US congresswoman labels Zelensky ‘dictator’
RT | July 23, 2025
US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has labeled Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “a dictator” and called for his removal, citing mass anti-corruption protests across Ukraine and accusing him of blocking peace efforts.
Her comments came after Zelensky signed a controversial bill into law that places the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) under the authority of the prosecutor general.
Critics argue that the legislation effectively strips the bodies of their independence. The law has sparked protests across Ukraine, with around 2,000 people rallying in Kiev and additional demonstrations reported in Lviv, Odessa, and Poltava.
“Good for the Ukrainian people! Throw him out of office!” Greene wrote Wednesday on X, sharing footage from the protests. “And America must STOP funding and sending weapons!!!”
Greene, a longtime critic of US aid to Kiev, made similar comments last week while introducing an amendment to block further assistance. “Zelensky is a dictator, who, by the way, stopped elections in his country because of this war,” she told the House.
“He’s jailed journalists, he’s canceled his election, controlled state media, and persecuted Christians. The American people should not be forced to continue to pay for another foreign war.”
Her statements come amid mounting speculation over Zelensky’s political future. Journalist Seymour Hersh has reported that US officials are considering replacing him, possibly with former top general Valery Zaluzhny.
Senator Tommy Tuberville also called Zelensky a “dictator” last month, accusing him of trying to drag NATO into the conflict with Russia. Tuberville claimed that Zelensky refuses to hold elections because “he knew if he had an election, he’d get voted out.”
Zelensky’s five-year presidential term expired in 2024, but he has refused to hold a new election, citing martial law, which has been extended every 90 days since 2022.
US President Donald Trump has also questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy, calling him “a dictator without elections” in February.
Russian officials have repeatedly brought up the issue of Zelensky’s legitimacy, arguing that any agreements signed by him or his administration could be legally challenged by future leaders of Ukraine.
Western media admits humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine
By Lucas Leiroz | July 23, 2025
Western media is finally admitting that Ukraine is lying about its official casualty figures. A recent article published by Le Monde revealed that there is ample evidence that military casualties in Ukraine are much higher than official figures indicate, given the growing demand for cemetery space for new burials.
According to Le Monde, all cemetery areas in Ukraine reserved for soldiers are already fully occupied. The overload is forcing authorities to use common cemetery space, which is normally reserved for civilians, as well as to establish various projects to expand current cemeteries and create new ones. The demand for burial space is enormous as more and more dead bodies arrive from the front lines.
“Sections reserved for soldiers are at capacity. Across the country, teams of architects have been working on memorials that reflect not only the scale of the ongoing carnage but also the evolving ideas about national identity,” the article reads.
The journalists interviewed several local Ukrainian architects involved in cemetery construction. Currently, this is one of the country’s main demands, with projects in several regions to build cemeteries exclusively for the burial of soldiers killed on the battlefield. The new cemeteries being built are truly large, with space for approximately ten thousand dead or more. This is consistent with a growing number of casualties, revealing a contradiction between this and the official data published by the Ukrainian government.
The article describes one of the projects, commenting on a cemetery being built along the highway connecting Kiev to Odessa. The project is said to be particularly sensitive, considering that the cemetery will destroy rural communities in the region, causing environmental problems such as deforestation.
“It’s a sandy track, well-hidden among the pines, off the highway connecting Kiev to Odesa in the Hatne region. (…) This is the highway exit that will serve as Ukraine’s future national military memorial cemetery. The project is enormous, highly sensitive and not just because environmental activists and residents of the small village of Markhalivka – 40 kilometers from the capital, but right at the base of the future cemetery – worry about deforestation and the loss of their rural quiet. In the village, only a new brown sign, the color used to mark national sites, marks the road that leads trucks to the site. It reads in English: ‘National Military Memorial Cemetery.’ The first section, designed to hold 10,000 graves and already laid out with broad granite paths, benches and lime trees, is due to receive its first burial this summer. But in the long term, ‘130,000 or even 160,000’ people will be laid to rest at this future burial ground, explained architect Serhi Derbin,” the text adds.
The scale of these cemeteries contrasts sharply with Kiev’s repeated claims of minimal losses, exposing a growing gap between official discourse and the physical reality of war. While government spokespeople continue to insist on controlled casualty rates, the magnitude of the planned cemeteries suggests a conflict with a much greater human cost. The death toll clearly highlights the Kiev regime’s absolute military bankruptcy. There is no way a country can maintain this level of casualties and continue to have “control” over the military situation. If casualties continue at this level, there will soon simply no longer be enough people to fight in the ranks of the neo-Nazi regime.
