The leader of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council is Oleksyi Danilov.
Danilov is a powerful and interesting figure.
After taking Soledar a few weeks ago, Russia just took another strategic fortified town Krasna Gora yesterday. (see map below)
Russia is developing fast all the way around Bakhmut.
Russia is pressing everywhere on the frontlines and Ukrainian losses in men and matériel are enormous.
Dispatch of NATO tanks is still far away and will not make a significant difference anyway. Obviously, Russia has taken all the initiatives and is extremely successfully preparing the battlefield for even bigger offensives.
US think-tanks and media are becoming openly nervous. US think-tanks like CSIS is getting desperate that Russia is depleting US military stocks, and RAND (Pentagon affiliated) has begun to shriek that
“US interests must overrule Ukrainian interests”, and that a continuation of the war is suddenly “no longer in US interests”. The Times of London suddenly starts to talk about that Zelensky “owes the West” and they want to put strings on Zelensky to stop him.
Simultaneously with Ukrainian and US lies about the course of the war, the enormous purges in Kiev continue to grow.
Obviously, the Ukrainian purges are organized by the USA in efforts to stabilize Kiev in spite of Ukraine’s breakdowns at the front.
And Danilov seems to be central in the purge process.
Purges in Kiev follow the classical pattern
They started in the top of the security organs, using the secret service SBU and spreading to the Interior Ministry (police), Defense Ministry etc. A “corruption scandal” took away Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
A “helicopter crash” took away all the top of the Interior Ministry, including Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky himself. Various “incidents” take away other key-figures like Zelensky’s spin-doctor and buddy Oleksii Arestovych.
A murder by the SBU takes away a former member of Ukraine’s negotiation team in Istanbul.
Now the Kiev purges proceed laterally “down the ranks” in the SBU and military – and the purges spread horizontally to other powerful centres like the tax authority.
The Kiev purges are becoming a massacre.
Danilov in the Security Council with Budanov as the new Defense Minister while still controlling the SBU through a henchman as successor – they are the new axis running Kiev. Steered by the US, of course.
Is Zelensky part of that ?
CIA boss William Burns’ trip to Kiev included personal talks to calm down a nervous Zelensky.
Zelensky more and more looks like a one-man show.
Zelensky is kept until his soft utility for PR has to be sacrificed for the increasing US need to openly resort to massive violence against Ukrainians – the bloody show must get bloodier to go on.
Then Zelensky will suffer an “accident” or a “scandal” – “ohh, we didn’t know”that Zelensky had stashed millions of dollars in Monaco and the Virgin islands. Though for a long time, reports flourish that Zelensky’s people have flooded Monaco.
Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.