RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 31.01.2025
Including geopolitical issues affecting the balance of power in the ongoing end game war to establish our common future, a closely monitored prison planet or tolerance for diverse modes of governance.
UKRAINE IS FUNDED ALMOST ENTIRELY BY THE USA & EU. FOR HOW LONG CAN IT SURVIVE & PAY FOR ALL ITS COSTS INCLUDING AN ARMY IF THAT FUNDING IS CUT?
COLLECTIVE WEST | RUSSIA
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Russia’s Path to Leadership in the Global Drone Industry | English-Russian interpretation.
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: Rubio Unipolar Era Over, US Lied To Kiev; EU Debates Russian Gas Return; Ukraine Cascading Collapse.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN: 100% tariffs BRICS. RUBIO admits Ukraine cannot win. North Korea disappears from Kursk.
Ukraine’s ‘independent’ institutions collapse as Trump unplugs the ATM.
The freeze on American aid has washed a massive media and NGO hoax up to the surface.
By Rachel Marsden, a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English.
Apparently, it’s a hallmark of “independent” media if the US President breaks wind and, just minutes later, you’re blown away.
A few days ago, newly re-minted US President Donald Trump put the brakes on internal sabotage of his own administration by ordering the State Department to freeze American funding of foreign aid. Oh, won’t someone think of the starving children? Well, critics can unclutch their pearl necklaces because he did exactly that, actually. The freeze doesn’t apply to emergency food assistance, as Reuters has reported.
“This is lunacy. This will kill people,” a former official for CIA handmaiden, USAID, now president of Refugees International, told Reuters. A couple of years ago, his organization was promoting the idea that the big threat to Syrians was the stability – or “normalization”, as it had said, under former President Bashar Assad. Must just be a coincidence that it’s also the position of those who failed at regime change and were looking for a way to keep that dream alive. In December 2024, his organization found “no substantial, confirmed cases of corruption among Ukrainian partners.” Yeah, well, maybe that’s because the same organization also admits that only 1% of the aid actually makes it into the hands of local Ukrainian organizations. Doesn’t sound like the Ukrainian people are going to much miss those few crumbs that they’ve been tossed by their Western establishment ideological colonizers.
But it sure does seem that the US establishment-approved front groups using Ukrainians as white gloves in which to wrap their iron fisted, self-serving establishment-backed agenda are going to have to slow their roll now that the grant train has gone right off the rails.
Or maybe they’ll just get their puppets to dance for more dollars – this time from the actual public, like the true independent media they’ve long promoted themselves to be.
The guys over at Ukrainer for example, posted on their Instagram account that “Ukrainer will be tempted to reduce the team, and thus create fewer projects” in light of the funding cuts. Ukrainer, normally a culture-focused website, claims to have switched to providing “reliable information about events in Ukraine” for the duration of the war with Russia – or “until the victory”, as they put it. Wonder what incentivized them to make that switch. These guys sound like kept labrador retrievers accustomed to waiting for handouts from the master rather than hungry lone wolves driven by a passion for the cause.
“US grants are on pause. Become a supporter of Hromadske,” wrote the media of the same name under an image of what looks like a journalist straight-up on fire while holding a camcorder. Nothing screams independence like implosion-driven panic the moment a sole sponsor bails out with a sudden hand cramp that apparently radiates all the way to the US Treasury and prevents him from writing the next cheque.
Ukrainska Pravda has bumped the promotion of its Patreon fundraising up to “priority” level on its front page. Maybe I’m going way out on a limb here, but I’m guessing those roughly 230 paid subscribers haven’t been doing all the heavy lifting to-date in funding your “independent” operations. In kvetching about Trump’s USAID funding cut in a front page article, the outlet also effectively exposed just how many “Ukrainian media” NGOs are funded by USAID. There were so many listed in the wall of names that followed that my eyes went buggy trying to count them one by one. So I ultimately just gave up and asked ChatGPT by feeding it the list. The answer: 127. And that doesn’t even count the non-media civil society politically-oriented NGOs consisting of about 66 recipients.
