Not to miss this very insightful explanation of the battleground between the pro-Israel faction and the pro-US faction within the brain of the Republican party.
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‘It’s like they’re coming out of a cult’: Ukraine tackles Russian indoctrination of repatriated children
Le Monde
By Faustine Vincent (Special correspondent in Kyiv)
To date, 1,762 Ukrainian children have been repatriated after being forcibly transferred by Moscow. Ukrainians are working to de-indoctrinate them and are warning that today, all children living under occupation, Russified and militarized, are being torn from their country without even having to be physically deported.
In three and a half years of full-scale war, Oksana Lebedeva thought she had seen everything. But since she began caring for children repatriated to Ukraine after being forcibly transferred by Russia, the founder of the NGO Gen. Ukrainian discovered an even darker side of the conflict. “Their behavior is very different from children traumatized here by the conflict,” she explained. “When they come back, after being indoctrinated by Russia, they don’t speak, don’t play, don’t trust anyone and don’t even look at you.” One aspect particularly surprised her: “They are all extremely docile. That shocked us. They are ready to give everything and behave like little soldiers.” She gives each child a notebook to write about their experience. One boy took a red marker and wrote in large letters: “Top secret.”
To date, 1,762 Ukrainian children have been repatriated out of the 19,546 identified by Ukrainian authorities as having been deported to Russia or forcibly transferred within occupied territories. Moscow began mass transfers of these children at the beginning of its invasion in February 2022. Since then, Ukraine has worked to recover these “stolen children,” some of whom were adopted by Russian families, with Moscow erasing their identities by changing their names and dates of birth, and moving them around frequently. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. That same year, Russia boasted of having “welcomed more than 700,000 Ukrainian children.”
The fate of these children torn from their country has provoked international outrage. But the threat has now grown, insist Ukrainian officials overseeing the issue. “The situation is much worse than at the start of the invasion,” warned Maksym Maksymov, project manager for the Bring Kids Back Ukraine program, created by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate efforts by the government, partner countries and international organizations to return “kidnapped” children. “Today,” Maksymov explained, “1.6 million Ukrainian children live in occupied territories and in Russia. Moscow is indoctrinating them with the same goal: to change their identity.” He said it’s important not to “focus solely on the figure of 20,000 deported children, because even if we manage to bring them back, it won’t solve the problem. Today, Russia doesn’t even need to physically transfer children to tear them from Ukraine; it does it psychologically and mentally.”
‘War machine’
Young Ukrainians are a prime target for the Kremlin. To erase their identity and turn them into future soldiers under its command, Moscow subjects them to forced re-education, Russification and militarization beginning in elementary school. “Whether the children are in Russia or in the occupied territories no longer has any impact on the level of indoctrination, it is the same everywhere,” noted Yulia Sidorenko, head of the Save Ukraine center in Kyiv, which assists repatriated minors. With this indoctrination, “deportation has become a process” affecting all Ukrainian children living under Russian control, according to Olena Rozvadovska, founder of the organization Voices of Children. “The Russians are brilliant at brainwashing,” she sighed. “It’s a war machine designed to make them hate anything Ukrainian.”
The methods used at times resemble laboratory experiments, particularly in “filtration camps,” giant checkpoints set up by Moscow in occupied territories and in Russia to control and filter Ukrainians trying to leave, where they may be detained for months. “A young girl told me that when the Russians showed them videos of Ukraine in these camps, it was cold, they were hungry and it smelled bad,” recounted Natalia Masiak, a psychologist at Voices of Children. “But when they showed videos of Russia, they handed out cookies, the atmosphere was comforting and it was warm.”
Daria Herasymchuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for children’s rights and rehabilitation, regrets that indoctrination is “not taken seriously enough” by international bodies. “Yet it’s a burning issue that represents a considerable threat.” She cited the case of Ugandan commander Dominic Ongwen. Kidnapped and indoctrinated by the rebel LRA group as a child, he was sentenced by the ICC in 2021 to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity. “That’s why we must immediately save all our children,” Daria Herasymchuk insisted, “and not wait until they all turn against Ukraine.”
Oleksandr (a pseudonym), 19, spent three and a half years under Russian occupation in Dniprorudne, in the Zaporizhzhia region, before managing to escape in August. This young Ukrainian, who was tortured by Russian security services (FSB) for two months for forming a small resistance group, described how the environment radically changed since 2022. “Russia is everywhere, on the radio, on flags. Staying there without having your brain melt is extremely difficult,” said the student, now living in Kyiv. “Young people are particularly affected. The effect of propaganda is so powerful that even those who were against Russia are starting to believe it. Even 14-year-olds don’t really remember what life was like in Ukraine [before the Russians arrived].”
Oleksander (who is using a pseudonym) was subjected to interrogations, electric torture, psychological pressure and imprisonment by Russian forces for two months when he was only 16 years old, in the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia. In the offices of the Bring Kids Back Ukraine organization, in Kyiv, October 4, 2025. VIRGINIE NGUYEN HOANG/HUMA FOR LE MONDE
The more traumatized a child is, the more receptive they are to propaganda and the easier to manipulate. “That’s why the Russians create this trauma, by completely isolating the child, hammering home the message that no one is coming to get them and that no one needs them,” explained Myroslava Kharchenko, co-founder of the humanitarian organization Save Ukraine, which searches for, repatriates and rehabilitates abducted Ukrainian children. “It works very well: The child, broken, feels abandoned. The Russians empty them of their identity and values, and replace them with others.”
Adoptions for payment
Ksenia Koldin, 21, saw the effectiveness of this method on her younger brother, who was forcibly transferred to Russia in August 2022 at age 11 from Vovchansk, one of the first Ukrainian cities to be occupied, in the Kharkiv region. As a student, she had to fight to get him back. When she finally found him in May 2023, the boy, placed with a Russian foster family, initially refused to go with her. “He told me his life was now in Russia, that he had friends there and that Ukraine was a bad and dangerous country. I was desperate,” recounted the young woman, her black hair pulled back and face grave. She spent three and a half hours trying to convince him. “His foster family and the Russian school had completely brainwashed him. Then, I had a stroke of genius and told him: ‘OK, but I’m your sister, I love you, I missed you a lot, so let’s just go for a month.'” Since then, her brother has been cared for in Ukraine and has not gone back to Russia.
Upon their return, all repatriated children are questioned by a psychologist about their experience. Hidden behind a one-way mirror, representatives from Ukrainian security services, the prosecutor general’s office, the police and child protection services pass along their questions. The information gathered helps to better understand Russian methods. After spending up to three months in filtration camps, the youngest and healthiest children are adopted by Russian families, who receive the equivalent of $200 per month (€173) and sometimes take in seven or eight children. “These families aren’t interested in the child, but in the money,” explained Masiak, who has conducted about 50 interviews. “Many adoptive parents threatened the children: ‘If you don’t obey, we’ll tell everyone you’re Ukrainian. You’ll see what happens to you.’ There are many cases of abuse.”
The de-indoctrination of children repatriated from Russia and the occupied territories is a complex process, and a step considered necessary for their rehabilitation. “We have to ‘deprogram’ them because, among those who have returned, some believed that Ukraine no longer existed and that Russia had won the war,” explained Kharchenko. Others display strange reflexes. “An 18-year-old boy, rescued from Russian-controlled territories, went to the Kyiv memorial honoring fallen soldiers. Seeing all the Ukrainian flags, which are banned in occupied zones, he suddenly began singing the Russian anthem.” Police intervened, believing it was a provocation, and opened a criminal investigation. “We had to prove he had suffered a psychological breakdown,” Kharchenko added.
So far, most of the Ukrainian children who have been repatriated are teenagers who wanted to return and have not been completely brainwashed by propaganda. “But the longer children stay in occupied territory, the harder it will be to help them when they return and to convince them everything was false,” said Rozvadovska. Aware of the scale of the challenge, specialists in de-indoctrination are developing different methodologies.
‘Deprogramming’
The approach used by the Save Ukraine NGO, developed in collaboration with clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists and Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, has a telling name: “deprogramming.” This involves preparing the environment for repatriated children by training their teachers, classmates and community to restore trust and help them feel “expected.” That is not always the case today. After being harassed in Russia, where they were accused of starting the war and being responsible for the death of a father or brother killed at the front, some are sometimes harassed upon their return to Ukraine, where they are criticized for not leaving earlier or for not speaking Ukrainian well.
The specialists in charge of these children are careful not to use the same violent methods that the Russians used to indoctrinate them, favoring instead a “gentle” and individualized approach. “But it will take years for them to readjust, because it’s like they’re coming out of a cult,” observed Masiak. Ukraine has sought advice from Finland, which is working to reintegrate children from the Islamic State. “At first, these children refuse to leave Syria, but after leaving the camp, their perception changes. That gives us hope,” said Maksymov.
Ukrainians know the hardest part is yet to come and that time is against them. Not only because tracing the youngest becomes almost impossible, but also because the longer the war lasts, the more children trapped in Russia and occupied territories grow up believing they are Russian and that Ukraine is the enemy, undermining any deprogramming efforts – if they ever return at all.
Anticipating these difficulties, the authorities launched a national campaign in the spring, “Let’s Bring Ukrainian Children Home,” to collect the DNA of families whose children were transferred to Russia and create a database. “That way, if these children come back in 10, 20 or 30 years, they can be identified,” explained Maksymov. “It will allow us to prove what happened.” And help these Ukrainians discover their true story.
‘Gaza Will Haunt Israel for Generations’- Mika Almog Granddaughter of Former President Shimon Peres
Chinas Ten No’s: Sun-Tzu Has Swallowed the Frog
By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
In a conversation lasting one hour and forty minutes according to the Chinese stopwatch– “a long meeting” on President Donald Trump’s clock — President Xi Jinping first knocked the stuffing out of Trump’s warmaking threats, then forced him to beat a retreat behind a 12-month ceasefire with the man the Pentagon has designated its principal enemy but whom Trump praised effusively as “a great leader, great leader of a very powerful, very strong country…a tremendous leader of a very powerful country and I give great respect to him.”
“Uh,” Trump told reporters on board his aircraft as it rocked in crosswinds flying eastward, “a lot of things we discussed in great detail. A lot of things we brought to finalization. A lot of finalization.” This was false.
Worse for the Trump warfighting strategy, the Chinese have retained escalation dominance by making Trump’s concessions their pre-condition for China’s temporary suspension of their sanctions on rare earths exports and imports of US computer chips. For this, Xi offered to buy US soybeans slowly for $34.2 billion over four years – roughly half in tonnage, half in price over twice the interval that China had agreed to in the past.
In General Sun Tzu’s ancient manual for warfighting, “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”. The old man also confessed his limitation: “there is an intelligent way to eat a live frog – I just don’t know what it is.” Xi just demonstrated the way to do it. Trump went down smiling.
Xi has not yet telephoned President Vladimir Putin to brief him on what happened. After Putin’s meeting with Trump in Alaska on August 6, Putin telephoned Xi on August 8. “So far,” said Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, ”there is no such conversation in the schedule, but it can be quickly agreed upon if necessary,”
The Russian state media have interpreted the outcome of the talks to be a “temporary ceasefire” achieved by not discussing the key economic and territorial war issues at all. “There have been no joint statements yet,” Tass noted, “and some of the most important issues of bilateral relations, such as Nvidia chips and advanced products, have remained unresolved.” Nothing was achieved, the official Moscow commentators think, in the US attempt to split Xi from Putin, and secure Chinese pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine war on US and NATO terms. “Ukraine came up, uh, very strongly,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington. “We talked about it for a long time and we’re both gonna work together to see if we can get something done. Uh, we agreed the, the sides there, you know, locked in, fighting, and sometimes you have to let him fight, I guess. Crazy. But he’s gonna help us and we’re gonna work together on Ukraine.”
The Russian state media have yet to notice that Trump is abandoning his attempt, through the Rosneft and LUKOil oil trade sanctions of October 25, to stop China buying Russian oil. “There’s not a lot more we can do,” Trump replied to a reporter who asked if he and Xi had discussed his threat to sanction Chinese companies for buying Russian crude oil and petroleum products. “Uh, you know, he’s been buying oil from Russia for a long time. It takes care of a, a big part of China. And, you know, I, I can say India’s been very good, good on that, uh, front. Uh, but, uh, we, we didn’t really discuss the oil. We discussed working together to see if we could get that war finished. You know, it doesn’t affect China.”
A review of the Xi-Trump summit by Russian sources has identified Xi’s ten noes as a discreet way of contrasting Putin’s approach with Trump at the Anchorage meeting, their subsequent telephone call, and the exchange of remarks about each other in the press:
Tsargrad, the television and internet medium of Russian nationalism, has been the least reticent of the Moscow media in its summing up. “After a triumphant – in words – visit to Japan, which refused to stop buying Russian oil, and the ‘bummer’ (облома) in South Korea, which will not invest $ 350 billion in the US economy if they themselves do not give this amount to Seoul, Trump met with Xi Jinping in Busan. And he lost a big one. Negotiations at the South Korean Air Force base lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes, after which, shaking hands, the leaders went off on their own business. As a result, ‘the fantastic relationships for a long time’ (Trump’s words) turned out to be a dream.”
The lesson for the Kremlin, Tsargrad hinted, was that “when Trump flew away from Busan, it was clear that he was lost, because the US could not intimidate China like other countries…Equally obvious, the victory of one of the two contenders for the title of the leading power of the world will depend on the position of Russia. The global geopolitical triangle has not gone away – only the weight and degree of influence of its member countries changes. Half a century ago, Beijing had the ‘golden [controlling] share’, but now Moscow has it — and it also has the ‘silver bullet’ ”.
Putin is losing the weirdest war in 150 years
by Mark Brolin via The Telegraph
Mark Brolin is a geopolitical strategist and the author of ’Healing Broken Democracies: All You Need to Know About Populism’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2025/10/28/putin-is-losing-the-weirdest-war-in-150-years/
The Ukraine conflict has descended into farce. But behind the fog, Russia’s desperate state is becoming ever clearer
Lord Palmerston is famously said to have joked of the 1864 Danish-German war that only three people ever understood the reason behind it: one who had died, one who went mad, and the third who had forgotten. If that conflict once felt like the apex of strategic absurdity, the Russia-Ukraine war has somehow raised the bar.
Consider the behaviour of the main parties.
First up is team Putin, which hoped to showcase strength and strategic mastery by seizing Ukraine. So how did that turn out? Well, the bubble of 19th century Kremlin yes-men turned out to know so little about the ways of the real world that Moscow’s sphere of influence has contracted across the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe, with Finland and Sweden joining Nato, and Russia drifting closer to becoming a de facto Chinese vassal state. Moscow has been losing its Western oil markets, while its supposedly mighty army has only managed to gain control of a fraction of Ukrainian territory. This has come at vast human and economic cost, with no persuasive case as to why the world’s largest country needed those extra square miles.
Then there is Ukraine and president Zelensky. There is, of course, nothing bizarre about Kyiv’s heroic fight to drive back the Russians. If only the same could be said about its efforts to keep America in the fight. Ukraine has tended to frame the case urgently: help now, or the consequences would be dire, including the threat of Moscow starting a world war. But today’s Russia is a dwarf next to the US in every respect besides the nuclear bombs that even Putin knows he cannot use. Exaggerating Russia’s strength has not helped Ukraine in the court of American opinion.
Next comes Europe. For years, many European countries disarmed while deepening energy dependence on one of their main adversaries, while ignoring explicit warnings from countries like Poland and Ukraine. They lectured about principles while buying Russian oil, thereby funding the very war machine they condemned. Despite the war in Europe and their own sclerotic economies, European leaders continue to moralise as if they are somehow sitting on top of the best recipe for peace and prosperity on the planet.
Finally, there’s the US and its president. Donald Trump’s opening gambit in his attempt to achieve peace in Ukraine was to push for Moscow’s desired end-state (telling Ukraine to cede stolen ground and ditch its hopes of joining Nato even before sitting down at the negotiating table). Then came the Tomahawk episode: for a few days, Trump brandished the threat of giving Ukraine these long-range missiles. Just as the threat seemed to work – when the Kremlin reached for the phone – it was oddly withdrawn. So leverage was first applied and then removed in a heartbeat.
All of this makes this conflict feel so odd that it can drive anyone who prizes logic and consistency a little mad.
Yet despite all the frustrating backsliding, the forces of reason might just be winning out. Inch by inch, Europe and the United States are, for the first time, pushing back in concert in a significant way. Europe is rearming; its energy dependence on Russia is falling; frozen Russian reserves are being explored as a way of funding for Ukraine; and recent US policy moves have tightened the oil squeeze. Chinese and Indian energy firms appear to be acting more cautiously than before while, seemingly not without reason, afraid of second tier sanctions. The West continues to supply Ukraine with crucial technological, logistical and intelligence support.
Perhaps most significantly, the myth of “Great Power” Russia may at least be about to be punctured. This myth let the Kremlin swagger, and encouraged Europe to act like cowards. It allowed appeasers and Russian apologists to demand that Ukraine “adapt to the facts” – conveniently ignoring the equally important facts about Russia. Here are a few:
Russia’s war-economy is overheating
Year-on-year inflation ran about 8pc in September (Russian source), with prices re-accelerating into the autumn. This is a classic symptom of a state-directed wartime splurge, not durable strength. The Russian central bank has set interest rates at almost 17pc – a banana-republic number.
Guns are crowding out butter
Moscow’s 2025 plan lifted defence to roughly a third of total spending and around 6pc of GDP – levels that squeeze everything else and lock in future austerity.
Moscow is bleeding manpower
Estimates vary, but some credible sources put Russian deaths at more than 200,000 (Feb 2022 – Aug 2025), while total casualties (deaths and wounded) are thought to have exceeded 1.1 million by October 2025; Nato has estimated that around 100,000 Russians have died in 2025 alone. However you slice it, losses are highly likely to be dwarfing sustainable replacement.
Economic growth is an illusion built on war outlays
Russia has been posting positive GDP figures, but these have been driven by state orders and price spikes, fuel for today’s inflation and tomorrow’s hangover. Even senior Russian bankers are now warning about the economic situation, as softer oil assumptions and Ukrainian refinery strikes erode profits from Russia’s core asset.
The labour supply is being squeezed
Unemployment sits at historic lows because workers are scarce; almost a million Russians are thought to have left after 2022, deepening shortages.
This has exacerbated the brain drain
The Russian people are among Europe’s poorest and unhealthiest (the average life span for males is around ten years lower than within EU countries). Freedom of expression? A joke that is not only a human but also an economic tragedy. Understandably many of the brightest and richest have left the country for greener pastures – taking both their brains and capital with them.
Russia’s dependence on China is deepening
Around 35-40pc of Russia’s trade now runs through China; Beijing is by far the top buyer of Russian energy, but trade growth has been hampered by Chinese payment hurdles, underscoring Moscow’s weaker hand. The fact that Russian business has no straightforward access to any competitive market economy is another hardly envious position. This is starting to hit home in all sorts of respects. For example, aviation safety has deteriorated as carriers “cannibalise” grounded planes for parts; more than half of Western-built aircraft could be parked by 2026 without spares. That is what high-tech isolation looks like.
Return fire is now hitting deep inside Russia
Even without Tomahawks, Ukraine’s deep-strike capabilities – long-range drones, Storm Shadow/SCALP, Atacms – are now regularly hitting air bases, refineries, logistics hubs and the Black Sea coastline. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has been degraded, dispersed, and pushed east; Crimea, once a sanctuary, is a firing range. The war has been brought to the Russians.
None of this argues for rewarding aggression with land – or for the idea that Russia can “comfortably fight for years”. It argues for tightening the screws that actually matter: enforcing the oil price cap and hitting shippers/insurers, choking off machine-tool and dual-use inputs, and allowing even deeper Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s logistics aorta. Thankfully, all this is finally happening.
The real danger for Ukraine is that the Russian situation is so dire that Putin might personally want to prolong the war, regardless of the cost. When focus returns to the domestic situation, the spotlight will swing to a mess of his own making: inflation, shortages, a shrinking workforce, and a kleptocracy that cannot modernise. If he keeps fighting, the bill might grow, the body count might climb and the backlash might be even greater once the guns stop firing, but he can at least postpone the problem for another day.
