Europe Talks Tough on Military Spending, but Unity Is Fracturing. EU leaders are struggling to find the money and the political will to replace the bulk of the U.S. contribution. An E.U. effort to draft a defense pact with Britain is being held up by Paris over squabbles about fisheries-NYT

 

https://archive.ph/DVPDp

 

 

6 hours ago, stevenl said:

So who placed the weapons in Ukraine, Russia or the Soviet union?

Russia in UN is the rebranded Soviet Union. The time for haha ended with the Biden era. Now is the time for hard negotiations.

2 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Europe Talks Tough on Military Spending, but Unity Is Fracturing. EU leaders are struggling to find the money and the political will to replace the bulk of the U.S. contribution. An E.U. effort to draft a defense pact with Britain is being held up by Paris over squabbles about fisheries-NYT

 

https://archive.ph/DVPDp

 

 

Europe/ UK is a spent force, and all they have now, IMO, is bluster. They spent all the money on Ukraine and illegals, and the cupboard is bare. They talk big, but can they even get enough feet in boots to make it real?

8 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Russia has ‘seized the upper hand’ in Ukraine war and “is on a path to accrue greater leverage” to force favorable terms, intel community warns. An annual intelligence assessment of global threats also questions both countries’ willingness to reach a quick settlement to the war.-POLITICO

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/25/russia-has-seized-the-upper-hand-in-ukraine-war-intel-community-warns-00247753

 

“Even though Russian President [Vladimir] Putin will be unable to achieve the total victory he envisioned when initiating the large-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia retains momentum as a grinding war of attrition plays to Russia’s military advantages,” the report states. “This grinding war of attrition will lead to a gradual but steady erosion of Kyiv’s position on the battlefield, regardless of any U.S. or allied attempts to impose new and greater costs on Moscow.”

 

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2025 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.pdf

and yet, despite the Euro leaders having to know that Ukraine is losing, they continue to support the war, instead of pushing Ukraine to negotiate.

7 hours ago, stevenl said:

So who placed the weapons in Ukraine, Russia or the Soviet union?

Makes zero difference now.

 

It's like the building is burning and you are counting the silverware.

A post promoting the virtues of Trump or Putin being Alpha males has been removed along with an unapproved source @beautifulthailand99

 

The topic is also not about historical events inculding who the nuclear weapons belonged to in Ukraine before 1996, but is about:

 

Updates and events in the War in Ukraine 2025

 

Any more diversion attempts will be removed

9 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

I ran his statement through ChatGPT to fact check his statement this is what it said. Grenell if you follow the Wiki link has an interesting career history to say the least. Besides which let's say for arguments sake that Ukraine had kept nuclear weapons and that hadn't deterred Putin from the invasion - what next use them ? Would the western world stand by if they proposed first use to deter the invasion ? Besides which if both countries have them then you're back to stalemate unless they are seriously rogue and the leader and his cohorts are backed into a corner with no escape and are seriously mad. Which Zelenskiy certainly isn't nothwithstanding the huge costs of maintaining and updating an arsenal you will never use.

 

The statement asserts that the nuclear weapons stationed in Ukraine after the Soviet Union's dissolution were Russian, not Ukrainian, and that Ukraine returned these weapons to Russia. This characterization aligns with historical records.

Following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, approximately 1,800 nuclear warheads remained on Ukrainian territory. These weapons were part of the Soviet arsenal, and operational control was maintained by Russia. Ukraine lacked the necessary codes and infrastructure to deploy these weapons independently. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer these nuclear warheads to Russia and dismantle related infrastructure in exchange for security assurances from Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, formalized in the Budapest Memorandum.
 

While the weapons were located within Ukraine's borders, they were inherited from the Soviet Union and were under Russian control. Therefore, the statement accurately reflects the situation: the nuclear weapons were Russian remnants stationed in Ukraine, and Ukraine returned them to Russia.

 

Here's my fact check. Grox, much more powerful core (brain).

 

The agreements—like the Lisbon Protocol and Budapest Memorandum—worked as intended at the time: Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, Russia took them, and the West got the nuclear stability it wanted. Ukraine got security assurances in return, with Russia, the US, and the UK pledging to respect its sovereignty and borders. On paper, it was a clean deal—Ukraine denuclearized by 1996, and the world exhaled.

