Peloni: This self imposed tragedy was the greatest Ukrainian defeat in the long list of defeats which Ukraine secured over the past more than a decade. In fact, this catastrophic misstep by Zelensky is potentially if not likely regime changing in its nature. The Ukrainian Ambassador facepalmed gesticulation during the event really captures the reality which Ukraine faces at this juncture. As has been explained by Bryen, below and more extensively in his previous essays, Zelensky can not be seen to negotiate with Putin which likely played no small role in this diplomatic implosioin. Quite a terrible moment for the Ukrainian rank and file whose morale was already at a significant deficit.
and some guesses about what happens next
Stephen Bryen | Weapons & Strategy | Feb 28, 2025
Click on Photo for pivotal exchange between Trump and Zelensky (Full press conference at bottom of article)
Because events at the White House with President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky were so dramatic, I thought it would, perhaps, be useful to take a moment to discuss the big events of today at the White House where Zelensky met Trump. It is unprecedented that a visiting dignitary would behave the way Zelensky did, or for that matter show up in a tight fitting sweatshirt and slacks, something Mr. Trump disliked.
To begin with, there was no private meeting with Trump and Zelensky.
Here is some context:
1. Trump and Putin are very close to a deal on Ukraine. I released an article on that earlier today on Substack.
2. Trump invited Macron and Starmer to Washington to brief them, which he apparently did. The French went away fairly unhappy, but Starmer seemed to be in general agreement. Starmer made a pitch to include Article 5 and NATO in any deal; Trump rejected that appeal. Putin, meanwhile, talked to Xi by telephone and sent Sergei Shoigu (who heads Russia’s Security Council, something like the NSC) to Beijing to meet with Xi.
3. Trump invited Zelensky. The cover for Zelensky’s appearance in Washington was the “Minerals Deal” which the two leaders were supposed to sign.
4. The Minerals Deal was actually a sort of security guarantee for Ukraine, as Ukraine and the US would become “partners.” While Trump is unwilling to send US troops to Ukraine, he saw the Minerals Deal as a security substitute.
5. The Minerals Deal was not signed.
6. The real reason for the Zelensky visit was to brief him on the Putin negotiations and to gain his support.
7. Zelensky was not briefed because he vociferously and harshly objected to any negotiations with Putin. He did this in public, to Trump’s face, and in front of the press. As I have said many times before, Zelensky cannot negotiate with Russia.
8. Trump told Zelensky he was gambling with World War 3 and that he was in a poor position. Zelensky tried to answer back, but each time was rebuffed both by Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
9. The result is there was no private meeting and Trump told Zelensky he would be welcomed back only when he was ready for peace.
10. Usually there is a press conference at the end of a visit to the White House. That was cancelled and, in essence, Zelensky was dismissed.
11. The next steps are unclear, as Trump’s attempt to cut a deal with Russia is now blocked by Zelensky’s refusal to cooperate.
Some guesses:
Guess 1. Trump will retaliate by cutting off arms deliveries to Ukraine and cutting off any US money to the Ukrainian government. If that happens, Ukraine’s army will disintegrate in the next couple of months, or sooner.
Guess 2. Trump will put together some kind of deal with Russia not including Ukraine. This could be an economic deal, or it could be a deal that lifts sanctions on Russia.
Guess 3. It is unlikely Trump will change course on Russia and Ukraine, unless Zelensky changes his position or is replaced in some way.
Guess 4. Trump may ask the Europeans to stop backing Ukraine under current circumstances. It seems the British may cooperate, but not the French. The Germans right now don’t have a government, so they are unpredictable. Trump will talk to the Germans about helping them improve their economy in exchange for geopolitical cooperation. We will see.
Guess 5. Trump will let Ukraine collapse but may seek a deal with Putin on Ukraine once Zelensky is gone.
Listen at ~6min 30sec.
Trump is in on it, they are all determined to get their “peacekeeping” forces into Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw5gvce8HHs
Hi, Edgar.
I was a conversion candidate for one year. I thought you knew this. Doing the Amidagh, of course, is a central part of the liturgy.
There’s nothing in the Amidah to “pretend” about. It just is hard to get through quickly for a beginner in Hebrew. I fully expect that Sebastien would have trouble with it, just as I did.
CURIOUS to know how you came to be recitingh the Amidah in a Synagogue’
You …..the utterly convinced Christian…../??
You are not obtuse in your understandings so why pretend to be???
Hi, Edgar. You said,
Why?
PS “Why what?” would be an appropriate answer
@Reader I answered your statement posed as a question at March 3rd at 1:27am posed to me and Madeleine. The one from 8:44 isn’t there. I think some things just disappear, they never get to trash. Happens to me alot. If I want to be sure, I copy it to clipboard, highlight, control c, and then go to home page to see if it’s there.
