Key Points and Summary – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warns Russia is preparing for a “big war” by 2029, citing record military outlays and an expanding defense base.
-He urges tighter sanctions and starving Moscow of energy revenue as the EU pursues a full ban on Russian fossil fuels by January 2027 and the U.S. targets Rosneft and Lukoil.
Russian T-90M Tank in Ukraine War. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Yet Europe may struggle to scale in time: a Kiel Institute report flags production bottlenecks, fragmented rearmament, and risky reliance on U.S. guarantees.
-Moscow calls such warnings escalatory; Sergei Lavrov again blasted NATO expansion. The core question: can Europe convert pledges into real capability by 2029–2030?
Kyiv: Russia Prepping for ‘Big War’ Before 2030
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claims that Russia is planning for a “big war” that could kick off in 2029. Zelensky’s remarks, shared to X on Thursday, arrive alongside the news that Russia is spending record amounts on its military.
“We need more pressure on Russia,” Zelensky said this week. “According to the situation on the battlefield, we don’t see that Russia wants to stop.”
The Ukrainian president argued that Russia’s defense-industrial base is expanding rather than slowing, and that the Kremlin appears intent on sustaining a prolonged confrontation if the front line in Ukraine continues to be relatively static.
His words echo similar claims from Berlin’s defense chief made over the summer. European officials have been issuing similar warnings for months, but Zelensky’s timeline is unusually blunt.
The idea that Moscow could be ready to launch a wider assault within five years has sharpened debates across NATO capitals, where governments have promised to lift defence spending toward 5 percent of GDP. Whether those pledges turn into real industrial output is another matter.
Zelensky framed his post as both a plea for support in Ukraine’s ongoing defense efforts and a broader strategic warning. If Moscow is given space to regroup, he argued, it will return stronger. “Europe must be ready in 2029 or 2030,” he wrote, adding that reducing Russia’s access to Western money—particularly from energy exports—remains essential.
This week Brussels is also working toward securing a total ban on Russian fossil fuels, although the target date for this to be fulfilled will be January 2027.
It comes as Washington has already tightened-up sanctions, with the U.S. Treasury rolling out fresh measures against Russian state-backed oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil.
But even with harsher sanctions, there are doubts about Europe’s ability to prepare for a major conflict at the pace Zelensky suggests. A June report by the Kiel Institute flagged persistent bottlenecks in defence production and a patchwork approach to rearmament across the EU.
The paper also claims Europe’s ongoing reliance on U.S. security guarantees carries a huge risk if Washington were ever to cool relations.
Naturally, Moscow continues slamming Europe for what it claims amounts to escalation. Speaking to Russian state media on Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his hopes that Washington would “refrain from actions that could escalate the conflict.”
He also repeated Moscow’s long-running warnings against further NATO expansion. Lavrov also accused European governments of “sabotaging all peacemaking efforts” and preparing for a future confrontation.
As Russia pours money into missiles, drones and armoured divisions, the question is no longer whether Europe should prepare for the worst, but if it has left it far too late to do so.
About the Author: Georgia Gilholy
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education. You can follow her on X: @llggeorgia.
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bis-biss
November 13, 2025 at 10:23 pm
Zelenskyy is today the rightful Joe Biden of Ukraine.
How.
Zelenskyy’s right-hand man, the very smart timur mindich, also known as zelenskyy’s wallet, has been badly implicated in the massive kickback scandal involving zelenskyy’s national energy sector.
Mindich has since fled the country, tipped off by some secret associate, just hours before agents swooped down on his home.
It is now very clear, zelenskyy is as corrupt and dirty as biden. Birds of the same feather do fly together.
Swamplaw Yankee
November 14, 2025 at 2:35 am
The zivilmacht Ukrainian Fathers have moved themselves out of the dependency on the USA in certain spheres of military hardware/software. The various inputs of innovation inside Ukraine humm as if in Blender software. Who knows what graphic representation of military innovation hits the screens as if on a Riemann surface.
Recently Ukraine made a major military move of a psychological nature. Ukrainians gifted the Moscovite Urban area with its first Major Power failure. Suddenly the ruuzzkie butchers cuddling in the Kremlin had Zugswang lite bestowed in them.
The power outage showed the millions of pampered ethnics that a new era had just dawned. No longer could their vertical elite protect them 24/7 for eternity. The old time deal cut to lose freedom for stability is now under review by the hoi paloi. No matter what the Putin elite say, the inner fear has set into every muscovite. They could be stuck inside the subway +/or elevators at any time that Ukraine decides is necessary.
The youth see that the deal cut by their parents is voidable at any time. Their pampered existence in Moscow is suddenly threatened by visions of hauling water way up their high rise hell hole at any time. Over riding all, is that conscripts are needed from Moscow as the quotas from the captive nations dwindle downwards.
