Tag: NATO

The “Z” Show Comes To Town

Yesterday the big day for meetings….Ukraine and NATO came to visit with Donny and the Boyz…..Putin is gone (for now) and the other side of the conflict came to have their say….

Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived at the White House for his high-stakes meeting with President Trump. The US president greeted him with a handshake at the White House entrance, and, when asked if he had a message for the Ukrainian people, responded, “We love them,” reports the New York Times.

  • “It’s an honor to have the president of Ukraine with us,” Trump said in opening remarks to reporters. “We had a good meeting just a while ago with the president of Russia,” he said. “Today’s meeting is very important.”
  • Zelensky, for his part, thanked Trump for his personal efforts to end the war.
  • Just before he arrived, Zelensky wrote that the goal was to achieve “a reliable and lasting peace” and to establish a “new security architecture,” reports the BBC.

  • After the Trump-Zelensky meeting ends, Trump will greet European leaders in the State Dining Room, then meet with them and Zelensky, per the Hill. Among those present, per the AP:

    • NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte
    • European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
    • British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
    • French President Emmanuel Macron
    • German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
    • Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni
    • Finnish President Alexander Stubb

Zelensky was given the ultimatum by Donny to wear a suit and tie…..and he relented….

It was a light moment before the most serious of talks: President Trump complimented Volodymyr Zelensky’s dark suit as he greeted him Monday at the White House. “Best I have,” said Zelensky, reports the Wall Street Journal. “I cannot believe it, I love it,” Trump responded. The subject may seem trivial, but “the bonhomie evinced during the exchange suggests that this meeting could go far better than the last one,” per the Journal.

  • Background: Zelensky’s attire had been a source of speculation because he wore a military-style sweatshirt—in homage to his troops—before his last White House visit, the one that ended disastrously. Trump reportedly viewed the lack of formal attire as a sign of disrespect.
  • Another compliment: Brian Glenn, chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, told Zelensky, “You look fabulous in that suit,” and Trump added, “I said the same thing.” At the last meeting, Glenn aggressively questioned Zelensky’s decision to forego a suit.

One very important part of the meeting met…..the suit.

Then the meeting, the very important meeting, took place and all went well(?)

President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky have wrapped up their one-on-one meeting and have moved on to a larger meeting with European leaders. How far things have progressed toward ending the Russia-Ukraine fighting remained unclear, though both leaders sounded optimistic about the next steps.

  • Trump said he planned to call Vladimir Putin immediately after Monday’s meetings had finished, reports the Wall Street Journal, and he seemed confident about arranging a three-way meeting with Putin, himself, and Zelensky. “We’re going to try and work out a tri-lat after that and see if we can get it finished,” he said, per the Washington Post.
  • Zelensky, for his part, said he had a “very good conversation” with Trump about “sensitive matters including security guarantees,” per the BBC.
  • Trump did not answer directly when asked if the US was prepared to send troops to Ukraine as part of any security agreement. “We will give them very good protection, very good security. That’s part of it,” Trump said, per Axios. “We’ll be involved.”
  • Zelensky seemed open to the idea of a three-way meeting, at one point telling reporters that the thorny issue of territorial concessions could be worked out at a face-to-face summit with the Russian leader, per the New York Times. (Putin, to be clear, has yet to agree to any such meeting.) The Times also notes that Zelensky said, “Thank you for the map, by the way,” after his meeting with Trump, suggesting that the idea of land swaps had been broached.
  • Though Trump again said he didn’t think a ceasefire was necessary before a more permanent agreement, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had a different view. “To be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire, the latest from the next meeting on,” he told Trump, per the BBC.

Then Donny moved on to those from NATO…..

  • Next meetings: Zelensky said at a press conference in Lafayette Park after the White House sessions said he’s willing to meet with Putin. He said whether Trump would join them later would depend on the first meeting, per the New York Times. He said no date or location had been set. Putin’s foreign policy aide said his boss and Trump had agreed only to have senior aides conduct direct Russia-Ukraine talks.
  • Europe’s lobbying: French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and other leaders tried to cast their goals as the same as Trump’s, per the Washington Post—suggesting a ceasefire and US security guarantees for Ukraine are supported by Trump. But the president suggested the war can end without a ceasefire, and wouldn’t quite say what he might do to aid Ukraine’s defense in a peace deal. Trump again described Putin, who rejected a ceasefire at the Alaska summit, as eager to stop the fighting. Of a ceasefire, Trump told the Europeans, “As of this moment, it’s not happening.”
  • Security guarantees: The Europeans stressed the need for security guarantees for Ukraine to protect against future aggression and seem to see it as important to their nations, as well. “When we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent,” Macron said, per the AP.
  • Trump’s response: “During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America,” Trump wrote afterward on Truth Social. He also generally described the day’s talks as productive.
  • Territory: Trump had a map of Ukraine displayed on an easel during the meeting showing front lines and combat areas. Zelensky said later to reporters that he later had a long conversation with Trump in which he told him he did not fully agree with the percentage of Ukrainian territory the map showed as under Russian control, per the Times.
  • Doubts: “I am not convinced that President Putin also wants peace,” Macron told reporters after the meeting. “His ultimate goal is to gain as much territory as he can, to weaken Ukraine.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany returned to a stalemated issue: “The next steps ahead are the more complicated ones,” he said. “I can’t imagine the next meeting will take place without a ceasefire.

