News Related To The Ukraine / Russian War

Russia has seized US$350 billion worth of Ukrainian mineral resources, Ukraine's Minister of Economy says​

Volodymyr Tunik-Fryz — Sunday, 23 February 2025, 15:38
www.pravda.com.ua

Russia has seized US$350 billion worth of Ukrainian mineral resources, Ukraine’s Minister of Economy says

Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, has stated that the value of mineral deposits in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia exceeds US$350 billion.
www.pravda.com.ua www.pravda.com.ua

To the victor go the spoils.
However vicious they may otherwise be, it seems Putin & Trump are willing to divide Ukraine's resources uncontentiously,
for now.

<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A Brief History of Broken Russian Promises to Ukraine​

Here’s why Ukrainians want security guarantees in a cease-fire deal.​

The Editorial Board / Feb. 23, 2025 5:24 pm ET

Monday marks the third anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the Kremlin marked the weekend with the largest drone attack of the war. President Trump says Vladimir Putin wants “peace,” but Ukrainians have hard experience about what such a promise means in practice. The anniversary is a good moment to recall the post-Cold War history of Russia’s broken promises.

Ukraine yielded its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S., U.K. and Russia.
Moscow explicitly promised to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and refrain from economic coercion.

BIG emphasis sear's

There are numerous problems for global prosperity here. That includes the standard "guns / butter" calculation.
If U.S. potential military adversaries increase the proportion of their GDP to military, the U.S. and allies are obliged to also. More guns, less butter. More bombs, fewer bridges.

There's more than just prosperity in jeopardy.
"As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon."
U.S. President Trump 20/01/08 commenting on Iran's five ballistic missile strike on U.S.military forces on the al Assad base in Western Iraq, in retaliation for the U.S. assassination of Iran's Kuds commanding General Soleimani

This 3rd year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine demonstrates powerful perverse incentive for nuclear weapons proliferation.
The U.S. and NATO have demonstrated, relying on others to protect the sovereignty of a peaceful nation like Ukraine is suicidal folly.
 
Shiftless2 said:
"Agreed - Trump's actions re the Ukraine increase the attraction of being a nuclear power" S2 #82
Click to expand...
Biden was little if any better.
I don't know the details of the "security guarantees" alleged in #81.
But if legitimate it would have to have been by ratified treaty, which is generally binding.

Biden supplied Ukraine, BUT only enough to sustain a flesh-mangling stalemate year after year.
I understand, there was a deliberate element of nuclear blackmail by Russia. Biden perhaps along with the Pentagon understood empowering Ukraine to inflict decisive defeat to Russia might have had the kind of nuclear consequences Putin mentioned / threatened.

But at this point failing to provide reasonable resources to expel the invader at least appears to be acquiescing to nuclear blackmail. Apparently Trump couldn't care less.
 
The Hill

White House press secretary suggests Russia-Ukraine conflict could end ‘this week’​

Ashleigh Fields / Sat, February 22, 2025 at 6:33 PM EST
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Saturday the president is confident in his ability to strike a deal with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine, suggesting an end to the three-year-long war could come as early as this week.

“The president, his team are very much focused on continuing negotiations with both sides of this war to end the conflict and the president is very confident we can get it done this week,” Leavitt told reporters on the South Lawn after returning from the Conservative Political Action Conference.

news.yahoo.com

White House press secretary suggests Russia-Ukraine conflict could end ‘this week’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Saturday the president is confident in his ability to strike a deal with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine, suggesting an end to the three-year-long war could come as early as this week. “The president, his team are very much focused on...
news.yahoo.com news.yahoo.com

"continuing negotiations with both sides"
Meaning, Russia and the U.S. ?
 
Shiftless2 said:
Are you saying that the free trade agreement negotiated (and signed) by Trump wasn't ratified?
Click to expand...
No.
I'd intended a sharper point. No "security guarantee" is as reliable as a viable nuclear weapons national defense.

And one of the horrendous consequences of this, the U.S. is now hamstrung from delaying further nuclear proliferation by offering protection in lieu of a nuclear deterrent.
In Ukraine's case accepting such substitute may prove terminal, in whole or part.
 

The most recent "news" of the war is idiotic.

U.S. President Trump has clearly switched sides, dropping Ukraine like a bad habit, siding with Russia's Putin.
That leaves Ukraine's fate to the remainder of NATO, the foresight & benevolence of Western Europe.

We've seen this before, Sudetenland.
If Putin is rewarded beyond his gain of Crimea, Western Europe and the Americas will have sown the seed of inevitable future war in Europe, including potential nuclear blackmail, annihilation, or both.

