49 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Owen Matthews - Europe has left Ukraine living on borrowed time - THE SPECTATOR

 

https://archive.ph/UnoKr

 

The bottom line for Ukraine is that its economy and war effort rely entirely on Western aid – and with funding from the US cut off by Trump since February, in practice that means that Europe must find a way to foot the bill. Just to maintain current levels of spending, Ukraine requires some €137 billion (£120 billion) in 2026 and 2027. But even the €140 billion (£123 billion) reparations loan that failed this week would not have been a silver bullet to fix Kyiv’s financial black hole. Europeans insisted that €45 billion (£39 billion) of the money be used to pay back a loan made in November 2024, knocking the net payout down to €95 billion (£83 billion). Another chunk would also have gone on expensive armaments from Germany, France and Sweden, all of whom have signed massive arms deals with Zelensky that would have ensured that a large slice of the reparations loan would have ended up in the pockets of European arms manufacturers. 

Do you think russia is not in trounbe economically speaking?

Selling oil at under 40 dollars a barrel? Not making any money at all at that rate.

It's idiocy to be irrationally married to  the belief that Russian.victory is inevitable.

It's also idiocy to believe it's impossible.

I am strongly and openly biased towards Ukraine's brave struggle to remain a sovereign nation  against genocidal dictator Putin.

But I cant know (as some like Jake Broe say they can) if they will ultimately prevail in advance. 

 

2 hours ago, jvs said:

Do you think russia is not in trounbe economically speaking?

Selling oil at under 40 dollars a barrel? Not making any money at all at that rate.

For many with the Russian victory is inevitable ideology, new conflicting evidence is just noise.

KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian forces hit an oil terminal, a pipeline, two parked jet fighters and two ships in a series of strikes on Russian soil, officials said Monday.

 

Ukrainian forces struck the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal, an ammunition depot and a launch site for attack drones inside Russian territory and Russian-held Ukrainian territory, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Monday.

A pipeline, two docks and two ships were damaged in the southern Krasnodar region, and a large blaze broke out, the statement said, without specifying what kind of weapons were used in the attack.

It added that a Ukrainian-made missile also hit a temporary base for Russia's 92nd River Boat Brigade in Olenivka, in the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

 

 

A separate strike targeted an ammunition depot in a Russian-controlled portion of the Donetsk region, aiming to slow the Russian advance there, the General Staff said. A Russian launch site for attack drones was also hit.

Ukrainian partisans set fire to two Russian jet fighters in an operation on Sunday evening at a base near Lipetsk, a city in western Russia, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ukraine-strikes-oil-terminal-planes-ships-array-strikes-128619562

Estonia has decided to allocate an additional €2 million to Ukraine’s Energy Support Fund to help restore the country’s energy infrastructure. It is noted that the funds will be used to cover the urgent needs of Ukrainian energy companies, including the purchase of spare parts, generators, and fuel, as well as for emergency repair works.

 

Estonian Minister of Energy and Environment Andres Sutt emphasized that this support will help Ukraine cope with potential challenges during the winter period.

"Estonia’s support will help Ukraine handle the possible difficulties it may face this winter," he said.

 

Photo: Estonian Minister of Energy and Environment Andres Sutt (president.gov.ua)© RBC-Ukraine (UK)

 

The Energy Support Fund for Ukraine was established under an agreement between the European Commission and the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine to minimize the impact of Russian attacks on critical energy infrastructure.

 

Estonia to fund emergency repairs of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

21 hours ago, jvs said:

Do you think russia is not in trounbe economically speaking?

Selling oil at under 40 dollars a barrel? Not making any money at all at that rate.

 

Aramco research

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/the-russian-oil-price-cap-can-work-again

 

Quote

 

We estimate these price cap-driven expenses add an extra roughly $36 per barrel in transaction costs, eating into the oil profits that Putin would have otherwise funneled toward funding his invasion of Ukraine, on top of the fact that Russia is already the least economical oil producer. According to Saudi Aramco, the fiscal breakeven for drilling Russian oil is a whopping $44 per barrel, twice as much as the cost of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, and other major oil producers.

