Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

This seems a sensible and commonsense approach from Kallas. What Trump and other US officials said yesterday was moronic.

A frozen conflict is a loss for Ukraine, they lose the land, they lose the impetous and allow Russia to regroup and go ahead and regroup for the next run at them. Even the land in Kursk will be under constant attack even during a ceasefire. Trump is the worst negoicator in history, he hasn't a clue, he just blurts everything in his fat head right out like a scene from the exorcist.

Poland should be feeling pretty uneasy now as they may just have bought billions of dollars in paperweights as Trump will get the final say in whether they get ammunition, software and parts is completely up to him.

That American teacher prisoner got exchanged for a Russian hacker

probably cause the guy helped Putin launder hundreds of millions

A lot of the stronger sanctions are in Europe who need to be at table to even begin to do so

Sanctions also suit Trumps America first drill baby drill agenda as takes large amounts of oil and gas out of markets

I don't think most Americans actually care about Ukraine. Once Trump avoids the terrible optics like impacted Biden, after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, any ceasefire won't attract much attention imo. I looked today at both US and European media coverage of his phone call with Putin. Europe naturally obsessed with the story but not so the US media. The 'ordinary' American doesn't seem to care!

now would be a good time for all of the EU leaders to put their big boy pants on.

I think you’re bang on the money there- we’re in a different world now - if the US election taught us anything, is that the only thing we appear to have in common with America is that we speak a version of English as a first language - after that, our values, our outlook - all completely different

That's really just a quasi religious/cultish purity test you have. "Good" people have a faith based belief in denial of the evidence. The more person denies reality, the more of a "good" person they are. "Bad" people draw conclusions from the evidence. Don't trust the evidence.

Its the "good" people who are enabling and supporting policies that are destroying Ukraine. The "good" people constantly oppose negotiations and demand war until the bitter end. And who will always try to sabotage any effort to negotiate a peace.

Jeffrey Sachs put it well, while speaking at the Cambridge Union in October 2024:

Everyone understand, what does it mean to stand with Ukraine? Like Boris Johnson stands with Ukraine. It means 2,000 Ukrainians killed or wounded severely every single day.

That's not standing with Ukraine. That is standing with the destruction of Ukraine.

It's exactly the opposite. And so that's a purely Orwellian idea that we're standing with Ukraine by continuing this war.

That’s very funny coming from someone who was pro Iraq invasion and is pro Hamas

Its a pretty poor article tbh. Trump can't decide the fate of Ukraine - Ukraine is a sovereign, independent country and can follow its own policies regardless of what the US does or doesn't do.

What TGA is complaining about is that Trump is exercising policy for the USA as a sovereign, independent country. The idea that a proxy like Ukraine could exercise a veto on US relations with any country is obviously ridiculous. The USA can always exercise policy in its own best interests, regardless of what Ukraine does or doesn't do. South Vietnam wasn't able to veto US negotiations to exit that conflict.

I did think that if Trump was smart he would walk away from Biden's war, and the indications from Hegseth's speech, the demands for Ukraine to compensate the US for past funding, and the direct talks with Putin imply he is doing that. If he is smart, Trump will ensure that Ukraine and Europe do not have a voice in the talks. At the end of the day, Ukraine is a losing conflict and the USA has no critical interests in it.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for US-Russian negotiations to reach a settlement though. The sides are simply too far apart, and Trump can't guarantee any deal will stick in the long term. But it does seem to signal an end to US involvement. The US will certainly sell weapons if they are paid for, but I don't think they're going to be donated anymore.

The article is just an attempt to craft a "stab in the back" myth.

That's a load of nonsense. The EU has just given the diplomatic middle finger to Trump with the joint statement telling him that there will be no deals without EU agreement. The UK just allocated $5.5 Billion in aid to Ukraine for 2025. 49 Abrams tanks from Australia are about to arrive, if they aren't there already.

This line that Europe is powerless is utter nonsense. The Orc's couldn't even defeat Ukraine in 3 years, even though they don't have anything like Russian airpower. If Europe had sufficient guts and decided to up the ante and really help Ukraine without the half measures, Russia wouldn't stand a chance. F-35's doing CAP over Ukraine would mean the Russians keep their planes on the ground or lose them. The UK alone will soon have 41 F-35's. German Storm shadows would mean the Kerch bridge would be no more.

Dare I say the impossible - that Ireland is absolutely flush with spare cash at the moment and could help to the tune of €24 billion if it weren't such a - well I better not say that.

