IF ONLY THEY WERE HONEST!!!😂😂😂

Parody of Stern and Joe

0:54

https://rumble.com/embed/v4pg4p0/?pub=4

Citizen Free Press

@CitizenFreePres

James Carville is having a meltdown after the CNN poll.

The triggering is hilarious.

0:17

April 29, 2024

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1784913861084053688

>>20794178

Why is the left so afraid of Christians?

Christian Nationalism is their biggest fear. I guess they prefer atheist or Muslim Nationalism

Zelensky Reveals U.S. and Ukraine ‘Working’ on Scheme for 10 Years of Military Aid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the United States and Ukrainian governments are “working on a bilateral security agreement” that would result in sending additional monetary aid to Ukraine over the next ten years.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Zelensky noted he had spoken to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) thanking “him and all the congressmen for their support” of Ukraine and for voting to send a $61 billion aid package out of a $95 billion foreign aid package.

Zelensky added that during his conversation with Jeffries, he had “emphasized the need for Patriot systems.”

This is not the first time Zelensky has begged for more American-made Patriot missile systems to be sent to Ukraine.

Currently, Ukraine has three Patriot systems, one from the U.S. and two reportedly from Germany, according to the Washington Post.

On Friday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revealed that the U.S. would be sending Ukraine more Patriot systems as part of an additional $6 billion foreign aid package.

“Also, our teams, Ukraine and the United States, are currently working on a bilateral security agreement, and we are already working on a specific text. Our goal is to make this agreement the strongest of all. We are discussing the specific foundations of our security and cooperation,” Zelensky said. “We are also working on fixing specific levels of support for this year and for the next ten years, including armed support, financial, political, and joint arms production. The agreement should be truly exemplary and reflect the strength of American leadership. I am grateful to both our team and the team of the American side for the progress in drafting the agreement.”

On top of the $61 billion in foreign aid recently approved by the United States, United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to send an additional £500 million in foreign aid to Ukraine.

(Dream On Zelensky)

https://12ft.io/proxy

>>20794208

29 Apr, 2024 11:01

Musk and Sacks slam Washington’s ‘forever war’ Ukraine plan

The tech billionaires weighed in on the idea of a ten-year aid deal articulated by Vladimir Zelensky

Two of the America’s most influential tech entrepreneurs, Elon Musk and David Sacks, have expressed concern over a security agreement currently in the works between the US and Ukraine.

Former PayPal chief David Sacks took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday towarn that the controversial $61 billion in aid to Kiev approved by Washington earlier this month “was just the beginning.” He was commenting on a statement made by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who said that his team and the administration of US President Joe Biden were “working on fixing specific levels of support… for the next ten years, including armed support, financial, political, and joint arms production.”

“The next two US presidents won’t be able to switch it off,”Sacks, who’s also the founder of the corporate social network Yammer, wrote on X. In separate posts the entrepreneur went on to mentionrecent reports that NATO allies were working to “Trump-proof” weapons for Ukraineand claimed that the goal of the current US administration was “to turn Ukraine into a Forever War.”

“This is insane. The forever war,”Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in response to Sacks’ posts.

The US will vote for a new president in November. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has spoken out against “handing out gifts of billions and billions of dollars” in aid to Kiev and said earlier this month that his team was considering “doing it in the form of a loan.”

According to Politico, the US and other Western countries have been looking into a range of options that could help maintain the flow of arms to Kiev if Trump becomes president.

Last month, Sacks described Ukraine’s failed 2023 summer counteroffensive against Russia as “one of the biggest debacles in the history of modern warfare.” In a post on X, the venture capitalist suggested that the Washington elite should be held accountable for talking up the ill-fated operation.

Musk has also long voiced criticism about Washington’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Last week, he challenged the Biden administration to define what a Ukrainian “victory” would look like after a senior US official claimed that with Washington's help Kiev can defeat Russia.

US lawmakers approved $61 billion in additional aid for Ukraine earlier this month, after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) overrode opposition in his own party to pass the bill with unanimous Democrat support. The Biden administration ran out of funding for Ukraine aid earlier this year after using up $113 billion in previously approved assistance packages.

