Russia burning as Ukraine launches huge attack – Trump rages over strikes
Story by Rebecca Perring, Ciaran McGrath
• 1h
Daily Express
Russia: Kuibyshev oil refinery ablaze after Ukrainian strike
Ukrainian forces have launched a huge attack on Russia overnight. Dramatic video footage shows huge plumes of black smoke billowing from the Kuibyshev oil refinery in the Russian city of Samara after it was hit by a drone attack.
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“The refinery has a design capacity of around 7 million tonnes of oil per year.
“Explosions were also reported in Tolyatti.”
The refinery lies along the Volga River, around 765 kilometres (475 miles) from the Ukrainian border, highlighting the increasing reach of Kyiv’s long-range drone campaign against targets deep inside Russia.
The Kuibyshev plant can process up to 10,000 metric tonnes of oil a day, or around 73,000 barrels.
The US president put pressure on Mr Zelensky during a phone call before their meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly.
He told the Ukrainian leader the attacks were exacerbating a global diesel shortage and causing petrol prices to surge.
Diesel prices, which on Monday hit $6.51 (£4.80) a gallon, up 76 per cent from a year ago, have spiked dramatically since the US and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb 28.
However, limiting Ukraine’s long-range strikes would deny Mr Zelensky one of his most powerful weapons and negotiating tools, and would probably concern Kyiv’s closest allies.
Plumes of smoke rise from fires at an oil refinery on the outskirts of Moscow on Sunday Credit: Reuters
Aramco Oil Facility Attacked By Houthis In Southern Saudi Arabia
The rebels also targetted a desalination plant in Al-Shaqeeq, said the coalition statement, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.
Huthi rebels launched multiple attacks into southern Saudi Arabia Saturday, including one on a facility run by oil company Aramco in Jizan, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels in Yemen said in a statement.
Quoted by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the coalition said that four drones had been launched into the region, which is regularly targeted by Huthi drone and missile attacks.
There was no loss of life, it said.
As well as the Aramco facility, the rebels also hit a desalination plant in Al-Shaqeeq.
In later statements, the coalition announced that the Dhahran Al-Janoub power station near Jizan had also been attacked — with the SPA posting photos and a video clip showing firefighters tackling a blaze at the site.
The fourth target was a gas station in Khamis Mushait.
The drones were intercepted and destroyed near Yemen after the attacks, with a ballistic missile fired towards the city of Jazan also stopped, the coalition said.
The latest round of attacks comes after an oil refinery in the Saudi capital Riyadh was targeted on March 10 by a drone, an operation claimed by the Huthis.
Earlier this week, the Huthis rejected an invitation from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to attend talks on the Yemen conflict, to be held in Riyadh from March 29.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition in Yemen in support of the internationally recognized government, which has been engaged in a bloody conflict against the Huthis since mid-2014.
Police are currently arresting over 60 Just Stop Oil supporters outside Parliament, on the same day the UN has reported that the globe is on track for at least 2°C warming in our lifetime. The action takers today are demanding that the UK government stop approving all further oil and gas developments, and sign a Fossil Fuel Treaty to Just Stop Oil. [1] [2]
60 people are blocking the road on Parliament Square, with a significant number glued on. There are a further 40+ people demonstrating in support from the pavement. The Metropolitan Police have begun to make arrests from the group blocking the road. It’s expected that all will be arrested. One lane has been left free of glued-on action takers to permit access for emergency vehicles.
Today’s drastic actions have been taken in resistance to the possibility raised by Andy Burnham of drilling more oil and gas from the North Sea, despite it doing “nothing to lower UK energy bills or strengthen energy security”. Holding banners which read ‘FOR FUCK’S SAKE, JUST STOP OIL’, the action takers took to the road in Parliament Square at the strike of 12 from Big Ben. They are blocking Andy Burnham’s first Prime Minister’s Questions. [3]
Trish Fitzmaurice, a mother from Norfolk, is one of those arrested on the road today. She said:
“Andy Burnham, we are crying out for leadership! The climate crisis is the biggest threat humanity has ever faced. We are destroying our only home by burning fossil fuels. Oil and gas mean death.”
Within 30 minutes, police officers were on the scene and began to make arrests, carrying the nonviolent action takers into nearby police vans. At the same time, a crowd of supporters stood nearby, holding banners and placards which altnerately read ‘For Future’s/ Food’s/ Our Children’s Sake, Just Stop Oil!’. Events are still unfolding.
