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Polaris of Enlightenment

Comment: The division in Ukraine – and the hate rhetoric here at home

The war in Ukraine

While Swedish media spin on narratives of Russian propaganda and Trump's alleged evil, dramatic shifts are taking place on the ground in Ukraine. However, Colombian mercenaries, increased divisions and a society on the brink of civil war barely make headlines at all.

Published 10 April 2025
– By Jenny Piper
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
4 minute read
This is an opinion piece. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.

The news flow is currently not very informative but revolves around the chatter about the stock market slump that mainly affected multinationals in Big Tech, Big Pharma, investment banks, energy companies and the defense industry. In addition, Swedish mass media offers the bickering about Trump’s tariffs, Ukraine’s alleged new successes in a war that they have in practice already lost, and the usual Swedish hate rhetoric against Trump and Putin that they feed the population around the clock.

This afternoon, for example, they are making a big deal out of Zelensky’s claim that Chinese soldiers have been captured, but they omit to report that the Ukrainian military has struck Russian energy facilities in the Kursk and Zaporizhzhya regions twice in the past 24 hours, and that Colombian mercenaries have been brought into the Kursk region.

The Ukrainian publication Zerkalo Nedeli writes that the commander of the 47th separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Hamlet Avagyan, confirmed the presence of mercenaries from Colombia in the assault company in the Kursk region and that another 200 people from Colombia are expected to arrive in April.

The Colombian ambassador in Moscow admitted in an interview with RIA that they do not have exact data on the number of Colombian mercenaries taking part in the fighting, but it is known that up to 80 people have died at the front.

“An acute psychosis”

Considering how many months the MSM spent reporting on the alleged North Koreans fighting on Russia’s side, it would have been appropriate to inform about this as well – but as usual, it is dismissed as “Russian propaganda”, while all claims coming from the Ukrainian regime for some unfathomable reason never get the label of disinformation.

It is also interesting to note that Ukrainian political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko, in a video published on Telegram for the publication Politnavigator, states that Ukrainian society is deeply divided, with mutual hostility growing between different groups of the population while socio-political tensions are rising – bringing the country not far from civil conflict.

According to Bondarenko, sociological research shows very serious fragmentation of Ukrainian society. The current state of affairs can be described as an acute psychosis, with the risks of tensions escalating into open civil confrontations becoming increasingly likely.

There is a very serious antagonism between groups of people. And if earlier there was a division into East, West, Russian-speaking, Ukrainian-speaking and so on, now they begin to hate those who are fighting at the front line, those who are in the background, those who stayed, those who left… Civilians or military and even deserters. That is, there are many such moments that can be added to an already military split.

Ukrainian society is ready to deny rights to compatriots who did not go to war and to consider these as second-class people. I think that in reality we are now witnessing an acute psychosis that exists in society. They will look for an enemy among their own kind – in the government, in a neighbor who doesn’t speak the right way, who goes to the wrong church, etc. And this is an extremely difficult situation, because it is lined with civil wars, civil conflicts”.

Resignation demands on Zelensky

So what is really happening behind the scenes now that the focus is elsewhere? The US and Russia are probably busy making deals behind the EU’s/NATO’s back, and more countries are signing tariff agreements with the US. It will be interesting to see if they reach an agreement on Ukraine in May, as previously speculated – which would be a win for all involved.

Zelensky probably needs to step down first, as he continues to cause problems – something Finnish university professor Tuomas Malinen wrote about on X, where he argues that US President Donald Trump should demand that Zelensky surrender and resign for the sake of peace.

Today, American investor David Sachs – appointed by US President Donald Trump to be responsible for AI and cryptocurrency policy – wrote a post on X in which he said that Ukraine is robbing the United States and that Washington should “cut loose” Kiev if Zelensky does not sign an agreement.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of similar public statements in Sweden, where someone really needed to put their foot down – because here only those with the “right” opinion are heard in the media noise.

 

Jenny Piper

All Jenny Piper's articles can be found on her blog.

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Hungary wants EU sanctions on Ukrainian forced conscription officers

The war in Ukraine

Published 16 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Hungarian Foreign Minister demands that those responsible must be held accountable for the murder and brutal assault of people who refused to go to war.
1 minute read

Following the Council of Europe report, the brutality surrounding forced recruitment patrols in Ukraine must be covered by EU human rights sanctions. This is the view of Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.

Referring to the Council of Europe report titled Memorandum on human rights elements for peace in Ukraine, dated July 8, 2025 and signed by the EU Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, Szijjártó points out that conscription in Ukraine involves murder, torture, brutal assault and brutal treatment.

