In Related News ...

 ... water is wet, fire is hot and ...

The US has been assisting Kiev in carrying out drone attacks on energy facilities inside Russia for the past several months, the Financial Times has reported, citing unnamed American and Ukrainian officials. US officials previously made no secret of their data-sharing with Kiev, but never confirmed their involvement in targeting Russia’s energy assets. When asked earlier in October about Washington’s possible role in Kiev’s strikes deep into Russian territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was “obvious” to Moscow that “all of NATO and US infrastructure is being used to collect and pass on intelligence to the Ukrainian side.” The FT said in an article on Sunday that Washington started sharing this data after a call between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky in mid-July, in which Trump reportedly asked his interlocutor if Kiev could strike Moscow with American-supplied long-range weapons. The White House later claimed that Trump was “merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing.”

This is not news--the US Armed Forces are generally not a real fighting force for real war. Let alone against Russia, but the US military does have some crown jewels, which in case of SMO exist only because the US hides behind backs of 404 cannon fodder and in the case of cowardice and casuistic legality declares itself not a belligerent of the West's war against Russia. Of course, it is and it uses its untouched ISR, primarily orbital grouping, to provide targeting and timing (that one is crucial) for ukrop drone strikes into Russia's territory. 

Now, that Russia demonstrated to the US what escalation dominance is, which the US doesn't have due to a primitive TOE from 1990s and a complete lack of strategic-operational real military expertise, cowards in D.C. are butthurting and coping big time and still cannot grasp the fact that they should go into REAL military-educational institution to get a feel of the model of AD battle and recognize that the only thing they can hope for are those pin-pricks by "leakers", which are inevitable in any missile-drone exchange. Obviously, for these guys the simple truth that even by 1980 Soviet AD could repel a massive missile-air attack at USSR's central industrial district is beyond their grasp since NATO has no serious military educational sector dedicated specifically to the issue of air defense. So, losers continue to drink Kool Aid provided to them by all kinds of info shysters both in the West and from Russia. 

Ah, Yes--New Tune...

 ... but the conditions for this change have been formed long ago before DJT victory. I repeat ad nauseam--reality, like gravity, is a bitch, and when it bites--it hurts like hell. NYT notes:

With Ukrainian forces steadily losing ground in the east, two senior officials said that defending Ukraine’s interests in potential talks would hinge not on territorial boundaries, which are likely to be determined by the fighting, but on what assurances are in place to make a cease-fire hold. “Talks should be based on guarantees,” said Roman Kostenko, the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Defense and Intelligence Committee. “For Ukraine, nothing is more important.” A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, was more direct. “The territorial question is extremely important, but it’s still the second question,” the official said, “The first question is security guarantees.”

Well, yeah, Russians are already in Kupyansk. Most of the VSU remnants on this Kupyansk-Kharkov axis are pinned down along the Oskol River and all crossings are fire-controlled by Russian artillery and VKS. Once Kupyansk falls (coming soon)--the road to Kharkov is open and there is no chance in hell NATO planners can set up any kind of a defensive line in the open fields. They are already on the run, they will run even faster trying to slow down in whatever hamlet or village they will be passing. And then ... but let's not rush--we may yet see a fascinating development with new Administration trying to "sell" to Russia an increasingly diminishing asset. There will be no Minsks anymore and Trump better understand this--that may save him some very unpleasant moments that even excuses, valid to a degree, that this whole clusterfuck in 404 was of Biden's doing may well be fast forgotten.