Ukraine is “on the verge of a financial catastrophe,” said Daniil Getmantsev, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance
 
Ukraine is “on the verge of a financial catastrophe,” said Daniil Getmantsev, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance.
 
According to him, Kiev will receive less money from the World Bank due to non-fulfillment of conditions.
 
 
 

“I want to bring you back to reality a little bit, to the reality that the country finds itself in now. The country is on the verge of a financial catastrophe,” the politician said at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada.

 
According to Hetmantsev, in 2025, Ukraine failed to meet the 14 indicators of the Ukraine facility (a tool to support Ukraine for 2024-2027) and therefore did not receive €3.9 billion. In the first quarter of 2026, the country also failed to meet five out of five targets.
 
 

“In accordance with our relationship with the World Bank, if we do not adopt four very important laws, <…> we will not receive $3.3 billion from the World Bank,” the Ukrainian politician explained.

 
Hetmantsev added that in this way it is possible to “lose the country.”
 
Source: Telegram “izvestia”

https://news-pravda.com/world/2026/03/26/2183286.html

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 15:08 utc | 4

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 15:08 utc | 4
 
EU’s economy is bound to collapse within weeks and Ukraine will automatically collapse with it.

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 26 2026 15:11 utc | 6

European countries paid billions for US equipment to be delivered to Ukraine. That money is now being stolen to be used against Iran. I remember Sikorski in particular was very proud of this plan

https://x.com/MacaesBruno/status/2037175236458697038

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 26 2026 15:17 utc | 8

Six regions were left without electricity due to shelling: where the situation is most difficult

As a result of hostilities and shelling of energy infrastructure facilities, a number of regions were left without electricity supply
 

This was reported by the Ministry of Energy, RegioNews reports.
 
In particular, residents in Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions were temporarily left without electricity.
 
The most difficult situation is currently in the Chernihiv and Odesa regions, where several consecutive attacks damaged energy equipment. Because of this, a significant number of consumers remain without electricity.
 
Power engineers are working in an enhanced mode to restore power supply as soon as possible. Restoration work continues around the clock.
 
Consumers are asked to use electricity sparingly during peak hours – in the morning and evening, which helps to reduce the load on the system.

https://regionews.ua/ukr/news/ukraine/1774520773-cherez-obstrili-bez-svitla-zalishilisya-shist-oblastey-de-situatsiya-nayskladnisha (via translation add-on.)

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 15:25 utc | 10

https://t.me/bayraktar1070/7164
 

On the realities of the front:
 
Drones have completely taken over the battlefield. In ’24, you could slip through on a motorcycle, in ’25, run across a tree line, and now only the lucky ones reach their objective. Air control is total. Crossing points is only possible in bad weather. Evacuation from zero has practically ceased.
 
No, this isn’t another critical text—it’s just a reflection. The enemy’s situation is no better. Our advance is being stopped not by infantry, but by a line of drones. The front is practically deserted. “Mavics” are much more likely to detect the flight of Baba Yaga than the dash of enemy soldiers. Running to cover and remaining there for months is a viable strategy for survival.
 
Of course, we need a breakthrough on the front, but how can we achieve that? Even if we find another 400,000 volunteers, it won’t change the situation. We can send three men into the attack instead of one. But that will only increase losses, and there will be no turning point on the front.
 
The mechanized armies of the 20th century have lost their relevance, and the infantryman has reached the limits of human capabilities. As trite as it may sound, the smartest will prevail.
 
If this number of enemy infantrymen had held the front in 2022, the Russian army would have reached Dnepropetrovsk in two days. Such results can only be achieved when “reusable armored vehicles” appear on the battlefield. Currently, armored vehicles are incapable of surviving multiple drone strikes.
 
If every armored vehicle is capable of shooting down a dozen drones, the offensive will become relevant again. Unfortunately, such vehicles are unlikely to appear in commercial quantities this year.
 
