Don’t mix up applications to the EU w applications to NATO.
There’s nothing preventing individual NATO members from signing agreements with Ukraine and deploying troops there.
Indeed, but “divide and rule” is one of Putin’s strategic objectives. Nor is he likely to consider himself any more bound to any agreement over Ukraine now than he has to previous agreements.
Joint Press conference with Putin and Trump now – not sure what is happening because I can’t stand listening to either one. Will wait for summary.
Brian
The summary is that there was no announcement other than Trump will call Zelenskyy and NATO. Otherwise the entire presentations by both Putin and Trump were just exercises in word salad.
Self-serving word salad.
I.e., par for the course.
And we all know what T’s golf scorecards are worth.
Prof. Phillips O’Brien, University of St Andrews, this morning:
People seem to be missing the big story
NPR this afternoon:
At the risk of beating a dead horse, the continued inaction of Europe on the matter is still the other, more silent, half of the problem. It’s been nearly 4 years now since the invasion began and European aid to Ukraine (military - the kind that would actual make a difference) - has been in such small amounts it’s only essential to let Ukraine barely survive, or essentially nothing but tokenism.
Trump is justifiably getting much outrage his way, but there’s no excuse for Europe. It’s been nearly 4 years. The argument of insufficient money doesn’t work. The argument of insufficient time doesn’t work. What is clear is that much of western Europe isn’t bothered enough by what Russia is doing to Ukraine to send truly transformational amounts of arms to Ukraine - not just a few Mirages here and Storm Shadows there.
This is all the more glaring considering that what Ukraine needs the most of, right now, isn’t even particularly high-end or complex weaponry. There is no way Europe doesn’t or didn’t have the combined resources to send Ukraine tens of millions of simple quadcopter drones or whatnot, etc.
Again - nearly 4 years by now.
I feel like Europe as a whole dropped the ball way back in 2014 by not treating Russia as the serious threat it was. Europe really needs to take the lead on this since this is happening in their own backyard and the United States is no longer a reliable ally.
I agree. However, European nations have mostly been doing a lot, escially the ones nearer Ukraine..
I just went to ChatGPT and put in this question:
How does the percent of GDP in aid to Ukraine vary internationally in 2024?
If believable, estimates for many European nations are multiples of that of the U.S. The Baltics run about four times higher than the U.S. It says
" Aggregate EU-level contributions hover around 0.7 % of GDP over the 2022–2024 period.
That would compare to about 0.5 percent for the U.S.
Here’s another sense, besides funding, that Europe is taking the lead:
European leaders to join Trump-Zelensky meeting, presenting united front
Trump will not like being outnumbered. I wonder who the Secret Service, as ordered by DJT, will allow in the room.
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Ukraine doesn’t have the ability to launch a major counter offensive.
That puts Ukraine at a major disadvantage in negotiations with Russia. It’s hard to demand that Russia gives up captured territory. Russia knows Ukraine can’t seize it by force.
It’s a terrible situation but what else can Ukraine do? Their troops are spread perilously thin defending territory. Ukraine’s supplies from the US have been reduced.
Russia is still slowly taking territory and destroying cities. It’s at a high cost in Russian soldiers but that is classic Soviet strategy.
Ukraine has to decide if it’s viable to continue fighting. Knowing their recruitments are down and Washington could cut them off at any time.
For Ukraine, it’s “continue fighting” or no more Ukraine. Putin’s not going to stop because of some bullshit agreement (many of which he’s already broken).
Yep. Putin stops when Putin’s dead. Anything else, and any other lesser goal the West might adopt, is simply acquiescing to the defeat of Ukraine, be it fast or slow.
Things that were great about the 1980s: the music, the new technology, and Russian leaders who died after only a few weeks in power
The BBC analysis of the current situation is well done. What Putin says he still wants is substantial. It does seem that he’s cut back on demands that Ukraine reduce the size of its military.
I am very surprised that Russia agreed that security guarantees could be put in place.
I realize all of this could change in the next few days or weeks. Russia’s demands frequently shift with Putin’s moods.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall during Mondays White House meeting. I think it’s going to get heated.
I added bolding to the most relevant paragraph.
Guarantees underwritten by trump are as nothing. Putin wants Ukraine entire and will succeed or die trying.
His (or trump’s) sig on a treaty means nothing more than his shit on some TP.
When did they lose it? Because they’ve launched a lot of major counteroffensives. Remember when they destroyed a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, a few months ago?