Don's Weekly, 25 August 2025: Part 1
by Donald Hill (intro by Tom Cooper)
Hello everybody!
As expected (and ‘announced’) all the big ‘summits’ are over, and their outcome is exactly nothing. Sure, both the narcissist zombie idiots involved and the media were (and still are) happy, for there were lots of great opportunities for flashy PR, and the related babbling has bridged the ‘summer gap’ and brought billions of clicks. Was better than Obama.
Oh my: I’m wrong. Of course there were results! And what for results! Dumpf has explained to Zele/Yermak to brace for accepting Russian conditions. Because negotiating with Pudding is too though when one is doing nothing. Therefore, Dumpf has also, ‘quietly’, prohibited Ukrainian strikes deep into Russia. At least those with US-made weapons, or weapons including US-made parts. So Dumpf can distract from the Epstein Affair and ‘win’ the Nobel Peace Prize as the biggest peace-broker of all the times…
Two flies with a single blow…
Unsurprisingly, and regardless how much talk is there still about ‘cease-fire’ and who has ‘promised’ to ‘send peace-keepers’ whenever there is a cease-fire the war in Ukraine is going on exactly like before.
(…where… well, the word is that Beijing agreed to send its own troops to Ukraine, should there be a cease-fire. Which made me unable of avoiding imagining the media reports should this really happen and the troops of the People’s Liberation Army indeed appear to ‘maintain peace’ in Ukraine. See: ‘Chinese peacekeepers are key players in the restless conflict zone Europe, which is now relying on the PLA’s mission to restore peace and order, due to endemic corruption and incompetence of its fascistoid political- and military leadership…’ and/or ‘…in the light of a public outcry over killing of its peace-keepers, Beijing is re-thinking the rules of engagement with regard to PLA troops in Ukraine: from non-interference to one where they are actively fighting armed gangs of local extremists…’ After all, can’t recall there are any kind of international laws or rules, dictating that Europe can’t become somebody’s colony. Our glorious establishment is certainly diligently working on exactly that. Primarily because that’s resulting in beautiful profits…)
But, I’m digressing and rambling, as always. Thus, back to the present times.
Indeed, a growing number of reports from this war is reminding me of reading about the US-Japanese battles for Iwo Jima and especially Okinawa, in 1945: merciless slug-fest where neither side is defeated until the last of its combatants within the immediate combat zone is dead.
Principally fought by small infantry units, UAVs, artillery rockets and ballistic missiles, and for every depression in the terrain, every basement, every ruined wooden shed, every collection of debris or other wreckage. Which is why in both countries this combat zone is nowadays regularly including places 500-1000km behind the frontline. And everything - any humans, and anything resembling something that might be of military use - within 15-50 kilometres from the frontline is a target, certainly subjected to attacks. Unless well-concealed all the time.
When it’s not missiles, rockets and UAVs that are deployed, then it’s what both the Russians and Ukrainians call ‘DRG’ or ‘sabotage groups’: small commando teams, usually including special forces, raiding weak spots in the enemy lines, almost always by night. Usually starting by one part of the team sneaking upon enemy positions supported by snipers, and almost exclusively ending deadly for all those attacked. The further ‘advance’ is then regularly supported by UAV-dropped supplies…
That’s not only how a good part of the Russia’s advance north-east of Pokorovsk, and into Pokrovsk, 17-20 July, was initiated, and how the Ukrainians are usually initiating their counterattacks, but also how the Ukrainians seem to have launched something like their ‘local counteroffensive’ in the Pokrovsk area, sometimes during the last two days.
Considering early reports are indicating the liberation of three completely devastated villages (Zelenyj Gaj, Mychailivka, and Volodymyrivka), cannot but wait for the media to react with reports about ground-breaking successes and an operation likely to drive the Russians straight back to the (Azvo) Sea… if not all the way to Moscow…
You see? No need to worry about such contradictive weirdos like me: when blanc idiotism rules, we simply can’t run out of topics, and any intro is completed in a matter of few minutes.
Over to Don…
***
Sumy/Kursk
Ukrainian airstrikes destroyed a bridge and pontoon at Zvannoye. A Russian airstrike hits a road east of Sadky that was also heavily shelled. The area around Varachyne endured multiple Russian airstrikes.
After testing the “Black Hole” munition they helped develop, the 225th Assault Regiment used it on the west end of Oleksiivka. They used conventional munitions on the rest of the village.
***
Kharkiv
The 13th Khartia Brigade uses ground drones for almost all of their supply and medical evacuations. Ground drone operations require planning to use routes with cover and accounting for enemy drone activity.
17 km northwest of Hlyboke, a bridge inside Russia is destroyed. Two kilometers away, another bridge that was prepared for destruction by Russians was discovered.
Southern Vovchansk is shelled by the Russians. A Russian dumps an anti-tank mine into a reported Ukrainian position.
Kupiansk
60 km behind the front lines, Ukraine destroyed two ammo depots in Bilokurakine. A Russian penetrated 1800 meters into Kupiansk and wouldn’t surrender, so a tank fired on the shed he was in at point blank range.