For now, the rule “whoever has the most accurate and frequent drones has an advantage over the enemy” applies reliably on the front lines. But this is only relevant for this stage of military technology development. A breakthrough lies ahead.
If I were asked what needs to be done now, I’d minimize attacks and infiltrations and focus all resources on developing a mass-produced active defense system against drones. The infantry needs a new wave of technology and new armored vehicles. Without these components, we risk wasting lives without making any significant changes to the map.
Alexander Kharchenko

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 15:38 utc | 12

Yesterday’s update from Marat Khairullin: https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/brief-frontline-report-march-24th-3dc

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 15:51 utc | 14

Slow , 1.150 AFU casualties day
 
Fresh marat , much donetsk
 
https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/brief-frontline-report-march-24th-3dc
 
 
Meanwhile, if anyone cares to check S’s latest (mentioned, and probably abused @2)
 
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/russian-smo-enters-doldrums-under
 
 

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 26 2026 15:59 utc | 16

And this is why I come here, trying to share information and links and asking questions.
 
BTW, today’s tass detailing the 1.150 AFU casualties
 
https://tass.com/politics/2107477

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 26 2026 16:13 utc | 18

From Slavyangrad Telegram (according to them from a „The Telegraph“ article):
““Putin making $760m a day from oil as war in Iran delivers windfall”: Revenues from the sale of Russian oil and gas in March are expected to double. “Even if the war ends in the next few weeks, Russia’s revenues from the sale of oil and gas are expected to rise to 218.5 billion dollars this year – 63% more than if there were no disruptions in energy supplies from the Middle East. This means that Putin will receive an unforeseen profit of 84 billion dollars this year, based on an optimistic scenario in which the war ends in April and energy supplies are quickly restored.If the war lasts for six months, Russia’s annual revenues from oil and gas exports could rise to 386.5 billion dollars – 188% more than predicted before the conflict began”“
 
Where are the „Russian economy is in tatters, I tell you“-Trolls?

Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 16:37 utc | 20

Zionist Putin is getting a big fat bloody nose.  Years of indecision, loss of deterrence, endless meetings, patience and silence has side effects ol’buddy.  NATO is learning from Iranian Military Planners how to stick it to the enemy real good and hard!  If you look at the map, you can see how NATO countries have opened their air-space to hit Leningrad.  Fuck zionist Putin!  

 THE BOMBING OF RUSSIA

In a previous post, we reported on a major Ukrainian-Atlantic attack on the Leningrad region, which was made possible by the active support of NATO, which opened its eastern airspace to enemy drones. The first information about the results of this Ukrainian-Atlantic attack on Russian oil terminals is already known and is being disseminated in the Russian media, and, admittedly, it is disappointing: After the Ukrainian-Atlantic attack, the severely damaged oil complex in Ust-Luga went out of service, which led to a disruption in the export of Russian oil. Ust-Luga Oil Terminal is responsible for the export of diesel fuel and fuel oil. Even further to the west, the Novatek terminal also failed, and all its facilities were damaged. The Novatek plant processes crude oil into naphtha and kerosene. Two tankers that were in the process of loading were also attacked. At the same time, the shipment of oil from Primorsk, the largest oil port in the Baltic, was stopped (more than 1 million barrels per day, about 50 million tons per year). According to several Russian analysts, this drone attack led to the de facto closure of the Russian export hub on the Baltic Sea. And the repair of some unique objects can take several weeks or even months. Russian retaliatory measures are now expected. And the question is whether they will strike at more important targets using more powerful means to end this war of mutual attrition.

Posted by: CrazyCanuck | Mar 26 2026 16:49 utc | 22

The photos of London and Germany between 1910s and 1930s had a lot of people riding bicycles and a lack of automobiles.
 
The photos of 1980s China captured people riding on bicycles everywhere. 
 
In 2030s The USA are now a green superpower and photos of slim Americans riding environmental friendly bicycles. Bicycles are powered by the Burger Eaters.