 

Then Putin’s Russia tore it apart. Starting with the 2014 annexation of Crimea and followed by the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia blatantly violated the Budapest Memorandum’s guarantees. The promise to respect Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity? Shattered. The invasion and land grabs—like Crimea and parts of Donbas—directly broke the agreement’s core commitments. It’s a brutal irony: Ukraine gave up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal for assurances that, in the end, Russia treated as worthless. The agreements held until they didn’t, and Ukraine paid the price.

12 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

It's a moot point who owns what when a decades long union/empire falls and the rule of laws governing that union all fall as well. As the Soviet Union ceased to exist they were defacto then Russia's where the c&c centres lay.

Apparently you disagree with yourself since you made a post about it.

 

Just saw the mod's comment about the topic, so no more from me.

8 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Europe Talks Tough on Military Spending, but Unity Is Fracturing. EU leaders are struggling to find the money and the political will to replace the bulk of the U.S. contribution. An E.U. effort to draft a defense pact with Britain is being held up by Paris over squabbles about fisheries-NYT

 

https://archive.ph/DVPDp

 

 

3 pages on it here from last week............

 

France Blocks UK from €150bn EU Defence Fund Amid Growing Tensions

Russia is currently in the weakest position it has been in years, and is weaker than it will be when it gets to rearm following any cease fire. If Poland, or any Russian neighbor really - believes Russia is a long-term threat, now is the time to go on the offensive. You don’t have to invade, just start pulling the same <deleted> Russia does. Let your aircraft get really close to their border. Go over their border then deny it. Shoot down their drones over Ukraine, then deny it. Or say they were in your air space. Or they were headed that way. Russia doesn’t want a two-front war.

3 hours ago, stevenl said:

Apparently you disagree with yourself since you made a post about it.

 

Just saw the mod's comment about the topic, so no more from me.

Or me - sorry.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/03/26/zelensky-accuses-steve-witkoff-parroting-russian-propaganda/

 

https://archive.ph/8U84C#selection-3701.0-3723.116

 

 Zelensky accuses Steve Witkoff of parroting Russian propaganda - Ukrainian leader says Trump envoy ‘quotes the Kremlin narratives’ - DAILY TELEGRAPH

 

The White House official sent shock waves through Europe when he appeared to accept the results of sham referendums Russia held in Ukraine to justify the seizure of land there.
Mr Witkoff claimed the “overwhelming majority” of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson wanted to be under Russia’s rule and said Vladimir Putin was a “very smart guy”.

 Trump team’s rush to get Ukraine peace deal risks letting Russia off the hook for war crimes

“Justice is a prerequisite for sustainable peace,” says the head of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning NGO.

 

https://archive.ph/h0epo

 

“I believe Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House team through information,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Time magazine. “Their signal to the Americans was that the Ukrainians do not want to end the war, and something should be done to force them.”
Washington has officially stopped calling the Russian invasion an act of aggression, withdrew from a task force investigating war crimes and cut funding for Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which had detailed the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia

2 hours ago, sharot724 said:

Russia is currently in the weakest position it has been in years, and is weaker than it will be when it gets to rearm following any cease fire. If Poland, or any Russian neighbor really - believes Russia is a long-term threat, now is the time to go on the offensive. You don’t have to invade, just start pulling the same <deleted> Russia does. Let your aircraft get really close to their border. Go over their border then deny it. Shoot down their drones over Ukraine, then deny it. Or say they were in your air space. Or they were headed that way. Russia doesn’t want a two-front war.

Probably better to spend your limited resources on huge border defences which is happening "in spades" already than trolling the bear needlessly at this stage and risking a conflagration.

Svitlana Morenets - THE SPECTATOR -  Ukraine is looking like the loser in Russia-US peace talks 

 

In Trump's transactional mindset he gets cheaper fertiliser for his farmers and gets to hit Canada  which probably in his mind counts as a win (my take) 

 

https://archive.ph/xMcB6

 

Oleksandra Ustinova, Ukrainian MP and adviser to the Defense Department, said the deal is conveniently timed as global demand for fertilisers surges and Russia is poised to replace Canada as a primary supplier to the US. On top of that, Russia have sold nearly $1 billion (£700 million) worth of Ukrainian grain it stole from occupied regions despite sanctions since 2022. That number will spike if the US reaches an agreement with the G7 and especially the EU where unanimity would be required to lift them.

24 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Probably better to spend your limited resources on huge border defences which is happening "in spades" already than trolling the bear needlessly at this stage and risking a conflagration.

