Trump is a full blown idiot who has a much higher opinion of his own power and influence than the evidence provides.
The best chance for lasting peace lies in the immediate withdrawal of all Russian military from all of Ukraine and Ukraine’s immediate membership of both NATO and the EU.
I like your plan. But Zelensky has a persuasive point—why fight the war at all if you end up worse off than you were by agreement? I fear Trump will try to steamroll Zelensky. He wants to please Putin, but he is also in a hurry to look like a peacemaker. A week ago he was boasting he had brought a conclusion to six wars just that week. He is clearly a liar, but may now be delusional as well.
Does the EU think it can cope with a Trump negotiated peace? It is their future on the line as well. I wish someone would tell Putin and Trump to go suck eggs.
Once again, I say Zelensky should not meet with Trump alone. In fact, Ukraine should ignore the flatulence coming from Trump and Putin. Ukraine is getting stronger, Russia is getting weaker and Trump "is not a serious person." Furthermore, Europe will continue to support Ukraine despite Trump's bloviating. Stop letting Trump play his games. It's all political theatre designed to make Trump look like someone important.
Fully expecting the kneeling. Begging permission to read between the lines of Shankar’s post, this is is a sideshow in a very long game.
Credit the United Sate military for finally pivoting on Russia and adopting a strategy for projecting force through regional alliances, like Ukraine and Israel. This is a very significant development.
Putin is desperate. His army’s logistical capacity to sustain the front lines is crumbling due to Ukraine artillery and drone tactical superiority. The tactical nuke threat has been countered (see previous posts by Shankar).
Putin is playing the only card left: Trump card. But Trump’s sins are public knowledge now: the money laundering and the exploitation of young women. The US military and the neocon GOP are in charge.
The long game is to reduce the cost of defending the democracies that border the Baltic Sea, and to discourage China from adopting Russia as a proxy to project power at Europe. Putin has successfully transformed his nation into a war footing. This is an enormous threat and the fate of the democracies is seriously in doubt.
Ukraine must not be pressured to gift territory to the #warcriminal Putin
#RussiaIsATerroristState and must lay down arms and leave ALL of #Ukraine. This is the first step in the only acceptable peace deal. The second step is reparations for #Russian #warcrimes
Trump has a higher opinion of himself than does anyone else in the world. Any deal he makes will be to make himself look good or to appease his handler Vlad; nothing to benefit Ukraine will come from that meeting.
trump desperately wants a Nobel peace prize!!! He’s been nominated by Netanyahu and Cambodia so far this year! He’s the last person who should even be considered!
Any break only gives Putin time to prepare - and recover - for his next invasion. Let’s hope Ukraine rolls out a new operation before Friday which destroys enough of Russia’s munitions and oil to ensure that it takes Russia decades to recover and gives Zelenskyy a much stronger position from which to deal. Putin must not be rewarded for breaking international law. Trump is a self-serving criminal who has no concept of the law and has been Putin’s avowed admirer forever. Anyone in the world, with the possible exception of Netanyahu, would be better qualified to negotiate a real peace treaty than him. Zelenskyy is no fool and knows all of this. Good luck to Ukraine.
Not a fan of Netanyahu at all but I think it's safe to say that he, while certainly a criminal, is neither weak nor stupid and so in that regard is 1000 times better than Trump. One could argue that Biden, for example, was rather weak, at least when it came to Russia - but I wouldn't consider him malicious or stupid. The problem with Trump is that he's all three - a criminal, a coward, and a fool!.. Well done, America 🙄!
Predicted something like this. So much for the 12 day deadline or else.
It is as clear as ever that Trump works for Putin. How the USA continues to out up with a traitor holding the highest office in the land I do not know.
Fuck King Rottingyam the Orange and his Red Popatchka. Those two vile scumbags are not meeting to secure peace…ya can't have peace without both sides involved. They are meeting to figure out how to further destroy Ukraine and its people, undermine NATO, and to further their false narratives. Other reasons for this meeting:
to figure out how to corrupt the Norwegian Nobel Committee into awarding PeePeeWeeWee the Peace Prize. Side note: would it not be incredible if the very brave President Zelensky were honored as a Nobel Laureate? The ketchup-flying rage coming from the Whore House would be thunderous, epic and HILARIOUS!!!