So, no, I don’t think the Americans and Brits have always felt entitled to colonize and dominate and they certainly haven’t always gotten their way.
Moreover, it hasn’t always been a bad thing when they did. The British abolished the transatlantic slave trade and enforced it with their navy in 1803. What would South Korea look like today but for the U.S. led force that stopped Communist aggression?
And we certainly would not have invited in alll these jihadists but for misplaced feelings of guilt for a colonial past which pales in comparison with our enemies, past and present and didn’t last very long at all.
Moreover, the U.S. only emerged on the international stage after World War I and as a world power after World War II, supplanting Great Britain, whose colonies, the U.S. forced it to relinquish.
The Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations mandates to decolonize the empires, Wilson’s 12 points., pressure on the Ottoman Empire to respect the rights of non-Muslims. Every world historical event is a mix of idealism and self-interest. To suggest only the latter is what’s known as the school of Vulgar Marxism, as can be found in the works of Charles and Mary Beard or Howard Zinn.
But whether Marxism or Ayn Randism, that’s where always deducing from the general to the particular will get you. It’s more religious than scientific, or more precisely, procrustean.
I leant towards induction.
“AI Overview
+2
Induction is a bottom-up approach that uses specific observations to form general conclusions, while deduction is a top-down approach that uses general information to form specific conclusions”
“AI Overview
+1
Procrustean means forcing people to conform to an arbitrary standard, often in a ruthless way. For example, you might describe a school as Procrustean if it forces all students to fit one educational mold.
Etymology:
The word comes from Procrustes, a character in Greek mythology who stretched or cut off the legs of his guests to fit them into his bed.
Procrustes was a bandit and smith from Attica, Greece. His name means “the stretcher” or “who hammers out the metal”.
Examples in a sentence:
“The company abandoned its procrustean scheduling policy and began allowing single mothers and other employees to work more flexible hours”.
“A high school student might accuse his school of using Procrustean means to force all students to fit one particular educational mold”.
Related terms: Tyrannical, Ruthless, Pointless, and One-size-fits-all. ”
Please continue in Chit Chat
Michael-I saw that you posted that when you were praying you had only gone a little way into the Amidah and the rest had already finished.
I’ve already asked you this but maybe you didn’t see it.
Would you care to explain the why’s and wherefore’s of that particular circumstance.
@Reader No.
@peloni
I think you have become overactive as a co-editor to the point of being extremely intrusive in all the discussions on this blog and directing and moderating the discussions to always suit your own opinion and tastes to the point of sounding like a kindergarten teacher and speaking down to the participants.
I think it would be appreciated if you eased the pressure on the audience here.
@Madeleine and @Sebastien Zorn (is this the comment that you think is missing?)
You haven’t answered my 1st question (say Yes or No) – whether you read my comment from 8:44am which starts with
@Madeline
Your friend will be welcome as are all.
@Madeleine
“There is appetizers? Where?”
https://youtu.be/kZ_z1zueOjA?si=A8azHiJvbTs8y59D
Zelensky gets a HUGE reception in Britain.
youtube.com/watch?v=57rv-3jxxew
I’ve asked a Ukrainian activist friend to join this blog and answer some of the questions that have been raised about the culture conflict and Zel’s offensive actions. I am pressed for time and my friend may be able to cut through the smog of information war better than I can in the search for what is real and what isn’t.
@Sebastein
Nothing by Reader is in the trash.
@Madeline
Great synopsis of Ukraine. This was exactly the issue which Zel’s attempt at peace directly addressed. It was a terrible tragedy that he betrayed his country by not pursuing it as he submitted to the Nazi radicals in the country and there was no more talk of peace from Zel following that.
Good comments by Sebastien to which I entirely agree
https://www.israpundit.org/the-shoot-out-at-the-white-house/#comment-63356000285825
https://www.israpundit.org/the-shoot-out-at-the-white-house/#comment-63356000285824
@ Reader. My reply to Sebastian should answer your question.
@ Sebastian Zorn. When the war broke out three years ago I began to research Ukraine’s history with Russia. It’s a long and complicated one, with the two cultures and languages both similar and different. The Russian speaking population is in the east and was put there some time ago by Russia to do industrial work. It is not the dominant population and is what the strictly Ukr population wants to be free from, including politicians put in place by Russia, who is using whatever it can to influence and have political sway. The neighborhood I’m in is striclty Ukrainian. There are more Russians from Russia and maybe Ukr in southern Brooklyn. As to what should happen in this cultural conflict within Ukr, I hope to be hands off.
@Madeline
1) Have you read my response to you of March 2, 2025 at 8:44 am?