“Independent Ukrainian media is a key element distinguishing us from Putin’s Russia,” wrote Detector Media shortly after Trump’s bomb fell. Indeed, Putin isn’t willingly funding his own country’s media via the US State Department and calling it independent, so that certainly sets Ukraine apart. They go on to say that, in the absence of the USAID media funding, Ukrainians now “will be left without a tool that ensures control over power and boosts the stability of democratic institutions.” Ensures control over Ukrainians by US power, you mean. Because nothing says “truth to power” like being this reliant on funding from the government that acts as sugar daddy to your own. They’re right about one thing, though: knee-jerk anti-Russian groupthink sure does boost stability, unlike dissent.
And well, well, lookie here, even the podcasters and influencers are whining. “There will be no podcasts with Karas now either due to the suspension of grants, sadly :(,” activist Melania Podolyak wrote on social media, highlighting the USAID logo on the page of the leader of the neo-Nazi group C14, Yevhen Karas. The guy just can’t catch a break. It was barely over five years ago that a politician in neighboring Slovakia asked the European Commission whether the EU would “consider introducing travel bans and other related measures against the leader of the violent Ukrainian neo-Nazi militant group C14, Yevhen Karas and other radical Ukrainian nationalists implicated in murders, intimidation of ethnic minorities and other violent crimes?”
Excuse you, sir! That would be star podcaster Yevhen Karas. Why would you not want him in your country? Call his agent in Washington if you’ve got a problem. Better hurry though, before Trump fires him. Also, color me shocked that there now appears to be an active regime change effort in Slovakia, and Western-backed pro-Ukrainian NGOs.
Much has been said over the past few days of USAID, but its equally meddling sister from the same mister, Uncle Sam’s “National Endowment for Democracy,” whose board members include Victoria Nuland (aka Regime Change Karen, aka the Maidan Cookie Monster), is just as toxic with its use of US funds to promote the interests of the US establishment elites to the detriment of free people around the world, including in Ukraine.
Back in 2022, they even had an orgy of awards for their own Ukraine civil society projects. Among those featured at the event were NED board member, Anne Applebaum, whose husband, now the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, tweeted “Thank you, USA” in the wake of Europe’s economic and industrial lifeline of cheap Russian gas getting blown up and effectively making the EU overdependent on pricey US LNG.
It’s all one big cozy club, and Trump’s definitely not in it. And he now has the unique ability and apparent will to put his foot on the firehose of American cash that has been systemically undermining the interests of average citizens around the world in favor of endless regime change and conflict, to the benefit of the few who profit from war and instability. Let’s see what else ends up surfacing as the futzing-around funds dry up.
Kiev urged to use kids to make drones in schools.
A Ukrainian defense manufacturer has suggested protecting production of UAVs by using civilian sites, including school workshops.
A Ukrainian defense manufacturer has suggested dispersing military production across civilian sites, including to school facilities, to protect its weapons-making operations from Russian strikes. Aleksey Polonchuk proposed that students assemble drones in school workshops as part of a decentralized production strategy.
Polonchuk, who owns a defense company specializing in electronic warfare equipment, made his remarks in an interview with Dignitas Fund, a nonprofit focused on raising funds for Kiev’s military. The interview was published on the NGO’s YouTube channel on Wednesday.
To safeguard drone production from Russian long-range attacks, Polonchuk emphasized the need to scatter manufacturing locations across the country.
READ MORE: Zelensky wants more weapons before lowering conscription age
“Production should be distributed across the country, hidden in basements–and thus scaled up. Assemble FPV drones of approved designs during labor lessons in schools. The whole country assembles what works, what is approved,” he stated.
According to Polonchuk, this decentralized approach would protect drone manufacturing from detection and destruction. He warned that large-scale production sites are vulnerable because “if you build a workshop where 60 drones are simultaneously produced, it will quickly be hit.”
The remarks come just days after unverified images emerged online showing what appeared to be a decentralized drone assembly site in Kiev. The photos showed stacks of FPV drones hidden inside Domino’s pizza boxes to facilitate covert transportation between production locations.