Data from the Met Office indicates that 2026 was the hottest summer in UK recorded history, beating 2025 which was the previous hottest summer on record. 2026 was also one of the driest summers on record, delivering record-low food harvests. Climbing temperatures have triggered devastating wildfires across the country. National fire chiefs said the wildfire risk facing the UK ”is like nothing we have seen before”. [4] [5] [6]
Sam Burgess, 26, a student from Lancaster is one of those on the road today. She said:
“More oil is a death sentence: the unprecedented heatwaves killed over 35,000 extra people in Europe this summer. I’m not going to sit by and wait for this figure to include someone I love. The government must start protecting its citizens and Just Stop Oil.”
A recent viral article in the Metro asked “Where have all the climate activists gone?”, in light of the deadly droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves which have been pummelling the UK and Europe. Answering its own question, it concluded that direct action campaigns like Just Stop Oil were successful in their goals. Indeed, Just Stop Oil’s call for the end of new oil and gas licensing was met. However, with Andy Burnham and Miattah Fanbulleh potentially flaking on their commitments to climate action now in power, the urgency of climate catastrophe is still pressing, making it essential that all oil and gas extraction is ended. [7]
The imminent 2°C minimum of warming predicted today by the UN would create global weather system collapse, triggering never-before-seen droughts, wildfires, and floods in every inhabited continent. Going further, The German Physics Society and the German Meteorological Society have predicted a 3°C average temperature rise, triggering mass global starvation and irreversible flooding of major cities. [8] [9]
As action taker Reverend Bill White, 72, a priest from Macclesfield, said today:
“Over 80% of people want the government to take more action. It’s time for us all to say ‘For God’s sake, Just Stop Oil!’”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said today:
“We are all Just Stop Oil. Every single person who fears deadly wildfires, devastating droughts, and spiralling food shortages is Just Stop Oil. The first duty of government is to keep the public safe – but by greenlighting oil and gas drilling, they endangeroursurvival while corporates and billionaires laughtheirway to the bank”
“Every one of us feels alone and powerless in the face of this insanity but we know there is massive political and public support for our demand. So we’re inviting everyone to join us at an online call on 3rd October 2026 – because it’s when we work together that we are powerful and win. Sign up atwww.juststopoil.org”. [7]
In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. But we all know that it’s not enough. We need to end all fossil fuels completely to have any hope of heading off the horror that our heating world will bring. With fascist and authoritarian forces on the rise everywhere, our democracy is under threat. We are all Just Stop Oil now – what will you do?
Friedrich Merz called it a “disaster”, and that was even before the full scale of the catastrophe for himself and his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came into view after Sunday’s state elections.
In what one outlet called a “power move”, the German chancellor made a highly unusual televised speech just minutes after polls closed in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, attempting to get ahead of the narrative with a pledge to stay on and fight for his economic recovery programme.
But as the results trickled in, it became apparent that the CDU had not only scored its worst-ever result in a state election, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it had crashed out of a regional parliament altogether for the first time in postwar history with just 4.9% of the vote in the region on the Baltic coast.
The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) came out on top for the third time in a German state, drawing 38% against 35.5% for the centre-left Social Democrats, Merz’s federal coalition partner.
The sister parties CDU and CSU, known as the “Union” for short, form the traditionally strongest party in Germany.
05.05.2025
Here we introduce you to the German political parties that are represented in the Bundestag. In Germany, parties only win seats in parliament if they obtain five percent or more of the votes.
The party: CDU / CSU Christian Democratic Union of Germany / Christian-Social Union
Historic figures: Konrad Adenauer, first Federal Chancellor from 1949 to 1963 Ludwig Erhard, Federal Chancellor from 1963 to 1966 Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Federal Chancellor from 1966 to 1969 Helmut Kohl, Federal Chancellor from 1982 to 1998 Angela Merkel, first female Federal Chancellor from 2005 to 2021
Profile: The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, were established as non-denominational Christian parties directly after the Second World War by members of the civilian resistance to National Socialism. Their core values are rooted in Catholic social doctrine, Conservativism, and commitment to a liberal (social) market economy that is provided with a regulatory framework of rules and laws by the state. The CDU/CSU regards itself as a “catch-all party” that expressly combines many different interests and therefore aims to speak and develop policies on behalf of a very large part of the population.
