Thanx to Israel we have not heard much about Ukraine and in case you are interested they are still fighting and dying.
Is it time for a re-think about the direction this war should take?
Let’s look at what has happened while you were busy writing glowing stuff about Israel…..
Ukraine’s top general, Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted that the war with Russia was at a stalemate. In December, Republicans in the US House of Representatives torpedoed the Biden administration’s request for billions in new military assistance to Ukraine. At the European Union, Hungary vetoed desperately needed monetary assistance. President Biden’s mantra that the allies would support Ukraine “as long as it takes” became a pledge to support the country “as long as we can.” From Europe, a stalwart Ukraine supporter, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis reported that “apparently as long as it takes means as long as we can agree.” Clearly, the time of magical thinking is over.Ukraine’s startling early success in repelling the Russian attempt to take Kiev produced widespread euphoria. Russia’s military was exposed as incompetent and bumbling. The US mobilized its allies to provide arms and support and impose harsh sanctions on Putin. NATO was galvanized and expanded. Putin would be handed a defeat without NATO troop involvement. As the noxious Lindsay Graham put it, “Russians are dying” as Ukrainians fight “to the last person,” so aid to Ukraine is “the best money we’ve ever spent.” Sanctions would isolate and bankrupt Russia. China, Iran, North Korea and other adversaries would learn that aggression doesn’t pay. Putin might even be deposed and hauled before the International Criminal Court. In little more than a year, the US alone rushed $75 billion in largely military aid to Ukraine, a sum nearly as great as the entire annual Russian military budget.(the nation)
The US and its European allies are quietly shifting their strategy in Ukraine from supporting Kyiv’s unrealistic goal of driving Russian forces out to encouraging a defensive posture with future negotiations in mind, POLITICO reported on Wednesday, citing US and European officials.
The US and its close allies have discouraged peace talks throughout the conflict, including in March and April of 2022, when a peace deal was on the table that would have left Ukraine territorially intact in exchange for the country’s neutrality, something that was recently confirmed by Ukraine’s lead negotiator.
Instead of pushing for peace, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukraine to keep fighting, and the US declared one of its war goals was to “weaken” Russia. Now, Moscow has made it clear any future peace deal must recognize the territory it has annexed as Russian. The New York Times reported on December 23 that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been signaling through diplomatic channels that he is open to a ceasefire that freezes the fighting along the current lines.
The POLITICO report said that US and European officials are discussing deploying Ukrainian forces in a defensive posture instead of continuing the failed counteroffensive.
The shift in strategy comes as both the US and Europe are struggling to come up with more funding for the proxy war. Part of the Biden administration’s long-term strategy is to help build up Ukraine’s own military-industrial complex so the country is not so reliant on foreign aid.
The Biden administration has not publicly outlined its shift in strategy, but there are signs that the US is thinking about winding down the proxy war. A mantra commonly repeated by US and NATO officials was that they would support Ukraine against Russia for “as long as it takes.” But when President Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky earlier this month, he said the US would continue supplying Ukraine with weapons for “as long as we can.”
For his part, Zelensky still maintains his war aim is to drive Russian forces out of all the Ukrainian territory that’s been captured. Time Magazine recently spoke with an aide to Zelensky who said the Ukrainian leader “deludes himself” into thinking Ukraine can win. “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that,” the aide said.
(antiwar.com)
All that is needed now is a network of trenches on both sides and we can have a replay of World War One.
Anyone that knows history will tell how moronic that war was on so many levels.
The US just cannot come up with alternatives that will save the country of Ukraine and find a peaceful solution.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
In order to have peace Ukraine should “negotiate” away to Russia all the Ukranian territory the Russians now occupy ? Why should they negotiate anything? Giving up territory is not a settlement but a capitulation and an invitation to be completely overrun and no longer a nation. If this was done, however, does anyone believe Putin will be satisfied ? What amount of their country should they give Russia to stop the war (allegedly)? 1/4 ? 1/3 ? 1/2 ? Putin says he must have it all for the security of Russia and to counteract NATO aggression. Who wants to invade Russia ? Nobody is interested in invading Russia because the country is a huge disaster having been reduced to a gas station with missiles due to its domestic mismanagement and has vast water and land areas seriously contaminated with industrial waste and spent radioactive danger. The Mafia of Russia is a well entrenced extra branch of government extorting money from all entities and so powerful the people have had to accept it as a sort of extra “tax”. Nobody wants to invade Russia. Even the Russian government itself must bribe them to get anything done.
The area you are talking about is mostly ethnic Russian so even if there is a peaceful conclusion to the fighting this region will forever be in contention. chuq
Putin also says Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are also primarily ethnic Russians too just as he used that to invade Crimea. Putin has declared he’s invading to protect these ethnic Russians but I can find no reports of their past discontent and they certainly are freer in Ukraine than Russia and have found no reports of these “ethnic” Russians fighting Ukraine in this war. Putin has declared he needs Ukraine as a buffer from NATO invasion. Putin has declared his intention to restore Soviet Union style geographic borders of Iron Curtain. Putin’s intent is to destabilize and destroy NATO but Norway, Sweden and Finland have become NATO allies. Putin does not care if he incinerates and levels entire Ukraine. He wants that for energy pipelines to Western Europe. I submit the contention lies solely with Putin not Ukranian Russians. Mere geographic Eastern Ukraine will end when Putin is gone. Putin also desires to completely encircle Black Sea to control its underwater oil wealth. Will the rest of land that borders Black Sea also be composed of ethnic Russians? Putin claims there is no history of Ukraine as a nation until recently so the whole country is part of Russia in the first place. If it was part of Russia why did Stalin kill millions of his Rusian countrymen of Ukraine by WW II Era starvation?
The Baltics are NATO so Putin can whine and moan they are going nowhere…..if one looks at the history of Russia you could understand their paranoia about invasion. chuq
Russia is also running out of troops. Tens of thousands of military age men have left the country for sanctuary in former Soviet republics like Georgia. And now I have seen BBC reports that Russia is recruiting men from Nepal (where the UK recruits for the Gurkhas) to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine for money, with the promise of Russian citizenship and a job if they survive the war.
Zelenky was made a lot of false promises, and it seems to me that he always expected NATO to actually fight on his side at some stage. That didn’t happen of course.
Best wishes, Pete.
A good reason for Russia and Ukraine to start thinking an end to this insanity. chuq
You cannot negotiate with Putin and win any kind of advantage for anybody else besides Putin…which means total capitulation…and I would not settle for capitulation if it were me either …
Then the battle will continue until there is nothing left for either side to want. chuq
Exactly.
And that is what is wanted….then we can pay for that too….love their plans. chuq
We pay for everything.
In that lies the problem for me chuq
It is not a “Problem” for me but it is a pain in the ass sometimes.
I do understand Russia’s paranoia after WW I and WW II destruction and death. If I was Russian I would not allow that to happen ever again . But is that legitimate in today’s world ? US doesn’t care about invading Russia. We care about the football game and the Bar-B-Q.
Don’t forget TikTok that seems to be the most important thing right now. chuq
I don’t follow it and know very little about it except it collects and stores info on users and is designed to present all news with a pro-China slant.
I do not follow either….in fact I use very little social media. have a good day chuq