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Posted

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Russia has firmly rejected a peace proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, citing the plan’s failure to recognize territory seized by Russian forces. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said the proposal also fell short of Moscow’s broader demands, including the removal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and limits on the size of Ukraine’s military.

 

The rejection came as Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a 72-hour ceasefire next month to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. The White House stated that President Trump, who is eager to secure a deal this week, wanted to see a “permanent ceasefire” but was growing “increasingly frustrated” with the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine.

 

Ukraine responded to Putin’s offer by proposing a month-long ceasefire to create space for negotiating a longer-lasting peace. Lavrov's remarks, delivered in an interview with Brazil’s O Globo newspaper and later republished by Russia’s foreign ministry, represent a hardening of the Kremlin’s stance. Lavrov insisted that the "international recognition" of Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and the partially occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia was “imperative.”

 

 

He added, “Demilitarising and de-Nazifying Ukraine is also on the agenda, along with lifting sanctions, withdrawing lawsuits and cancelling arrest warrants, as well as returning Russian assets subjected to the so-called freeze in the West.” Lavrov further demanded “solid security guarantees ... in order to shield it from any threats emanating from hostile activities by Nato [and] the European Union.”

 

These sweeping demands starkly contrast with the proposal recently discussed with Ukrainian officials in Paris and refined at another meeting in London. That seven-point agreement would hand Russia de-facto control over large parts of Ukraine and recognize its hold over Crimea, but Trump reportedly warned that Russia could not insist on limiting Ukraine’s armed forces or its defense industry as a condition for peace.

 

European powers, led by Britain and France, are working on post-war security guarantees for Ukraine, believing that strengthening Ukraine’s military is essential to prevent future Russian aggression. A previous attempt to broker peace early in the war collapsed largely because it significantly restricted Kyiv’s military capabilities.

 

On Monday, Putin announced a unilateral ceasefire from May 8 to May 11, aligned with Russia’s Victory Day celebrations commemorating the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. “All hostilities will be suspended during this period,” the Kremlin said in a statement. “Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example.”

 

Putin added that he was willing to engage in peace talks, provided they addressed the “root causes” of his invasion. His latest offer came after Trump questioned whether Putin was “tapping me along” in a social media post following a meeting with Zelensky at the Vatican on Saturday. Putin had previously offered a similar Easter truce when Trump last pressed him on his commitment to ending the war.

 

Responding to the Kremlin’s announcement, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said, “If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately. Why wait until May 8? If the fire can be ceased now and since any date for 30 days – so it is real, not just for a parade. Ukraine is ready to support a lasting, durable, and full ceasefire. And this is what we are constantly proposing, for at least 30 days.”

 

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, emphasized President Trump’s intentions, telling reporters, “The president has made clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire first, to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed. While he remains optimistic he can strike a deal, he also is being realistic as well. Both leaders need to come to the table to negotiate their way out of this.”

 

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Posted

Putin has the upper hand on the battlefield and as such has the upper hand in negotiations. The Ukrainian move into the Kursk Oblast has failed (only around 20km2 out of the initial around 1000km2 still held) with Russian troops now seemingly moving across the border into Sumi with the eastern front still slowly but surely moving west. This is war and as I said Putin is in the position of power. As it is Trump wants a permanent ceasefire and will give Crimea and most of the 20% of Ukraine that Russian troops have taken since 2022 to Putin, Zelensky wants a permanent ceasefire and wants Crimea, territory lost since 2022 and security guarantees but what's unknown is what Putin really wants.  To be calling Trump Putin's puppet is simply ridiculous. Putin is in this position of power because of Biden and the EU which as I have said on previous posts could have pushed Russian troops back across the border in 2023 but failed to supply Ukraine adequately with weapon systems to allow this to happen.

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Dcheech said:


Back to Biden, because you  cant talk about Trump.  

It seems you missed how tough it was for Biden  to get the military aid approved back then because of (dictator loving) Republicans in Congress. He was barely able to get through what he did. 