The CDU runs for election in all Germany’s states apart from Bavaria, where its place is taken by the CSU, which only stands in Bavaria. The two parties are often known colloquially as “the Union”. In the Bundestag they form the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. The “Union” is traditionally the strongest party in Germany and has governed the country the longest in various coalitions.
UK energy firm Ineos is to invest $2bn (£1.6bn) in building its first ever manufacturing plants in Saudi Arabia.It follows an agreement with the Kingdom’s state oil company Saudi Aramco and French energy firm Total.Ineos said the facilities would produce chemicals for sectors such as automotive, aerospace and electronics.Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is Britain’s third richest man, called it “a major milestone that marks our first investment in the Middle East”.“We are bringing advanced downstream technology which will add value and create further jobs in The Kingdom.”Under the deal, Ineos will develop three chemical plants at Jubail 2, a $5bn petrochemicals complex run by Saudi Aramco and Total.It said the plants, which will begin production in 2025, would give it better access to markets in the Middle East and Asia.It follows its recent investments by the company in Belgium, China and the US.
Reported Strike on Saudi Arabia’s Jubail Complex Raises Global Energy Supply Concerns
Alleged Iranian attack intensifies fears of disruption to critical petrochemical infrastructure and international markets
A reported attack by Iran on Saudi Arabia’s vast Jubail petrochemical complex has heightened concerns about the stability of global energy supplies, as markets assess the potential impact on one of the world’s most important industrial hubs.
The facility at Jubail is a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical sector and plays a significant role in global production chains.
Any disruption to operations at the site could have ripple effects across international markets, particularly given its scale and strategic importance.
And 19th Sept, 2026, anti immigration right winger said:
Sir Jim Ratcliffe ‘must go’ after anti immigration rant, says Man United fan group
Alex Roberts,19.09.2026 21:36
Sir Jim Ratcliffe ‘must go’ after anti immigration rant, says Man United fan groupREUTERS
The Manchester United Muslim Supporters group says club co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe “must go” after his recent rant about immigration.
Ratcliffe, 73, left the UK for Monaco in September 2020 and has since paid £0 in taxes to the country of his birth.
Despite being an immigrant himself, the Man United co-owner once again spouted his anti-immigration rhetoric in an interview with the BBC on Saturday (September 19).
Ratcliffe said the UK was in decline because of a combination of high taxes and high immigration.
He has previously apologised for “offending some people” with his language after saying the UK had been “colonised by immigrants”.
Now, Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club (MUMSC) have submitted a letter of no confidence in Ratcliffe and INEOS’ ownership.
“Our players, staff, stewards, security teams and supporters come from different countries, cultures, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds. Manchester United would not be Manchester United without them,” they said.
“Manchester United does not belong emotionally to investment funds, shareholders or billionaires.
“After years of decline, broken promises and repeated failure, Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club has lost confidence in the current ownership structure of Manchester United Football Club.
“Enough is enough. It is time for change. The Glazers (co-owners) and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must go.”
On Ratcliffe’s previous comments, they added: “We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not.
“This week, Sir Jim has again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either.
“We find these latest comments deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable.
New Delhi, India – On the morning of August 26, the Himalayan landscape above Nepal’s Rasuwa district changed in minutes.
A mass of ice and rock broke loose high in the mountains and sent a violent surge of water, mud and debris down the Lhende Khola River. The torrent travelled through valleys, swept away settlements and infrastructure and eventually reached the Nepal-China border.
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The warning problem
A warming climate is altering glaciers, snow cover, permafrost and high-altitude lakes. At the same time, roads, hydropower projects, tourist facilities and settlements have pushed deeper into mountain valleys.
That combination is creating a new risk landscape in which one hazard can trigger another.
An avalanche can block a river. A blocked river can form a temporary lake. A sudden release can become a debris flow. That debris can destroy a road or bridge, block another river and create another flood downstream.
The August disaster in Nepal showed how quickly such a sequence can unfold. It also exposed a weakness in the way early-warning systems are often designed.
Many systems are built around a particular hazard: rainfall, river level or glacial lake outburst flood. But the Himalayas do not always respect those categories.
In July, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, or ICIMOD, warned that a below-normal monsoon should not be interpreted as a safer one.
“The biggest misunderstanding is that less seasonal rainfall means lower flood risk,” said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at ICIMOD.
“A drier monsoon can still be a dangerous monsoon,” he added, warning that seasonal averages cannot capture the cloudbursts capable of producing catastrophic flooding in mountain valleys.
The Nepal disaster went a step further.
