UK

Later in the week, there will be a review at the fronts, but to me it looks like Ukraine is conducting a delaying action back to the main defense line and that it is active, i.e. counterattacks where it hurts for the Russian bastards.

Russia has also now restarted mechanized combat with the old usual result of burning vehicles and piles of dead, but UA's mechanized counterattacks also incur losses.

What Finland is doing and has done is to keep quiet and prepare for war - recently they increased their mobilizable trained reserve to a million (or something...) and it is a not insignificant part of Finland's citizens who will then be lying in the forests in eastern Finland in a bunker built of wood with a dirt roof and fall asleep to the friendly bubbling of the homemade moonshine still.

Finland has also ramped up its war industry since 2022 and replenished all supplies.

They are simply pragmatic while the rest of Europe seems to believe that we have both the time and the opportunity to avoid war.

Yes, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, and now the Czech Republic, as well as to some extent Poland, are on a collision course with the EU on the Ukraine issue for various reasons, but that does not prevent countries in Europe from taking more action outside the EU.

Denmark has emptied its emergency stockpiles and weapon depots, all their artillery is now in Ukraine along with all ammunition. They have also initiated several major purchases of equipment that they have sent to Ukraine over the years - Denmark is the largest donor per capita, if I remember correctly.

They also made these decisions early when it was unpopular - all credit to Mette ✊✊

Half or no credit to a whole bunch of others, and Angela Merkel was recently caught red-handed as well 😶

Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, and the UK should have done the same as Denmark, but they have not.

We have long advocated that Europe has the equipment to completely pulverize the Russians, and that is true - but it was the equipment of the previous war and it was worth its weight in gold until perhaps the fall of 2024.

Now we need to top up with equipment for the 2025 war and also learn from this war because Russia and China have already done so.

And that is what we have not done until today in the fall of 2025, and it worries me to no end.

Denmark tried to shoot down a drone over a military base in recent days and failed - we are now in Phase 2 as we said would come where we cannot shoot down the drones and Russia is on the ground laughing.

Mark Rutte also behaved strangely the other day, almost a Sun Tzu warning on that...

In Sweden, we got our first taste of drones in 2014, I think it was when Russia was considering attacking Gotland and the defense forces panicked and started a long exercise on the island that became permanent.

It has been over ten years since we have had time to develop countermeasures against drone weapons, which SAAB has done with Loke and the associated radar, but there should have been thousands of them by now.

You can see exactly where the divide between Russia and China lies - China takes care of manufacturing drone weapons and preferably simple autonomous drones that require a small launch ramp.

Meanwhile, Europe's funding still tends to go to big expensive projects - of course, the arms industry pitches for that as anything else would be a dereliction of duty, but Russia also exerts influence so we are spending money on the wrong things.

A Toyota Hilux with a cabinet that can launch 48 autonomous AI drones with 3-4 hours of flight time. Ukraine calls them "loitering munitions" and uses them more and more, last summer over 600 per day just at the Dnieper front.

These vehicles could already be in the hundreds along the fronts. Who knows.

By removing the entire Russian chain of command, even a drunk Russian can drive forward on a straight road, press a big red button labeled FIRE in Russian, then turn the pickup and drive back to let the Chinese reload.

How is it even possible that we do not have these Toyota pickups with a ramp AI drone on the flatbed in Europe - how 😐

Then we have target designation where China is now using its satellite information gathering and whatever else they may have to target and engage Ukraine.

And I bet a whole Christmas dinner that it is China managing RU's digital battlefield, so there are small internet Chinese with bottle-bottom glasses taking care of this now. They have reaction times like a viper and multitasking as a middle name.

Kaitsehahe at johanno1.se has been advocating that line for a long time - not that the Chinese have bottle-bottom glasses, but that they are in the shadows and enhancing their capabilities.

For the Russians, the "kill-chain" is becoming uncomfortably good, they recently snagged a Himars with a missile for example, and they don't stay in one place for many minutes, lost the link.

What is Europe doing, half of Europe doesn't seem to care at all, even though France, Germany, and the Vikings in the north are preparing for war.

The fun-loving Portuguese continue to drink port wine and sit and chat at the cafes. The Spaniards have other things to do.

The only problem with Portugal is that it is literally crawling with Portuguese, otherwise the country is absolutely fantastic and we like being there.

Side note - China has solved logistics and handling issues for Russia in critical capabilities, and we now have a qualified opponent who fully masters the digital battlefield and has an effective drone weapon.