Republican lawmakers have argued that Biden is merely prolonging the bloodshed in Ukraine without offering a clear strategy for victory or a peace deal with Russia.

https://www.rt.com/news/596754-musk-sacks-slam-forever-war-ukraine/

29 Apr, 2024 11:49

Europeans won’t ‘die for Donbass’ – EU’s Borrell

The bloc is committed to assisting Ukraine but doesn’t want to send its people to the battlefield, its foreign policy chief says

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has insisted that member states don’t want their citizens to die in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but that the bloc will keep supporting Kiev with military and financial aid.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the EU has provided Kiev with as much as €100 billion ($107 billion) in financial, military, humanitarian and refugee assistance. Brussels has also mulled the idea of tapping income generated by Russia’s frozen central bank reserves for Kiev, but no consensus within the EU or with allies has so far been reached on the issue.

“Europeans will not go to die for the Donbass, but we could avoid that Ukrainians have to die for the Donbass longer,” Borrell said on Sunday while speaking at a panel session of a two-day meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh.

=The bloc’s top diplomat admitted that the issue of allocating funds for Kiev is “difficult,” but stressed that Brussels pledged to help the nation in its war effort against Russia.

“Many people could say ‘well how long do we have to spend so much money’ but we committed to support Ukraine […] We have to continue supporting Ukraine and Ukrainians, enable [them] to resist,” he added.

In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Western militaries have long had boots on the ground in Ukraine and that they have grown in numbers since the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. These comments came shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron said that he “cannot exclude” the possibility of soldiers from the US-led military bloc being sent to aid Kiev. However, this sparked a wave of denials from senior officials of NATO member states.

Putin also said last year that the West is prepared to fight Russia to “the last Ukrainian.”

Meanwhile, controversy about Ukraine aid spending has been mounting within the EU. In February, the bloc approved another package of €50 billion ($54 billion) to support the Ukrainian economy after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dropped his veto threat due to warnings of economic retribution from other EU heads of state.Budapest argued that Ukraine is not able defeat Russian forcesand that the sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict have caused more harm to the bloc’s members than to Moscow.

In November, Slovakia overturned plans to donate rockets and ammunition to Ukraine approved by the previous government as the country’s newly appointed Prime Minister Robert Fico sharply criticized military support for Ukraine along with sanctions on Russia. He has advocated for immediate peace talks.

https://www.rt.com/news/596749-europeans-die-donbass-borrell-ukraine/

29 Apr, 2024 02:46

Violence erupts at Georgian ‘foreign agents’ bill protest(VIDEOS)

Tbilisi’s attempt to crack down on NGOs has enraged the opposition and drawn criticism from the West

Thousands of people took to the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi on Sunday in opposition to abill that would require all NGOs and other entities receiving funding from abroad to register as ‘foreign agents’ and report their activities to the authorities.

Earlier this month, the legislation, officially known as the bill ‘On the Transparency of Foreign Influence’, was approved by the parliament in its first reading. Opposition parties and rights groups called for mass protests against its expected passage, with the latest mass rally held on Sunday, ahead of the second reading next week.

The crowd marched through Shota Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi with a large banner reading, “Yes – Europe,” and gathered in front of the parliament building in Republic Square waving Georgian, EU, and Ukrainian flags.

The situation escalated when a group of protesters tried to break through the barriers surrounding the government building, prompting riot police to use pepper spray. The authorities urged the protesters to maintain public order, saying that law enforcement units were mobilized to protect the “safety of citizens.”

“The protest… took on a violent manner. Participants of the rally verbally and physically confront the law enforcement officers at the site.Despite appeals made by police, activists attempted to break through the police cordon multiple times,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a brief statement, adding that “to restore order, police administered special means established by law.”

The parliament, which is controlled by the Georgian Dream party, first attempted to introduce the law in March 2023, but backed down after two nights of violent protests. The original bill would have required organizations and individuals with more than 20% foreign funding to register as ‘agents of foreign influence’ and disclose their donors.

The opposition branded it a “Russian law” and accused the ruling party of modeling it on legislation introduced by Moscow in 2012.

The ruling party argued that it actually drew inspiration from the much harsher US Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, and insisted that the law is needed to combat “pseudo-liberal values” promoted by foreigners.

