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NY Times Expose: CIA Fights Russia – Trump’s Peace Deal Runs on Illusion
Today the NY Times published a long piece on the relations between the Trump administration and the government of Ukraine.
The Separation: Inside the Unraveling U.S.-Ukraine Partnership (archived) – NY Times, Dec 30 2025
There is a lot of gossip about the back and forth between the U.S. Ukraine and Russia in it, but also some interesting nuggets which confirm U.S. intelligence involvement in attacks on Russia and Russia related shipping:
Even as Mr. Trump bullied Mr. Zelensky, he seemed to coddle Mr. Putin. When the Russian stiff-armed peace proposals and accelerated bombing campaigns on Ukrainian cities, Mr. Trump would lash out on Truth Social and ask his aides, “Do we sanction their banks or do we sanction their energy infrastructure?” For months, he did neither.
But in secret, the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military, with his blessing, supercharged a Ukrainian campaign of drone strikes on Russian oil facilities and tankers to hobble Mr. Putin’s war machine.
The CIA, like usual, seems to work at cross purpose of Pentagon policies:
In so many ways, the partnership was breaking apart. But there was a counternarrative, spooled out largely in secret. At its center was the C.I.A.
Where Mr. Hegseth had marginalized his Ukraine-supporting generals, the C.I.A. director, Mr. Ratcliffe, had consistently protected his own officers’ efforts for Ukraine. He kept the agency’s presence in the country at full strength; funding for its programs there even increased. When Mr. Trump ordered the March aid freeze, the U.S. military rushed to shut down all intelligence sharing. But when Mr. Ratcliffe explained the risk facing C.I.A. officers in Ukraine, the White House allowed the agency to keep sharing intelligence about Russian threats inside Ukraine.
Now, the agency honed a plan to at least buy time, to make it harder for the Russians to capitalize on the Ukrainians’ extraordinary moment of weakness.
One powerful tool finally employed by the Biden administration — supplying ATACMS and targeting intelligence for strikes inside Russia — had been effectively pulled from the table. But a parallel weapon had remained in place — permission for C.I.A. and military officers to share targeting intelligence and provide other assistance for Ukrainian drone strikes against crucial components of the Russian defense industrial base. These included factories manufacturing “energetics” — chemicals used in explosives — as well as petroleum-industry facilities.
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In June, beleaguered U.S. military officers met with their C.I.A. counterparts to help craft a more concerted Ukrainian campaign. It would focus exclusively on oil refineries and, instead of supply tanks, would target the refineries’ Achilles’ heel: A C.I.A. expert had identified a type of coupler that was so hard to replace or repair that a refinery would remain offline for weeks. (To avoid backlash, they would not supply weapons and other equipment that Mr. Vance’s allies wanted for other priorities.)
As the campaign began to show results, Mr. Ratcliffe discussed it with Mr. Trump. The president seemed to listen to him; they had a frequent Sunday tee time. According to U.S. officials, Mr. Trump praised America’s surreptitious role in these blows to Russia’s energy industry. They gave him deniability and leverage, he told Mr. Ratcliffe, as the Russian president continued to “jerk him off.”
The energy strikes would come to cost the Russian economy as much as $75 million a day, according to one U.S. intelligence estimate. The C.I.A. would also be authorized to assist with Ukrainian drone strikes on “shadow fleet” vessels in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Gas lines would start forming across Russia.
“We found something that is working,” a senior U.S. official said, then had to add, “How long, we don’t know.”
But is it really working? The likely too high estimate of US $75 million damage per day is a relatively small in comparison to the total $110-150 billion per year of Russian gas- and oil sector revenue that flows towards the state.
The gas lines that had formed at a time were caused by logistical problems, not by a general lack of gasoline. It took a about a week to fix that. Russia does have more refining capacity than the country needs. Local demand is prioritized over exports. Attacks on refineries are unlikely to ever bring Russia to its knees.
