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New York Post
20-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Vladimir Putin throws a tyrant tantrum — but Russia is big, brutish and bluffing
Russia's president declared this recession will not stand. Like a comic-book villain — melodramatic and delusional — Vladimir Putin seems convinced saying something makes it true. But the out-of-control inflation he wishes away doesn't answer to bluster: It empties stores and strains family budgets. Putin's superpowers are as real as those of the state he runs. Moscow's impotence is visible to anyone willing to look. Eleven years into its crusade against a neighbor one-quarter its size, Russia holds less Ukrainian ground than it did in 2022, and its latest tactics — terrorizing civilians — are best described as a tyrant tantrum. Each dawn brings killer drones and missiles aimed not at Ukraine's military targets but at apartment buildings, playgrounds, maternity wards. In Kherson, a Russian drone operator killed 1-year-old Dmytryk in his grandmother's yard. This was no isolated incident — the United Nations was investigating these 'human safari' attacks as crimes against humanity before this cold-blooded execution of a toddler made headlines. Russia's campaign to punish Ukraine for daring to exist is the flailing of a bully, full of rage, devoid of strength. As it struggles to conquer, Moscow turns to terror, but every strike only hardens Kyiv's resolve because Ukrainians know letting Russia get its way will not end the suffering — it'll multiply it. Some will say: Ukraine stands because we're helping. But how much are we really? A drip of aid here, a shipment of munitions there — delayed, debated, diluted. All told, America has spent less than 1% of its federal budget to help the bravest people on Earth defend themselves. If that fainthearted stream has kept Russia's army at bay, it doesn't prove our strength — it demonstrates Moscow's weakness. Russia thinks it's a superpower, but a superpower wouldn't stall out because someone across the ocean is struggling to help Kyiv while making sure Moscow can save face. What keeps Ukraine alive is not our help; it's a people who know what they're fighting for, facing a brutal colonizer that doesn't. 3 Russia's terrorism includes targeted strikes on civilians, like this one in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv this month. Ukrainian State Emergency Service Russia's even run out of basic food staples. Potatoes are a luxury. Prices have almost tripled in a year, and families are forced to ration. It's not a silly grocery-store problem — it's a window into an economy on the brink, strained by a criminal war of choice, sanctions and decades of embezzlement. Moscow launched an invasion it thought would be over in days: Soldiers packed parade uniforms and food rations for a week. But Ukraine refused to surrender, and it all went horribly wrong for Putin. In failing to win quickly, Russia did more than lose momentum — it lost autonomy. It now takes orders from Beijing. Bloomberg reports 92% of the foreign components found in Russia's killer drones are of Chinese origin. On nuclear weapons, Xi Jinping — the 'daddy,' to use NATO chief Mark Rutte's word — made himself abundantly clear: Their use is off the table. Russia may bluster and threaten, but the decision is no longer Moscow's to make. The credibility of Russia's nuclear threat lies in the eyes of the beholder — us. A superpower doesn't beg North Korea for artillery shells and Iran for drone technology. Moscow is reduced to knocking on the doors of pariah states that once depended on it. 3 Like a comic-book villain, Putin seems convinced saying something makes it true. Getty Images Russia racked up more than a million casualties trying to recolonize Ukraine. But fear not — the Kremlin has a magic trick up its bloodstained sleeve. Just as it outlaws recessions, it solves its demographic crisis by simply stopping the release of monthly population data. What about Russia's storied soft power — its grand ideology, rich heritage and claim to virtue? Moscow has skillfully exploited Western culture wars, positioning itself as the defender of traditional values to Americans fed up with woke politics. It's a façade. Russia has one of the world's highest divorce rates — 60% higher than the United States'. Its abortion rate is more than twice that of Ukraine's. Barely 1% of the population attended Christmas services last year. And at the center of it all sits the Russian Orthodox Church, less a religious