This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
When Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya declared herself “President” of an alternative government in 2020, she was enthusiastically embraced – and showered with funding – by the Western governments which yearned to depose the longtime leader of her country, Alexander Lukashenko, and remove Russia’s closest regional ally from the geopolitical chessboard. The New York Times set the tone by lionizing Tsikhanouskaya as a modern-day Joan of Arc.
However, a wave of public scandals have prompted Tsikhanouskaya’s foreign sponsors to gradually abandon her unpopular crusade to topple the government of Lukashenko. In August, it was revealed she had secretly taken thousands of euros from Minsk’s KGB in August 2020, a payoff for publicly pleading with protesters to stop their action in the streets, before she fled the country.
The post Leaks Expose Collapse Of EU/US-Backed Belarusian ‘Opposition’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
When Yulia Berg was in her second year at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University in Odesa, a strategic port city in Ukraine, her university life, once defined by lectures, was suddenly rewritten by war. “Everyone experienced the beginning of the war in their own way, but for me, it meant missing out on student life,” Berg told Truthout. Berg graduated in May 2025 with a degree in…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
When Yulia Berg was in her second year at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University in Odesa, a strategic port city in Ukraine, her university life, once defined by lectures, was suddenly rewritten by war. “Everyone experienced the beginning of the war in their own way, but for me, it meant missing out on student life,” Berg told Truthout. Berg graduated in May 2025 with a degree in…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a military hospital in Moscow on Wednesday, meeting servicemen wounded in the Ukraine conflict. The president spoke about the frontline situation, namely the encirclement of Kiev’s troops in two critical locations, as well as the testing of new cutting-edge nuclear-powered weaponry, including the unlimited-range Burevestnik cruise missile and the massive Poseidon underwater drone.
Here are the key takeaways from Putin’s speech:
Moscow ready for pause in fighting
The frontline situation has been developing
The president floated the idea of briefly pausing fighting in the two locations to allow Western and Ukrainian journalists in. The proposal has already been discussed with military commanders and Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Putin added.
The journalists would be able to “check on the state of the encircled Ukrainian troops so that Ukraine’s political leadership can make appropriate decisions regarding the fate of its citizens and military personnel,” the president said. The trickiest part about the proposal is ensuring the safety of the journalists and preventing a potential provocation by Kiev, he said.
Cruise missile of unlimited range
The Russian president talked about the new unlimited-range nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile. The weapon was successfully tested last week, when the projectile reportedly traveled more than 14,000km.
Putin revealed details about the missile’s nuclear-powered turbojet engine, stating that its power unit “is comparable in output with the reactor of a nuclear-propelled submarine, but it’s 1,000 times smaller.”
“The key thing is that while a conventional nuclear reactor starts up in hours, days, or even weeks, this nuclear reactor starts up in minutes or seconds. That’s a giant achievement,” the president said.
The nuclear-powered propulsion system could potentially see civilian application, apart from military use, Putin noted. For instance, it could be applied in the future to “address energy security in the Arctic, and we’ll use it in the lunar program,” he said.
Poseidon underwater drone tested successfully
Russia successfully tested a nuclear-powered underwater Poseidon drone on Tuesday, Putin revealed. The development of the massive torpedo-shaped nuclear-capable drone was first announced in 2018, but had been shrouded in mystery ever since.
“For the first time, we succeeded not only in launching it from a carrier submarine using a booster engine but also in starting its nuclear power unit, which propelled the drone for a certain amount of time,” Putin stated.
The device is unrivaled by any other weapon “anywhere in the world when it comes to speed and depth,” the president stressed, adding that an analogous weapon is unlikely to be fielded by any other nation soon. The power of Poseidon greatly surpasses the characteristics of Russia’s upcoming Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Putin stated, apparently referring to the yield of its nuclear payload.
Sarmat ICBM to be fielded soon
The Sarmat ICBM itself is expected to enter active duty shortly, the president stated. The missile was first approved for military duty in September 2023, and is set to replace the aging R-36M family of silo-based nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.
The Sarmat reportedly has an estimated range of 11,000 miles (about 18,000 kilometers), with a ten-ton payload.
“There is no other [missile] like the Sarmat in the world, and we don’t have one on duty yet – it will be on duty soon,” Putin said.
The post Nuclear-powered Missile, Underwater Drone, and Proposed Pause in Ukraine Conflict first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
U.S. President Donald Trump has seemingly shifted gear in the U.S. strategy to stop Russia on its tracks from creating new facts on the ground in Ukraine.
Russian forces have the upper hand all along the 1250-kilometer Ukrainian frontline stretching Kiev’s defences and resources, which no amount of Western military help can hope to reverse in a foreseeable future. Trump is compelling Russia to seek a military victory in Ukraine.