Another part of the NY Times piece is about an alleged concession Putin was said to have made during peace talks with the Trump administration. It insists that Putin agreed to give up on those parts of Kherson and Zaparozhia that have not yet been captured if the Ukrainians retreat from Donetsk and Luhansk oblast. The Russian side has, to my best knowledge, never confirmed such a deal. The description of the Times on how this allegedly came to pass lets me doubt that any such deal really exists:
“I refuse to be a guilty man,” Mr. Kellogg told a colleague.
At an Oval Office meeting, still hoping to salvage some equity in Ukraine’s territorial concessions, he had offered a plan for a land swap. In this “two-plus-two plan,” Mr. Putin would withdraw from Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts. Ukraine would relinquish the rest of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The plan, Mr. Kellogg admitted, was a Hail Mary, and Mr. Trump told him, “Putin probably won’t go for it.” Still, he directed Mr. Witkoff, “Get this to Putin.”
They met on Aug. 6. Mr. Putin didn’t go for it; he was not about to cede territory voluntarily. But Mr. Witkoff heard what he interpreted as a breakthrough. According to a Trump adviser, the envoy reported back that Mr. Putin had told him: “OK, OK, we can’t figure out a cease-fire. Here’s what we will do, we will do a final peace deal, and that peace deal is the balance of Donetsk.”
Actually it was more.
In this “three-plus-two plan,” the Russians would also keep Crimea and get the last sliver of Luhansk. Instead of withdrawing from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, as Mr. Kellogg had proposed, they would keep the territory they’d already conquered. The plan was not the total control Mr. Putin had long demanded, but it was still far more favorable to Russia.
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[After the August meeting in Anchorage the presidents] took no questions, leaving the world to puzzle over just what they had agreed on. But according to two Trump advisers, Mr. Putin repeated what he had told Mr. Witkoff: He would end the war if he could get the balance of Donetsk.
I very much doubt that the Russian president agreed to this. Putin is a trained jurist and the inclusion of Kherson, Zaparozhia, Dontesk and Luhansk into the Russian Federation is a part of its constitution. Not even the president can overrule it.
The so called peace process the U.S. pursues runs on illusions. This while the Russians clearly see what the CIA is doing to them.
They surely won’t fall for the conditions the U.S. is trying to impose on them.
Please delete if this should be on an open thread. Off topic but interesting. Imperator (421, previous thread) and Newbie (439) refer to Simplicius (link below) Video there on the Tornado-S. 40 secs in. Reference to “the Bat’ko”.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/2025-end-of-year-wrap-up-and-battlefield
They’re using the new weapons on Guliaipole – “Today they will go to visit Father Makhno”. Guliaipole was Makhno’s home turf. Interesting because Makhno seems to have been appropriated by the Ukrainian ultras. Quite wrongly, seems to me. But that brief reference may indicate that the Russians now also accept that appropriation.
I attempted an assessment of Makhno and his legacy a while back, on Andrei Martyanov’s site, that argues against that appropriation:-
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I did see a little while ago some Rada MP speaking as if Makhno was a symbol of resistance to “Russian imperialism”: and saying that therefore the loss of Guliaipole, the town most associated with Makhno, was particularly significant.
But that claim is not foursquare with the facts. The only forces Makhno fought against consistently were those of Denikin and those of the Austro-Hungarians. He sometimes allied himself with Petliura and sometimes with the Red Army, alliances of convenience that he entered into solely in order to defeat Denikin.
However, he sometimes fought against both as well! He disapproved fundamentally of Petliura. He had no time for Petliura’s nationalism, or indeed any nationalism, and regarded Petliura’s movement as an aberration. His objection to the Reds was not that they represented “Russian imperialism”. It was that he didn’t think Lenin was communist enough. Or not in accordance with Makhno’s vision of organic egalitarianism arising directly from the wishes and decisions of the people.