institution than a state-security affiliate. When Tucker Carlson mourned the fate of Ukraine's Moscow Patriarchate, he left out two crucial details. First, it is Russia — not Ukraine — that has damaged or destroyed more than 600 houses of worship since 2014. And second, Ukraine isn't banning religion; it's evicting spies. In the middle of a war, who can blame Kyiv for trying to ensure priests are serving God, not the FSB? The collective West accounts for roughly half of global gross domestic product. Russia makes up less than 2%. It's no superpower — just a declining empire throwing a tantrum. Its invasion of Ukraine is real, as are the missiles killing innocent children in their sleep. But its foundation — economic, moral, demographic — is rotten to the core. And the only thing more dangerous than an aggrieved dictator is a world too polite, too naïve or too afraid to confront him. Andrew Chakhoyan is a University of Amsterdam academic director and served in the US government at the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
UPI
16-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
At least two dozen people injured in Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine
A Ukrainian firefighter battles a blaze at an industrial facility in the western city of Lviv on Saturday following a Russian airborne attack that also targeted the university and residences. Photo by Ukrainian State Emergency Service/UPI | License Photo July 16 (UPI) -- At least 24 people were injured in Ukraine overnight as Russia maintained a weeks-long summer blitz, launching as many as 400 drones targeting regions in the east, center and southwest of the country. The airborne assault was aimed primarily at the provinces of Odessa, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk, where 15 people were injured in one of the largest attacks of the war on Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown. Calling it "the most massive attack... since the start of the war," Kryvyi Rih military administration head and former deputy prime minister Oleksandr Vilkul said the city had been attacked with 28 drones and a ballistic missile, setting parts of the city ablaze and causing power and water outages. Industrial infrastructure was hit in Vinnytsia, southwest of Kyiv, with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski saying several people had been injured, including two with severe burns, after a factory owned by Polish flooring manufacturer Barlinek Group was struck with a three-pronged attack. "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's criminal war is moving closer to our borders," said Sikorski. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city, Ukraine's second-largest behind Kyiv, was hit 16 times in less than 15 minutes. Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said a 54-year-old male resident of the city was injured. The Ukrainian air force said 85% of the drones were shot down by air defenses or went the wrong way. Zelensky said the rescue operation in the affected areas was still ongoing. "Russia is not changing its strategy -- and to counter this terror effectively, we need to systematically strengthen our defenses: more air defense systems, more interceptors, and more determination," Zelensky wrote on social media. The continuation of Russia's large-scale aerial offensive came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump set a 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to sign onto a deal to end the war or see secondary sanctions slapped on nations that opt to continue to purchase Russian oil and gas. The largest attack of the current wave and the largest since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, came on the night of July 8. Russian forces rained down more than 740 drones and missiles through the night on targets all across the country, including Kyiv and provinces in the far west, killing at least five people and injuring 39. Zelensky said Sunday that in the previous seven days alone, Ukraine had been attacked with over 1,800 drones, 1,200 glide-bombs and 83 ballistic, cruise and other types of missiles. The carnage prompted Trump to announce the very same day that the United States would supply Ukraine with more Patriot air defense systems, via NATO allies, to help protect its cities from Russian airborne attacks. Under the plan, NATO member states in Europe will send their Patriot launcher batteries to Ukraine and place commercial orders for replacements from the U.S. manufacturer, Raytheon, via the Defense Department.