TO ATTEMPT TO DISTANCE A PEDOPHILLIC SHITBAG FROM HIS DISGUSTING EPSTEIN TAINTED PAST!!!
to strategize the continued destruction of the United States
the exit plan when We the People finally get that dingleberry and his goons cornered
I hope the meeting next Friday in Alaska will be televised, not behind the closed doors.
You can learn so much from body language. A Putin was not on TV for ages. I would love to see him now, when he certainly knows that the whole word hates him and he is known as a mass murderer!
Good luck with that. No chance. There will likely be no recording and no notes unless someone manages to do that and not get caught out. No. Just like Ghislaine Maxwell, the fix of some sort is in and Ukraine will still be fighting to KEEP its independence from russia. IMO, Biden was too cautious, europe too eager for Ukrainians to bear the full burden of blood and Nato cowed by the spectre of mushroom clouds. Russia is fighting an imperial war and guess what, so is trump. First he must subdue americans, cow the gop, shred the constitution. He's proceeding well with the gop and the constitution. While private businesses, media, universities are knuckling under, Americans as a whole are moving from resistance to opposition. We need to take a lesson from Ukraine and Ukrainians. FIGHT THE FASCISTS FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES. And it will take a long time because this strain of political dna has been in the body politic since the very beginning. We've never addressed it. Now we must.
Putin is on Russian State TV almost daily. Substantial clips are replayed on Solovyev and the various news shows (60 Minut, Vremya pokazhet, etc.). He always speaks very calmly -- though not usually about Ukraine -- but seems nervous a lot of the time.
“Putin speaks rarely for a reason. The Ukrainian presidency should start doing the same”
Agree completely. He should be directing, not reporting. Of course, as well as his own ministers and SPs, he should have the support of European governments and their ministers. They need to be actively and *personally* countering the Putinist narrative; we certainly can’t trust Trump and his administration to do that.
Freezing the conflict while allowing Putin to hold on to the territory of Ukraine he now holds would be a grave mistake.
A terrible mistake.
Because the only way for Ukraine to retake their own territory would be by breaking the 'peace treaty.' And that would change the narrative of the war, especially for European citizens. They back Ukraine now, because Ukraine is regarded as the victim of a brutal assault. When the Ukrainians break 'the peace,' and become the aggressor, public opinion in Europe will turn on a dime. Unfair, but that doesn't make it less real.
That's one no.
Also, it's an illusion to think that Russia, whoever is in power, will give back territory of its own accord when definitive negotiations begin. Russia never ever gives back territory it has paid for in blood.
If the Ukrainians are willing to give up territory, they have my blessing. It´s theirs to part with. But if they don't want to give up territory, they shouldn't agree to any kind of freeze, because then it's bye bye territory.
That's another no.
But first, let's see if Hippo Don kneels at Putin's feet again, which I fully expect...
Good Morning Shankar. You couldn't hear me shouting as I read this article. My only positive cry reacted to your first two paragraphs:
"Exactly an hour ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the world that just as he refused to run when Russian forces marched on Kyiv under relentless bombardment, he will not accept any deal struck between the United States and Russia that fails to secure Ukraine’s future.
This is what he said:
Ukraine is ready for real decisions that can bring peace. Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not achieve anything. These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions. And we all need real and genuine peace — peace that people will respect.
Trump is a full blown idiot who has a much higher opinion of his own power and influence than the evidence provides.
The best chance for lasting peace lies in the immediate withdrawal of all Russian military from all of Ukraine and Ukraine’s immediate membership of both NATO and the EU.
Totally agree
I like your plan. But Zelensky has a persuasive point—why fight the war at all if you end up worse off than you were by agreement? I fear Trump will try to steamroll Zelensky. He wants to please Putin, but he is also in a hurry to look like a peacemaker. A week ago he was boasting he had brought a conclusion to six wars just that week. He is clearly a liar, but may now be delusional as well.
Does the EU think it can cope with a Trump negotiated peace? It is their future on the line as well. I wish someone would tell Putin and Trump to go suck eggs.
