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Thread: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

  1. Link to Post #23281
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Quote Posted by ExomatrixTV (here)
    • Zelensky’s Press Secretary Reveals All: Cocaine, Cover-ups, and the Only Obstacle Preventing Peace:
    She's now been added to the Mirotvorets Kill List. From RT:

    https://x.com/RT_com/status/2054165359058620922
    Zelensky's ex-press secretary added to Ukraine's 'KILL LIST' after Tucker Carlson’s interview.
    Yulia Mendel is accused of 'spreading Russian propaganda,' per the Mirotvorets database.
    In the interview, she said Zelensky uses drugs and is the main obstacle to peace.



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  3. Link to Post #23282
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    🇷🇺 STANISLAV KRAPIVNIK 🇷🇺

    Our soldiers have returned from captivity. Video

    The first shots of Russian servicemen who were exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war. The guys are currently in Belarus, where they are receiving medical and psychological assistance. They will soon return home.

    Today is a celebration in 205 Russian families.

    https://x.com/STANISKRAPIVNIK/status...50044480016762


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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Quote Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
    🇷🇺 STANISLAV KRAPIVNIK 🇷🇺

    Our soldiers have returned from captivity. Video

    The first shots of Russian servicemen who were exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war. The guys are currently in Belarus, where they are receiving medical and psychological assistance. They will soon return home.

    Today is a celebration in 205 Russian families.

    https://x.com/STANISKRAPIVNIK/status...50044480016762

    I wonder how they will get treated when they reach the motherland.
    If they signed a contract (which they broke by surrendering) will they be sent back to war ? Or do they get to go home ?

    Surrenderers wont get hero treatment when they end up back in the frontline . And they wont get their paycheck ...
    They will probably get a lengthy beating to boost moral before sending them to suicidal assault .

    Soldiers who are captured are often considered to have committed a disciplinary or criminal offense by Russian authorities. Instead of receiving benefits, these soldiers face financial penalties, including the withholding of their salary and bonuses. This policy is used as a deterrent against surrender and desertion. There is no indication that families receive any form of state compensation while their relatives are held as prisoners of war.

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  7. Link to Post #23284
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    dana

    🇺🇦⚔️🇺🇦😰A video compilation of atrocities committed by the TCC Draft offices in Ukraine during forced mobilization

    ukraine_watch

    https://x.com/dana916/status/2055395309354668240


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  9. Link to Post #23285
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    dana

    🇺🇦⚔️🇷🇺😢In Belgorod, during an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on an apartment building, at least 4 people were injured, including a three-year-old girl, reports the operational headquarters

    ukraine_watch

    https://x.com/dana916/status/2055395116538273948


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  11. Link to Post #23286
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    dana

    🇺🇦🇬🇷A Ukrainian sea drone has arrived in Greece

    The Ukrainian sea drone, Magura, was found near the Greek island of Lefkada, according to eKathimerini. When it was spotted, the engine was still running. Bomb disposal specialists were sent to the scene.

    It was initially determined that there were detonators on board, but no explosives. According to one theory from the authorities, the drone was used for drug smuggling.

    The export of crime to expensive partners and allies continues.

    ukraine_watch

    https://x.com/dana916/status/2055394442278756828


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  13. Link to Post #23287
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Olga Bazova

    Russia is conducting another dead body exchange with Ukraine today. Here is the breakdown for 2026 so far:

    Jan 29th: 🇺🇦 1000 - 🇷🇺 38
    Feb 26th: 🇺🇦 1000 - 🇷🇺 35
    Apr 9th: 🇺🇦 1000 - 🇷🇺 41
    May 15th: 🇺🇦 526 - 🇷🇺 41

    Total: 🇺🇦 3526 - 🇷🇺 155

    Notably, for the first time in nearly a year Russia is handing less than 1000 bodies to Ukraine

    https://x.com/OlgaBazova/status/2055219151925342495





    News of Donbass

    ⚡️ #Russia and #Ukraine are exchanging the bodies of deceased soldiers. Kiev will receive 526 bodies, while Moscow will return 41 Russian servicemen.

    https://x.com/News_of_Donbass/status...48646082301969

    Last edited by Ravenlocke; 15th May 2026 at 23:17.