A Russian Su-34 destroys a bridge across the Oskil river.
Terny
Novomykhailivka was entered by the Russians in mid-April. Ukraine kicked them out last week. A Ukrainian infantryman south of the village is attacked.
A series of attacks on Russian targets west of Nove. A 63rd Brigade tank fires at Russian targets in Zarichne. Ukrainian infantry are attacked in Zarichne.
Because of the the Russian advances at Zarichne and Serebrianka, the Ukrainian positions in the forest north of Serebrianka are withdrawing.
20 km northeast of Siversk, a tank is followed into a building and attacked.
***
Kostiantynivka
The Azov Brigade stopped a Russian assault on Katerynivka, but this was part of a withdrawal operation from Shcherbynikva and Katerynivka. It made no sense to hold onto Shcherbynivka as long as they did as it was surrounded on three sides, and it appears that not everyone could withdraw. Even holding on to Katerynivka was difficult because the Kleban-Byk reservoir restricted logistical routes. Russian forces bombarded Kleban-Byk before entering it and it looks like Ukraine will finally pull back behind the reservoir.
2 km east of Kleban-Byk, Russians bombard Ukrainian positions with thermobaric rounds. Ivanopillia is hit by a rocket barrage. Kostiantynivka is hit by an airstrike.
There are a lot of airstrikes on Stepanivka, where Russia is expected to push soon. So far, Russia has been unsuccessful in their attempts to move across the small rivers north of Yablunivka.
***
About a year ago, the Russians established their Rubicon Center for Advanced Unmanned Technologies. It has more freedom to make decisions than other Russian units and is the most effective drone organization they have. It was the first Russian unit to use fiber-optic FPVs and interceptor drones. The commander of Azov Brigade’s drone unit said that Rubicon isn’t particularly innovative but they’ve been effective at disrupting logistics. Rubicon’s tactics are the same as other units but they perform them better, and Ukraine needs to work against them methodically.
Besides hitting Ukrainian logistics, Rubicon is intercepting a lot of Ukrainian drones. They are using tactical radars and radio transmission locators to locate Ukrainian drones. Some drones are intercepted 3-7 km before they reach the front. Reconnaissance drones have difficulty observing activity 20-30 km away. The Vampire drone used to last 100 missions, but 10-15 is now average before it is shot down. Some Vampire drones are shot down as they lift off. Given that it takes 7-10 minutes for Russian drones to reach that site, it means that they are flying to the Vampire drones as soon as the Ukrainian team switches on its equipment. This means that terrain is no longer blocking the signals of drones on the ground and that Russia has airborne signal detection capabilities. Ukraine still has better quality drone operations but that advantage is smaller now.
***
(…to be continued…)
Key Takeaways:
The summits are fruitless.
The US is pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to the Russian Federation.
China may use the “truce” to establish a military presence in Ukraine.
The war continues in a grueling mode with local successes on both sides.
The media is reporting events with great exaggeration, creating “information sensationalism.”
For my part, I would like to add that allowing China into the "peacekeeping mission" would be a very stupid decision. This would not only legalize Putin's direct ally and master - the Chinese army - on the territory of Ukraine, but would also help the Kremlin to more firmly control the occupied territories. Trump is quietly forbidding Ukraine from striking Russian territory with American weapons (or US components). He is pushing the idea of accepting the Kremlin's terms (actually capitulation). This is presented as "peacemaking" → so that Trump can distract attention from scandals in the US (Epstein, domestic corruption) and look like a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.
That is, he wants to simultaneously:
👉 help the Kremlin stop the war on terms that are favorable to him
👉 and present himself to the US and the world as a "peacemaker."
Trump and his team have systemic ties to Russia: business dependencies (Russian investments in American real estate, in particular in the Trump Organization); political ties (the infamous 2016 campaign with the intervention of Russian troll farms and the GRU); contacts of people from his entourage (Manafort, Flynn, Stone, etc.) with Kremlin structures. His rhetoric has always been consistent with the Kremlin’s: “NATO is obsolete”; “Europe must finance its own security”; “Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks Russian”; doubts about helping Ukraine. In fact, Trump is the Kremlin's Trojan horse in American politics, used by US oligarchic circles that are not opposed to cooperation with Russia.
• The ban on attacking Russia is ideally suited to the Kremlin’s interests. It freezes the conflict in a form that is beneficial to Moscow (the occupied territories remain with Russia).
• Imposing peace “on Russian terms” is a long-standing Kremlin strategy: to push for “peace” through “useful idiots” (Lenin’s phrase) in Western elites.
• The Nobel Peace Prize for Trump = a bonus for the Kremlin. Because it legitimizes the "new Yalta" (the division of spheres of influence, where Ukraine is a "gray zone").
China entering Ukraine as a peacemaking force would be a monumentally stupid decision by the West. We all know that China isn't a neutral player (on 4th July, their foreign minister told that China cannot afford to let Russia lose the war in Ukraine).
I hope that nobody's stupid enough to let the PLA controlling Ukrainian borders.
That's like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.