Does anyone seriously expect Putin and the Russians to sit by passively as Ukraine spends two years to equip and train (largely at US taxpayer expense) a reconstituted half a million man army?
I think Putin learned his lesson when Ukraine and NATO used the Minsk 2 Agreement as a subterfuge to buy time to create a more robust Ukraine military force. He won't go down that road a second time!
thanks stephen.. good overview.. how many ukrainians have to die to satisfy usa-natos agenda here? i see the concept of any peace settlement is virtually impossible on the part of usa-ukraine.. trying to get ukrainian men who have voted on this with their feet - to return - it seems problematic at best..
I see the replacement of Resnikov by a Crimean Tatar negotiator with no Defense experience, along with the arrest of Kolomoisky, main backer of the Donbas war after 2014, as the beginning of an endgame.
Washington leaks critical of progress towards the Sea of Azov began on 17 August, along with Kiev's PR pushback about a breakthrough at Robotyne and the commitment of their best brigades, beginning in Western media the same day.
After two weeks of positive media reports of the fall of Robotyne each day, every day, since 17 August, but no progress toward Verbove, leaving vulnerable narrow flanks, Kyiv seems now to have got the message from Washington, first offered by Milley in November 2022: this is as good as it gets, agree a ceasefire and we can all talk about security guarantees and territory, as in March 2022 before Johnson arrived to scupper the first talks.
I think its interesting that this new minister is a Crimean Tatar....I'll be interested to see his public comments when he gets his feet wet in this new position.
Ukraine Update 9/4/2023
Does anyone seriously expect Putin and the Russians to sit by passively as Ukraine spends two years to equip and train (largely at US taxpayer expense) a reconstituted half a million man army?
I think Putin learned his lesson when Ukraine and NATO used the Minsk 2 Agreement as a subterfuge to buy time to create a more robust Ukraine military force. He won't go down that road a second time!
thanks stephen.. good overview.. how many ukrainians have to die to satisfy usa-natos agenda here? i see the concept of any peace settlement is virtually impossible on the part of usa-ukraine.. trying to get ukrainian men who have voted on this with their feet - to return - it seems problematic at best..
john mearsheimer has a good substack article up which is worth the read - https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/bound-to-lose
I see the replacement of Resnikov by a Crimean Tatar negotiator with no Defense experience, along with the arrest of Kolomoisky, main backer of the Donbas war after 2014, as the beginning of an endgame.
Washington leaks critical of progress towards the Sea of Azov began on 17 August, along with Kiev's PR pushback about a breakthrough at Robotyne and the commitment of their best brigades, beginning in Western media the same day.
After two weeks of positive media reports of the fall of Robotyne each day, every day, since 17 August, but no progress toward Verbove, leaving vulnerable narrow flanks, Kyiv seems now to have got the message from Washington, first offered by Milley in November 2022: this is as good as it gets, agree a ceasefire and we can all talk about security guarantees and territory, as in March 2022 before Johnson arrived to scupper the first talks.
Someone needs to tell the WSJ that the Russian defensive lines have not been breached. Unless they have been. Someone is not telling the truth.
I think its interesting that this new minister is a Crimean Tatar....I'll be interested to see his public comments when he gets his feet wet in this new position.