Friday 16th of October 2026
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

humiliating concessions, unacceptable to the europeans and the english?....

Vladimir Zelensky’s latest interview with the London-based Financial Times deserves careful attention, because it may prove to be a watershed moment as for perhaps the first time, the Ukrainian leader has openly and directly challenged not merely Donald Trump, but the United States itself.

 

Zelensky has made his choice, now America must make its own

The US-Ukraine rift goes beyond Trump: Washington’s interests increasingly clash with Kiev’s demands and Europe’s ambitions

BY Sergey Poletaev

 

For the past year and a half, Zelensky, with considerable assistance from his Western European backers, has managed to navigate his increasingly difficult relationship with Washington. Faced with repeated demands from the White House, he alternated between sharp responses and diplomatic evasions, while maintaining a familiar refrain, that Ukraine appreciates American support, values President Trump’s efforts and intends to continue fighting with Washington’s assistance.

For a while, this approach worked, given the United States maintained limited involvement in the conflict, Ukraine continued fighting with varying degrees of success, and the EU largely picked up the bill. Meanwhile, the diplomatic maneuvering around Trump continued, with European leaders attempting to draw Washington back into the anti-Russian coalition as a fully committed participant.

Until recently, this arrangement appeared capable of continuing indefinitely, so Trump could pursue his peculiar dealings with Vladimir Putin, while Kiev and its European supporters performed an increasingly elaborate diplomatic dance to keep the Americans involved.

Then came the autumn, and Washington delivered what amounted to an ultimatum, essentially: accept our terms, or we will wash our hands of the conflict and deal directly with Moscow, without regard for Ukrainian or European objections.

The immediate dispute concerned Russian diesel, but the details are secondary because what matters is that Ukraine has once again found itself trying to sit on two chairs that are moving apart, and eventually, it must choose one.

In his Financial Times interview, Zelensky appears to have made that choice.

His message to Trump was remarkably direct. You want me to resign? I will not and you want me to stop attacking Russian oil refineries? Then provide missiles for our air defense. Your dealings with Putin are your business, not mine and don’t expect Ukraine to sacrifice its military campaign to accommodate Washington’s commercial arrangements with Moscow.

Then came the personal attacks, with Zelensky portraying Trump as weak and excessively sympathetic towards dictators, which represents a significant departure from the careful balancing act of the previous 18 months. Whatever diplomatic language may subsequently be employed, the underlying confrontation is now difficult to conceal.

For Washington and Kiev to resume anything resembling their previous relationship, one side would effectively have to retreat and accept the other’s demands and under present circumstances, neither appears particularly inclined to do so.

But suppose Trump’s opponents achieve a decisive victory in the coming congressional elections, allowing the American globalist establishment to regain effective control of policy, well would that fundamentally change matters?

I doubt it because American globalists, properly understood, favor US leadership through a system of worldwide economic dominance and it was precisely this system Washington sought to preserve in 2022 by attempting to force Russia into rapid economic capitulation.

When that strategy failed, the Americans began limiting their exposure, and indeed, Washington’s gradual withdrawal from direct responsibility for the conflict began under Joe Biden, certainly by 2023 and possibly as early as autumn 2022.

There is, I would argue, an underlying consensus within the American establishment on this question, but the disagreement concerns tactics rather than objectives. Trump and his allies favor a relatively abrupt disengagement, while their opponents prefer a gradual retreat, continuing to supply enough assistance to keep the conflict smoldering.

For Trump’s opponents to reverse this trajectory, they would have to return to the policies of early 2022, to policies they themselves had already begun abandoning, which would require an extraordinary loss of face.

For perhaps the first time in modern American history, Washington would find itself openly following the lead of countries it privately regards as troublesome dependents as across much of the American political establishment, from the most committed anti-Russian neoconservatives to liberal Democrats, Ukraine and Western Europe are increasingly treated as irritants rather than equal partners.

Nor is it easier to imagine Kiev and its European supporters retreating, given that even the proposals advanced by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Miami, which from Moscow’s perspective involved considerable and rather humiliating concessions, proved unacceptable to them.

he logic of events suggests that Ukraine’s supporters in Washington will gradually lose influence, while those demanding that America stake everything on Russia’s defeat will become increasingly marginalized and this process will continue regardless of the congressional election results, and regardless of who occupies the White House in January 2029.

It won’t happen overnight and the retreat will be slow and frequently disguised by reassuring declarations and occasional gestures of support given American foreign policy rarely changes direction without first pretending that nothing has changed.

For Russia, the task is to recognize this developing reality without mistaking it for an immediate victory because the contradictions between Washington, Kiev, and Western Europe won’t resolve themselves, nor should Moscow expect its adversaries to abandon their positions simply because those positions have become increasingly difficult to sustain.

What’s required now is patience, a clear understanding of American interests, and painstaking diplomatic work.

Zelensky has made his choice, the only question left is how long Washington will tolerate the consequences.

https://rt-english.com/russia/647263-zelensky-has-made-his-choice/

 

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

no patriots....