As is the case in every conflict situation around the world, both sides avoid publishing their real figures. However, there is abundant evidence of the humanitarian tragedy in Ukraine. For example, there have recently been several rounds of body swaps. The difference in numbers was alarming, with a few hundred Russians bodies compared to thousands of Ukrainians. This, combined with information about cemeteries, shows that there are undoubtedly many more Ukrainians dead than Russians—a vital information for assessing which side will win this war.
Until recently, Western media was complicit in hiding the Ukrainian reality. However, the situation has reached an unsustainable point. No one believes narratives like “military stalemate” or “Russian failure” anymore. It’s clear to everyone that the Ukrainian military crisis is irreversible and that Kiev has no future in this conflict. So, to maintain credibility, Western outlets are gradually beginning to admit that the situation in Ukraine is catastrophic.
What these newspapers fail to admit, however, is that the cause of this tragedy is the Kiev regime’s irrational insistence on continuing to fight an unwinnable war. To stop hostilities, Ukraine simply needs to accept Russian peace terms. The quicker the capitulation, the fewer Kiev’s human and territorial losses will be.
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.
West Doubles Down on Failed Wars in Ukraine & Middle East
Glenn Diesen | July 22, 2025
Larry Johnson is a former intelligence analyst at the CIA, who also worked at the US State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism. Johnson discusses why the West is doubling down on the failed wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
More Reckless Than Ever: NATO’s Proxy War with Russia
By Ted Galen Carpenter | The Libertarian Institute | July 22, 2025
The strategy that the United States and its European allies have adopted to use Ukraine as their military proxy in a war to weaken Russia has always involved a sizable element of risk. At some point, Russian leaders might no longer be content with just attacking the puppet that NATO members were using to torment their country. Instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his colleagues could decide to attack one or more of the puppeteers. The chances of such an escalation are increasing. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s principal deputy, issued a warning on July 17 that his country might launch “preemptive strikes” if the Western powers continued to boost their support for Ukraine’s military efforts.
Medvedev’s statement occurred just after President Donald Trump executed a major U.S. policy reversal regarding Ukraine. Instead of phasing out military aid to Kiev, the administration announced a resumption of weapons shipments, including Patriot air defense missiles that other NATO members would purchase from the United States. Such a stance was reminiscent of President Joe Biden’s enthusiastic support for Ukraine’s war effort, and it stood in stark contrast to Trump’s rhetoric throughout the 2024 presidential election campaign and the initial weeks of his second term that indicated a determination to end Washington’s entanglement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Unfortunately, the new sale of Patriots is just the latest in a long series of provocations that the United States and NATO have conducted against Russia since full-scale fighting between Moscow and Kiev began in February 2022. Both Medvedev and Putin have contended previously that NATO is already at war with their country, given the extent of military assistance that alliance members have extended to Kiev—especially the provision of long-range missiles. Medvedev specifically raised the prospect of Russian retaliatory strikes on NATO bases.
Their charge has merit. Not only have NATO members collectively provided a tsunami of weapons to their military proxy, but also several of them have assisted Ukraine’s war effort in other crucial ways. There is credible evidence that both British and American intelligence agencies (and possibly those of other NATO countries) have provided crucial data to Ukrainian forces attacking Russian military transport planes and other targets. A similar form of assistance apparently was given to Ukrainian forces that attacked Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea.
Providing such assistance to one party in an ongoing war could quite reasonably be interpreted as an act of war against the opposing party. Yet several alliance members are incurring such risks. A German general justified his country’s decision to send long-range missiles to Ukraine. But as one critic noted, what the general conveniently left out “is that these weapons will be operated by German personnel from Wiesbaden. In other words, Germany is turning one of its own cities into a legitimate target for Russian retaliation.”
Although the evidence of committing an act of war is less definitive in other cases, there were strong indications that one or more NATO member states were involved in the destruction of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline. The accounts that American and European media propaganda campaigns circulated certainly lacked even minimal credibility. The original cover story that Russia (for reasons that remained both vague and implausible) destroyed its own multi-billion-dollar pipeline did not even pass the proverbial laugh test. Even U.S. and other NATO officials quickly backed away from that attempted explanation. However, the substitute version was even more preposterous. That iteration asserted that a band of Ukrainian activists (but activists who had absolutely no connection to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government) conducted the sabotage raid using a civilian yacht manned by divers not in the country’s military.