 

So between his elevated breakeven cost of $44 per barrel to drill oil and price-cap driven expenses of $36 per barrel to get that oil to market, Putin might not draw much profits until Russian oil prices surpass $80 per barrel.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, bannork said:

Estonia has decided to allocate an additional €2 million to Ukraine’s Energy Support Fund to help restore the country’s energy infrastructure. It is noted that the funds will be used to cover the urgent needs of Ukrainian energy companies, including the purchase of spare parts, generators, and fuel, as well as for emergency repair works.

 

Estonian Minister of Energy and Environment Andres Sutt emphasized that this support will help Ukraine cope with potential challenges during the winter period.

"Estonia’s support will help Ukraine handle the possible difficulties it may face this winter," he said.

 

Photo: Estonian Minister of Energy and Environment Andres Sutt (president.gov.ua)© RBC-Ukraine (UK)

 

The Energy Support Fund for Ukraine was established under an agreement between the European Commission and the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine to minimize the impact of Russian attacks on critical energy infrastructure.

 

Estonia to fund emergency repairs of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

 

 

Tom Cooper is a well-informed military aviation historian with deep contacts across multiple militaries. He provides valuable technical and battlefield information about the Ukraine war and is hugely pro-Ukrainian - the critcial friend everybody needs but often doesn't like. 

 

https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-ukrainian-foreign

 

Here (see above) you have it: the reason is that this ‘politics’ is dictating developments on the battlefields in Ukraine of our days. At least in theory - Ukraine has the capability to defeat Russia: ‘average’ Ukrainians have the will, the determination, and skills to win this war. However, they are saddled by political- and military ‘leadership’ beset by incompetence, corruption, and nepotism. Because of that ‘leadership’ Ukrain is losing this war. Because of ‘politics’.

 

Yes, sure, the Russians are fighting ‘medieval style’. Their losses are corresponding. However, even the Keystone Cops in Moscow have meanwhile started learning their lessons: indeed, they’re meanwhile actively exploiting Syrsky’s idiotism for own advantages. Because, by the virtue of his own incompetence, Syrsky is that predictable.

It’s only the ‘leadership’ in Kyiv that is refusing to learn anything at all. 

I've got this one filed in ya don't say category ....

 

How the West is losing Ukraine without losing a battle: E.U. timidity and Trump’s pro-Russian diplomacy are shifting the war in Moscow’s favor - WP 

 

https://archive.is/CkP3K

 

Spin and hype notwithstanding, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart. With Trump interested less in U.S., NATO or Ukrainian security interests than his quest for a Nobel, one might expect European leaders to step into the void. That seems unlikely. Leaders of key countries like France, Germany and the U.K. are all in deep domestic political trouble. Moreover, the Ukraine crisis has underlined that the E.U., despite its supranational pretensions, is simply not competent in matters of peace and security.

What some of you forget here is that Russians, for better or worse, mostly believe in their country—that they are under siege from hostile forces. They fight and die in their millions because, for whatever reason—economic necessity, patriotism, or otherwise they feel it must be defended.

And when blood has been shed on this scale, when they've seen their friends and comrades fall and die, they come to believe it was for something. It's the same on the Ukrainian side.
Millions of lost souls, angry and despairing, in a war that never should have been allowed to get this far. And a complicit West pouring petrol on the flames for many reasons, not least their hollow moral authority and geopolitical machinations a US that's been long trolling the bear.

It was ever thus. The British at Crimea. World War One, fought by imperial powers for we know not what, putting millions of men to become the inglorious dead. Generation after generation, the same pattern repeats.
If you celebrate war and death and victory, maybe at this Christmas, just for a moment, consider why you do. Consider it from the comfort of your beds and keyboards, tapping away in Thailand or wherever else you find yourself safe from the guns.

It's not some computer game or huge moral virtue signaling exercise. And if you were never prepared to fight and die for a cause yourself, why encourage others to do so?
At this Christmas, let's remember how peace broke out in 1914 and the football match fought between two sides, and how the powers that be cracked down on that lest working class folks realize the enemy wasn't the Hun or Tommy, but their own rulers.

And let's celebrate that in December 1917, Lenin's Bolshevik government recognized Finland's independence on December 31st, becoming the first foreign power to do so. Finland had declared independence on December 6th, and Lenin recognized it to demonstrate the Bolshevik commitment to national self-determination, though he also calculated the Bolsheviks had to give up peripheral territories to survive, focusing on central Russia.

