Tag: ukraine

On March 16, The New York Times reported that “Ukrainian forces have pulled almost entirely out of the Kursk region of Russia.” After seven months, one Ukrainian soldier told the BBC, “Everything is finished in the Kursk region.”

Back on August 6, 2024, the Ukrainian armed forces surprised both Russia and Western analysts with a lightning advance across the Russian border into 500 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region. Although the offensive caught the Russian military by surprise – and the area had been left relatively undefended – the territory concerned contained little of strategic significance.

If the offensive achieved anything straight away, it was to cause some embarrassment for the Russian government that Ukrainian forces could take pre-2022 Russian territory. At the same time, it certainly provided some short-term propaganda benefit at home and in the West: a small morale boost to Ukrainian military and its wider population that was no doubt getting used to bleak news from the frontline after the failure of Ukraine’s much vaunted summer 2023 counteroffensive.

Like in so many battles in this war, and like in so many battles in Russian and Soviet history, the Russian armed forces accommodated to changing circumstances. As in the war as a whole, after a seemingly reckless – or in this case careless – initial phase, they started to introduce more resources, set realistic expectations for success, became more methodical in their approach and introduced innovative new weapons and appropriate tactics to best utilize them.

Back in August 2024, there may also have been a deliberate decision of the Russian military command to push the Ukrainian troops out of Kursk in slow motion because their prolonged presence there kept the best trained and best equipped Ukrainian troops off the battlefield that really mattered in eastern Ukraine. The decision to accelerate the operation and push them out very recently was no doubt motivated by the prospect of seemingly inevitable ceasefire negotiations driven by the U.S. Trump administration.

The final stages of Ukraine’s Kursk offensive certainly did not go well for Ukraine. Only days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the Ukrainian troops were “completely isolated and under complete fire control.” He also suggested that getting out was increasingly “impossible.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that Putin was “lying.” Ukraine’s military was adamant that “[r]eports of the alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units by the enemy in the Kursk region are false and fabricated by the Russians… There is no threat of encirclement of our units.”

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This suggests that Russia expects a political settlement or at least an armistice within the next six months so it’s now prioritizing the further legitimization of its control over the new regions by finally completing their legal integration into the country at the local administrative level by 10 September.

Putin signed a decree on Thursday obligating all Ukrainians in Russia without valid residence documents to legalize their stay by 10 September. They can do this by either applying for Russian citizenship via the simplified procedure for Ukrainian nationals that entered into force in summer 2022 or for residency by either proving legal employment or enrollment in a Russian education program. Many assumed that this had already happened some time ago, especially in the new regions, yet it’s only just now occurring.

Some Ukrainian nationals’ legally ambiguous status doesn’t mean that the state isn’t aware of who they are and what they’re doing, just that it wasn’t hitherto a priority to clarify this with regard to Russian law, likely due to stereotypically slow bureaucracy and the state’s focus on waging the special operation. With the Ukrainian Conflict drawing to a close due to the nascent Russian–US “New Détente”, it’s now time to wrap up loose ends such as these for further legitimizing Russia’s control over its new regions.

Ukrainian and other foreign nationals must therefore legalize their presence there just as they’d have to do in any other country otherwise it would look like Russia is doubting the legitimacy of its own claims by making an exception for these locals. If Putin didn’t get around to decreeing that this is finally done within less than six months, the timeframe of which suggests approximately how long he expects the peace process to last at max, then that category of residents would literally be above the law.

From there, Ukraine could claim that Russia is “atoning for its guilty conscience of illegally occupying foreign land” by letting the locals over whom the state assumed responsibility “preserve their separate Ukrainian legal status”, thus serving as the pretext for Kiev to meddle in those lands after hostilities end. By mandating that they voluntarily legalize their presence in line with Russian law or be deported, Moscow neutralizes Kiev’s aforesaid claims, thus delegitimizing any post-conflict meddling on that basis.

In other words, this decree is meant to facilitate the incipient peace process by fortifying Russia’s legal claims to the four former Ukrainian regions that unified with it after September’s 2022 referenda, which reaffirms that Russia won’t cede these lands since they’re now being fully treated as integral territories. They were constitutionally considered as such for over two and a half years, but local bureaucracy took a long time to catch up in all legal regards, though that’s finally changing as a result of Putin’s decree.

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On Thursday the European Union scrapped its plans to send 40 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine. The move took place as E.U. leaders met at a summit and was influenced by President Donald Trump’s work toward a ceasefire agreement, despite Thursday being host to a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian nuclear air base.

Named after the E.U.’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, the ‘Kallas plan’ sought to double the union’s military aid to an ambitious 40 billion euros in 2025. It included the purchase of two million artillery rounds for 5 billion euros, an air defense systems, missiles, drones, fighter jets and other lethal and non-lethal equipment valued at 35 billion euros. These ‘gifts’ to Ukraine would have all been delivered by the end of the year.

“…large southern European countries opposed Kallas’ proposal that each member state should contribute ‘their fair share’ relative to GDP. They asked Brussels to find other ways, possibly by incorporating the remaining profits generated by Russia’s frozen assets,” The European Conservative said Friday.

The plan did see significant support from a number of northern E.U. member states however it lacked support from many southern and central member states. France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Slovakia opposed the 40 billion euro amount.

“France, Italy and Spain—boasting the largest European economies after Germany—all gave economic and budgetary reasons for not backing the plan this time. They also called for caution against military escalation and suggested it would be a good idea to see how the ongoing U.S.-led peace process turns out,” The European Conservative said.

The disagreements won out, first with the plan being delayed and then eventually canceled all together. A smaller military aid package will still be delivered to Kiev, however.

“…the latest version of the plan will focus solely on delivering the two million artillery rounds this year, which in itself could prove tricky, given that the E.U. failed spectacularly on its previous pledge of delivering half of that amount in 2023,” The European Conservative said.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in Helsinki that Russia must surrender all territory it gained since 2014.

Of course, this is an impossible request. Russia is winning the war, and it has no desire to relinquish control of Crimea or the Russian-speaking provinces it now controls.

Two months ago, the Trump White House knew that peace would not be possible as long as Zelensky was in charge. The man does not want peace.

Catturd has it right, and the Trump administration knew this weeks ago—no peace in Ukraine until Zelensky is gone.

It’s clear now that President Trump feels more sympathy for the Ukrainian soldiers than this psycho.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely considered one of President Trump’s closest ideological allies among European heads of state, remarked on Thursday—after a contentious meeting with EU leaders in Brussels—that the bloc lacks the financial resources to sustain Ukraine, a nation heavily reliant on both funds and materials, in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

“The EU doesn’t have a single penny left. It has spent all of its money,” Prime Minister Orban said in comments given to the Hungarian YouTube channel Patriota.

“[The EU] talks about wanting to continue arming Ukraine, maintaining the Ukrainian army, and funding the functioning of the Ukrainian state… but can’t find any money in its pockets. I think it’s empty promises,” Orban added.

On the same day—the first day of a European Council summit in Brussels, where the EU’s 27 heads of state gathered to discuss Ukraine, as well as economic, energy, defense, and foreign policy—Orban announced that he had vetoed the European Union’s pro-war consensus on Ukraine and criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky’s approach.

For sensitive proposals, such as those related to foreign or security policy, the European Council—composed of the 27 heads of state in the EU—requires unanimous approval from all member states. This is known as the unanimity rule.

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