Since those attempts at a plausible cover story flopped, NATO officials and their pet media outlets have gone strangely silent. Hopes by the transatlantic foreign policy “blob” that the pipeline story will just go away are understandable, since Moscow would have grounds for regarding the attack on its pipeline as a brazen act of war.
More recently, murkiness surrounds Ukraine’s bold move deploying swarms of drones to attack Russia’s strategic bomber fleet stationed at four air bases deep inside Russia. Kiev understandably bragged about such a military and propaganda victory. However, Washington’s possible role in this episode remains a matter of conjecture. Media outlets friendly to Ukraine asserted that the United States knew about the operation and expressed no objection. The White House initially contended that Ukraine had given no advance notice, but the U.S. account has become less clear with the passage of time.
It is an important detail. It seems unlikely that Ukrainian forces could have carried out such a complex operation so deep inside Russian territory without intelligence information similar to that given to Kiev in its earlier assaults against Russian troop transports and warships. The probable conclusion is that Kiev likely was aided by either U.S. intelligence operatives or operatives from another NATO. In either case, it would be yet another act of war committed against the Russian Federation. One can readily imagine the reaction from the United States if Russia (or any other adversary) waged an attack on the U.S. strategic bomber fleet and destroyed a significant portion of the fleet.
Even in the unlikely event that Ukraine acted totally alone, that scenario would mean that NATO’s proxy had gone rogue and is now acting on its own. In mid-July, President Trump raised tensions with the Kremlin even more. With typical Trumpian verbal incontinence, he asked Zelensky if (apparently in light of the successful raid on the bomber bases), Ukraine could strike a target such as Moscow deep inside Russia. It appeared to be an unsubtle hint that the United States would not be displeased by such a move. Trump did say many hours later that he was not calling on Ukraine to attack Moscow, but that poisonous idea was now firmly planted. On July 20, Ukraine launched a drone assault on Moscow.
The United States and its NATO allies are engaging in irresponsible behavior that could turn the already dangerous Ukraine proxy war against Russia into a direct armed conflict between the Alliance and Russia. Even during the worst days of the Cold War, Soviet and American leaders had the good sense to implicitly keep their respective homelands off limits. The current crop of “leaders” on the Western side are not exercising such wisdom or basic prudence. They are playing the international equivalent of Russian roulette.
German opposition slams Ukraine aid
RT | July 21, 2025
Frustration is growing in Germany over increased aid to Ukraine while domestic spending lags, co-chair of opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) Alice Weidel has said.
Berlin has been one of Kiev’s largest military backers since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Earlier this year, the German Defense Ministry announced that it would provide €5 billion ($5.6 billion) to finance long-range weapons production in Ukraine.
In an interview with the broadcaster ARD on Sunday, Weidel criticized the allocation of funds to Kiev, citing unmet domestic needs. Asked about alternative uses for public funds, she pointed to a shelved proposal to abolish electricity taxes, which would have cost the state €5.4 billion – comparable to what Berlin is spending on weapons for Ukraine, she argued.
“And then our government, the Friedrich Merz government, gives Ukraine nine billion in German tax money and now wants to buy Patriot missiles for Ukraine for five billion. Nobody understands that anymore,” Weidel said.
She was referencing a US-backed plan to funnel Patriot air defense systems to Kiev via NATO members, with Germany covering the costs. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said after meeting US counterpart Pete Hegseth in Washington last week that the terms of the arrangement could be finalized “within days or weeks,” though the actual transfer of the missile systems to Ukraine might take months. Berlin has indicated its readiness to cover the cost of at least two Patriot batteries to Ukraine – estimated at approximately $1 billion each.
Since taking office in May, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pursued a hardline stance against Russia. Earlier this month, he declared that diplomatic options in the Ukraine conflict were “exhausted” and doubled down on his policy of providing weapons to Kiev. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Merz of choosing escalation by abandoning diplomacy.
Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that European nations are funding the “death” of Ukraine by paying for weapons sent to Kiev. Russia has consistently denounced Western weapons deliveries, saying they do not change the overall course of the conflict and merely serve to prolong the bloodshed and risk further escalation.