2) Where do the Ukrainians in your neighborhood come from in Ukraine and how long ago did they come in?
My (limited) experience with the recently arrived Ukrainians is that they come from the Western Ukraine where the hatred for everything Russian is acquired by them almost in their mother’s womb and yet they run away from there because they are not crazy about fighting in this war.
@Madeline
Zelensky has been a very effective tool for the Monist Ukainians, ie the Nationalist and Nazis, but a very poor reform leader who was elected to establish peace. And make no doubt about this, he was elected as both the reform and peace candidate, albeit his term of office expired last year. As the war leader, he has succeeded in gaining significant assets at no cost to Ukraine, massive funding and devastating arms, both. So there is a significant reason why your Ukrainian neighbors might celebrate Zel.
The notion that Zel is a Democratic plant is not an easily supportable claim. Instead he is a Uniparty prop, promoted, used and controlled by the bipartisan elements of the US Deep State, and this was true of his predecessor as well, but this wasn’t true of Zel when he first came to office, while he actually did try to effect some form of peace with the ethnic Russians and the Monist Ukrainians. That didn’t last long, and no trace of it has been seen since early 2020 when Zel fired his own peace ally after he was attacked in public by the Nazi goon squad during a press conference announcing his peace overture to bind up the wounds of the Ukrainian people.
These are two different things. Zel is not a Democrat, and his victory becoming president, be it the result of a Selection or an Election, took place under Trump’s administration, even as the US Ambassador to Ukraine was the Deep State manipulator who helped launch both the Russia Hoax and the Ukraine Impeachment scandal.
What is more, Zel isn’t a bad guy because of who might or might not have placed him in power, he is a bad guy because he is running interference in trying to derail Trump’s efforts to establish peace, even to the detriment of squandering the significant support which would be gained by Ukraine to have an official economic tie between the US govt and Ukraine, notably distinct from the tie between US oligarchs and Ukraine which Zel specifically has never attempted to either question or undo. He is also a bad guy for his public call to recognize ‘Palestine’ particularly as he did so nearly a year after October 7. He is a bad guy because he nearly uniquely votes against Israel, even as he does so in league with Russia. He is a bad guy for trying to manipulate Israel against Russia when Russia played a key role in Israel’s situation in the North at the time. Zel’s comparison of the war with Russia and the Holocaust was disgusting and demeaning to the Shoah. He is a bad guy for celebrating the Waffen SS Hunka, for not speaking out about Hunka being awarded the ‘Yaroslav Stetsko’ award, for erecting monuments to participants in the Holocaust, and for openly allying with and promoting the Nazis in his own nation. These are all just some of the reasons why Zel is very much a bad guy, or so I would argue.
I disagree. Russia has not the means nor intent to purge the world of its non-Russian population, something which it did not do even during the era of the Soviet Union, despite the many purges which were conducted for specific effects. This is very different from the world wide slaughter and forced conversion which is very much the intent and current aspirations of the Islamists. October 7, which has no comparison in Russia and Ukraine, except for their respective slaughters of their Jews, is not an anomaly for the Islamists, but it is their entire objective to conduct repeat performances across the entire non-Muslim world.
The interests of the US are greater than that the war should be paid for by someone else. It is that the war had no basis upon which to begin and should be ended, that a negotiated peace could and should have been effected to save the hundreds of thousands of people already dead. China, not Russia, needs the focused effort of the US, though the Chinese surrogates in the US and elsewhere have done a great job in forestalling that effort with the Russia Hoax and the Ukraine war.
We like you too, and perhaps these and other comments I made will come to resonate with you at some point.
Be well.
@Madeleine
Which Ukrainian population? That’s the question. The provinces that seceded applied for admittance to the Russian FEDERATION which allows for real ethnic equality, diversity and inclusion, unlke this Ukrainian state. Case in point.
@ Madeline
As to Trump’s accusation that Zel flirts with WWIII, how?
Both world wars were triggered by mutual defence pacts such as Zelensky is demanding.
“a much smaller country trying to exercise self determination, with its own culture and language, but attacked by a much larger one.”
I don’t know if you recall, but, I didn’t know who to believe until Felix, to his credit in one of his lucid moments, provided links to BBC coverage from the 8 years prior to this war, when Ukraine mercilessly bombed and strafed the Russian majority civilians of Donbas, Luhansk, and Donetsk, whose language, culture, and family ties to Russia, the ethno-chauvinist post-CIA/Mi6 /Obama/Kerry/Victoria Nuland/ God knows who else color revolution – orchestrated Ukrainian government was trying to suppress.