Hiding military assets and defense production sites has been a common practice in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia. The Ukrainian military has repeatedly stashed its hardware at shopping malls, accommodated personnel in schools and kindergartens, and used civilian ambulances to transfer troops. Should the military activity get discovered and the installation targeted by Russian forces, the Ukrainian media commonly portrays these incidents as indiscriminate strikes on civilian locations.
Additionally, there have been multiple reports of Ukraine using private shipping services, such as Nova Poshta, to covertly transport military equipment in unmarked civilian vehicles, with the practice corroborated by multiple videos and images circulating online. Several distribution centers of the company have been destroyed during the conflict, with Ukrainian sources omitting the military use of these sites in official statements.
COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR "Over 1 MILLION Ukrainians have been killed and the country is finished."
LEVAN GUDADZE: Kiev loses 50,000 troops monthly. Calls in Europe to kill all Russians. Trump Threatens BRICS Again.
EMIL COSMAN: More American "Fighters" dying in Ukraine. Growing number. Australian mercenary interrogated by Rus.
COLONEL LAWRENCE WILKERSON: Trump and the War in Ukraine.
DANNY HAIPHONG - BRIAN BERLETIC - ANGELO GIULIANO: Trump's Ukraine Trap EXPOSED: Why Russia Won't Fall for It.
SCOTT RITTER: Why Hasn't Trump Called Putin? UA Grotesquely Undermanned & Reduced To Plugging Holes.
BRIAN BERLETIC: US Transfers Missiles to Ukraine, "End War Responsibly" a Euphemism for Continuity of Agenda.
THROUGH THE EYES OF... ANIA: LARRY JOHNSON - ANDREI MARTYANOV / WILL THEY TRY TO ASSASINATE PUTIN?
ANDRE MARTYANOV: Russia's Strategy to Disarm NATO.
GLENN DIESEN: Trump Gets Reality Check On Ukraine War.
UKRAINIAN CITIES Keep Falling.
RAY MCGOVERN: Hearing on Tulsi Gabbard.
MEGYN KELLY - MARCO RUBIO: Is Putin or Zelensky a Bigger Obstacle to a Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal?
Russian media reach soars as NATO eyes countermeasures – report.
NATO report studies rapid growth of RT and Sputnik in Africa and Middle East and suggests new strategies to limit their impact.
A fresh NATO report highlights a sharp increase in the reach of Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, where the news outlets have gained millions of new followers.
The report, published on Tuesday by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (StratCom COE), examines how Russian media operations have expanded their influence after the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in early 2022. With Russian state-backed media subjected to blanket bans in the West, the outlets diverted their resources elsewhere.
According to the report, RT Arabic saw its audience grow by ten million users since the breakout of fighting between Ukraine and Russia. Sputnik Arabic also significantly increased its content output, posting 30–35% more frequently, while the news agency’s engagement on social media surged by 80%. Russian embassies in Africa also saw a 41% rise in social media followers, reflecting a broader trend of growing Russian media influence in non-Western regions, the report notes.
It also claims the outlets have been capitalizing on “anti-colonial narratives” and overall frustration with Western policies, particularly in Africa, and blames this on historical ties to the Soviet Union that still shape public perceptions there. In some cases, the narratives have resonated strongly with audiences already skeptical of Western institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the International Criminal Court, the report notes.
READ MORE: RT winning ‘cognitive war’ – BBC boss
While StratCom COE projected its findings to the entirety of the Global South, the report actually examined the work of Russian media – as well as social media activities it had linked to Russia without any solid evidence – in Egypt, Mali, Kenya, South Africa and the UAE.
The authors of the report appeared to struggle with terminology, rejecting the ‘Global South’ over an”increasing pushback” against the name, and shot down the term ‘majority countries,’ claiming it has been promoted by assorted “malign actors” to push their agenda. Instead, the report uses the term ‘Multi-aligned Community,’ vaguely defining it as “states existing outside of the Western environment who have exhibited a preference for aligning or partnering with chosen states depending on specific spheres or issues.”