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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    dana

    🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦00:00 Vostok Group's Molniya attack UAV operators wiped out UAV command posts, antennas, and heavy hexacopters prepared for launching of the AFU in Zaporozhye region.

    00:32 Drones of the 11th Army Corps of the Sever Group of Forces hit the enemy's strongholds, manpower, and hardware in Kharkov region.

    01:21 UAV teams of a separate reconnaissance battalion of a guards mountain airborne formation from Novorossiysk burned down the enemy's Grad MLRS in Zaporozhye direction.

    01:37 FPV drone operators of the Tsentr Group of Forces hit manpower and hardware of the AFU in Dobropolye direction.

    Russian Defense Ministry

    https://x.com/dana916/status/2055389510410948993


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  17. Link to Post #23289
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    dana

    🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦Russian Ministry of Defense Top News Today

    ▫️ 205 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. 205 AFU POWs were returned as a result of the exchange.

    ▫️From 12 to 15 May, in response to terrorist attacks launched by Ukraine against civilian objects on the territory of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out massive and two group strikes with long-range precision weapons, including Kinzhal air-ballistic hypersonic missiles, and strike drones, which hit enterprises of the defence industry of Ukraine, fuel-power facilities, transport and port infrastructure facilities used by the AFU, military airfields, assembly, storage areas, and launch sites of unmanned aerial vehicles, ammunition and fuel depots, as well as temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries.

    ▫️Russian troops took control over the settlement of Chaykovka in Kharkov region. The settlement of Charivnoye in Zaporozhye region was liberated.

    ▫️The Russian Defense Ministry shows the footage of artillerymen, heavy flamethrower system crews, sniper units, and UAV teams in action.

    ▫️Assault detachments of the Yuzhnaya Group of Forces hone skills at training grounds in the Donetsk People's Republic.

    Russian Defense Ministry

    https://x.com/dana916/status/2055391066006696013


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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    dana

    🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦Special military operation. Situation and main events as of May 15, 2026

    ▪️Russian troops liberated Charyvne in the Zaporpzhye region and Chaikovka in the Kharkov region;

    ▪️The Russian army delivered mass and two group strikes from May 12 to May 15 against Ukraine's defense industry, energy sector, and transportation infrastructure;

    ▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine lost more than 6,785 servicemen over the week;

    ▪️Russia returned 205 servicemen, in exchange for the same number of Ukrainian prisoners of war;

    ▪️Trump stated that he discussed the conflict in Ukraine with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, and they both want to see it resolved.

    ukraine_watch

    https://x.com/dana916/status/2055395547658535143


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  21. Link to Post #23291
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    News of Donbass

    #WarData
    🆘 At least 100 civilians, including 8 children, were killed by Ukrainian Armed Forces shelling in April, according to Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Rodion Miroshnik.

    Based on verified data, at least 100 civilians were killed and 667 wounded in April as a result of criminal actions by Ukrainian militants. Among those injured at the hands of the Nazis were eight minors who were killed and 34 wounded.

    https://x.com/News_of_Donbass/status...49136576811049

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  23. Link to Post #23292
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Quote Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
    dana

    🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦Special military operation. Situation and main events as of May 15, 2026

    ▪️Russian troops liberated Charyvne in the Zaporpzhye region and Chaikovka in the Kharkov region;
    Yes, and confirmed in this short Military Summary channel animated map with supporting video footage:

    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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  25. Link to Post #23293
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Interesting:

    Source: https://x.com/sambendett/status/2055299111457378313
    Russian military is using camouflage nets that apparently disguise their vehicles as a pile of bricks and garbage. https://t.me/onf_front/13606
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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  27. Link to Post #23294
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    East Meets West Podcast interview with Viktor Bout recorded May 14th. The main focus is Palantir and their use of Ukraine as a 'testing ground' but they also discuss the growing rise of extremist/fascist views emanating from the political class in Europe mirroring the fascist rhetoric in 1930s Germany.