Lenin returned the compliment and was equally dismissive of Makhno. He regarded him as the leader of a peasant rabble. But Lenin recognised military reality and needed Makhno for a time – so much so that by some Mkahno is credited with having saved the Revolution. Whether he did that or not, once the danger was past Lenin lost no time in getting Makhno out of the way.
Views on Makno differ widely. It’s not a subject I know anything like enough about to have formed my own. But it’s quite ridiculous if today’s Black Sun crowd is claiming Makhno as any sort of icon. An admirer of Kropotkin, and I think approved of by him, Makhno was dead against all that Petliura represented.
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Notes.
Confirmation here that the Bat’ko has become all things to all men and that his memory has been appropriated by, amongst others, some of the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists:-
“July 2024 marked the 90th anniversary of the death of Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (1888–1934). Born a peasant in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Huliaipole, Makhno headed the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the tumultuous period of the Ukrainian Revolution. As a result, he became not only one of the best-known anarchists in the world but also one of the most recognizable figures in Ukrainian history.[1] The anarchist himself and the insurgent movement named after him (known as the Makhnovshchyna) not only evoke many conflicting emotions and controversy but have also inspired successive generations of anarchists (and others) to take up the fight for the ideals of freedom, equality, and social justice.
“Regardless of Makhno’s self-identification and the ideals he fought for, in today’s environment, it is not so evident that the Makhnovist movement is associated exclusively with anarchism, self-governance, and social justice. There is an infatuation with Makhno not only as a defender of the common folk symbolizing the Ukrainian rebel spirit but sometimes also as an “ally” of the Bolsheviks. For others, he is a patriot and national hero and almost always a military genius.[2] He is even seen as the architect of a kind of Ukrainian statehood.[3] Today, in the face of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Makhno is seen as a symbol of resistance against Russian imperialism (White, Red, and now Putinist).”
https://anarchiststudies.noblogs.org/article-nestor-makhno-in-the-culture-of-remembrance-of-modern-ukraine
The “Russian imperialism” meme being of course the mainstay of neocon apologists in the West. “If we don’t fight them over there we’ll have to fight them over here” as justification for the war with Russia. We can leave refutation of that to Sachs.
A biography and evaluation of Makhno here:-
https://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/26581/file.pdf
“It seems probable that differences in the narratives around Makhno’s youthare determined to some extent by political positioning. He was supposedlyhot-tempered,19 and there is anecdotal evidence that as a youth he was considered indolent and surly, qualities that led, in at least one case, to his losing a job.20 Indolence and surliness, of course, are plausible manifestations of resentment towards the wealthy. What is certain is that by his late teens, after the revolution of 1905 and irrespective of the psychological or personal circumstances that led him to it, Makhno became politically active.
“He seems initially to have been sympathetic to Menshevik ideas, and helped to distribute their literature. Despite this initial sympathy for the Mensheviks, he soon joined ananarchist-communist group – his older brothers were already members21 – and quickly became a participant in insurrectionist actions of ‘propaganda of the deed’, such as an attack on a post office, and robberies or ‘appropriations’.22
” The anarchist-communists wanted a society organised around loose confederations of producers’ associations, in which agricultural and industrial labour would co-exist. Distinctions between inferior and superior work, between workers by hand and workers by brain, would vanish. This disappearance of the division of labour would result in a communal society in which all would work from free will.23″
So not one of todays “ultras”. White supremacism? – no: his anarchism was universalist. Antisemitism? – no: he took extreme measures against attacks on Jews. Russophobia? – no: the ultras’ take on the Russians, that they were untermenschen to be killed or expelled from Eastern Ukraine, would not have gained approval from Makhno. If one had to position him in the Ukraine of today, I see him as closer to Mozgovoy than to Biletsky.