In response to the expanding reach of Russian media, the NATO report proposes new countermeasures aimed at reducing Moscow’s ever-growing influence. One recommendation is to establish a NATO-led initiative to engage with audiences in Africa and the Middle East, improving direct communication and addressing concerns about Western policies.
COLLECTIVE WEST | GLOBAL MAJORITY
AARON MATÉ : The Costs of Shunning Diplomacy.
GLENN GREENWALD: Warmongering Think Tanks EXPOSED with Researcher Nick Cleveland-Stout.
PROFESSOR JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER: Should Trump Trust Netanyahu?
PEPE ESCOBAR: What is Sultan Erdogan Up To?
COLLECTIVE WEST | BRICS
PEPE ESCOBAR: Trump's Strategic Blunder: Is He Dangerously Underestimating the Power of BRICS?
JAMARL THOMAS - KH NOH: $1 Trillion Market Wipeout! Deep Dive Into China's AI, Deepseek.
USA
Tulsi Sets Record Straight - DNI Confirmation Hearing.
MEGYN KELLY - GLENN GREENWALD: Tulsi Gabbard Attacked Over Edward Snowden Comments During Senate Hearing.
RAY MCGOVERN: Hearing on Tulsi Gabbard - Zelensky, Netanyahu & Trump: America First in Focus.
EUROPE | BRITAIN
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU & ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: German elections; Scholz sinking, Merz losing ground.
UK retail crime hits record high – survey.
At 55,000 incidents a day, theft and violence are “out of control,” according to latest industry report.
Retail crime in the UK has reached unprecedented levels, with soaring losses from theft and rising violence against workers, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has reported.
According to its latest annual crime survey, shoplifting in the country has reached an all-time high, with more than 20 million incidents committed last year as of August 31, which equates to 55,000 a day. This cost retailers a total £2.2 billion ($2.7 billion), adding further pressure to the mounting costs retailers already face.
Violence and abuse against retail staff also spiked, with daily incidents exceeding 2,000, up from 1,300 reported the previous year. This marks a more than threefold increase from 2020, when the daily average was just 455. Weapon-related incidents doubled, reaching 70 per day.
“Retail crime is spiraling out of control,” said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson. “People in retail have been spat on, racially abused, and threatened with machetes.”
The BRC report suggested that many of the incidents were linked to organized crime, with gangs systematically targeting stores across the country, often stealing tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of goods and moving around multiple stores.
READ MORE: Super-rich ditching UK – Times
“Every day this continues, criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive,” Dickinson warned.
According to the survey, satisfaction with the police response to incidents remains low, with 61% of respondents describing it as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor.’
“With little faith in police attendance, it is no wonder criminals feel they have a license to steal, threaten, assault and abuse,” Dickinson argued.
Responding to the report, police have claimed they have made “significant strides” in tackling retail crime over the past year.
The country’s new Labour government has pledged to address the rise in retail crime through stronger measures.
Latest data by S&P Global shows that retail sales in the UK continued to fall in January after a disappointing Christmas, and consumer confidence has dropped to its lowest level since late 2023.
READ MORE: Do not use terms like ‘black sheep’ and ‘blacklist’ – guide for UK police
Employers also slashed jobs at the fastest pace since the height of the Covid pandemic in 2021. Excluding the health emergency, the rate of job-cutting was the highest since the global financial crisis in 2009.
The UK is facing a “stagflationary environment,” where sluggish economic growth coincides with high inflation, said S&P chief business economist Chris Williamson, as quoted by The Guardian.
A separate report issued by the BRC this week showed that British food prices have recorded their sharpest monthly rise since last April, marking an “early sign of what’s ahead” for the economy. Year-on-year, the cost of food in January jumped 1.6% from the previous year.
Dickinson has also warned that retailers would soon face the full impact of £7 billion (nearly $9 billion) in new costs introduced in the last budget by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. On Wednesday, Reeves announced an overhaul to Britain’s benefits system, to “kickstart economic growth.”
