They don’t believe their own propaganda. It’s right there, in that transcript, what they they think.
"Trump: It’s going to be very hard to do business like this, Volodymyr. "
They think it’s business. They don’t care about sovereignty, so why would anyone else?
Believe them when they tell you what they are.
After the meeting all major pro Ukrainian world leaders put out messages of support. Hes personally tweeted thank you to each one
The first thing he said in the oval office at the meeting was thank you.
Did they actually let him talk that much? From what I was watching they didn’t - but could have been edited a bit I guess
I read the transcript and they cut Zelesnkyy off many times.
My favourite was when Zelensky said, words to the effect of, we should not be shouting and Trump cut him off to say, words to the effect of, WE ARE NOT SHOUTING!
“Mr Trump, you are increasing the volume of your voice, but not the logic of your argument”.
Beautiful.
In his second language in a high pressure highly visible situation.
Ukraine recently took a note out of Israel’s book. They killed about 5 Russian UAV operators after infiltrating VR goggles rigged to explode.
The front is looking really interesting around Pokrovsk and Toretsk. Reports that Russian troops are in the city centre of Toretsk, however they risk being cut off from retreat after Ukrainian troops counter attached and almost encircled them. Localised counter attacks in Pokrovsk have also reportedly been successful, pushing troops back south.
Pokrovsk looks to be a huge battle in the making. It was initially a major supply point for a big portion of the front and Russia wanted to take it to open up a large portion of land. The problem is that all that huge major strategic points become less important due to the slow nature of the Russian advance. If Pokrovsk was taken a year ago, there would have been a huge capitulation of the area and allowed a Russian spearhead to form and devastate Ukrainian territory. They’ve now withdrawn all the important stuff and left it as a fortress town, without the strategic value, while reinforcing defences to the East.
The US has now officially stopped sharing all intelligence on Russian activity with Ukraine and instructed the UK to not share anything from the US. It’s just amazing, considering they’re not stopping intelligence gathering in the area. It’s got nothing to do with money at this stage as they will still have assets in the area.
At this stage, they’re saying it’ll be 3 months before Ukraine will start to properly feel the freeze in US supplies, unless Europe steps up. Europe though, has the problem that any time NATO or the EU try to pass spending resolutions, they have Slovakia and Hungary that veto the resolutions. Not sure what they’ll do to pass this as they want to pass a 800 billion Euro spending bill to invest in defence infrastructure through the EU.
What’s the ramifications of individual European nations acting independently of NATO or the EU?
I dare say the money is currently sitting in EU coffers, so it just means it’ll cost extra for individual members to do so. They’re already doing it anyway, the Baltics are running around buying shells in bulk on behalf of Ukraine, Czech are repairing Ukrainian armour etc.
In the most negative news for a while, North Korean troops broke through Ukrainian lines in Kursk, in the Southern portion of the salient. Ukraine managed to stabilise the front and the Korean troops are now in a bit of a precarious position, sitting in a very narrow and very long salient with troops on three sides. No real risk to Ukrainian forces on being cut off though.
Saw a post from Ukrainian troops on the front though. They’re alluding to suggestions that, when Starlink is switched on in Kursk, their positions are almost immediately hit by Russian drones and shelling. Nothing widespread at the moment and could just mean the Russians have figured out how to home into Starlink signals. One of the worst suggestions, is Musk potentially feeding Ukrainian positions to Russia using the system. Nothing obviously confirmed, but there’s been a lot of suggestions that Starlink will stop supplying internet on the front. A European alternative is already entering the market to start replacing systems in any case.
Poland has now confirmed they will be passing a law to train all military ages males in the country. They currently have the 3rd biggest standing army in Europe, of roughly 200,000 soldiers. It will be very similar to the Swiss model and will mean all males will be classed as reserves. They’re also planning on increasing their military to 500,000 standing troops and are exploring nuclear armament as a way to protect themselves against Russian aggression.
Further to the above point, Finland and Estonia are exploring similar options and all three countries are exploring whether they should withdraw from the Dublin Convention and Ottawa Convention. They are treaties on the banning of anti-personnel land mines and cluster munitions.
Apart from that, the two biggest battle fields look to be in Toretsk and Pokrovsk. Russian troops are under threat of being surround in the city centre of Toretsk and Ukraine still reporting small, localized gains around Pokrovsk, with Russian attacks looking to have stalled. One of the main arteries supplying Russian troops in Pokrovsk is so covered in destroyed vehicles that Russian troops are forced to use motorcycles, donkeys and foot movement, to supply the frontline.
I don’t think there’s any doubt the US have pivoted from just hindering Ukraine to actively assisting Russia.
No one has 800 billion dollars sitting around. They’ll be borrowing that ultimately from American banks. When a global entity like Goldman Sachs writes a quiet little article about it then you know where this money is coming from.
I also don’t think there’s much doubt that there’s going to be a major European war in the next 2-3 years if Trump and Co. Keep on the path they’re heading down.
Sounds like very much more than a few countries are getting to the stage of “Well fuck it, if the U.S. and NATO aren’t going to do it, we’ll have to”.
When do we start referring to US & Russia as axis powers?
Where did you get the $800 billion figure? Even then, according to that article, Germany itself is going to invest $500 billion in Defense infrastructure. Poland’s spend in 2023 on defense was bit over $30 billion and that’s planned to heavily increase of the next 5 years. The biggest issue at the moment, and something that Europe has learnt from Ukraine, is the need to increase production of shells and ammunition. The West though that the WW1 and WW2 battlefields were done for, but Russia has made it clear artillery is still going to dominate in the near future
Personally think this is the major war.
While I’m far from a fan of Trump and his methods, he’s actually having potential success here on two fronts.
If Trump turns the pressure back onto Russia then one might be able to force both parties to a settlement.
Similarly, if an asteroid falls from the heavens into the Kremlin, the current Russian leadership may be decapitated and the stance on the war may change depending on the successor.
What single sign or act have we seen from Trump, over a period of years now, that he would ever do anything remotely like this? Why do people do this with this guy?