While Lenin didn't "create" FinlanD it had been a Grand Duchy with its own institutions since 1809 and declared its own independence his recognition made that independence internationally viable when other powers hesitated. An ironic footnote: Lenin continued pushing Finnish socialists to revolt even after recognition, and Russian troops armed them for the civil war that followed. Even acts of self-determination contain their contradictions.

 

No one is winning this war - the whole world is losing and Ukraine the biggest loser of them all and that dear friend's after 3 long years is the bitter, unvarnished truth. 

 

Happy Christmas to you all. I have no enemies here and no one on ignore. 

 

And is thaibeachlovers is watching this from his perch in New Zealand Happy Christmas Steve gone but not forgotten. 

 

 

https://kyivindependent.com/zelensky-reveals-20-point-peace-plan-draft-backed-by-ukraine-us/

 

LOL

 

19. The deal will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored by the Peace Council, chaired by Trump. Ukraine, Europe, NATO, Russia, and the U.S. will be part of this process. Violations will lead to sanctions.

 

Russian investigators said that three people, including two police officers, were killed in an explosion in Moscow on Wednesday, just days after a car bomb killed a high-ranking general not far away.

 

 The two traffic police officers were approaching a “suspicious individual” when an explosive device detonated, the Investigate Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.

 

The two officers, in addition to another person standing nearby, died from their injuries. The incident took place in the same area of the Russian capital where Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb on Monday morning.

 

 

 

 

Reports of at least 10 explosions and a subsequent fire at the facility were posted online after 3 a.m.

 

Local residents also filmed fire trucks heading toward the factory.

The Yefremov Synthetic Rubber Plant is one of Russia’s key producers of synthetic rubber and the only manufacturer of high- and low-molecular-weight polyisobutylene, which is used in various industries.

 

It's interesting to me that the most vociferous jew haters on this forum all support Ukraine

Having 20% of  you country occupied by Russia is the lefty definition of winning.

Well of course, if a man can be a woman then losing can be winning 😋

 

On 12/24/2025 at 8:49 AM, beautifulthailand99 said:

What some of you forget here is that Russians, for better or worse, mostly believe in their country—that they are under siege from hostile forces. They fight and die in their millions because, for whatever reason—economic necessity, patriotism, or otherwise they feel it must be defended.

And when blood has been shed on this scale, when they've seen their friends and comrades fall and die, they come to believe it was for something. It's the same on the Ukrainian side.
Millions of lost souls, angry and despairing, in a war that never should have been allowed to get this far. And a complicit West pouring petrol on the flames for many reasons, not least their hollow moral authority and geopolitical machinations a US that's been long trolling the bear.

 

 

 

I don't think they really care. I mean they have lost about 1 million people dead or injured yet no one seems to bat an eyelid in Russia. Russians on the whole also seem very cynical people. They simply don't see themselves as subjects.

47 minutes ago, rabang said:

I don't think they really care. I mean they have lost about 1 million people dead or injured yet no one seems to bat an eyelid in Russia. Russians on the whole also seem very cynical people. They simply don't see themselves as subjects.

They sort of do, but in a very brutalized way that outsiders will find very hard to stomach or understand. I've just finished watching the brilliant documentary Russians at War, which was hugely controversial in that the director embedded with a Russian army company for 7 months and followed them from deployment to return, with 3 of them killed. They mostly did it for the money, some for patriotism, others for adventure none because they were conscripted; they weren't. But once in, camaraderie and fraternity builds. They have a fatalistic view of the world. It was probably inevitable, and you don't mess with them unless you want to go into their hell as well.If you are interested here is the full movie. The truth is even though the Russian electoral system is hugely rigged and oppositionists dissapear or are intimidated into silence Putin would win every election. 

 

 

21 hours ago, Yagoda said:

It's interesting to me that the most vociferous jew haters on this forum all support Ukraine

Just would like to know why you are posting this on here.

Trying to get a reaction out of people because that is the only way you have any satisfaction in your life?

That is an illness and over time it will get worse,you should try not to hate so much.

 

1 hour ago, jvs said:

Just would like to know why you are posting this on here.

Trying to get a reaction out of people because that is the only way you have any satisfaction in your life?

That is an illness and over time it will get worse,you should try not to hate so much.

 

I was going to say it's one of the crassest comments I think I've ever seen on  here but I thought better of myself but you gave me the courage to speak out !