They may not like the idea of War much now.
They're not going to find it substantially more appealing after Russia has had time to benefit from Ukraine assimilation, and a decade to rearm with the planets most modern, most deadly weapons.
 
xwCLnd5.jpeg
 
Shiftless2 said:
"Ukraine" #89
Click to expand...

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out- because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me." pastor Martin Niemöller

We are witness to a stunning implausible 180 degree reversal of U.S. foreign policy and allegiances.
President Trump is clearly aligning himself with Putin, barking Putin's propaganda points of accusation against Ukraine,
simultaneously being insultingly confrontational with our former national defense partners, and long time trade partners.

We may hope putting a rational Democrat in the white house in 2029 will result in unanimous chorus from our
trade partners & former allies - all is forgiven -.

But if the "once bitten, twice shy" standard applies, immediate global forgiveness is a Plan-A so feeble it
barely rises to the level of a pipe dream.
 
Shiftless2 said:
Part one #91
Click to expand...
Part two:
Because of this President Zelenskyy has made a well-reasoned issue of assurances from Trump's pseudo-negotiations.
There's no fig leaf here. Trump has thrown Zelenskyy under the bus, and U.S. reputation along with it.

note:
Trump's reply to why Ukraine has been excluded from the negotiating table: Ukraine's been at it for 3 years.
Apparently Trump does not distinguish between the negotiating table, and the battle field.
 
Longtime Republican columnist and commentator David Brooks said the following after the White House mistreatment of the Ukrainian president on Friday.

“I was nauseated, just nauseated. All my life, I have had a certain idea of about America, that we're a flawed country, but we're fundamentally a force for good in the world, that we defeated Soviet Union, we defeated fascism, we did the Marshall Plan, we did PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to help people live in Africa. And we make mistakes, Iraq, Vietnam, but they're usually mistakes out of stupidity, naivete and arrogance."

“They're not because we're ill-intentioned. What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen."

“Donald Trump believes in one thing. He believes that might makes right. And, in that, he agrees with Vladimir Putin that they are birds of a feather. And he and Vladimir Putin together are trying to create a world that's safe for gangsters, where ruthless people can thrive. And we saw the product of that effort today in the Oval Office."

“And I have — I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I'm in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It's a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.”
 
MAGA ilk accuse Zelenskyy.
If the squabble were over color mismatch of shoes to handbag it would merely be a U.S. embarrassment.

The issue is not trivial fashion faux pas, it's 3rd Millennium War in Europe, human corpses stacking up, no end in sight, another Trump promise broken.
Shiftless2 said:
"What I have seen over the last six weeks is the United States behaving vilely, vilely to our friends in Canada and Mexico, vilely to our friends in Europe. And today was the bottom of the barrel, vilely to a man who is defending Western values, at great personal risk to him and his countrymen." David Brooks #93
Click to expand...
Well Dave, when Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan switched from Democrat to Republican he said:

“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” Ronald Reagan

You a Republican Dave?
Given any thought to switching to the conservative party, the Democrats? Your comment in #93 clearly demonstrates the Republican party has left you, us, U.S.
 
wsj-logo-big-black.svg

The North Korean Defector Who’s Been Called a ‘Hero of Ukraine’​

Lee Seongmin has become key to Kyiv’s efforts to get inside the minds of soldiers sent by Kim Jong Un to fight for Russia​

Lee Seongmin was among the first people outside of Ukraine to review the diaries and documents of North Korean soldiers killed in Russia.
By Dasl Yoon / Photographs by Tim Franco/Inland for WSJ / March 5, 2025 5:30 am ET
SEOUL—When Ukraine was scrambling this winter to understand how to respond to the threat of thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed to fight alongside Russia, it turned to someone steeped in Pyongyang’s ways: a North Korean defector.
Lee Seongmin, a 37-year-old human-rights worker who is an Ivy League graduate and fluent in English, has helped Ukrainian forces understand the motives driving Kim Jong Un’s young fighters, translating key documents and shaping antiregime leaflets meant to persuade North Korean soldiers to surrender.
www.wsj.com

The North Korean Defector Who’s Been Called a ‘Hero of Ukraine’

Lee Seongmin has become key to Kyiv’s efforts to understand the soldiers sent by Kim Jong Un to fight for Russia.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com
 
Shiftless2 said:
"Not economics - it's driven by the fact that Hungary is one of the very few countries that backed Putin/Trump over the Ukraine" S2 #98
Click to expand...
a) - oh -
b)
Shiftless2 said:
- kick Hungary out of the E.U. - Snell #96
Click to expand...
inflicting as much pain on Hungary during the exit as possible !

Shiftless2 said:
deport Ukrainian refugees #99
Click to expand...
Let this be a long remembered, long reviled legacy of the Trump scourge.
This is petty vengeance at low ebb, even for Trump.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top