Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Good to see they're doing something about it but the line I quoted is frankly embarrassing for the super power America is. If they want to be the world police their production and stockpiles of artillery should have been far higher. Russia knew the west was relatively week and weren't deterred.

"frankly, a very fragile setup where I could give you grid coordinates for like, four buildings in America, and if one of those, something happened tomorrow, we weren’t making anything … it definitely isn’t acceptable now, and we’re trying to get away from it."

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2024/10/14/army-races-to-widen-the-bottlenecks-of-artillery-shell-production/

If the first batch if KPA troops are “used up”, Kim does have access to many more. The Korean People’s Army (KPA) is made up of nearly a million active service personnel.

It is however worth mentioning that the vast majority of that million are draftees with military service being compulsory for nearly everyone once they reach a certain age. So Kim can sent more troops…but the question is; will they be of the same quality? The Russians clearly don’t know how to use his better troops. If I were Kim (and had no moral compass what so ever), I wouldn’t waste quality troops on the Russians any more and send cannon fodder.

There he goes again with the brilliant, concise soundbite - plays to Trump's pathological narcism perfectly:

"Ending the war in Ukraine should be a victory for Trump, not Putin."

Personally, I'd love to see European militaries , starting to form actual battle groups , gathering and equipping, training, so that if theure needed to go , it's not going to be a several month process .

And yes that would be escalatory ,-

In all that ,the US could quite happily sit it out - as the major Nato partner , they'd be the insurance that Russia doesn't strike at European ports or bases or cities - because that would invoke article 5.

But you'd need to know the US would seriously back Europe , if it came to it ..

Well, Ukraine has made great progress in reducing the Nr of Russian airborne attacks since they got permission to use US long range weapons. The fact that Trump cannot take credit for this success, may be what's bothering him?

Trump being Trump - having a simplistic, revisionist view of everything - I'd say he's as much of a concernik as any of our regulars on here: "I just want the killing to stop". And that's as far as his thinking goes. So Putin will tell him that he's on board with an immediate ceasefire, and a 200km demilitarised zone on Ukraine's side of the current frontline, and Trump will consider that a Great Deal and have no clue as to why Zelenskyy tells him to feck off.

The only aspect that I can think of that might change that is that all Trump's dodgy deals must surely have brought him into contact with the Russian oligarchs whose finances are hurting now. If they don't believe that Ukraine is going to let up on shelling their refineries and their factories - because they know Zelenskyy won't agree to a worthless Putin promise - then they might be able to explain the reality of the situation to Trump in a way that he can understand.

one of the forgotten elements is the likes of Spain and Portugal aren't.

Russia has also been sowing the seeds of major disinformation campaigns in these countries, to challenge the need for spending on defence, ergo, challenging NATO itself…. these campaigns start years before major events (i.e. Trumps entry to office).

What is also overlooked is the coalition of the willing, which has nearly every Baltic country, France, UK and others willing to get involved.

The manoeuvre of massive amounts of UK kit recently "for exercises" in Romania is a huge display of force.

I think when Poland get delivery of some more if their ordered kit through the year, they'll be pretty much good to go in, if needed.

President Trump warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine quickly, or else face “high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions.”

That kind of language in this context makes me think of

It is over 24 hours now and the war is not ended. Trump is talking about tariffs but there's nothing to tariff. There is almost no trade between Russia and the U.S. The man is not in power a week and already he's looking like a complete bozo.

Do you not remember his advice to Theresa May on Brexit? No? He told her to sue the EU.

If anything, this is a master plan in comparison.

Shur it finished last week, NATO aggressor away with their tail between their legs.

This is always the question. I don't regard Trump's United States as a particularly reliable military partner, so any deal that leaves Ukraine potentially vulnerable to another Russian attack i.e. promising to remain out of NATO with Russia being allowed to have what they hold, would be a deal that is extremely fragile.

That said, it's really up to Zelensky and the people of Ukraine, should a serious deal be offered, but I don't see the US being any use as a guarantor. European nations would need to step in on that role.

oh, in the British absolutely, and big-time so…re America, everybody knows the weight in 'Anglo-American' has shifted quite a bit over the past two centuries…

The name was actually Grok Weisenheimer…my point is that it's all part of old developments, not isolated events…