Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

True, a pinkie promise isn't a legally binding obligation.

Countries arguing semantics over whether they were "security guarantees" or "security assurances" depending on what language you read the memorandum in are acting in bad faith and possibly deliberately played on that ambiguity when the memorandum was signed.

It is clear why Ukraine is reluctant to act on such reassurances again.

USA's duplicity in the peace negotians with Russia make it clear it would be unwise to make any concessions based on anything less than deeds delivered and legally binding undertakings.

It also makes negotiations with Iran more difficult as past deeds (or lack of them) has shown it is unwise to depend on others for your security. The best security would seem to be your own big bomb.

Dont forget the 50k+ abductions of Ukranian children, one of the worst recorded genocides in modern history, barely gets a mention.

The ambiguity in and between languages was cynically used to convince Ukraine to agree to signing the Budapest memorandum and give up the nuclear weapons it had while getting less than they believed they were been given.

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

One can see why Ukraine are now reluctant to act on vague promises of support e.g. in the recent USA led 'peace negotions' with Russia.

Asking Ukraine to give up one of its key strategies of targeting Russia's fuel supplies, (which hampers both Russia's war logistics and it's ability to raise funds to continue its war), while offering no alternative is both naïve and shows a lack of appreciation of history.

That's the irony here - TACO (the guy elected on a promise of no more foreign wars before proceedings to send the military into Venezuela, threaten to take Greenland by force, hint that Cuba is next, and joined Israel in going to war with Iran mid-negotiations) will have simply hastened the rush for nations around the world to look at getting their own nuclear deterrent. Russia's allies have found out that they can't count on it for support. And TACO is gleefully threatening to tear up NATO and ditch the USA's traditional allies.

If Ukraine still had its nuclear firepower it wouldn't have been invaded. It gave them up in good faith only to be shafted by Putin and the West. Iran has its nuclear programme and was in the process of negotiations when it was attacked by the US and Israel. It was in the process of further negotiations after that when it was attacked again.

Apparently certain countries shouldn't be allowed to have nuclear weapons on account of their rogue-ness. Strangely enough, the US and Russia aren't among those countries.

What's the lesson here? Might is right. Don't trust the US or Russia. And engage in d**k swinging contests at every opportunity to show how strong you are. Progress? Thanks TACO.

I hope Zelenskyy outlasts TACO in office and gets the chance to gloat on the world stage. He strikes me as one of the few statesmen who would be willing to actually 'speak truth to power' regarding the way in which the US has undermined global security under TACO.

Looks like the €90bn loan is almost over the line… no opposition confirmed today and should be formally passed tomorrow. Will count my chickens when they hatch though.

The Ukrainians and Zelenskyy have had Trump's number for a long time. We need to make sure we get them into the fold on our side because they are formidable operators. It's funny how, from a war which was meant to castrate them, they've grown massively as a nation. It's noticeable how these days Zelenskyy looks every foreign leader in the eye as an equal, not someone out with a begging bowl, but someone who knows how vital his country's success is to Western Europe and who knows just how innovative/ world leading their military/ military industry is. Can't be many nations with the real-world battlefield nous they have.

90BN loan dependant on the pipeline resuming oil... So why would Russia not bomb it again. And they'll make it look like Ukraine did it.

That though occurred to me as well. I guess once the 90bn loan goes through, who cares. "Look Solvakia, Hungary… this is what your friends think of you." I think their leverage will be gone by then. And I'd imagine it would be well telegraphed by Kiev - they've become adept at highlighting false flag operations before they gain traction.

Maybe the EU will supply them with relief measures (undeserved) if Russia strike it again. Even the threat of this might prevent another Russian false flag because in that case they'll get nothing, but with the pipeline fixed they'll get a few billion at least.

There are around 76 storage tanks in this area. I'm assuming when there will be plenty of targets for follow up strikes.

I heard on one of the podcasts I listened to recently he's got something like 20 protecting one of his mansions versus 60 similar systems protecting Moscow.