A week ago, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched an attack above the northern border of Ukraine’s territory into the Kursk region of Russia. This is a sparsely populated woodland area with numerous small villages. The objective may have been to reach the Kursk nuclear power plant located almost 100 kilometers to the north from the Ukrainian border. Since Russia took the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in early 2022 and has since absorbed it into the Russian Federation, the gamble toward Kursk may have been planned as an attempt to gain a bargaining chip in future negotiations.

This is how the Western media is framing Kursk.

The Guardian ran a headline claiming: Offensive into Russia aimed at drawing Moscow into ‘fair talks’, says Ukraine. The report featured comments by a Zelenskyy aide and Moscow claims that Western NATO advisors are embedded in the Ukrainian special forces troops pushing into the Kursk region.

The Western media is in agreement that the Kursk offensive is meant to draw Russia into peace talks. That’s a big shift. A month ago, we were told that NATO was insisting that Ukraine retake all Russian gains including Crimea. Further, Zelenskyy’s “peace plan” required regime change in Moscow and putting Putin and Kremlin officials on trial for war crimes.

However, Western media outlets have now acknowledged that Ukraine has all but lost the battle for Donbas.

The New York Times even ran an opinion piece by a virulently anti-Putin journalist claiming that the Ukraine war is over due to NATO’s blunders.

At the same time, a report has circulated claiming that the former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhny planned and facilitated the destruction of the Nord Stream II (NS II) pipeline in 2022 — the largest act of eco-terrorism in history. Any astute observer will recognize this story as concocted.

How does the resurrection of the Nord Stream II story figure into the incursion into Kursk?

It is part of a larger pattern of bizarre war propaganda.

• Attack a nuclear power plant held by the Russians.
• Claim that Russia is bombing its own nuclear power plant.
• Kill a dozen or so Russian collaborators in Bucha (a French eyewitness journalist has offered evidence that the war crimes in Bucha were committed by Ukrainian military units).
• Claim that Russia killed hundreds of civilians in Bucha including its own collaborators.
• Blow up Nord Stream II.
• Claim Russia blew up its own pipeline.

And so on.

It is clownish, but few people in the West follow foreign affairs closely, so much of this is swallowed whole. We have been brainwashed to think that Russia is this Orwellian nightmare of a totalitarian state. So any horror story fits the Western Liberal narrative.

We know from Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that the CIA facilitated the NS II sabotage. President Biden knew about the plan at least six months before the war in 2021. Bombs were already in place and the detonation was done remotely.

Then why blame Zaluzhnyi?

Even more so than Zalenskyy, Zaluzhnyi is the most popular presidential hopeful in Ukraine. Zaluzhnyi was still trusted by 92 percent of Ukrainians late last year, significantly above Zelenskyy’s 77 percent. He was fired for challenging Zelenskyy’s orders in the field, but then promoted to ambassador to Britain.

Why is there no arrest warrant if Zaluzhny is an eco-terrorist?

Because everyone knows it’s fiction.

But why blame Zaluzhnyi?

Simply, if peace negotiations begin with Russia, martial law will be lifted and then Zelenskyy, whose term expired in May 2024, must stand for reelection or withdraw from the election. The problem with Zaluzhnyi is that he is an avowed admirer of Stepan Bandera whose Nazi Germany allied resistance movement killed tens of thousands of Russians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Gypsies, etc. The Banderites were active from WWII until 1955. There might be a problem with Poland supporting Zaluzhny. Of course, it is also bad PR for US/NATO to be supporting a neo-Nazi admirer as president of Ukraine.

Enter Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi, who replaced Zaluzhny in early 2024. Syrskyi was a lower ranking colonel-general not qualified for a job no one else wanted. He is known as The Butcher by his own troops. Syrskyi was criticised for pursuing bloody Soviet-style military tactics which resulted in significant Ukrainian losses during the Battle of Bakhmut, and was nicknamed “General 200” (a reference to Cargo 200, a Soviet military code denoting military fatalities). Syrskyi was born in Russia in the time of the Soviet Union to an ethnically Russian family. He is said to have killed more Ukrainians due to incompetence than the entire Russian army. However, he is now taking credit for marginal success in Kursk. Although not as popular as Zaluzhny, Syrskyi as a negotiator with Russia makes a lot more sense.

The collapse of the Zelenskyy regime could come as soon as the Russian capture of Pokrovsk. Then huge areas of the Ukraine military frontlines in Donetsk could collapse. With few fortifications to the west of Pokrovsk, the Russians would be able to move in any direction. Much of the Ukrainian army in the region could be caught in a large cauldrons with few or no defense lines to the west. If that happens there could be a situation like in 2015 when Ukrainian militias were caught in a cauldron in the Battle of Debaltseve. If that level collapse happens, there could be chaos in Kiev surrounding the government. This could also cause panic among the NATO brass.

If Syrskyi is then promoted for the purpose of negotiating with Russia, there is a real possibility of a coming civil war between the Kiev government and the neo-Nazi battalions. Further complicating this mess is the fact that the Azov Brigade is now openly being funded by the West. The US and NATO has lifted the weapons ban on Ukraine’s Azov Brigade earlier this year. Of course, the US claims that this “Brigade” is separate from the neo-Nazi linked “Azov Battalion.”

The coup and civil war scenario could take place by October 31. I hope Ukraine does not disintegrate into chaos. It would dangerous for everyone involved. But we should remember that civil wars and revolutions often follow international wars.