It is said that the talks were stalled while Donny ran to the nearest phone to call his pal Vlad……what was that about?

All in all the meeting was a typical meeting with Donny….a bunch of lollygagging and little substance.

And once again nothing to help end this conflict…..does any involved really want it to end?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ukraine Comes To Donny

The disastrous meeting between Vlad and Donny was a bust….nothing was accomplished which is pretty much what well figured, and today enter from stage right will be Zelenskyy and NATO notables in tow (my guess is that it is more about continuing the war than looking for a possible solution…..

Volodymyr Zelensky will make his case in person on Monday to President Trump at the White House, and he won’t be alone. So far, the leaders of the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, NATO, and the European Commission have pledged to attend the follow-up meeting to Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin, reports CNN.

  • “The trip serves as an exchange of information with US President Donald Trump following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska,” said the office of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
  • In the meantime, Kiev’s European allies will meet Sunday to discuss ways to secure Ukraine’s security as part of a potential peace agreement. That could involve stationing Western troops in the country: The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump told European leaders Putin has accepted the possibility.
  • After his meeting with Putin, Trump backed off his demand for an immediate ceasefire. Instead, he is now pushing for what he calls a more permanent peace agreement, a move aligned with Moscow’s wishes. Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up its eastern Donbas region, which Zelensky has long called a nonstarter, in exchange for a halt to fighting elsewhere.

This smells like yet another ambush to me….

But that aside is there a solution to the war raging in Ukraine?

There is but NO one will like the answers….

After the summit in Alaska between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough in negotiations, a couple of potential outcomes top the list of likely resolutions to the fighting over Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reports. Ukraine could:

  • Lose land but survive as a secure and sovereign but smaller nation.
  • Lose territory and its sovereignty, returning to life in Moscow’s sphere of influence.

The Journal breaks those possibilities down.

The 20% solution: President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected concessions on territory, and European leaders repeated Saturday that Ukraine’s borders must not be changed through force, per the Guardian. But Zelensky has indicated to other leaders that he’d be willing to negotiate once a ceasefire had locked in the existing front lines. And the idea isn’t universally opposed among his people. Under this scenario, Ukraine would lose about 20% of its land and receive Western help ensuring the lasting security of the remaining 80%—an outcome similar to the one to the Korean War in 1953. Putin seems unlikely to be pleased by this resolution: He’d be shut out of his goal of controlling Ukraine for good, which he has not abandoned. “The Russian viewpoint at the moment is that this war isn’t sustainable, but Ukraine is less sustainable, and by the time economic problems would force an end to the war, Ukraine will have lost,” said Janis Kluge, a Russian economy expert at a Berlin think tank.

Russian control: What worries Ukraine most is the realization that a smaller Ukraine might not be able to resist a third Russian invasion and could end up a Russian protectorate. Putin’s demands from the beginning have gone well beyond land and include shrinking Ukraine’s military, and arsenal, as well as changing its leadership, constitution and government policies on language, history, and national identity. That complete capitulation can only be achieved by outlasting Ukraine in battle. “I don’t see the Ukrainian army collapsing,” said Michael Kofman, a military expert at a Washington-based think tank. “But on a long enough timeline, we could get to a point where, if Ukraine fails to address its problems of force generation and force management, it might not be defeated on the battlefield, but it will grow increasingly exhausted.”

I said few will like this solution/s but how long must the war go on and how many Ukrainians must die?

What to do, what to do?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Ukraine News

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the whole NATO apparatus is not reported as it once was…..so it falls to me to keep the news flowing.

Now Ukraine is saying it is willing to cede some territory to Russia to end this long conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was willing to temporarily cede territory to Russia to bring an end to the war in exchange for NATO protection over Ukraine.

“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky told Sky News. “That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”

Zelensky’s suggestion is almost certainly a non-starter for Russia since the invasion was launched to keep Ukraine out of NATO, but it does reflect a shift in his position. Zelensky previously maintained that his war goals included driving Russia out of all of the territory it has captured since February 2022, as well as Crimea.

In a recent conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed to a speech he made earlier this year that outlines his conditions for peace, which include a Ukrainian withdrawal from all territory Russia has annexed, Ukrainian neutrality, and the lifting of all Western sanctions on Russia.

Ukrainian neutrality was Russia’s main demand during short-lived negotiations that took place in the early days of the invasion. Ukrainian and Russian officials held talks in March and April of 2022, but the negotiations were discouraged by the US and its allies.

In the interview with Sky News, Zelensky said Ukraine wouldn’t agree to a ceasefire without guarantees of NATO protection. “We need [NATO protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back. Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous,” he said.

While Zelensky and Putin’s terms are extremely far apart, the Ukrainian side could be forced to make more concessions if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his campaign promise to end the war and pressures Zelensky to negotiate.

(antiwar.com)

But I thought there was no way Ukraine would cede territory to Russia….if the US had applied pressure 2 years ago along these lines then maybe there would not have been so many deaths on both sides.

Is Zelensky just hedging his bets for 2025?

Recently the US has said that Ukraine should start drafting 18 year olds…..

