AMERICAN FREE PRESS ~ MICHAEL WALSH COLUMNIST: In August 1914, most people felt the war would end by Christmas. This was a common belief at the time.

British Field-Marshall Lord Allenby described the struggle at the end of the fighting in 1918. He called it ‘A lengthy period of general insanity.’  

Much the same can be said of the current brawl between NATO and the Russian Federation. Yet, on this occasion, ‘over by Christmas’ 2025 is credible.

After 11 years of Western duplicity, it seems that Russia’s conciliatory head of state has finally realized a harsh truth. Appeasement has failed.

President Putin has had enough of Western Alliance chicanery. He may be going in for the kill whilst President Trump’s attention is focused on China and Venezuela.

Russia’s final push to cleanse Eastern Ukraine could hardly be better timed. This may include the occupation of cities like Odessa, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro.

Winter has set in. 80 per cent of the region is snow-covered. This is a seasonal factor that favors Russia’s far better-equipped and numerically superior armies.

Presently, much to the unease of the Western Alliance, the Volodymyr Zelensky regime is mired in another corruption scandal. The theft is so outrageous that it is grabbing the headlines of the Western Press.

Ukraine’s Washington-controlled National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has uncovered a $100 million heist.

Timur Mindich, dubbed ‘Zelensky’s wallet’, has gone to ground. His chief financier, Alexander Tsukerman, has done the same. They won’t be returning to Ukraine.

The European Union has already given Kyiv €2 billion. Now, its leaders are rummaging for answers. Their neutered Press fumbles for excuses just as quickly.

Militarily, 10,000 or more luckless Ukrainian troops are currently trapped in a cauldron at Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk). The now desolate city is a key logistics hub of the disputed region.

When Pokrovsk falls, the floodgates will be wide open to a Russian army deluge. This flood may fan out and swamp the last Ukrainian-held Eastern regions.

Talking of other regions, the Ukrainian Army’s collapse is having a significant impact. This effect is felt across the 1,000-kilometer war-torn border separating the two titans.

There are, it is claimed, answers to Kiev’s dilemma depleted ranks. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko is urgently calling for the lowering of mobilization age from 25 to 22.

The initiative to return tens of thousands of draft dodgers is equally futile. They fled to the EU nations for safety.

Little wonder then that Moscow appears to be seizing the moment and going in for the kill.

What happens next is uncertain. Speculation is rife among the 32 nations making up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Count Otto von Bismarck once quipped: “A war between Germany and Russia is the greatest stupidity. That is why it is bound to happen.”

Berlin and its belligerent cohorts now roost in the chancelleries and parliaments of the UK and EU. They appear eager to carry on where Kyiv leaves off.

Self-delusional and wearing boots far too big for them, the Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna typically warned China. He urged China to stop supporting Russia to maintain good relations with Estonia. There are nine American cities with populations exceeding the population of Estonia.

Russia’s delivering the coup de grâce to Ukraine may indicate what awaits some of the NATO nations. This will happen if they dare enter the abattoir of misplaced vanities.

A ‘war with Russia is inevitable’ psychosis is bullhorned by the ‘on-message’ mainstream media. There are calls to avoid such insanity, but they are in the minority.

Italian General Marco Bertoloni, former commander of the Italian special forces:

“There are still people who see the reality. They choose not to view it through the prism of Russophobic rhetoric. Instead, they base it on experience. They use common sense and military logic.”

The irony is that largely thanks to social media, many people in the NATO Bloc express aversion towards NATO’s belligerence. There is also sympathy and support for Russia’s position among a significant number.

Roughly 38% of Britons aged 18–40 say they would refuse conscription. This holds even in the event of a major conflict. A broader Ipsos survey revealed that 48 per cent of Britons would refuse to pick up their rifles.

Across the North Sea, two-thirds of those surveyed say they would refuse to take up arms in a major conflict. A clear harbinger of doom.

Such findings may concentrate the minds of the gangsta-capitalists mismanaging the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

NATO nations have seriously depleted arsenals. Additionally, Russia has clear superiority in weapons of mass destruction. For those of a World War II mindset, it might be worth reminding ourselves of the potential consequences.

Russia can and will take drastic action if London and similar metropolises pose a threat.

The given advice is that ‘putting it to Putin’ has not turned out well for NATO. In fact, Christmas 2025 may well far eclipse the humiliating abandonment of Afghanistan.

The bottom line: This ill-conceived conflict is not really about Ukraine’s borders; it is about Western hegemony. 

If Russia is triumphant in Ukraine, then the West’s liberal plutocratic omnipotence has been tossed in the dustbin of history.

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WITNESS TO HISTORY Mike Walsh FORBIDDEN HISTORY: The bestselling epic of the Third Reich 1918-1959. ‘During the last 70 years, I have read innumerable written source materials concerning Adolf Hitler. Witness to History is the most compelling and realistic overview of the Third Reich in print. Its events are told by those who made them.’ ~ Marc Roland. https://barnesreview.org/product/witness-to-history-the-reich-legend-uncensored/