Greetings!

As EU and UK leaders evaluate the 28 point peace plan to end the Ukraine/Russia war, Western leaders should realize how much safer and richer their home countries would be if they agreed to a peace deal with Putin. UK and European leaders are finally acknowledging that there has been a hybrid warfare on and off the shores of EU countries who arm Ukraine. The Atlantic Council summarizes, "European countries are now raising the alarm and warning that Russian operations are growing in number and becoming bolder, with potential targets including transport hubs and critical infrastructure." This month, EU leaders have publicly blamed Russia of:

1) Rail sabotage in Poland on a vital route for transporting military aid and weapons to Ukraine;

2) Russian spy ship Yantar in UK waters where there is cutting of sub sea cables;

3) Russian cyber-attacks which cost the UK economy £14.7 billion in 2024.

As of mid-November, the EU contribution to Ukraine had risen to 124 billion euros.

Imagine the peace dividend to UK/Europe if they agree to a Ukraine/Russia peace deal and insist on an end to the hybrid war! Funds earmarked for weapons can be spent domestically! Lower heating and electricity bills this winter! Thus, I propose Europe, UK, and NATO should insist on a new Point 29 of the current Russia/Ukraine peace plan draft which initially included just 28 points.

Point 29: NATO members shall cease all arms provision to Ukraine in exchange for a binding commitment from the Russian Federation to immediately halt all cyber and infrastructure sabotage targeting NATO member nations.

Above is picture of me in Moscow in 1993 when Moscow's White House was bombed in a Civil War. In college, I studied abroad at Moscow's Plekahnov Institute of Economics and worked for the US Defense Department on a project to help Russia's military re-orient to the global, capitalist system. I later worked near the Pentagon for what is now Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Labs on DARPA technology-defense initiatives and earned my Master's at Harvard in National Security Policy under former and future Defense Secretaries. In the 2000s, I worked in London at Renaissance Capital, advising JP Morgan, Blackrock, and Goldman Sachs on their equity investments in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria. After Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 and the Global Financial Collapse, I worked for global mining firm Rio Tinto in London advising on macroeconomic and geopolitical risks. In 2013, I was in Kiev right before the Maidan Revolution and the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

I previously connected dots of what I suspected as sabotage, what I term "Strategic Accidents" that knocked down infrastructure of Western countries who armed the Ukraine. Right now, we are perilously close to WWIII if NATO continues to arm Ukraine to bomb Russia. I first warned about World War III in 2022 when I was one of the few to publicly warn about Putin's invasion of the Ukraine -- when most Western pundits wrongly advised that Putin was bluffing. In August 2025, I warned about "Strategic Accidents", including the mysterious collapse of Baltimore's bridge under Biden's Presidency and Heathrow's unprecedented fire, as likely to be caused by Putin retaliating with sabotage against countries which provided weapons and pledged support to Zelensky.

Reggae Peace Song Musical Interlude: Humanity Music Video - Original Song

Here is a pro-peace song which I wrote with 8x Grammy Award Winner Andy Kravitz, featuring a Ukrainian bassist Oleksandr Arkhypov who fled the war, and Michael Trevor, a Jamaican-born contemporary and friend of Bob Marley. Trevor was one of the first black recruits in the British Army and he worked under Churchill's grandson before quitting the army to pursue peace and his Reggae music career in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.

All I am Saying... is Give Peace a Chance!

Western policy makers need to realize that any weapons or monies sent to Ukraine to bomb Russia will likely badly backfire and hurt their home countries. Thus, paying billions to arm Ukraine makes the country less safe, not to mention making European countries more poor and debt-ridden. Ukraine is estimated to have lost or injured over 500,000 men on the battlefield and is likely to endure further devastating civilian and territorial destruction if this war continues. Zelensky's legitimacy is crumbling, as he is losing domestic and international support as corruption scandals indicate that billions of EU and US funds were embezzled by his officials, and many suspect Zelensky himself. EU high-horse moralistic pronouncements like EC President Ursula Von der Leyan's claims that "borders cannot be changed by force" ring hollow from Belgian, French, and British colonial powers who have built empires by force, killing and subjugating peoples for Europe's material gain. Even after WWII, Europe drew artificial border lines of India/Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, and countless others that have been the source of conflict ever since Europe imposed its border lines by force. Now Europe is weak militarily and they have lost moral credibility - yet European leaders still insist on sending Russian-speaking Ukrainians to their death to fight for Europe under a false democratic pretense. University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer - the closest we have to a Henry Kissinger - and Colombia University's Jeffrey Sachs have actively explained how the US government manipulated the 2014 Ukraine elections and that the EU leaders should "stay in their lanes". I'll refine this notion that EU/UK leaders should stop interfering in countries in which they don't speak the language and don't understand the history.

