Ukraine - The Battle Over Zelenski's Fate Is Still in Balance
An intense information operation has been launched to remove Ukraine's (former) President Vladimir Zelenski from office. Behind it are a cabal of Ukrainian opposition figures in coordination which western media and parts of the Trump administration.
The current campaign follows a earlier one which was directed against Zelenski's main advisor and head of the office of the president Andrei Yermak.
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Politico.eu introduced Yermak:
The game plan of Zelenskyy's powerful chief of staff - Politico.eu, Jun 3 2025
The once little-known lawyer and B-movie producer — now in the thick of triangular peace diplomacy with the Americans and Russians — is always reverently loyal to his boss. In an interview with POLITICO last year, he referred to him glowingly as the “president of the people.” What else could he say? Yermak has ridden Zelenskyy’s coattails to become the second-most-powerful figure in Ukraine — even a co-equal.
Then the U.S. version Politico.com set out to destroy him:
The Ukrainian official Washington loves to hate - Politico.com, Jun 19 2025
Speaking to allies in private, Yermak has accused Trump administration officials of being Russian assets, according to the first person familiar with the visit, including Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has met with Putin four times as Trump seeks to cajole Moscow to the negotiating table.People familiar with the U.S.-Ukraine relationship and Kyiv’s backers in Washington fear that the friction wrought by Yermak could quickly spread to undermine his country’s standing with its most vital partner.
But Yermak survived the public relations onslaught and even managed to increase his control in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s political infighting gets nasty (archived) - Economist, Jul 6 2025
As Trump starves it of arms, there is turmoil inside the government
Three developments in June set the tone. On June 23rd, a deputy prime minister, Oleksiy Chernyshov—once tipped as a future prime minister—became the most senior Ukrainian politician ever charged with corruption. On government business in Europe, he initially delayed returning, creating the absurd image of a minister for repatriating Ukrainians planning his own self-exile.
At around the same time, the cabinet was warned of an imminent reshuffle, and the probable appointment of a new prime minister, the 39-year-old Yulia Svyrydenko. And a renewed attempt was made to remove Ukraine’s fiercely independent spy chief, Kyrylo Budanov—though it ended in failure, at least for now.
Multiple sources identify the shadowy hand of Andriy Yermak, who runs the presidential office but in reality is an unelected chief minister in all but name, as instrumental in all three plays.
Yermak survived and fought back successfully. But now the fight has turned directly against his boss or sidekick Vladimir Zelenski to whom he is bound by money and fate.
Within hours of each other the British outlets Financial Times and Spectator fired a full broadside against him.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused of authoritarian slide after anti-corruption raids (archived) - Financial Times, Jul 18 2025
Politicians, activists and diplomats accuse Ukraine’s leader of favouring loyalists and using wartime powers against critics
Cont. reading: Ukraine - The Battle Over Zelenski's Fate Is Still in Balance
A 'Bawdy' Diversion
The media, and Donald Trump, have found the great summer diversion of 2025.
The Wall Street Journal reports (archived):
It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
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The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.
And suing he will:
Cont. reading: A 'Bawdy' Diversion
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Israel's Bombing Of Damascus Is Aimed At Turkey
Today the Israeli air force bombed the capital of Syria, Damascus.
In late November 2024 al-Qaeda in Syria under former ISIS leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani (aka Ahmed al-Sharaa) set off to oust the Syrian government. He was backed by Qatar (financially), Turkey (militarily), the U.S. (intelligence wise) and Israel (propaganda).
After more than 11 years of war the Syria army was in a bad state. Pay was low while prices had risen sky high under sanctions. Many officers had been bribed by Qatar to stay put or change sides.
The Russian air force intervened against the Jihadi onslaught but, with no forces on the ground, could not stop their advances. Shia militia send by Iran from Iraq were bombed by U.S. jets while crossing the border. Eventually President Assad found that there was no army left to command and fled. The Syrian government broke down. The Jihadis conquered Damascus and have since ruled the country.
Syrian resistance against Israel ceased. Israel has since bombed what was left of the Syrian armies heavy equipment and missile forces. The country is no longer able to defend itself.