Posted by: KillerDoll | Mar 26 2026 17:00 utc | 24

Posted by: CrazyCanuck | Mar 26 2026 16:49 utc | 23

 
and
 

Where are the „Russian economy is in tatters, I tell you“-Trolls?
Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 16:37 utc | 20

 
I wonder where the oil from the Baltic Sea mostly went? Wont have been China. So who is hurt most by this (besides Russia)?
 
An by whom? UA seems more of a Zionist proxy by now than US and Putin together. Hurting and extorting EU countries on a rehular basis. Methinks, this is a theater we should pay more attention to.

Posted by: umuntu | Mar 26 2026 17:05 utc | 26

Ukraine is backed by NATO’s multi-trillion dollar economy, I think they will outlast Russia
Posted by: bored | Mar 26 2026 17:01 utc | 26
 
Of course you think so, nafo. Not mentioning in your post, that China is backing Russia. But let me guess, you think not only Russian‘s economy is in tatters but also China‘s?

Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 17:11 utc | 28

Zionist Putin

Posted by: CrazyCanuck | Mar 26 2026 16:49 utc | 23
 
Putin isn’t the Zionist here, Bill Browder is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder
 
Here’s an extract:

Browder started his career in the Eastern European practice of the Boston Consulting Group in London,[23] then worked for Robert Maxwell’s Maxwell Communication Corporation, and after that managed the Russian proprietary investments desk at Salomon Brothers.[24]

Maxwell, huh? There’s that name again…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 17:39 utc | 30

Iran’s experience of countering the collective West already clearly demonstrates and vividly suggests to the Russian leadership the urgent need to intensify strikes against the enemy’s infrastructure, which should lead to a narrowing of its corridor of options for military action.
@voenkorKotenok

Posted by: MiniMO | Mar 26 2026 18:54 utc | 32

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 26 2026 15:11 utc | 6 ”  “EU’s economy is bound to collapse within weeks and Ukraine will automatically collapse with it.”
Weeks?  As in 4?  Or 8 Or 108?

Posted by: ed4 | Mar 26 2026 18:59 utc | 34

What is Jeremy’s obsession with the Rada and this IMF thing? Has he learnt ANYTHING these last 12 years?
Ukraine is a fake country , completely managed from abroad. The Rada is a clownshow ( to be it as diplomatically as possible) with no relevance other than to convince the bydlo idiots in “Ukraine ” that they are a “democracy ”
 
As for the IMF, Ukraine has become even more of a failed, useless state every year after 2014, but that hasn’t stopped the IMF from changing the rules to eventually give Ukraine their loans, or other western organisations and states from giving them anything else that they haven’t deserved.
They are in “ukraine” till literally the last Ukrainian 

Posted by: Winston | Mar 26 2026 20:25 utc | 36

Posted by: bored | Mar 26 2026 17:01 utc | 25
“I think they will outlast Russia”
 
That is because your analysis is faulty. While the EU have plenty of money, they have no material resources except for what they can import, while Russia is self sufficient in energy, metals and food. If China refuses to sell them various metals and  ‘rare earths’, and if they can’t get sufficient oil and gas because Iran has a lock on them, then the EU can produce nothing of any value. Furthermore, the EU lacks the cutting edge knowledge of armaments possessed by Russia, China and even the US, and their technology is years behind. So, best you think again without the blinkers.

Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Mar 26 2026 20:39 utc | 38

Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Mar 26 2026 20:39 utc | 39
stupid clueless comment this “while Russia is self sufficient in energy, metals and food” wtf , ever talked with russians ? 
 
