Category: Ukraine

Down The Primrose Path

Ukraine 20 Comments

Zelensky, back in the headlines.

Zelensky’s Government Sabotaged Oversight, Allowing Corruption to Fester

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Kyiv’s Western allies faced a dilemma: how to spend billions supporting a government fighting Russia without watching the money vanish into the pockets of corrupt managers and government officials.

The stakes were high because Ukraine’s vital wartime industries — power distribution, weapons purchases and nuclear energy — were controlled by state-owned companies that have long served as piggy banks for the country’s elite.

To protect their money, the United States and European nations insisted on oversight. They required Ukraine to allow groups of outside experts, known as supervisory boards, to monitor spending, appoint executives and prevent corruption.

Over the past four years, a New York Times investigation found, the Ukrainian government systematically sabotaged that oversight, allowing graft to flourish.

 

Down The Primrose Path

Ukraine 17 Comments

NYPost: Anti-corruption units have raided the home and office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, in an unwelcome distraction for Kyiv officials as they battle to defeat Russia’s invasion and persuade US officials to accommodate their concerns in peace proposals.

More: Media referring to Yermak as “Zelensky’s top aide” or “lead negotiatior.” Once again clever with their words to downplay the significance of his exit.

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Art Of The Deal Putin Ukraine 33 Comments

Maybe.

Based on recent reports, it’s unclear. ABC News states a US-proposed peace plan was revised from 28 to 19 points after talks, but Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says no final agreement yet and more work is needed. Other outlets like CBS and Moneycontrol cite US officials claiming Ukraine agreed to terms, with minor details pending. Further developments may clarify.


Oil slides on the optimistic headline that Ukraine has tentatively agreed to the Trump-backed deal..

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The Libranos Ukraine 11 Comments

Birds of a feather: Ukraine corruption scandal won’t deter Canada from offering support, Anand says

An unfolding corruption scandal in Ukraine will not deter Canada from continuing its support for the war-torn country, but Ottawa expects Kyiv to implement reforms to fight graft, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Thursday.

Anti-corruption authorities said this week that they had detained five people and identified two others suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to control procurement at the country’s nuclear agency, Energoatom, and other state enterprises.

The allegations prompted Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers to quit, and have sparked questions about what the country’s highest officials knew of the alleged conspiracy.

It is fast becoming one of the most significant crises for Kyiv since Moscow’s full-scale invasion, with media reports implicating a close associate of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The alleged US$100-million scheme could also hand opponents of Western aid to Ukraine a rationale for cutting assistance after almost four years of war.

Ottawa has provided nearly $22-billion in various forms of aid to Ukraine since 2022.

Y2Kyoto: The End Of The EU?

Climate Cult Ukraine Y2Kyoto 7 Comments

Doomberg;

On September 1, the Financial Times broke the ominous news that a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the target of a jamming operation meant to interfere with its Global Positioning System (GPS). Russia was immediately fingered for the job. According to the report, the plane was forced to circle over Plovdiv, Bulgaria, for over an hour before pilots resorted to the use of paper maps to safely land.

We would link to the story, but the original has since been edited and most of the key claims—repeated countless times and breathlessly by news outlets around the world—were patently untrue. The plane did not repeatedly circle Plovdiv, it landed only nine minutes later than scheduled, and the pilots did not use paper maps to navigate. Demands made by a Bulgarian member of the European Parliament that von der Leyen denounce the reporting as “fake news” have been ignored. The affair has since been largely memory-holed.

We assumed the story was suspect immediately upon reading it, if for no other reason than keeping von der Leyen in her current role has to be one of Moscow’s top strategic priorities. Who else is more qualified to destroy the European Union (EU) from within? Under her bold leadership, the EU has impaled itself on nearly all the foundational attributes that underpin economic and geopolitical power—most notably by accelerating deindustrialization and forging ahead with disastrous energy policy.

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Putin Ukraine 13 Comments

At Zerohedge;

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and close aide, Kirill Dmitriev, has praised US President Donald Trump for putting together Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul, the first such direct dialogue between the warring countries since early 2022.

Trump and his team have “made the impossible possible” by bringing Moscow and Kiev to the table. Dmitriev further wrote on X that the Istanbul meeting is happening “against all odds/fierce resistance” and that if “not derailed last-minute, this could be a historic step to peace.”

Dmitriev also specifically named Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the latter two who are present in Istanbul – as major contributors to the mediation effort. The Kremlin had spent the opening years of the conflict blasting the Biden administration for constantly stoking the war and thwarting dialogue, taking Washington-Moscow relations to new historic lows.

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CreepyJoeBiden Putin Radioactive Ukraine 35 Comments

The people who quarterbacked the NATO side of the Ukraine war are so pleased with themselves, they can’t keep from boasting about things that will make the average American want to pitchfork the lot of them.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House nearly a month ago, the New York Times packed its pages with stories denouncing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance for abandoning Ukraine, and the impolitic “dressing down” of a friendly foreign leader. The Times like most Western news outlets for years suggested that anything short of a full-throated expression of support for war was a betrayal of the “democratic world order” that would lead to instant battlefield deaths.

Now that the war appears lost, and newspapers abroad (conspicuously, not here) are full of news about an apparent bombing of Vladimir Putin’s motorcade, and the future of NATO hangs by a thread, the Times has run a 13,000-word “Secret History” that shows the same U.S. officials who denounced Trump and American voters for saying it out loud long ago concluded that they, too, should probably “walk away.”

This is a must read. Buy a subscription if you must. There’s too much here to quote, but I’ll include this bit from nearer the end.

There are a hundred details in this “Secret History” that serve as stark warnings to anyone who thinks protection from Armageddon is secure in the hands of career military and intelligence officials. Not only did we allow ourselves to be “blackmailed” into escalating a conflict with a nuclear power, the management of the “partnership” broke down because of a Heathers-style spat between the key brass twits, Ukrainian general Valery Zaluhniy and Mark Milley.

When Milley second-guessed Zaluhniy, the latter would respond with teen-like silence, or by ghosting Milley’s next call. Underscoring: the country to which we were giving hundreds of billions in aid didn’t feel a need to pick up the phone.

I think this livestream is open audience.

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