SEBASTIAN SAS: EU Wants Return Of RUSSIAN GAS!
JAMARL THOMAS - GLENN DIESEN: US Is Cannibalizing Europe To Slow Decline.
AFRICA
BREAKTHROUGH NEWS: DR Congo Protests Throw a Wrench in the Western-Backed War of Pillage.
NON-ENGLISH NEWS
LIU SIVAYA: "A NADIE LE IMPORTA LO QUE NOS PASE": 3 BRIGADAS MARCAN LA CUENTA ATRÁS PARA EL EJÉRCITO UCRANIANO.
GABRIELLE DUVOISIN: L'Epiphanie en Russie (plongeon dans l'eau glacée).
Ein weiterer Kessel bildet sich in Region Kurakhove. Frontbericht 31.01.2025
Amerika Zaustavlja Vojnu Pomoć ⚔ Ruski Proboj u Harkovsku Oblast ⚔ Časov Jar-Toreck Pred Padom. 30.1.2025
यूक्रेनी सैनिकों को घेर लिया गया है - रूस ने छीने नोवोमलिंस्क, सोलोन
MAPPING CHANNEL UPDATES
Cold War II❄️Ukraine's Defense Collapsing🛑Russians Ready For New Offensive🚀Military Summary 31.01.25
Very Hard To Recover From This. Russia’s Destruction Of Ukraine Too High. Russia’s Big Advance.
Russian Victory At Novosilka.
Russia Reach The Final Defense Line Of Chasiv Yar l Last Defense Line Breached.
Ukraine Left Without US Support, Bahatyr Direction Defense Crumbles. Military Summary 2025.01.31
Multiple Important Areas Fall | EU Wants Russian Energy | Romanian Candidate vs EU/Ukraine - Update.
New Encirclement South of Toretsk | Chasiv Yar Endgame Has Begun.
Russia penetrate into Shcherbynivka from Toretsk!
GROK PICS
RUSSIA / BELARUS - EXPATS IN RUSSIA
MATT AND JULIA: The Reality of Life in Russia in 2025.
EXPAT AMERICAN: 🇺🇸AMERICAN rides a RUSSIAN Train🇷🇺 Near the UKRAINE Border Conflict🇺🇦 BUT to WHERE?!🚂
VICTORY BELONGS TO RUSSIA: IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
Each day that passes makes a conclusive Russian victory in the Donbass and beyond more certain. As Russia bolsters her forces, and weaponry, those of Ukraine decrease. Russian forces gain ready access to rest and recuperation as troop numbers increase. The increasingly exhausted and demoralised Ukrainian troops have an ever decreasing prospect of such respite. This situation is likely to bring them to complete breakdown as Russia unleashes the firepower of the more modern and advanced weaponry that is arriving with the newly mobilised Russian troops.
The various Ukrainian offensives are now weak when confronted by the reinforced Russian lines. A few futile efforts achieve quite miserable results before fire reigns down on the Ukrainian troops and they are forced back to their starting positions.
And now, all this being said, we have arrived at the wet, and later, freezing conditions where these pathetic Ukrainian forces will be subject to myriad forms of abject misery with death and injury all around them while they lie sodden or frozen, abandoned to their fate by Kiev.
The pitiable young and old of Ukraine have been frogmarched to their deaths as cannon-fodder while the bestial elites of the collective West urge their "president" to add more to their number there at the gates of Hell and their doom. We must feel for the majority of them as they are not the Nazis we revile, in most part they are decent men, fathers, sons, brothers, husband and uncles, who no doubt saw through the coup of 2014 for what it was. But sadly, their fate seems sealed.
Nothing will stop Russia now. Every factor favours them. Victory will be Russia's. In Donbass and beyond and in due course across the world.
Victory belongs to Russia: It is now only a matter of time.
UKRAINE IS FUNDED ALMOST ENTIRELY BY THE USA & EU. FOR HOW LONG CAN IT SURVIVE & PAY FOR ALL ITS COSTS INCLUDING AN ARMY IF THAT FUNDING IS CUT?