The immediate trigger was not simply heavy rainfall.
Scientists have been examining an ice-rock avalanche and other possible processes that temporarily obstructed the river system before releasing a destructive surge. ICIMOD has described the event as an ice avalanche rather than a conventional glacial lake outburst flood, while other scientists have examined the role of local seismic activity and other high-altitude processes.
That distinction matters.
A warning system waiting for rainfall or a rising river may not provide enough time when the real trigger happens several kilometres upstream and above the line of sight of the communities below.
Kashmir’s warning signs
Thousands of kilometres away, scientists studying Kashmir’s Himalayas are seeing another part of the same problem.
A study published in the Journal of Glaciology this year mapped 155 glacial lakes above 2,500 metres (8,200ft) across the Himalayas in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The researchers found that the area of ice-contact proglacial lakes – bodies of water that form directly against the margin of a melting glacier, trapped by moraine ridges, bedrock basins, or ice dams – had increased by 26 percent between 1992 and 2024.
Five lakes were classified as having very high susceptibility to glacial lake outburst floods.
An outburst from those lakes, the researchers found, could threaten several thousand buildings, 15 major bridges, roads and a hydropower project.
More significantly, the study warned that hazards could occur in chains, with an upstream lake outburst potentially triggering secondary events downstream.
For Irfan Rashid, a glaciologist and associate professor at the University of Kashmir who co-authored the study, the implications extend beyond individual lakes.
Rashid recently told Al Jazeera that without action, the melting, thinning, and destabilisation of glaciers, seasonal snow cover, and permafrost along the Hindu Kush-Himalayas system would increase, and water shortages could become a major problem across the Upper Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins by the end of the century.
That is why the Nepal disaster resonates in Kashmir.
The landscapes are different, the rivers are different and the individual hazards may differ. But the underlying problem is increasingly similar: Communities living downstream of a rapidly changing high-altitude environment may have little time to respond when something breaks loose above them.
The challenge is particularly acute in places where roads, bridges and hydropower projects occupy narrow valleys.
Once a mountain river begins carrying enormous quantities of rock, ice and mud, infrastructure designed for conventional floods can quickly become irrelevant.
The Human Security assessment report 2026 examines how accelerating climate change is reshaping human security across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions. Covering key countries and major river basins, the report highlights how climate impacts cascade across water, food, and energy systems, intensifying risks for nearly two billion people. Using a poly-risk, people-centered framework, it assesses emerging vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and governance challenges, and identifies priority entry points for strengthening resilience and protecting livelihoods under increasing environmental stress.
Ukraine hits Moscow with ‘largest ever’ drone attack
Major oil refinery in Russian capital set ablaze as voting draws to a close in stage-managed parliamentary elections
Flames and smoke are seen rising from an oil refinery in Moscow. Photograph: UGC via AP
Max Seddon
Mon Sept 21 2026
Ukraine has hit Moscow with what local authorities said was the largest ever drone attack on the capital, setting a major oil refinery ablaze and killing at least two people, as voting in Russia’s stage-managed parliamentary elections entered its final day.
Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences shot down 450 drones as they approached the capital on Saturday night, calling the attack “unprecedented”.
Sobyanin said the attack was “clearly planned to disrupt the elections”, adding that “the enemy did not succeed”.
Several drones hit the Moscow Refinery in the south of the capital, one of Russia’s largest.
Russia’s parliamentary election for the first time included residents of regions that Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine after the start of its full-scale invasion more than 4 1/2 years ago.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
And a few days earlier:
Vladimir Putin humiliated as he struggles to vote in Russia’s ‘fixed’ election
Voting for the already predetermined election is underway.
ICE agent shoots and wounds man at traffic stop in Austin, Texas, officials say
Anti-ICE protests break out in push for transparency as unnamed man is in serious but stable condition
Emiliano Tahui Gomez in Austin and agencyMon 21 Sep 2026 06.00 BSTShare
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and wounded a man on Sunday afternoon in Texas’s capital city of Austin, local authorities said, as protesters demonstrating against the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration campaign quickly gathered at the scene.
The man was initially reported to be in serious but stable condition at a hospital after being shot once in the torso on the city’s north side, Austin’s police chief, Lisa Davis, said at a news conference with the mayor and other city officials.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not participate in the news conference and didn’t immediately respond to requests for details.