”
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As said, off topic. Most interesting though. Does “Today they will go to visit Father Makhno” indicate that Makhno, the rebel anarchist decidedly against ultra-nationalism, is now viewed by both sides as an ultra-nationalist icon? I’d hazard a guess he’s not so viewed by all in the Donbass itself.
Posted by: English Outsider | Dec 31 2025 12:52 utc | 4
Weapon Systems: The Most Important Innovations in Russia’s Arsenal 2025
The Oreshnik
Russia’s state-of-the-art Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile system will be commissioned before the end of the year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in mid-December. The system is one of the new weapons intended to “secure Russia’s strategic parity, security, and global standing for decades to come,” the president stated.
NATO considers Russian Burevestnik missile a serious threat
The nuclear-capable missile is said to carry many individually controllable warheads that remain steerable even in the final phase of its approach, when traveling at hypersonic speeds.
The Burevestnik was unveiled to the world in November 2024, when the missile—equipped with conventional warheads—strike a major arms factory in Ukraine. At the time, Moscow said the system had successfully completed a “combat test.” Its destructive power, even with conventional warheads, was compared by Russian officials to that of a tactical nuclear weapon.
Up to ten of these new systems are to be deployed in Belarus, Russia’s closest ally, according to an agreement that Moscow and Minsk concluded shortly after this initial deployment of the missile.
In mid-October, Russia successfully tested its new nuclear-powered guided missile, the Burevestnik. According to the Russian military, the missile flew more than 14,000 kilometers during the test and remained airborne for approximately 15 hours.
The Burevestnik is propelled by a nuclear-powered turbojet engine and has a technically unlimited range, giving it unparalleled offensive capabilities worldwide. Because its propulsion system does not use conventional propellants that rely on air intake, and heat is instead generated by the generator, it can remain airborne for extended periods limited only by the lifespan of its components.
The propulsion unit is comparable in power to the reactor of a nuclear-powered submarine, but “1,000 times smaller,” said President Putin when announcing the successful test.
The propulsion unit’s power output is comparable to that of a nuclear-powered submarine reactor, but “1,000 times smaller,” President Putin stated upon announcing the successful test.
The Burevestnik is powered by a nuclear-powered turbojet engine and has an “increased range of 1,000 times smaller.” “The key is that this nuclear reactor, while a conventional nuclear reactor takes hours, days, or even weeks to start up, starts within minutes or seconds. That is an enormous achievement,” the president said, pointing out that the miniaturized power supply could also find potential civilian applications.
The Poseidon Nuclear Drone
Simultaneously with the unveiling of the Burevestnik, Moscow announced that it had successfully tested another nuclear-powered device—the massive, torpedo-shaped underwater drone Poseidon.
In terms of power, Poseidon far surpasses even Russia’s newest Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, Putin said, referring to the nuclear warhead the drone can carry. Poseidon also has no competition “when it comes to speed and depth,” and, according to the president, it is also exceptionally quiet and inconspicuous.
The drone is intended to be a true doomsday weapon—capable of devastating wide swathes of coastline and even triggering a massive, radioactive tsunami that would reach far inland.
Days after the Poseidon drone was unveiled, a special platform for the drones was commissioned—the nuclear-powered submarine Khabarovsk. The submarine has been under construction since the summer of 2014, and its purpose has only now been revealed.
New, long-range glide bombs
During the Ukraine conflict, the Russian military has gradually expanded its use of bombs equipped with the Universal Corrector and Guide Module (UMPK). These modules transform older munitions into glide bombs capable of traveling up to 50 kilometers.
The First S-500 Regiment in Operation At the end of December, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov announced that the country’s army had equipped its first air defense regiment with the latest S-500 systems.
The regiment is a unit within the newly formed 1st Air and Missile Defense Division of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the minister stated. Although little is known about the new air defense system, the S-500 is said to be capable of intercepting hypersonic missiles and also engaging targets in low Earth orbit, depending on the ammunition used.
