By John Helmer, Moscow
  @bears_with

Russian officials are insisting in private that tomorrow’s (June 19) signing of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with its fourteen points, is the signal for finalizing a similar multi-point term sheet for agreement with the US to halt the war on the Ukrainian battlefield.

They also insist —  add sources in a position to know —  that the Trump Administration is promising the lifting of US sanctions on the Russian oil trade and on the alternative fleet which has been carrying these oil cargoes to buyers in India, China, Turkey, and elsewhere. The sources claim that the Russian military plan for the peace pause assumes a ceasefire, including a halt to Ukrainian drone attacks, for at least the remaining two years of President Donald Trump’s term – longer if he is succeeded by Vice President JD Vance or by one of Trump’s sons. The Russian intelligence forecast is for a Republican victory in the 2028 presidential election.

If the future is this rosy, or if it only looks that way through rose-coloured glasses, what is to become of the UKRAINIZATION of drone warfighting operations now extending across the NATO bases, NATO drone manufacturing plants, and NATO exercises, deployment, and operational plans to prepare to fire them at Russian targets?

What is to become, also, of the AMERICANIZATION of security for Russia in Europe which President Vladimir Putin insists he discussed – one on one and in fluent English – and agreed with Trump at their Anchorage, Alaska,  summit meeting  last August 15? This is what Russian officials call the Anchorage Formula   – it means trust in Trump to deliver a security guarantee protecting Russia from the drone, missile, and other attacks currently under way on the Russian hinterland, on Crimea and the Donbass, and on Russian oil and gas cargoes moving to market on the high seas.

The Russian General Staff and its chief intelligence officer, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, believe that Americanization will put a pause on Ukrainization for at least the year ahead. These officers don’t give any credit for negotiating this pause to Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special negotiator with Trump’s bagmen, Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner; nor to the individual bribe schemes and slush funds they have been discussing together.  

And so the sources in a position to know are asking each other — if Ukrainization and Americanization are about to be implemented by an MoU-type paper for at least a year or two, what about the DENAZIFICATION of the regime currently ruling the Ukraine?  That has been a Russian war objective from the beginning of the Special Military Operation. It has been operationalized on term sheets in the Istanbul and Abu Dhabi talks as regime change in Kiev by an election to replace Vladimir Zelensky and his associates. The alternative is regime decapitation by military means or by covert methods.  

In the new discussion with Chris Cook, today’s Gorilla Radio podcast explains why the combination of Ukrainization of the war, Americanization of the peace, and Denazification of regimes is a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.  

Click to listen, starting at Minute 30 with the song, “This is not a Russian narrative, actually – let’s talk about reality”.

Source: https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-jeremy-ad2 

For the latest Gorilla Radio podcasts, click to select and listen: https://gradio.substack.com/s/gorilla-radio-pod 

And the full archive: https://gradio.substack.com/archive 

by Editor - Thursday, June 18th, 2026