Trump so far put on the air of a statesman in great anguish over the humanitarian aspects of the conflict. Moscow tolerated the theatrical show to pamper Trump’s egoistic personality — that is, until Russian President Vladimir Putin shattered the myth to expose that Trump actually holds the record as the American president who sanctioned Russia the most number of times, exceeding even his predecessor Joe Biden’s tally.
The post Trump, Russian Oil And Tomahawk Missiles appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
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This content originally appeared on UN News – Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Nargiz Shekinskuya.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Russian forces in recent weeks have been increasingly encircling the cities of Pokrovsk in central Donetsk while approaching Lyman and Siversk further to the north. Looking at various live mapping projects tracking the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, nascent pincers appear to be emerging in what some analysts believe could be a large-scale encirclement of what remains of Ukraine’s “fortress belt” in the Donbass region.
Comprising a number of heavily-defended built-up urban centers from Kostiantynovka and extending northward toward Kramatorsk and Slovyansk closer to Lyman, Ukraine’s remaining fortress belt likely comprises thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of Ukrainian forces.
The post Future Global Order Pivots On Ukraine Proxy War appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
United States President Donald Trump styles himself as a peacemaker. In his rhetoric, he claims credit for his efforts to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Yet beneath the grandstanding lies an absence of substance, at least to date.
The problem is not Trump’s lack of effort, but his lack of proper concepts. Trump confuses “peace” with “ceasefires,” which sooner or later revert to war (typically sooner). In fact, American presidents from Lyndon Johnson onward have been subservient to the military-industrial complex, which profits from endless war. Trump is merely following in that line by avoiding a genuine resolution to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Peace is not a ceasefire. Lasting peace is achieved by resolving the underlying political disputes that led to the war. This requires grappling with history, international law and political interests that fuel conflicts. Without addressing the root causes of war, ceasefires are a mere intermission between rounds of slaughter.
Trump has proposed what he calls a “peace plan” for Gaza. However, what he outlines amounts to nothing more than a ceasefire. His plan fails to address the core political issue of Palestinian statehood. A true peace plan would tie together four outcomes: the end of Israel’s genocide, Hamas’s disarmament, Palestine’s membership in the United Nations, and the normalisation of diplomatic ties with Israel and Palestine throughout the world. These foundational principles are absent from Trump’s plan, which is why no country has signed off on it despite White House insinuations to the contrary. At most, some countries have backed the “Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity,” a temporising gesture.
Trump’s peace plan was presented to Arab and Muslim countries to deflect attention from the global momentum for Palestinian statehood. The US plan is designed to undercut that momentum, allowing Israel to continue its de facto annexation of the West Bank and its ongoing bombardment of Gaza and restrictions of emergency relief under the ruse of security. Israel’s ambitions are to eradicate the possibility of a Palestinian state, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made explicit at the UN in September. So far, Trump and his associates have simply been advancing Netanyahu’s agenda.
Trump’s “plan” is already unravelling, much like the Oslo Accords, the Camp David Summit, and every other “peace process” that treated Palestinian statehood as a distant aspiration rather than the solution to the conflict. If Trump really wants to end the war – a somewhat doubtful proposition – he’d have to break with Big Tech and the rest of the military-industrial complex (recipients of vast arms contracts funded by the US). Since October 2023, the US has spent $21.7bn on military aid to Israel, much of it returning to Silicon Valley.
Trump would also have to break with his donor-in-chief, Miriam Adelson, and the Zionist lobby. In doing so, he would at least represent the American people (who support a state of Palestine) and uphold American strategic interests. The US would join the overwhelming global consensus, which endorses the implementation of the two-state solution, rooted in UN Security Council resolutions and ICJ opinions.
The same failure of Trump’s peacemaking holds in Ukraine. Trump repeatedly claimed during the campaign that he could end the war “in 24 hours”. Yet what he has been proposing is a ceasefire, not a political solution. The war continues.
The cause of the Ukraine war is no mystery – if one looks beyond the pablum of the mainstream media. The casus belli was the push by the US military-industrial complex for NATO’s endless expansion, including to Ukraine and Georgia, and the US-backed coup in Kyiv in February 2014 to bring to power a pro-NATO regime, which ignited the war. The key to peace in Ukraine, then and now, was for Ukraine to maintain its neutrality as a bridge between Russia and NATO.
In March-April 2022, when Turkiye mediated a peace agreement in the Istanbul Process, based on Ukraine’s return to neutrality, the Americans and the British pushed the Ukrainians to walk out of the talks. Until the US clearly renounces NATO’s expansion to Ukraine, there can be no sustainable peace. The only way forward is a negotiated settlement based on Ukraine’s neutrality in the context of mutual security of Russia, Ukraine, and the NATO countries.
Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz famously characterised war as the continuation of politics with other means. He was right. Yet it is more accurate to say that war is the failure of politics that leads to conflict. When political problems are deferred or denied, and governments fail to negotiate over essential political issues, war too often ensues. Real peace requires the courage and capacity to engage in politics, and to face down the war profiteers.
No president since John F Kennedy has really tried to make peace. Many close observers of Washington believe that it was Kennedy’s assassination that irrevocably put the military-industrial complex in the seat of power. In addition, the US arrogance of power already noted by J William Fulbright in the 1960s (in reference to the misguided Vietnam War) is another culprit. Trump, like his predecessors, believes that US bullying, misdirection, financial pressures, coercive sanctions and propaganda will be enough to force Putin to submit to NATO, and the Muslim world to submit to Israel’s permanent rule over Palestine.
Trump and the rest of the Washington political establishment, beholden to the military-industrial complex, will not on their own account move beyond these ongoing delusions. Despite decades of Israeli occupation of Palestine and more than a decade of war in Ukraine (which started with the 2014 coup), the wars continue despite the ongoing attempts by the US to assert its will. In the meantime, the money pours into the coffers of the war machine.
Nonetheless, there is still a glimmer of hope, since reality is a stubborn thing.
When Trump soon arrives in Budapest to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his deeply knowledgeable and realistic host, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, can help Trump to grasp a fundamental truth: NATO enlargement must end to bring peace to Ukraine. Similarly, Trump’s trusted counterparts in the Islamic world – Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto – can explain to Trump the utter necessity of Palestine as a UN member state now, as the very precondition of Hamas’s disarmament and peace, not as a vague promise for the end of history.
Trump can bring peace if he reverts to diplomacy. Yes, he would have to face down the military-industrial complex, the Zionist lobby and the warmongers, but he would have the world and the American people on his side.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has had an audience with King Charles ahead of a meeting with UK PM Keir Starmer. Reports suggest Starmer will press allies for more long-range missiles for Ukraine. That kind of support is bipartisan. Boris Johnson was also a huge fan of Zelenskiy. But what about figures like Marwan Barghouti?
Western liberals have lionised the former comedian from the first days of the war. It’s hard not to get a sense of crossover between FBPE Twitter centrists and the president’s fanbase in the UK. It’s another flag for their X bio, after all.
And it’s hard to shake the sense that in Ukraine, finally, well-heeled centrists found a war where the victims were white enough to deserve support. Imperialism seems only to be worth resisting when the victims look like you.
That’s not to dip into the kind of apologia for Vladimir Putin’s invasion preferred by a fringe of campist weirdos in the West. But it does beg questions about why Zelenskiy gets to play international diplomacy on something like easy mode, while others languish in fascist jails, their captivity barely remarked upon by Wooferendum Twitter.
For example, is it even possible to imagine that kind of liberal support for someone like Marwan Barghouti — the so-called Palestinian Nelson Mandela. Barghouti is seen as a figure of unifying popularity in Palestine, even as he languishes in an Israel jail, subject to beatings by his fascistic captors.
He was sentenced to five life sentences in 2002. For murder charges he denies. By a coloniser court whose authority he rejects. In a trial which experts say was full of illegalities.
He’s a sort of Palestinian everyman, known for his calm demeanour, who learned Hebrew in jail and spent years in exile. He spent years in hiding, dodging Israeli assassination attempts.
The National describes him as:
an avid reader, consuming histories and biographies, including that of Nelson Mandela by the British author Anthony Sampson. In 2013, the campaign for Barghouti’s release, backed by eight Nobel Peace laureates, would be launched from Mandela’s old cell on Robben Island in South Africa.
One of US foreign policy’s leading talking shops even acknowledged his wide appeal and potential to lead a future Palestinian state, noting:
a growing acknowledgement among Israelis and Palestinians that Barghouti’s broad appeal and reformist streak offer the best prospects for peace.
Here’s Drop Site’s News founder Jeremy Scahill with a fascinating overview of Barghouti:
In the latest round of hostage exchanges, despite the best efforts of Hamas negotiators, his release was denied. Barghouti isn’t even in Hamas. He has reportedly been a critic of the organisation himself, but such is the respect he attracts the conservative wing of Palestinian resistance demanded (vainly) he be freed.
So here you have a unique character. An intellectual and long-time prisoner of an unjust regime on allegedly jumped-up charges. A unity figure who commands a degree of respect from all sides. Some say, the man most likely to lead his people toward peace. A sort of moderate, if you will? Surely the sort of figure your average smug centrist would get behind, no? Well, no. It doesn’t seem that way.
And it’s hard not to come to uncharitable conclusions about why.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
This post was originally published on Canary.
It there any politician who is less reliable than U.S. President Donald Trump?