The new version of the legislation includes slight changes, including the designation of ‘agents of foreign influence’ being replaced with ‘an organization facilitating the interests of a foreign power’.

While the opposition says the legislation would jeopardize Georgia’s bid to join the EU, which granted Georgia candidacy status in December last year, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze insists that the bill would bring Georgia closer to the EU by making the country more transparent. President Salome Zourabichvili vowed to veto the bill if it passes the second and third readings.

(These NGO’s are paid to destabilize countries in Europe and other places, to cause color revolutions. They are trying to perpetually cement hate of Russia. They have completed color revolutions in a number of countries, to elect EU centric leaders. CIA and USDOS fund these groups WW.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/596739-georgia-foreign-agents-protest/

The riots in US in 2020 and 2024 were and are color revolutions to destabilize and interfere in 2024 election

White House silent if anti-Israel protesters will be barred from student loan forgiveness programs

President Biden, in part, campaigned on student debt relief in 2020

By Emma Colton Fox News

Published April 29, 2024 6:00am

The Biden administration is silent on whether students carrying out anti-Israel protests spiraling on college campuses nationwide will be barred from student loan forgiveness programs that have canceled billions of dollars in debt under the 46th president.

"We say justice, you say how. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground," protesters have chanted on Columbia University’s campus in recent days. "Hamas we love you. We support your rockets, too," other chants have included.

Colleges from coast to coast, including some of the nation’s most elite schools - including Harvard, Yale, Penn, Berkeley and others - have seen dayslong protests on campuses, where students demand their schools completely divest from Israel as the death toll in Gaza increases.

The protests come following terrorist organization Hamas launching war in Israel on Oct. 7, which initially fanned the flames of antisemitism on campuses in the form of protests, menacing graffiti and students reporting that they felt as if it was "open season for Jews on our campuses." The protests have now heightened to the point where Jewish students are warned to leave campus for their own safety.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Sunday asking if the administration plans to bar student protesters from eligibility for student loan forgiveness programs but did not receive a response. Biden, in part, campaigned in 2020 on forgiving student loan debt, including pledging to cancel at least $10,000 per borrower back in 2020.

Last year, the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s plan to give up to $20,000 in debt relief per person, though the administration has remained committed to canceling debt through other avenues, including through established relief programs. As of this month, the administration has forgiven roughly $153 billion in debt among about 4.3 million Americans, the Department of Education detailed in a press release on April 12 after the administration announced $7.4 billion in additional student loan debt relief for more than 200,000 borrowers.

Fox News Digital asked the administration if they are weighing whether to bar anti-Israel protesters on campuses from such relief programs, but did not receive a response. Fox Digital also asked if the administration is weighing such an option, if students would be barred based on arrests or through college and law enforcement investigations.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-silent-if-anti-israel-protesters-will-barred-student-loan-forgiveness-programs

Citizen Free Press

@CitizenFreePres

Trump billboard in Bucharest, Romania.

Ben Bergquam is everywhere.

Ben Bergquam - Real America’s Voice (RAV-TV) News

8:41 AM · Apr 29, 2024

·

9,137

Views

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1784926003258707993

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

Stephen Miller: "If they say there’s no immunity for official acts, the moment Joe Biden leaves office, every single red city and red state DA in the country can charge him for financial crimesrelated to illegal student loan bailouts, can charge him for war crimes related to deaths of service members overseas, can charge him for human trafficking, human smuggling and by the way, more election interference than you can even count."

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112345135312419443

45 at $45.06 bumped to $45.12 in last minute

https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/DJT/

Ukraine's army chief reports tactical retreat in the east, and warns of front-line pressure

SUSIE BLANN

Updated Sun, April 28, 2024 at 1:28

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's troops have been forced to make a tactical retreat from three villages in the embattled east, the country's army chief said Sunday, warning of a worsening battlefield situation as Ukrainian forces wait for much-needed arms from a huge U.S. aid package to reach combat zones.

Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Russian forces continue to attack “along the entire front line” of more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), with pitched battles raging west of Avdiivka, the eastern city they took in February after a grueling, monthslong fight.

