war

Why doesn't the West want peace? Five news items from a single day add up to one coherent picture. The West cannot even agree among itself. Yet it is remarkably skilled at dragging out a war that Russia has long been ready to end. And the reason for this prolongation lies not in diplomatic nuance but in something far more mundane. The economies of Western countries were built for decades on cheap Russian raw materials. Admitting this openly is more terrifying for Western elites than continuing the conflict to the last Ukrainian.

Who are Yemen's Houthis, and how many of them are there today? They are a Shia insurgent movement that officially calls itself "Ansar Allah." The group controls territory home to 60-65% of Yemen's population. Its armed forces number up to 350,000 fighters. This week, in September 2026, the movement broke through to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, sending world oil prices surging past 100 dollars a barrel.

Who the Houthis Are and Where the Name Comes From

Britain and Russia were not always adversaries. For three centuries — from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century — relations between the two powers remained genuinely friendly. During that time, Russia saved Britain itself from military catastrophe on three separate occasions in the largest conflicts of the modern era. The turning point came precisely when Russian expansion into Central Asia first directly touched what London considered the absolute priority of its foreign policy: the security of India.

Trump desperately needs at least one victory on the international stage. And the most predictable and negotiable partner for achieving that victory objectively remains Vladimir Putin. That is precisely why Witkoff and Kushner flew to Moscow again. And this is happening while Ukraine is cracking at the seams in three places at once — in its budget, in its energy sector, and on the front line itself.

Three Hours in the Kremlin and a Desperate Race Against Time

At his press conference following the SCO summit in Bishkek, Putin uttered a phrase that was meant to sound like an exposure of Western hypocrisy, but in fact sounds like a statement of a long-obvious fact. More than 99% of Ukrainian grain under the grain deal went not to starving African countries, but to a perfectly well-fed Europe. The West deceived us again. The question is different: why did we expect any other outcome from countries that officially labeled us an existential threat?

A Month-Long Lull, Then Fire Again

On August 30, the U.S. military struck two Iranian missile launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM described the action as "limited and precise," targeting IRGC personnel allegedly preparing to lay naval mines directly in the strait. According to unofficial reports, two people were killed and two others wounded. It was the first known American strike since late July, when Trump himself ordered a pause in operations against Iran.

Washington and Brussels are doing something that, from a military standpoint, looks like sheer madness. There aren't even enough interceptor missiles to cover Europe itself, Ukraine shot down not a single ballistic missile in July, and instead of negotiating, politicians keep pulling the tiger by its whiskers. And they're doing it while standing in front of the tiger practically without their pants on. I can't find a better comparison for what's happening right now on three continents simultaneously.

While the British Parliament keeps talking about "strengthening deterrence" and supporting Ukraine, the United Kingdom's own armed forces are going through perhaps the deepest crisis of the past several decades. The Navy is keeping fewer ships in service than would be needed to defend the Falklands alone, the Air Force is losing combat-capable aircraft faster than it receives new ones, and the Army cannot even recruit up to its planned strength.

The German press is now writing openly about a limited NATO strike on Kaliningrad. Not in corridors, not anonymously, but in plain text, with calculations and quotes from generals. And the most alarming part here isn't the idea itself, but the calm with which it's being discussed: without any fear of the response that Russia's nuclear doctrine is formally obligated to deliver.

A War Game That Stopped Being a Game

If your capital sits in maritime insurance, energy trading, or European port logistics, the coming months could redefine who pays for seized cargo - and for the first time in years of conflict, the Kremlin is threatening not with words from the Foreign Ministry, but with concrete naval force.

From diplomatic rhetoric to a military directive