The line from Moscow is growing increasingly hardened, with Russia stating that the special military operation in Ukraine will continue without any pause even if negotiations commence, as Sergey Lavrov makes clear that Russia will not «freeze» operations to give Ukraine time to regroup.
At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky from the UN calls for greater economic pressure on Moscow and the obstruction of Russian defense production, while the US and Russia attempt to keep open a limited channel for a ceasefire concerning energy and grain.
The game is now moving from the frontline to the diplomatic table, with the Baltics and European security entering the equation ever more perilously.
Kyiv asked for mercy
While the Russian army was cutting power and internet across Kyiv and residents slept in metro stations, the top political leadership of Ukraine flew to New York.
There, the UN General Assembly was proceeding quietly and peacefully.
Through the efforts of Volodymyr Zelensky and his cohort, it began to resemble an amateur performance in a psychiatric clinic.
Initially, the President of Ukraine spoke before an almost empty hall, delivering an incoherent speech full of threats, lies, and accusations against Russia. No one was listening to his nonsense.
Western media dedicated merely two lines to him in their reports.
It was blatantly obvious how fatally tired everyone had grown of Kyiv’s «little fuhrer» with his antics and whining.
Seriously now, in the fifth year of the war, demanding even more «economic pressure» on Russia from the West and hoping that this will help?
After all, 30 thousand sanctions have already been imposed against Russia.
And so what? What is the outcome?
And calling an existential conflict that has halved the population of Ukraine a «ridiculous war», as Volodymyr Zelensky did, is simply madness for any responsible leader.
Does he seriously intend, after these words, to return to his homeland and look the miserable Ukrainians in the eye?
Sybiha’s statement for an immediate ceasefire
Yet the circus did not conclude there.
In a meeting of the UN Security Council, Andrii Sybiha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, suddenly and spectacularly «capitulated» before Russia.
He stated that «Kyiv is ready for an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire» and was already lifting his pen to sign the act of surrender.
After the orderlies removed Andrii Sybiha, Volodymyr Zelensky completely disavowed his minister’s statement and, out of nowhere, demanded that Crimea be returned to him.
They administered a sedative injection, but it clearly failed to work.
Because, to the polite question of a Russian journalist «When will you go to Moscow, Vladimir Alexandrovich?», the «patient» literally responded: «By missile, f...!»
The nerves of our apprentice seemingly cannot hold up.
Zakharova’s pointed intervention
Maria Zakharova sarcastically surmised that in the second part of his phrase, Volodymyr Zelensky was trying to introduce himself.
Furthermore, the incoherent shouts, vulgar curses, anxious gaze, and erratic facial expressions are all classic symptoms of psychosis triggered by excessive use of illicit substances.
These symptoms worsen under conditions of stress.
And the stress for the leader in Kyiv was anything but minor.
Against the background of his outbursts, the Russian delegation in New York appeared exceptionally confident.
Minister Sergey Lavrov joked casually, put journalists in their place with elegance, and, during his meeting with the US Secretary of State, managed to completely outmaneuver him and impose his own perception of the situation.
Lavrov and Rubio on different tracks
The combative Marco Rubio, who had attempted many times to play Kyiv’s game, this time repeated like a good boy the fundamental premise of Russian diplomacy regarding Ukraine: «Temporary ceasefires resolve nothing».
And Sergey Lavrov drove the final nail into the coffin of the Kyiv clique by articulating the essential point: during negotiations, whatever format they may take, «Russia will not suspend the special military operation».
The representatives of Kyiv traveled to New York with two missions: to beg for as many weapons and as much money as possible from the West, and to force Russia to halt strikes under the pretext of negotiations.
They succeeded in neither.
At the same time, Russia confidently expanded its support from the global majority.
This time, no effort was even made to pass a resolution condemning Russia.
Only certain European states issued a declaration calling on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire and enter negotiations.
Diplomacy and... missile strikes
Moscow’s diplomatic victory was complemented by impressive missile strikes, as well as the capture of Buzovo and Khyzhnyakovo.
Concurrently, near Kharkiv, Russian soldiers established a major pocket with a total area of 460 square kilometers, inside which more than 1,700 soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces are trapped.
Russian mockery of... Zelensky
As Russian analysts point out, under stressful conditions, according to doctors, drug-induced psychosis develops rapidly: the individual loses contact with reality, becomes delirious, aggressive, and can inflict harm upon himself and those around him.
Therefore, for the «patient» Volodymyr Zelensky it would indeed be better, as they report, to travel to Moscow.
«We have very good specialists; they will prescribe treatments and injections.
Gennady Onishchenko can offer counsel.
Agree to it, Vladimir Alexandrovich.
Joking aside, for you this is the only safe escape route», Russian commentators remark mockingly.
Russia faces another SVO
Russia faces another SVO.
