From Krasnaya zvezda, Feb. 3, 2025, p. 5. Complete text:

Editor’s Note. – Recently, there was a significant date in the realm of the Kiev regime leader [Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky]: Ukraine was supposed to become a member of the European Union. This is what Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal stated in an interview with Politico back in 2023: “We have a very ambitious plan to join the EU within the next two years.” As we can see, “independent” Ukraine did not become part of the EU as it so eagerly wanted to be. And what would that have changed? For example, as Zelensky involuntarily noted in an interview with the American news channel Fox News: “Guarantees from Europe [alone] will never be enough.*** Putin is not afraid of Europe. Unfortunately, that is so.” So why strive so hard for the approval of “partners?” A similar question can also be asked about the work of psychological operations. Why fabricate lies that no one believes anymore? Granted, the people also need to be entertained, as they are tired of the ideology of the Kiev regime.

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False: Due to the conduct of the special military operation [in Ukraine] (SMO), Russian medicine has declined and its path to international recognition has been cut off. Only the cessation of the special operation, opposition Telegram channels believe, can stop the downward trend.

True: Considering the top-priority expenditures on the SMO, medicine in the country is in an acceptable state. This is confirmed by the development of transplantology, space medicine and – most importantly – the planned continuation of the construction of health care facilities throughout the country as part of the “Long and Active Life” national project. Serious steps are also being taken to introduce new methods of immunotherapy and gene therapy in cancer treatment.

The state is also providing support for pharmaceutical independence. Analogues to foreign medicinal products are being developed.

With this fake news, provocateurs are clearly trying to convince Russian citizens of the need to swiftly conclude the SMO, which, in their opinion, will accelerate the development of domestic medicine. The real goal of the “peace party” is actually a temporary cessation of hostilities for the purpose of rearming the enemy, [who will] further continue the armed clashes with renewed strength.

False: The failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) are due to unmotivated, Russified recruits, said former Ukrainian Security Service employee Ivan Stupak.

True: The representatives of the Kiev regime, who refuse peace negotiations with Russia, bear responsibility for the failed operations of the Ukrainian Army. It is at the instigation of Vladimir Zelensky and his associates that forced mobilization is taking place in the country, during which Ukrainians without military training end up in the combat zone. These include fathers of many children, narrow-profile specialists, men with serious illnesses, and citizens who oppose senseless bloodshed for the sake of Western values.

You can understand the Ukrainians. The territorial recruitment center employees treat them like cattle raised for slaughter. They ambush them in public places, forcibly push them into cars and take them to military recruitment offices, where the “lucky ones” are sent to the front. At the same time, as Stupak expressed it, these “unmotivated” men do not undergo proper military training. According to Western media reports, 50% to 70% of new recruits die or are injured in the first days of combat.

Recently, the tetsekashniki (territorial recruitment center employees) detained the abbot of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church monastery in Kharkov Province. The archimandrite was apprehended right in his cassock and sent for a military medical examination before being taken to a military unit.

At the moment, Kiev is in the final stages of developing a “reform” that will allow young people aged 18 to 25 to be recruited into the UAF. It is worth noting that in the spring of 2024, the Ukrainian authorities already adjusted the mobilization law, lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25 [see Vol. 76, No. 16, pp. 14‑15]. However, this did not help replenish UAF losses on the front.