At the August summit in Anchorage with President Vladimir Putin of Russia Trump had aimed at a ceasefire along the frontline in Ukraine. But Putin made clear that the war required a long term solution of the underlying problem, NATO enlargement, and that a preliminary ceasefire would not be helpful in that regard. Russia also demanded full control of the Donbas and other regions.
Trump did agree to that and announced it as the brilliant result of the talks. This was his first turn on the issue.
The post Trump Fails To End His Proxy War With Russia appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
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Zelensky arrived in Washington on Friday, attired in his newly tailored suit, but he found no red carpet or even a high-level Trump official to greet him. Anticipating a cache of Tomahawks, he was apparently unaware of the telephone call between Trump and Putin and the meeting in Budapest in two weeks, to which he’s been excluded. Zelensky did meet with officials from Raytheon, maker of the Tomahawk missiles.
At a later press conference, Trump sidestepped questions about giving Tomahawks to Ukraine, except to say they were a “big deal, vicious and bad things can happen if they are used.” According to the Financial Times, the Pentagon’s supply is dangerously depleted, only 30-50 could be spared, and in any case, they would not change the outcome of the war.
One can never be sure, but presumably, Trump has finally accepted that the US started this proxy war in 2014. But it was the mention of Tomahawks that prompted Putin to make it clear to Trump that he’s being lied to by Zelensky, Kellogg, his advisors, and the British about the war. To wit: The Russians are decidedly winning, and it’s a reality that Trump must accept.
Alex Mercouris, another of my trusted sources, reports that because of their range and who would be operating them, Russia would consider the use of Tomahawks “a flagrant act of war.” As such, prospects for a negotiated end to the fighting and future trade with the United States would be dashed. Both these points were no doubt taken very seriously by Trump.
Finally, I’ve long held the opinion that Trump wants out of the war but does not want, as Garland Nixon notes, an “out with an ‘L’.” Hence, after an intense to and fro among Putin’s inner circle, it was decided to offer one last, best off ramp for Trump. It will occur in Budapest in two weeks.
The post Trump, Tomahawks and Telephone Calls first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
A raft of new economic sanctions has been announced for Russia. Yet not a peep from the UK government about any punishment for genocide state Israel.
Announced Wednesday as part of the UK’s Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, the sanctions target include oil firms, ports, tech companies, and individuals. The list also includes specific ships.
The ships are part of what is being called the Russian ‘shadow fleet’. Reuters reports:
The new sanctions target 51 ships within the shadow fleet, as well as individuals and entities across sectors including energy and defence.The shadow fleet has increasingly been the target of sanctions from Britain, the United States and the European Union since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.It is a network of older tankers that officials say are used to avoid sanctions on Russian oil.
UK sanctions on Israel have been minimal. When they have been placed they have mostly target settlers in the West Bank. That’s good. But on the whole, they ignore the active genocide in Gaza.
June saw Foreign Secretary David Lammy announce asset freezes and other measures on far-right ministers Bezalel Yoel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir:
In their personal capacity, Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are now sanctioned for their repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian civilians, effective immediately.
In 2024, the UK government froze 30 arms export licences to Israel.
However, it was reported that UK military sales to Israel had increased to a record value in 2025.
Our analysis of Israel Tax Authority customs data finds that Israel imported nearly £1 million worth of UK munitions in the first nine months of the year.
That’s more than double the amount received in any of the previous three years.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been rightly condemned by everyone but a few marginal fantasists. Yet Israel, which is actively carrying out the worst crime of the 21st century, has received a mild rhetorical slap on the wrist while arms sales have INCREASED. The UK’s inability to be even-handed in its approach to international law can only be read as yet another sign of its decay and irrelevance.
Featured image via The Canary
By Joe Glenton
This post was originally published on Canary.
US president Donald Trump may supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine in a move which could tip the world closer to nuclear escalation. Trump will meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on 17 October to discuss potential new weapons transfers.
Reuters reported on 13 October:
Zelensky has been lobbying Washington to supply U.S.-produced Tomahawk missiles, which have the capacity to hit Moscow, but which Ukrainians say would be used only on military targets.
However, Russian officials have said “such a move would represent a serious escalation”.
Trump is reportedly “considering sending Tomahawks” to Ukraine but “might talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about it”.
Trump said on Sunday 12 October:
Yeah, I might tell him (Putin), if the war is not settled, we may very well do it.
We may not, but we may do it… Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev fired back on Monday:
One can only hope that this is another empty threat… Like sending nuclear submarines closer to Russia.
The extreme range of Tomahawks concerns Russia:
Putin has said supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks – which have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles) and could therefore strike anywhere within European Russia, including Moscow – would destroy relations between the United States and Russia.
Zelensky insists that they would only be used against military targets.
The war has dragged on since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Trump is keen to see it brought to an end. Among the main beneficiaries of wars in Ukraine and Middle East are global arms firms.