Once again, I say Zelensky should not meet with Trump alone. In fact, Ukraine should ignore the flatulence coming from Trump and Putin. Ukraine is getting stronger, Russia is getting weaker and Trump "is not a serious person." Furthermore, Europe will continue to support Ukraine despite Trump's bloviating. Stop letting Trump play his games. It's all political theatre designed to make Trump look like someone important.
Fully expecting the kneeling. Begging permission to read between the lines of Shankar’s post, this is is a sideshow in a very long game.
Credit the United Sate military for finally pivoting on Russia and adopting a strategy for projecting force through regional alliances, like Ukraine and Israel. This is a very significant development.
Putin is desperate. His army’s logistical capacity to sustain the front lines is crumbling due to Ukraine artillery and drone tactical superiority. The tactical nuke threat has been countered (see previous posts by Shankar).
Putin is playing the only card left: Trump card. But Trump’s sins are public knowledge now: the money laundering and the exploitation of young women. The US military and the neocon GOP are in charge.
The long game is to reduce the cost of defending the democracies that border the Baltic Sea, and to discourage China from adopting Russia as a proxy to project power at Europe. Putin has successfully transformed his nation into a war footing. This is an enormous threat and the fate of the democracies is seriously in doubt.
I agree with you, Stephen, 💯 %!
Ukraine should meet with the EU membership, and set up its own terms!
Ignore Fascist “Flatulence !”
Build Democratic “Resistance!”
Ukraine must not be pressured to gift territory to the #warcriminal Putin
#RussiaIsATerroristState and must lay down arms and leave ALL of #Ukraine. This is the first step in the only acceptable peace deal. The second step is reparations for #Russian #warcrimes
Trump has a higher opinion of himself than does anyone else in the world. Any deal he makes will be to make himself look good or to appease his handler Vlad; nothing to benefit Ukraine will come from that meeting.
Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦
trump desperately wants a Nobel peace prize!!! He’s been nominated by Netanyahu and Cambodia so far this year! He’s the last person who should even be considered!
Any break only gives Putin time to prepare - and recover - for his next invasion. Let’s hope Ukraine rolls out a new operation before Friday which destroys enough of Russia’s munitions and oil to ensure that it takes Russia decades to recover and gives Zelenskyy a much stronger position from which to deal. Putin must not be rewarded for breaking international law. Trump is a self-serving criminal who has no concept of the law and has been Putin’s avowed admirer forever. Anyone in the world, with the possible exception of Netanyahu, would be better qualified to negotiate a real peace treaty than him. Zelenskyy is no fool and knows all of this. Good luck to Ukraine.
Not a fan of Netanyahu at all but I think it's safe to say that he, while certainly a criminal, is neither weak nor stupid and so in that regard is 1000 times better than Trump. One could argue that Biden, for example, was rather weak, at least when it came to Russia - but I wouldn't consider him malicious or stupid. The problem with Trump is that he's all three - a criminal, a coward, and a fool!.. Well done, America 🙄!
The point about Netanyahu is that he also is trying to illegally take over territory that doesn’t belong to him.
He is, sadly... And just like in Putin's case, nothing good will come out of it in the end. For his own country, first and foremost!
Don't rub It in, Vaida😭
So Trump didn’t make it in your eyes/mind?
Interesting, almost everybody else can, seems to me.
How would you rate yourself?
Ukraine can win this war. It needs to right now commence a large offensive and knock out Putins war machine.
Putin needs to be left totally helpless. He needs to know he is no longer in control, Ukraine has taken over.
How dare Trump take it upon himself to decide what Putin can take fron Ukraine. This is obnoxious.
Predicted something like this. So much for the 12 day deadline or else.
It is as clear as ever that Trump works for Putin. How the USA continues to out up with a traitor holding the highest office in the land I do not know.
Fuck King Rottingyam the Orange and his Red Popatchka. Those two vile scumbags are not meeting to secure peace…ya can't have peace without both sides involved. They are meeting to figure out how to further destroy Ukraine and its people, undermine NATO, and to further their false narratives. Other reasons for this meeting:
to figure out how to corrupt the Norwegian Nobel Committee into awarding PeePeeWeeWee the Peace Prize. Side note: would it not be incredible if the very brave President Zelensky were honored as a Nobel Laureate? The ketchup-flying rage coming from the Whore House would be thunderous, epic and HILARIOUS!!!
