The two top officials are reportedly struggling for control over the bloc’s diplomatic and intelligence services
Two of the EU’s most powerful and controversial officials, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, are struggling for control of the EU’s diplomacy and intelligence services in a confrontation “worthy of ‘Game of Thrones’,” the French newspaper Le Monde has reported, citing sources.
Von der Leyen is steadily concentrating authority in her office at the expense of Kallas’ European External Action Service (EEAS) by creating new units such as the Directorate-General for Defense Industry and, reportedly, a spy unit, despite the existence of parallel bodies inside the EEAS, noted Le Monde.
Officials at the Intelligence and Situation Centre (INTCEN), which operates under Kallas’ EEAS, fear von der Leyen’s new spy agency will duplicate existing functions and weaken the foreign service, FT reported earlier this month.
According to Le Monde, the clash escalated this autumn when Kallas tried to appoint Martin Selmayr, a former top EU official, to a senior EEAS role to boost its influence. Von der Leyen reportedly saw it as “a declaration of war” and created a lower-ranking post for Selmayr, blocking the move.
“This latest affair confirms the Commission Presidency’s almost obsessive desire to concentrate all power and, consequently, to prevent any competing, even slightly autonomous, entity,” Le Monde writes.
Critics have long accused von der Leyen of an “authoritarian” and opaque leadership style, claiming she bypasses both member states and internal institutions to centralize control. The notion was central to recent attempts by opposition members of the European Parliament to depose her.
Kallas, who has secured her role largely through her anti-Russian rhetoric, has earned herself a reputation for gaffes, with insiders arguing that her tone has alienated partners and undermined the EU’s diplomatic standing.
One such example occurred in September when Kallas asserted that, “Chinese are very good at technology but they are not that good in social sciences,” adding that, “The Russians… are not good at technology at all, but super good in social sciences.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova ridiculed the statement, by asking who launched rockets from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome if it’s true that Russians lack technological expertise, calling Kallas “critically uneducated.”
Kiev’s possible entry hinges on fulfilling bloc requirements and resolving the conflict, David McAllister has told Izvestia
The EU has no plans to accelerate integration of Ukraine into the bloc, the chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has said.
David McAllister told Izvestia on Wednesday that Ukrainian membership would only be possible after the conflict with Russia is resolved, stressing that Kiev’s application to the bloc must remain strictly merit-based.
Ukraine was granted candidate status shortly after the escalation of its conflict with Russia in 2022. While Vladimir Zelensky has urged the bloc to advance the process, Brussels has instead floated 2030 as a target. The European Commission’s insistence on stronger anti-corruption laws has been brought into the spotlight by revelations of a reported $100 million extortion racket involving Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle, months after he tried to take control of the agencies overseeing the investigation.
Kiev’s accession “cannot be accelerated beyond its merits,” McAllister said, adding that entry must be based on “full compliance with the Copenhagen criteria, rule of law and institutional readiness.” Full membership will be possible only after “establishing peace.”
The debate is not about “bypassing” conditions but ensuring progress can translate into “faster steps” where strict preconditions are met, McAllister argued.
Admission requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU states. Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland, have voiced opposition, citing concerns over costs, security, and institutional readiness.
Russia says it doesn’t oppose Ukraine joining the EU but has condemned what Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the bloc’s shift into an “aggressive military-political bloc” and an “appendage of NATO.”
Although the bloc has consistently issued generic statements condemning corruption in Ukraine, EU officials have often declined to speak out on scandals that are seen as damaging to Zelensky and his inner circle.
Kiev’s establishment is burning to the ground in the Energoatom Mafia scandal, while the media and think tanks keep insisting this is fine
In Ukraine, the front lines are crumbling and so is the Zelensky regime. While Kupyansk and Pokrovsk are falling, the shockwaves of the Energoatom Mafia scandal keep reverberating, internationally and at home in Kiev.