The system has been under development since the 2000s and is intended to complement, not replace, existing air defense weapons such as the S-300 and S-400. The S-500 is designed to fill an intermediate role between a strategic missile defense shield and the army’s air defense forces. The system has successfully completed its final trials, and various types of ammunition for it have been in mass production since the early 2020s.
Posted by: smartfox | Dec 31 2025 15:02 utc | 39
1) the NYTimes is not a news agency, it is a FAKE News agency, run by CIA/Mossad. We cannot trust anything published there. Just like FOX News or CNN or Washington Post, etc, each with their kwn target audience.
2) what the NYTimes publishes is what the CIA/Mossad want it to publish at any given time, always with some hidden intentions. So we must always ask: what are the consequences of this FAKE News, if: A) USA citizens believe it; B) Western citizens in general believe it; C) foreign governments believe it.
3) obviously, since there was no regime change in USA, the Trump administration is the same as Bide administrarion, and Obama’s, Bush’s, Clinton’s, etc. It is an empire with fascism at home and terrorism/nazism/genocide overseas (zionism is part of all those 3 components). Run by the oligarchy, who owns the DeepState agents and the Military Industrial Complex, and Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The elections in such a regime are a farce, and change nothing. The “progressive vs conservative” binomial narrative is just that: a narrative to fool the fools.
4) USA regime’s goals, as in any empire, is dominance. In a globalist era, this means planetary hegemony, not just regional. Any countr, no matter how peaceful it is, is seen as an “enemy” and a “threat” if it becomes “too powerful” to the point of challenging that global hegemony. Therefore Russia (since Putin saved it from the Capitalist NeoLiberal destruction after the traitors in Moscow dissolved the USSR) and China (since the Communists showed the world how successful a Communism government can be) are the “enemies” that USA wants to destroy or at least hinder.
5) The EU was also a temporary “threat” to USA empire’s hegemony, when the Euro currency (a failed experiment at home in national economies, but a successful competitor of the Dollar in terms of world reserves) became too powerful. At some point it would take 1.45 Dollars to buy a single Euro. And the Euro was already grabbing as much one third of the world reserves that the Dollar used to have.
This is when the USA regime started the subprime crisis ON PURPOSE, to let the ripple effect hit the European banking system. Then the USA “big three” rating agencies hit the Euro national debts with speculation and “bad” ratings. Finally the USA agents in Europe imposed NeoLib austerity, followed by money printing by the ECB (Euro Central Bank), and now the imposition of sanctions and commerce/energy cuts against Russia, and the final blow: stealing Russian assets to completely undermine world-wide trist in the Euro zone. So far, USA agents in Europe achieved only he 2nd best scenario for the dollar: more debt for Euro countries, money used to finance the proxy war in Ukrainazistan and to guarantee the profit of the USA’s oligarchy that owns the Military Industrial Complex.
6) USA’s imperialism is a continuation of UK’s imperialism. The old strategy of divide & conquer, as well as the duplicity (pretending to be a “good cop” while its terrorist/fascist proxies play bad cop) are still in place. The third tool, as I referenced in the previous point, are the agents pit in place in other countries. Usually they are 100% corrupt and traitors of their own nations. All they do is in the interest of USA’s oligarchy, and against the interest of their own people. At some point in the past, USA was able to put these agents in SOME powerful positions. Nowadays, in western countries, USA is able to have these agents in ALL powerful positions, many times controlling both government, main opposition, judiciary, and military (through NATO “partnership”). The ones who are not yet USA’s agents, are usually all fooled by USA’s propaganda machine: ALL western MainStreamMedia. The Mi6 and Mossad (CIA’s main partners/branches) still have some control of their own “news” at home, but the other countries have lost all control.
7) so, when reading/seeing any “news” from the Western bloc, we must always have these 6 points in our mind, and ask these questions:
– who benefits with the publication of this “news”?
– who is the target audience?
– what country is CIA/Mossad trying to fool?
– where do they want regime change?
