The Security Assistance Group (SAG) is a unit of NATO command operated in Germany that specifically focuses on the military training and development in support of Ukraine.  The U.S. is transitioning out of SAG leadership and handing the responsibility to Europe or Canada.

EUROPE – Another NATO member will eventually take over running the Security Assistance Group, according to a U.S official and three people familiar with the plan, which has played a central role in equipping and training Ukrainian troops since the full-scale Russian invasion began. But the removal of U.S. leadership from a pivotal program on the continent reinforces the extent to which America is distancing itself from European partners.

The move will mean the U.S. no longer helps shape what Ukraine’s future military will look like. It follows a swath of changes the Trump administration has made to the decades-old alliance. The Pentagon has reduced the number of American officers running commands in Europe and canceled some rotations. Officials are reassessing troops stationed on the continent and warning countries they won’t receive assistance unless their defense spending increases.

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CTH is very happy to see President Trump pause his consideration of giving Ukraine Patriot and Tomahawk missile system technology and licenses.  As noted by President Trump there is always a possibility of those systems being used against the USA if the conflict shifts and Ukraine becomes our enemy.

Germany and Ukraine have been asking for Tomahawks (offensive missile systems), while mostly Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been requesting the Patriot (defensive) missiles.  Both systems are closely guarded, held and maintained by strict security protocols in the U.S. military arsenal.

President Trump responded to the question during his Camp David cabinet meeting (prompted):

Zelenskyy likely did himself no favors when he announced his intention to build missile and drone factories in the U.K.  No doubt several Trump administration officials noted that statement and contrast it against Zelenskyy’s requests.

It would be exceptionally risky for the USA to allow Patriot and Tomahawk systems to be built in the U.K. as the secrecy behind the technology would certainly leak and our strategic advantage lost.  It should be remembered that both the U.K and Ukraine were part of the political system attempting to remove President Trump from office.

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Well, well, well.  There it is. Even if it is clouded in Reuters News doublespeak and coded language, the answer to the big question about why Zelenskyy fired the most effective military leader is right there.  The key words are, “military procurement system”; or in common language “military spending.”

It never made sense; the 35-year-old Defense Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, was heralded as turning the tide of the war in favor of Ukraine through his adaption of technology, specifically drones, and his very close relationship to Alex Karp of Palantir, a military contractor.  Fedorov was young, smart, strategic and exceptionally capable.  Yet, Zelenskyy fired him.

Now the real motive for dispatching Mykhailo Fedorov surfaces in his interview with Reuters.  Fedorov had taken control of how the military funding was being spent, and as a result, all of those Ukraine government officials and military generals who were pocketing money, redirecting funds, giving indulgences to their families and stealing resources were blocked.

The corruption is so widespread, Zelenskyy had no choice except to eliminate the guy taking control of the payments, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

(July 29 – Reuters) – Former Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, in an interview published on Wednesday, said his efforts to overhaul the military’s procurement system were the main reason behind his dismissal this ​month in a military and political shake-up.

Fedorov, a technical expert seen by many ‌as an agent for change in the nearly 4-1/2-year-old war against Russia, told the media outlet Ukrainska Pravda that the proposed changes met resistance from officials inside and around the ministry.

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We have been warning for several years about the “new democratic norms” being established on a very totalitarian system of control; specifically, the control of information.

The need for control is a reaction to fear.

Finland is announcing that they will sever their international internet link that is connected to Russia, seemingly wanting to build a virtual wall between Russia and the ‘west’, or at least part of a virtual Iron Curtain they can control.

[SOURCE]

Four decades ago, the voice of freedom was heard saying, “tear down this wall.” Today, the modern version of European democracy is taking action akin to saying, “we must rebuild these walls.”

This is a very dangerous approach because a desire to stop discussion, a demand to stop the free flow of challenging ideas, an approach to silence – as opposed to winning the argument, is the exact opposite of freedom; it is the activity of totalitarian dictatorships.

We used to have Radio Free Europe in order to send ideas and information about the inherent value of freedom over the walls to what we called ‘oppressed’ people.  Now, the baseline of modern western values is to do exactly the opposite, to block information that may come from the other side of the curtain.

Reasonably intelligent people might ask, what exactly is it the Europeans fear?

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It has been said that all wars are “bankers wars,” however, against the modern era of inverted fascism where corporations tell the govt what policies take priority, the more accurate truism ‘is all wars being controlled by money’, not necessarily banks.

The European Commission has constructed a very special kind of proactive financing for Ukraine that doesn’t require them to give their own €uros to the historically corrupt country.  Partly because the EU doesn’t have their own money, and partly because everything the EU does in the sphere of finance is always a false construct, what the EU put together was a financial system based on sanctioned, confiscated (ie stolen) Russian sovereign wealth funds {citation}.

As part of the sanction regime, the EU and western NATO alliance seized roughly €250 billion, $300 billion USD, in Russian sovereign wealth assets.  As long as the USA was financing the Ukraine government and war effort, those funds sat on the sidelines undiscussed.  However, once the USA stopped writing checks to Ukraine an alternate finance system was needed.

What the EU (Ursula von der Leyen) put together was a finance package using 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 goes 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.

Ukraine doesn’t have to pay back the loans because Russia will be forced to give up their sovereign wealth fund, and those funds will repay the loans.  That’s the way the EU financing of Ukraine is set up. {SOURCE}  The EU isn’t giving Ukraine EU money; the EU is giving Ukraine the Russian wealth fund money.