At this point, two ministers have resigned. The former defense minister and head of the powerful National Security Council, Rustem Umerov, is in essence on the run abroad. According to the usually well-informed journalist Anatoly Shariy, Umerov is offering the FBI in the US to turn – protected – witness. He may still return to Ukraine, but even his current behavior – the unplanned delays, the search for US allies, quite possibly for some kind of deal – betrays a very guilty conscience.
Likewise, Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko has declared her readiness to cooperate with Ukraine’s own anti-corruption prosecutors at NABU, which is in reality a branch of the FBI implanted in Ukraine. Clearly, Sviridenko is also looking for a deal, letting it be known that she is ready to talk and name names, as long as they let her get away with the absurd claim that she knew it all but wasn’t part of it.
Zelensky’s most intimate companion, chief consigliere, autocratic enforcer, and overbearing eminence grise, Andrey Yermak, is also deeply – and unsurprisingly – implicated, under the gangster slang name ‘Ali Baba’, in the Energoatom Mafia scandal, and his head is clearly on the political chopping block.
Details could be multiplied ad nauseam. Take, for instance, the fact that we now know that the gangster pseudonym ‘Professor’ did not stand for former Justice Minister German Galushchenko – no worries, though: He’s still an Energoatom mobster, just not that one – but the wife of former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, Svetlana.
While her husband features as ‘Che Guevara’ in the Energoatom scandal, ‘Professor’ Svetlana – in real life (or pretend?) an academic at Kiev’s prestigious Taras Shevchenko University – happens to be very close besties with Elena Zelenskaya. Yes, that would be Vladimir Zelensky’s spouse (when his intense schedule with Yermak leaves time for her). According to Shariy, Svetlana-bestie-of-Elena is implicated in shady deals around the habit of Kiev’s elites of building themselves palaces, and she also received a cool $500,000 (in cash) from ‘Sugarman’, aka Aleksandr Tsukerman, another key Energoatom player on the run.
In short, if they think they have a swamp in Washington, they haven’t seen Kiev yet. But of course, they have. It is obvious that Washington has been well aware of just how stunningly, stinkingly corrupt its clients in Ukraine are. Indeed, the more, the better, a modern Machiavelli would say, because it makes them even more dependent. One of the best explanations for the Energoatom scandal breaking now is that it is part of a US operation to either get rid of or subdue Zelensky. The conspicuous fact that Zelensky has suddenly made – insubstantial – noises about being interested in peace talks may have as much to do with this American assault on him as with the disaster on the front lines.
This is the context that also explains a recent trend in Western spin-for-Ukraine. Absurd as it is, the claim that the Energoatom mess is really a good sign if you only look close enough is spreading as if on cue. The underlying logic is not only daft but simple. Take, for instance, a recent specimen of the genre: According to Polish TVP quoting the American Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), the Energoatom scandal “hurts Ukraine yet proves it’s on the right track,” because “a case of this scale exposed by domestic institutions is proof of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system working.”
Where to even begin? Let’s just break it down in order of appearance: ‘A case’ – as in one case – only proves that there is much more to come. In Ukraine, there is widespread consensus that what happened at Energoatom is peanuts compared to what has been going on in the defense sector, bloated with literally hundreds of billions of euros and dollars from the West. This is exactly why ex-Defense Minister Umerov is running scared. The first evidence of his personal involvement in corruption is emerging already. Energoatom is merely the crack in the dam. When the dam breaks, so will the system, all of it.
‘Domestic institutions’? That one is genuinely funny. The only reason NABU and SAPO – Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies – are still alive is that they are not domestic. In reality, for those who don’t believe in Santa Claus, they are US implants – in the case of NABU, explicitly so. They survived Zelensky’s attempt to raze them this summer only due to Western support.
‘Proof’? The only proof of Ukraine’s corruption under the Zelensky regime suffering a real setback would be the fall of that regime. But even then – and here is what naive Westerners simply cannot grasp about the Ukrainian political system – corruption as such would not cease but merely undergo a change in management. How do we know? Because this law of Kiev politics has been tested again and again. The last time, by the way, in 2014, when then-President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in a regime change operation made easier by his flagrant graft and nepotism. And yet, here we are again.