Losing the War in Ukraine – Part 29 of the Anglo-American War on Russia
Tales of the American Empire | July 17, 2025
Last year, Professor John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago explained to crazed warmonger Piers Morgan that Ukraine had lost its war with Russia and should seek a peace deal with major concessions. Otherwise, Russian forces will continue to advance, killing hundreds of thousands more Ukrainians and devastating Ukraine in the process. His rational thought was ignored by neocon warmongers who run NATO and control Ukraine’s government. Russian forces continue advancing and Russia recently warned that it may annex four more historically Russian provinces if forced to conquer them. Russia cannot be stopped without NATO intervention, but that would lead to World War III. Ukraine is still ruled by Volodymir Zelensky, whose term as President ended in 2024, yet he remains in power and refuses to discuss a peace deal as instructed by his NATO handlers.
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Want To Wipe Out Patriot Systems? Ask The Russians How
Sputnik – 18.07.2025
US-made Patriot air defenses aren’t a magic fix for Ukraine — and Russia’s arsenal has already exposed their weaknesses.
“Patriot is ineffective against hypersonic missiles,” retired Russian Colonel Viktor Litovkin tells Sputnik.
- The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, a Russian hypersonic missile that reaches speeds up to Mach 10 and ranges of 3,000 km, easily destroys Patriots.
- Iskander-M’s single-stage solid-fuel guided missile 9M723 boasts a quasi-ballistic trajectory. With a striking range up to 500km it is another effective tools against Patriot systems.
- Both the Iskander-M and Kinzhal systems demonstrate high precision.
- Not by hypersonic alone: Geran dones + Kalibr missiles is a killer combo. A swarm of Geran drones forces Patriots to waste missiles. Then, while it’s reloading, a cruise missile, like a Kalibr, is fired.
Patriot’s Achilles’ heels
- “Dead Zones”: The Patriot has dead zones, like up to 100m altitude where it can’t detect targets, per Litovkin.
- So drones flying low can evade it. This is exactly how Houthi drones overcome air defenses in the Middle East, and Patriots couldn’t stop them.
- Easy to detect: The Patriot system has a radar station that emits radio waves. By detecting these waves, you can determine where they come from and pinpoint the coordinates of the source. So, in this case, reconnaissance is technically quite simple.
Ukraine’s Layered Defense Dream
The Kiev regime aims to build a layered system, says Yuriy Knutov, a military expert and air defense historian, which would include:
- long-range Patriots
- mid-range SAMP/T
- short-range NASAMS or IRIS-T
- plus Gepard guns
Who gets protection:
- Knutov believes that new Patriot systems will protect Western military plants in Ukraine.
- They’ll also be deployed around Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, and Lichevsk — key hubs for weapons.
- Ukrainian troops at the front lines? Just cannon fodder.
The Patriot is the core — so it must be precisely targeted, he says.
Ukrainian Diplomats in Latin America Recruiting Mercenaries for 25th Air Assault Brigade
Sputnik – 18.07.2025
The Ukrainian Embassy in Peru, which also handles Kiev’s relations with Ecuador and Colombia, has been recruiting mercenaries with combat experience to join Ukraine’s 25th Air Assault Brigade via its website, Sputnik has found out.
The embassy’s website features a link to a portal that invites foreign fighters to join the 25th Brigade as infantrymen and drone operators. The brigade is active on the Dnepropetrovsk and Donetsk fronts.
The requirements include “high level of physical fitness and motivation, military experience and drone operation experience.” The posting says that recruitment is being conducted on an urgent basis.
In an interview with Sputnik in June, Russian Ambassador in Bogota Nikolai Tavdumadze said that Ukraine was recruiting mercenaries in Colombia through its embassies, in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In March, relatives of Colombian mercenaries protested outside the Foreign Ministry building in Bogota to demand clarity about the whereabouts of their loved ones.
The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly warned that Kiev uses foreign fighters as “cannon fodder” and that the Russian military will continue to strike mercenary troops across Ukraine. Colombians have been complaining about poor coordination in the Ukrainian armed forces, which makes survival in the high-intensity conflict in Ukraine much harder than in Afghanistan or the Middle East.
