As expected, Trump has all but brought the war in the Persian Gulf to an end.
Now he will take all enriched uranium from Iran and allow the repressive ayatollah regime to continue oppressing the Iranian people.
Nothing personal—just business. World War III is off the table, fuel prices will go down, but not completely, because someone still needs time to profit. There will be no attack on the Baltic states—for now.
And here is the most interesting question—what about us? We have war.
Our parliamentary-presidential republic seems to be finally dying, with its distortions threatening to evolve into an unconstitutional monarchy. Anyone who disagrees—even members of parliament—is sent to the front. And in a sense, this is “rational” compared to Soviet-era psychiatric hospitals, because someone has to defend Ukraine.
Part of our “elite” is not interested in victory, nor in peace, nor in fulfilling the conditions of Western donors, because peace and a return to democratic norms would mean the risk of losing excess profits from defense contracts.
Like Trotsky, they want “neither war nor peace.” Everything suits them—except NABU.
That is why the war will continue. Not because we can hold the Sloviansk–Kramatorsk agglomeration—we certainly can—but because the war is beneficial to some of our “elites.”
War means power. It means impunity. It means excess profits. War means the degradation of democracy, the rule of law, and freedom of speech. War is also a convenient way to silence dissent—even technical specialists who had the audacity to create better weapons.
It is sad. It is painful. This is not how we will win the war.
Because any victory for us is a loss for them. And they will not allow that.
— Yurii Kassianov