The power failures re-write the inner stability of moscows urban dwellers. The power held by Putin is suddenly debatable, with the debate direction decided by Ukrainian black out periodicity. The average Ruuzzkie may suddenly perceive some notion of the winter woe of Ukrainian cities.
NATO is not on the mind of the High rise dweller, especially when their stable power is now determined by Ukraine. As the FSB is still ever present, the inner fears can grow and prosper in small covert circles.
Whatever extra move that Putin may wish to make, it is a burden and has risks. The risk is that his hold on Kremlin power now has a tangible challenge that he can not control. If PUTIN spends most days in Sochi, then he may be detached from any realization of the real depth of the psychological shift in the whole Moscow population.
The Ukrainian Fathers now must insert a new fraction in their complex plane of function of missile attacks. When + why do they black out the power supply to Moscow? Obviously, the graphic representation of more power failures in Moscow will manifest inside each Moscovite. Will this challenge them to some sort of action?
This winter needs a label for the MSM to use. Ukraine is in a new game position with sudden equal value to Putin. While each player has a winning move they can only move in repeated use to zero. Soon, Putin will realize the power shift, that his missiles have a neutral value, that is neither positive of negative.
No longer can he, Putin, ignorantly threaten a negative value on Ukrainian cities. There is a positive move of new tangible retaliation residing in Ukrainian fathers hands. With some repetition of retaliation by Ukraine on Moscow, the Conway value of zero should tangibly appear, evident to both ethnic groups.
With the Moscow population understanding that rigid math, every world leader will comprehend the new game position of both players. At the evolution into the Conway value of zero, the PRC CCP Xi regime should swiftly revise its LONG GAME. Xi should quietly cut the card deck with Ukraine, fairly, and restore Ukraine back to its 2013 status. With this Xi move, Xi becomes the world leader in Peace and exposes the cheap manipulations that MAGA Trump used to create needless death of tens of thousands of Ukrainian fathers.
Maga POTUS Trump may still want to con his MAGA voters with the scam that his self-appointment as betrayer of Ukraine thru the give away of Ukrainian land for Free to a butchering ruuzzkie Genocide tribe is all the fault of 2014 POTUS Obama. Xi can easily slap Trumps hand and send loser Trump over to cuddle with Putin. -30-
Jim
November 14, 2025 at 10:09 am
Yes, Russia has been preparing for the possibility of a full-on NATO war the whole time during the Special Military Operation.
Russia’s military buildup has been a two-pronged process.
One prong has been an overall military buildup for the possibility of a NATO war, a general European war. Not that Russia is looking for a general European war, but given what happened up to the Feb. ’22 invasion and beyond (and the raft of public statements about regime change and dismemberment of Russia), it would be a dereliction of duty to ignore the possibility of a larger war and a further dereliction of duty to not prepare for that grave possibility.
Meanwhile, Russia is building the forces devoted to the Special Military Operation to the point some 700,000 soldiers are now detached for the SMO from a start of some 150,000 soldiers at the start of the invasion and supporting military material and weapons.
The real question: does Europe want a general European war?
Sadly, it seems the leaders envision European war or say they do, to justify a centralization of power in the European Union as a post-nationalism or supra-nationalist organization.
The biggest threat to the individual nation-states of Europe is not Russia, but political leaders who have moved beyond their original nation-state loyalty to the self aggrandizement which comes from a centralization of power in a post nation-state Europe.
The E. U. is a Potemkin village or faux democracy.
The E. U. Commission is appointed, not elected and E. U. loyalty is towards some sort of pan-European identity, remember the E. U. parliament can’t propose laws, they pass on Commission sponsored laws, but can’t stop those laws from going into effect if the Commission insists on such.
If there is general European war, it’ll be as a tragic result of European leaders bringing it on themselves.
A kind of sick, self-prophecy of hubris… like the Greeks of old.
Not because Russia was determined for such a war.
Swamplaw Yankee
November 14, 2025 at 12:23 pm
The ruuzz-shills will receive lots of Putin cash as they shovel out Kremlin agit-prop. The PRC CCP seems to see this cognitive war as part of physical warfare.
The peer reader needs to read how the ruuzzkie child mass abductors will withdraw to the 2013 borders. Better still, the real ethnic 1914 borders.
The ruuzzkie butchers of 2026 just can not accept that they have to wither away from the soil of Ukraine and slither back home to their tiny rump Muscovy. These deformed brains of 2026 still live in ethnic inner dream + genetic need of their ancient imperial czarist ruuzzkie butcher grandfathers who could have legal slaves, legal concubines and legal pedophilia galore in their fascist ethnic rump russia. “Lolita” packages, Epstein style, Komrades??