There is added irony in Poland channeling an American think tank to spread absurd spin about Ukraine’s hyper-corruption: According to X post by former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, the Polish authorities may well have helped one of the very worst Energoatom Mafia leaders, Timur Mindich – aka ‘the president’s purse’, that is, Zelensky’s – to evade arrest. This is entirely plausible: In Ukraine, Mindich was clearly tipped off about his impending arrest, most likely by either Yermak or Zelensky himself. Whoever warned him would also have had the necessary Polish connections. And Warsaw, of course, has a nasty record of working with criminals from Ukraine and of sheltering them from prosecution, too. Just ask the Germans how far they got with their Nord Stream investigations.
Ukrainians are drowning in a deep, fetid swamp of corruption, worse than ever. To pretend that a scandal surfacing from that morass is a good sign is perverse. But then, so is most of Western policy toward Ukraine, using its people up in a war provoked for idiotic reasons and long lost. Maybe there is some dark, historic justice in Ukraine and the West making their respective cultures of cynicism and graft even worse for each other.
Nikolay Isakov, known as “Iron Grandad,” was victorious at an international competition in the central Oryol Region
A 93-year-old nicknamed “Iron Grandad,” from Vladimir Lenin’s hometown Ulyanovsk, triumphed at a major Russian weightlifting competition earlier this month.
Nikolay Isakov claimed the top spot in the 90+ age group in the 29th Open Russian Weightlifting Cup, the local governor’s office said on Tuesday. Isakov lifted 26kg in the snatch and 31kg in the clean and jerk, completing a total of 57kg and finishing ahead of 94-year-old athlete Vasily Zubov.
Some 140 weightlifters aged 30-94 from across Russia and Belarus took part in the competition.
Isakov has been active in sports for over 70 years. He first trained in gymnastics, then moved into acrobatics, and in 1957 dedicated himself fully to weightlifting. Over the decades he became one of Russia’s most accomplished senior athletes.
Ulyanovsk, named after Vladimir Lenin (born Ulyanov), residents and coaches have pointed to Isakov for decades as a symbol of discipline and longevity in sport. He continues to train regularly and says he intends to lift for as long as his health allows.
”Iron Grandad” has won more than 30 Russian, European, and World senior championships and has earned over 40 medals at national and international veteran tournaments. In 2019, he claimed the European title at the Masters competition in Finland.
Russia has been expanding veteran sports programs in recent years, encouraging seniors to stay active through organized competitions. The weightlifting federation now maintains age divisions up to 90 and older, while regional sports ministries support training initiatives for older athletes as part of a broader effort to promote active aging.
Brussels refuses to acknowledge that the billions spent on its proxy war against Russia have been squandered by Kiev, the Foreign Intelligence Service has said
EU leaders are ignoring the reality in Ukraine and the fact that the money they spent on the conflict with Moscow is being squandered by the corrupt Kiev regime, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said.
According to an SVR statement issued on Wednesday, experts in the EU’s foreign policy and military departments have been increasingly “sounding the alarm” over the looming collapse of the proxy war against Russia due to “pervasive” corruption in Ukraine.
“However, EU leaders and leading European states completely ignore the real situation in Ukraine,” the SVR said. “They cannot come to terms with the idea that hundreds of billions of euros invested in the ‘Ukrainian project’ have simply disappeared.”
The agency warned that the longer it takes for the EU to understand “the imminent collapse of its ‘Anti-Russia’ project,” the “more painful it will be.”
Ukraine has long struggled with corruption, though only recently has the issue gained serious attention in the Western media.
Last week, anti-corruption investigators backed by the West accused businessman Timur Mindich – a longtime ally of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky – of running a $100 million kickback scheme, using funds allegedly siphoned from contracts with Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator, which relies heavily on foreign aid.
The case has implicated several current and former officials. Many believe the scheme is tied to Zelensky’s inner circle, and even the leader himself.
