Tag: ukraine

How Biden Botched the Chance To End the War in Ukraine

As President Donald Trump attempts to engage Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine, supporters of the proxy war in Washington, Europe, and Ukraine claim that President Vladimir Putin is an evil dictator who cannot be trusted. The implication is that talking with the Kremlin is equivalent to surrender for Kiev because Putin wants all of Ukraine, and will use any pause in fighting to gear up for the next invasion.

However, history disproves that assertion. For Moscow, the war was never about seizing Ukrainian territory or attempting to reconstitute the USSR, but pushing back on NATO expansion after the bloc threatened to add Kiev as a member.

Before the invasion and in the early months of the war, Putin made serious offers to both Washington and Kiev to allow eastern and southern Ukraine to remain under Kiev’s control if the country agreed not to join NATO.

The Joe Biden administration outright refused to negotiate on those terms, even if they were acceptable to Kiev. Preventing those talks from occurring first provoked the Russian invasion, then prevented it from ending within a few months.

Keep reading

Europe faces ‘nightmare scenario’ on Ukraine, as diplomat says countries must pay for defense ‘every day until Trump is dead’

European leaders are finally waking up to the “nightmare scenario” that they face on the Ukraine war — and realizing that they now have to foot the bill for their own defense thanks to President Trump’s “America First” policies, diplomats said.

After years of slacking off on defense spending, Europe now needs to rearm massively “until Trump is dead,” a European diplomat was quoted as telling Politico.

“Defense spending is becoming a fixed cost. We have switched off the sun and now we need to pay every day for the heating. Every day you need to pay for ammunition, at least for several years, until Trump is dead,” the anonymous diplomat said.

The dire assessment comes as European leaders are set to meet Thursday for a summit on the Ukraine war with the hopes of coming up with an agreement that will give them some say in a peace deal.

“The nightmare scenario is that the US announces a deal soon that accepts most of Russia’s demands and then tells Ukraine and Europe to take it or leave it,” Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told Politico.

During his election campaign earlier this year, Germany’s Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz told voters that the continent is “five seconds to midnight” when it comes to its own defense. French President Emmanuel Macron said Europeans need “an incredible awakening.”

Macron spoke out in opposition to Trump’s ceasefire negotiations on Ukraine and also warned that Europe’s relationship with the US had changed, in a drastic ramping up of tensions.

Peace “cannot be achieved at any cost, under Russian dictates, or through Ukraine’s capitulation,” he told his nation in a TV address on Wednesday.

“We have to be ready if the US is no longer by our side,” he added.

Keep reading

Europe fails to reach deal on Ukraine, rearmament after emergency talks end without agreement

Europe remains divided on how to support Ukraine and shore up its defenses in the face of Russian aggression, as emergency summit talks ended without a consensus on Thursday.

A statement on Ukraine was signed by all but one of the 27 EU members with a lone country — believed to be Hungary — holding out.

As leaders pledged to ramp up defense spending, the main European powers couldn’t agree on what exactly that support for Ukraine might look like and how Europe should adapt to what many see as a new world order under President Trump.

“Europe is weak without the United States,” Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told reporters on Thursday. He added that he hoped “the US remains committed to our collective security, which is based on shared values.”

However, there was a major point of contention between the European nations over the seizure of some $227 billion in frozen Russian central bank reserves that have been held in Europe’s financial system since the start of the Ukraine war.

Keep reading

Top Trump Admin. Officials Allegedly Hold Secret Talks With Zelensky’s Possible Replacements

On Thursday Politico claimed that members of President Donald Trump’s ‘entourage’ have begun talks with rivals of Ukrainian Dictator Vladimir Zelensky in the hopes of replacing the wartime ruler with someone new in an election.

“Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job,” Politico said Thursday.

The discussions revolved around the possibility of having Ukraine hold elections soon, something the country’s dictator has repeatedly refused to do.

“The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S. Republican foreign policy expert,” Politico said Thursday.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick denied the President was “weighing into Ukrainian politics,” clarifying that all Trump wants is a partner for peace.

In February Trump called Zelensky a dictator without elections, perhaps signaling he wants Ukraine to hold elections. On Monday Trump suggested that Zelensky won’t be around for very long if he refused to make a deal with Russia.

Keep reading

British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles are useless in Ukraine now President Trump has blocked US intelligence from being shared with allies

Britain’s long-range Storm Shadow missiles are feared to have been rendered useless in Ukraine after President Donald Trump blocked US intelligence from being shared with allies.

In a huge blow to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s invasion, Trump froze American military aid to Kyiv before suspending intelligence sharing with President Volodymr Zelensky’s war-torn country.

The UK, which has vowed to stand by Ukraine throughout the three-year war, is among the countries who have been banned from sharing Washington intelligence with Kyiv.

It comes amid an ongoing transatlantic rift after Trump and Zelensky dramatically clashed in a heated Oval Office row last week, sparking a wave of support for Ukraine from European allies including Britain.

MailOnline revealed on Tuesday that UK intelligence agencies and military outlets have received an order expressly forbidding the sharing of US-generated intelligence, previously known as ‘Rel UKR’ – short for Releasable to Ukraine’. 

The impact is likely to have major ramifications as British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, a critical asset used inside Russia’s Kursk region by Ukraine, require US data to hit their targets. MailOnline has contacted the MoD for comment.

Storm Shadow missiles, jointly developed by the UK and France who call it Scalp, are precision-guided munitions used for deep-strike missions as they can hit targets up to 250km (155miles) away. 

The effective missiles, believed to cost roughly £2million each, allow Ukraine to penetrate hardened bunkers and ammunition stores and down critical infrastructure, command centres and logistics hubs at huge ranges.