The Ukrainian state was created for the first time in history by the stroke of a pen to include areas that had never been ethnically Ukrainian. Hungarians too are discriminated against in Transnistria which was transferred to Ukraine after WWI as Donbas and Crimea were transferred after WWII by Kruschev when it was all Soviet territory and, so it didn’t seem to matter.
This is what led to civil wars in Africa, the Middle East, and Yugoslavia.
Same thing happened in Georgia. That was GW Bush. The West has been waging a cold war against Russia since it voluntarily dismantled the Soviet Empire in exchange for promises of good will, the same way the Austro-Hungarian and German empires at the end of WWI expecting President Wilson’s 12 point plan to be applied. Very dangerous historical repetition.
@Laura
Both world wars were triggered by mutual defence pacts such as Zelensky is demanding.
“a much smaller country trying to exercise self determination, with its own culture and language, but attacked by a much larger one.”
I don’t know if you recall, but, I didn’t know who to believe until Felix, to his credit in one of his lucid moments, provided links to BBC coverage from the 8 years prior to this war, when Ukraine mercilessly bombed and strafed the Russian majority civilians of Donbas, Luhansk, and Donetsk, whose language, culture, and family ties to Russia, the ethno-chauvinist post-CIA/Mi6 /Obama/Kerry/Victoria Nuland/ God knows who else color revolution – orchestrated Ukrainian government was trying to suppress.
The Ukrainian state was created for the first time in history by the stroke of a pen to include areas that had never been ethnically Ukrainian. Hungarians too are discriminated against in Transnistria which was transferred to Ukraine after WWI as Donbas and Crimea were transferred after WWII by Kruschev when it was all Soviet territory and, so it didn’t seem to matter. The different parts of Ukraine don’t even have the same history, were at various times independent or part of different empires, such as the brief Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic in 1919.
This is what led to civil wars in Africa, the Middle East, and Yugoslavia.
Here are some of the reasons I support Ukraine and Zelensky. First of all, they are clearly the underdog, a much smaller country trying to exercise self determination, with its own culture and language, but attacked by a much larger one. As a spokesperson for the EU said recently, the UN’s dictum that larger countries should not invade smaller ones protects smaller countries from developing their own nuclear weapons, thereby decreasing danger from more nukes in the world. But Russia violates that.
Also, I happen to live in a city with a large Ukrainian population. They are my neighbors. I talk with Ukrainians about the war and their country. They are all glad they have Zelensky fighting for them and want to win their independence and survive. For them it is about self determination. Some of them talk about the corruption they saw, but I have not heard a word about Zelensky being a Democrat plant.
I agree that the Obama and Biden administrations handled their involvement sloppily. But for the Republicans to REACT against Dems and thus paint Zel as a bad guy who wants the war to continue, is ridiculous and childish. As Ukrainians see it, this is THEIR war, whichever admin is in power in the US. If the US has war and compasion fatigue, fine. Just do it with some dignity. As I wrote earlier here, the economic and military burden of the war rightly belongs on the Europeans.
These are Zel’s own people who are dying. Of course he feels with them! Where is the compassion of the Repub’s, the same way the US felt at the start of the war? Try to walk in their shoes, before judgements are thrown at them. Zel’s point about Ukraine being the protective border (the name actually means borderlands) against Russia’s imperial expansion aims is as well taken now as it was at the beginning of the invasion. There are similarities with Israel in its fight to keep Islamist expansion from advancing.
As to Trump’s accusation that Zel flirts with WWIII, how? By not surrendering to an agreement he has good reason not to trust? It could be argued that Trump is saying run from Russia’s nukes to be safe.
I know that Ted and Peloni have taken Russia’s side in this war, and I like you guys anyway!, but that is something I could never understand.
@Reader That was addressed to Felix. I just quoted you. The meaning should be clear. Nobody takes his irrelevant, obsessive-compulsive “Russia, Russia, Russia, Trotsky, Trotsky Trotsky” ranting peppered with insults seriously. Not even you, his one “defender.”
I remember the first time I played in the orchestra of a musical in some town. We were in a basement room having the sound of the stage piped in. I was the only one subbing on violin. and I didn’t have a coherently written out part. I didn’t know this musical, wasn’t used to playing musicals, as in Broadway musicals, got lost, and didn’t know it. The conductor told me to stop playing. While I was playing. Nobody spoke to me about it. Or again. I didn’t know any of these people.
This was a professional job. Except:
As we all filed onto the bus, afterward, the contractor laconically asked me, “Did you have fun?”
Actually, Felix really does kind of remind me of Zelensky, talking over his patron, lecturing him, superciliously insulting him in public when he was just there to say thank you and sign the agreement.
UNABLE TO READ THE ROOM!