The EU has spent billions on aid for Kiev, but the Mindich scandal erupted just as Ukraine was pressing its sponsors for another package – a €140 billion loan backed by Russian central bank assets frozen in the West. Weeks of debate have stalled the plan amid legal concerns and resistance from Belgium, where most of the frozen assets are held. Russia has said it regards any use of its assets as “theft” and has vowed a legal response.
Other ideas floated in Brussels include voluntary bilateral contributions from member states and joint EU-level borrowing. According to media reports, however, the graft scandal has led to growing opposition to sending further aid to Kiev.
Moscow has vowed to respond in kind to the closure of its diplomatic facility in Gdansk and lamented a profound deterioration of relations
Poland will close the last remaining Russian consulate in the country, in the city of Gdansk, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has announced. The move came after several acts of railway sabotage in Poland, which local authorities were quick to blame on Russia.
Sikorski announced the decision in an address to the Polish parliament on Wednesday, according to the Foreign Ministry. He added that Poland does not intend to sever diplomatic ties with Russia.
Responding to the closure, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would mirror the step, reducing “Poland’s diplomatic-consular presence in Russia.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “relations with Poland have completely deteriorated.” He said Warsaw’s apparent intention to “reduce to zero any possibility of consular or diplomatic relations” with Moscow underscores the state of bilateral ties. Peskov added that Poland’s latest decision “has nothing to do with common sense.”
Poland currently maintains an embassy with a consular section in Moscow and a consulate in Irkutsk in Siberia.
The decision follows two railway sabotage incidents on Sunday and Monday targeting lines used to transport Western military aid to Ukraine. In at least one of the cases, a military-grade C4 explosive was used, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. Authorities later identified two Ukrainians as suspects, alleging both worked for Russian intelligence and fled to Belarus after the attacks. Peskov denied any Russian role in the incidents.
In May, Poland closed the Russian consulate in Krakow, citing Moscow’s alleged involvement in a May 2024 fire at a Warsaw mall.
Russia responded in July by ordering the closure of Poland’s consulate in Kaliningrad.
Last October, Warsaw shut the Russian consulate in Poznan, followed by Moscow’s closure of the Polish Consulate General in St. Petersburg in December.
Parliament voted to fire Svetlana Grinchuk shortly after approving the dismissal of the justice minister
The Ukrainian parliament has voted to dismiss Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk, marking the second high-level ouster in a single day as the government struggles to contain a growing corruption scandal linked to a close ally of Vladimir Zelensky.
Lawmakers approved Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko’s request to fire Grinchuk on Wednesday, shortly after voting to dismiss Justice Minister German Galushchenko. Galushchenko previously served as energy minister before handing the post to his then-deputy Grinchuk during a cabinet reshuffle earlier this year. Both dismissals received unanimous approval from MPs who voted.
The officials were drawn into an alleged kickback network operating inside the state-run nuclear energy company Energoatom. Businessman Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of Zelensky, was charged last week by the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which claims he and accomplices extracted at least $100 million from contractors.
The broader graft probe has implicated additional senior figures, including former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov. Zelensky is also facing mounting calls to remove his chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, whom observers and critical officials see as the political linchpin of the alleged criminal network.
Opposition parties have moved to capitalize on the turmoil, pushing for the dismissal of the entire Sviridenko cabinet and demanding the formation of a coalition-backed government.
Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, which won a commanding majority in 2019, has shown signs of internal fragmentation in recent weeks. His earlier attempt to curb NABU’s independence – a move reversed after Western backlash – and the unfolding scandal have reportedly shaken MPs’ loyalty to the Zelensky team.
Washington’s strategy could involve military, psychological and information pressure, according to the New York Times
US President Donald Trump has greenlighted additional measures to pressure Venezuela and prepare for a potential broader military campaign, including covert CIA operations targeting President Nicolas Maduro’s government, the New York Times has reported, citing US officials.
At the same time, Trump has approved a new round of back-channel negotiations that reportedly led to the Venezuelan president offering to step down after a delay of several years – a proposal the White House rejected, the outlet said on Monday.