    Source: https://x.com/EMW_podcast/status/2054962483459199220

    Description:
    Is it COLLATERAL DAMAGE when AI decides who lives and who dies?

    Ukraine became a TEST GROUND for what?

    Are we entering the era of TECHNO FASCISM?

    Watch legendary VIKTOR BOUT @realvictorbout discuss digital sovereignty and more — with Olga and @ReadeAlexandra
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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  29. Link to Post #23295
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    "Most likely this is speculative or simple nonsense from Zelensky, but it does give one pause particularly in relation to other parallel developments." - Simplicius

    _________________________________________
    A new article today from Simplicius which may actually be a rare moment of truthtelling from The Gollum on Bankhova Street whose own tarnished 'brand' may be in need of a lick of polish, not that we've ever really bought in to his blatant fraud.
    Source: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/...-russian-intel

    _________________________________

    Zelensky Claims Leaked Russian Intel Docs Show Russia Preparing to Take Out "Decision-Making Centers" of Ukraine

    Published May 16th, 2026

    To continue on a line of thought from yesterday’s article, regarding Russia’s future direction, there are a few interesting developments. Zelensky has just announced that Russia is considering a new mass assault—possibly on Kiev—from Belarus, a la 2022:



    Of course, we have heard such things for a long time. But it must be admitted that Russia has given us some food for thought with recent incursions over the border into those very regions. Particularly, incursions into Chernigov led to territory being captured there toward the Kiev direction for the first time since 2022, and this has been happening over the last few months, albeit it was a very tiny slice of land for now.

    Most likely this is speculative or simple nonsense from Zelensky, but it does give one pause particularly in relation to other parallel developments.

    Zelensky has also now announced that Russia is making preparations to take out the Ukrainian leadership for the first time in the war, via direct strikes on “decision-making centers” in Kiev. He published documents reportedly obtained by his intelligence services that show Russian target lists for these very HQs:

    Source: https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2055277239109841078


    Third, specialists from the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine obtained documents indicating that the Russians are preparing new missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, including, as they describe them, against “decision-making centers.” Among these are nearly two dozen political centers and military command posts.

    Of course, we have taken this information into account. But it is worth emphasizing specifically for the Russian leadership that Ukraine is – after all – not Russia.

    And unlike the aggressor state, where there is a clear author of this war and a long-standing circle around him that sustains his detachment from reality, the source of Ukraine’s defense is the readiness of the Ukrainian people to fight for their independence and for their own sovereign state. Ukrainians deserve their sovereignty just like any other nation.

    The people cannot be defeated. Russia must end its war and negotiate a dignified peace, rather than searching for new ways to intimidate Ukraine. I thank everyone who is helping. Glory to Ukraine!
    The first image shows the office of the president of Ukraine on Bankova Street in Kiev, not far from Maidan Square, and mentions an “underground tunnel at 95.2 meter depth”:



    A Ukrainian officer made headlines rebutting the plan with claims that Russian strikes would never breach these 95+ meter bunkers:



    The second of Zelensky’s image appears to show a “dacha” belonging to the Ukrainian president:



    And the third, a list of other targets:



    At first glance, many will dismiss this as further agitprop from Zelensky. But I beg to differ, given that Russia itself, via the MOD, had just released a series of European targets of drone manufacturers for Ukraine, hinting very strongly that Russia could soon begin striking Europe.



    Recall that Medvedev had warned several times that Russia is losing its patience in regard to this.