 

Posted by: jameswtf | Mar 26 2026 21:02 utc | 40

@ jameswtf | Mar 26 2026 21:02 utc | 42
It seems you are clueless. Russia is largely self-sufficient in energy, many metals, and most basic foods.- it’s one of the most energy rich countries in the world (oil, natural gas, coal)- it produces more energy than it consumes and therefore exports heavily (especially gas and oil)- Russia has vast mineral resources across its territory (Iron ore, Nickel, Aluminum, Palladium, Gold and platinum)- altough they have some dependence on imports for certain high-tech or specialty metals- Russia has become a major agricultural producer, especially since the 2010s (for example one of the world’s largest wheat exporters)- they have strong production of grains, sugar, vegetable oilsOne can say that Russi is fully self-sufficient in energy, mostly self-sufficient in metals and mostly self-sufficient, with strategic gaps when it comes to food.

Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 21:13 utc | 42

Of course you think so, nafo. Not mentioning in your post, that China is backing Russia. 
 
Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 17:11 utc | 28

 
China has provided more direct military support to Ukraine than to Russia.
 
Where do you think those millions of drones come from?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:09 utc | 44

China has provided more direct military support to Ukraine than to Russia. Where do you think those millions of drones come from?
Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:09 utc | 46
———–
Of course you know what the Chinese deliver to the Russians. Do you get get numbers on a weekly or monthly basis? /s

Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 22:15 utc | 46

A massive merry-go-round of debt is not the same thing as a “multi-trillion dollar economy”. Unencumbered collateral is surprisingly scarce in NATO economies.
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 17:20 utc | 29

 
Despite offshoring and deindustrialization, NATO’s industrial potential vastly exceeds that of Russia.
 
Russia isn’t the USSR, it lost half its people and got deindustrialized too in the Yeltsin-Putin era.
 
A solid alliance of Russia + China (you can add Iran and North Korea, but that does not change much) is vastly superior to NATO, but here is no such alliance. 
 
Russia alone will be attrited and destroyed under the current rules of engagement in which Russia is bombed around the clock but never fires back

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:19 utc | 48

Despite offshoring and deindustrialization, NATO’s industrial potential vastly exceeds that of Russia.

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:19 utc | 50
 
Anyone who believes NATO’s industrial capacity actually exists in a meaningful way, and can produce large amounts of weaponry that actually works, must be immediately euthanized because the crime of stupidity incompatible with the right to continue existing and waste valuable resources has been committed. 

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 22:23 utc | 50

Despite offshoring and deindustrialization, NATO’s industrial potential vastly exceeds that of Russia.
 
Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:19 utc | 50
 
######
 
You should stop posting because it is clear to anyone that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 26 2026 22:25 utc | 52

Anyone who believes NATO’s industrial capacity actually exists in a meaningful way, and can produce large amounts of weaponry that actually works
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 22:23 utc | 52

 
Why has the front been a stalemate for three years then?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:33 utc | 54

Why has the front been a stalemate for three years then?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:33 utc | 56 Anyone who can’t read the maps […]

 
The same maps that show Russian advances slowing down, not accelerating, and that from the already blitzkrieg previous pace at which Ukraine was going to be liberated somewere in the early 22nd century?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:40 utc | 56

Why has the front been a stalemate for three years then?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:33 utc | 56 Anyone who can’t read the maps […]

 The same maps that show Russian advances slowing down, not accelerating, and that from the already blitzkrieg previous pace at which Ukraine was going to be liberated somewere in the early 22nd century?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:40 utc | 58
 
Anyone who makes a complete cock-up of trying to post a response must be immediately euthanized because the crime of stupidity incompatible with the right to continue existing and waste valuable resources has been committed. 

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 22:44 utc | 58

Why has the front been a stalemate for three years then?
Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:33 utc | 56
——-
I remember when the frontline was in Vuhledar, Avdiivka (near Donetsk), Sievierodonetsk and so on and look where the frontline is now! That are considerable distances, Ukraine is a large country. So I’m not sure “stalemate” is the proper term.

Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 22:46 utc | 60

How many cars, airplanes, etc. do NATO and Russia produce respectively?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 22:40 utc | 59
 
When comparing production outputs and the trend curves, anyone excluding China from the comparisons must be immediately euthanized because the crime of stupidity incompatible with the right to continue existing and waste valuable resources has been committed. 