New York Post
14-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Trump vows ‘billions of dollars' in weapons for Ukraine, 100% tariffs on Russia if no peace in 50 days
WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Monday the US will send 'billions of dollars' worth of weapons to Ukraine via Washington's NATO allies — and threatening to impose 100% tariffs on Moscow in 50 days if no peace is struck to end the 40-month-old war. 'I'm disappointed in [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn't seem to get there,' Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. 'We are going to be sending them weapons and they're going to be paying for them,' the president said, with Rutte agreeing European countries should be 'stepping up' and paying for the American-made materiel. 5 Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 13, 2025. REUTERS 5 A car burns following mass Russian strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on Saturday, July 12, 2025. Ukrainian State Emergency Service/UPI/Shutterstock 5 Smoke billows above Lviv after an attack. AFP via Getty Images 5 Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on social issues, in Moscow, Russia July 14, 2025. via REUTERS 5 Firefighters work at the site of horse stalls heavily damaged by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine July 11, 2025. REUTERS Trump did not immediately reveal what equipment would be sent. The president added that the US will approve secondary sanctions on Russia if no truce is reached, meaning those who are engaging in business with Moscow will also be targeted. Trump has been hesitant to impose heavy sanctions on Russia, but has grown more frustrated in recent months with a lack of willingness by Putin to get to a peace deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
UPI
14-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Russia fires 136 drones at Ukraine ahead of Trump-NATO head meeting
A Ukrainian firefighter works to extinguish a fire following mass Russian strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Saturday, July 12, 2025. Over Sunday night, Russia fired 136 drones at Ukraine. Photo by Ukrainian State Emergency Service/UPI | License Photo July 14 (UPI) -- Russia fired 136 drones at Ukraine, Kyiv's air force said Monday, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with NATO head Mark Rutte, where the two are expected to announce a new weapons deal for their besieged European ally. The overnight attack began at 6:39 p.m. Sunday, and consisted of four surface-to-air missiles launched from Russia's Kursk region and the drones from several areas of Russia. The drones were reportedly Iran-made and -supplied Shahed unmanned aerial vehicle systems. Sixty-one of the drones were shot down and another 47 were either lost from radar or suppressed by electronic warfare, Ukraine's air force said, adding that 28 hit targets in 10 locations. "The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces, electronic warfare units and drone systems, and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," it said in a statement on Telegram. The attack came as Trump is set to meet with Rutte, the NATO secretary general, on Monday. Rutte is in Washington, D.C., for a two-day trip ending Tuesday. Trump told a press gaggle at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sunday that he will send Ukraine Patriot air defense system munitions, with the bill to be covered by the European Union. He also mentioned his upcoming meeting with Rutte, stating they will be sending "various pieces of very sophisticated" military equipment to Ukraine "and they're going to pay us 100% for them." Trump's announcement comes as he has grown publicly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump campaigned on ending the war in 24 hours, but since returning to the White House in January has failed to bring about a cease-fire. He has pursued a cease-fire plan, but has been unable to get a commitment from the Russian leader. Earlier this month, Trump and Putin spoke over the phone, after which the American president told reporters that he "didn't make any progress" toward securing a cease-fire. To reporters on Sunday, he said, "Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then he bombs everyone in the evening. There's a bit of a problem there. I don't like it."
Hindustan Times
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Ukraine says suspected Russian FSB assassins killed in Kyiv region
Ukrainian intelligence agents on Sunday killed members of a Russian secret service cell wanted on suspicion of having shot dead a colonel in Ukraine's SBU security service last week, the SBU said. This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on July 13, 2025, shows rescuers clearing debris to find the body of a female local resident killed at the site of a burnt private house, following a Russian guided aerial bomb attack in Velykomykhaylivka village, Dnipropetrovsk region.(AFP) The intelligence agency said in a statement that the operation had sought the arrest of the agents of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), who it believes were behind the killing of SBU colonel Ivan Voronych in Kyiv on Thursday. "This morning a special operation was conducted, during which the members of the Russian FSB's agent cell started to resist, and therefore they were liquidated," the statement on the Telegram messaging app said. Russian authorities made no immediate public comment on Sunday's operation, which mirrored past assassinations of senior Russian military officials by Ukraine during the three-year-old war - a source of embarrassment for Moscow's vast intelligence agencies. The SBU said two people - a man and a woman - were suspected of having killed Voronych. It did not say how many suspected FSB agents had been killed on Sunday. According to the SBU, the alleged assassins were told by their handler to surveil their target and track his movements. They were eventually given the coordinates of a hiding place where they found a pistol with a suppressor, the SBU said. It said they had tried to "lay low" after Thursday's killing, but were tracked down by the SBU and police. The agency's remit covers security and counterintelligence, but since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine it has also played a prominent role in special operations against Moscow, including assassinations and sabotage attacks.