    Now, the Russian ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy has confirmed to Daniel Davis in an interview that Russia does appear to be reaching a point of no return of this very nature:

    Source: https://x.com/DanielLDavis1/status/2055369261183291835


    This morning on our Deep Dive show, I interviewed Russia's ambassador to the OSCE in Vienna and asked him point-blank whether Russia would strike *European* targets and expand the war. I expected a diplomatically diffused answer from which I would have to read between the lines. Instead, he was about as direct as any diplomat I've ever heard:

    It might already be "too late" to avert a Russian direct strike against European targets.
    Granted, I think Colonel Davis exaggerated a tad with his paraphrasing of what Polyanskiy stated. He didn’t say it may “already be too late” to avert Russian strikes on Europe, he floated a hypothetical: that should Russia strike in the future, people will wonder why it happened, and by then it will have been too late.

    Nevertheless, Polyanskiy does strongly imply that striking European targets may not be off the table for Russia should this continue because as he states, Europe and NATO themselves are now involved in striking targets in Russia. Not only in providing the coordinates and specialists to launch European weapons like the Storm Shadow, but also the recent initiatives like for instance with Germany launching a cooperative development track with Ukraine’s FirePoint to build Flamingo-like missiles for deep strikes on Russia. And then there’s the direct aiding and abetting of Ukrainian attacks via European airspace, as we’ve now seen come to a head with the Baltic debacle.

    The other consideration is that Russia may have ignored such provocations for a long time because they had not done serious damage to Russia’s “rear”. But recently these Western-aided attacks via Ukrainian drones have struck several sensitive Russian sites, from electronics and key military-industrial facilities, to of course nationally strategic oil infrastructure. At a certain point, if the pain from these strikes begins to feel critical or rattles the Kremlin, then Russia may have no choice than to take the gloves off.

    More and more Russian political scientists, figures, and military influencers are calling for such attacks, particularly of a nuclear nature.

    But the other more interesting aspect ties into what I wrote in the last piece apropos Medvedev’s comments and the theory that Russia could be awaiting Zelensky’s removal to force a ceasefire that could quickly gain the Donbass region. Now with recent news that Russia may be preparing to take out decision-making centers, which presumably includes their actual inhabitants as well, this brings the theory into a new light.

    Russia may choose to finally “speed up” Zelensky’s “ascension” by forcible removal after losing patience. Zelensky has now promised to retaliate to the latest strikes with some “sensitive” hits of his own. Rumors abound that Ukraine will again make attempts to strike the Kremlin directly, and it’s true that recently Ukraine’s preponderance of drones and the aiding of neighboring countries has allowed Ukraine to uncharacteristically bypass Russian defenses, to an extent.

    The Kremlin may be preparing for these very provocations and is ready to strike ‘decision-making centers’ as reprisal for this. There was word about Ukraine seeking a mutual agreement to stop such attacks, including energy-related infrastructure, which does suggest the possibility that a secret ‘handshake’ agreement had previously existed to not target each other’s decision-making centers.

    Why would Russia make such an agreement? For Russia, the threat is not that Ukraine could actually take out or decapitate important Russian military or political leadership—that’s not plausible. What’s plausible is such strikes creating a major political humiliation for Russia, which would be uncomfortable. For Ukraine, the threat of its leadership actually being taken out is however real.

    As such, the latest threats from both sides could merely be posturing to warn off any further escalation from the other. But it’s likely that the voices inside Russian elite circles for major reprisals against Europe are growing louder in light of the successful strikes that Ukraine has been accumulating on Russian energy infrastructure.

    In this case, we can say that Putin likely remains one of the last ‘fail-safes’ holding back the rising tide of angry turbo-patriot nationalists who’d love to exact revenge on Europe. One would think this should terrify European leaders into making sure Putin stays in power as a levee holding this back. But in reality, there are likely many at the top echelons of the Euro-cabal and Brussels mafia that would love for Russian hardliners to take charge and attack Europe because it would give the dying EU and NATO the casus belli it needs to sell war to the stupefied population, and allow them that great reset of the financial system they’ve been seeking for so long now.
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Quote Posted by ExomatrixTV (here)
    • Zelensky’s Press Secretary Reveals All: Cocaine, Cover-ups, and the Only Obstacle Preventing Peace:

