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looks like Ireland . The two ‘establishment’ parties put back in power. And SF increased its vote - over the last no of years to a significant level but it has hit a ceiling recently and probably stuck at the t for the foreseeable future
not sending the missile tho with these
The us deal with Ukraine on minerals could well be the handy out for Russia, well planned I think, us and Ukraine mining personnel together, deal done .
Trump will save Russia and Putins ass.
50% of Russia’s ammunition now comes from supplies from the DPRK, — Budanov
Gonna get messy when they burn through the NK stockpiles although South Korea will be glad to see it reduced. Budanov reckon Russia needs to get out of this war by 2026.
And good news from Germany. Merz better live up to his promises for Ukraine! I want to see 4 or 5 Taurus smash into the Kerch bridge.
If Zelensky was corrupt, a grifter, on the make etc, wouldn't he nearly favour a 'peace deal' with the billionaires Trump and Putin? The bots go through all sorts of mental contortions to justify their stance.
The bots are now actively saying zelensky has pocketed enough cash to retire to one his many mansions! 🙄
Sorry I posted this in the immigration thread which I guess it's kinda relevant to but I meant to put it here:
Germany election exit poll suggests the conservatives have crushed the current government with nearly 30% of the votes. This should be good for Ukraine if they practice what they preached regarding military aid.
The AFD doubled their vote to 20% who'd likely be more pro Russia but won't be in government. Although after doubling their vote expect whatever government that forms to crack down on immigration from countries where it's not really working out. This should stabilise Germany somewhat and stop them playing into Russia's propaganda policy of weaponizing immigration.
I'm feeling positive about this result so far but we'll know more tomorrow.
Indeed, a load of nonsense from them about Zelensky being a 'dictator', a 'Nazi', 'extremely corrupt' etc. It's all about giving their hero Putin whatever he wants.
Yep, their goal is to get elections going so they can interfere and spread FUD, expect lots of new accounts talking about how the putin loving candidates are a "breath of fresh air" while it's raining cats and dogs in Moscow.
Putin and the legions of Putin bots on social media want Zelensky out of the way to be replaced in Ukraine by a pro-Kremlin stooge. For them, it's all about 'making Russia great again'.
trump and putin need to paint Zelensky this way to justify their own approaches and materialise an enemy to rail against. For putin (again, how the russian lovers on here don't see themselves as complete hypocrites when it comes to a democratically elected politician is amazing) it's used as an excuse to cleanse Ukraine, for trump its because he's very very stupid and easy to manipulate.
I would tend to agree. I'd love to know what the hold is…
I think Ukraine would be happy if they can secure a pathway to EU membership. NATO would be a bonus.
Donkeys, crutches and the odd camel.
I think it puts to bed the idea that Zelensky is grifting and feeding of the dead bodies of millions, hoping to keep the war going.
Trump administration is refusing to say russia started the war, just like they refused to say that trump lost the 2020 election…….bizarre and insidious
A short list here.
'
Here are 10 steps European leaders can take now:
1. They should include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in summits like the one in Paris; appearances matter in international relations. They should convene another summit next week in Kyiv, where they will mark the third anniversary of the war, in order to show that Zelensky leads one of Europe’s major nations, has a place at the top table, and will not be abandoned.
2. European governments should immediately seize the $150 billion in frozen Russian assets and give them to Ukraine, as international law allows. The money can be put to good use and buy more weapons and ammunition.
3. All major European Union countries should immediately increase defense spending to 3 percent of GDP, if they haven’t already, and plan to raise it to 5 percent within three years. To facilitate this, they should establish a proposed European rearmament bank.
4. The United Kingdom and France should increase nuclear weapons production. They have the technology but cannot afford to grow their arsenals, so other large countries should help pay. Some of the effort should be devoted to substrategic weapons, and a way needs to be found for front-line states to take part in nuclear deterrence.
5. Sweden should send Ukraine its 100 or so Gripen fighter jets, whose capabilities and maintenance requirements make them ideal for Ukraine. Sweden should also divert Hungary’s order for planes to backfill its own fleet—and to demonstrate to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that changing sides has consequences. In the meantime, Britain and others should help defend Swedish airspace.
6. Norway should fund Ukraine’s defense by using the vast oil and gas windfall earned by its national fund due to higher prices caused by the war. Maximizing current European 155mm artillery production would be a good use for some of this money. Spare capacity exists in the Nordic countries and Germany.
