned countries provides a portion of the money, creating a joint military investment fund. The money is then used to buy American weapons and send them to Kiev through the “Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List” program. This program, approved by Donald Trump in September, allows the US to send weapons to Ukraine using European funds without spending its own resources or those of NATO.

Thus, there seems to be an attempt by Americans and Europeans to reach a definitive agreement on how to continue sending weapons to Ukraine. Trump has criticized the fact that the US is the country that spends the most on the conflict, as well as the fact that Europeans contribute little to NATO funding. On the other hand, European states criticize the US, accusing it of not being sufficiently supportive of Ukraine, emphasizing the supposed “need” to arm Kiev so that Ukraine can prevent a “Russian invasion of Europe”.

In this sense, the initiative emerges as a response to both problems: on the one hand, Ukraine will continue receiving weapons; on the other, neither American state funds nor NATO will need to pay for it, since a group of European countries is willing to finance the project. Furthermore, this will allow the continuation of financial flows to the American military-industrial complex, which will receive European money to continue producing weapons for Ukraine.

Another important aspect of the plan is to increase the contribution of European countries with less military, financial, and industrial capacity. Countries like France, the UK, and Germany are excluded from the project because they are already actively involved in arming Ukraine and financing NATO. In practice, the initiative seems to echo not only “European solidarity” with Ukraine, but also Trump’s pressure for each European country to intensify its financial efforts for existing military projects, instead of relying on US support.

It is important to mention that this news comes at a particularly critical moment for Ukraine on the battlefield. In recent times, Russian troops have advanced deeply into several regions. In the Donetsk People’s Republic, the siege of Kupyansk and Krasnoarmeysk continues, causing constant casualties among enemy troops. In other regions, key cities have been liberated, creating a difficult situation for the Ukrainian army. Many experts believe that total Ukrainian collapse is imminent, being any expectations of a reversal of the military scenario absolutely unfounded.

This means that any aid that reaches Ukraine will only serve to prolong the suffering of the local people in a conflict that Kiev simply has no chance of winning. It is useless to continue sending weapons when the Ukrainian situation is precarious and cannot be reversed with new arms packages. Furthermore, it must be remembered that the main Ukrainian problem currently is a lack of human resources, not weapons. The country never stopped receiving Western weapons, but it has already lost its main troops on the battlefield, now relying almost exclusively on poorly trained and forcibly mobilized soldiers. This situation cannot be solved with new Western aid packages.

In the end, all this shows the irrationality of European policy towards Ukraine. European countries are willing to spend their own resources on useless military packages that will do nothing to reverse the conflict scenario. Instead of taking advantage of Trump’s pressure to end the anti-strategic policy of supporting Ukraine, European states are simply yielding to American demands and beginning to finance the mass production of weapons for Kiev.

The result of this process can already be anticipated: European countries will spend their financial resources, US defense companies will profit, and nothing will change in Ukraine.

Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.

You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

November 17, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries driving price hikes in the US – Bloomberg

RT | November 16, 2025

Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities are contributing to rising oil prices in the US, Europe, and Asia, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

The attacks, combined with outages at key plants in Asia and Africa, have removed millions of barrels of diesel and gasoline from the global market, the outlet said. US sanctions on Russian energy giants Lukoil and Rosneft in October, along with restrictions imposed by the EU, have also helped drive prices higher.

Refining margins in the US, Europe, and Asia are now at their highest levels for this time of year since at least 2018, Bloomberg said, citing its own calculations. Additional pressure has come from shutdowns and outages at refineries in Kuwait and Nigeria.

Ukraine has targeted oil depots, processing plants, and metering stations with drones and missiles, calling them legitimate facilities that support Russia’s “war machine.” Russia, in turn, has struck elements of Ukraine’s power grid, saying the infrastructure supports the Ukrainian military.

In August, Hungary imposed sanctions on Ukraine’s top drone commander, Robert Brovdi, after repeated strikes disrupted the flow of crude through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline.

November 16, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Western aid feeding Ukrainian corruption – Italian deputy PM

RT | November 15, 2025

Western assistance to Kiev risks ending up in the pockets of corrupt Ukrainian officials, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has warned, citing a major scandal that recently shook Ukraine’s government. He also argued against further military aid, warning that the EU was on “the path of death.”

Salvini spoke as the Italian government approved its 12th package of military support for Ukraine and promised electrical generators for the coming winter. The decision coincided with a major scandal in Kiev over an alleged $100 million energy graft scheme involving Timur Mindich, a close associate and former business partner of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.

Moscow responded to the news by calling it evidence of a “bloody hydra” of Ukrainian corruption reaching beyond the country’s borders and draining Western taxpayers’ money. Politico also reported on Saturday that the EU was also concerned over “endemic corruption” in Ukraine.

“It seems to me that corruption scandals are emerging, involving the Ukrainian government, so I would not want the money of Italian workers and pensioners to be used to fuel further corruption,” Salvini told reporters in Naples on Friday.

He added that ending the conflict depends on “silencing the weapons” and bringing both Moscow and Kiev to the negotiating table. Salvini also argued that it should be in Kiev’s interest to halt the fighting as soon as possible, pointing to continued Russian gains on the battlefield.

“To think that sending weapons to Ukraine means Ukraine can regain the lost ground is naïve, to say the least,” he said, adding that he did not believe “prolonging this path of death will help anyone.”

Salvini has previously criticized what he sees as escalatory rhetoric from other EU leaders. In August, he responded to French President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that EU nations could send troops to Ukraine by saying Macron should go himself. “If Macron wants, he can go – but I think he’ll go alone, because not even one Frenchman would follow him,” Salvini said at the time, prompting a brief diplomatic spat between Rome and Paris.

November 16, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »