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DEVELOPING: U.S. announces another $1.7 billion in aid to Ukraine. The money is for humanitarian purposes, intended to support the salaries of hospital workers as the nation reels from the ravages of war.

The Ukrainian government on Tuesday asked Washington to provide Kyiv with a “lend-lease” program to import natural gas from the US to ensure Ukraine has enough gas for heating this winter, Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal indicated. The idea is for the US to provide gas to Ukraine and collect payment at a later time, similar to the World War II-era lend-lease program that was revived this year to facilitate military aid to Ukraine. Via Reuters “Preparation for the most difficult winter in our history continues, and in this preparation we are looking for all possible tools to be ready for...

Ukraine has long been considered the most corrupt nation in Europe, and was widely recognized as such by American media outlets – right up until Russia invaded and suddenly Ukraine had to be “reimagined” as a paragon of democracy and a plucky underdog in the fight for freedom. Now that the Ukrainians appear likely to lose the war, however, mainstream outlets like NPR are rediscovering Ukraine’s rank corruption and reporting the truth again – but unfortunately too late to stop the tens of billions of dollars in military aid that’s been shipped off. Jimmy and America’s comedian Kurt Metzger discuss...

CNN offers 24 hours of programming every day, but not a whole lot of uncomfortable truths, so it was noteworthy when CNN host Becky Anderson asked her guest, Iranian-American academic Mohammad Marandi, about increasingly close ties between Russia and Iran despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Marandi gave her a double-barreled blast of honesty in response. ...

UK Military Think Tank Confirms US Unable to Re-Arm Ukraine

Retired Army Col. Douglas MacGregor believes Ukraine has already lost its war with Russia. But he thinks many Western leaders want to keep supporting Ukraine to accomplish their real goal of pulling the United States into a direct conflict with Russia. “Ukraine has lost this war. I would argue it lost it some time ago,” said MacGregor during an appearance on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s podcast, “Judging Freedom.” (Related: Ukraine is running out of ammunition as Russia continues to overpower its military.) “It’s now becoming so apparent that even the most ardent supporters of Ukraine’s war on Russia in London, Berlin,...

Beacon of democracy’ cracks down on dissent.. Ukrainian authorities have banned the country’s main opposition party and seized all its assets, once again undermining the narrative that President Zelensky is presiding over a beacon of democracy. The country’s Ministry of Justice announced the move via Facebook, revealing that the Opposition Platform — For Life had been shut down and its assets, money and property transferred to the state. The party had previously had its operations suspended in March after it was accused of being complicit with Russia and being “anti-Ukrainian.” The ban means that Zelensky’s main political opposition has been...

«This war has been lost a long time ago» Before critics denounced him as “the voice of Vladimir Putin,” United States Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor was known for his daring military exploits. During the first Gulf War, his squadron famously demolished nearly seventy Iraqi Republican Guard vehicles in 23 minutes. Now, the West Point graduate is battling the diplomatic establishment over Russia and its war against Ukraine. Urs Gehriger 16.06.2022 Retired United States Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor does not suffer fools. In the West’s efforts to assist the Ukrainians in repelling Russia’s invasion, he sees a motley crew. Once regarded...

Posted Jun 20, 2022 by Martin Armstrong Britain’s Military Chief of the General Staff had just taken that position and he has already told the army they need to prepare for war against Russia in Europe. He has told every soldier to prepare to fight Russia in a potential World War III. He has pledged to forge an Army that can beat Russia in battle and said that we must now prepare “to fight in Europe once again.” He added on his fourth day on the job: “There is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting...

Russian forces appeared poised to tighten the noose around thousands of Ukrainian troops near two strategically important cities in the fiercely contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on Sunday, mounting an assault on Ukrainian front lines that forced Ukraine to rush reinforcements to the area. On a day of fighting that put even territory thought to be securely in Ukrainian hands in play, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, warned that the war could grind on for years. They urged Ukraine’s Western allies to settle in for the long haul as Russia moved...