It already is one true  conflagration today. Time is right to strike Russia

All of my Russian friends have US citizenship

Suggesting aligning all borders with troops you think is the fire that ends all fires but for whom

 

Start

War updates back on topic..............

 

Ukraine is quietly invading Russia again
Kyiv’s forces are moving forward and steadily capturing ground in Belgorod, despite Kremlin claims that the attack has been thwarted

As dawn broke over the western Russian region of Belgorod, a growing thrum could be heard near its heavily fortified border with Ukraine.
The sound came from a column of tanks and fighting vehicles storming across muddy fields, carving a path through minefields and lines of dragon’s teeth barricades.
It was the start of a new incursion into Russian territory.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/27/ukraine-is-quietly-invading-russia-again/

https://archive.ph/IghvB

 

 

 

All is fair in love and War.

 

and Ukraine keeps kicking russian's arssssss

Ukrainian forces liberated a key settlement on the frontline

 

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/ukrainian-forces-liberated-a-key-settlement-on-the-frontline/ss-AA1BFWp0?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=437cabe902a246ff8553825af5376453&ei=52

NATO chief in Warsaw: our response will be devastating if Russia attacks Poland

 

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/nato-chief-in-warsaw-our-response-will-be-devastating-if-russia-attacks-poland/ar-AA1BK64t?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=437cabe902a246ff8553825af5376453&ei=61

 

'Putin will die soon - and that's a fact', says Zelenskyy as he urges Trump to 'stay strong' in face of Russian demands.

 

https://www.lbc.co.uk/world-news/zelenskyy-putin-die-soon-russia-ukraine/

 

Well at some point he will be factually correct as will he as will we all. After Putin someone probably worse will replace him who lacks the cunning and increased ruthlessness. Oft mentioned is Nikolai Patrushev and they'll be pining for Putin, then.

 Revealed: Trump’s plan to force Ukraine to restore Putin’s gas empire - America holds gun to Zelensky’s head with unprecedented reparation demands -DAILY TELEGRAPH

 

https://archive.ph/2s4nb

 

Europe’s sanctions regime is near to disintegration as well. Hungary and Slovakia have both said they will not vote for a roll over of existing curbs, which means that sanctions will automatically expire in July, and so will control over €200bn (£170bn) of Russian central bank holdings in Europe.

“If even one EU member state votes against the asset freeze, the freeze will lapse. The Central Bank of Russia can then immediately withdraw its deposit from Euroclear,” said Anton Moiseienko and Yuliya Ziskina, from the Royal United Services Institute.

“For all the talk of reparations and accountability, the EU would find itself handing over €200bn to the regime that launched Europe’s biggest war since World War Two – an Afghanistan-style moment for EU foreign policy.”

One has to gasp at Trump's chutzpah to seize for himself the nations's resources.Probably he is setting up Ukaraine to reject and then he can say they have rejected his deal and then does the deal he really wants with Russia.

 

US pushes for expansive new deal to control Ukraine’s minerals and energy Latest draft sent to Kyiv steps up demands and offers no security guarantees

 

https://archive.ph/Wrd3N

 

Senior Ukrainian officials said the proposal could undermine their nation’s sovereignty, route profits abroad and deepen its dependence on Washington.
The draft deal marks a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to seize control of Ukraine’s lucrative natural resources as it presses to bring the conflict to an end.It would apply to all mineral resources, including oil and gas, across the entire Ukrainian territory.

11,000 was not enough then. The estimated 4,000 dead or injured need replacing. 

 

North Korea has sent 3,000 more soldiers to bolster Russia’s war on Ukraine, South Korea says

 North Korea appears to have sent at least 3,000 more soldiers to Russia early this year, South Korea’s military said Thursday, demonstrating Pyongyang’s continued support for Moscow’s war on Ukraine as world leaders push for an end to the three-year conflict.

The news comes as Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Russia is being prepared, according to state media TASS.

The reinforcements, sent in January and February, add to the roughly 11,000 troops North Korea has sent to Russia so far, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. About 4,000 of them have been killed or injured in combat, according to Seoul.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/27/europe/north-korea-russia-ukraine-soldiers-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Lets see how this transpires once the full report is out...........

 

https://x.com/KyivPost/status/1905367789612790125

 

20 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Lets see how this transpires once the full report is out...........

 

https://x.com/KyivPost/status/1905367789612790125

 

 

The only reason putin wants elections is so that he can interfere with them.

He's not democratically elected and millions fall for his voting BS

He cannot stand Zelensky because he's a strong opponent to him