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 22:53 utc | 62

Anyone quoting unverified Telegram channels such as https://t.me/exilenova_plus/ must be immediately euthanized because the crime of stupidity incompatible with the right to continue existing and waste valuable resources has been committed. 

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 22:58 utc | 64

@63,
We know dude, Ukraine has great drones. No need to share these one sided TG garbage channels. The reality is that both sides are one step above when it comes to drones compared to the rest of the world. 

Posted by: JamesBond | Mar 26 2026 23:03 utc | 66

https://t.me/olegtsarov/41111
 

Unknown drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) attacked the Sierra Leone-flagged tanker Altura off the coast of Turkey, sailing from Novorossiysk.
 
The tanker was carrying 140,000 tons of oil. Turkish media reports indicate that the strikes caused a powerful explosion on the vessel, prompting the crew to immediately request assistance.
 
There are currently no reports of a large-scale oil spill. The main impact struck the bridge and technical compartments, resulting in the loss of propulsion and partial flooding of the engine room.
 
Turkish authorities have not yet made an official statement regarding the cause of the incident, and Ukraine has also denied the attack, but this is clearly another Ukrainian attack.
 
Since the beginning of the year, the EU and Ukraine have been methodically restricting Russian oil exports by destroying illegal tankers and Russian port infrastructure.
 
The Mediterranean has become a dead zone for Russian gas carriers, and Baltic trade routes are under constant threat. In the Black Sea, tankers are being attacked by Ukrainian UAVs and drones. There are no longer any safe routes for merchant ships linked to Russia.

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 23:08 utc | 68

You were talking about “stalemate”. Don’t compare it with WW2, compare it with the Western Front from WW1.
Posted by: NoName | Mar 26 2026 23:06 utc | 69

 
1) You know that WWI had an Eastern Front too, right? And that one might me a little bit more relevant to the current war, fought in the same general area.
 
2) The Western Front in WW1 stalemated almost immediately. The current war took about a year for that condition to develop. Whose fault is it that Russia’s initial overwhelming military-technical superiority was not taken proper advantage of?

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 23:14 utc | 70

Anyone scraping around the arse end of Telegram channels desperately looking for something, anything, to support their failing flailings must be immediately euthanized because the crime of stupidity incompatible with the right to continue existing and waste valuable resources has been committed. 

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 23:15 utc | 72

Russia is right there to supply it with all those things

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 23:15 utc | 73
 
Anyone who doesn’t understand the idea that sanctions work both ways and cannot provide substantiation for their assertions must be immediately euthanized because the crime of stupidity incompatible with the right to continue existing and waste valuable resources has been committed. 

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 23:19 utc | 74

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 23:15 utc | 73
 
#######
 
Source?
 
Russia doesn’t even process all of those things.
 
Please stop posting. It is now beyond embarrassing.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 26 2026 23:19 utc | 76

https://t.me/rezervsvo/158664
 

A seven-year-old girl and her mother were injured in a drone attack in the Belgorod Region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced.
 
“In the village of Voznesenovka in the Shebekinsky District, a drone struck a private home. At the Shebekinsky Central District Hospital, the child was diagnosed with a mine blast injury and a shrapnel wound to the leg, and her mother with barotrauma. The girl will be taken to the Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital for further examination and treatment, and the woman will be taken to Belgorod City Hospital No. 2. ”

Posted by: GM | Mar 26 2026 23:21 utc | 78

Darn, hit the Return key in the wrong place, but just to point out how desperate the flailing is getting.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 23:25 utc | 80

@76,
What’s the point in repeating the same stuff over and over again?
You don’t need to agree with everything GM says although he does sometimes make a few valid points. Debate his ideas instead of being a troll yourself.
@77,
Another example that some of RU elite are happy with the things as they are and want to get back the system that US rules. Its a shame, but I think they know that BRICS or Global South don’t have any real power yet to change anything meaningful. They might be right. We will see on that visit between US & China next month.