Data from the latest Economist/YouGov poll finds that Americans have grown more pessimistic when it comes to Ukraine’s path to victory. This week's was the first survey since we began asking who is winning the war — about a month after it began — in which more Americans say that Russia is winning (25%) than say Ukraine is (19%). In recent weeks the share who say neither side is winning also has increased, to 38%.

A document released by a news outlet on Tuesday reportedly shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered that his government destroy all the documents related to the nation’s biolabs being run in collaboration with the Hunter Biden-connected firm Metabiota. NBC may have actually caught this destruction on camera. ...

But the U.S. hasn’t provided nearly enough launchers to blunt the Russian equipment advantage. Ohio Republican Rob Portman, who is co-chairman of the Senate Ukraine caucus, on the Senate floor this week offered a blunt assessment of the facts on the ground: Brutal fighting continues in Severodonetsk, where the Russians are making grinding progress, and the Luhansk region could fall within weeks if the Ukrainians can’t get longer-range artillery. “Because the Russians have more artillery than the Ukrainians and their weapons have longer ranges,” the Senator explained, “the Russian forces concentrate massive firepower on Ukrainian positions at distances, which the...

If approved by the White House, the move would double the number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems sent to the country, as Ukrainian and Russian forces continue their long-range artillery battle in Ukraine’s east. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is calling on the West to supply 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers. Ustinova said 500 soldiers are dying or wounded on the battlefield each day. “One of the strategies the foreign partners are looking at is exhausting Putin. I’m sorry, we are exhausting our own people. We are literally losing our people,” she said.

A request for Russian military assistance from the head of a Moscow-backed rebel in Ukraine's Donbas region has been batted away by the Kremlin. Facing fierce shelling from Ukrainian forces, Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), requested additional assistance from the Russian government in a video published on his Telegram channel on Monday. Pushilin accused Kyiv of using "prohibited methods of warfare," and that the central districts of Donetsk were being shelled while other settlements in the republic were under fire. "In this regard, an understanding was reached that all the necessary additional forces of the...

Ukraine's newest heroes: Brave Russian defectors have joined Kyiv's forces on frontlines against Putin's regime to liberate their beloved country from his rule Scores of Russians have defected to fight alongside Ukrainian armed forces They risk severe treatment and most likely the death penalty if they are captured But fighters say they see Putin and the Kremlin as a 'cancer' preventing peace Like all his Ukrainian army comrades, Volodymyr Grotskov is fuelled by deeply-held patriotism as he risks his life on the bloodstained frontline of the brutal war against Russia. The 48-year-old electrical engineer says he loves his country and...

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The Biden administration announced on Wednesday it was providing an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine to fight Russia, a package that includes shipments of additional howitzers, ammunition and coastal defense systems. The latest weapons package comes as Ukraine's military is burning through its Soviet-era ammunition, while Ukrainian officials have pleaded with the West to send additional heavy weaponry as the war with Russia girds on. Western intelligence and military officials believe the war is at a critical stage that could determine the long-term outcome of the conflict, while Russia has amassed a significant artillery advantage around two...

Laurie Meadows 11 June 2022 [ last edited 13 June 2022 2040 UTC] This is a follow up article to the article I wrote on 19th of February 2022, 5 days before the launch of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. It was called 'Mutually Assured Destruction - the Prelude to Mutually Assured Security'. At the time, I didn't think Russia would move into the Donesk. I wrote: "The current lead that Russia has in missile and defensive systems might persuade the US to agree to verifiable arms control, but this is the work of years. In the meantime,...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president slammed NATO’s policy on the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Monday, calling it “immoral.” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s did not mention NATO or the United States by name, but his comments were the latest example of his party’s ambiguous stance on the invasion. Mexico has voted to condemn the invasion, but refused to join in sanctions on Russia. López Obrador said Monday that the allies’ policy was equivalent to saying “I’ll supply the weapons, and you supply the dead. It is immoral.” “How easy it is to say, ’Here, I’ll send you this...