Shall I address, Felix as Zelinsky from now on? Or, as Dzerzhinsky, since “that murdering bastard, Trotsky” was one of the Bolshevik leaders who signed off on the creation of the Cheka.
Or just “iron felix”. No caps, since he’s just like an overgrow kid playing with toy soldiers in the wrong sand box.
“AI Overview
Felix Dzerzhinsky was the first head of the Cheka, the first Soviet secret police agency. The Cheka was created in 1917 by Vladimir Lenin to suppress counter-revolutionaries.
Who was Felix Dzerzhinsky?
Dzerzhinsky was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Polish aristocrat who became a communist.
He was known as “Iron Felix” (Zheleznyy Feliks).
He was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
What was the Cheka?
The Cheka was responsible for counterintelligence, border protection, and overseeing the Red Army.
The Cheka was also responsible for the Red Terror, a campaign of mass arrests, detentions, and executions during the Russian Civil War.
The Cheka was dissolved in 1922 and replaced by the State Political Directorate (GPU).
Legacy
Dzerzhinsky is remembered as a hero of the revolution by former Cheka agents, known as “Chekists”.
Dzerzhinsky is also seen as a symbol of repression and brutality by critics of the Soviet Union.
A monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in Moscow in 1958. ”
—
“Cheka Head Felix Dzerzhinsky Writes To Trotsky”
https://legendofhistory.com/Cheka-Head-Felix-Dzerzhinsky-Writes-To-Trotsky.php
—
“Institutions were created to apply coercion, repression, violence, and terror to defend themselves. Trotsky was the main organizer of the Red Army. Felix Dzerzhinsky, also called Iron Felix, was in charge of setting up the Cheka,[ii] which had the mission to exterminate the counter-revolution agents and the bourgeoisie as a class within the State.
In Trotsky’s words, “But the revolution does require of the revolutionary class that it should attain its end by all methods at its disposal – if necessary, by an armed rising: if required, by terrorism. A revolutionary class which has conquered power with arms in its hands is bound to, and will, suppress, rifle in hand, all attempts to tear the power out of its hands.”[iii]
https://litci.org/en/the-cheka-sword-and-shield-of-the-revolution/
@Sebastien Zorn
What do you mean?
@fquigley
Unfortunately, my “ravings” are NOT conspiracy thinking but everyone has his own opinion – I actually try very hard not to get carried away by my emotions when analyzing the current events and posting about them.
BTW, thanks for the new to me “ignorant of as a farm gate in an Irish field” expression.
The ONLY way to stop this conflict, in MY opinion is either for Russia to take over the whole of Ukraine ASAP or for Ukraine to join Russia and Belarus with a peace and cooperation treaty, but I doubt any of this is going to happen.
The worst outcome will be for Russia (and Ukraine) to trust the US and the rest of the “free world”.
Reader
Thank you for defending my right of free speech which Zorn does not understand
In the end he has no case. Trotsky and Lenin were able to transform the Red Army as it fought against the Antisemitism of the old czarist capitalism order. It was a peasant army, as you know, and containing Antisemitism in its ranks, but the leadership of Lenin and of Trotsky based on their long struggles over lifetimes against the base hatred of the Jew would not give in to that backward ideology.
This has great meaning for today.
I look with contempt on those who know the score but refuse to learn those lessons
This is the lesson I learned when israpundit aimed to ban me from using a Webster dictionary word (Bxxxxx) which refers to a person who gives the appearance of knowledge but on the most key facts of Jewish history is as ignorant of as a farm gate in an Irish field
PELONI
”
Folks here shilling for Russia
I will remind you not to use this or any phrase similar to this on this site. ”
What rot!
I defend her against your diktats
If Laura wants to use that phrase then I defend her right. I may not agree with her. No matter. Free speech on israpundit against such repression
Gonzalo Luria was murdered for his exercise of his free speech by the Neonazis
@Felix
DO NOT ALLOW ZORN AND SIDEKICK PELONI CONFUSE!
Sebastien Zorn
March 1, 2025 at 10:18 pm
I think Trump spoke common sense taken at face value. Lasting agreements take time to work out. Meanwhile, thousands of people on both sides are dying every week – 1.4 million dead, wounded, captured, so far – and Ukrainian cities are being turned into rubble. Plus the threat of all these alliances triggering another world war.
If Russia breaks the cease fire, the war can resume. Trump isn’t demanding Ukraine demobilize. Trump’s record shows that he prides himself on being a peace maker. I felt that he was sincere. ”
End Quote
Zorn is totally wrong. He has picked this up from NOWHERE just as he repeats and repeats calumnies against Trotsky
Again from nowhere.
Then like a disrepute Zorn laughs
Similarly with editor Peloni who backs Zorn
The above is a lie. Russia is not attacking civilian areas in Ukraine and never had been or will be.