“The most difficult situation is in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove directions, where fierce battles continue," Syrskyi's said in an update posted to the Telegram messaging app, referencing two Ukrainian-held cities in the war-torn Donetsk region, once a hub of industry.

“The enemy has engaged up to four brigades in these directions, is trying to develop an offensive west of Avdiivka and Marinka, making its way to Pokrovsk and Kurakhove,” Syrskyi added. "Units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, preserving the lives and health of our defenders, moved to new frontiers west of Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka."

Two of these front-line villages lie less than 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Pokrovsk, while the third is located just over 30 kilometers (19 miles) by road from Kurakhove.

A Washington-based think tank predicted late Saturday that Russian forces “will likely make significant tactical gains in thec coming weeks," as acute ammunition shortages continue to hobble Ukraine's defense efforts.

In its latest operational assessment, the Institute for the Study of War said that Moscow’s forces have opportunities to push forward around Avdiivka, and also threaten nearby Chasiv Yar. Its capture would give Russia control of a hilltop from which it can attack other key cities forming the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defenses.

Despite this, the think tank assessed that neither of these efforts by Moscow are likely to cause Kyiv’s defensive lines to collapse “in the near term.”

The Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday confirmed that Moscow’s troops had taken a village about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Avdiivka, days after the war institute reported on its likely capture early on Thursday. That day’s assessment described Moscow’s gains as “relatively quick but still relatively marginal,” adding that Russian troops had advanced by no more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) over the previous week.

U.S. President Joe Biden promised on Wednesday that U.S. weapons shipments would begin making their way into Ukraine within hours, as he signed into law a $95 billion measure — $61 billion of which was allocated for Ukraine — that also included assistance for Israel, Taiwan and other global hot spots. The announcement marked an end to the long, painful battle with Republicans in Congressover urgently needed assistance for Ukraine.

Elsewhere, Russian drones struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Mykolaiv early Sunday, setting a hotel ablaze and damaging infrastructure, according to local officials.

Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv province, said that the drones “seriously damaged” a hotel in its namesake capital, sparking a fire that was later extinguished. Kim also reported that the strike damaged heat-generating infrastructure in the city. He added that there were no casualties.

Russian state agency RIA reported that the strike on Mykolaiv targeted a shipyard where naval drones are assembled, as well as a hotel housing “English-speaking mercenaries” who have fought for Kyiv. The RIA report cited Sergei Lebedev, described as a coordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas. His comments couldn't be independently verified.

Also on Sunday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 17 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight over four regions in the country’s southwest. Three drones were intercepted near an oil depot in Lyudinovo, an industrial town about 230 kilometers (143 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, Gov. Vladislav Shapsha said.

One of the Ukrainian drones damaged communications infrastructure in Russia's southern Belgorod province, which borders Ukraine, Gov. Vyachaslav Gladkov said later on Sunday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Sunday that its forces had destroyed ammunition depots and military equipment housed at three airports across Ukraine, including assault drones stored at Kamyanka Airfield in the country's east. The ministry's online update said the attacks took place over the last 24 hours. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

https://news.yahoo.com/russian-drones-set-hotel-ablaze-092345756.html

>>20794726

Real Title: “We Are Losing our Asses”

Pep Talk on a Dark Day

“We live in an age of full spectrum deception.” — Edward Dowd

You realize, don’t you, that what’s going on in our country is the collapse not just of an empire, or an economy, but a comprehensive paradigm of human progress. The hallmark of post-war life in Western Civ was supposed to be a return to sanity after the mid-twentieth century fugue of mass psychotic violence. The wish for just and rational order was not entirely pretense. But that was then. Now that we are going medieval on ourselves, the not-so-ironic result will be our literally going medieval, sinking back into a pre-modern existence of darkness, superstition, and penury, grubbing for a mere subsistence in the shadow of scuffling hobgoblins, our achievements lost and forgotten.

What’s most appalling is that our governing apparatus is visibly willing that to happen. When Barack Obama warned America to not underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to fuck things up, was that some kind of joke?After all, it was Mr. Obama and his fellow blobsters — the cabal of Intel spooks, covert Marxist bureaucrats, lawfare ninjas, globalist megalomaniacs, post-liberal think tankers, weapons grifters, degenerate billionaires, and assorted mentally-ill camp followers — who inflicted Joe Biden on the body politic. And then ran him on the country like some demon algorithm designed to wreck the USA as fast as possible.