Germany, UK to deliver long-range weapons to Ukraine under new pact
Al Mayadeen | July 17, 2025
Ukraine is set to receive new long-range weapons systems developed through joint efforts by British and German defense industries, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced Thursday. The deliveries are expected to begin within the next few weeks and continue over the coming months.
The statement followed the signing of a new bilateral agreement between Germany and the United Kingdom. Chancellor Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer formalized what they described as a “historic” treaty focused on friendship and enhanced defense cooperation during a joint appearance in Berlin.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Starmer, Merz stressed the expanded scope of military assistance to Ukraine. “We had a detailed discussion about military support for Ukraine, and this is not only about air defense, but also about Ukraine’s ability to better defend itself with long-range systems. We call this long range fire,” he said during the event, which was broadcast by Germany’s Phoenix TV.
He added that “Ukraine will soon receive significant additional support in this area, including through the industrial cooperation that we have established with Ukraine.”
Arming Ukraine
The delivery of these advanced systems comes in light of a deepening of European defense collaboration in support of Ukraine, amid ongoing hostilities with Russia. The weapons transfer is part of a broader framework outlined in the Kensington Treaty, signed on July 17, 2025, in London, the first post-WWII bilateral defense treaty between the UK and Germany. The pact not only strengthens joint military production but also facilitates financing and technological cooperation with Ukraine’s domestic arms industry.
Germany has already committed approximately €5 billion to support Ukraine’s production of long-range strike capabilities and has lifted previous range restrictions on German-supplied weapons, enabling Kiev to strike targets within Russian territory. British-German collaboration is also laying the foundation for future deep-precision systems with ranges exceeding 2,000 km, designed to ensure sustained deterrence capabilities in Eastern Europe.
These moves reflect a decisive shift in European defense policy amid increasing urgency to counter growing Russian military pressure.
Provocative Escalation
Moscow has responded with sharp warnings. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned Germany’s posture, suggesting it reveals the true intentions behind Western support for Kiev.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov criticized the deepening UK-Germany military alignment as a destabilizing factor for European security. Former President Dmitry Medvedev went further, cautioning that continued Western arms deliveries to Ukraine may provoke preemptive Russian strikes.
In a statement reported by TASS, he described the expanding range and sophistication of Western weapons as justification for escalating Russia’s own military posture.
Russian officials argue that this latest escalation marks a direct provocation, framing the treaty and weapons transfer as an existential threat that could draw Europe into broader conflict.
500+ Chemical Attacks: Russia Details Ukraine’s Use of Toxic and Poisonous Agents
Sputnik – 17.07.2025
Major General Alexey Rtishchev, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, stated that more than 500 instances of Ukraine using chemical and toxic substances have been documented during the special military operation.
“Throughout the special military operation, over 500 cases have been recorded where the Ukrainian side employed riot control agents (chloroacetophenone, CS gas), as well as toxic substances with psychotropic (BZ) and general poisonous effects (cyanogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide),” Rtishchev said during a briefing on Ukraine’s and Western countries’ violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“Since the beginning of 2025, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been systematically using copter-type drones to drop containers filled with CS gas and improvised munitions containing chloropicrin on Russian military positions,” he added.
Kiev is planning a provocation involving the release of ammonia at a facility near Novotroitsk in the DPR, says Major General Alexey Rtishchev, head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops. The goal is to accuse Russia of intentionally causing a man-made disaster.
“With the support of Western handlers, the Kiev regime has not abandoned its long-developed barbaric tactic of warfare—the ‘chemical belt’ method, which involves placing and detonating containers with toxic chemicals in areas where Russian troops operate. Available evidence indicates preparations for another such provocation,” Rtishchev said during a briefing on Ukraine’s and Western countries’ violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“On July 3, 2025, operational measures confirmed that Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel had installed antenna-mast equipment at a major ammonia distribution facility near the settlement of Novotroitsk. The plant is a first-class hazard facility, and if struck, it could release over 550 tons of liquid ammonia into the environment. The plan is to subsequently accuse our country of deliberately causing a man-made disaster and inflicting reputational damage,” Rtishchev added.
He presented the original letter from the deputy director of the Kiev-controlled “Ukrkhimtrans-ammiak” enterprise to the head of the regional military administration, confirming the placement of military equipment at the site.
“I remind you that using a high-risk facility for military purposes violates international humanitarian law,” the head of the Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Defense Troops emphasized.