Next, why not blame Obama & Clinton?! That being the Republican MO, blame someone, anyone, because the Party of 'Personal Responsibility" is unable to take a gnat hair of responsibility for anything.  :coffee1:
 

Biden is responsible for the war, dummy

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Dcheech said:


Back to Biden, because you  cant talk about Trump.  

It seems you missed how tough it was for Biden  to get the military aid approved back then because of (dictator loving) Republicans in Congress. He was barely able to get through what he did. 

Next, why not blame Obama & Clinton?! That being the Republican MO, blame someone, anyone, because the Party of 'Personal Responsibility" is unable to take a gnat hair of responsibility for anything.  :coffee1:
 

The war started under Biden. Biden did nothing to stop it from happening. This is a historical fact.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Dcheech said:


I recall Putin waiting, dutifully, until the winter Olympics were over, to launch his invasion of the Ukraine. Getting assurances of Celestial leader Xi of undying friendship & support. Touching. 

Likely you remember something different, right wing apologists for authoritarian dictators,  usually do.  🥱

The POTUS is responsible for everything that happens in the world

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Posted
3 minutes ago, ChicagoExpat said:

Putin is responsible for the war, dummy.  Next you'll claim you're not a Russia supporter and eager consumer of Kremlin-approved media.

No NATO expansion no war?

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Posted
10 minutes ago, ChicagoExpat said:

Putin is responsible for the war, dummy.  Next you'll claim you're not a Russia supporter and eager consumer of Kremlin-approved media.

should i be offended? Chicago is a <deleted>hole

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Posted
Just now, dinsdale said:

No NATO expansion no war?

If you're going to accept Russia's view of the world -- that the inevitable rebirth of the Russian Empire allows them permanent sovereignty over any country they think is Slavic, a former vassal state/SSR, and that any state they do not dominate must be feared, undermined, and viewed as an enemy -- then you'll believe that Russia gets to determine how other sovereign nations conduct themselves, and has the right to invade anytime the czar is displeased.

 

How about this -- if Russia weren't an eternal aggressor, constantly terrorizing its neighbors, then bordering countries wouldn't want to join NATO.  Among Putin's many epic fails in the last few years is to convince countries to join NATO that for decades said they wouldn't.

 

Your Russkiy Mir view of the world also ignores the last hundred years of Russian brutality and mass murder in Ukraine that even those decades of colonization couldn't erase.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, ChicagoExpat said:

Simply a lie.  I was living in Russia when the war started and remember the public warnings to Russia not to invade and Ukraine to accept the fact that they were about to be invaded.  The Russians were delighted when Ukraine thought all was well and did not prepare; Russia got its @ss thoroughly kicked, however, and the joy was muted and turned into this strategic and tactical defeat for Russia that we now see.

You have to be 100% deluded if you think Russia is facing a strategic and tactical defeat. Russia is winning this protracted war of attrition. This isn't being a Putin lover as I'm sure you'll accuse me of but it's the reality. As I said the intrusion into the Kursk Oblast has almost totally collapsed with Russian troops moving into Sumi and the eastern front continues to move west. Are you saying this isn't the case?

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Posted
3 minutes ago, hotsun said:

should i be offended? Chicago is a <deleted>hole

🤣 How fragile our feelings are.  I literally just wrote what you wrote.

 

If knowing the subject better than you makes me an @sshole, if whooping your butt in an argument makes me an @sshole, if not eagerely lining up to suck fascist d!ck makes me an @sshole... then I'm a proud @sshole. 

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Posted

The war will continue indefinitely many more will die and I bet Trump will need to give Zelensky more money and weapons. Very sad.

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Posted
17 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

You have to be 100% deluded if you think Russia is facing a strategic and tactical defeat. Russia is winning this protracted war of attrition. This isn't being a Putin lover as I'm sure you'll accuse me of but it's the reality. As I said the intrusion into the Kursk Oblast has almost totally collapsed with Russian troops moving into Sumi and the eastern front continues to move west. Are you saying this isn't the case?

There is no scenario in which this war is a strategic victory for Putin -- feel free to try and make that argument -- and if you think moving a frontline forward by a few kilometers per month over three years is a tactical victory... wow.