Zorn and Peloni backing him spread the lie it is a stalemate
No Russia is winning. It must continue winning.
(The ravings of Reader are just the hated conspiracy thinking)
Putin and Russia are in control in this war and are moving forward to fulfilling the main aims of the SMO
THAT INCLUDES DENAZIFICATION. AND UKRAINE WILL BE A NEUTRAL STATE AS AUSTRIA HAS LONG SUCCESSFULLY BEEN
That will be the settlement
The conditions are right for creating a Trotskyist Party in each country. And whether that happens as in everything in life that becomes a subjective matter.
It will be done in bitter opposition to the calumnies of israpundit against us carrying out that task
* Remember Gonzalo Luria murdered by the Ukrainian Neonazis. Luria stood for free speech.
I would like to draw attention to Sebastien’s comment below at the following link:
https://www.israpundit.org/the-shoot-out-at-the-white-house/comment-page-1/#comment-63356000285789
Very well explained.
@Sebastien
It’s Ukrainian propaganda. The Russians have their own list, and they are the same events, with same claims made by each party against each other. The facts which began this war were mired in the US objective to make war with Russia, and the facts which will end this war will be mired in the objective of making peace with Russia. The attempt of Zel to interject this discussion of propaganda at what was intended to be a gift of tangible US support in the form of clear and unambiguous economic ties to Ukraine was both highly inappropriate, and clearly intended to scuttle Trump’s efforts. He was wise to throw Zel out of the White House to demonstrate the resolve of the US to ending the war, to which Zel is very clearly opposed. As I noted previously, the radicals in Ukraine will not tolerate their sock puppet negotiating with Russia, and the terms are as irrelevant as who broke what ceasefire.
@Madeline
The way I try to figure out what is going on is to reason, in a way, from general to specific.
The UK and US have always felt entitled to colonize and dominate the world, influence and rule it as they see fit, and they have been very successful in this endeavor.
The reason they have been so successful at it (starting with the UK) is because they have developed ways of doing this which are unique to them and which take into account their interests EXCLUSIVELY (their geographic locations determine a lot of their politics also just as for any other country), and they stick to the principle that the ends always justify the means.
In 1904 Halford John Mackinder came up with the Hearland Theory which he further developed in 1919:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geographical_Pivot_of_History
Basically, at this point, the last 2 goals on the way to the full control of the world are the full control over Ukraine leading, ideally, to the full control of Russia/Eurasia – and the world takeover will be fully or practically fully accomplished.
THIS IS THE ONLY GOAL.
I wrote that it would be rather through its proxies that the US would attack Russia, it doesn’t have to be from within Ukraine but it seems the most convenient way to do it.
Of course, I have no way of knowing how things will actually develop.
Russia is the country which has been attacked by the West throughout its history, it suffered immensely in WWII, and it has no interest in WWIII.
In the early 90s Russia destroyed its government, gave up its ideology to switch to capitalism, left the Eastern Bloc countries (including East Germany), and dismantled the Eastern Bloc military counterpart to NATO all for the unwritten promise that NATO will not advance east even one inch.
The promise was not kept, to say the least, and all the Russian complaints, suggestions, requests for agreements were ignored, while Ukraine demanded to join NATO and EU, and to get back her nuclear weapons, and started a punishing ethnic discrimination against her Russian population.
I am not saying Russia is an innocent victim but every country has certain interests which must be taken into account by others.
Based on the above information, I conclude that the US and UK can never have true friends or allies, especially not Russia which is the last major obstacle on the way to their goal.
The quest for a ceasefire and for reestablishing good relations with Russia has a goal of stopping Russian advance in Ukraine, preventing Russia from achieving its SMO goals, and getting ready for the next attack (similar to Israel-Arab ceasefires).
My opinion that Trump Zelensky meeting was a setup is now all over the Internet.
@Laura
I will remind you not to use this or any phrase similar to this on this site.
@Madeline
\
The US meetings with Russia were not related to Ukraine. They were about US-Russian relations, trying to re-establish diplomatic relations which had been torched by the Deep State implanted junta. Zel’s refusal t support these initial meetings was telling of his opposition to any peace deal, no matter the conditions.
They weren’t ignoring his concerns about Putin breaking the ceasefire agreements, as there are no ceasefire agreements as of yet. His concerns should not be used to prevent a ceasefire, or there is no point in discussing the ceasefire, as his concerns will not, and should not, be excised no matter what is discussed or agreed to. Such concerns exist on both sides, and should and will be handled during the substantive discussions of the terms to be discussed away from the public eye, and Zel’s attempt to use these as a basis in preventing these discussions once again demonstrates his resolve that there should be no peace.
