Ukraine is fighting a media/propaganda war. Russia is fighting a ground war to take the territory that is populated by Russian speaking people. Ukraine has upped the ante lately and is trying to weaken the Russian civilian resolve to continue fighting. Putin has stated the war is existential for Russia. Ukraine continues to lose territory. The idea that Ukraine is winning this war is ludicrous.
Would both countries be happy if the war was over? Absolutely! However, to get there is to navigate a complex series of obstacles not the least of which is the EU’s desire to keep the war going.
The next story in this conflict seems to align with some of this in the ongoing Ukraine vs Russia narrative that has been assembled for consumption.
The initial story, usually the most accurate {source}, stated that, at an area within the Leipzig/Halle Airport complex in Germany, a small tour group noticed a drone flying low to the ground in/around the area where cargo planes are located. Leipzig is used by NATO as a cargo airport to deliver weapons. This is an important aspect to this narrative.
The driver of the bus got out, pushed the drone to the ground and called airport authorities to notify them. The drone was located near the area where two Ukrainian Antonov aircraft were located. In addition to these aircraft, the airport houses three Russian Antonov’s’ grounded and stored since EU sanctions went into effect.
The drone was a quadcopter type, with limited distance capabilities. Inspection of the drone revealed it carried 800 grams of explosive material and a faulty detonator. The drone was taken into custody by airport authorities. Keep in mind that these quadcopter drones have a quite limited range. The operator has to be nearby.
It appears the German government has learned its lesson from initially blaming Russia for Nordstream, as they now use the generic term “state actor” when describing the likely source.
BERLIN — German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has suggested a state actor was behind the explosive-laden drone that was found at Leipzig airport.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that foreign powers are behind this,” Dobrindt told public broadcaster ZDF Wednesday evening. “That will now be part of the investigation, but there are many indications pointing in that direction,” he said.
This quadcopter drone at Leipzig Airport happens on the same day that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy accused Russia of attacking a street vendor in Kherson, Ukraine, with an almost identical drone.
Today, many were shocked by yet another video of the drone “safari” Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson. A Russian drone deliberately hunted down a man selling vegetables and detonated right next to him. The Russians even admitted to the crime, showing zero… pic.twitter.com/uGjC7esFwR
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 4, 2026
Remarkably, the guy in the video above is ok. He suffered minor (non-penetrating) injuries.
Frankly blaming this attack on Russia just doesn’t pass the smell test. First, why would Russia care about a guy at a street market in Kherson? Second, the quadcopter drone operator has to be close to the event in order to fly the drone and detonate the payload.
It is fair to say we are in an information war and increasingly it is impossible to tell which side is carrying out the activity.
In the airport drone incident, despite the claims of the EU attributing the origin to Russia, there is no substantive value for Russia in such an action. What strategic objective is being displayed? Simultaneously, when looking at the promotion of the Kherson attack by Zelenskyy there’s something odd about his statement, “The world must see this. It must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad and that its soldiers take pleasure in killing and abusing civilians. Without pressure on Russia, the dismantling of its capacity for aggression, and real security guarantees, it is simply impossible to imagine the world being able to coexist with this evil.”
Obviously, there is not enough information to make any definitive statements about origination, targeting or intent. However, overall, there is a pattern of desperation evident in the position of Ukraine since mid-June (London visit) which could indicate an effort to create circumstances to pull NATO ever closer to joining military activity against Russia directly.
The EU needs the war. European economies are threatening to collapse. This is primarily due to the heavy hand of regulation and the EU’s pressure to go green. Closing down cheap energy (think fossil fuels) in favor of expensive green energy has placed the EU at a significant disadvantage in the world markets. The sabotaging of the Nord Stream pipelines destroyed a source of cheap energy that would have helped those industries to stay competitive.
It has been said that all wars are “bankers wars,” however, against the modern era of inverted fascism where corporations tell the government what policies take priority, the more accurate truism is ‘all wars being controlled by money’, but not necessarily banks.
How to finance the Ukraine war? After all the people making the weapons of war like to be paid.
As long as the USA was financing the Ukraine government and war effort, the EU did not need a source of funds. However, once the USA stopped writing checks to Ukraine, an alternate finance system was needed.
The EU was quite creative. They constructed a very special kind of financing for Ukraine that doesn’t require the EU to give their own €uros to the historically corrupt country. What the EU put together was a financial system based on sanctioned, confiscated (ie stolen) Russian sovereign wealth funds {citation}.
The finance package used the confiscated $300 billion in the Russian sovereign wealth fund as collateral for loans to Ukraine. The EU would send the money to Ukraine as a loan that did not have a payback mechanism. Instead, the thinking went that when the negotiations for a ceasefire take place, Russia would be forced to give up the confiscated $300 billion as part of a reparations package to Ukraine.
Sundance notes:
Now, immediately you can see a few problems.
♦ PROBLEM 1 – What happens if Russia demands the return of their $300 billion as one of their baseline terms for a peace deal? The progress of the war has been very slow but Russia is not losing the war. If the confiscated money is given back to Russia, the EU and Ukraine are on the hook for the $300 billion they would have spent.
♦ PROBLEM 2 – With #1 in mind, there is now an incentive to never reach a peace agreement or ceasefire; at least never reach a solution that would consider the return of the $300 billion. Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has previously said the stolen money belongs to the Russian people and must be returned; he will never accept the theft.
Zero Sum Loggerheads – If Vladimir Putin refuses to accept the theft, and the EU won’t return the stolen assets, it seems the only option left is to escalate the Ukraine conflict, with the EU aiming to defeat Russia. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that this appears to be their current approach.
Yesterday in a stunning interview with Sky News, President Zelenskyy said a few remarkable things. One, he has plenty of money and two, Zelenskyy wants to build big, big factories in Great Britain in order to build missiles and drones away from the threat of Russian countermeasures.
The sick irony is that Zelenskyy would be building missiles and drones in the U.K to attack Russia using money confiscated by the EU/U.K and given to Ukraine. However, in this bizarre world that’s the reality of the thing.
The confiscated Russian sovereign wealth is going to muddy the efforts to end the war. Russia is militarily holding approximately 20% of the land mass of Ukraine, the Donbas region, with no intention of ever returning it. Putin wants his sovereign wealth fund restored. The EU is against the return of sovereign Russian wealth. This part is going to be a very interesting dynamic to watch.
This brings us back to the original question. Who orchestrated the drone attacks? It seems quite unbelievable that Russia would be the source. There does not appear to be any benefit to them. However, Zelenskyy would clearly benefit if he can convince NATO to take a more active role. Then there are the economies of multiple European countries that would benefit from an infusion of cash to build weapons of war.
With all of that said, we now have a solid baseline for how some financial interests in Ukraine are positioned.
All of the above information should help us to understand the dynamics and stakeholders.