TO ATTEMPT TO DISTANCE A PEDOPHILLIC SHITBAG FROM HIS DISGUSTING EPSTEIN TAINTED PAST!!!
to strategize the continued destruction of the United States
the exit plan when We the People finally get that dingleberry and his goons cornered
to go over plans for Dumbfuck Tower Moscow
etc., etc,, etc.
🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦SLAVA UKRAINI🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
I want Ukraine to win this war outright and push the Russians back to Russia. No peace deal until that happens.
I hope the meeting next Friday in Alaska will be televised, not behind the closed doors.
You can learn so much from body language. A Putin was not on TV for ages. I would love to see him now, when he certainly knows that the whole word hates him and he is known as a mass murderer!
Good luck with that. No chance. There will likely be no recording and no notes unless someone manages to do that and not get caught out. No. Just like Ghislaine Maxwell, the fix of some sort is in and Ukraine will still be fighting to KEEP its independence from russia. IMO, Biden was too cautious, europe too eager for Ukrainians to bear the full burden of blood and Nato cowed by the spectre of mushroom clouds. Russia is fighting an imperial war and guess what, so is trump. First he must subdue americans, cow the gop, shred the constitution. He's proceeding well with the gop and the constitution. While private businesses, media, universities are knuckling under, Americans as a whole are moving from resistance to opposition. We need to take a lesson from Ukraine and Ukrainians. FIGHT THE FASCISTS FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES. And it will take a long time because this strain of political dna has been in the body politic since the very beginning. We've never addressed it. Now we must.
Really? I was ready to be glued to TV to see Putin.
So he like disagreed to TV or is there a special protocol for that kind of meeting?
Putin is on Russian State TV almost daily. Substantial clips are replayed on Solovyev and the various news shows (60 Minut, Vremya pokazhet, etc.). He always speaks very calmly -- though not usually about Ukraine -- but seems nervous a lot of the time.
No idea. Just know that our mango mussolini hates notes, recordings, etc. A presser is all he'll agree to so he can both strut AND kiss putin's butt.
OK, thanks for info anyway.
“Putin speaks rarely for a reason. The Ukrainian presidency should start doing the same”
Agree completely. He should be directing, not reporting. Of course, as well as his own ministers and SPs, he should have the support of European governments and their ministers. They need to be actively and *personally* countering the Putinist narrative; we certainly can’t trust Trump and his administration to do that.
No and no!
Freezing the conflict while allowing Putin to hold on to the territory of Ukraine he now holds would be a grave mistake.
A terrible mistake.
Because the only way for Ukraine to retake their own territory would be by breaking the 'peace treaty.' And that would change the narrative of the war, especially for European citizens. They back Ukraine now, because Ukraine is regarded as the victim of a brutal assault. When the Ukrainians break 'the peace,' and become the aggressor, public opinion in Europe will turn on a dime. Unfair, but that doesn't make it less real.
That's one no.
Also, it's an illusion to think that Russia, whoever is in power, will give back territory of its own accord when definitive negotiations begin. Russia never ever gives back territory it has paid for in blood.
If the Ukrainians are willing to give up territory, they have my blessing. It´s theirs to part with. But if they don't want to give up territory, they shouldn't agree to any kind of freeze, because then it's bye bye territory.
That's another no.
But first, let's see if Hippo Don kneels at Putin's feet again, which I fully expect...
Also, taking a moment to point out that utter debasement of Trump allowing war criminal Putin to play dictator on US soil.
Absolutely, Paul. So brazen
He could have gone to the UAE so that Putin could avoid being arrested under the ICC warrant, but he wanted to debase the U S by Putin on our soil
In the last few weeks, there was legislation for stronger Russia sanctions backed 85 bipartisan Senators, Trump did not sign it. DO NOT TRUST TRUMP
Good Morning Shankar. You couldn't hear me shouting as I read this article. My only positive cry reacted to your first two paragraphs:
"Exactly an hour ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the world that just as he refused to run when Russian forces marched on Kyiv under relentless bombardment, he will not accept any deal struck between the United States and Russia that fails to secure Ukraine’s future.
This is what he said:
Ukraine is ready for real decisions that can bring peace. Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not achieve anything. These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions. And we all need real and genuine peace — peace that people will respect.