The EU does not have to dance to Musk's tune - let's be realistic, it's Putin's drugged up puppet who's calling the real shots, not the orange senile blob.

The US does not always get it's way - it is not omnipotent.

Back when Australia bought 75 F/A-18 fighters from the US, they asked that certain capabilities of the radar be unlocked. The US said no, so Australian engineers broke the encryption and unlocked all the radars capabilities. What did the US do in retaliation? Nothing, they are powerless, they need Australia's good will far more than Australia needs their's or permission to do whatever they like.

Ukraine is going to be sold out.

Those people have been incredibly brave. At least they have fought. We're a sitting duck here. We'd be taken over in an hour and a half. We've no radar/satellite to speak of, an underfunded army, navy and airforce. We're a joke.

Time to join NATO and get serious about defence

What deal can have been done?

Russia wants to prevent Ukraine joining NATO. Trump can't offer anything binding on this. He might rule it out, and mean it. But the next President comes in and changes US policy again.

Russia further wanted to eliminate a hostile ideology (various followers of Bandera, etc) which came to power in Ukraine in 2014. Trump cant offer this - its a Ukrainian issue who is in their government.

On a related line, Russia wanted to remove Ukraine as a military threat by limiting its military build up and restoring its neutrality. Again, Trump cant offer this. Ukraine has its own military, and even to the extent Trump says the US wont fund/supply it anymore, Russia cannot trust that it wont be done off the books. And again, next US president can simply change policy at any time.

As regards recognition of the Russian annexation of Crimea and the 4 oblasts - in theory Trump could do this, but it would require an immense expenditure of political capital that doesn't benefit Trump. So he isn't going to do it, in my opinion.

There really isn't a deal that can be done in my opinion. What I expect will happen is Trump will try, fail, and then walk away. That doesn't require a deal with Russia, just following US national interests.

Gallup polling in Ukraine shows a majority (52%) agree with the statement "Ukraine should seek to negotiate an ending to the war as soon as possible".

But they are bad people, clearly.

I can see MAGA buying it without a second thought. The vast majority repeatedly pivot on a dime as he blows one way or the other. They change their tune one way….and then back again, taking his whims, fancies and brainforts as holy writ and then twisting themselves into pretzels to find justfications. At least the members of the Soviet Communist party of Stalin that switched from denouncing the evil fascists one moment to applauding them as allies the next, knew that their lives or liberty could be on the line. MAGA and the Republican party have no such excuse. Crazen? Compound of crazy and craven? Nice one. Describes them exactly.

Some individuals with black/white thinking view a country as an "entity", which they fundamentally dislike, so they feel they have to support any opposing nations or leaderships, including dictators and autocrats they wouldn't necessarily agree with. Yes it's literally that stupid.

» Jeffrey Sachs put it well, while speaking at the Cambridge Union in October 2024:

Everyone understand, what does it mean to stand with Ukraine? Like Boris Johnson stands with Ukraine. It means 2,000 Ukrainians killed or wounded severely every single day.

That's not standing with Ukraine. That is standing with the destruction of Ukraine.

It's exactly the opposite. And so that's a purely Orwellian idea that we're standing with Ukraine by continuing this war.

Sachs is one of these people and I'll explain why:

The Ukrainian people have every legal right to defend themselves. And that's what they chose, overwhelmingly.

They decided not to capitulate - they decided to defend themselves. If you've seen what happened in Bucha you may have a vague slight understanding of it but I doubt you'll ever grasp that remotely as much as any Ukrainian.

And yes they are very well aware of the consequences, they have faced them every day.

European and world leaders naturally stood by them. It was an illegal invasion and they have every right to defend their homeland.

People like Sachs don't like that the Ukrainians fought to defend themselves, he wanted and wants them to capitulate to Putin, because Putin is simply the enemy of his enemy. When Putin wins, Sachs' enemy loses.

It gets worse. When e.g. the Iraqis were invaded, do you think Sachs was saying they needed to capitulate to save lives? Nope. He was emphasizing that under international law, countries have a right to sovereignty and self-defense against illegal aggression.

He stood by the Iraqi right to defense, but sits there criticising foreign leaders for standing by Ukraine and pretends not to understand it.

Staggering hypocrisy and blindness to his own indoctrinated world views.

Most posters here who support Putin here don't do so because they support Putin directly, but because because they, like Putin, blame the West for everything. Beyond normal or valid criticism. Far beyond.