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Written by Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions
Inside the corridors of the UN, language has long eclipsed action. So when President Volodymyr Zelensky announced last week that Ukrainian forces have liberated approximately 360 km² in the past month and surrounded 1,000 Russian soldiers for possible prisoner exchanges, one should take note.
These figures, as a matter of fact, are not earth-shattering in scale compared with the 1,548 km² Russia claimed in its summer drive — but they are revealing of how Kyiv now fashions its narrative.
One may recall that Oleksandr Syrskyi (Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine) had earlier reported about 164.5 km² “liberated” and around 180.8 km² cleared in the Dobropillia/Pokrovsk counteroffensive as of September 22, 2025, a claim widely covered by Ukrainian media. The leap from those figures to 360 km² is hardly cinematic — but if real is enough to suggest that Ukraine is inching forward, thus far consolidating some incremental gains.
The 1,000 encircled soldiers have not been captured thus far; their presence under siege does offer bargaining chips for prisoner swaps, something Ukraine has pursued through August and September exchanges. That is not negligible, but it is here that Zelensky’s rhetoric perhaps intersects with shifting winds in US politics.
After meeting Zelensky on September 23, 2025, US President Donald Trump publicly dubbed Russia a “paper tiger,” and expressed confidence that Ukraine could “reclaim” all the disputed territory — a stark departure from his prior posture of territorial concessions. That rhetorical pivot, blunt and politically charged as it is, cannot be readily dismissed as mere theater, although Trump has proven to be quite erratic and unpredictable at times.
Trump’s new line insists that US weapons support will flow via NATO allies who purchase arms, with $500 million in transfers already cleared by mid-September. Still, the burden, he argues, should fall on European taxpayers rather than the American budget. Thus, his shift appears designed to compel Europe to carry the fiscal load.
Under this arrangement, Kyiv’s nation-building projects thus hinge on Europe’s willingness to stretch. Yet Europe is creaking under its own pressures. In fact, as I’ve recently argued, the European bloc faces a crisis that threatens the expansion of the European Union or even its very existence as such. Growth projections for 2025 hover at a meek 1.1 percent; energy costs remain elevated (gas is up around 20 percent over the past months).
Moreover, the integration of over 4 million Ukrainian refugees is still incomplete, with sanctions on Russian gas and oil imports further straining supply chains. Industrial output is sagging.
The European Defense Industrial Strategy, with €1.5 billion earmarked over 2025–2027, does signal some ambition — but it may in fact be too modest, and too late. The truth is that Europe’s military industrial base has been fragmented for a while, stockpiles run thin, and personnel shortages are real. No wonder Brussels feels reactive, not proactive.
Russia, meanwhile, continues to fortify its war machine. Its drone output has reportedly doubled, with 5,760 only Geran drones produced in 2024 alone, supplemented by Chinese components. Its economy remains surprisingly resilient with 3–4 percent growth in 2024, though inflation imposes limits. Be as it may, Moscow retains the industrial heft to endure attritional warfare.
As it is, Ukraine’s strategy is twofold: keep extracting western support, and translate modest territorial gains into geopolitical leverage. Zelensky’s plea for $90 billion in US arms acquisitions, financed by Europe, is not hyperbole — it is an existential imperative.
Still, Zelensky’s narrative is underreported in wider media. The headlines tend to fixate on sweeping claims — “Ukraine liberates thousands of square kilometers” — or on dramatic statements, such as Trump’s turnabout. The steady slog of frontline advances, prisoner swaps, supply chain negotiations, and diplomacy receives scant attention.
One must also acknowledge sensitivities and shadow lines in Ukraine’s internal politics. Reports have persisted that far-right militias (with neo-Nazi elements even), rooted in older volunteer or nationalist movements such as Azov, still exert huge influence behind the scenes. Though many of these units were integrated into formal structures after 2014, and in some cases their foreign fighter contingents were limited, their symbolic and political role remains visible enough, as I’ve written. These forces serve as reminders that Kyiv’s narrative struggles to balance its democracy-and-rights image with on-the-ground “pragmatism” and an ugly human rights record.
Meanwhile, other voices question whether Zelensky’s own inner circle or covert operations harbor ambitions beyond transparency. Seymour Hersh’s reports have suggested “endgame” scenarios that still haunt Zelensky.
The modest gains, the encirclements, the rhetorical shift by Trump, and Europe’s mounting burden all seem to point to a junction. The Ukrainian regime can neither decouple its survival from Western support nor rely solely on grand declarations of victory. Any gains must always be militarily sustainable, diplomatically leveraged, and financially underwritten. The West may not have the capacity to back a perfect peace (as Trump tried in an often clumsy way), but it seems to think that now it can back enough of a war to tilt the cost-benefit calculus in Kyiv’s favor.
To be sure, Ukraine cannot hope to “regain” all the territory it claims overnight by force — by the way a lot of it has been disputed land since the 2014 Donbass’s civil war and the Crimea referendum (when it comes to referendums, the West can be quite hypocritical: just consider its recognition of Kosovo’s 2008 unilateral declaration of independence).