My Austrian great-grandfather had to leave his business in Vienna to fight in WWI, and my father had to escape Paris when the Nazis took over Paris, because of the hubris of European leaders who miscalculate foreign allegiances. I worked in Sarajevo and stood on the bridge where WWI was triggered and believe tensions and European actions today are perilous if we do not reach a peace deal.

This year, Russia is being more obvious about its actions and European leaders are finally speaking out and broadcasting Russia's incursions in the EU and UK. On November 16, there was an explosion of Polish railway tracks which Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has attributed to Ukrainian nationals who were collaborating with Russian intelligence. This Polish railway track was being used to transport weapons from Europe to Ukraine to be used by President Zelensky and his army to bomb Russia.

Providing arms to Europe makes the West less safe. Instead, Putin is likely to attack back at the infrastructure of the countries who are arming Zelensky.

NATO is the North American Treaty Organization - how does Europe justify that Ukraine should be part of NATO when it is 2,500 miles from the Atlantic Ocean but is situated on the Black Sea? NATO leaders need to read up on geography and history before provoking and funding foreign wars.

Realpolitik and Spheres of Influence Still Dominate Global Politics

The West is hypocritical by funding militaries on Russia's doorstep. The US pronounced the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 warning European powers from meddling in the Western Hemisphere which Trump is still defending today with his military force near Venezuela and Latin America. Similarly, Russia is and will continue to repel and retaliate against Western powers who insist that NATO should be on Russia's doorstep of Ukraine.

Western mainstream media is refusing to give air time to America's foremost foreign policy experts like UChicago John Meirsheimer and Columbia University's Jeffrey Sachs who are adamantly advising against Western and NATO action in Ukraine. Western media is not airing coverage which shows that Putin is winning in Russia and that Zelensky is a corrupt politician who is profiting from the billions that is flooding into Ukraine in the name of democracy but really sending Ukrainians to death for Western illusions and billions of dollars to defense companies.

Do British leaders realize the impact to the UK homeland when they provide missiles like the UK-made Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine to bomb Russia?

Retaliation, of course. UK Secretary of State John Healey just announced the "deeply dangerous" Russian spy ships off the coast of Scotland, which have just entered UK waters for the second time this year. Prime Minister Kier Starmer has been one of the staunchest supporters of the Ukraine, providing missiles to bomb Russia. In these few recent cases, these Western leaders are calling a spade a spade: sabotage from Moscow. They fall short of connecting that this is Retaliation from Moscow for their policy and budgetary decisions to arm Ukraine to fight and bomb Russia.

But, too often, the Western leaders are not acknowledging how arming Ukraine makes their home countries LESS SAFE. They are not launching investigations into what I call "strategic accidents" and deceiving the Western populace about the true cost of arming Zelensky against Russia: destruction to the infrastructure at home of the countries who continue to support and arm Zelensky against Ukraine's powerful neighbor, Russia. See below how there was what I call a "Strategic Accident" - an unprecedented fire at the UK's largest airport Heathrow the same day when Prince William supported NATO in Ukraine against Russia.

Military Objectives and the Strategic Importance of Airfields and Infrastructure

When I worked with DARPA, I dealt directly with the JFACC — Joint Forces Air Component Command — to understand how it conducted military campaign planning and worked with PhDs in Artificial Intelligence on how we could use AI and other technologies to reimagine war planning for the 21st century. I learned that the first air military objective is often to bomb enemy airfields. It is thus eerie that the UK's biggest airfield experienced unprecedented failure on the eve of Prince William's visit in support of NATO for Ukraine and against Russia.