    Corruption, drugs and greed: Volodymyr Zelensky’s longtime press secretary on the secret world of the West’s favorite dictator.
    • 0:00:00 How Did Mendel Begin Working for Zelensky?
    • 0:11:29 Why Hasn’t US Media Covered Zelensky’s Scandals?
    • 0:25:30 Zelensky’s Relationship With Joe Biden
    • 0:32:45 Is Zelensky Himself Corrupt?
    • 0:36:44 Who Does Zelensky Actually Listen To?
    • 0:42:45 Zelensky’s Use of the Frontlines as Punishment
    • 0:50:17 Why Hasn’t Western Media Spoken up for Ukrainians?
    • 1:03:32 Why Do Western Countries Want the War to Continue?
    • 1:09:16 Does Zelensky Do Coke?
    • 1:13:04 What’s Zelensky’s Wife Like?
    • 1:14:56 Mendel’s Experience Living Through the Ukraine War
    • 1:18:27 Is There Any Way to Get Rid of Zelensky?
    • 1:23:42 Why Are There So Many Americans Always in Ukraine?
    • 1:32:35 Mendel’s Message to Putin
    Thomas Fazi has provided a summary of the main points in the interview on his Substack page, here: also, although I haven't seen this yet, it is saved to our library as well:

    “Zelensky is one of the biggest obstacles to peace today”: Ukrainian president’s former press secretary speaks out
    Iuliia Mendel’s bombshell interview to Tucker Carlson: “The only way to support Ukraine today is to push for a peace deal, because the country is being destroyed”

    Published May 16, 2026
    Source: https://www.thomasfazi.com/p/zelensk...gest-obstacles

    Tucker Carlson’s interview with Zelensky’s former press secretary Iuliia Mendel has been making waves on social media. And rightly so: it’s an incredibly important testimony, from someone who used to be very close to Zelensky, which confirms much of what war critics like myself have been saying for years — about the missed opportunities for peace and how these were sabotaged by Western intervention; the totalitarian and hyper-repressive nature of the Zelensky regime and its commitment to permanent war, even at the cost of Ukraine’s extinction; the mind-boggling corruption surrounding Western aid to the country, and much more. Many of my readers are likely to have seen the interview already. But for those too lazy to do so — or who, like me, can only absorb information in written form — I’ve decided to summarise the interview’s main points. You’re welcome.

    Who is Iuliia Mendel?
    Mendel was born in 1986 in the Ukrainian city of Henichesk, in the Kherson Oblast, in what was then still the Soviet Union. As she explains in her 2022 book Each of Us Is President, her intellectual formation was influenced substantially by Western ideas and culture, “attending dozens of courses and programs in Europe and the United States”. She then worked as a freelance journalist in Ukraine for several years, also writing for several Western outlets, including the New York Times, Politico Europe, the Atlantic Council, Vice, Spiegel Online and Forbes.

    In May 2019, shortly before becoming Zelensky’s press secretary, she co-authored an important piece in the New York Times piece on the Hunter Biden-Burisma scandal. For those who don’t the story, while Joe Biden was Vice President under the Obama administration, and leading US “anti-corruption” efforts in Ukraine, his son Hunter sat on the board of Burisma Holdings — a Ukrainian energy company owned by oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, who was himself under multiple criminal investigations for tax evasion, money laundering and abuse of office. Hunter was paid up to $50,000 per month despite having no experience in Ukraine and having recently been discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine. In December 2015, Biden publicly threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees unless Ukraine fired prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who had active investigations into Burisma and Zlochevsky. Shokin was subsequently removed. The article led the Biden administration to to cut off interviews with the Times.

    Anyway, in June 2019, right after Zelensky’s election, Mendel started working as his press officer. As she explains in the interview, she was hired through an open application process from 4,000 candidates, worked directly with Zelensky for two years and describes herself as genuinely loyal to him initially. She worked with him until July 2021. She supported him when Russia launched its invasion in 2022, and was grateful he stayed in the country. But since then, her views about the Ukrainian president have shifted radically. She emphasises she has no personal vendetta but believes Zelensky is “one of the biggest obstacles towards peace today”.