According to 2024 figures from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) “revenues from the top 100 arms companies totaled $632 billion last year in response to surging demand related to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza”.
At his speech at the Israeli Knesset Monday, Trump said following the ceasefire in Gaza he would focus on a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia:
It would be great if we could make a peace deal with (Iran). First, we have to get Russia done. Let’s focus on Russia first.
On 13 October, Zelensky tweeted that the Middle East deal gave him hope for an end to war with Russia:
When peace is achieved for one part of the world, it brings more hope for peace in other regions where life is still under threat. In Ukraine, we welcome all the efforts that have led to today’s outcome for the Middle East. The hostages have been freed, and the war in Gaza is…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 13, 2025
And with the ego-driven Trump determined to win the Nobel Peace Prize, he might well see ending the war in Ukraine as his route to get it.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
This post was originally published on Canary.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Businessman Christopher Harborne made the biggest ever single donation to an MP. That MP was Boris Johnson, who later took Harborne on an official visit to Ukraine. The problem is, according to a new report, nobody knows why.
In their Boris Files series, the Guardian describe Harborne as a major donor who gave £1 million to Johnson less than a year ago.
Harborne has fingers in many pies, a man with “wide expertise”:
…his holdings range from cryptocurrency and a wellness centre to jet fuel and stakes in at least three military contractors. His only apparent connection to Ukraine is as the biggest shareholder in a British weapons manufacturer whose robots and drones are reportedly supplied to its armed forces.
The Guardian claims the files show how Johnson has enriched himself since his time as PM ended. This includes by:
…sitting down with a Venezuelan despot and courting Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince accused of ordering the murder of a journalist.
When challenged on the files, Johnson responded angrily:
Your pathetic non-stories … seem mostly to be derived from some illegal Russian hack job. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
A leaked itinerary shows that only Johnson and Harborne were set to “attend the opening session of the high-level gathering”. The Guardian reported:
Images show Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Johnson addressed the gathered luminaries and the itinerary suggests they then retired for a private meeting. Zelenskyy’s office did not respond when asked if Johnson’s benefactor joined them.
Harborne, who once gave £10 million to the Brexit Party, is a mysterious character. He has lived in Thailand for two decades, has a Thai passport, and operates at times under a Thai name.
The Ukraine itinerary also included a meeting with military research and development firms in Ukraine. The Guardian noted that:
It does not say whether Harborne attended, but this is an area he knows well. While his position as the largest shareholder in QinetiQ, with 13%, does not give him a role in the day-to-day running of the privatised research unit of the UK armed forces, his financial stake in its operations is significant.
Qiniteq has supplied drones, bomb disposal equipment and 3D printers to Ukraine.
One letter in the trove of documents has Johnson commending Harborne as “both a friend and a supporter of my office.” Johnson wrote:
He came with me on a recent trip to Ukraine and I know him to be a passionate opponent of the Putin regime.
The intended recipient of the letter is not known, though Harborne’s lawyers told the paper:
Mr Johnson provided a character reference for Mr Harborne in response to attacks on Mr Harborne’s character.
Mr Harborne is grateful to Mr Johnson.
Ahead of the game, as ever, the Canary originally reported on Harborne’s arms firm connections in 2023. Despite the fact that Boris Johnson may wish that people would look away and stop bothering to report on his wheelings and dealings, that’s just not going to happen.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
This post was originally published on Canary.
NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is attracting growing attention as it threatens to spiral out of control. There is ample reason for concern. What began as a limited military assistance program to Kyiv from the United States and its European allies following Moscow’s expanded invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has morphed into something much larger and more dangerous. NATO members are no longer just supplying Ukraine with weaponry that could arguably be described as purely defensive; they are equipping their Ukrainian proxy with far more destructive, long-range weapons capable of reaching targets deep inside Russia. In addition, the United States and other NATO governments are assisting Ukrainian attacks by providing crucial military intelligence, including targeting data.
The post US Now Violating Long-Standing Informal Proxy War Rules appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came out of a meeting in New York on Sept. 24 with the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio showing a thumbs-up sign as he passed journalists.
It was a confusing signal so soon after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly shamed the Russian military as a “paper tiger” and stunned European capitals by saying that Ukraine could still “fight and win” all its land.
A charitable explanation could be that Trump was building the off ramp to hand the responsibility for Ukraine’s defence to the Europeans. He made a strong point that Europeans can and should do more.
That said, it is also noticeable that Trump’s initial sympathy for Russia has given way steadily to a more neutral position — a shift that accelerated last month.