In short, Putin may no longer be living in reality, but in a bizarre version curated by the yes-men around him. That is why pressure must be kept up: to make the reality of his situation impossible to ignore.
Big News, Behind the Headlines
This is BIG! It explains Trump’s erratic changes, why no meeting with Putin in Budapest, why Dmitriev is in panic trip to the US, why Netanyahu is under pressure by Trump, etc., etc.
Fear of Vote on Releasing Epstein Files is Keeping the U.S. Government Shut Down!
Mike Johnson and Melania Trump Sued Over Epstein Scandal!
Updates from the week on the Epstein Scandal. The one issue Donald Trump wishes would go away, but is picking up steam. Follow the link below.
400 prominent Jews call for sanctions on Israel
Hundreds of prominent Jewish figures across the world have called on the UN and global leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as “unconscionable” actions in Gaza that they say amount to genocide.
An open letter urging governments to hold Israel accountable for alleged violations of international law in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem garnered more than 450 signatories, including former Israeli officials, intellectuals, and artists. The letter coincides with reports that EU leaders may abandon plans to introduce sanctions against Israel during a summit in Brussels on Thursday.
“We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories wrote. “Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.”
The appeal includes former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, authors Michael Rosen and Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, actors Wallace Shawn and Ilana Glazer, and philosopher Omri Boehm. The group has urged world leaders to enforce International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court rulings, halt arms sales, and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials and entities complicit in alleged crimes.
Israeli security minister pushes to resume Gaza warREAD MORE: Israeli security minister pushes to resume Gaza war
The petition follows a shift in public opinion among American Jews and voters more broadly. A recent poll by the Washington Post found that 61% of US Jews believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and 39% say it is committing genocide. A separate Quinnipiac survey in August found that half of US voters hold the same view.
Ominous Threats by Russia
Ed. Notes: This article by traitor Gilbert Doctorow is meant to paint a parallel scenario to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, only that is addressed to the Western European leaders. Submit to our demands or we will turn you to dust. This is the peace loving Russia, the country occupying a people who don’t want to be occupied. Notice the words “the population should be warned to evacuate the city ahead of Russia’s bombing them flat”. Although this is not a war (sarc).
The question of the value of using Russian state television as a means of divining which way the Kremlin is headed on key foreign policy issues has been highly contentious in the Alternative Media community. Some peers mock the idea, saying that the talking heads are irrelevant and that their own personal contacts with some Russian General or presidential advisor in retirement is the real way to understand what is going on behind the closed doors of Vladimir Putin’s offices. Others think they get in from the source from having a private audience with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Then among the trolls who send in Comments to the Russian-dubbed versions of ‘Judging Freedom’ or the Glenn Diesen channel you see claims that state television no longer is watched by the majority of the population, especially the young, who get their news from social media. That may be noteworthy if the purpose of any given broadcast is to influence the broad public, but it entirely misses the point if the purpose of the broadcast is to send a message to Washington.
To all these dissenters on the proper methodology to be used by Russia watchers, I submit that the proof is in the pudding. Last night’s news in The Financial Times, backed up by coverage in this morning’s BBC provides irrefutable evidence that Mr. Solovyov’s program is backed by the Putin government not only as a safety valve for Opposition criticism but at times as an unofficial channel for setting out the strident nationalist positions that the President himself will not say publicly.
“Trump urged Zelensky to accept Putin’s terms or ‘be destroyed.’ This article in the FT explains in detail how in their closed-door meeting in the White House President Trump raged at Zelensky, insisting that his country’s survival depends on submitting to Vladimir Putin’s terms for peace, beginning with the surrender of all of the Donbas, including the territory not yet overrun by Russian troops.
I call special attention to the words ‘be destroyed.’
I quote from the article: “According to a European official with knowledge of the meeting, Trump told Zelensky that Putin had told him the conflict was a ‘special operation, not even a war, adding that the Ukrainian leader needed to cut a deal or face destruction.”
