By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
Tuesday was an unremarkable day for President Donald Trump — except for the cuts in electricity for his escalator at the United Nations (UN) building and then for his teleprompter at the General Assembly podium. “Absolutely sabotage”, Trump announced after thinking about it for twenty-four hours.
In his UN script and then his answers to reporters on meeting Vladimir Zelensky for six minutes, Trump repeated factoids, slogans, and jingles. “Frankly, Ukraine is doing a very good job of stopping this very large army. It’s pretty amazing. You know, this is a war that should have ended in three days, four days. People said it was going to be very quick and you got to hand it to the Ukrainian soldiers and everybody involved…Russia doesn’t look very distinguished having taken three and a half years now, right? It’s about three and a half years of very hard fighting. And it looks like it’s not going to end for a long time.”
He also repeated last week’s line that “in the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs… But for those tariffs to be effective, European nations would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures… they have to immediately cease ALL energy purchases from Russia.”
Trump hasn’t said — isn’t saying — what his deal terms are for President Vladimir Putin or what he doesn’t accept in Putin’s terms. Trump isn’t sure what to do next, he acknowledged to a reporter asking about Putin — “I’ll let you know in about a month from now.” And on US security guarantees for the Ukraine — “that’s later down the road, we’ll be talking about that. Hopefully, we’ll be in a position to talk about that a little bit later on. It’s a little bit too early to answer that question.”
After Trump said that, the White House posted a tweet in the president’s name announcing something he hasn’t said before. The US, the tweet said, will support and arm a combination of Ukrainian and NATO forces for a new eastward offensive, not only across the Donbass, Novorossiya, and Crimea but also into the Russian hinterland.
“Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is [sic] very much an option…Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!”
Former President Dmitry Medvedev said this was fantasizing. “Trump is not like that! I have no doubt—he will return. He always returns. Probably in a couple of days, he will suggest [Zelensky] sign a surrender. Or fly to Mars with Musk, whom he pardoned. Or do something else very important that will allow him to claim a Nobel Prize. The main thing is to frequently and radically change your point of view on various issues. And everything will be fine. This is the essence of successful state governance through social networks. And, as they say, thank you for your attention to this subject!”
US and NATO plans have estimated that a single army corps for such an offensive would require at least 1,400 tanks, 2,000 infantry fighting vehicles, 700 artillery pieces, and at least 50,000 troops. Russian estimates are that several corps would be required for such an offensive capable of attacking the Russian lines at several different points simultaneously, plus air cover, naval support from the Black Sea, and secure supply lines running from Romania, Moldova, and Poland.
Trump told Macron at the UN: “it could be that Russia is a paper tiger… I don’t know what they are, but three and a half years of fighting and killing everybody and killing 7,000 people a week for nothing, for nothing…But most of you have seen the recent statement I put out a little while ago and I’m glad you got it. But I feel that way. I really do feel that way. Let them get their land back.”
Them, not us, he meant as Macron nodded slightly.
But was this another ally-reversal ploy (ARP) like the European oil cutoff condition which the Trump Administration knows the Europeans will not agree to? Was the White House author of Trump’s new tweet saying that if the Europeans and Ukrainians can assemble several hundred thousand men to attack Russia, the US will take their money for the weapons — win or lose at their cost, US profit?
Trump conceded at the UN that he needs electricity to make his claims and that it’s sabotage when his power is cut.
The Russian General Staff has been demonstrating this week a new round of the electric war campaign to make the same point.
The record of Russia’s electric war strikes in the Ukraine indicates they began on October 10-12 and 16-20, 2022; then followed on October 22-27, 2023; March 29-30, 2024; June 1, 2024; and November 7, 2024. Putin then accepted Trump’s proposal for a 30-day halt to attacks on civilian energy infrastructure; that began after their telephone call on February 12. Click to follow each stage of the electric war. These missile and drone strikes have now resumed.
Here is a detailed report from the Slavyangrad site on this week’s operations:
Continuation of the night strike campaign: Nikolaev, Chernigov region, and Kirovograd region
On the night of September 22 to 23, 2025, massive strikes by Russian forces continued against key military industry facilities, energy infrastructure, and transport logistics of Ukraine. Now let’s review the strikes on gas turbine industry hubs, high-voltage substations, and railway traction centers.