The White House is pressuring Ukraine to increase the size of its military by lowering the minimum age of conscription from 25 to 18, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

A senior Biden administration official said the outgoing administration wants Ukraine to start drafting 18-year-olds to expand the current pool of fighting-age males. The pressure from the US comes as polling shows the majority of Ukrainians want peace talks with Russia to end the war.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently hinted that the US was pressuring Ukraine to expand conscription, saying Ukraine’s biggest problem in the war was the lack of manpower.

“Our view has been that there’s not one weapon system that makes a difference in this battle. It’s about manpower, and Ukraine needs to do more, in our view, to firm up its lines in terms of the number of forces it has on the front lines,” Sullivan said on PBS News Hour last week.

The Biden administration’s push for Ukraine to draft younger men comes as it is doing everything it can to escalate the proxy war before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20. President Biden is seeking another $24 billion to spend on the conflict even though it’s clear there’s no path to a Ukrainian military victory.

(antiwar.com)

Has Ukraine lost that many young to this war…..or could it be the massive amounts of desertions.

Ukrainian soldiers refusing to report for duty or walking away from their front-line positions are becoming an increasing problem for Kiev. One Ukrainian lawmaker said that there have been as many as 200,000 desertions. 

Ukrainian officials and soldiers told the AP that “Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity.” The report adds, “Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers.”

Soldiers failing to report to their posts are a rapidly worsening problem for Kiev. In 2022, only 9,000 Ukrainians were prosecuted for desertion. That number increased to 24,000 in 2023. Ukrainian government data showed prosecutions skyrocketed to 50,000 during the first nine months of 2024. 

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/as-many-as-200000-ukrainian-soldiers-have-deserted/

But not to worry Biden made sure that Ukraine got another money dump before the end of his term….

The Biden administration on Monday announced a new $725 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes anti-personnel mines, ammunition for the HIMARS rocket systems, and other equipment.

President Biden just recently approved the provision of anti-personnel mines for Ukraine, a step that goes against his own policy meant to limit the use of the indiscriminate weapon. In 2022, Biden re-implemented an Obama-era policy that prohibited the transfer and use of US anti-personnel mines outside of the Korean Peninsula.

Biden’s decision to send the mines has been condemned by arms control groups and many countries that are signatories to a treaty banning the weapon. The mines, which are designed to kill or maim people, have been banned by 164 countries under the Ottawa Treaty. The US and Russia are not signatories, but Ukraine is and has been in violation of the treaty.

(antiwar.com)

Treaty violation?  The US is famous for treaty violations….just ask a Native American.

That is all I have for now but I will continue to report the unreported news as I see it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More From The Front Lines

Ukraine is still going strong and now the Russians are making a bit of progress in the East….there a few stories that we probably will not see about the backroom BS in this war.

Recently $3 billion was sent to Ukraine from the EU…..here is the response….

A Ukrainian official has said that an EU plan to provide Kyiv with up to 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) per year for military aid amounts to “almost nothing” in the context of the war.

EU ambassadors agreed to use profits generated by frozen Russian Central Bank assets to purchase up to $3.2 billion worth of weapons for Ukraine annually, but Ukrainian Justice Minister Denys Maliuska told POLITICO last Thursday that Ukraine needs “hundreds” of billions.

“If we are talking about the needs of Ukraine and the needs of the war, military and non-military, 3 billion euros is actually almost nothing— we need hundreds of billions in order to win the war,” Maliuska said. “It’s a good first step.”

(antiwar.com)

What bullsh*t!

Maybe a thank you but it may not help…..would have been a better response.

The recent success that Russia has had in the East according to Zelensky is the fault of ‘the world’…..

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv oblast on Thursday and blamed the Russian offensive in the region on “the world” for not sending enough weapons.

He referred to the delays in Congress passing a $61 billion Ukraine aid package, which was authorized last month. “Brigades are not totally equipped because of the package, which we waited through for eight months,” he told ABC News.

When asked if what’s happening in Kharkiv is America’s fault, Zelensky replied, “It’s the world’s fault. They gave the opportunity for Putin to occupy. But now the world can help.”

…

While Zelensky blamed the Russian success on weapons shortages, Ukrainian soldiers have said there were no proper fortifications despite intelligence that showed Russia was amassing troops on the border of Kharkiv.

“There was no first line of defense. We saw it. The Russians just walked in. They just walked in, without any mined field,” Denys Yaroslavskyi, a commander of a Ukrainian Special Reconnaissance Unit, said earlier this week. “Either it was an act of negligence, or corruption. It wasn’t a failure. It was a betrayal.”

(antiwar.com)

I am sick of this arrogant tool.  Be thankful for any and all help….he is trying to bully the world into what he wants….he can go suck a mule in my book.

Since Zelensky blames us all for his failures he now thinks that NATO should send in troops ‘for training’…..

Ukrainian officials have asked NATO countries to send troops to Ukraine to help train 150,000 new recruits, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The report said NATO countries are “inching closer” to sending trainers, which would mark a significant escalation and risk direct war with Russia. A small number of NATO special operations forces have been inside Ukraine — 97 as of March 2023 — but an open deployment to train a large number of Ukrainian troops would take things to another level.