The post Intrigue And Confusion Reign Over Ukraine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
KYIV, Ukraine — During his speech at the U.N. General Assembly on September 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged world leaders to take action to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end as it has created “the most destructive arms race in human history.” Both Russia and Ukraine, more than three years into a war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
NONE of this has changed under Trump nor is any change indicated.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

The thirteenth Václav Havel Human Rights Prize – which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights – has been awarded to Ukrainian journalist and human rights defender Maksym Butkevych. The prize was presented at a special ceremony on the opening day of the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg on 29 September 2025
Mr Butkevych is a co-founder of the Zmina Human Rights Centre and of Hromadske Radio. Despite his lifelong pacifism, he volunteered for the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the start of the 2022 Russian invasion and became a platoon commander. Captured and sentenced to 13 years in prison by Russian forces, he endured over two years of harsh imprisonment before being released in a prisoner exchange in October 2024. He remains a powerful symbol of courage and resilience in defence of justice and freedom.
The two runners-up for the 2025 Prize are Georgian journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli and Azerbaijani journalist Ulvi Hasanli. Both of them are currently detained in their home countries.
Opening the ceremony, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos said it was no coincidence that all three shortlisted candidates this year were journalists. Urging the immediate release of Ms Amaghlobeli and Mr Hasanli, he said: “Your voice may be silenced, but your testimony is heard loud and clear.” The President – himself a former journalist – also thanked all three candidates for their courage in opposing authoritarianism and for acting as role-models for a whole generation of journalists and human rights defenders: “Governments should not be afraid of the truth,” he declared.
For more on the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, and its laureates, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/7A8B4A4A-0521-AA58-2BF0-DD1B71A25C8D.
IPS at this occasion published a post critical of the lack of follow up to free the laureates:
The Václav Havel Prize is an important international recognition for those who stand up for human rights and against autocracy, but while recognition through such awards and solidarity matters deeply, it is not enough. The Council of Europe must match its willingness to recognise the courage of human rights defenders with efforts to stand courageously up to autocrats and dictators, even and especially those within its own membership ranks.
For PACE leadership and members, the recognition given to human rights defenders through the Václav Havel Prize must be matched with tireless, persistent and coordinated action to put pressure on the other political bodies of the Council of Europe. This includes adopting resolutions demanding the release of imprisoned laureates; organising visibility campaigns within PACE through side events, exhibitions and public initiatives; building stronger connections and networks with families of prisoners; and consistently deploying all available diplomatic tools to keep political prisoners at the forefront of European media and diplomacy.
At the same time, CoE leaders, including the Secretary General and Commissioner for Human Rights (currently Alain Berset and Michael O’Flaherty, respectively), must put the release of political prisoners at the top of the organisation’s priority list. These leaders have important public platforms that must consistently and relentlessly raise the profile of human rights defenders at risk. Leaders must work to mobilise member states to apply pressure for the release of political prisoners.
Finally, Council of Europe member states – signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights – need to recognise that the continued detention of human rights defenders poses a great risk to the long-term credibility of the institutions. Member states – on their own and through the organisation’s powerful Committee of Ministers – have to use all tools at their disposal to address the rising cases of political prisoners and crackdowns against civil society across the broader region. The Committee of Ministers needs to put enhanced enforcement pressure on member states regarding the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights on fundamental freedoms. These judgements, after all, often affect the fate of political prisoners.[https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/prizes-without-freedom-risk-becoming-trophies-of-hypocrisy-8573/]
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/61106
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
Drones over Nordic airports. No damage. No trace. No answers. Most assume Russia—but what if that’s not so? Why is there so much we are not told?
This article explores the strategic ambiguity behind recent drone incursions and asks: Who else might benefit from sending drones into NATO airspace?
From Ukraine’s surprising drone supremacy to Russia’s possible signalling, the silence itself may be the loudest message.
These are the kinds of questions decent, intelligent investigative journalists and commentators could easily research. Why don’t they?
Did you, dear reader, know or think of this? That the most powerful weapon in today’s conflicts might be the one that leaves no trace – and no answers. Just enough fear to justify the next move?
Recently, drones have repeatedly appeared over Nordic airports and near some military facilities. They cause no damage – for which reason the designation “hybrid attack” is misleading but serves a purpose. These drones appear out of nowhere, leave no trace, and disappear. They seem not even to have been photographed, pushed away, or shot at. Yet airports shut down, headlines flare, and defence budgets will likely increase further – as will hatred against those pesky Russians whose evil they unfortunately can not show us any evidence of.
No one claims responsibility. No drones are intercepted. No origin is confirmed. This isn’t a technical failure. It’s a tactic. A pattern of engineered ambiguity, where the absence of attribution becomes the trigger for escalation.
We’ve seen this logic before. The Nord Stream pipeline was sabotaged. Russia was blamed. But no hard evidence ever appeared. Still, the consequences were immediate: energy decoupling, deepened economic crisis, NATO buildup, and hardened public opinion.