A woman who visits Dilley ICE detention centre claims children face 24-hour lights and harassment from guards for laughing as families struggle with basic needs @AllSidesNow/X
Trump’s Dilley ICE facility has come under renewed scrutiny after Casey Revkin, a co-founder of the nonprofit Each Step Home, described children living under 24-hour lights and claimed some are even harassed by guards for laughing.
Speaking on The Katie Phang Show, Revkin said she has seen families struggle with food, water, heat and other basic needs at the Texas detention centre, while her organisation now sends more than $10,000 (£7,400) a week to help detained families buy essentials.
Children Face 24-Hour Lights at Dilley
Revkin, who has visited the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas, described the facility as a harsh environment for families with young children.
She said the centre is made up of trailers in a hot, dusty area and claimed the lights remain on around the clock for security reasons, making it difficult for children and parents to sleep properly.
Her most striking allegation concerned the way children are treated when they behave like children.
‘Children in ICE detention in Dilley get in trouble for laughing,’ Revkin said during the interview.
When asked to explain, she added, ‘They get harassed by their guards for laughing.’
ProPublica separately reported that children detained there described missing school, friends and ordinary comforts while being held with their families.
Is This Happening to Us?’ Daily Number of Kids in ICE Detention Jumps 6x Under Trump
As the Trump administration detains large numbers of kids, advocates worry ‘it’s only a matter of time before we see a child die.’
Families detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas wave signs during a demonstration on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. Brenda Bazán/Associated Press
Saudi-Houthi war: ‘Won’t attack US, Israeli ships’; report claims Houthis held secret meet with US officials, agreed to uphold ceasefire deal; what exactly happened?
Donald Trump on Saturday claimed the Houthis contacted his administration, urging Washington to stay out of the Saudi-Houthi war.
Posted about 15h agoabout 15 hours ago, updated about 12h agoabout 12 hours ago
A large plume of black smoke was seen rising from the fuel storage area at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. (Reuters)
In short:
Smoke and flames have been seen near Riyadh’s international airport as Yemen’s Houthis claim to have attacked “sensitive” sites in the Saudi capital.
Saudi Arabia had sent alerts warning of potential danger around Riyadh but has not yet confirmed the Houthis’ claims.
The Iran-backed Houthis have been launching attacks against Saudi cities, energy infrastructure and shipping, creating new threats to global oil supplies.
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Reuters video and photographs showed a huge pillar of black smoke rising in the area, with the airport highway, main terminal building and other facilities in the foreground. At one point in the video, flames were visible rising from behind what appeared to be fuel tanks.
Large plume of black smoke rises from the fuel storage area at King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 19, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. (Reuters)
And Trump family have received $bns from Saudi, eg:
In 2022, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) invested $2 billion in Affinity Partners, a private equity firm founded by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, after he left the Trump administration.
A House committee opened an investigation into claims that Kushner leveraged his position in his father-in-law’s administration to land the $2 billion Saudi investment. In October, House Democrats requested that a special counsel be appointed to investigate whether Kushner was acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Saudi Arabia Reports Significant Decrease in US Treasury Holdings
The Kingdom’s holdings decline by $10.6 billion, reflecting market dynamics and investment strategy.
Saudi Arabia’s holdings of US Treasury securities were recorded at $126.9 billion in January, a decrease of $10.6 billion from the previous month, according to the latest data from the US Treasury.
This represents a month-on-month decline of 7.71 percent.
Saudi Arabia maintains its position as the 17th largest holder of US Treasury securities and remains the only member of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the top 20 holders.
This was a week which crystallized a number of things. When you add them all together, however, the key thing is that it demonstrated just how important the USA has become, through the Trump administration, in aiding the Russian war effort. This might have been hidden in all the distracting stardust being thrown in the air about the Graham Tariff Bill, or the recently announced (extremely weird) possible sale of some motley air defense capabilities to Ukraine (arrival uncertain and unknown). However, behind the stardust which the press seems too out of its depth to properly interrogate the reality is that the war has entered into a fascinating contrast.
Phillips’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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On the land, where the Ukrainians were less reliant on the USA, it is the Ukrainians who are showing the initiative and dealing some substantial blows to Russian military strength. If what we are hearing about Operation Vivaldi is only partially true, the Ukrainians are continuing to advance in the combined operations of infantry and UAVs.
In the ranged war, relying on Ukrainian sources, the Ukrainians are also showing some important strengths—when they concentrate on the right targets. However it is in their ranged campaign against the Ukrainians, aided enormously by the USA starving Ukraine of air defense (a great example of why relying on the weapons of another power is always so dangerous) that the Russians are being their most effective—and almost certainly will continue to be so for the upcoming winter.