According to the documents disclosed by Rtishchev, the incident concerns the village of Novotroitsk in the Kramatorsk district of the DPR.
Western countries will continue to use the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as an instrument of political pressure on Russia, without taking into account objective facts, head of the Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian armed forces Major General Aleksei Rtishchev said on Thursday.
Last week, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans informed the country’s parliament that Russia, according to Dutch intelligence services, allegedly intensified the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, which is a violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (CWC).
“It is obvious that the West will continue to use the OPCW as an instrument of political pressure on Russia, without taking into account objective facts. The Russian side will continue to work to counter this policy and to inform the world community about the violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention by the Kiev regime and its curators,” Rtishchev told a briefing.
The activities of the OPCW have become highly politicized due to pressure from Western states, which, at their whim, impose unilateral sanctions, make unfounded accusations against undesirable countries, and abuse the provisions of the Convention, the military said.
Additionally, the military said that Russia had recently asked the OPCW head to send a team of experts from the organization’s technical secretariat to Russia to assist in the investigation of Kiev’s crimes, as well as a draft agreement between Russia and the OPCW on organizing and conducting visits for the purpose of such assistance.
“This step is due to the fact that all previously presented documentary evidence and expert opinions have not received the proper response from the organization. About 40 verbal notes from the Permanent Mission of Russia to the OPCW still remain without a meaningful response. At the same time, unsubstantiated requests from the Ukrainian side receive immediate support from the bureaucratic structures of the OPCW with the involvement of accredited laboratories,” Rtishchev said.
Taking advantage of its preferences, Ukraine has repeatedly involved the OPCW technical secretariat in legitimizing incidents falsified by Ukrainian and Western intelligence services regarding the alleged use of chemical means of riot control by Russian military personnel on the line of combat contact, he added.
Italy won’t buy US arms for Ukraine – media
RT | July 16, 2025
Italy’s budget doesn’t allow it to participate in US President Donald Trump’s plan to supply American arms to Ukraine, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reports, citing anonymous sources.
On Monday, Trump authorized new weapons deliveries to Ukraine, given that European NATO members provide funding, calling it a “very big deal.”
La Stampa said in an article on Wednesday that the strategy of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has already agreed to purchase several Patriot surface-to-air missile systems for Ukraine, “will not be pursued by Italy.”
According to the paper’s sources, Rome will be opting out of the scheme “not only because our weapon systems already handed over to Kiev have other technological configurations, but above all because – unlike Germany – the budget that Italy can allocate to such an operation is practically non-existent.”
The only arms purchase from the US currently planned by Italy is the delivery of a batch of F35 fighter jets scheduled for the 2030s, the sources added.
Politico reported on Tuesday, citing two French officials, that Paris would not be purchasing US weapons for Kiev as France is looking to invest in its own defense industry to meet European security needs.
The same day, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Publico outlet that Prague is also currently “not considering” joining the initiative. The country “is focusing on other… ways to help Ukraine,” he explained.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas earlier welcomed Trump’s pledge to send more weapons to Ukraine, but urged Washington to “share the burden” in terms of financing the deliveries. Washington, meanwhile, has threatened to impose secondary US tariffs of up to 100% on Russia’s trading partners unless progress toward a peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev is made within 50 days.
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From the Archives
A superpower and “the world’s sickest warrior state”
By Paul J. Balles | March 8, 2010
Living through five or six major wars has hardened me to what I thought were the extremes of inhuman cruelty and brutality.
Two things made those extremes almost bearable: the brutality always revealed – at least according to the media coverage – the viciousness of the enemy. It was therefore quite understandable when our “brave men and women” pulverized the enemy.
Films of Japanese torturing captive Americans somehow justified holding Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II; and only a small percentage of Americans found the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki unreasonably vengeful at best, at worst, depraved.
The media giants in America portrayed the North Koreans as barbaric beasts with their captives, quite unlike their southern counterpoints – our allies during the Korean War. No one ever felt the need to explain how the South Koreans were a civilized breed while the North Koreans were absolute savages, at least according to the official line.
In Vietnam, our warriors justifiably (or so the media made us believe) dropped napalm on the North Vietnamese who had the gall to hide in villages and tunnels to ravage our invaders. At least it was accepted practice until some rogue photojournalist filmed a young girl screaming down a Vietnamese road in flames. … continue
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