Keep reading

Romania – The first “post-election” democracy?

In December 2024, a Romanian court cancelled the second round of the planned Presidential election and annulled the completed first round, citing (totally theoretical) “Russian interference”.

This caused massive protests in Romania, as you can imagine. The first round had been won by right winger Călin Georgescu following a social media-based campaign, and he was predicted to quite easily win the second round as well.

The Romanian opposition – denied a likely victory – took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Then, earlier today, the ECHR threw the case out without even hearing it. Apparently, the Romanian courts were perfectly within their rights to simply indefinitely postpone their election on the basis of unproven allegations, and all those people who already voted and wanted to vote again can just go to hell.

This is the ECHR, which lectures the world on rights and democratic norms on the regular.

And everyone is apparently just fine with it. It’s crazy.

Imagine the outrage in the media if Putin or Trump had suddenly cancelled elections they looked like losing because “they weren’t going to be fair”.

Anyway, now Călin Georgescu has been arrested, and his supporters are taking to the streets, while  the Romanian government is set to crack down on “conspiracy theories” and other “misinformation”.

This anti-election narrative is growing outside of Romania too.

Ukraine, of course, hasn’t had any elections in years either. They also outlawed certain political parties, religions and television channels. Meanwhile, laundering billions of dollars/pounds/euros through the Ukrainian government to boost the bottom line of arms manufacturers is considered “defending democracy”.

Last month, former EU chairman Thierry Breton remarked that they had already had to cancel the Romanian elections, and might have to do the same in Germany. (As it happens the “right side” won in Germany, so I guess that election was fair).

To a smaller extent, nine local elections across the UK have been “postponed” for at least a year for unknown reasons.

Keep reading

US Planes Carrying Arms To Ukraine Were Turned Around Midflight

After President Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Ukraine’s Zelensky of being ‘ungrateful’ amid last Friday’s explosive row in front of media cameras in the Oval Office, the White House on Monday announced the suspension of military aid to Ukraine. 

But it was initially unclear precisely when the pause in arms deliveries would take effect, or whether Trump was merely previewing a future suspension. New information revealed in fresh reports sheds more light on the matter, and clearly Trump means business. It was immediate upon the announcement.

“US weapons deliveries to Ukraine came to an abrupt halt on Monday evening after President Donald Trump ordered a pause on all aid to the war-torn country, the Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday,” USA Today reports, based on an admin official.

Inbound shipments on military and transport plans literally turned around midflight, per the report:

“After the order was given, all U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine came to a stop, as of 6 p.m. on Monday evening, according to a defense official. Planes carrying supplies en route to Ukraine would have had to turn around, the official said.“

“It was unclear, as of Tuesday, whether Ukraine’s direct contracts with U.S. weapons manufacturers, procured through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, would also be impacted,” USA Today continues. “As of mid-December, $1.7 billion out of the $21.2 billion fund had not been used.”

Keep reading

Meloni destroys the warlike dreams of the European left! Italy says ‘No’ to sending troops to Ukraine and leaves France and the UK on the ropes.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s firm and resolute prime minister, has shaken the European negotiating tables with her categorical refusal to send Italian troops to Ukraine, exposing the interventionist obsessions of the European left, embodied by France and the United Kingdom.

Meloni made it clear in London, during a summit on Ukraine, that Italy prioritizes diplomacy over unbridled militarism.

Meloni’s decision is not a whim, but a strategic stance reflecting Italy’s caution toward a conflict that could escalate and further destabilize Europe.

Keep reading

Something is smelling really bad among the peace brokers of Ukraine

You don’t have to be a genius to work out that if you exclude Russia and just look at the three groups who are vying for war, or whining for peace, that no one is being very honest about their intentions. Previously, I tackled head on how Trump is not being very honest when he talks of peace as he has the means to enforce it at the drop of a hat, but chooses to drag his feet and hold out for deals. This is not simply Trump Basic who we all know well – where’s the deal? – but also Trump playing out a longer game with Russia, looking at where the sweet spot could be. Trump’s tour de force is always to create a crisis and then position himself to be the only person on the planet who is capable or willing to resolve it. His personality is always paramount to everything.

And so the stunt in the White House needs to be seen in the correct context. Zelensky was not honest in coming to the White House in the first place as it was believed that he was to meet Trump and JD Vance to sign a mineral deal which he agreed to and retracted from signing a number of times leading up to the visit. This became apparent when he met with Trump behind close doors and so the Plan B was to lower Zelensky into a trap and make him look ungrateful, arrogant and entirely impossible to work with. But what’s the real story behind Zelensky’s decision? Again, we see the puppet Zelensky having his strings pulled by others. Is it a coincidence that just days earlier British PM Keir Starmer arrives in the White House where, just a matter of hours earlier he announces in the British parliament that defence spending will be increased, in line with Trump’s demands for European members of NATO? Was it merely that Starmer needed to show some goodwill to Trump even to get the meeting, or was Starmer preparing for choppier waters to come, when Trump would finally hear the rumours? According to some reports, Zelensky has sold all the mineral rights already to the UK, so he was playing a game with Trump all along.

But there are more lies and games to come.

Keep reading

REPORT: Trump To Revoke Legal Status And Possibly Deport Ukrainians Who Fled To US

Rumors are, that those who were in NYC demonstrating against Trump – those faces were filmed, the police and Homeland security are working on deportations of those Ukrainians, reported a source.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.

The move, expected as soon as April, reported Reuters.

The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was underway before Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week. It is part of a broader Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the U.S. under temporary humanitarian parole programs launched under the Biden administration, the sources said.

The administration plans to revoke parole for about 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans as soon as this month, the Trump official and one of the sources familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. 

Keep reading