These were US oligarchs, not the the US govt. They included George Soros and Exon Mobile, Hunter Biden, and Mitt Romney’s son, but again, not the US govt, and let us not forget that these US oligarchs were and remain Zels very good friends and allies. Notably, the placement of these US oligarchs in Ukraine were not intended to prevent war, but to incite and support war with Russia while supporting and expanding the corruption in Ukraine while exporting the benefits of Ukraine’s assets for those US oligarchs, again, not the US govt. These nuances are very substantial while being very different things.
This remains to be a problem, even as it is simple messaging to Zel’s interest in maintaining the war. As you say, it represents his stand with his military, which should be understood, once again, to be opposed to peace. This is why he maintains what is essentially his wartime uniform. Do you think Putin should show up in a uniform during negotiations? While it is not substantively relevant that Zel is in uniform or in a leotards, the lack of wearing diplomatic attire is intended once again to message the fact that he is not interested in diplomacy, which is the only point of these meetings.
This is not relevant to the peace negotiations which Trump is pursuing.
I simply disagree. It was disrespectful of the US initiative to negotiate a peace to try to blow up the US attempts at establishing a dialogue with Russia. It was disrespectful for Zel to show up in what amounts to his battle fatigues at a negotiating event. It was disrespectful for Zel to suggest that Trump was under Russian influence while a guest in the US at an event which the US was giving him a HUGE benefit in being economically tied to the US govt, not the US oligarchs which were Zel’s very good friends.
If you watch the entire 50min video, you will see that Trump purposefully contained himself while Zelensky repeatedly took liberties which annoyed Trump – look for Trump adjusting his jacket.
The big loser in this will be first Ukraine and then Europe, and the big winner will be China, and this latter point really is the entire point of Zel’s attempt to prevent peace. China is the real threat which faces the US, and the US needs to part Russia from China. This can be done with coordination and protection of Ukraine, or it can messily and difficultly done while Ukraine pretends that creating a European war will benefit Ukraine, which it won’t – it will only succeed in seeing more dead Slavs, which was always the point of the US involvement in Ukraine, which Trump is trying to end.
@Laura
Did you miss the report about the US funding Hamas, before and after October 7? But everything should be determined around Putin hosting Hamas at a meeting? What about the USAID and the US State Dept financing a color revolution against Bibi? Your logic fails to be convincing. In fact, Trump’s actions are not relatable to these facts, but should be judged on their own, but if we were to weigh these facts as relevant, surely meeting with Hamas would be far less significant than the culpability and complicity of the US. As Ted noted long ago, the US was the Bad Guy in Ukraine, and reversing that reality is what Trump is attempting to do, which is a good thing. The US Deep State puppet Zelensky is a just casualty in all of this, which is why he is trying to still do the bidding of the Deep State and derail the peace deal Trump is trying to arrange.
Do not forget that Biden stole the US election, and with the authority of that fraud worked hand in glove to turn over the military and financial and diplomatic assets of the US to Ukraine. All of this must and will be undone, which is, again, why Zelensky is fighting it.
@Reader. So you are saying that the US is planning to attack Russia from a “colonized and ruined Ukraine.” Why do it from there, when the US could do it more conveniently from a Nato country? What is in the interests of the US to attack Russia, other than forestalling an attack by Russia on an ally, which so far only happened on Ukraine? Do you see Russia as an innocent victim? Please expand because your ideas strike me as going against what I see.
@Laura @Madeline
Neither Trump nor Vance are on Putin’s side and Starmer. et al. are not on Zelensky’s side.
The US is trying to deceive Russia into thinking that the US is its friend so that the US (or rather its proxies) could later attack Russia from a better position inside the colonized and ruined Ukraine.
The UK (and Europe) are supposed to keep both Ukraine and Russia bleeding and losing their young men on the battlefield by pretending to support Ukraine and feeding it just enough arms to keep the meat grinder going.
Both Russia and Ukraine (especially Ukraine) must understand the plot before it’s too late.
By the way, what was Zelensky talking about when he cited 25 times Russia broke ceasefires? He said he presented Trump with the list. Anybody else here seen this list?
I think Trump spoke common sense taken at face value. Lasting agreements take time to work out. Meanwhile, thousands of people on both sides are dying every week – 1.4 million dead, wounded, captured, so far – and Ukrainian cities are being turned into rubble. Plus the threat of all these alliances triggering another world war.
If Russia breaks the cease fire, the war can resume. Trump isn’t demanding Ukraine demobilize. Trump’s record shows that he prides himself on being a peace maker. I felt that he was sincere.