Now, drones seem to do something similar. They don’t attack. They just appear. And disappear. And leave behind fear – as well as speculation, and a growing appetite for military readiness. But let’s try an interest analysis which nobody does for reasons you can imagine.
Who might be behind it – and why?
Russia?
Can’t be excluded, of course. It could be testing NATO’s airspace defences, sowing confusion, or signalling reach. But it’s risky. If proven, it could justify NATO retaliation or deeper involvement in Ukraine. So far, Russia denies everything – and no country has presented hard proof.
And What If It Is Russia?
Suppose the drones are Russian. What then?
It could be a signal, a quiet warning. A way of saying: This is just a taste of what you’ll get if you keep building US bases, funding Ukrainian weapons factories, and buy new weapons that you know very well that we see as a direct threat -as you would if you were us.
Denmark, for example, has just announced it will acquire long-range strike weapons for the first time, perhaps including systems like the Tomahawk cruise missile and JASSM-ER for its F-35s. This marks a major shift: from defence to offensive deterrence, from shielding cities to striking deep into enemy territory.
From Russia’s perspective, this isn’t just military modernisation – it’s provocation and encirclement. And drone incursions, if they are Russian, could be a way to test airspace, disrupt readiness, and remind NATO that escalation cuts both ways.
But again – no one claims responsibility. No one confirms origin. And that silence is the loudest part of the message.
Ukraine?
Surprisingly, yes—Ukraine now has the technical ability to carry out such missions. You are not told that its drone industry has grown at an astonishing speed and out-competes that of Russia:
– Over 500 manufacturers.
– Monthly output of 200,000 FPV drones.
– Long-range systems reaching up to 750–800 km.
– AI-assisted swarms trained on thousands of combat missions.
Ukraine’s drones have already struck targets deep inside Russia. Reaching Nordic airspace is well within their range. If launched from a NATO country – say, Poland or a Baltic republic – they could be untraceable. And if they don’t cause damage, they leave only questions.
Would NATO ever tell you if Ukraine were behind such incursions? Certainly not – NATO would have endorsed it and even participated in this false flag operation. It would fracture alliances, expose covert coordination, and undermine the West’s narrative. Silence is safer.
Britain?
It’s possible. Britain has deep ties to Ukraine’s drone programs and a long history of covert operations. It could provide logistics, tech, or strategic framing – especially if the goal is to provoke Russia without direct confrontation.
Why airports?
Because they’re symbolic. Civilian infrastructure. Dual-use hubs. Shutting down an airport causes panic, grabs headlines, annoys travelling citizens and sends a message: “You’re vulnerable.” And in radar-heavy zones, drones are harder to track – perfect for plausible deniability.
What’s the Bigger Picture?
This isn’t just about drones. It’s about shaping public perception. Creating fear and justifying even higher defence spending. And preparing the ground for NATO’s deeper involvement in Ukraine – possibly under the label of “peacekeeping,” even though Russia would never accept NATO troops on Ukrainian soil, and NATO has no experience or capabilities in the field of peacekeeping.
The drones don’t need to explode. They just need to appear and vanish to make their masters’ point. And leave behind the – nasty – story used e.g., by the Danish PM about “we do not have the evidence that it is Russia, but we know Russia is the largest threat to Europe.”
But don’t be fooled. Someone knows exactly who staged this drone spectacle. The Nordic leaders know it too—and they know precisely what they want you to think and not to think.
And if they genuinely don’t know, then their military and civilian “intelligence” services are incompetent. To put it mildly.
Why this could be a false flag
I’ve got a nasty mind—and a few decades in the trenches of so-called security politics.
Here’s my hypothesis: When Zelensky met Trump at the UN, The Independent reports he got the green light to strike deep into Russia. Special Envoy Keith Kellogg confirmed the White House “does not object.” NATO’s Matt Whitaker echoed it: deeper strike capabilities to pressure Russia into negotiations. This marks a radical shift—a reckless escalation masquerading as strategy. And it’s madness – a madness that has to be justified.
In that light, the drone “attacks” look suspiciously like a false flag – designed to justify the next step up the escalation ladder. Media people and politically correct commentators focus on the here-and-now event, not on complexity and how events relate to each other.
The elites of MIMAC – the Military-Industrial-Media-
They operate in an echo chamber so thick with self-righteous groupthink that they can’t imagine that they could be wrong.
But they could well be. Fatally wrong – because they are more loyal to other elites than their own citizens and largely ignorant about the consequences of their deeds: After all they think it is about “us” winning and “them” losing. Because they do not have the intellectual capacity to solve problems, only to use hammers where none are needed.
In summary, watch events over the next 1–3 weeks. Then you’ll see what the drone “attacks” were really about.
