U.S. Failure in Ukraine is Certain; BlackRock shuts down "Recovery" fund as Russia Steamrolls and Outpaces NATO in Armaments

As Money Daily transitions to a greater level of coverage of markets outside the Western sphere of influence, it's still a good idea to keep tabs on the floundering, mismanaged economies in the U.S. and Europe.

One area in which the West is stumbling and fumbling is in military readiness, as evidenced by their abject failure in Ukraine. Coverage begins with the story from Bloomberg over the weekend on BlackRock's cancellation of their highly-touted Ukraine Recovery Fund. Make note of the time and date of the article, posted innocuously at 3:00 am on Saturday, in the middle of a three-day U.S. holiday weekend. Obviously, Bloomberg didn't want to embarrass its sponsor, BlackRock or its meritorious leader, the obnoxious - and aptly named - Larry Fink.

This is done ZeroHedge, style, i.e., cribbing the entire article.

BlackRock Halted Ukraine Fund Talks After Trump’s Election Win

By Jenny Leonard, Donato Paolo Mancini, and Leonard Kehnscherper
July 5, 2025 at 3:00 AM EDT

BlackRock Inc. halted its search for investors to back a multibillion-dollar Ukraine recovery fund earlier this year after Donald Trump’s election victory saw the US sour on the eastern European country, people familiar with the discussions said.

The fund, meant to be unveiled at next week’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, was close to securing initial support from entities backed by the governments of Germany, Italy and Poland, the people said, declining to be identified discussing private information.

However, in January, BlackRock decided to pause talks with institutional investors due to a lack of interest amid increased uncertainty over Ukraine’s future.

Donald Trump ran his reelection campaign on a promise to immediately end the war in Ukraine and bring the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin together for peace talks.

Since his inauguration at the start of the year, the US president has clashed with both men and issued inconsistent proposals for a path forward, while indicating an end to US military support for Ukraine.

The US government was a notable absence from the fund’s backers in December.
Reconstruction Funding

The Ukraine Development Fund was on track to secure at least $500 million from countries, development banks and other grant providers, along with $2 billion from private investors, Philipp Hildebrand, vice chairman of BlackRock who was among the financiers leading the discussions, said last year.

At the time, Hildebrand said that could bring together a consortium of equity and debt investors who could finance at least $15 billion of reconstruction work in Ukraine. The total bill to rebuild Ukraine following Russia’s invasion was estimated at more than $500 billion by the World Bank and others in February.

A BlackRock spokesperson said the firm completed its pro-bono advisory work on the Ukraine Development Fund in 2024 and is currently not engaged in “any active mandate” with the Ukrainian government. “The only conversations that drive our decision-making are those with our clients,” the spokesperson added.

BlackRock was set to unveil the fund in Italy, some of the people said, during the Ukraine Recovery Conference on July 10-11 that Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Ukraine’s Zelenskiy are set to attend, though the timeline was never made public.

Spokespeople for Prime Minister Meloni and the foreign ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

France has been working on a fund proposal to replace the canceled BlackRock initiative but it’s not clear how effective the new plan will be without US backing, the people said.

— With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Harry Wilson, Joe Deaux, Silla Brush, and Katherine Griffiths

What a joke. It took eight people to put together this 200-word story. Overpaid.

Next up, a snippet from Simplicius over at Substack.

SITREP 7/8/25: Trump Flips on Ammo (Again?), as Russian Steamroller Bursts into Zaporozhye

Simplicius / Jul 08, 2025

This week brings us news that Trump has reversed on his weapons aid suspension to Ukraine—but is there more to this than meet’s the eye?

I believe so: everyone has jumped to conclusions assuming it means full resumption, when in reality Trump never specified what weapons—he merely said we’ll have to send them ‘some’ weapons, and defensive ones at that. It’s likely this could include just a few more Patriots and little else, more as performative gesture to once again appease neocons and relieve pressure from himself. That’s not to mention it’s not any new congressionally-approved weapons packages, but rather trickling resumption of the already dwindling Biden-inked deal.

Finally, here's Alex Cristoforou and Alexander Mercouris discussing - and laughing at - the disastrous policies of the U.S., UK, and EU, as their leaders "fail forward."

Good luck, Western dogs.