What is the EU busy with besides having other things to do when China and Russia have fine-tuned the propeller for 2025?

Well, we are still buying Russian oil, LNG, and refined products so that Russia can finance the war against Ukraine.

https://kyivindependent.com/who-buys-russian-oil-and-gas

And those graphs showing increased exports to Kazakhstan that exceeded decreased exports directly to Russia, you have all seen them even though Kazakhstan recently closed that supply chain.

Companies across Europe are smuggling what Russia needs for its arms industry, and Russia pays with euros they have obtained by selling oil to us.

Now these drones with 100 parts from European companies are flying over our military bases - all back and forth (what a word 😭).

Somewhere it is time to accept that Europe was completely infiltrated by Russia pre-2022 and that is why we are lagging behind on the curve.

Angela Merkel is now peddling Kremlin talking points these days - THAT was interesting 🧐

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/06/angela-merkel-poland-baltics-blame-ukraine-war

We have become good at sensing the scent of a pro-Russian now, and since Schröder is already busy being a burning Russian patriot and now Merkel, maybe that explains why they shut down coal and nuclear power plants only to become dependent on Russian gas.

All in the name of the environment, but no one has had any objections to Russian pollution from the German environmental movement 🧐

Russia was also the most generous country after Sweden during the 2015 crisis and is now grappling with huge problems in the aftermath. In Sweden, at least all eight parliamentary parties have now agreed that we are less safe and have higher crime rates nowadays, even though the solutions to the problem vary along with the explanatory models of why we have the problem. Now Germany's car industry is on its last breath due to soaring electricity prices as well - all signs point in the wrong direction for the Germans right now.

Or Scholz's constant hesitation to support Ukraine, in the beginning even the steel helmet was excluded and we called him steel-al for all his attempts to avoid doing anything nice for Ukraine when they died for our freedom.

There have been some suspicions about this before since Merkel came from East Germany and there was some connection, but now it is a little more proven in how she positions herself in the above issue - and above all, she opens up to the idea that Russia has good reasons to go into Poland and the Baltics 🧐

We have previously written that many old STASI and army officers were hired in new positions in the administration during the reunification, and they have worked their way up over time.

Apparently, STASI also held together informally to some extent, and today Russia pays very well if you have them as a side job - you get big money.

The total German deadlock in the Ukraine war then becomes a little more understandable perhaps - rot at the top and fifth columnists everywhere in the administration.

It's difficult to advance as a Ukrainian patriot and Russian hater with that gang at the helm - you simply won't reach a position where you can influence anything before you have been fired for some fabricated sin that has been planted on you, and all senior executives agree on what a burden you are because they want the next Russian salary payment.

And maybe one should look at other decisions made regarding the EU earlier when Merkel was chancellor?

Sarkozy has also been seized with Russian connections so the Russian hydra goes quite deep into Europe unfortunately.

Not to mention AfD, Reform, and some within our own ranks as well, but the dangerous ones are those in decision-making positions within ruling parties.

It must be admitted that the Russians excel in this game, but that is also because they are lone players on the other half of the field, and the goal is empty - we are not actively and strategically trying to destabilize Russia, in fact, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we welcomed Russia with open arms and got this.

In any case, Russia is a hopeless case 😐

If we can agree on that, the question is how, after almost four years of war and the beginning of a global conflict, we still have not managed to root out the pro-Russians from our own ranks - because what they do is delay decisions and ensure that we spend money on the wrong things.

I don't have a good answer to that, Denmark seems to have come a long way and we are on the right path together with Finland, but the rest of Europe is slow to start.

Russia is recycling the entire playbook from the Cold War - if you know it, you can almost predict the next step towards our current global conflict.

By the way, did you know that during the Cold War, they were quite relaxed about tactical nuclear weapons and intended to have a conventional submarine outside all major naval bases that would launch a nuclear-armed torpedo straight into the dock in a first strike - absolutely true.

Do I think they will use nuclear weapons in this war - no, but I think they are prepared for a lot of violence in Europe if they believe it benefits them, I believe that.

But only as part of a larger conflict with China, so if China de-escalates, there will be nothing.

Conversely, if Russia collapses, China will be forced to retreat - they are like a symbiotic parasite that depends on each other for a while longer.

The worst outcome of all - Russia collapses and China moves in and takes over large areas, and the West does nothing. THAT simply cannot happen.

That's why the USA is good because they intend to collapse the Chinese puppet show in a Japan-1990 scenario when they start to feel threatened. It will be the smash-and-grab of the century, it probably cannot be avoided even in the best of worlds.