Add it up, and what we see is that Russia’s area of initiative in the war has been enormously abetted by the USA and Donald Trump.
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“In addition to the advance itself, we can say that during this operation a fairly large number of enemy officers were also destroyed and a fairly significant number of enemy personnel were taken prisoner. Perhaps, in recent years, this is the largest replenishment of the exchange fund that came from the Ukrainian side,”
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The Ukrainian General Staff claimed 11,090 Russian personnel losses in the seven daily reports from 14 to 20 September 2026, an average of about 1,584 a day. Here is a breakdown.
Russia Batters Ukraine At Range
The last week was actually a lighter week than the one before when it came to Russian ranged attacks on Ukraine. They launched attacks every night, but with a smaller number of systems than the seven days previously. Here is a table of the number of units attacking—mostly drones (which means Geran/Shaheds) from Sept 14-19. We do not have last night’s figures yet.
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The reality of the ranged war, even with these reduced attacks, remains the same however. Ukraine can do little to intercept Russian ballistic missiles. The attack on 17 September, for instance, the only example of the Russians making a large ballistic missile assault last week, saw the Ukrainians claiming that they could not intercept one of them. The Ukrainian Air Force listed only Shahed/Gerans and Banderols as being neutralized that night.
Indeed, this slower week could be a sign of the Russians stocking up for larger attacks in the fall and winter. They have a track record of doing that.
This is the reality. Ukraine, because of the US depriving it of Patriots. Even in the announcement yesterday that the US might be selling some air defense capability to Europe to pass on to Ukraine, there was no mention of Patriots. What was announced was some “possible” sale of deficient systems. Indeed, the press did not even know how to report what happened—as in this CBS report.
Trump, Diesel And Ukrainian Energy Strikes
Another area where the Ukrainians confirmed that they can be effective when not impeded in the USA, is their ongoing campaign against Russian fuel production. We have confirmation of that this week because Donald Trump came out and pleaded with the Ukrainians to do Putin a favor and stop attacking Russian refineries.
Things were so bad, that Trump begged once and lied twice—before the Ukrainians made it clear exactly what their position is. It was a fascinating “exchange” that started last Sunday (13 September). Then Trump said this to the press:
“Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia…We spoke to Mr. Zelenskyy about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting, that’s hurting the world.”
However, Trump decided to blame the Ukrainians and help Putin when discussing the issue publicly. And this was not all. On September 14, Trump doubled-down on his claim that the rise in diesel prices was Ukraine’s fault but, miraculously, claimed that he had gotten the Ukrainians and the Russians to agree to stop all energy attacks. He tweeted:
“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!…The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.”
It is still shocking how the President of the USA can just make up nonsense, spew it out, and some people will believe him.
Zelensky even openly contradicted Trump, in denying any deal had been reached. He said Ukraine might consider a deal, but as of now“Russia hasn’t stopped striking our energy sector… And our responses to them for this are tangible.”
It was a revealing exchange. As always for Trump, Ukraine is the baddies and Russia is to be protected. That will never change.
The more interesting thing is the confirmation of the seriousness of the Ukrainian campaign on Russian oil production. It is why this must be the key target of the Ukrainian ranged campaign. If the Ukrainians have no ability to defend themselves against Russian ballistic missiles because of the USA, the least they can do is not listen to the USA when the American president pleads with them to stop their most effective strategic campaign.
Above: The war of June 1967 began with a pre-emptive air strike by Israel in which it destroyed the air force fleets, while they were on the ground, of three neighboring nations, Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Without air capability these nations had little ability to defend their territories and this war ended quickly: it is known as the Six Day War. At the end of this war, Israeli forces had occupied all the areas in pink on this map: the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights which belonged to Syria (at the northeast/upper right corner of Israel) and the Sinai Peninsula which belonged to Egypt (large area to the left/southwest of Israel).
The Camp David Accords, mediated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, were fulfilled in 1982, at which time all of the Sinai Peninsula was again under Egyptian control.
Above: This map shows in green the areas that Israel has had under military occupation since 1967. As noted in the previous map, the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egyptian control by 1982.
In November 1967, the same year as the Six Day War, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted UN SC Resolution 242, which required the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” As of 2017, Israel has refused to comply with this UN Security Council resolution for fifty years.
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