The US and NATO had been training Ukrainian troops inside Ukraine before Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Since then, the training has been held in Germany and other parts of Europe, but Kyiv wants to shift it back inside Ukraine so the Ukrainian recruits can be quickly deployed to the frontlines. So far, the US has not agreed to the request, but it appears Washington is considering it.

(antiwar.com)

Okay what happens if NATO troops are attacked in Ukraine?

This sounds like Zelensky is trying to set up a condition that might force NATO into direct conflict with Russia.

In other words Ukraine wants NATO to do their fighting for them.

I say nuts to them…..fight your own goddamn battles!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What’s Next For Ukraine?

I thought I would return to the days of yesteryear and comment on the doings in Ukraine….you remember them right?

They were the ‘popular’ war before the mash-up in Gaza that everyone was thrilled with departing their take on that situation.

Of course most of them were wrong but that’s alright they deserve their say….

Remember the much stated line of “As long as it takes”?  Meaning the war will continue until Russia is brought to its knees.

It turns out that “as long as it takes” may mean little more than 21 months. In fact, for months, the United States has been critical of Ukraine’s strategy and tactics. The German magazine Bild reported last week that Biden was going back on his word, that the U.S. and Germany would both begin to softly pressure Ukraine to go to the negotiating table with Russia. Bild‘s report was hotly denied by the administration, but the truth is that the great blob of respectable foreign-policy opinion that supports the Biden policy in Ukraine is wriggling itself into a new position.

So if the reports are valid what’s next for Ukraine?

As Ukraine’s counteroffensive begins to unravel, it is not clear that the hundreds of thousands of deaths already suffered have purchased any of its goals.

Ukraine is not in NATO, and it has not received any firm assurance that it will ever be. All that has happened is that the fifteen year old promise that Ukraine will some day become a member of NATO has been updated to a promise that Ukraine will “join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met.” Recognizing the ruse, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has bitterly complained that “It’s unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine.”

Ukraine is not whole. It has not pushed Russia off its land or reacquired any significant amount of contested territory. Donbass and Crimea remain firmly in Russia’s control. No Ukrainian advance severed Crimea from the mainland. Indeed, as the New York Times pointed out at the end of September, during this counteroffensive Ukraine actually lost more territory than it gained.

https://original.antiwar.com/Nicolai_Petro/2023/11/16/whats-next-for-ukraine-the-outlines-of-a-peaceful-settlement/

Seriously?  The move now is to negotiate and end to this conflict and yet the same thing could have been accomplished in March of 2022…..

David Arakhamia, a high-ranking member of Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People political party, said that Kyiv could have ended the war with Russia after a month if it agreed not to join NATO. The official said that Moscow was not concerned about other issues, such as “denazification,” but only wanted Kyiv to agree to neutrality.

In an interview with TV channel 1+1, a Ukrainian network, Arakhamia confirmed previous reporting that Moscow and Kyiv had nearly agreed to end the war in March 2022. Still, Ukraine’s Western backers pushed it to try to win the war against Russia. “They really hoped almost to the last moment that they would force us to sign such an agreement so that we would take neutrality,” Arakhamia  said.” It was the most important thing for them. They were prepared to end the war if we agreed to – as Finland once did – neutrality, and committed that we would not join NATO.”

Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian negotiation team, said that other issues, such as the protection of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and the “denazification” of the government in Kyiv, were less important to Moscow. “In fact, [neutrality] was the key point.” He continued, “Everything else was simply rhetoric and political ‘seasoning’ about denazification, the Russian-speaking population and blah-blah-blah.”

Arakhamia explained that while Kyiv’s Western backers did not discourage talks, they advised against accepting a deal. “They actually advised us not to go into ephemeral security guarantees, which could not have been given at that time at all,” he stated during the interview.

The statements in the interview by Arakhamia confirm several reports from other officials – Russian, Turkish, and American – that a deal was offered by the Kremlin in the early days of the war to withdraw Russian forces to the prewar lines in exchange for Kyiv’s vow to never join NATO.

Now, after 20 months of war, Ukraine’s Western backers are discussing Kyiv’s opening dialogue with Moscow. Since the talks in the early months of the conflict, Russia has annexed four regions of Ukraine, suggesting Moscow is likely to demand more territorial concessions than what was once on the table for Kyiv.

(antiwar.com)

Sounds like the US is trying to save money so they can funnel it into the coffers of Israel….at least to me.

On another front….politics….

Looks like Zelensky will have a challenger (possibly two) if and when he allows elections in Ukraine….

Internal polling in Ukraine shows that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could lose a presidential election if he faces off with Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, The Economist reported on Tuesday.

So far, Zaluzhny has not expressed an interest in entering the political fray, but he’s been rumored to be a potential candidate. It’s also been reported that he’s been at odds with Zelensky, a spat that spilled into the public after Zaluzhny called the war against Russia a stalemate and said there would likely be no “deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Zelensky, who is still claiming Ukraine can win, later took a swipe at Zaluzhny, saying Ukrainian generals should stay out of politics. “If a military man decided to do politics, it is his right, then he should enter politics, and then he can’t deal with war,” Zelensky said.

But polling shows the Ukrainian public trusts Zaluzhny more than the country’s political leadership, as Kyiv has been rocked by corruption scandals.