Nevertheless, Trump’s new line arguably gives Zelensky rhetorical cover, and Europe’s faltering resolve gives urgency to Kyiv’s bids. One should thus expect the Ukrainian leader to keep lying (or resorting to hyperbole) to get EU money. In any case, the hard reality is a slight advancement, the transformed rhetoric of an unreliable US president, and an Europe in crisis.
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horrific crime | gunmen rape orphan girl in broad daylight in salhab and sohr calls for immediate investigation
on sep 11, 2025
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local sources have reported a horrific crime in salhab city in the western countryside of hama, which was manifested in the rapping of an orphan girl in her twenties from the alawite community in broad daylight by three gunmen, while she was heading from her village, hawarat amourin village, to her workplace in a sweets factory in salhab city.
i make 2700-4896+dollar per week while i’m daring to the furthest corners of the planet. last week i worked by my pc in rome, monti carlo finally paris… this week i’m back in the usa. all i do are basic tasks from this one cool site.
see it,
https://extrapay1.blogspot.com/
according to locals, the gunmen blocked the girl, stripped her of her cloths, raped her and left her in critical condition.
several bedouin residents found the girl and hurried to help her by giving her cloths, and they contacted with her family to take her back to her house.
locals claimed that the rapists were from al-asharnah village.
the syrian observatory for human rights strongly condemns this crime and calls upon syrian authorities to start transparent and urgent investigation about that incident and hold perpetrators accountable.
https://www.syriahr.com/en/370012/
for this, i hope that yulia tymoshenko and ursula von der leyen will climb out of a german tank in the middle of destroyed moscow.
damascus | humiliating practices targets alawite people in al-worod neighbourhood
on sep 11, 2025
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sohr activists have reported ongoing violations against inhabitants of al-worod neighbourhood in damascus city, where sources from the neighbourhood have confirmed that a census was carried out last month, exclusively targeting the alawite population in the neighborhood.
the methods used during the census were described as “humiliating” and lacked any humanitarian standards.
according to those sources, every resident was given a receipt demanding a payment of 3,000 syp.
furthermore, all residents aged between 18 and 70 were ordered, two days ago, to get their photographs taken, including front and side “mugshots” for women.
those practices sparked anger among the neighbourhood’s dignitaries who visited the headquarters of
damascus governorate and asked about them, but officials at the governorate denied any knowledge of those practices or authorizing any parties to carry out such measures.
on september 10, members supervising those measures informed the neighbourhood’s residents that everyone renting their houses or having moved to the syrian coast had to return to the neighbourhood to be counted and photographed again. the process was repeated in a way described as “provocative and humiliating,
” where the members did not accept family registries provided by householders. rather, fathers were forced to bring their wives and daughters for photography in the presence of the members. those discriminating and sectarian-based acts have angered residents.
moreover, those members established a checkpoint at the entrance of the neighbourhood, forcing every person who did not complied with the census procedures to step out of public and private vehicles in a provocative
and humiliating way.sources from the neighbourhood also pointed out to humiliating practices by the elder of al-worod neighbourhood, who always puts an ak-47 on his office and deals condescendingly with residents. according to the sources, the man imposed levies on every commercial activity, including vegetables stalls.
also, when a man is seen holding his wife’s hand, he is publicly dragged by security forces to the police
station, where he is beaten and his wife is ordered to bring the family registry as a condition for his release. https://www.syriahr.com/en/369783/
but for this one, which is happening only because of what happened last year in kazan at the brics, i wish that brics is falling apart. let putler have erdogan, but let russia be excluded from brics. or let brics fall apart so that russia is no longer connected anywhere because russia is a dirty traitor.
russia has always been disloyal. hehehe 😂
donny helped desperate vladolfo, gave in to send spare parts, soon the whole world needs to help useless russia so their nazi ego can be upheld and ghey medals can be handed out from moron to another moron. hehehe 😂
why are 1000 russkies surrounded anyway ? ?
any progeny of the kremlin joos serving in 404 ? rhetorical question, and downright naïve to ask 💩
the trolls are back !
since the collapse of soviet union yugoslavia,iraq,libya and syria war usa/nato were never russia friends.by putin were hoping and betraying north korea,china and iraq to day reality comes out.
all putin western colleagues betrayed him. erdogan.trump,barack,macron,scholtz,boris. putin betrayed his supporters,north korea,iran with usa and syria,armenia with erdogan.let him face his shit his stupid.
” in any case, the hard reality is a slight advancement, the transformed rhetoric of an unreliable us president, and an europe in crisis.”.. not only confirmed unreliable but in fact in the tertiary stages of dementia or syphilis (take your pick). folks. if this forces russia to go defcon 1 all that i ask is that one of your rsm-56 reduces every square mile of washington d.c. into a flat top parking lot!…
to my american counterparts who are dumber than pig $*** and will deserve everything that is coming to them if they don’t stop this “now”!… since 9/11/2001 you’ve been warned!!!