The post Don’t be Fooled: Others Could Have More Interest in Sending Drones to the Nordic Countries than Russia first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

FILE PHOTO: Mark Carney. © Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images
Following in the shameful footsteps of both Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney continues pledging support and money (which Canadians desperately need) to Ukraine, to prolong the proxy war against Russia.
Carney chose Ukrainian Independence Day to voice the Canadian government’s continued pledge to support Ukraine. As he landed in Kiev on August 24, Carney posted on X,
“On this Ukrainian Independence Day, and at this critical moment in their nation’s history, Canada is stepping up our support and our efforts towards a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.”
Later in the day he posted, “After three years at war, Ukrainians urgently need more military equipment. Canada is answering that call, providing $2 billion for drones, armoured vehicles, and other critical resources.” This latest pledge brings Canada’s expenditure on Ukraine since February 2022 to nearly $22 billion.
Further, he pledged to potentially send Canadian or allied soldiers, stating, “I would not exclude the presence of troops.”
Pause for a moment to examine the utter lack of logic behind these statements: For “peace” for Ukraine, Canada will support further war to ensure more Ukrainian men are ripped off the streets and forced to the front lines, where they will inevitably die in a battle they didn’t sign up for.
Like his European counterparts, Carney’s insistence on prolonging the war is in contrast to Russia’s position of finding a resolution.
I recently spoke with former Ambassador Charles Freeman, an American career diplomat for 30 years. Speaking of how the Trump administration, “began in office by perpetuating the blindness and deafness of the Biden administration to what the Russian side in this conflict has said from the very beginning,” he outlined the terms that Russia made clear in December 2021, “and from which it has basically not wavered.”
These include: “neutrality and no NATO membership for Ukraine; protections for the Russian speaking minorities in the former territories of Ukraine; and some broader discussion of European security architecture that reassures Russia that it will not be attacked by the West, and the West that it will not be attacked by Russia.”
It’s worth keeping in mind that Canada has been one of the main belligerents in Ukraine, funding and training Ukrainian troops for many years before the 2022 start of Russia’s military operation.
Canada’s training of Ukrainian troops included members of the notorious neo-Nazi terrorists of the Azov regiment. Former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland proudly waved a Banderite flag in 2022. She was also proud of her dear grandfather, who was a chief Nazi propagandist.
In 2023, the Trudeau administration brought a Ukrainian Nazi, Yaroslav Hunka, to speak in the Canadian parliament, a man who had been a voluntary member of the 1st Galician Division of the Waffen SS – well known for their mass slaughter of civilians.
Carney, in light of this, is merely keeping with the tradition of Ottawa’s support of extremism – including Nazism – in Ukraine (and in Canada). This support is not at all about protecting Ukrainian civilians.
Supporting Ukrainian war crimes
Canada’s continued support to Ukraine makes it complicit in the atrocities Ukraine commits. I myself have documented just some of Ukrainian war crimes in the Donbass, in 2019 and heavily throughout 2022.
These include deliberately shelling civilian areas (including with heavy-duty NATO weapons), slaughtering civilians in their homes, in markets, in the streets, in buses; peppering Donbass civilian areas with internationally prohibited PFM-1 “Petal” mines (since 2022, 184 civilians have been maimed by these, three of whom died of their injuries); and deliberately targeting medics and other emergency service rescuers.
Ukraine has also heavily shelled Belgorod and Kursk, targeting civilians, as well sending drones into Russian cities, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure.
Less detailed are Ukraine’s crimes against civilians in areas under Ukrainian control. These crimes – including rape, torture and point-blank assassination – come to light with the testimonies of terrorized civilians in regions liberated by Russia.
Bring the government spending home
The social media fervor of Ukrainian hashtags and flags has died down considerably since 2022. Now, you see more and more Canadians demanding their government stop fueling war and start spending money to take care of Canadians.
Carney’s campaign pledges included easing the cost of living in Canada, yet he has taken no concrete actions to do so. In the many understandably angry replies to Carney’s latest tweets about supporting Ukraine, Canadians are demanding accountability.
“Mark Carney stop pretending you’re fighting for “freedom and sovereignty.” You just signed off on $2 BILLION of Canadian money for Ukraine while Canadians can’t even afford rent, food, or heating,” reads one of numerous such replies. “Veterans are abandoned, fentanyl floods our streets, and families collapse under inflation. You stand on foreign soil preaching about democracy while selling out the very people you’re supposed to serve. That’s not leadership that’s betrayal. Canadians never voted for this. You don’t speak for us.”
Scroll through replies to Carney’s Kiev stunt and you’ll find Canadians opposed to the wasting of still more money needed in their home country.
The most glaring hypocrisy is that while Carney wrings his hands over Ukraine, he utterly ignores the ongoing Israeli starvation and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, supported by the Canadian government.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.