Posted by: JamesBond | Mar 26 2026 23:27 utc | 82

What’s the point in repeating the same stuff over and over again?

Posted by: JamesBond | Mar 26 2026 23:27 utc | 84
 
All I am doing is quoting his own words back to him. I’m sure he was very proud of his initial construction of the phrase.
 
Things can rebound, can boomerang, in unexpected ways.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 26 2026 23:33 utc | 84

 Its a shame, but I think they know that BRICS or Global South don’t have any real power yet to change anything meaningful. 
Posted by: JamesBond | Mar 26 2026 23:27 utc | 84

 
BRICS doesn’t have any meaningful power precisely because of the people you are referring to. 

Posted by: GM | Mar 27 2026 0:10 utc | 86

BRICS doesn’t have any meaningful power precisely because of the people you are referring to.

Posted by: GM | Mar 27 2026 0:10 utc | 88
 
Anyone who thinks BRICS is a military alliance must be immediately euthanized because the crime of stupidity incompatible with the right to continue existing and waste valuable resources has been committed. 

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 27 2026 0:22 utc | 88

RF Navy needs to escort its tankers…….the attacks are increasing………

Posted by: tobias cole | Mar 27 2026 0:27 utc | 90

GM, maybe you can help me out here.
 
Everybody is talking about the absurdity of the “red lines” talk from Putin and co. but I was wondering if he has actually addressed this topic on that marathon “Direct Line” Q&A conference he gives near the end of each year?
The strikes on Russian infrastructure and factories have been happening for over a year now.
 
Or what about the “Moscow,Kremlin Putin” show where he’s interviewed by Pavel Zarubin most weeks?
 
It’s not like he doesn’t take questions, but I just find inexplicable if he hasn’t been cornered into answering this question yet?

Posted by: Winston | Mar 27 2026 0:55 utc | 92

tobias cole | Mar 27 2026 0:27 utc | 92
 
The one thing the Britkrainian War and the US war on Iran prove, big ships make nice ducks.
 
BS Fleet will be escorting no one. Turk flagged tanker just got burped. Any navel vessel is just an open challenge,  see Moskova, Ford, Lincoln…..
 
Escort vessels are targets for all type of asymmetric warfare of which Russia is loath to employ……their loss.

Posted by: SenttoCoventry | Mar 27 2026 1:41 utc | 94

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Mar 27 2026 2:51 utc | 97
Reuters reported on March 25, 2026 that at least 40% of Russia’s oil export capacity — roughly 2 million barrels per day — has been halted
 
__________________________________________
 
 
 
Do you believe mainstream media propaganda?

Posted by: Fredrick | Mar 27 2026 3:01 utc | 96

The European Parliament’s resolution of March 11, 2026 calling for a genuine single defense market (P10_TA(2026)0079) is better understood against seventy-five years of deliberately constructed fragmentation than as a sudden awakening to efficiency. Fragmented defense markets currently cost Europe an estimated thirty percent premium — but the fragmentation was not an oversight.
 
The postwar Allied settlement deliberately decentralized West German political and industrial architecture precisely to prevent the reconcentration of military-industrial capacity that had made National Socialism possible. The Bundeswehr’s parliamentary authorization requirements, the Länder-based procurement structures, the prohibition on federal coordination of strategic industries embedded in the Basic Law — these were features, not bugs, of a constitutional order designed to run the vector of authority downward toward democratic accountability rather than upward toward unified command.
 
What Spinelli already argued in the Ventotene Manifesto in 1941, writing from Mussolini’s prison — that the nation-state was the structural generator of European war and that genuine security required federal institutions rather than national rearmament — is now being forced onto the agenda not by the patient federalist movement he founded but by Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the American security guarantee that had allowed European governments to maintain their sovereignty fiction for three-quarters of a century.
 