 

The certain end result of all of this:  A little more land to add to the Empire, Europe finally taking its own defense seriously, at least two new NATO members, hundreds of thousands of Russians dead and wounded, its military hardware wiped out, permanent loss of most of Europe as energy customers, Russia diminished in the eyes of the world, and now a debtor to China, Iran, and North Korea.  Again, if you want to call this victory, feel free.

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Posted

And all this is happening while we likely have the worst Secretary of Defense,  within the past century, if not longer, along with a president who's had the worst first hundred days in presidential history. 

 

So one of the big questions right now is how long will it be until Hegseth gets thrown under the bus? A month, 2 months? 

 

The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks. On Friday, Hegseth fired three of his most loyal senior staffers — senior adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense. In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month.

 

Yet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.

 

On Friday, POLITICO reported that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, was leaving his role. Kasper had requested the investigation into the Pentagon leaks, which reportedly included military operational plans for the Panama Canal and a pause in the collection of intelligence for Ukraine.

 

Once the Signalgate story broke, Hegseth followed horrible crisis-communications advice from his new public affairs team, who somehow convinced him to try to debunk the reporting through a vague, Clinton-esque non-denial denial that “nobody was texting war plans.” This was a violation of PR rule number one — get the bad news out right away.

His nebulous disavowal prompted the reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, to release Hegseth’s full chat string with the detailed operational plans two days later, turning an already-big story into a multi-week embarrassment for the president’s national security team. Hegseth now faces an inspector general investigation into a possible leak of classified information and violation of records retention protocols.

 

That was just the beginning of the Month from Hell. The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported that Hegseth “brought his wife, a former Fox News producer, to two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed.”

 

Next, the Pentagon set up a top-secret briefing by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on China for Elon Musk, who still has extensive business interests in China. After learning about it, the White House canceled that meeting.

 

The president deserves better than the current mishegoss at the Pentagon. Given his record of holding prior Cabinet leaders accountable, many in the secretary’s own inner circle will applaud quietly if Trump chooses to do the same in short order at the top of the Defense Department.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/20/pentagon-chaos-ullyot-hegseth-00205594

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Posted
58 minutes ago, ChicagoExpat said:

There is no scenario in which this war is a strategic victory for Putin -- feel free to try and make that argument -- and if you think moving a frontline forward by a few kilometers per month over three years is a tactical victory... wow.

 

The certain end result of all of this:  A little more land to add to the Empire, Europe finally taking its own defense seriously, at least two new NATO members, hundreds of thousands of Russians dead and wounded, its military hardware wiped out, permanent loss of most of Europe as energy customers, Russia diminished in the eyes of the world, and now a debtor to China, Iran, and North Korea.  Again, if you want to call this victory, feel free.

"A little more land to add to the Empire". 20% of Ukraine since 2022 isn't as little bit of land. Ukraine is huge.

"Europe finally taking its own defense seriously". Agree. This is a good thing but has nothing to do with a strategic/tactical failure on Russia's part.

"at least two new NATO members" Why is this a strategic/tactical loss if expansionism isn't Putin's end goal and IMO it isn't? 

"hundreds of thousands of Russians dead and wounded" Huge deaths and casualties are being felt on both sides. Ukraine will feel this more than Russia. 

"its military hardware wiped out" I'd like to see you back this up. Russia has huge stockpiles. Not saying these are being depleted but weapons manufacturing is going full pace in Russia. 

"permanent loss of most of Europe as energy customers" As it is the EU continues to get energy supplies from Russia whilst the war is going. Where will they get it from when the war is over?

"Russia diminished in the eyes of the world". Do you think this bothers Putin?

"a debtor to China, Iran, and North Korea" Why? Artillery shells from North Korea and drones now made in Russia from Iran. Not exactly what I would say makes Russia in huge debt to these countries. China?

As for victory what I have said reflects the reality on the battlefield. Ukraine has now been virtually pushed out of the Kursk Oblast with Russian troops now moving into Sumi and the eastern front continues to advance. Yes, it's moving slowly but this is the nature of protracted, attritional war but it's more than a few km a month over 3 years. It's more than 64,000 km2.

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