    Zelensky’s personality and leadership style
    She describes a man utterly unlike his public image. He is “emotionally uncontrollable”, frequently hysterical, treats people as disposable and lacks genuine empathy. His extraordinary acting ability generated enormous Western support in 2022, but she insists “his acting doesn’t have any substance”. Two phrases he reportedly repeated constantly reveal his worldview: “Ukraine is not ready for democracy” and “dictatorship is an order”.

    The communications operation was chaotic. Zelensky and his then-chief of staff Andriy Yermak — removed by Zelensky in 2025 following a corruption investigation — constantly contradicted each other, changed strategies and moods without warning, and created an atmosphere of perpetual frantic activity that produced nothing. She describes them both as “malignant and paranoid narcissists”, with Yermak the more paranoid of the two. Zelensky had the visions; Yermak found ways to implement them — almost never through legitimate policy.

    When ratings began dropping and her team argued there were simply no positive results to communicate, Zelensky rejected the premise entirely: “It doesn’t matter what’s happening. The most important thing — we need 1,000 talking heads, and if 1,000 talking heads tell positive things, then positive things are happening”. When a colleague pushed back with a specific example of broken promises to displaced families from Donbas, he reportedly slammed the table and said: “I need Goebbels propaganda. I need thousands of talking heads of Goebbels propaganda”.

    Zelensky’s pre-war record and relationship with Russia
    She describes Zelensky’s background as deeply intertwined with Russia. He built his career and his first significant wealth performing for Russian audiences and media. When Russia annexed Crimea and war broke out in Donbas in 2014, he was in Russia completing a film — a fact he later publicly acknowledged. More damningly, she claims he owned properties in Crimea and was vacationing there under Russian control in May 2014, enjoying time with friends from his production company 95th Quartile, apparently indifferent to the annexation. A person who worked for him at the time, helping renovate the property, is cited as her source.

    He ran for president in 2019 explicitly as a peace candidate, promising to “stand on his knees in front of Putin” to stop the war, defending the right of Ukrainians to speak Russian and advocating friendship with Russia. She says this is why people voted for him — nobody wanted war.

    The NATO question
    She was present at a December 2019 meeting in Paris where Zelensky had a private conversation with Putin and, according to her, personally promised Putin that Ukraine would never join NATO, on the grounds that Ukraine was not economically or institutionally ready and there was no domestic consensus for it. She stresses this was not a political or personal position unique to any Western leader — it was simply the reality.

    The pivot came later when Zelensky, watching his domestic ratings fall, gave a TV interview in which he spontaneously asked why Ukraine wasn’t in NATO. The nationalist audience applauded and he followed the applause. From there he escalated the rhetoric continuously, presenting NATO membership as a non-negotiable condition for peace, knowing — she insists — that it was impossible. She describes his October 2024 “victory plan”, which listed NATO membership as the central demand, as “ridiculous” and a deliberate strategy: by attaching conditions he knows cannot be met, he creates a permanent justification for continuing the war and maintaining his heroic image. He even offered to step down if Ukraine was admitted to NATO, “knowing that Ukraine is not going to be taken to NATO. So it’s very easy to promise something under the condition of impossible things”.

    Peace negotiations and missed opportunities
    Mendel identifies at least two concrete moments when the war could have ended:

    Istanbul, April 2022: she spoke with people who represented Ukraine at those negotiations and was told the two sides had agreed on virtually everything. Zelensky himself had privately consented to territorial concessions — something he now publicly insists is unthinkable. Then Boris Johnson arrived. He promised Zelensky weapons, influence, fame and a place in history as the man who defeated Russia. Zelensky chose the war. She notes that just days before Johnson’s visit, Zelensky was on camera saying he would continue negotiations. “It is said that this is Putin’s lies but this this story was told by Ukrainians”, she adds.

    Late 2022: a second opportunity for peace was foreclosed when the Biden administration, as per a New York Times account that Mendel says confirmed her own information, decided to back Zelensky’s plan to continue fighting despite all evidence that Ukraine could not win.