The resolution’s push for harmonized procurement, mutual certification recognition, and a European Defence Industrial Base is therefore not Brussels technocracy overriding national sovereignty. It is the belated institutional answer to the question the postwar settlement always deferred: at what level does genuine security require unified authority, and how do you maintain democratic accountability at that level without recreating the centralized power the whole postwar architecture was designed to prevent? Whether the current political class has the intellectual resources to frame it in those terms, rather than as national rearmament dressed in European colors, remains the open question.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Mar 27 2026 4:27 utc | 98

GM, maybe you can help me out here.
 Everybody is talking about the absurdity of the “red lines” talk from Putin and co. but I was wondering if he has actually addressed this topic on that marathon “Direct Line” Q&A conference he gives near the end of each year?
The strikes on Russian infrastructure and factories have been happening for over a year now.
 Or what about the “Moscow,Kremlin Putin” show where he’s interviewed by Pavel Zarubin most weeks?
 It’s not like he doesn’t take questions, but I just find inexplicable if he hasn’t been cornered into answering this question yet?
 
Posted by: Winston | Mar 27 2026 0:55 utc | 94

 
 
Most of Putin’s media appearances are carefully choreographed, there are rarely unexpected and inconvenient questions.
 
However, there is a rather long history of openly declaring red lines despite that. Let’s review:
 
1) In the very first hours of the SMO Putin released a now infamous pre-recorded public statement, from behind that also now infamous wooden desk. And threatened that if anyone meddles/intervenes, there will be strikes on “decision making centers” in response. And then said “this is not a bluff”. Well, it was a bluff, because we can all agree there has been a tad bit of meddling in the war since then.
 
 
2) In June 2023 Shoigu, still Minister of Defense at the time, i.e. speaking in official capacity, publicly stated at one of the key meetings of the military that any use of HIMARS or Storm Shadow on the territory of Crimea would constitute an act of war against Russia. By that time HIMARS strikes were routine in the L/DNR, Kherson and the Zaporozhye, plus hundreds of Western tanks, SPGs, and other armor units had entered the battlefield, i.e. the red line from February 24 2022 had been violated rather severely. But Crimea was supposedly different, and had been off limits until then.
 
 
What happened subsequently? Well, the first HIMARS strikes followed just days later, against the Chongar bridge, then Storm Shadows were used to strike all over Crimea, sink a double-digit percentage of the BSF, destroy the BSF HQ, etc.
 
 
Reaction? None.
 
 
3) Then in 2024, on several occasions, Putin himself said that the use of Western missiles on pre-2014 Russian territory would constitute direct involvement in the war.
 
 
That was initially violated, though somewhat covertly, in May 2024, when the ill-fated Russian attempt at an offensive in Kharkov through Volchansk started. Then not so overtly, but quite openly. To the point of killing dozens of Russian soldiers at a time in strikes against convoys around Rylsk, 40-50 km deep inland, during the Kursk offensive. But that was ignored, because it was HIMARS, not heavy missiles. Yeah, sure, no big deal. And it was going to stay that way…
 
 
Around the same time — May 2024 — there was also a Storm Shadow strike against apartment buildings in Lugansk, which leveled whole sections and killed many people, and another strike, this time a French AASM Hammer glide bomb dropped from a fighter jet right at the Belgorod border, destroyed a whole apartment building in Belgorod, killing doznes. And it was clearly a deliberate precision strike, because it fell exactly where you see JDAMs being targeted at in Gaza and Lebanon — at the foundations of the building so that it collapses completely.
 
 
Also to note is the New Year massacre in Belgorod on December 30 2023, which was the first large-scale such attack, when Czech Vampyre MLRS systems were used to shell the Christmas market in the center of the city with cluster munitions. Killed 25, wounded 100, a lot of them children, as they targeted the skating rink and other public gathering places out in the open. The Russian FM summoned the Czechs at the UNSC, they literally laughed in Russia’s face, did it in writing on Twitter too, there was no meaningful reaction, so Belgorod was then shelled repeatedly the same way in the subsequent months, many people died, including a particularly gruesome case of a mother pushing a stroller with her baby on the street, both killed.
 