It will be very brief.
The Parliament of Lithuania approved an amendment to the Constitution, repealing the ban on stationing nuclear weapons in the country.
France and Great Britain no longer conceal their plans to deploy nuclear warheads near Russia’s borders, and the decisions of Lithuanian politicians are linked to broader plans by Western Europeans.
The objective of their maneuvers around the Baltic states is identical to what it was in the previous decade with Ukraine: to create an unacceptable level of threat to its security on Russia’s borders that will force Moscow to act.
Over the past two years, the desire to host Western nuclear bombs had been expressed by Estonia, Finland, and Lithuania itself.
Poland abandons the idea of hosting nuclear weapons
Interestingly, Poland unexpectedly refused the deployment of nuclear weapons on its soil one month ago.
For those observing the foreign policy of Warsaw, this came as a surprise, given that the Poles had for years sought to be entrusted with American nuclear arsenals stationed in Germany.
And suddenly, at a meeting of defense ministers of NATO countries, the representative of Poland walked out to reporters and announced that Warsaw does not want to host nuclear warheads on its territory.
Indeed, he announced this without any apparent preceding trigger.
Evidently, a trigger existed after all.
Europeans continue pushing the transfer of non-conventional weapons toward Russia’s borders and have now reached the stage of selecting the nation that will agree to become a nuclear storehouse.
Namely, to play the role of a new Cuba in a new Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Baltics in the crosshairs
The Poles have sense in their heads.
They understand the prospect of becoming, after Ukraine, the next «training target» upon which Russian rocketeers practice combat missions, and they have no desire to become such a thing.
The anti-Russian rhetoric of Warsaw increasingly serves as a smokescreen for an actual policy that is turning ever more restrained.
Maddeningly restrained, in the eyes of someone like Kaja Kallas.
A suicidal country with no sense at all is required.
A country whose leadership does everything possible to draw attention, to be rewarded for reckless bravado and juvenile enthusiasm, without giving any thought to consequences, simply because it does not know how.
From Saakashvili to Ukraine
Such small yet proud «kamikazes» in Russia’s near abroad were irreplaceable in the project of «containing Russia» from the moment it turned into a global center of power once again.
Twenty years ago it was Mikheil Saakashvili, as an outcome of whose «struggle» with the massive northern neighbor Georgia lost one-fifth of its territory and ultimately cast Mikheil Saakashvili himself into prison.
Over ten years ago, the US and the EU discovered Ukraine for themselves, and over recent years it has consistently pulled the chestnuts out of the fire on behalf of others.
However, even Ukraine, despite the investments made in it and the resources it possessed from the outset as a large nation, proved insufficient to inflict a strategic defeat upon Russia.
For the future, a new «useful idiot» is needed, with a ruling class simultaneously very greedy and very foolish.
Lithuania as a new arena of confrontation
The revision of the Lithuanian Constitution and the lifting of the prohibition on stationing nuclear weapons in the country indicate that such a «useful idiot» has been found.
Indeed, one convinced that it is the cleverest and will manage to outsmart everyone.
The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, emphasizes that in the immediate future Vilnius does not plan to station nuclear weapons on its territory, yet legislative changes will provide room for maneuver should international conditions alter.
And then, supposedly, Lithuania will be able to protect itself!
And then Lithuania will be able to defend itself!
Such reasoning does not merely signify foolishness, but provincial foolishness that genuinely mistakes itself for rustic cunning and shrewdness capable of duping even the devil, let alone you city folk.
And it will not be Lithuania protecting itself, because it will not be the one controlling the weapons deployed on its territory.
Furthermore, international conditions for Lithuania will be shaped by others.
If they decide the time has come to make Russia an offer it cannot refuse, Lithuania will possess zero room for maneuver.
It will obediently install everything, with all the accompanying consequences.
Ukraine as an «offer» to Russia
A few years ago, cynically speaking, they «sold» Ukraine to Russia.
That is, they created a security threat of such scale in its «soft underbelly» that Moscow was forced to address the problem by expending forces and diverting resources away from the tasks of national development.
Nuclear warheads a few hours away from Minsk and Kaliningrad will constitute yet another commercial «pitch» of the type «mister, buy a brick».
In such a pitch, you either surrender everything down to your underwear or you go to war.
It cannot be said that Russia has no choices at all.
Russia has a choice: how to fight.
And it is not even about whether it will take a long or short time.
It is self-evident that it will be short: a military conflict in the Baltic states, simply due to geography, cannot be the same as that in Ukraine.
«Only missiles with the appropriate warheads»
The question is what means could be deployed.
And from the moment Russia’s adversaries are the first to transfer the discourse to the realm of nuclear threat, Russia could even avoid deploying ground forces.
Only missiles with the corresponding payload.
A solution not merely fast, but lightning-quick. Do not underestimate seconds.
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