Ukraine - Russia

[JohnnyDoe]

It's time to continue my original post of February 2022: https://johnnydoe.is/threads/what-is-going-on-in-ukraine.31177/

From the first day of the Russia–Ukraine war, the Western media served a masterclass in war propaganda. Not information. Not debate. Just a barrage of childish simplifications and outright lies.
We were told Russia was on the verge of collapse, that Putin had cancer, that Russian soldiers fought with shovels and no socks. We were told Ukraine was winning. That Zelensky was defending “our democracy.” That NATO was a purely defensive alliance. That we had a moral duty to send weapons to a country we had never even considered an ally.
But behind the slogans, there was nothing. No consistency, no memory, no truth. Just spin. The same Putin who had been hugged, toasted, and praised for 20 years was suddenly a dictator, butcher, criminal. How convenient. And how late. Apparently, Western leaders only realized who he was after doing business with him for two decades.

Meanwhile, while our leaders screamed “no gas from dictators,” they quietly kept buying it; from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Congo, Egypt, Qatar. All paragons of democracy, naturally.

We were told Ukraine is a free country. But opposition parties were banned. TV channels closed. Dissent silenced. We were told NATO defends peace, yet it bombed Serbia, invaded Afghanistan, flattened Iraq and Libya. Defensive, sure.

Then came the Nord Stream sabotage. A joint Russian–German–Dutch–French pipeline blown up in an act of unprecedented peacetime terrorism. Who did it? Official silence. Yet Biden had publicly promised it would “no longer exist” if Russia invaded Ukraine. Prophet—or mandante?

Western propaganda didn’t just lie. It insulted our intelligence. It counted on our amnesia, our ignorance, our obedience. It failed. Because too many of us remember. And too many of us have stopped believing.

 

[Marty McFly]

And now they are telling us that Russia is going to invade Europe 🤣

 

[NewHorizonsParaguay]

And now they are telling us that Russia is going to invade Europe 🤣

Europe is already invaded. By an unlimited supply of stupidity. The party is coming to an end. In Brussels, they are not yet aware. The coke is probably as good as always... but the usefulness of the EU to both the US and Russia has expired.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

While Western media still dreams of Zelensky in golden armor, Ukrainians are in the streets. Why? Because their so-called democratic hero just signed a law eliminating the country’s top two anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAPO. Gone. The only institutions that occasionally dared to sniff around the mountain of stolen Western aid. Now vaporized.

According to local reports, it all unraveled after NABU dared to search the German residence of Rostyslav Shurma, former deputy to presidential fixer Yermak and chief "economics curator" at the Presidential Office. That was July. By autumn, Shurma was sacked, and Zelensky-Yermak decided to gut the anti-corruption system entirely.

Because in Ukrainian democracy, you're only clean until the watchdog bites your own ankle.

So much for “European values.”

 

[marioIT]

While Western media still dreams of Zelensky in golden armor, Ukrainians are in the streets.

Meanwhile I've been told there's a very close friend of Zelensky that's touring the Mediterranean right now (on a M/Y with helicopter on board) in search of land to buy for his future business projects (agriculture, solar energy etc)... how funny would it be if he's buying land from "friendly" countries, using their very same money they donated for the war? 🤣

 

[NewHorizonsParaguay]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...-faces-dirty-information-campaign-2025-07-25/

 

[NewHorizonsParaguay]

Longer read

Spoiler: PART 1

In July, in Ukraine: the Ukrainian security service, the SBU, and the Prosecutor General's Office conducted a special operation to "neutralize Russian influence", conducting searches at the territorial headquarters of the National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU). In parallel, the SBU conducted checks on the implementation of the law on state secrets within the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). According to official statements, spies were arrested .. Then, the Verkhovna Rada adopted, and the president signed, a law (No. 12414) according to which NABU and SAPO were to be subordinated to the Prosecutor General's Office. Large-scale protests followed in Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, Kharkiv and other cities. Two days later, another draft law was submitted to the Rada, and subsequently adopted (July 31) - NABU and SAPO say they took part in the preparation of the new law that "restores their powers and guarantees of independence."