This is precisely what Solovyov was saying on air in his program of 14 October, three days before the Trump-Zelensky meeting. Per Solovyov, Russia should stop pussy-footing and face the reality that it was at war with Ukraine, that the Ukrainians were doing all in their power to inflict harm on the Russian Federation and Russia should now respond in kind, raising Ukrainian cities to the ground. Humane solicitude for the Ukrainian population could be shown only after Russian military and political victory was completed.
In parallel, we may assume that a similar message was being delivered directly to Team Trump via the backchannels that Russian diplomat to the UN Dmitry Polyansky told Glenn Diesen in an interview a couple of days ago, are working just fine.
Solovyov went on to say that in Kiev and other cities, the population should be warned to evacuate the city ahead of Russia’s bombing them flat. He also extended the same advice to the populations of cities in Western Europe, like Brussels, where there are factories manufacturing weapons and munitions that are being supplied to Ukraine. So far, that additional warning appears not to have been passed to European leaders, though here in Brussels I am told by a Flemish insider journalist that Prime Minister Bart De Wever is shaking in his boots.
The role of the Solovyov show as communicator of Kremlin thinking does not end there, as was evident on last night’s show. In a discussion with a frequent guest panelist on the show, Lt. General Yevgeny Buzhinsky, Solovyov listened to the general’s account of how in the last week Russian drone, missile and glide bomb attacks all across Ukraine had reached the highest level of intensity in the Special Military Operation to date, destroying vast swathes of the Ukrainian electricity infrastructure. Solovyov then asked him wouldn’t it make more sense to concentrate this firepower on a very limited geographical space like the urban centers Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, heavily fortified centers in the middle of Donetsk oblast that stand in the way of a Russian army sweep across the plain to the Dnieper River? Wouldn’t it make more sense to heavily bomb central Kiev, after which the greater part of the population would flee the city, creating total chaos for the Zelensky regime and for the Western countries where these unwelcome refugees would arrive?
Buzhinsky is a professional Russian officer who feels very uncomfortable agreeing to ideas like these which contain a sharp reprimand to the General Staff and to the Supreme Commander (Putin), but nevertheless he agreed with Solovyov. It can be easily imagined that this kind of change in execution of the SMO was communicated to Team Trump in the past week ahead of the Trump-Zelensky meeting in the White House.
For all of these reasons, there is reason to hope for a productive summit in Budapest and for an end to the war on Russia’s terms in the near future.
A corollary to all the foregoing is that President Putin himself has cardinally changed his position on how to deal with Trump and with the Europeans. Yes, as my peers will say, this was arrived at in a collegial way. BUT the point is not collegiality in decision making. It is that discontent in the political establishment outside the Kremlin with the go-slow, softly-softly approach to the war of President Putin and its prospects for dragging on for years while Europe reindustrialized and rearmed had reached a critical point threatening the stability of the Putin presidency.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025
The Axis is Desperate
It seems that Putin used the occasion of the Gaza ceasefire to call Trump with some new proposal and capitalize on Trump’s euphoria. Already Orban sent his sidekick, his so-called foreign minister, to Moscow to propose such a meeting in Budapest between Putin and Trump.
Both are desperate enough to end a losing policy for them in Ukraine and surely would be happy to jump at any possible face-saving opportunity. But the positions of the combatants are totally at opposite ends.
So will there be a meeting in Budapest? Maybe, but most likely not.
Even if there is a meeting, will there be any agreement? Maybe, but most likely not.
Russia demands Ukraine’s capitulation which Trump is ready to grant. And Ukraine/Europeans want the defeat of Russia, which Putin is not going to accept.
While on the battleground Russia is making small, incremental advances, Europe is just getting out of its post WWII fog, waking up to its own potential. It sees Russia as menacing, and it sees the US as a paper tiger, a former superpower. Europe is the giant who is getting back on its feet.
Why would Europe be cowering before a third-world Russia with nukes? Besides, Europe has its own, second or third level nuclear deterrence force.
The Trump-Putin-Orban clown act is just a desperate circus show.
C. S.
For more details on the fire situation of the Russian Army see Igor Streaks report right from the heart of the Russia.
and this
Trump’s War Against ‘Left-leaning’ Groups Extends Further
via MoA
There are a number of indicators which lets one predict that the Trump administration, during the next election, will use government forces to severely attack and disrupt all opposition to it.