— It is a fact that people are dying in Ukraine because of the brutality of the conscription officers, because they don’t want to go to war.

— Where are the NGOs, where are the Soros organizations, where are the so-called independent journalists, where are the human rights organizations, why do they not speak out and say that this manhunt on the streets of Ukraine is unacceptable? asks Péter Szijjártó.

Szijjártó emphasizes that they view it as unacceptable and “shocking” that European politicians remain indifferent to the brutality and stresses that they demand the responsible recruiters be placed on the EU’s human rights sanctions list.

— This is a bare minimum that the EU must do in this issue, he emphasizes.

Trump urges Zelensky to attack Moscow

The war in Ukraine

Published 16 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

Donald Trump has secretly urged Ukraine to carry out attacks against the Russian major cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg – as a strategy to force Russia to the negotiating table, according to the Financial Times.

The conversation reportedly took place on July 4 between American and Ukrainian representatives, where Trump posed direct questions to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:

– Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? . . . Can you hit St Petersburg too?

According to the newspaper’s sources, the plan is to make Russia “feel pain” in order to pressure a settlement. Trump has previously expressed frustration over the war’s duration and said:

– I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago.

At the same time, it is reported that Zelensky has received a list of long-range weapons that Trump wants to deliver through intermediaries – to circumvent Congress’s ban on direct military aid.

Escalation in the war

The revelations come at a sensitive time. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that Russia could strike against the West if its weapons are used against Russian territory.

President Vladimir Putin has claimed that Russia has the right to “use our weapons against military facilities in countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities”.

In November 2024, Russia tightened its nuclear doctrine, which now allows nuclear response if Russia is attacked with conventional weapons by “non-nuclear states supported by nuclear powers”.

So far, Ukraine has primarily used domestically produced long-range drones in its attacks inside Russia. Neither the White House nor the Ukrainian government has commented on the revelation.

North Korea declares “full support” for Russia

The war in Ukraine

Published 14 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Wonsan, North Korea.
1 minute read

North Korea is providing its “unconditional support” to Russia in the war against Ukraine. This was declared during a meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Wonsan on Saturday, according to North Korean state media.

Kim Jong-Un informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the country stands ready to provide strong assistance in the conflict against Ukraine during a meeting that took place on Saturday in the coastal town of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast, a location that the country has recently attempted to market as a tourist destination.

According to the North Korean news agency KCNA, Kim Jong-Un told Lavrov that North Koreans have “expressed full sympathy and support for all the measures taken by the Russian government to remove the root cause of the Ukrainian conflict”.

The North Korean leader is also said to have expressed his “firm conviction that the Russian army and people” will triumph and “achieve the sacred cause of defending the country’s dignity and fundamental interests”, KCNA reports.

Before the meeting with Kim Jong-Un, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Choe Son-Hui, earlier in the day.

Deepened military cooperation

Lavrov’s visit to North Korea marks increasingly extensive military and political ties between the two countries, which have accelerated in connection with the war in Ukraine.

Pyongyang has previously sent thousands of soldiers to the Russian border region of Kursk to participate in fighting against Ukrainian forces that occupied parts of the area.

War hawk: Trump will send “record amounts of weapons” to Ukraine

The war in Ukraine

Published 14 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
War hawk Lindsey Graham with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo to the right in a meeting in Helsinki, Finland in August last year.
2 minute read

The US will send more weapons than ever to Ukraine. These are the tones being heard around the Trump administration as NATO chief Mark Rutte now visits Washington.

A large part of Trump’s voter base is generally considered to be voters who voted for him in hopes that he would reduce US involvement in foreign wars, partly because he promised during the campaign that he would end the war in 24 hours. However, these promises seem to be becoming increasingly distant for the American president.

On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is scheduled to meet Trump in Washington, and Rutte can be pleased that more weapons than ever are now heading to the war in Ukraine. This according to information from, among others, the neoconservative war hawk Lindsey Graham, Republican senator and close ally of the Trump administration.

In the coming days, you’ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves, says Graham on CBS’s program “Face the Nation”.

European countries foot the bill

A central part of the escalation is that NATO countries, including Sweden, have pledged to increase their weapons purchases, which in practice are largely procured from the American military-industrial complex.

Graham believes that the US escalation of weapons deliveries to the war in Ukraine is part of a “massive effort” to force Russian President Vladimir Putin into peace negotiations. It should be added that Russia has in many different contexts over a long time emphasized that they have been open to negotiations as well as being open about their peace conditions, which primarily revolve around guarantees of Ukraine’s neutrality.

Trump has signaled that he will make a “major statement” about Russia during the day.

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