I also worked with former Naval Admiral John Poindexter on Total Information Awareness to help increase communication between the intelligence services, in the '90s there was a focus on connecting the dots to anticipate events like 9/11. Unfortunately, Artificial intelligence and humans have yet to be able to forecast and identify the threats that exist today. In addition, I was one of the few to publicly warn about Covid's impact and Putin's impending invasion when the vast majority of pundits in the major news outlets and at financial institutions dismissed these concerns.

'Strategic Accidents' in USA?: The Curious Collapse of the Baltimore Bridge

In 2024 when Biden was US President and funding the Ukraine war, the landmark Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore, located between America’s most important cities, Washington DC and New York City, collapsed due to a seemingly freak accident involving a container ship. On March 26, 2024, the temporarily-leased Singapore-registered container ship Dali set sail just after midnight, lost power at 1:24 am with smoke rising. The ship's lights went on as the ship changed its course before losing power again and collided into the pillar of one of America’s largest bridges, collapsing it. This led to the closure of the Port of Baltimore, which is the largest importer and exporter of vehicles in the US — most of which come from Germany. 

Within hours of the accident, President Biden shut down any speculation that the crash was intentional, announcing, “Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident. At this time, we have no other indication — no other reason to believe there was any intentional act here.” Biden did not announce a federal investigation into the cause of the bridge collapse, as is often the case in such large accidents. Insurance damages were estimated at $2 billion. The Francis Scott Key Bridge spans a vital international port because it is the second-longest US truss bridge and is located between the US capital and New York City.

Perhaps Biden did not want to open up the possibility that the bridge collapse was Putin’s retaliation for Biden having authorized the blow-up of the NordStream pipeline between Germany and Russia, as explained by Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs. Perhaps this was the case, or perhaps not. We will never know for sure. After losing power and knocking over the strategic Baltimore bridge, the Dali simply returned to China for repairs.

We are Risking WWIII: the global strategic order is in vast flux not seen since World War II

My Jewish grandfather was in the eye of the storms leading to this great conflagration and he survived and thrived not just by being aware of the global threats but by responding and navigating them. In 1917, my grandfather Mikhael Yoelson was a student at Russia's best university, Moscow State University, when the Bolsheviks effectively overthrew the Russian czar and implemented communism. My grandfather escaped Russia and the communist revolution to find himself a stateless Jewish immigrant in France. In Paris, he charmed my Austrian-Jewish grandmother to marry and bear my father Marc Joelson born in Paris in 1934. As Hitler took power and annexed more countries, my grandfather took heed of the risks and crafted an escape plan for my family. My grandfather, now named Michel Joelson, secured export visas to escape Paris as the Nazis took over the city, escaping through Portugal on the Serpa Pinto to board with a German spy and safely land on Ellis Island. Many other Jews and at-risk Europeans did not understand Hitler's evil ambitions, or chose to bury their heads in the sand. Those people perished at Auschwitz and elsewhere.

My grandfather, in contrast, planned and sent his family to the relative safety of America and, while it was not easy as penniless immigrants, was able to build a successful life. My father, renamed Mark Joelson, arrived in the US as a 7-year-old who soon lost his grandmother to cancer. He struggled as a young refugee, but was able to study and earn a place at Harvard College and then Harvard Law to become an international lawyer. My grandfather started as a porter and then a factory worker in a wood factory in Indiana and rose to become a CEO of the company, retiring in Miami, and buying a pink Cadillac and a penthouse suite.

Don't rely on mainstream media to understand what is really happening in Ukraine. On YouTube, follow #johnmearsheimer @DannyHaiphongYT @rachelblevins @Gdiesen1 for more insights on what is really happening in Ukraine. Fortunately, President Trump has parted ways with warhawk Keith Kellogg who has promulgated fake news about the Ukraine war to further pump weapons sales and fuel an awful war that is devastating the Ukraine.

The 28 plan provides an excellent foundation for a peace deal between the West and Russia. NATO should add Point 29 to secure a safer and richer homeland. Give peace a chance!

Happy to hear your thoughts and feedback! Please forward to colleagues who may be interested and I would be happy to add them to my email list. Please contact me with any comments at maya@metapointadvisors.com or mmjoelson@gmail.com.

Here's to a Peaceful Thanksgiving and Peace Around the World! -- Maya