The Economist report reads: “The figures, which date from mid-November, show trust in the president has fallen to a net +32%, less than half that of the still revered General Mr Zaluzhny (+70%). Ukraine’s spychief, Kyrylo Budanov, also has better ratings than the president (+45%).”

Ukraine’s next presidential election is scheduled for March 2024, but Zelensky has ruled out holding one due to the war because Ukraine’s constitution prohibits holding a vote under martial law. Zelensky previously suggested he could hold an election if the West foots the bill but later ruled out the idea.

“I believe that elections are not appropriate at this time,” Zelensky said earlier this month. For now, the Ukrainian public agrees that there shouldn’t be an election. The same polling cited by The Economist said eight out of ten Ukrainians are against holding elections, but things could change as the war drags on with no end or victory in sight.

(antiwar.com)

Zelensky will hang on to the purse strings of Ukraine as long as he can.

NATO says be prepared for bad news….

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday that the alliance must be prepared for bad news about Ukraine and urged support for continuing the proxy war against Russia.

“Wars develop in phases,” Stoltenberg told the German broadcaster ARD. “We have to support Ukraine in both good and bad times. We should also be prepared for bad news.”

Stoltenberg acknowledged Ukraine has been unable to “move the front line” but claimed Ukrainian forces were still achieving “big victories.” He previously argued that Ukraine was having some success because it was inflicting heavy losses on Russia, although Kyiv is currently facing a serious manpower shortage.

(antiwar.com)

This conflict needs to end….for the sake of the Ukrainian people who are doing the majority of the suffering.

I Have Spoken, It Is Written

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Wallet Has Moths

This ought to be good….how many AI comments will this produce?

Things are looking sort of grim for Ukraine….it appears that cash and equipment is running short.

The US is running low, UK is running low and the whole of NATO is running low.

First the US….

The US will run out of money to pay for Ukrainian government salaries and services within the next month if Congress does not authorize more Ukraine aid, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed US and Ukrainian officials.

The US and Ukraine’s other Western backers have been paying the salaries of about 150,000 civil servants in Ukraine. This has been done through a form of US support known as direct budgetary aid that is provided through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank.

According to the Journal, the World Bank has sent $23.4 billion to Ukraine through the program, with $20.2 billion funded by the US and $2 billion from the UK. USAID is expected to provide another $1.15 billion this month, but future disbursements are unclear.

A recent report from 60 Minutes showed how the US economic aid for Ukraine is not just funding the government. The US aid also subsidizes small businesses and helps purchase seeds and fertilizers for Ukrainian farmers. The owner of a knitwear business in Ukraine spoke with 60 Minutes and acknowledged funding for her company was being provided by US taxpayers.

(antiwar.com)

Read the last paragraph closely.

Now for the UK….

The UK has run out of military equipment that it can give to Ukraine, according to a senior British military source speaking to The Telegraph.

“We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford,” the unnamed source told the paper, adding that the UK had a role to play in encouraging other nations to continue arming Ukraine.

“We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition, and we’ve run dry on all that,” the source said.

The UK has been a staunch supporter of the proxy war in Ukraine and has led many escalations in NATO support, including the provision of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of 155 miles, and toxic depleted uranium ammunition for use with British-made Challenger 2 tanks.

The UK’s lack of arms for Ukraine is the latest sign that NATO support for the proxy war is fracturing. Poland recently declared it would no longer provide Ukraine with weapons over a grain spat, Slovakia elected a candidate who campaigned on ending military support for Ukraine, and Congress still has yet to authorize the additional $24 billion in spending on the war that President Biden is seeking.

(antiwar.com)

Then there is NATO’s statement….

The head of NATO’s Military Committee is urging the alliance to increase arms production, warning the “bottom of the barrel” of NATO’s stockpiles is now visible due to the massive amounts of weapons and ammunition that have been shipped to Ukraine.

Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer made the comments on the first day of the Warsaw Security Forum. He said NATO military budgets increased before the Russian invasion but that the Western arms industry did not increase production capacity.

“And that has led to higher prices already before the war. And that actually has (been) exacerbated by the fact that we now give away weapon systems to Ukraine, which is great, and ammunition, but not from full warehouses,” Bauer said, according to TVP World.

“We started to give away from half-full or lower warehouses in Europe and therefore the bottom of the barrel is now visible. And we need the industry to ramp up production at a much higher tempo and we need large volumes,” he added.

Bauer’s comments came after a British military source told The Telegraph that the UK was out of weapons to give to Ukraine. “We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition, and we’ve run dry on all that,” the source said.

(antiwar.com)

I asked are cracks forming?

Now Ukraine is worried about their gravy train….

Ukrainian officials are “freaking out” over the uncertainty about new Ukraine aid being passed through Congress, a Ukrainian member of parliament told POLITICO.

“We are freaking out. For us it is a disaster,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, an MP who chairs the committee on Ukraine’s integration into the EU. “We are interested in getting things sorted out so American democracy can function, and so we can restore the bipartisan consensus on supporting their own national interest by supporting Ukraine.”

Markarova also said there was $1.23 billion left in budgetary aid, which the US provides through the World Bank and pays for Ukrainian government services and salaries, among other things. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the US only has enough budgetary aid to pay for the month of October and that the funds would dry up if Congress doesn’t authorize more aid.

