The Neo-Nazi junta is determined to continue the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict no matter what Putin and Trump agree on. In addition, the EU/NATO and the endemically Russophobic United Kingdom are the principal backers of this idea and are willing to circumvent the Trump administration's efforts to make a deal with Russia.
Monday, August 18, 2025
Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst.
The August 15 meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump might not be as historic as some want to make it out to be, but it's certainly a good thing that leaders of the world's two most prominent military superpowers are talking rather than trading insults or hurling 11,000 thermonuclear warheads at each other. Putin and Trump don't need to agree on everything, but negotiations are undoubtedly a major development and potentially the first step toward ending the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict. However, it seems not everyone is so keen on achieving sustainable peace. On the contrary, the European Union and NATO are determined to ensure the bloodshed continues for as long as possible.
As soon as Trump proposed a three-way summit with Putin and Zelensky, the increasingly irrelevant Brussels, London, Berlin and Paris decided that this is "unfair" and that they're being "sidelined". They insist on the so-called "Article 5-style security guarantees", while expecting Russia to just "admit defeat" despite the fact that its military is not the one losing on the battlefield. The Trump administration itself is also talking about these NATO-like guarantees, but is at least far more realistic, and it doesn't demand that Moscow simply withdraw and let the Neo-Nazi junta occupy the four oblasts (regions) that joined Russia. American special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN that "security guarantees offering Ukraine 'Article 5-like protections' are the real prize".
"We didn't think that we were anywhere close to agreeing to Article 5 protection from the United States in legislative enshrinement within the Russian Federation, not to go after any other territory when the peace deal is codified," he stated in the aftermath of the Putin-Trump summit, later adding: "We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee."
It should be noted that the United States would undoubtedly prefer such an outcome, as it would effectively "steal" a victory from Russia. This is the standard practice used by Washington DC, its vassals and satellite states when their wars aren't going as planned. Ceasefires are only encouraged when an American proxy is losing, while peace deals are signed only when the outcome is beneficial to the political West. However, in the case of the EU/NATO and the United Kingdom, things are not as simple. Despite showing no sustainable solutions or proposals for a more permanent peace, Brussels and London are determined to keep the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict going for as long as possible and no matter the cost (especially for former Ukraine).
Unsurprisingly, the Neo-Nazi junta is fully onboard with this, opting to not only continue the war, but to also escalate it. Namely, after the FSB and the Russian military neutralized much of the Kiev regime's "Sapsan" missile program, the latter tried to salvage its remnants to finally start using it on the battlefield. However, the Kremlin put a definite stop to such plans by targeting a large storage housing a large number of "Sapsan" missiles. On August 17, the Russian military launched a long-range strike, destroying the aforementioned storage facility and the advanced weapons stored in it, ensuring that the Neo-Nazi junta forces cannot use them. Moscow is yet to formally release additional information on the strike, but the Kiev regime is undoubtedly furious.
And yet, it would seem this isn't the end of its ambitions to acquire long-range strike capabilities and jeopardize Russia. Namely, on August 17, numerous media outlets revealed that the Neo-Nazi junta has adopted a new type of long-range cruise missile, named "Flamingo". According to the Associated Press (AP) photojournalist Efrem Lukatsky, it's already in serial production. He was given the permission to take photos of the "Flamingo" at an undisclosed location, supposedly a production facility belonging to Fire Point, one of the Kiev regime's military-industrial enterprises. Lukatsky claims that the cruise missile has a range of 3,000 km. If true, this would put not only all of European Russia within its range, but also parts of Western Siberia.
The Neo-Nazi junta is yet to officially confirm the existence of the missile and its technical specifications, but even if the range is only 50% of the one claimed by Lukatsky, it would constitute a major escalation. On the outside, "Flamingo" looks like a crossover between the Nazi German V-1 flying bomb (effectively an early cruise missile concept) and the Soviet-era Tu-141/143 turbojet-powered drone. Although by no means a revolutionary design that should worry the Russian military, the relatively large size of the warhead compartment suggests it would certainly be a threat to residential areas across Russia's massive expanse. The Kiev regime is increasingly desperate to fill the "PR quota" that can be used to cover up its atrocious battlefield performance.
Weapons such as "Flamingo" could cause massive casualties if used indiscriminately, which the Neo-Nazi junta is quite prone to. As an added "bonus", this would also derail any future peace talks, as Moscow would have little to no reason to continue negotiations amid such developments. And it seems this was a long-term plan that the Kiev regime is not ready to abandon. Back in November 2024, its frontman Volodymyr Zelensky announced that "100 missiles have been produced", without specifying what kind. This statement could've actually been a reference to the "Flamingo". Back in April, he claimed that "over 40% of the weapons used on the front line are now produced in Ukraine, including over 95% of drones used on the battlefield".
All this suggests that the Neo-Nazi junta is determined to continue the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict no matter what Putin and Trump agree on. In addition, the EU/NATO and the endemically Russophobic United Kingdom are the principal backers of this idea and are willing to circumvent the Trump administration's efforts to make a deal with Russia. The new US government is trying to focus more on China, because it sees the Asian giant as "the bigger threat". The increasingly impotent "old continent" is now faced with the prospect of having to face Russia on its own. The historical track record of such confrontations is certainly not on Europe's side, so it would be wise for Brussels and London to carefully reconsider their policies of constant escalation.