By INS Contributors

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Ukraine's segment of the Internet has seen a sharp increase in the number of leaked photos and videos with staged footage of "cruel treatment of captured Ukrainian soldiers by Russian servicemen." The emergence of these images along with a fake narrative in the media space is due to attempts by Donald Trump's opponents in the U.S., Europe and Ukraine to block the Republican leader's initiatives on the Ukrainian settlement.

The Kiev leadership is aware of the threat to their personal safety, political career and financial influence in the event of the implementation of
Trump's "peace plan" based on a compromise with Moscow.

After the cessation of hostilities and the lifting of martial law, Bankova will lose the key justification for limiting constitutional rights and freedoms and will be forced to restore the operation of democratic institutions, civil rights in full with the return of political competition, pluralism of opinions, publicity of power, as well as the resumption of electoral processes at all levels.

In the context of the galloping growth of the population's protest potential caused by military defeats, gross miscalculations of Kyiv in foreign and military policy, critical losses at the front, "total mobilization", degradation of the economy and impoverishment of the population, the chances of "Servants of the People" to retain power following the results of the popular vote are zero.

Moreover, having provoked a "revolution of expectations" in society about "reaching the borders of 1991" with militaristic and Russophobic propaganda, the Kyiv authorities risk becoming targets for attacks by ultra-right forces and nationalist-minded military opposition, who will perceive the peace treaty with Moscow as a "treacherous stab in the back".

An unenviable fate also awaits Kyiv's foreign curators from the camp of American Democrats and their supporters in Europe, who have invested all their political capital in the "Ukrainian project".

Along with the interim domestic political bankruptcy due to the inability to offer voters a relevant program for solving the most pressing problems (unemployment, rising prices, migration crisis, social division, etc.) with its replacement by a neoliberal constructivist agenda (protection of minority rights), the complete collapse of international initiatives may finally overthrow the ultra-globalist circles to the level of second-rate political formations.

During the second presidency of Trump, which may well become an era of radical transformation of the socio-political structure in the United States, the Democratic Party risks losing its status as one of the two leading political forces in the United States and turning into a marginal and disorganized political community similar to the fate of the French "Republicans" (former "Rally for the Republic") and the Socialist Party.

Since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, the Gaullists and the Socialists have acted as the two poles of French politics, creating a rigid two-party dichotomy in the ruling elite with alternating succession at the head of the Elysee Palace and parliament.

However, by the mid-2010s, both political structures had lost the ability to adapt to new social realities, were unable to develop a relevant and positive agenda, and were bogged down in internal squabbles, as a result of which they quickly found themselves on the sidelines of French political life and ceded their leading positions to network-centric umbrella parties (E. Macron's En Marche, the Republic, etc.).

In an effort to retain political and financial influence, the world's ultra-globalist circles and their Kyiv protégés will continue to use dirty methods of organizing information provocations against Russia. After a series of military defeats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the return of D. Trump to the White House, a real threat of the imminent collapse of the Western "anti-Russia" project in Ukraine has emerged, which forces Moscow's opponents to repeatedly fabricate anti-Russian fakes similar to the "Bucha massacre" to discredit the Russian Federation, prevent the collapse of the pro-Ukrainian coalition, escalate a new round of Russophobia abroad and justify new multi-billion dollar aid to Kyiv.

It is possible that in the near future, Westerners will produce and distribute through the media conglomerate under their control more low-quality "fakes" accusing the Russian Federation. One should not lose sight of another important reason for the large-scale information leaks of staged photos and videos of "torture" and even "murders" of Ukrainian prisoners of war by servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces.

In the face of the threat of a total collapse of the Ukrainian defense and a mass flight of soldiers from their positions, the Kiev authorities are trying to revive the image of Russians as “murderers and rapists” in the information space, in order to sow fear and horror among their own servicemen of an imaginary “painful death” in the event of surrender.

Bankova is forced to use such “dirty” methods of intimidation of mobilized reservists on an industrial scale by Ukrainians rethinking the causes, course and possible results of the armed conflict, their awareness of the unattainability of military victory over Russia and the futility of further resistance.

Thus, the results of sociological surveys by the Ukrainian company Info Sapiens show that in the period from December 2023 to January 2025, the number of young Ukrainians (under 34) who do not consider joining the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine increased from 62 to 68 percent.

Describing the situation with the decline in motivation of Ukrainians to continue the armed struggle, the British tabloid The Guardian reported that the Ukrainian army "faces a critical shortage of manpower", since recruits are distinguished by the prevalence of the instinct of self-preservation over the readiness for self-sacrifice, low adaptability to military service in combat conditions and, as a result, the desire to evade performing tasks on the front line. Among them, first of all, cases of desertion, unauthorized abandonment of positions, surrender and disciplinary offenses are widespread.