 

Ukraine has exhausted its remaining US-made Patriot interceptor missiles used to defend against Russian strikes, CNN reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The reported shortage comes amid a public feud between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky over Trump’s diesel deal with Moscow and Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries.

According to CNN, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had intercepted four Russian ballistic missiles, apparently using the last of its remaining Patriot interceptors.

“Almost all the ballistic missiles from the last strike were not intercepted due to lack of the (interceptor) missiles,” a source told the network.

Zelensky said he felt betrayed after Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports earlier this month in hopes of lowering energy prices ahead of the US midterm elections in November. Trump defended the move as beneficial to consumers and consistent with his “America First” agenda.

Asked about Zelensky’s criticism of the diesel deal, Trump suggested that it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president.” Zelensky, whose five-year presidential term expired in 2024, has refused to call new elections, citing martial law and the need for a months-long ceasefire with Russia. The Kremlin has argued that Ukraine would use a prolonged truce to replenish its armed forces and said it was only prepared to suspend strikes on election day.

Earlier this week, Zelensky said he would defy Trump’s demands to halt strikes on Russian energy facilities, which the US president blamed for high energy prices. Zelensky said Ukraine would agree to an energy truce only if Russia did the same. Moscow, however, said it was seeking a comprehensive peace deal on its terms rather than an unconditional ceasefire, which it argued Ukraine would exploit to its advantage.

The Trump-Zelensky rift deepened further this week after Ukraine reported sudden disruptions to Starlink and Starshield, satellite services provided by SpaceX that Kiev uses for drone strikes. Ukrainian officials also said they had received no advance warning from their Western partners of Russian missile strikes on Kiev on two consecutive nights, Monday and Tuesday.

According to US media reports, American officials attributed the failure to detect the missile launches to bad weather, an explanation their Ukrainian counterparts reportedly found difficult to believe.

Zelensky renewed his plea for additional Patriot interceptors on Wednesday, urging the US and other partners “not to turn a blind eye to reality” and “to respond forcefully.”

The US, however, depleted much of its interceptor missile stockpile during the war with Iran, as widely reported by American media and confirmed in a Pentagon inspector general’s report last month. Trump downplayed the shortages, claiming that US stockpiles were virtually unlimited.

https://rt-english.com/russia/647266-ukraine-runs-out-patriot-missiles/

 

============================

 

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian armed forces have liberated the settlements of Nefedovka and Chernoye in the Kharkov region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

This allows to expand the security zone Russia is establishing to prevent Ukrainian shelling of Russia's territories.

Ukraine lost up to 345 soldiers in combat against Russia's Tsentr battlegroup over the past day, in addition to losses in manpower and equipment on other fronts, the ministry said.

"In total, in the area of responsibility of the Tsentr military group, Ukrainian armed formations lost up to 345 servicemen, five armored combat vehicles, and 12 vehicles," the ministry said in a statement.

 

This is in addition to:

Over 175 Ukrainian soldiers eliminated over the past day by Russia's Sever battlegroup,

Over 190 by the Vostok battlegroup

Up to 220 by the Zapad battlegroup

Up to 145 by the Yug battlegroup

Up to 30 by the Dnepr battlegroup

[TOTAL: 1,105]

 

============================

 

READ FROM TOP.

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

no catastrophe....

MAKING A DEAL NOW WOULD NOT BE A "CATASTROPHE"... PRESENTLY THE CATASTROPHE IS THE REFUSING OF THE NAZI KIEV REGIME AND ITS EUROPEAN BACKERS TO "MAKE A DEAL" WHILE LOSING MORE THAN 1,000 MEN PER DAY!!!! WORSE THAN WW1!!!!

STARLINK IN UKRAINE IS BEING DOWNGRADED BY THE PENTAGON... ELON MUSK "NEVER INTENDED" STARLINK TO BE USED BY THE NAZI KIEV REGIME's MILITARY... SO HE SAYS... SO LIMITING THE STARLINK POWER SHOULD NOT MAKE AN OUNCE OF DIFFERENCE — EXCEPT GIVE THE HIGH MORAL GROUND TON ELON MUSK WITHOUT HAVING DONE ANYTHING....

 

THE DEAL IS HONEST:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA TO BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

RESTORE THE RIGHTS OF THE RUSSIAN SPEAKING PEOPLE OF "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

RESTITUTE THE ORTHODOX CHURCH PROPERTIES AND RIGHTS

RELEASE THE OPPOSITION MEMBERS FROM PRISON

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE EU.....

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

THE ARTICLE BY THE CONVERSATION IS JUST "HOT AIR" IN A COOL REALITY:

 

Is the US limiting Starlink in Ukraine? The risks could be catastrophic

BY  [WARMONGER]

 

The drone has become the signature weapon of the Russo-Ukraine war. On any day in Ukraine, tens of thousands of drones are out hunting the battlefield for targets. These could be individual enemy soldiers or vehicles, or they could be larger targets such as depots, headquarters, bridges or power plants. 

Yet, this drone war has been possible only because of a less obvious but equally vital technology. Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink system is a secure digital satellite communications network that Ukraine has become fully reliant on.