Der Spiegel also published on July 31, 2025: Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators raided the German home of a former close aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Der Spiegel, Bavarian investigators raided Rostyslav Shurma's property in Starnberg on July 15. The reason for the search was a request for legal assistance from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
Shurma, 41, oversaw Ukraine's economy for nearly three years as deputy head of the presidential administration. He is one of several close aides to Zelensky who have been investigated by NABU. Shurma was removed from office in September 2024 and has since settled with his family near Munich. He could not be reached for comment. Shurma has denied the previous allegations.
The timing of the German raid is sensitive: just a week after, President Zelensky stripped the National Anticorruption Bureau and another agency of their powers. The move sparked massive protests in Ukraine and criticism from the EU. There were fears that investigations against current and former members of Zelensky’s inner circle could be hampered. According to Daria Kaleniuk, a prominent Ukrainian anti-corruption activist, the Shurma case was one of the reasons the president signed the law on the independence of the National Anticorruption Bureau.
The fierce opposition has apparently prompted President Volodymyr Zelensky to rethink his approach: he has now presented a new law aimed at ensuring the independence of anti-corruption authorities.
Before Der Spiegel, there was...
Mezha net, July 25, 2025, National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine searches former deputy head Rostyslav Shurma in Germany :

Spoiler: PART 2

Mid-July marked a significant period for NABU, which conducted searches at the residence of former Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Rostyslav Shurma. The searches took place at his residence in the suburbs of Munich, Germany. According to information obtained from sources among members of parliament, on July 15, Shurma contacted a high-ranking official of the Presidential Administration, informing him about the search conducted by NABU detectives in cooperation with German law enforcement agencies, during which his phone was confiscated. This search took place against the backdrop of a scandal involving Oleksiy Chernyshov, a suspect in corruption. According to sources, the searches at Shurma’s residence were one of the reasons that prompted President Volodymyr Zelensky to publicly accuse NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of inefficiency and to sign a law that significantly limits the independence of these bodies.
“The Presidential Office is concerned that German law enforcement officers, who are known to disagree with such measures without a serious check of all appropriate legal grounds, were involved in the investigative actions at Shurma’s residence. Given that the subjects are abroad, the case takes on an international dimension. And while Ukrainian detectives and prosecutors can be discredited or controlled through parliament and the Prosecutor General, the Germans cannot.”
It is known that both Shurma brothers are currently abroad and are not visiting Ukraine. Rostyslav Shurma left for Germany as the father of three minor children, and his brother, Oleh, was also allowed to leave after the birth of his third child. Shurma attended a Ukrainian reconstruction conference in Rome on July 10-11.
Rostyslav Shurma was the CEO of Zaporizhstal from 2012 to 2019. He is currently a member of the supervisory board of the State Concern Ukroboronprom. In 2019, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada on behalf of the Opposition Bloc party, taking sixth place on the list. Earlier, in 2015, he tried to enter the regional and city councils of Zaporizhia on behalf of the Opposition Bloc, but refused the mandates to head the local party organization.
In 2010, Shurma became a deputy of the Donetsk Regional Council of the sixth convocation from the Party of Regions. In August 2023, Bihus.Info journalists published an investigation revealing that the state-owned enterprise Guaranteed Buyer (Гарантований покупець) paid 320 million hryvnia for electricity to solar power plants located in temporarily occupied territories, among the owners of which were Shurma's close circle.
Journalists also noted that the electricity, presumably paid for, did not enter Ukraine's energy system, but the power plants received payments under the "green tariff" until the summer of 2023. In February 2024, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) filed a report against Shurma, accusing him of using official duties for personal and family benefit. According to the NAPC, in 2022, Shurma organized the Electricity Committee at the Presidency, whose members met under his coordination, involving representatives of the Ministry of Energy, NEC Ukrenergo, and the state-owned enterprise Market Operator (Оператор рынку). On September 3, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed him from the post of Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, where he had worked since November 2021, overseeing the economic segment of the presidency's activities.

Spoiler: PART 3

Last year... Ukrainska Pravda has learned that Rostyslav Shurma, former deputy head of the Presidential Office for Economic Affairs, has resigned from the Office following revelations of a conflict of interest and pressure from American officials.