    She has tracked around seven attempts to end the war through various mediators and countries, in which Zelensky made promises to each and lied to all of them. His positions shift constantly — on ceasefire, on territory, on NATO, on elections — creating the appearance of engagement while ensuring that nothing is ever resolved. As an example she cites the contradiction between his June 2024 peace summit and the simultaneous planning of the Kursk incursion into Russian territory.

    Corruption
    She makes several specific allegations:
    - A friend of hers was shortlisted for Minister of Social Policy and was told during the interview process that candidates would need to propose money-laundering schemes to be financed through the ministry — the body responsible for pensioners’ payments.

    - A minister she declines to name was offered a bag of cash by Zelensky and Yermak — $5,000 a month in unofficial salary — because an official salary of that amount had caused a scandal.

    - Another minister told her that close associates of Zelensky were demanding illegal percentage cuts from government programs, and when informed they were taking “too much,” Zelensky smiled and said “good job, guys” — and was not joking.

    - The current energy ministry scandal: the former Minister of Energy helped launder around $100 million through offshore companies connected to Russian mafia figures. The minister himself got $12 million for his role in the deal. Mendel notes that this is roughly 10% — the standard fixer’s cut — raising the question of where the other 90% went.

    - The dismantling of the independent supervisory board at Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state oil and gas company, and its replacement with loyalists, enabling what she describes as a scheme to turn it into a corruption vehicle modelled on Gazprom.

    - On the IMF deal: Zelensky pushed through two difficult reforms to unlock a $5.5 billion package, demonstrating he was capable of doing it. Within days of receiving the first $2.1 billion tranche, he fired the head of the National Bank for political reasons, telling IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva the replacement would be “independent, but he will be coming from us”. Georgieva, who is Bulgarian and would speak to Zelensky in Russian, said that she stopped speaking Russian to him after that.
    Demographics and the human cost of the war
    Ukraine’s last census was in 2000-2001. Pre-war, government officials estimated 34-37 million people actually living in the country. With 10+ million refugees abroad and significant population in Russian-occupied territory, she estimates around 25 million remain — of whom 11 million are pensioners living on $75-200 per month. That leaves perhaps 10 million working-age people to sustain a country at war. She describes a recent case of a retired film director dying of cold and hunger at home with no one to help him, and wonders how many similar deaths will never be counted.

    She describes soldiers sent to the front in inadequate winter uniforms, losing fingers and limbs to frostbite, while ordinary Ukrainian women cook food and crowdfund equipment for them. She frames this against the backdrop of hundreds of billions in Western aid, the destination of which she says needs to be tracked.

    Her conclusion is stark: “I believe we are on the verge of extinction”. Ukraine cannot sustain a war of attrition against a country of 140 million that has not even borrowed to finance the conflict, while Ukraine carries debt at 100% of GDP.

    Repression and political control
    She describes a system of comprehensive political control:
    - A member of parliament who publicly called for peace negotiations was jailed within three days on treason charges, despite security service insiders confirming he had had no contact with Russia since 2021.

    - Cases of treason have multiplied many times over during the war.

    - Critics are publicly smeared as Kremlin agents — a label she says will now be applied to her.

    - Bloggers who questioned the war were summoned by the security service and threatened with treason charges; at least one had to flee the country.

    - Zelensky uses the front line as a punishment, including for political critics. She was told by insiders that he explicitly ordered action against critical bloggers in late 2023.

    - Zelensky sanctions his own citizens — an unconstitutional measure — freezing accounts and shutting businesses of opponents.

    - Former president Poroshenko is sanctioned and unable to access his own money.

    - A pervasive culture of cancellation targets artists, writers, churches and historical figures on the grounds of any connection, however tenuous, to Russia.
    She describes Ukraine as feeling like the USSR — and says a government official told her the Netflix series How to Become a Tyrant described exactly what was happening in the country, even before Russia’s invasion.