7. The U.K. should reopen an artillery shell production plant. Its failure to do so since 2022 is sheer carelessness.
8. A coalition of the willing should impose secondary sanctions on companies that do business with Russia’s intermediaries. A coalition format strips Hungary and Slovakia of their veto power and allows Japan and others to be included.
9. Expand the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation, of which the U.K. and several EU countries are already members, to centralize European procurement of strategic enablers that are too expensive for any one country to develop and purchase by itself, such as air defense, strategic airlift, command and control, and other essential capabilities.
10. Begin contingency planning—if it hasn’t already—for how European forces would fight Russia without the United States. This scenario has implications for doctrine, inter-services coordination, command and control, and logistics, all of which will need to be worked out.
Speed is of the essence. Flinching now would risk another continental European war.'
From a technical point of view you are right enough but the west let Ukraine down. Them begging for weapons for months on end before they arrived was chronic. If not legally, they were morally let down. At any rate, my post about the 500bn is not meant literally, it is just meant to underline this moral point and the fact that the west still has moral obligations to Ukraine.
This is a good start if the EU chooses.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/21/russia-urkaine-war-anniversary-trump-putin-deal-peace-zelensky-nato-europe-negotiations/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-gb#garvan-walshe
I think the US and Russia will seek to actively undermine European efforts to create their own defensive alliance. Trump's worldview appears to align with Putin's - large powers having zones of influence based on geographical proximity and/or historical ties.
Putin wants to re-establish Russian control over eastern Europe, and he probably aims to achieve this without firing a shot, rather sending the trolls to ramp up internal divisions and meddling with elections where possible. If he could, he'd do the same thing with the Baltics as with Ukraine - astroturf in some partisans first and only roll the actual Russian army in later.
Zelensky has repeatedly and publicly stated throughout the war that he is tired and wants to retire once war is over, poor fella has unimaginable stress on him
If war finishes and Ukrainians get guarantees from NATO then he will do what he said
If there is elections you can bet someone like Zalushny coming from the millions who served in military will win
The chances of dictator Putin putting in a puppet are slim seeing how Ukrainians has to endure years of Russian rape, murder and looting. Atrocity after attrocities like the pow being discussed above.
Europe had better wake up, make huge investments in its own defence and save not only Ukraine but itself.
It may be feasible for Europe to stop Putin's gallop somewhere down the road if it massively tools up right away but I don't see how Ukraine can be saved if Trump pulls the plug in the near future.
would that be the tide coming on golf carts or hoverboards?
And where do you think the Russian tide will stop? At the borders of Ukraine???
As for Ukraine joining NATO, Trump has effectively rendered NATO useless insofar as it depends on US "guarantees". So Europe had better wake up, make huge investments in its own defence and save not only Ukraine but itself.
I look forward to the day when Trump (or any GOP/MAGA president) gets the same message from Europe as the Russians got from the defenders of Snale Island 3 years ago.
There is a very clear and present security risk for anyone using or any country allowing the use of starlink. Ukraine is in real danger of having critical info passed along to the Russians if they remain using it until the rat decides to shut it down.
Trump doesn't have to be actively aiding Russia: even if he just takes his ball and goes home Europe-backed Ukraine will find it virtually impossible to hold back the Russian tide
Another gruesome video doing the rounds today of Russians executing Ukrainian POW's. Obviously won't post the video, but this guy was one of the poor victims.
Doesn't look likely that Europe will back Ukraine sufficiently to negate America bailing out and unless something happens to Trump we have four years of him to create a lot of trouble for Europe .
There's no reason for Trump or Putin to row back because they're both of the same mind. European leaders can, however, still back Ukraine, but they'd have to be ready for the very real possibility that the Ukraine war could turn into a proxy one between European countries and the US, as Trump's USA would invariably start to back Russia more openly if Ukraine/Europe don't roll over. And Trump would then attempt to tariff the fk out of European countries for revenge.
You can really imagine some fraught conversations at that emergency summit the last day. You're going to have European leaders who think that Trump is a blip that can be rode out vs ones who see the phenomenon as a fundamental pivot in American foreign policy. Europe and the US are too integrated from an economic perspective to cut the strings in a short, sharp way.