The source of anguish in all that is the struggle to understand why they would want that to happen. What debauched sense of history would drive anyone to such lunatic desperation? It’s a cliché now to say that the Democratic Party has turned its traditional moral scaffold upside down and inside out. It acts against the kitchen table interests of the working and middle classes. It’s against civil liberties. It demands mental obedience to patently insane policy. It’s avid for war, no matter how cruelly pointless. It’s deliberately stirring up racial hatred. It despises personal privacy. It feeds a rogue bureaucracy that has become a veritable Moloch, an all-devouring malevolent deity. And now, rather suddenly, it aligns itself with a faction that seeks to exterminate the Jews.

And how did the opposition to that epic divergence into bad faith turn so flabby?How did the Republican Party roll over and wheeze so feebly while the FBI ran amok swatting grandmothers in dawn raids, and the US attorney general made justice a whore, and a Republican Congress allowed the Frankenstein agency of Homeland Securityto flood the country with its enemies and give them gobs of operational cash? If Mr. Trump was unappetizing to them as a leader, why were they unable to produce an alternative figure of standing and stature at least equally resolute? They look like traitors and cowards.

For the moment, the country lies mired, inert, and demoralized in the face of in those terrible mysteries.But events are still tending and the hidden hand of emergence still operates backstage, preparing surprises for us.You are necessarily aware that the center did not hold. It’s even hard to locate where the center used to be with the action so heavy on the far-out margins. You’re watching drag queens importune young children to shove all the Jews into the sea. And the kids are sitting next to their mommies. What happened to the mommies’ brains that permits them to think this spectacle is okay? How will the mommies ever get their minds right?

=In some quarters, a great rage is building. Not a few resent the overthrow of common sense, common law, and common decency==. You better believe they will be aiming to do something about it. They will stand up for their dignity, their culture, their history. Virtue isn’t dead; it’s just broke down on a lonely highway waiting to hitch a ride back to where the lights are still on. Don’t forget that this really is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Meanwhile, prepare for action. It’s obvious that the enemies of the people don’t intend to rest. They are going to try to play out this string to the last move because otherwise a lot of them will be going to jail, or might even hang for their wickedness. Once they turned criminal, there was no turning back. They have dishonored themselves and they’re trying to dishonor their country.

It’s true nonetheless thatwe’re moving into a new disposition of the human project. It’s going to be smaller and leaner, and not nearly as complex as the tottering Rube Goldberg apparatus we’re currently trapped in. We don’t know yet what the shape and texture of that America is going to be. As the sage Yogi Berra observed, our whole future is ahead of us.If you’re not among the insane, have faith. We’ll get there and everything is going to be all right.

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/pep-talk-on-a-dark-day/

>>20794763

True that

I wonder how much CNN debated before putting this up?

https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1784562715760992457

Ford Loses $1.3 Billion on Electric Vehicles in First Quarter of 2024, Delays Plans to Make More

(This is how car sellers and manufacturers ditch a vote for Bidan.)

Ford Motor Company reported a whopping $132,000 loss on each electric vehicle (EV) sold during the first three months of 2024, amassing a $1.3 billion loss.

The auto manufacturer’s electric vehicle unit revealed Thursday that they experienced a 20 percent decrease in sales volume and were forced to slash prices due to low consumer demand, CNN reported.

The revenue for Ford’s EV car, the Model e, plunged by 84 percent to about $100 million, which the company blamed on EV price cuts across the auto industry.

“That resulted in the $1.3 billion loss before interest and taxes (EBIT), and the massive per-vehicle loss in the Model e unit,” the publication noted.​

The recent figures are part of a trend of loss for Ford, with their Model e reporting a full-year EBIT loss of $4.7 billion on the sale of 116,000 units. This is an average loss of $40,525 per vehicle — and even that is just a third of the per-vehicle loss seen in the first three months of 2024.

Now, company officials are estimating that their EV division will lose a grand total of $5 billion this year, up from $4.7 billion last year.