 
That of course did not in any way move Putin’s cold heart in the direction of doing something to protect the civilian population that is his official duty to protect.
 
 
After August 2024 heavy missiles started flying into Russia — Storm Shadows on military bases in Rostov, ATACMS strikes on airfields as deep as Lipetsk, though all of those were hushed up initially. More official such attacks began in November 2024, when Putin again clearly stated it as a red line. But there was no response to those attacks either
 
 
4) The reddest of red line declarations happened in November 2024, when the Russian nuclear doctrine was amended to explicitly state that the mass launch of missiles and drones into Russian territory warrants the use of nuclear weapons in response.
 
 
Well, either the use of very heavy (1,000-kg warhead for the FP-5/Flamingo) cruise missiles to strike Votkinsk (it does not get more strategic of a target than that) and the launch of hundreds of drones every day does not constitute a launch of missiles and drones (!?!?!?), or even the official Russian nuclear doctrine means absolutely nothing and Russia will not launch the nukes no matter what.
 
 
Then it can be treated as effectively not having nukes, right? Which is exactly what is happening now.
 
 
P.S. Russia was also actually nuked several times. The first probable such case was in August 2023, when the factory in Sergiev Possad northwest of Moscow that was producing key components for drone production blew up. It was just too large of an explosion to not make one extremely suspicious. Plus people reported hearing whistling sounds just before it happened. Which is very ominous, because nobody reported anything being launched and tracked at the time, while this is very deep inside Russia. So what could it have been? A Dark Eagle strike from Germany? Nukes dropped from space? Backpack nukes planted on site? If the reports of whistling sounds heard are true, it most likely wasn’t the latter, but if it’s one of the other two, that means Russia is defenseless.
 
But that was not a open and shut case, because while it was a huge explosion, it wasn’t beyond-any-doubt huge.
 
 
However, the Toropets strike on September 19th 2024 was definitely a beyond-any-doubt huge one, as the yield almost certainly exceeded 10 kt on that one given the height of the cloud and the fact that it blew out windows 10-15 km away. There was also another certain to not have been conventional strike on one of the two ammo depots in Engels in March 2025, and another 3-4 such strikes on airbases in August 2024, of which we got little footage, but at least for the one on Morozovsk we are again 99% certain, because we not only got the footage of the huge mushroom cloud but then also footage of the consequences and it was clearly an airburst, not an explosion of the ammo depot itself, because all the UMPKs and missiles in the ammo depot were not exploded, but flattended from above.
 
 
Those strikes on bases in Rostov, Voronezh and Lipetsk were cruise missiles, and for Rostov it may have been from NATO jets launching from the Black Sea, for Lipetsk and Voronezh it seems to have been ATACMS. But Toropets is in Tver, too far for ATACMS from Ukraine, and it appears to have been a cruise missile launched from the Baltics.
 
 
There was no reaction even to those episodes.
 
 
Now note that it doesn’t even matter if the strikes were actually nuclear, though there is prcatically zero chance something like Toropets was not a nuke, the fact is that 5-10-kt explosions are happening in Russian strategic military bases, so what does it matter if they were nukes or not, the point is that massive damage is done.
 
 
But there was no reaction even to those violations, which are basically the second-to-last rung of the ladder of escalation, the last remaining one being countervalue nuclear strikes on cities.
 
 
Is it then any wonder that the West is doing what it is doing now? It has a mountain of four years of extremely extensive evidence that Putin will not do anything no matter what they do.
 
 
Which raises the question about the distinction between incompetence and outright treason and whether it even makes sense to ponder that distinction…

Posted by: GM | Mar 27 2026 4:48 utc | 100