– what natural resources is the oligarchy trying to grab?
– how does this impact Dollar dominance?
– how does this narrative play with USA’s internal documents describing the empire’s goals?
– what part of this is bought by the zionist lobby?
– if I believed in this news, what kind of consent would I give to this empire? Aka what country would I be willing to hurt with my taxes and vote?
Conclusion: considering all the above, this is my conclusion about this NYTimes’s “news”:
– the Empire’s DeepState (corrupt agents controlled by the nazi-fascists, terrorists, genocidal oligarchs, usually linked to zionism or bought by zionist lobby. I’ll just call this SATAN from now on, to save time) knows now that it can’t defeat Russia nor even change regime in Belarus and Georgia, let alone in Russia;
– the SATAN decided it is now time to hurt the EU even more, and keep hurting Russia, while SATAN plays “good cop”. So the EU vassals/agents yse what’s left of the Euro money to finance this proxy war, and Russia is prevented with a “peace” deal impossible to accept, while SATAN focus more in preparing the next wars: Venzuela, Iran, China, etc.
– the SATAN published this news acknowledging collaboration with Ukrainazis in terrorist attacks against Russian vessels in the Black and Mediterranean Seas, in order to irritate Russia and make it impossible for Moscow to accept the “peace” negotiations, while at the same time keep fooling Europeans and Ukrainians that “USA/SATAN still has your back, so keep sacrificing yourselves, because Putin’s friend (Trump) will be over soon”.
– internally, this “news” keeps fooling the fools that still believe that USA has any kind of “checks and balances” or any kind of “democracy”, when in fact there are just 2 factions playing a farce to fool voters to keep believing they “change” anything in the elections. The Progressive fools will believe “yeah, our guys are undermining Trump”, while the Conservative fools will believe “no, these Dems/MSM are hurting the “peace” work of our MAGA leader”.
– zionists also benefit from the fact that not only Russia, but also Turkey, is hurt by these terrorist attacks on maritime commerce/energy transport. It doesn’t change much, but hurting others every time that it is possible, is the SATAN’s and Zionists’ favourite hobby.
This is also how you should read the “news” about “narco-terrorists” in Venezuela, or “Uygjur concentration camps in China”, or “weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”, or the “communist threat in Vietnam”, or the “Russian invasion of Afghanistan/Ukraine”, or “nuclear threat in Iran”, or the “terrorists in Palestine/Lebanon/Yemen”, or the “oppression of the Cuban/Nicaraguan regime”, or even the “anti-democratic actions against our conservative friends (FAR-Right parties, branches of USA’s MAGA) in Europe” etc.
For a more detailed description of this, with daily reports on the SATAN’s activities, and proof using official documents, you can do what I do: visit Brian Berletic’s Telegram channel, visiting NON-Westerm News agencies like Russian RT/Sputnik/TASS and the excellent Rybar, or Venezuelan TeleSUR, or Arab/Anti-Zionist media like Al-Mayadeen or The Oriental (the Al-Jazeera is just Qatar’s BBC…), or Chinese media like CGTN or The Global Times, some other interesting Telegram channels like DD Geopolitics, or Geroman, and even some western alternative/anti-MSM projects like The Grayzone. And, obviously, read anti-SATAN blogs like this great Moon Of Alabama, and Naked Capitalism.
There are many others, global and in each country of the world. But you guys will naturally find them, once you open your eyes.
No one will tell/give you the truth. The truth is not your entitled right. It is the most valuable/powerful asset in the world. You have to search for it by yourself. And you have to cross data from multiple sources. That’s how you become a well informed citizen of the (multipolar) world, instead of being just a peasant/pawn of the SATAN’s empire. A nazi-fascist terrorist warmonger corrupt genocidal compulsive-liar regime that calls itself “freedom and democracy”.
Posted by: Carlos Marques | Dec 31 2025 15:13 utc | 41
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