“Ukraine – Russia”

Defeat, political implosion and civil war – those are the jeopardies that Volodymyr Zelensky faces as Ukraine heads into the most difficult and probably the last winter of the war. Evermore effective Russian strikes against Ukraine’s energy and transport infrastructure are likely to plunge swaths of the country into cold and darkness. Russian troops continue to push forwards slowly and bloodily in Donbas and, more dangerously, on the southern flank in Zaporizhzhia. Desertions from the Ukrainian army are up four times since last year and the number of deserters now matches the number of active fighters. The US has turned off the money taps and Europe struggles to produce the cash Kyiv needs to keep its war effort going.

In WW II the USA had a rough total of 122,354 deserters and conscientious objectors across all service branches.

Of the 72,354 CO’s 37K served in non-combat roles i.e. Medics or in civilian service.

Ukraine just had 100K of young fighting age men literally flee the country joining an estimated total of 650K who have fled since the war began.

Update: Senior US officials confirm details of 28-point plan to end Ukraine war

WASHINGTON — The US’ sweeping 28-point blueprint to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine proposes territorial freezes, troop caps, economic reintegration for Moscow, and a future “Peace Council” chaired by President Donald Trump, senior US officials confirmed exclusively to The Post.

The plan, which Kyiv and Moscow have not publicly accepted, outlines the most detailed picture yet of what Washington foresees as a way to end the war — and was built on weeks of US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s consultations with both the Russians and Ukrainians, the officials said.

I wonder if Freeland is fleeing Ukraine’s sinking ship or will she keep her job as Zelensky’s Bagman?

Rhodes has a Grifter Award?

— Blazingcatfur (@fancypants_s) November 20, 2025

White House tells Volodymyr Zelensky he must accept terms of US president’s 28-point proposal

Ukraine will be forced to cut the size of its army under a peace deal agreed between Donald Trump and Russia.

The US president has been working with Moscow on a secret 28-point proposal inspired by the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

The White House has told Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, that he must accept the terms of the plan, which will require his country to cede territory, give up some weapons and trim its armed forces, sources have said.

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s close associate, Timur Mindich, fled to Israel after allegedly masterminding a €100 million corruption scheme, it appears the Ukrainian public is turning on their leader — at least according to polls cited by a Ukrainian member of parliament.

“According to the polls I’ve seen, Zelensky’s popularity has fallen below 20 percent,” said Ukrainian parliament member Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to “overhaul” state-owned energy companies, after a major corruption scandal engulfed the country’s energy sector.

Around $100 million (£76m) has been embezzled, anti-graft investigators said, causing outrage in a country where Russian attacks have resulted in crippling power outages.

“Alongside a full audit of their financial activities, the management of these companies is to be renewed,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X on Saturday.

A solid gold toilet and cupboards loaded with bagfuls of €200 bills are among the treasures linked to the prominent Ukrainian businessman Timur Mindich, after an investigation by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu). Mindich is big in real estate, fertilisers, banking and diamond trading – but he is best known as a long-time co-owner of Volodymyr Zelensky’s Kvartal 95 television production company. Nabu’s 15-month long investigation into what it describes as ‘high level’ corruption at the top of Ukraine’s political elite is likely to have momentous consequences for Zelensky’s political future.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has moved to contain growing public outrage in Ukraine over a corruption scandal in the energy sector by firing two ministers who are accused of involvement in a large-scale bribery scheme.

Ukraine’s president said the justice minister Herman Halushchenko and energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk could no longer remain in their jobs. He also called for personal sanctions against his friend and former business partner Timur Mindich, the scheme’s alleged organiser.

Acknowledging popular anger, Zelenskyy said: “There must be maximum integrity in the energy sector, in absolutely all processes. I support every investigation carried out by law enforcement and anti-corruption officials. This is an absolutely clear and consistent position for everyone.”

In yet another sign of the rampant corruption in Ukraine, Ukrainian security forces raided the apartment of Timur Mindich, a businessman associated with President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, the oligarch had already left the country just hours before, likely after being tipped off by an insider.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) says that $100 million is believed to have been siphoned off due to a “money laundering operation,” and other associates were involved. The 15-month investigation featured 1,000 hours of wiretapping and resulted in 70 raids, according to NABU.

Ukraine faces a major draft evasion problem, but no place is quite like Vylkove, a Danube River town where men of draft age have all but vanished, many of them trying to avoid military service.

Draft officers picked Ivan up at a traffic stop and dropped him off at a training base, but he went absent without leave from the army after three days. Since then, he has been hiding at home in Vylkove, a small town in southernmost Ukraine, rarely stepping outside.

Almost four years after the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine faces the twin challenges of not having enough troops and men avoiding military service. Many men of draft age, 25 to 60, have broken the law that prohibits most of them from leaving the country, while others play a cat-and-mouse game with conscription officers or just hunker down at home.

The unique geography and history of Vylkove, a run-down Danube River fishing port, have made it an exaggerated version of Ukraine in miniature, where draft-age men have all but vanished.

BERLIN—For three years, a crack team of detectives gathered each weekday morning around a whiteboard at the German Federal Police headquarters in Potsdam, near Berlin. Now their investigation into who was behind the greatest act of sabotage in modern history—the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines—is threatening to splinter support for Ukraine, the country they hold responsible.

Poland already has refused to extradite one of the suspects to stand trial in Germany. It instead views him a hero for destroying a vital source of revenue for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has long questioned Germany’s dependence on Russian energy, ridiculed the investigation. The problem isn’t that the pipeline was blown up, he said. The “problem is that it was built.”

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said it is conducting a “large-scale operation” jointly with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to expose corruption involving “a high-level criminal organization” in the energy sector.

NABU said in a post on social media on November 10 that the investigation has been ongoing for 15 months with some 1,000 hours of audio recordings gathered. It added that the “activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented,” with members having built “a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic enterprises in the public sector, in particular JSC ‘Energoatom.'”

BREAKING: Black day for Zelensky.

Today, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine conducted 70 searches related to corruption in the energy sector.

Audio recordings were also made public, in which top Ukrainian officials and businessmen close to Zelensky are heard… pic.twitter.com/QEYv2eVcpR

— Oleksandr Dubinskyi (@Dubinsky_pro) November 10, 2025

h/t Mauser

All wars breed corruption. But when your young men flee the country rather than enlist to defend their nation you have to wonder at the reasons why.

There is no shortage of videos on social media apparently showing men being taken off the streets of Ukraine—some while walking their dog, or even out with their wife and children—to be forcibly conscripted into the military.

Reports are even making it into Western mainstream media publications, something that may force European leaders to take notice.

Almost 100,000 fighting-age Ukrainian men have left the country in the past two months after Volodymyr Zelensky eased departure rules, new figures show.

Poland’s border guard said 99,000 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 22 had crossed the frontier – the primary route out of the country – since regulations to ensure that Kyiv had enough soldiers were relaxed at the end of August.

In comparison, the entire British Army has around 70,000 personnel.