��Nikolaev
(21:05, 22.09.2025)
The strike hit the territory of State Enterprise Nikolaev Aircraft Repair Plant (NARP) and the adjacent complex Zorya-Mashproekt, specializing in the production of gas turbine units for the navy and stationary power generation.
▪️On the territory of “Zorya-Mashproekt”, a fire was recorded in the administrative building and production workshop. Preliminary damage includes:
• test stands for M35 and M70FRU gas turbine engines used on Ukrainian Navy ships;
• rotor balancing units (Schenck-class), ensuring turbine assembly precision.
▪️On the territory of NARP, damage was noted to the mechanical assembly section, including CNC machines used for repairing airframes and units of frontline aviation. Windows in workshops were blown out by the blast wave, power lines and distribution cabinets were damaged, without which vacuum installations and welding equipment cannot operate.
��Chernigov region — 330 kV Chernigov substation
(23:35, 22.09.2025)
As a result of strikes by three UAVs, the following were damaged:
• 330 kV power transmission line (PTL) — breaks/burn marks on phase conductors and melting/destruction of some insulator strings were found along the route. Damage is localized in a corridor of about several hundred meters.
• sectioning equipment — load breakers/disconnectors (disconnecting blades) were damaged, disrupting the ring sectioning scheme. Disconnector mechanisms will require defect detection and local repair/replacement.
• fencing and cable channels of nearby approaches — insulation damage and melting of cable sheathing at cell entry points, damage to secondary circuit cable jackets.
• telemechanics / SCADA / fiber-optic lines and communication channels — fiber optic cables were severed, resulting in temporary loss of remote control and telemetry channels; local relay protection and automation (RPA) switched to autonomous mode.
��Kirovograd region — traction substation T-150, Pleteny Tashlyk
(00:55, 23.09.2025)
The strike hit the territory of the traction transformer substation T-150, part of the Shevchenkiv Directorate of power supply. The substation provided power to the contact network and traction sections through which freight trains, including military ones, transited.
▪️Recorded damage:
• TDTN-25000/150 power transformers (oil-filled, 25 MVA capacity) — three units received direct hits followed by fires. Oil coolers and expansion tanks were completely burned out, transformer tanks destroyed, making restoration impossible.
• Relay protection and automation (RPA) — protection device cabinets were burned, secondary circuit cable routes damaged, telemechanics and SCADA [Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition] failed. This means loss of remote monitoring and control.
• Oil facilities and pumping units — destroyed, oil residues burned, spillage occurred on the territory.
▪️Consequences for railway logistics:
• complete power outage of the section supplied by T-150, disabling up to 40 km of contact network;
• suspension of electric locomotive movement and forced transfer of freight flow to diesel traction, reducing throughput capacity by 2–3 times;
• halt of loading and unloading operations at nearby stations, including fuel and military cargo supply branches.
An electrical engineer and veteran of NATO operations in Afghanistan amplifies: “Targeting the Nikolaev aircraft repair and gas turbine production plant facilities is one thing, homing in on their electrical distribution gear is another. Combine those with the 330kV transmission/distribution and 25kV traction power attacks, and you get a perfect storm of electrical disruption.”
“The power lines and distribution cabinets of the repair and production plants are made up of expensive specialized electrical components not easily replaced. Worse still for the Ukrainians, a lot of the materials, connectors, cable, instrument and control transformers, protective relays, over-current devices, communications gear, etc., are shared in common with the grid and traction power gear hit.”
“The strike on the Chernigov substation and the damage report tell us that the General Staff have refined their approach in the electric war. Hitting SCADA, fibre optics, and the ‘ring sectioning scheme’ will seriously reduce the Ukrainian ability to mitigate the impact of further strikes. They won’t be able to remotely switch and send power when and where it’s needed, much less monitor it. This means technicians will have to expose themselves while taking meter readings and/or performing manual switching activities. It also means there will be all kinds of nuisance tripping and downstream failures which will be difficult, dangerous, and time-consuming to correct.”
“All of the above is compounded by the traction power strikes which will tie up resources that could be allocated to the larger 330kV grid repairs, not to mention those necessary to repair the gear at the Nikolaev repair and production facilities.”
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