Now, immediately you can see a few problems.

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Watching carefully what Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, with an overlay of his contacts and travel itinerary, it appears the next phase in Ukraine weapon production will be to build missile and long-range drones outside Ukraine. That is to say outside the reach of proactive Russian attack.

Zelenskyy travelled to Portsmouth, U.K., today for a meeting with newly installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham.  Instead of meeting in London, the two met at a military base in Portsmouth, where 200 Ukrainian soldiers are currently completing maritime exercises.

In an interview with Sky News just before departing for the meeting, Zelenskyy noted the intention to use U.K. factories.

In mentioning a joint U.K-Ukraine “drone deal,” Zelenskyy noted [15:32 video] “I want to build a big factory in Britain, while offering new technologies and sharing with our partners.“

¹I don’t think Zelenskyy was supposed to say that out loud.

Zelenskyy noted the challenges for the U.K effort to support him essentially boils down to “money, intelligence and technology.”

With the EU providing Zelenskyy with funds from the seized Russian sovereign fund; essentially loans with no payback provisions as forfeiture of the fund is intended to be wrapped into any peace negotiation with Russia; Zelenskyy is positioning Ukraine to spend the EU (Russian) funds in the U.K to manufacture authorized Patriot Missiles, U.K Storm Shadow missiles and drones to expand the conflict with Russia.

One thing is abundantly clear from the action over the past few weeks, Ukraine and EU/NATO are fully intending to expand the conflict with Russia and, if possible, pull the Iran conflict into the European dynamic.  That’s why Ukraine attacked the Iranian vessels recently.

LISTEN/watch CAREFULLY

¹You may need to use a VPN to watch this interview as the content was suddenly limited after it was on YouTube for a few hours.  I suspect the note I made above is directly related to this content control.

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If you thought Ukraine was busy defending itself and launching counterattacks against Russia, think again.

Apparently, unbeknownst to the rest of the world Ukraine was launching geo-synchronous satellites over the Middle East, deploying proprietary signals intelligence intercepts between Russia and Iran, and conducting covert surveillance operations, in addition to weaving sweaters for homeless kittens from Zelenskyy’s hair… or something.

But seriously, read this:

[SOURCE]

Isn’t he just the most magnanimous little fella?  Not only is he singlehandedly going to win a war against Russia, but he’s going to take a few minutes break and win the war against Iran for everyone.  What a guy.

The last few weeks have been a tidal wave of weird and sketchy stuff that indicates some form of NATO intelligence operation is underway.

This round of sketchy started with that trip to London to meet the coalition of the willing and King Charles; followed two days later with the surprising “drone” attack on the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which bore all the same hallmarks as the Nordstream pipeline attack, which was immediately before the G7 meeting in Paris and perfectly set up the horrible Russia theme for the summit.

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A Canadian intern at NATO military headquarters in Belgium was arrested for espionage.  The name of the intern is Chinese, but to protect the Canadian government from embarrassment the nation the woman was spying for remains undisclosed.  Go figure.

The Chinese influence operations within Canadian government and politics is a subject that has been disclosed over the past few years with a great deal of consternation inside Canada.   The intern was within the SHAPE operation.

SHAPE is a strategic headquarters. Its role is to prepare, plan, conduct and execute NATO military operations, missions and tasks in order to achieve the strategic objectives of the Alliance. {Source}

SHAPE is the tip of the NATO spear on what’s called Forward Land Forces (FLF), currently operating in Eastern Europe on a mission to support the Ukraine military objectives. {SOURCE}

So, this Chinese spy from Canada was operating inside the NATO military operation that was supporting the weapon supply system for Ukraine.

(NYT) – The authorities in Belgium said on Saturday that a Canadian intern at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military headquarters had been arrested on suspicion of spying for another country.

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office said the woman was “of Chinese origin” and was arrested on Friday. “She is suspected of spying on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organization,” it said in a statement, which did not identify the country or the criminal organization.

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NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker appears on CNN with Jake Tapper to discuss the recent 2026 NATO assembly in Ankara, Turkey.   Tapper asks Whitaker about the New York Times report on Airforce One and subsequent DOJ subpoenas, and Whitaker doesn’t take the bait, “not in my purview.”  WATCH:

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Generally speaking, CTH is against the Dept of Justice filing warrants and subpoenas against journalists.  However, in this case the actions are warranted.   If this was the Obama or Biden DOJ taking action against journalists, yes, CTH would support the govt side – on this specific point.

The issue surrounds four journalists for The New York Times who filed a public report that President Trump’s new Airforce One airplane did not have anti-missile defense systems at the time it was used in the trip to the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey.

Beyond the issue of the reported leak to the media, the FBI requested the NYT not to publish their article as it would compromise the presidential security detail in a designated hostile environment.  The NYT refused to withhold their reporting and did so specifically with the intent on compromising the security of a United States President.  There is no circumstance where that type of journalistic motive is okay; regardless of who is President.

From the Times perspective, their report reflected an opportunity to cast snark at President Trump’s decision to convert a gifted Airforce One from Qatar.  Additionally, the New York Times knew their report would put the lives of those aboard the airplane at risk.  The journalists went forward specifically knowing the report could lead to a severe security compromise.

NEW YORK TIMES – The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.

The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.

In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.

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