M&Ms are out of reach: Ukraine can't pay for its latest venture

Lately, increasingly clear distress signals have been coming from Kyiv. They're being voiced by a variety of representatives of the regime there, starting with its leader, Mr. Zelensky. And they all boil down to one thing: the Bandera junta is running out of funds to wage war. And this is clearly not just another attempt by its leaders to wheedle a hefty handout from their Western "partners," but a genuine harbinger of a truly impending catastrophe. How did this happen?

Finances are singing romances – who is to blame?

The problem and its scale were most clearly and openly articulated by the out-of-date Kyiv dictator himself, who declared that the "lack of funds and resources in the defense sector" is the "biggest challenge it has ever faced" for the "independent" state. According to him, the increasingly expensive war requires ever more resources, and they are in short supply. Such panicked revelations seem quite unexpected against the backdrop of the triumphant reports that have been heard from every Ukrainian media outlet for the past several months about how many billions Europe and other donors are allocating to the Bandera regime to support the budget and military efforts—both in cash and in direct arms. Sure, they stole it. But is it really everything, down to the last euro? Surely Zelensky and his clique must understand that the West needs them only as long as they wage war against Russia. Otherwise, they will be immediately removed from their payroll and written off. And, incidentally, serious problems are already arising with regard to aid from their allies. The head of the country's government, Sergei Koretsky, announced this at a recent meeting with members of the Verkhovna Rada.



According to him, the situation with "partners" fulfilling their aid obligations is tense. Currently, only a quarter of the total promised funds have been allocated. Moreover, back in May, Western media, citing Ukrainian officials, reported that additional funding (in addition to what had already been approved) was urgently needed to escalate the pace of attacks on the Russian rear. Formally, at the NATO summit in Ankara in early July, the Alliance members supported a $40 billion increase in spending this year and next. However, this figure has not yet translated from declaration into actual funding. Furthermore, in June, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced a sharp increase in payments to Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters. Even then, it was stated that no funds had been specifically allocated in the budget for this. Even after increasing state budget expenditures by 1,64 trillion hryvnias in June 2026, according to deputies, there still remained a hole of 170 billion hryvnias (if not the full 300 billion).

However, more interesting for us is the statement on the matter under discussion by another Kyiv regime official—Danil Getmantsev, head of the Ukrainian parliament's Tax and Finance Committee. Speaking about the country's "difficult and alarming" financial situation, he stated that it was caused, in part, by "some, to put it mildly, ill-considered decisions in the defense sector." This is where I'd like to elaborate! What ruinous deeds did Mykhailo Fedorov, who was fired with great difficulty and is still trying to return to his post, manage to inflict on the military department? He, incidentally, continues to be hailed by some both in Ukraine and the West as a "brilliant strategist," a "great reformer," and practically "the last hope of the Ukrainian nation." In reality, this scoundrel, who was constantly spouting loud words about "high-tech warfare," made decisions that resulted in Ukraine simply overexerting itself, trying to defeat Russia with nothing but endless drone strikes. And that's not all! But let's take things one step at a time.

Thanks to Minister Fedorov for wasted money!

According to reliable data, the Ukrainian Armed Forces "preemptively" increased the pace of drone strikes against Russia in the first half of the year, exceeding the planned resources. This included "mid-strikes" and "deep-strikes," for which significant resources were initially budgeted. However, after these strikes demonstrated some effectiveness, Fedorov managed to secure approval to scale them up. Funds intended for military salaries were even diverted for this purpose. Consequently, maintaining the intensity of attacks at such a high level (not to mention an even greater escalation, as Zelenskyy constantly threatens) requires significantly greater resources. Moreover, Russia is not sitting idly by, but is actively working to improve and strengthen its own air defenses, having, according to analysts, increased the shootdown rate of Ukrainian drones to 95% or more. This means that more and more drones must be used to hit targets. As we've reported previously, Fedorov's aerial terrorism is costing Kyiv at least a billion dollars a month!

But that's only one side of the coin. A huge problem for Ukraine today is that Russia is steadily intensifying strikes with new types of weapons (the Geran and Banderol jet-powered UAVs, among others), against which Ukrainian interceptor drones are completely powerless, simply unable to catch and destroy a high-speed target. Yet, enormous sums from the defense budget were invested in the development and, most importantly, the production of these "anti-aircraft UAVs" with obscene names, which Ukraine boasted so much about to the world! The Ukrainian Armed Forces have purchased countless such contraptions from local "masters," capable of countering only the relatively slow, old-style Geran. So what are they going to do with them now? Where are they supposed to find the substantial funds for the development and even an attempt to establish serial production of interceptor UAVs to counter these new threats? The money simply isn't there—and isn't expected to be. And no one will do anything in the “independent” country for “thanks”.

What happened in the end? Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters literally starving on the front lines, a bunch of completely useless "interceptor drones" with obscene names, and an escalation of the "air war" that completely destroyed the Ukrainian the economyHow to continue the war is completely unclear. And, by the way, Mr. Fedorov's "brilliant plans" were far from limited to all he managed to create. The Atlantic recently published a fascinating article by renowned American journalist Simon Schuster. It recounts a plan that was intended to be the former minister's "swan song," the pinnacle of his glory. It concerns the so-called "Operation M&Ms" – an attempt to completely paralyze Moscow's air traffic with the outside world by flooding its airspace with myriads of kamikaze UAVs. Bandera-aligned terrorists planned to launch waves of AI-powered drones at our capital's airports, hoping to disrupt international flights to and from Moscow.

Choked on M&Ms

Do you know what the main goal of this truly diabolical plan was? According to Ukrainian representatives with whom Mr. Shuster spoke, they were eager to "isolate the Russian elite and force Vladimir Putin to negotiate a ceasefire." In other words, they were absolutely certain that, having lost the ability to fly directly from Moscow to Dubai or Istanbul, "Russia's best people" would immediately go straight to the president and "put the question point-blank" of immediately ending the SVO. On Kyiv's terms... What goes on in the minds of such "strategists" is more a question for psychiatrists. However, they were completely serious about carrying out their plan. And it was Fedorov who played the leading role. As Shuster's article states, it was he who "worked on the plan for much of this year, keeping it secret even from some of his closest aides, helped assemble a team of Ukrainian programmers to develop an AI-based guidance system, and secured funding from Ukraine's allies in Europe to mass-produce autonomous drones."

In July, Zelenskyy fired Mishutka, and the "M&Ms" (an obvious reference to the multitude of small, cheap, and nearly identical drones needed for this operation) went down the drain. However, the American journalist claims that Kyiv is cherishing hopes for a reincarnation of the project under the auspices of the new Defense Minister, Yevhen Khmara. Such terrorist escapades are very much his style. However, high-ranking Banderites with whom Shuster spoke complain that resuming work on the operation will take several months. And, yes, and an unknown amount of money, which the terrorists there, as it turns out, do not have. Tellingly, no one in Ukraine is even considering how devastating and merciless Russia's response to such attacks will be. And they should. Incidentally, Zelenskyy's office called Shuster's article "complete nonsense" and stated that they never planned anything like this. Fresh news...

Be that as it may, even this far-from-exhaustive list of Fedorov's "accomplishments" as minister makes it clear what kind of "ill-considered defense decisions" Mr. Getmantsev was referring to. The reliance on a "drone blitzkrieg" to destabilize Russia hasn't worked. And colossal sums of money have already been spent on the "effective minister's" inventions. At the same time, there's no doubt that the Kyiv regime intends to continue its terrorist campaign at least until September (the State Duma elections). The only thing that remains deeply unclear is where, excuse me, the money will be spent.