Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Sounds like a done deal. 22 troublesome aircraft might not sound great, but Ukraine's existing helicopters are responsible for downing a lot of Shaheds, often downing multiple per flight, so if 15 Tigers can be kept in the air that's possibly at least another 60 shaheds downed per attack. From Aug '24 to Aug '25, Ukrainian helicopters downed 3,200 Shaheds and other drones.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/04/trump-ukraine-peace-envoys-prepare-meet-kyiv-official

I really don’t understand. I thought the war would be over in 24 hours if Trump was president.

#feelingletdown

The path to peace isn’t unclear. He chooses for it to be unclear.

So someone tried to crash/hinder Zelenskyy's plane when it was arriving into Dublin!!! but as the plane was a few minutes early, the drones were 'late'

FOUR UNIDENTIFIED MILITARY-STYLE drones breached a no-fly zone and flew towards the flight path of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plane at Dublin Airport late on Monday night, The Journal has learned.

The plane landed, slightly ahead of schedule, just moments before the incident happened at about 11pm. The drones reached the location where Zelenskyy’s plane was expected to be at the exact moment it had been due to pass.

The drones then orbited above an Irish Navy vessel that had secretly been deployed in the Irish Sea for the Zelenskyy visit. 

Sources have said that the drones took off from the north-east of Dublin, possibly near Howth, and flew for up to two hours. Gardaí are investigating whether the drones took off from land or from an undetected ship. 

https://www.thejournal.ie/drones-dublin-ireland-hybrid-warfare-russia-6893104-Dec2025/?utm_source=thejournal&utm_content=top-stories

It is understood that the drones missed the approach of the Ukrainian leader’s plane and then turned their attention to the LÉ William Butler Yeats, the Irish naval vessel which was secretly deployed off Dublin. The drones operated within the 12 nautical mile limit of Irish-controlled waters.

A decision was made not to shoot down the drones, and there was no ability onboard the naval vessel to disable them. It is understood an Irish Air Corps aircraft was also patrolling at the time but did not get involved.

So this is where we are folks. Ireland. This sh1t is happening in Ireland now. and we can do nothing.

We are sitting ducks!

Fcuking hell, that's not good.

Disgraceful remarks by the Belgian PM. He says the idea of Russian defeat is a complete illusion. Whether you believe that or not, the next part, where it is says it's not even "desirable" because if instability in a nuclear power, is appalling and reminds me of what some western leaders of the 'realist school' were saying about the fall of the USSR. Belgium is blocking the use of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. Most of them are located in Belgium.

Belgium apart from Hungary and Slovakia seem largely on their own on this. Even France and Germany has come around to the idea of securing a €90 bn loan secured on Russian reparations in lieu of the frozen assets.

On the issue of reparations, he says those are paid to the victor. I think in this case it's compensation to victims, not merely the spoils going to the victors.

EU Commission president UVDL has proposed a plan that would get use emergency powers in Article 122 to pass this package by a weighted majority.

I think manufacturing drones for them would be a good idea.

Ukraine is by far the most efficient producer of Drones in Europe, Irish drones only deliver Chicken&Rice curry

Ireland could do with some air defence. So place an order for a few systems but as it's our first time using them, demand they be battle tested 😉

It's also debatable if supplying defensive weapons or weapons for defense would breach our neutrality and questionable if it was in breach of our constitution. It's more a policy issue.

Putin has no intention of a peace deal.

Non-lethal aid frees up money over there for the war which in my book is a good thing.

Holy sh*t. Both surprising and unsurprising at the same. Shows how completely defenseless we are.

How demoralising it must be for the personnel in the Air Corps and Navy to deal with that.

At least there's finally a response to "…sure who's going to attack us".

I can't imagine many EU leaders will feel confident over travelling to Ireland when we take on the Presidency of the Council of the EU next year.

War's getting a bit closer to home.

It means there's Russian agents active in Ireland. Or at least in a boat off the coast.

It's a shame we couldn't track the drones to their source.

He actually speaks truth, but he is deliberately misquoted. There seems to be a concerted effort from some sources to make Belgium the scapegoat.

What he actually said is that those who are convinced Russia will lose are only fooling themselves, not that he doesn't want Russia to lose. And that's a fair point: As it stands Russia keeps feeding their soldiers in the meat-grinder with no end in sight where as Ukraine is struggling to find enough soldiers.

The reason why the talk about the seized assets is increasing is also because Ukraine needs more money fast to keep the country running. The EU however is afraid to admit to their people that this will be expensive if the seized assets can't be used, which they themselves are consequently refusing to do so. This is nothing more than trying to cover up their own failings since 2014.

I said it before: Belgium is happy to use the seized assets to fund Ukraine, but not on it's own. And as posted earlier today the ECB is refusing to help, so it would be Belgium that would be on the hook for whatever happens if Russia decides to take legal action.