One thing I would bet on is, if there is truth to this, the weaponry that the Trump admin will supply the Ukrainians will be very consequential. In other words, not half-assed. Likely, to make a scenario plausible that Ukraine could do serious damage inside of Russia. With the idea of bringing Russia to the table. It will need to be a significant escalation, in terms of the capabilities of those weapons. Trump wouldn’t want the Kremlin to laugh it off, so as to no longer take him seriously.
Indeed. Hope so. Let’s stop pussyfooting around and make the strategic defeat of Russia a national effort.
This Trump guy means business! Tariffs on US exports are precisely what Russia would seek to avoid. From NYT : Ukraine war: President Trump said the United States would impose “very severe tariffs” on Russia if there was no peace deal with Ukraine in 50 days. He said there would be “secondary tariffs” at about 100 percent.
Saw on the news this morning Trump said we were going to deliver Patriot missiles / system to Ukraine.
That is from a few days ago. The "announcement" is expected to be for more generous weapons deliveries immediately as well as harsh secondary sanctions against the countries keeping Russia afloat economically. These would begin within the next two months. Now that will not have any effect on the behavior of Russia's actual allies (PRC, DPRK, Iran), but it hopefully will change the behaviors of self-interested countries who continue to buy Russia's petroleum products at a discount, such as India. My first thought was, why wait 50 days? Then it occurred to me that we would want to give certain countries, such as India, a fair opportunity to disengage from Russia. We don't care if the PRC hates us (so long as it fears us), but we want India aligned with us in the long run. Personally, I think secondary sanctions are long overdue. We have to make it in neutral countries' interest not to do business with Russia.
Sounds like a good deal to me. Ukraine gets advanced weapons, no American personnel and the EU pays for their own defense for once…..and American taxpayers aren’t bilked.
Meant the European countries as a whole including the non nato such as Ukraine. More focused on which countries are footing the actual bill. If that’s exclusively nato then yes nato. In short tired of dumping money into Europe and then seeing articles like this….yes it’s not a new article, but the point is the same. If it’s not important enough for your money then it’s certainly not important enough for my money. Of course all JMHO UK army is unprepared for war and would run out of ammo quickly, former defense official says
I agree but I wonder if even 50 days is enough for a country like India. It’s probably enough that they start looking elsewhere for Russia to take notice.
Russians lose the ability to afford one more luxury food item: potatoes. Onions and sugar beets are also in short supply. The average Russian eats 128 kg of potatoes per year, according to Mr. Google. In rural areas, the average salary is $1150/yr (surprising that they get paid in dollars!). So the average rural person in Russia has to spend over 10% of their salary on potatoes. I cannot imagine what that's like. Throw in the other vegetables and add some vodka, and there is no money left for anything else. The Russian economy may be closer to collapse than we thought. Protests may be imminent in the outer areas. So if you have rotten potatoes, please send them to: Russian relief, c/o Vlad Putin, P.O. Box 666, Moscow, Russia, 54321. Make sure to write "no bomb inside" on the package and tape a small bottle of vodka to the outside to get it past security. MSN
Also, from the acticle above, Russia may have to lean on Mr. Potato Head himself, the one-and-only Potato Dictator, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus! Potato Head is advising Belarussians to limit themselves to one or two potatoes per week so they don't get too fat.
Good news although Trump is still treating NATO like a protection racket rather a mutual defense alliance. Under the agreement Germany and other NATO members will be delivering Patriots to Ukraine with the US replacing them and the countries providing the missiles to Ukraine paying the US for the replacements.
Seems that the UK recognizes the problem and is addressing it. UK plans to build six weapons factories to bolster military readiness
On the absurd estimates of Russian KIA … In short, they claim their satellite data alerts them to where fighting happens to ‘intensify’, and from that they—by some incredible leap of logic—infer that Russian forces are experiencing massive losses. The baffling part is that this facile methodology should apply to the AFU in parallel as well, yet when it comes to Ukraine’s losses, the Economist’s staff are without even a hint of curiosity: Rubio Claims Russia Suffered 100k KIA in Six Months, Ukrainian Casualties Remain 'Vague'
Perhaps the new offensive weapons will be held back until the end of the 50 days, giving Putin something to consider that may bring him to the negotiating table.
