"Alone among all of Earth's life forms, humans alone perceive the absolute inevitability of their own mortality. For thousands of years, con artists have exploited that fear of the inevitable end of life, offering for sale various magical escapes from the grave, and all the acolytes have to do is surrender their money, their obedience, and their sanity." -- Michael Rivero
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that military commanders and the political arena are not in the same space, demonstrating that his power is under threat, and not by Moscow, but from within his own ranks. This issue is only amplified by the fact that Zelensky’s Western partners have slowly begun abandoning him, especially since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
Russia has issued a warning as the Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza nears its end. Moscow said that Syria is on the brink of being drawn into the conflict. Russia has also been alarmed by the sharp escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Tuesday that a consensus among NATO countries persists that it is impossible for Ukraine to join the alliance now, but it may be possible in the future if conditions are met and the allies agree.
"There is agreement at least that Ukraine's accession to NATO is impossible for now," Szijjarto told journalists after the end of the first day of NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.
The volume of drugs smuggled from Ukraine to Russia over the past several years is enough to poison the population of an entire city.
"Drone" (mephedrone) and "flakka"(alpha-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone, a.k.a. alpha-PVP) started pouring into Russia eight years ago following the Maidan coup in Ukraine. Synthetic drugs became as prolific as heroin was in the 1990s.
Ukraine’s failure to breach Russian lines for the last year demonstrates that NATO should “never underestimate Russia,” the bloc’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Monday.
Speaking to the press ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, he was asked whether the US-led bloc would be able and willing to arm Ukraine for another counteroffensive against Russian forces in the spring.
Grain thunders into rail cars and trucks zip around a storage facility in central Ukraine, a place that growing numbers of companies turned to as they struggled to export their food to people facing hunger around the world.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed in a letter to his colleagues to bring a bill to the Senate floor as soon as December 4 to fund military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. President Biden has requested the funding as part of a massive $105 billion spending package.
In the Baltic Sea – home of the twisted wreckage of the Nord Stream pipelines – another pipeline was recently damaged along with telecommunications cables.
Western officials are making escalatory statements and are again floating the idea of closing the “NATO lake” to Russian ships, which would likely be viewed by Moscow as an act of war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is on thin ice.
That’s the conclusion of international affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda, who joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits crew Monday to discuss the ongoing political drama in the country in the wake of the country’s failed counteroffensive this year.