(antiwar.com)

We pay for their government officials?

When will this stupidity stop?

American’s could be getting war weary….

A new poll by Reuters shows only 41% believe Washington should continue to send arms to Kiev. The White House is pushing Congress to pass a $24 billion aid package for Ukraine. However, the assistance package is being held up as the House seeks a new Speaker, causing some in Kiev to panic. 

The two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll found 41% of Americans support sending more arms to Ukraine, while 35% opposed further military assistance. When the same survey was conducted in May, 46% of Americans backed sending arms, while 29% were opposed.

A recent Chicago Council on Global Affairs poll found the country is divided on whether aid to Ukraine has been worth it. 53% responded the billions sent to Ukraine was “worth the cost,” and 45% say it has not been worth the cost. The same survey found 63% of Americans favor sending more weapons to Kiev, although Republican support slipped to 50%. 

Biden’s concern for Ukraine is admirable but where is that damn concern for the people of this country?

Biden also hinted that he may have another way to get the money. “There is another means by which we may be able to find funding, but I’m not going to get into that right now,”

Where is this hidden supply of cash when the country needs it?

Finally the EU has said that with US they cannot carry on….

The EU’s top diplomat on Thursday said the European bloc could not provide Ukraine with enough support without the US amid uncertainty about when Congress might authorize the next tranche of spending on the proxy war.

“Europe cannot fill the gap of the US,” Josep Borrell said after arriving in Spain for a gathering of European leaders, according to POLITICO.

The EU is close to approving a new economic aid package for Ukraine worth 50 billion euros that would cover 2024-2027, although Hungary could further delay the package. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the massive aid package should be approved within the next few months but said US support still remains crucial.

Von der Leyen also said she was “confident” that the US would continue supporting Ukraine but acknowledged she wasn’t sure when new spending would be authorized.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the US has another tranche of economic aid worth over $1 billion to fund the Ukrainian government through the month of October. If a new aid package isn’t authorized by Congress in the next month, the funds will dry up.

(antiwar.com)

This is all so much crap.

Time for these buttwads to stop their infernal macho crap and sit down and hammer out a ceasefire deal so calmer heads can take over.

As I was writing this draft more news has come out…..Biden wants a huge package of spending on Ukraine….

President Biden is considering asking Congress for a massive $100 billion spending package for the Ukraine war, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.

The idea of the huge spending package would be to fund the proxy war through the 2024 election without having to worry about the growing opposition to the policy in Congress, as the majority of the House and the Senate currently still support arming Ukraine.

“The ‘big package’ idea is firmly supported by many throughout the administration,” a source familiar with discussions on the matter told The Telegraph. “Supporters of Ukraine want this to be a one-and-done big bill, and then not have to deal with it until after the next election.”

Defense News recently reported that multiple senators have also proposed passing a massive Ukraine aid package to get through a whole year. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put the price tag at $70 billion.

(antiwar.com)

Sorry but this situation is getting ridiculous….time for more money for Ukraine and Israel is not now.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

NATO Membership Is Expensive

NATO’s newest member is finding out this fact.

Finland became NATO’s newest member today (4 April 2023), upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the United States at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. NATO Allies signed Finland’s Accession Protocol on 5 July 2022, after which all 30 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership.

Finland is learning that it is expensive to belong to the alliance that offers protection under the US nuclear umbrella (what does that actually mean?).

Barely a year after Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland cast aside decades of non-alignment and self-reliance and joined the NATO alliance.
 
That happened at break neck speed, as these matters go, but gaining membership may have been the easy part. Now comes the complicated process of integrating itself into the alliance and its requirement of collective defense — with all of its financial, legal and strategic hurdles.
“Joining NATO is an expensive business, and supporting Ukraine is an expensive business, and there’s no end to that in sight,” said Janne Kuusela, director-general for defense policy at Finland’s Ministry of Defense.
 
Membership in NATO has long been considered a cheap benefit, given the American nuclear umbrella and the principle of collective defense. But NATO also has extensive requirements of its members — not just spending goals for the military, but specific demands from each country for certain capabilities, armaments, troop strengths and infrastructure as defined by the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
 
Achieving that will demand some difficult and costly decisions from the government and military officials as they learn to think strategically outside Finland’s borders and adapt its forces and their capabilities to the alliance’s needs.
 
How long will it be before they, Finland, regret their impatience?
 
Will this decision become a Finnish budget breaker?
 
Was this membership out of fear since Finland has a 800 mile border with Russia in their South?
 
Does Finland have a massive weapons industry that could benefit greatly from this membership?  Or will they depend on another country?
 
Again….just asking.
 
Plus the word has come out that US is low on funds these days…
 

The Pentagon has warned Congress that it’s running out of money to replace stockpiles of weapons that have been sent to Ukraine and has been forced to slow down the replenishment of the US military.

The warning comes after Congress passed a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown that did not include money to continue fueling the proxy war in Ukraine.

According to AP, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord told House and Senate leaders that the US military has $1.6 billion left of the $25.9 billion Congress has authorized to replace weapons poured into Ukraine.

“We have already been forced to slow down the replenishment of our own forces to hedge against an uncertain funding future,” McCord said in a letter to congressional leaders. “Failure to replenish our military services on a timely basis could harm our military’s readiness.”