When Russia mounted its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Mykhailo Fedorov – then Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation – urged Musk publicly to provide connectivity. Two days later, 500 Starlink terminals arrived in Ukraine. In February 2022, Musk granted the Ukrainian government and military the use of Starlink, initially for free. By July 2020, Starlink had provided 15,000 terminals. 

The Ukrainians have fully admitted their dependence on Musk: “Without Starlink, we would have been losing the war already,” one platoon commander reportedly told the Wall Street Journalin 2022. Starlink allowed the government and the armed forces to communicate securely, at the heart of its vital system of C4ISR(the military term for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance). 

Without Starlink, the defence of Ukraine would have been very difficult: perhaps impossible.

The cost to Starlink was considerable, though. Musk initally provided 2,000 terminals for free, 300 discounted and waived monthly services for about 5,500 more. Starlink’s total contribution to the Ukraine war effort in 2022 alone was US$80 million (£71 million). Musk provided a vital military capability gratis and eventually on a (discounted) contractual basis.

The strategic and commercial partnership between Starlink and Ukraine has been vital to the war effort for more than four years.

Crisis resolved

But Ukraine’s dependency on Starlink – or Starshield as the system’s military application is called – has not come without conditions. In September 2022, having repulsed the initial Russian attacks, the Ukrainian armed forces were planning their first assault on the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea, then the home of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The plan was to sail remotely controlled boats, loaded with explosives to cripple the fleet. 

It was a bold plan – the first attempt by the Ukrainian to attack territory which the Russians had held since 2014 and which they considered sovereign. And it was a controversial attack – the Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, had personally warned Musk that attacking Crimea would be a red line, which could lead to nuclear war. 

Musk was concerned. He believed that this was potentially escalatory. He advised Fedorov: “Once Russia is fully mobilised, they will destroy all infrastructure throughout Ukraine.” He urged him to avoid a third world war: “Seek peace while you have the upper hand.”

Musk refused a Ukranian request to activate Starshield operations in the region, posting on X that: “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

But following this crisis, relations between Musk and Ukraine’s leadership stabilised. Starshield has continued to play an indispensable role in Ukraine. It has been the digital communications spine of the Ukrainian armed forces and the enabler of all its operations in this war.

Indeed, when the Ukrainians informed him that in 2026 the Russians had acquired some Starlink terminals on the black market and were accessing the system to help them prosecute the war inside Ukraine, he identified the serial numbers of those terminals and disabled them.

Speed limit

Unfortunately, in the past week, Ukrainian armed forces have once again been exposed to the jeopardy of their dependence on Starlink. On the night of October 13-14, without any warning, SpaceX imposed a speed limit of about 160kmph on some Starlink services, meaning this is the maximum speed Ukrainian drones and missiles can travel and remain connected. Starshield terminals mounted on drones have been particularly badly affected. Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Reaction Corps was forced to cancel several missions.

Given the importance of drones to the Ukrainian war effort, the Starlink constraint is very serious. The speed limit has compromised Ukrainian drone fleets operating above the kill zone. It has also undermined Ukrainian air defence against intensifying Russian drone attacks on cities and infrastructure, as 160kmph is too slow for intercepts. 

Since strategic bombardments against Ukrainian energy infrastructure have become Russia’s principal means of prosecuting this war and will only intensify into the winter, the Starlink embargo is deeply concerning. It may become critical if it continues.

Read more: ‘Sodcit’ – after battlefield setbacks, Russia returns to destroying Ukraine’s morale

Unlike September 2022, it appears that this is not a random individual decision by the Starlink boss. It seems to reflect troubling shifts in US policy on Ukraine.

On October 9, the US president, Donald Trump announced a deal with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to lift sanctions on Russian diesel and allow it access to global markets. The plan was, he said, to reduce the price of fuel – although how effectively the relatively small amount of Russian diesel will do that is unclear. The high price of diesel is much more to do with the intractable war in Iran.

Read more: Donald Trump aligns with Vladimir Putin yet again, leaving Ukraine – and US relations with Europe – under pressure

The following day, Trump called for the removal of Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky: “Time for Ukraine to get a new president”, he told reporters. The day after that, the US president announced that an energy ceasefire was in immediate effect and that Russia and Ukraine would stop targeting each other’s energy infrastructure.

Ukraine has not used Starlink to hit Russia’s oil refineries. Starlink does not work in Russia and the Ukraine deep strikes rely on other communications systems. So Ukraine’s strategic bombardments remain technically unaffected by the Starlink embargo. 

Musk has put the responsibility for the slowdown in Starshield squarely on the US government, posting on his X social media platform: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”

In September 2022, Musk instituted a policy which contradicted US policy on Ukraine – he turned off Starlink against the wishes of the Biden administration. Now, so Musk says, in October 2026, it’s US government which is restricting Starlink. But the result is effectively the same: Ukraine is the victim. 

This winter always looked as if it will be hard for Ukraine. It just got harder.

https://theconversation.com/is-the-us-limiting-starlink-in-ukraine-the-risks-could-be-catastrophic-294496

 

MAKE A FUQUING DEAL !!!!!!!

 

READ FROM TOP.

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….