Zelensky coming to the Oval Office dressed like that, looking for alll the world like one of Mussolini’s black shirts, didn’t exactly help the stmosphere either. Did you hear one of the onlookers – was he one of the new and improved variety of White House press pool journalists? – say, “Why didn’t you wear a suit?” Trump merely made a light-heartedly wry quip about it when greeting him earlier.
I think Trump summed up the situation very succinctly when he said, “Zelensky wants to fight. He comes in hurling invective at Putin. You can’t open negotiations with someone while you are insulting them publicly. Let him come back when he wants peace or deal with it on his own.
When he said the U.S. needs to get its money back, and that, at least, Europe gave in the form of a loan he was half right.
Of course, he will never say that we started all this under previous administrations with all the color revolutions and he, perhaps cluelessly, perhaps because he was under fire from the left over the Russian collusion hoax, went along with it in his first term.
But, hey, that’s the beauty of democracy today. Every 4 years it’s a new dawn. Except, of course for the Democrats when they are in power and they can blame every setback on the previous Republican administration.
I’m reminded of Eddie Murphy’s brilliant bit: “Wasn’t me.”
https://youtu.be/u_f6qFBQD9U?si=qEq31eV_6Mjb4PGB
@Adam D. Good. I’m glad support for Z is surging. Time for Europe to wake up and get active in its own defense. It’s just a shame that it took such contempt for Z to get there. Or maybe it had to.
From Madeline:
.
Check this out. A Times Radio commentator says report for Zelensky has “surged” (in Enland?) since Trump’s alleged “ambush” of Zelensky.The Times radio commrntator says that Zelensky’s sipport is at 65%(in Britain?)
I’m having trouble posting this. Laura, I’m with you on this. Trump is riding roughshod over Ukraine to get the appearance of a deal, never mind reality on the ground. This is why some of his business ventures failed – not enough interest in details, or humanity, as in evicting a widow from her home in Atlantic City, New Jersey to get a new casino site abusing the use of eminent domain.
As to Israel, I had the same misgivings when he announced his plans for a ceasefire and a riviera on the Mediterranean. He doesn’t give a hoot about Ukrainians or Isrealis. And don’t call me a Dem. I voted for him 3 times, though I always preferred alternatives in the primaries.
I can understand why Trump insists now on loyalty, considering how he got mangled first time around. But he’s the kind of guy, big thinker, who needs someone to hold his feet to the fire about little details, little people. Sometimes you gotta color inside the lines.
Here we go with the 4D chess again. Maybe Trump was just being a dick. It’s not complicated. This is who he is. It seems clear to me that Trump is taking Putin’s side.
Don’t forget that both Trump and Zelensky have entertainment industry experience.
100%, Madeline.
Folks here shilling for Russia and hate Zelensky, don’t be shocked if Netanyahu gets the same treatment at some point should he dare to disagree or offend Trump in any minor way. Remember that Trump already had a falling out with Bibi over his congratulatory phone call to Biden. Everyone is expected to grovel to Trump. Z failed to bend the knee before King Trump, therefore naturally it’s his fault for the blow-up. Trump is always right, and we must always agree. I respect Zelensky for standing up to Putin and now Trump. He is not intimidated by the powerful.
As for Vance, he acts like a punk, and he’s drunk with his newfound power. He never supported helping Ukraine and I believe he purposely sabotaged the deal. For some bizarre reason, he’s on Putin’s side. I also cannot begin to understand why some people on Israpundit are siding with Putin and Russia. Putin hosted hamas meetings in Moscow.
I could be totally wrong about this but my gut feeling is that this meeting was staged. Trump is pulling out the playbook from the WWE school of “negotiations.”
He is staging a rift to give him more leverage in negotiations with Russia. Pretending to force Zelensky to make concessions.
What I saw was shockingly disrespectful – from Trump and Vance towards Zelenskyy. First, they left him out of initial negotiations, going over his head. Then they ignore his concerns about Putin breaking past ceasefire agreements, as if a mineral deal should be security enough, even if, as Zelensky pointed out, other US companies were in Ukraine and Russia invaded anyway. As to his clothing, Zelensky put on military garb the day he refused to be flown out to safe exile and instead asked for ammo. He stands with his military.
As for rudeness, to invite a foreigner who does not speak your language perfectly to your house, and then subject him to insults, ignore the legitmate points he raises, and try to force his hand by televising him —– and then insist he be the one to apologize….OMG. It reminds me of how some people treat a raped woman. Why did you let yourself get raped and now you must apologize to the people who say they are trying to help you because you are being so much trouble to us. Beyond disrespectul. How about sadistic.
Best thing for Uk, as I see it, is to turn its back on the US and build up its relationship with the rest of Europe. The US will save money, which seems to be driving the emotional tone of this debacle, and it needs to save money and ammo anyway.