There are about 700,000 Druze living in Syria, southeast of Damascus, and in the Israel occupied Golan Heights. The Druze religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam but generally not accepted as Muslim.
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After al-Qaeda took power in Syria the Israel army took additional Syrian territory near the Golan heights. It has tried to pull the Druze to its side:
Cont. reading: Israel's Bombing Of Damascus Is Aimed At Turkey
Trump Delivers Next Nothingburger To Ukraine
On July 3 U.S. President Donald Trump had a phonecall with the Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation:
President Donald Trump revealed the details of his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One for an "America 250" rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, "We had a call, it was a pretty long call, we talked about a lot of things, including Iran. We also talked about the war with Ukraine."
Trump shook his head and said, "I'm not happy about that," as the president remarked about the ongoing war he hoped to quickly end.
"No, I didn't make any progress with him today," Trump said when asked about a potential deal with Putin to end the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Trump wanted to pause the war In Ukraine while Putin sees an advantage for Russian troops in the field and wants to continue the war until its root cause, the NATO march towards Russia, is eliminated.
Trump could not get his will. He was also under pressure from neoconservative parts of Congress to commit the U.S. to a longer war against Russia. They asked for shipping more weapons to Ukraine and for penalties against countries which continue to buy oil and gas from Russia.
Yesterday Trump gave in and decided (archived) to give another try to his predecessors failed Ukraine policy :
President Trump said he would help Europe speed more weapons to Ukraine and warned Russia that if it did not agree to a peace deal within 50 days, he would impose a new round of punishing sanctions.Speaking from the Oval Office, where he met with NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, Mr. Trump said the weapons would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield.” He also threatened to impose secondary sanctions, which are penalties imposed on other countries or parties that trade with nations under sanctions.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” Mr. Trump said.
“It’s just the way it is,” he added. “I hope we don’t have to do it.”
Several additional Patriot air defense missile systems are supposed to be given to Ukraine by NATO countries which would buy new ones when the U.S. is able to deliver them (archived):
Cont. reading: Trump Delivers Next Nothingburger To Ukraine
Putin: The West's Conflict With Russia Is Not About Ideology
In an interview with the Russian TV channel Rossiya President Vladimir Putin gave some insight into Russia's changing perspective of the West.
There is unfortunately no transcript available yet. Various Russian media provid snippets of the talk in English language:
- Contradictions between Russia, West arise from geopolitics, Putin believes - TASS
Britain, France, and other former empires, still blame the dismantling of their colonial might on Russia, the Russian president continued adding that he could still sense this historical negative attitude toward his country - Russia-West clash not about ideology – Putin - RT
The standoff is only about geopolitical interests, the Russian president has said - Putin Explains What Truly Divided Russia and the West - Sputnik
I have yet to find the full interview. But these tweets of Djole include some quotes and subtitled video excerpts:
In an interview with Pavlo Zarubin, a well-known journalist on Russian state television, Putin spoke about deep misunderstandings that, he says, he initially mistakenly attributed to ideological differences. But over time, he points out, it became clear that the background is not ideology, but something else - interest."I thought that the contradictions with the West were primarily ideological. It seemed logical at the time - Cold War inertia, different views of the world, values, the organization of society," Putin said.
"But even when the ideology disappeared, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the same, almost routine deviation from Russia's interests continued. And it was not because of ideas, but because of the pursuit of advantages - geopolitical, economic, strategic."
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"The world respects only those who can protect themselves," he said. "Until we show that we are an independent and sovereign power that stands behind our interests, there will be no room for anyone to treat us as equals."
My very first thought when reading that was 'what took him so long'. During the Cold War I was indoctrinated with the fairy tale of Western freedoms versus the evils of eastern communism. But I for one have never accepted that view. Western animosity against Russia goes back many centuries. (Maybe even further back than the big schism of 1054). The fight against the 'evils of communism' was just a contemporary variance of it.
One might call that ideological but I believe that it always has been and is about greed. There is one side in this conflict which never seems to have enough and therefore aims for Russia's riches. What else explains Napoleon's march to Moscow or the British war in Crimea? (See Karlov1 who writes a bit more about the 'ideological' aspect of this.)
But why did it take Putin and Russia until 2022 to accept the consequences of this insight?
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