“Americans don’t want EVs at levels Biden’s climate hysteria require,” author and businessman Andy Puzder wrote on X. “Ford’s EV Q1 losses soared to $1.3 billion — a ridiculous $132,000 per EV sold. All Ford’s profits came from combustion engine vehicle sales. Collectivist policies destroy prosperity.”

“This does not appear to be “sustainable,” said environmentalist Patrick Moore.

Energy and environmental science expert Steve Milloy called Ford’s loss a “massive EV disaster.”

Ford announced earlier this month that the company will delay producing two new electric models, opting for hybrid vehicles instead.

“Many companies rushed in too fast with E.V.s that were too expensive and there was not as much of a market for them as they thought,” Sam Abuelsamid, transportation and mobility analyst at research firm Guidehouse Insights, told the New York Times. “That’s made it a lot tougher to sell those vehicles.”

https://12ft.io/proxy

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

Jonathan Turley: “One thing that would help—if you would just tell us, what’s the crime?”

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112345500145886439

US buys 81 Soviet-era (junk) combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says

Rebecca Rommen,Thibault Spirlet

Mon, April 29, 2024 at 9:03 AM EDT

The US has purchased 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Kazakhstan, a report from the Kyiv Post says.

Kazakhstan, a historic ally of Russia, is engaging more with Western nations.

The planes could be used for spare parts or as decoys in conflict regions, the Kyiv Post reported.(next location for Russia to bomb)

The US has acquired 81 obsolete Soviet-era combat aircraft from Kazakhstan, a report from the Kyiv Post says.

Kazakhstan, which is upgrading its air fleet, auctioned off 117 Soviet-era fighter and bomber aircraft, including MiG-31 interceptors, MiG-27 fighter bombers, MiG-29 fighters, and Su-24 bombers from the 1970s and 1980s.

The Kyiv Post reported that the declared sale value was one billion Kazakhstani tenge, or $2.26 million, equalling an average value for each plane of $19,300.

The outlet cited reports from the Ukrainian Telegram channel Insider UA and the Russian news siteReporter saying the US purchased 81 of the aged, unusable warplanes.

The Kyiv Post reported that the motive behind the US purchase remained undisclosed but that the aircraft could be used in Ukraine, where similar aircraft are in service.

The Russian site Reporter said the sale was made through offshore companies.

But Kazspetsexport, Kazakhstan's state-owned weapons importer and exporter, denied selling military airplanes to Ukraine in a statement, saying that foreign companies were not allowed to bid.

The Pentagon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Given Ukraine's continued reliance on Soviet-era weapons, the aircraft could either serve as a source of spare parts or be strategically deployed as decoys at airfields, the Kyiv Post reported.

The Mikoyan MiG-31 is a supersonic interceptor that was designed to defend Soviet airspace, according to Airforce Technology. It played a critical role during the Cold War.

Derived from the MiG-23, the MiG-27 was a ground-attack aircraft and saw action in conflicts such as the Soviet-Afghan War. The MiG-29 excelled in air-to-air combat. It was widely exported and remains in service with some air forces.

Despite its age, the Su-24 — an all-weather tactical bomber — remains in service with several air forces, including the Russian Aerospace Forces and Ukrainian Air Force.

Kazakhstan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, has maintained close ties to Russia and historically was one of its strongest allies. But the relationship has shifted since Russia invaded Ukraine, with Kazakhstan aligning itself more with the West, drawing the fury of some in Russia.

The Kyiv Post reported that the Central Asian country's efforts to upgrade its military capabilities seemed to coincide with its increasing engagement with Western nations, signaling a shift away from historical ties with Moscow.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, visited Kazakhstan in February 2023, where he said that the US strongly supported "its independence, its territorial integrity," according to Agence France-Presse.

Some of Russia's outspoken propagandists have suggested that Russia should look to Kazakhstan following its invasion of Ukraine.

One Russian TV commentator,Vladimir Solovyov, said his country "must pay attention to the fact that Kazakhstan is the next problem because the same Nazi processes can start there as in Ukraine."

Agreements on trade, education, environment, and mineral supplies reflect the deepening ties between Kazakhstan and Western nations as it navigates geopolitical challenges posed by neighboring countries such as Russia, China, Afghanistan, and Iran.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-buys-81-soviet-era-145127753.html