Trump has send the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the cities to harass and arrest alleged illegal immigrants. Due cause is disregarded and the methods used by the agents are brutal.
Trump has also sent National Guard troops into cities where, he claimed, riots were taking place. There were no riots or ‘terrorist incidents’ but the presence of troops is used to create a militarized atmosphere.
A new National Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7 issued by Trump has defined new classes of internal enemies:
With the mainstream media distracted by the made-for-TV drama of James Comey’s indictment, Trump has signed a little-noticed national security directive identifying “anti-Christian” and “anti-American” views as indicators of radical left violence.
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In NSPM-7, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” President Trump directs the Justice Department, the FBI, and other national security agencies and departments to fight his version of political violence in America, retooling a network of Joint Terrorism Task Forces to focus on “leftist” political violence in America. This vast counterterrorism army, made up of federal, state, and local agents would, as Trump aide Stephen Miller said, form “the central hub of that effort.”
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The Trump administration isn’t only targeting organizations or groups but even individuals and “entities” whom NSPM-7 says can be identified by any of the following “indicia” (indicators) of violence:
anti-Americanism,
anti-capitalism,
anti-Christianity,
support for the overthrow of the United States Government,
extremism on migration,
extremism on race,
extremism on gender,
hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,
hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and
hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.
“The United States requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts,” the directive states (emphasis mine).
That all may sound laughable but these are unfortunately serious policies . The target list includes organizations which do not exist:
There are no ‘antifa’ organizations. ‘Antifa’ is the idea of fighting indications of fascism. From time to time local interest groups may claim to do so for this or that reason. This category ‘antifa’ was likely chosen because it can be applied to any group that opposes government policies.
Today Yves Smith reports of another enforcement agency that Trump will use to destroy opposition to him:
The war against Trump’s perceived political enemies keeps escalating. The Wall Street Journal provides new detail on how the Trump Administration intends to use an IRS criminal unit, whose members bear arms, as part of his campaign against “left-leaning” organizations. This fallows a Reuters account describing how the Trump Administration intends to use the Department of Justice and DHS to pursue “left wing” groups that allegedly fomented violence.
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Now to the press accounts. Key sections from the Journal’s report:
The Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily, according to people familiar with the matter.
A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors, some of the people said.
The undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division, or IRS-CI, to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations, officials said. The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes…
Among those on the list are the billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated groups…
Many on the left will not mind any attack on George Soros as his organization is well know for financing foreign color revolutions against legitimate leftist rulers. We can however be assured that Trump wont stop with them:
The list includes Soros’ Open Society Foundations; ActBlue, the funding arm of the Democratic Party; Indivisible, a grassroots coalition opposed to Trump policies and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, a Los Angeles-based group.
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Other groups on the list include two Jewish nonprofits that oppose Israel’s war in Gaza – IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
There is unfortunately little institutional or political opposition that can restrain Trump:
The push against domestic groups and their donors comes amid Trump’s attacks on law firms, universities and the media, and his deployment of National Guard troops to some Democratic-run cities.
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Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian and former director of the Richard Nixon presidential library, said Trump and Nixon were similar in their desire to punish political enemies and silence critics, but a pliant Republican-controlled Congress and a cabinet packed with loyalists are enabling Trump to go further.
“That’s why this particular moment is more dangerous for the rule of law in the United States than the 1970s were,” Naftali said.
All these are ominous signs that Trumps war on the political opposition will escalate further. Seymour Hersh’s sources are warning of this:
What’s happening now may be a trial run for the use of those forces to interfere on the behalf of the president and the Republican Party in states where the Democratic Party has a chance to win crucial seats in next fall’s Congressional elections. I’ve been told by someone with inside knowledge that planning for such action is now under way in the White House.
The ‘coerced dominance’ that has marked Trump’s brutal approach to foreign policy will now being applied to domestic issues and legitimate opposition.
Russell Vought, Trumps’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, are the men behind this.
The scary thing is that there is, so far, little or any opposition to these plans and only few warnings about their consequences.