For those who truly want to understand Russia's behavior their existential paranoia about the West that crystallized with Ukrainian independence and Western support for Maidan watch this. Consider also US hegemony's pitiless projection of power: Allende in Chile, Yeltsin in Russia, the war in Vietnam, interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and countless coups across Latin America and the Middle East. I realize some here are drunk on binary tales of good vs evil and still want their Hollywood happy endings. If you want fairy stories about your goodness, stick to Disney. I suggest you keep them for the massage parlours you no doubt frequent with the 1000 baht tip.

I'm glad I'm ignored. I come here to crystallize my thoughts for myself, not to project anything other than that. Happy Boxing Day.Emoji away  !!

 

 

As highlighted by me earlier.  Simply put nimble and autonmous elite foreign units are going into the meat grinder a bit like using the Hitler Jugend for the final defence of Berlin - you are eating your seed corn. They dont' call Syrski the Butcher for nothing. 

 

A note on You Tubers - any YT being pro-Russia or neutral is genrally demonetized wheras Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainian clout chasers generally are not. So there is financial incentive to propagate propoganda or offcial goverment narratives and if that's all you are consuming then you maybe consuming a very partial view of the war. WillyOAM and History Legends have been my go tos throughout the war and they have rarely been wrong. 

 

 

Dec 26 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv's defences.

 

Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks "in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings.

 

"Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-storey apartment buildings, which help guide 'Shaheds' (Russian drones) to targets in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this."

 

Zelenskiy says Russia using Belarus territory to circumvent Ukrainian defences

 

 

 

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has transferred €63.82 million to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, bringing the total aid from Sweden to €203.08 million, according to the Ministry of Energy.

Of this amount, €44.68 million was allocated to a special account for nuclear safety.

 

The Ministry of Energy noted that Swedish funding has allowed the purchase of equipment for a distributed generation project in one of Ukraine’s most energy-deficient regions.

"SIDA funds have also been used to procure critical equipment for Ukrenergo company and distribution system operators in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv regions," the statement said.

 

Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak emphasized the importance of Sweden's contribution to Ukraine's energy resilience.

"Thanks to this support, we are not only rebuilding what the enemy destroyed, but also putting into service new generation capacities," he said.

 

Photo: Sweden has provided funds to restore Ukraine's power grid damaged by Russian attacks (Getty Images)© RBC-Ukraine (UK)

 

Sweden is also preparing to announce a new air defense package for Ukraine in the near future.

 

Ukraine receives €63.82 million from Sweden to strengthen energy system

 

According to ISW, the Russian army is currently sustaining a sufficient inflow of personnel to replace losses. However, Russia has been unable to build reserves large enough to generate the necessary manpower for specific sections of the front without redeploying forces from other areas.

 

"The requirement to draw reserves from some sectors of the line to focus on operationally significant undertakings often leaves Russia’s flanks undermanned in ways that create vulnerabilities, sometimes allowing Ukrainian forces to counterattack and retake land," the experts explained.

 

In particular, Ukrainian forces recently recaptured territory north of Huliaipole while Russian troops were advancing toward the city center. Ukraine also liberated much of a Russian breakthrough toward Dobropillia (northwest of Pokrovsk) during Russia’s offensive on Pokrovsk in early November.

 

 

"The Ukrainian liberation of much of Kupyansk also benefited from the concentration of Russian forces elsewhere on the line and the lack of ready Russian operational reserves in the area," ISW added.

 

ISW: Russia cannot form strategic reserves or increase pace of offensives

 

 

ISW conclusions

Analysts believe that Russian forces are currently unable to open a new front or expand their recent limited attacks in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

In particular, Russia's manpower constraints — despite its overall demographic advantage — represent a serious limitation on Russian operations and are likely to remain so next year.

 

 

On 12/27/2025 at 1:02 PM, bannork said:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv's defences.

Zelensky said... I remember this pesky little liar/beggar once SAID that rocket which killed 2 Polish citizens by ukrainian border was shot from Russia. He (altogether with his US/UK/EU principals) was trying to get us involved into this crappy "war" by SAYING that we (Poland) have to "go into action" against Russia. Investigation proved the rocket was ukrainian , shot from ukrainian territory. Warmongering at its best. ukraks refused to cooperate with polish government in this matter, media swept the case under the rug. Until now no apology was issued and no compensation for victims families. Zelensky says what his principals want him to say or what his tiny, banderite brain tells him to say.