Ukrainska Pravda first mentioned Shurma's imminent dismissal in the summer (2024), but few believed it: "Shurma would have continued to work. But his job is 90% negotiation. According to media reports, Rostyslav was no longer taken seriously by international partners. They simply refused to cooperate with him. And this affects the entire work of the President's Office."

The issue was related to the alleged reimbursement of the "green tariff" to Shurma's brother's companies and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption's protocol regarding a conflict of interest.

However, Ukrainska Pravda pointed out that the final straw in Shurma’s career within the Bureau were President Volodymyr Zelensky’s conversations with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the spring and summer of 2024: “the Americans constantly pressured us to dismiss Shurma and Oleh Tatarov. They said that there was some kind of corruption and excessive influence. But they spoke without specific details, in general phrases, as our activists do. Once they even threatened with visa sanctions. Tatarov didn’t care, he was already staying away from the US. But Rostyslav was affected by this.”

 

[NewHorizonsParaguay]

Spoiler: PART4

Shurma's family lives abroad, and the business he runs with his brother is built internationally. US sanctions would be fatal to this way of life, so Zelensky agreed on September 3 to fire Shurma before he was ruined.

Who is Rostyslav Shurma ( Komersant , Censor , Focus ):

He was born in 1983 in Lviv. He graduated from the National Economic University of Kyiv with a degree in Economic Theory and the Academy of Kyiv-Mohyla National University with a degree in Economics and Entrepreneurship. In 2003-2005 he worked as a financial manager at Procter and Gamble Eastern Europe. Since 2006, he has worked at Metinvest Group. He headed the strategy department, worked as the financial director of the Makeyevka Metallurgical Plant, financial director of the steel and rolled products division of Metinvest and deputy director of the metallurgical division of Metinvest. In 2010, he was elected a deputy of the Donetsk Regional Council. In the 4th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, he was a voluntary consultant-assistant to the People's Deputy Igor Shurma, his father. Ihor Shurma was one of the 59 deputies who signed the motion, on the basis of which the Constitutional Court of Ukraine annulled the article of the Criminal Code on illegal enrichment, which obliged civil servants to provide explanations regarding the sources of their income and the income of their family members. Since 2012, he has been the general director of PJSC Zaporizhzhya. He was a member of the supervisory board of the Ilyich Steel Plant, chairman of the supervisory board of the Promet plant (Bulgaria), and a member of the board of directors of Metinvest-Trametall (Italy). In 2015, he ran for the regional and city councils of Zaporizhzhya, being the first candidate from the Opposition Bloc. He renounced both mandates he had obtained. In the same year, he became the chairman of the Zaporizhzhya regional party organization, the Opposition Bloc. In the same year, People's Deputy Igor Artyushenko addressed the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov with a parliamentary inquiry into the alleged bribery of voters and the use of administrative resources by Shurma and the former candidate for the post of mayor of Zaporizhia Buriak. In 2019, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada from the Opposition Bloc party. In the same year, he contributed 893,000 hryvnia to Oleksandr Vilkul's election fund. He also donated 1.45 million hryvnia to the Dnipropetrovsk regional organization of the Opposition Bloc party. In 2020, he was appointed a member of the Supervisory Board of Ukroboronprom. In the same year, he became an independent advisor to the President's Office, and in 2023, a member of the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz.
He is one of the authors of the state program eHome, a key instrument of mortgage lending in Ukraine. This program allows security forces and their family members, medical personnel, teachers and scientists to receive loans for the purchase of housing at a fixed rate of 3%, and everyone else at 7%.
He initiated the involvement of the largest global financial institutions BlackRock and JP Morgan in the creation of the Development Fund of Ukraine.
The Director of the National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU), Semion Krivonos, confirmed the information about the searches carried out at the home of the former deputy head of the presidential office, Rostyslav Shurma, in Germany: “I can confirm that the relevant investigative actions have taken place. Due to the law, I cannot specifically comment on the prospects of this criminal case or its essence. But this criminal case is ongoing. We are waiting for certain information from German law enforcement officers within the framework of our international cooperation,” Krivonos said in an interview with the Ukrainian channel Canal 24.