McCord said the Pentagon is completely out of funds for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the administration to purchase weapons for Ukraine and is meant as more long-term support. He said without new funding for the war soon, the Pentagon will be forced to restrict the types of arms being sent to Ukraine that are “critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a winter offensive.”

(antiwar.com)

Not to worry they, Congress, will find the cash for Ukraine….just not for hungry kids in this country.
 
Another minute crack has formed in support for Ukraine…..first it was Poland….then Hungary….and now Slovakia…..

A populist party in Slovakia that opposes providing military assistance to Ukraine has won the country’s elections, a vote that could significantly change the NATO member’s foreign policy and support for the proxy war.

Former Prime Minister Robert Fico, who leads the Slovak Social Democracy party, known as Smer-SD, campaigned on ending military aid to Ukraine. Fico doubled down on his position after winning the vote, saying, “people in Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine.”

Smer-SD won 29.9% of the vote and 42 seats out of the nation’s 150-seat parliament. Since the party did not win a majority of seats in parliament, it needs to form a coalition government. Fico said he was ready to form a government once given the mandate by the president.

Fico’s expected partners are the leftist Hlas party, which is a spin-off of Smer-SD and gained 14.7% of the vote, and the nationalist Slovak National Party, which received 5.6% of the vote. If the three parties join forces, they will have 79 seats in parliament.

(antiwar.com)

As this conflict drags on how many others will join the cracks…..I do not expect the major arms dealers to join in this….way too much money being made.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Is Support Starting To Wane?

For over a year and half the West through NATO has been a staunch supporter of the forces in Ukraine against their adversary Russia in the conflict.

At times it seemed to me that it was blind support…..support for sake of some unseen reason. And I have been saying that it is time for our cash to go to where it was needed and that Western Europe should be the main entity of support after all they have the most reasons for concern.

It appears that at least one NATO country is pulling out of the coalition of war….Poland.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Wednesday that Poland is no longer arming Ukraine, marking a significant shift as Warsaw has been a staunch supporter of the NATO proxy war with Russia.

Morawiecki’s comments come amid a spat between Warsaw and Kyiv over a Polish ban on Ukrainian grain. When asked if the dispute would impact Polish support for Ukraine, Morawiecki said, “We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine, because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons.”

He insisted that Warsaw had no intention of risking “the security of Ukraine” and that weapons shipments from other countries transiting through Poland would not be interfered with. Poland has become the primary hub for NATO arms shipments into Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion.

Despite all the support, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took a shot at Poland and two other EU countries for maintaining a ban on Ukrainian grain. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the disruption of Black Sea shipping, there’s been an influx of Ukrainian grain shipments into the EU.

Earlier this year, the EU agreed to restrict the import of Ukrainian grain to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia over complaints from farmers about a drop in prices. Last week, the EU said it would lift the restriction, but Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia said they would continue banning Ukrainian grain from their markets.

At the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Zelensky accused the countries of helping Russia. “Alarmingly, some in Europe play out solidarity in a political theater — turning grain into a thriller. They may seem to play their own roles. In fact, they’re helping set the stage for a Moscow actor,” he said.

(antiwar.com)

Maybe trying to bully another country is not the way to win friends and influence people.

Support in the US is also waning?

According to a CNN poll it is…..

Most Americans oppose Congress authorizing additional funding to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, as the public splits over whether the US has already done enough to assist Ukraine.

Overall, 55% say the US Congress should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine vs. 45% who say Congress should authorize such funding. And 51% say that the US has already done enough to help Ukraine while 48% say it should do more. A poll conducted in the early days of the Russian invasion in late February 2022 found 62% who felt the US should have been doing more.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/04/politics/cnn-poll-ukraine/index.html

As this conflict drags on….and according to some belief it will last years and years…..support will dry up but at what cost to American taxpayers?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Let’s Talk NATO Now

At one time the alliance known as NATO has its place in history….not now for it is nothing more than an extension of the M-IC.

In the beginning, 1949, there was the mission statement….

The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.
They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area.
They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security. They therefore agree to this North Atlantic Treaty.

There was a time when I can see the necessity for this organization….the whole world after WW2 was running scared that the USSR was on a mission to take all of Western Europe after their annexation of Eastern Europe.

In my opinion when the USSR collapsed and was no longer the Russia bear that all feared it was time to dissolve NATO and let Western Europe come up with their own ‘mutual defense’ scheme.

But sadly I was in a minority in those days.

Fast forward to today, 2023….

The alliance is billed as ….’ for the preservation of peace and security’ and that is a con.

At his speech during the NATO Summit in Lithuania, President Biden called the U.S. and Europe “anchors for global security” when in reality there are no anchors during this increasingly dangerous and polarized time of never-ending war in Europe. Our NATO allies are not, as Biden would suggest, anchors in a turbulent sea of demons but rather catalysts stirring the cauldron of war on behalf of US empire.

The instability of the NATO alliance was evident in the controversy over the key issue of Ukraine membership. Biden and his administration tried to work both sides of the street. On the one hand, Biden insisted that “Ukraine’s future lies at NATO.” But then the US teamed up with Germany to make sure the summit made only a vague statement about Ukraine joining when allies agree and “conditions are met,” incurring the wrath of a fuming President Zelensky. Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN that everyone “needs to look squarely at the fact” that allowing Ukraine to join NATO at this point “means war with Russia.”