The Pentagon has deployed warships to the Caribbean and has carried out controversial strikes on small boats it claims are involved in drug smuggling from Venezuela. The White House maintains that Maduro is an illegitimate, cartel-linked ruler, fueling speculation that direct military action might be imminent. Maduro has denied the drug trafficking allegations and warned the US against launching “a crazy war.”
According to the NYT, while Trump has not yet deployed combat forces to Venezuela, Washington’s next steps could involve “sabotage or some sort of cyber, psychological, or information operations” aimed at increasing pressure on the Maduro government.
Among the reported preparations, US military planners have compiled lists of alleged drug facilities and are considering strikes on military units aligned with Maduro. According to the outlet, Trump convened two meetings in the White House Situation Room last week to discuss Venezuela and evaluate strategies with his senior advisers.
While instructing the CIA to prepare covert operations, Trump simultaneously resumed back-channel negotiations with Maduro after briefly pausing talks last month, sources familiar with the situation told the outlet.
During these informal discussions, Maduro has reportedly indicated a willingness to grant US energy companies access to Venezuela’s oil reserves. Trump acknowledged the negotiations on Sunday, stating, “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out.”
Venezuela has condemned the military buildup as a violation of sovereignty and a coup attempt, placing its military on high alert. Russia recently reaffirmed its support for the country’s leadership in defending its sovereignty.
Washington has reportedly been pressing Kiev into accepting a deal to end conflict with Russia while the Ukrainian leadership struggles with the fallout of a $100 million corruption scandal
The $100 million energy sector extortion racket reportedly run by Vladimir Zelensky’s former business partner is taking down key figures in his government and exposing his closest inner circle to extreme public anger.
The graft scandal kicked off last week, after the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) announced a probe into a “high-level criminal organization” allegedly led by Zelensky’s former business associate, Timur Mindich, who immediately fled the country. The affair has hit the country’s energy sector, prompting Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk to resign.
Other high-profile individuals implicated in the scandal include Zelensky’s chief-of-staff Andrey Yermak, former defense minister and current head of the National Security Council, Rustem Umerov, as well as former Deputy PM Aleksey Chernyshov.
The bid to form a “unity government” comes amid reported unrest inside Zelensky’s own faction
Ukrainian opposition parties shut down proceedings in the Verkhovna Rada on Wednesday morning by blockading the speaker’s podium, escalating their bid to replace the cabinet with a coalition government.
The disruption was the second in as many days and was led by the faction of former President Pyotr Poroshenko. He and fellow opposition party leader Yulia Timoshenko were stalling a vote to dismiss two ministers tied to a sweeping corruption investigation, insisting that Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko must first deliver a report to parliament.
Later during the session, MPs voted to fire Justice Minister German Galushchenko, previously energy minister, and his successor, Svetlana Grinchuk, who have been linked to businessman Timur Mindich. The long-time associate of Vladimir Zelensky was charged by the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) over an alleged $100 million kickback scheme at state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom.
“We have to admit that monopoly on power caused all this… a virtual monopoly on all decisions and control,” Timoshenko said, urging the formation of a “coalition government of unity” to prevent further national decline.
Poroshenko’s European Solidarity and Timoshenko’s Motherland parties have joined forces to demand a full cabinet dismissal. They argue that they can gather the necessary 150 signatures by rallying members of other factions and gain the support of some MPs from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, which won an outright majority in 2019.
Attendance in the Rada has been dwindling during the conflict with Russia, and Zelensky’s faction has increasingly struggled to pass legislation. Media reports suggest that open rebellion is brewing within the party ranks in the wake of the Mindich case.
Mindich was charged by the same agency that Zelensky attempted to strip of independence earlier this year, prompting sharp backlash from Western donors. The Ukrainian leader subsequently disavowed responsibility, blaming MPs who approved the legislation.
According to RBK Ukraine, discontented lawmakers feel they are being made scapegoats and accuse Zelensky’s team of violating the informal ‘contract within the elites’ – that the faction would back decisions handed down from above, and in return, those in power would keep their own conduct in check.