    Suspected drug use
    Mendel is careful to say she never personally witnessed Zelensky taking drugs. However, she says multiple people over many years — including doctors, people who knew him for 20-25 years and people who spent time with him in clubs — have described cocaine use. During her time working for him, she noticed a consistent pattern: before interviews, after she had briefed him, he would disappear into the bathroom for 15 minutes and emerge “a completely different person — energised, full of action, ready to say everything”. She also met, inside the presidential office, a man she later learned was described as his supplier. She also references a scandal during his 2019 campaign when he challenged his opponent to drug testing, went to a clinic owned by a friend and the results were dated differently from when the samples were given.

    Yermak
    As noted above, Andriy Yermak was Zelensky chief of staff from 2020 to 2025 — when he was removed by Zelensky himself following a corruption investigation Mendel traces Yermak’s background from a 1990s strip club where he worked as a lawyer and met future pro-Russian politicians, through work at a luxury goods store that smuggled branded merchandise, into film production (including films about smuggling) and eventual proximity to organised crime at a local level. She says a first employee described him as someone with enormous ambitions and no talent for them. She describes the Zelensky-Yermak dynamic as a symbiosis of two paranoid malignant narcissists — Zelensky providing chaotic vision, Yermak providing the tools to implement it — operating not around policy but around personal ambition and self-preservation.

    Her situation and motivation
    Mendel cannot return to Ukraine after this interview. She stayed in the country through most of the war, was shelled when Russians withdrew from her area and had a husband who served at the front. She left in early 2025. She says she is speaking now because Zelensky is at a weak point and she believes people within his own power vertical who want peace may not act against her as they once would have. She is writing a book about the real Zelensky. Her message, repeated throughout, is simple: the only way to support Ukraine today is to push for a peace deal, because the country is being destroyed and its people are not Zelensky’s priority — his survival in power is.

    ___________________________________

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    The library copy of the interview:

    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Argentina Avalon Member Vicus's Avatar
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Quote Posted by Tintin (here)
    Interesting:

    Source: https://x.com/sambendett/status/2055299111457378313
    Russian military is using camouflage nets that apparently disguise their vehicles as a pile of bricks and garbage. https://t.me/onf_front/13606
    )

    Capital ERROR!

    WHY inform the enemy from your new camouflage tactics?

    Russian commanders should send all the people involved in this disclosed to Siberian gulags!

    Or is this some secret Sun Tzu Art of War? likes: let your enemy bomb ALL the bricks piles everywhere...all that war scenario is full of them! ha ,ha (laughing in Chinese... )

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    Estonia Avalon Member
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    On the night into Sunday, Moscow and the Moscow region came under one of the most powerful attacks from Ukraine. Three people were killed and 17 injured. The targets of the attack were the Angstrem plant in Zelenograd, the Kapotnya oil refinery, and the Solnechnogorskaya and Volodarskoye oil pumping stations.





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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil

    Glenn Diesen: 🚨🚨🚨
    "After today's attack on Moscow, I am convinced that a Russian retaliation against NATO is coming
    🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
    - Ukraine has the right to strike Russia, but this was also a NATO attack.

    Russia has now every right to strike NATO.

    Absolute madness."

    https://x.com/ivan_8848/status/2056051190618615857


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    Avalon Member Ravenlocke's Avatar
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    Default Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

    dana

    🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦Special operation. Situation and main events as of May 17, 2026:

    ▪️Air defense systems shot down 1,045 drones in 24 hours, Russia's Ministry of Defense reported;

    ▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine lost 1,115 servicemen in 24 hours;

    ▪️Russian military personnel have showcased new "Luna" and "Koschei" cargo drones;

    ▪️Northern UAV crews have destroyed over 85 Ukrainian field storage sites since the beginning of May(

    ▪️Zakharova called the drone attack on Moscow yet another mass terrorist attack by Kiev funded by EU money;

    ▪️Russian forces have begun fighting inside Rai-Alexandrovka in the Slavyansk direction, the head of the DPR, Pushilin, stated.

    ukraine_watch

    https://x.com/dana916/status/2056131864352497718


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