But this does not mean that Biden, or NATO, are ready to endorse peace talks. On the contrary. The NATO Summit came on the heels of Biden’s much-scorned decision to send banned cluster bombs to Ukraine. And at the Summit, France announced plans to send new long-range strike missiles; Germany announced a new round of military aid, including tanks and artillery shells; and 11 NATO countries pledged to train Ukrainian pilots to fly nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets. In short, Ukraine’s Zelensky walked away from the NATO summit with a declaration of years of military subsidies, a virtual blank check to make Ukraine a forever proxy to maintain US hegemony. As NATO members send Ukraine more and more destructive weapons, the terrifying possibility of a wider war, even a nuclear war, casts a shadow over the entire globe.

NATO Is a Warfare Alliance, Not a Force for Global Peace or Stability

This organization has been a war alliance since the mid-90s when it started expanded beyond the borders of Western Europe.

The Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine all wars….not a bit of ‘peace and security’ in them all.

Does the US and NATO want all this war or does it want something else?

NATO is taking the place of the UN….at least the UN does attempt at peaceful resolution….not so with NATO it is expansion and intervention on a grand scale.

Time for this alliance to go the way of the do-do….I know not likely to occur for there is way too much cash in war dividends for it to consider anything other than war.

That said could this Ukraine thing derail NATO (finally)….

Both prongs of Biden’s strategy – sanctions and military action by proxy – were, it is now clear, delusional. The first, famously expecting to reduce the ruble to rubble and to push the Russian economy ‘back to the stone age’, had become a manifest failure by the end of 2022 if not earlier. As for the second, despite the billions in military assistance, despite exhausting Western weapons stockpiles, despite discovering the quantitative and qualitative limits to Western weapons production capacities notwithstanding astronomically expensive military industrial complexes, despite ever more deadly weapons now including cluster bombs, despite reliance on neo-Nazi battalions, despite US and Ukrainian willingness to incur macabre levels of Ukrainian and mercenary casualties, it has been clear for some time that Ukraine is losing and has no prospect of winning.

President Biden acknowledged this in his turnaround on offering Ukraine membership of NATO or even giving it a timetable for the same and his new-found insistence that not only should things not be made easy for Ukraine to join, not only should Ukraine demonstrate progress on requisite reforms, but it should conclude a peace treaty with Russia before it can join NATO, a point repeated more than one by Jens Stoltenberg at Vilnius.

(antiwar.com)

And the waste goes on….

After Ukraine where will NATO expand?

It has become this enormous empire…..an empire of war.  Will it try to turn to the Far East in the future?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

NATO Gives Ukraine The Finger

Metaphorically….that is.

And Zelenskyy (why 2 “Y”s?) is fuming and demanding and throwing a hissy fit.

One of the points that lead Herr Putin to invade Ukraine was the possibility of them joining NATO.

There are conditions to be met before an invitation is issued and right now Ukraine is not anywhere near close to putting those conditions in place.

And NATO issued a statement on Ukraine membership in NATO….

NATO leaders agreed Tuesday to allow Ukraine to join “when allies agree and conditions are met,” hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the organization’s failure to set a timetable for his country as “absurd.” “We reaffirmed Ukraine will become a member of NATO and agreed to remove the requirement for a membership action plan,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters, referring to a key step in joining the alliance. “This will change Ukraine’s membership path from a two-step path to a one-step path,” he said, per the AP.

Although many NATO members have funneled arms and ammunition to Zelensky’s forces, there is no consensus among the 31 allies for admitting Ukraine into NATO’s ranks. Instead, the alliance leaders decided to remove obstacles on Ukraine’s membership path so that it can join more quickly once the war with Russia is over. Zelensky pushed back sharply against the decision. “It’s unprecedented and absurd when a time frame is set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership,” he tweeted as he headed to the annual NATO summit in Vilnius. “While at the same time, vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine. It seems there is no readiness to invite Ukraine to NATO or to make it a member of the Alliance.”

Zelenskyy is expected to meet Wednesday with President Biden and other NATO leaders. There have been sharp divisions within the alliance over Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, which was promised back in 2008 even though few steps were taken toward that goal. The Baltic states—including Lithuania, which is hosting the summit—have pushed for a strong show of support and a clear pathway toward membership for Ukraine. However, the United States and Germany urged caution. Biden said last week that Ukraine was not ready to join. Some also fear that bringing Ukraine into NATO would serve more as a provocation to Russia than as a deterrence against aggression.

Absurd?

Zelensky wants to be a member because he wants NATO to do his fighting for him…..does that mean he realizes Ukraine cannot win this war?

These are the first words of the NATO charter….

The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.
They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area.
They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security. They therefore agree to this North Atlantic Treaty :

(My problem with NATO is that has more members not bordering the North Atlantic than those that do)

And there is where Zelensky is drooling….’unite their efforts in collective defense…’he wants us all to be at war.

Democracy is sadly lacking in Ukraine….no elections, no opposition parties. pares shutdown, people arrested, religion banned, etc….I know we can argue that it is a time of war and some things need to be done….maybe so but does that not fly in the face of democracy?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”