Ukraine & Russia

Trump greenlights total annexation; NATO is neutered and the EU is powerless on its own.

In tears.

There will be no peace and it will be directly because of Trump's involvement. Putin knows he can do anything he wants to and demand anything and get it.

Whatever happens - Trump will claim it's peace and it's because of him. No other leader could have done this blah blah blah...

Everything Trump touches dies.

It will never end, at least not while Putin is still alive, and I doubt his successor will be any better. There may a temporary ceasefire, but Russia will just rearm and end up doing even worse things to their neighbors in the long run.

[quote]Trump greenlights total annexation; NATO is neutered and the EU is powerless on its own.

Europe already supports Ukraine more than the US. The member states have also begun to rebuild their military infrastructure. It'll take a few decades, but the dependence on the US will end--due to Trump. The Pax Americana is over; everybody knows this. Europe is just playing nice until they don't need the US anymore.

The US is in the process of imploding anyway. I think it will collapse in the next 20 years, possibly breaking into smaller parts. It's military power will strongly decrease over the next century.

I don't think Putty will say, "You know what? Let's forget the whole thing. Please forgive us. And here's your territory back". The financial and human toll has been too great. And they would be humiliated. He will just keep marching forward:

"High Casualty Numbers: The UK Defense Ministry and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimate that over one million Russian troops have been killed or injured since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022. This includes an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 fatalities"

Has evil ultimately prevailed in modern history?

Russia never wanted to rule all of Ukraine. Putin needs to prevent NATO from building a base there.

It ends with Russia in control of the Donbas to protect the ethnic Russians from Ukrainian fascists. And there will be a peace treaty where Kyiv controls Ukraine proper.

Crimea of course is historically Russian and remains as such.

He wants all of Ukraine completely within the Russian sphere of influence, at least. No military or political threat, and no choice of ever joining NATO or the EU. He wants a de facto restoration of the “empire.”

#9, so the message is: "Invade, occupy, annex"?

Fuck off, cunt r9. You know, they're not big fans of gays over in Mother Russia, right?

We've been in the worst timeline for a while now, but I think the most heartbreaking thing is how Ukraine is being utterly fucked over by everyone. Biden fucked around and dithered for 2.5 years, Trump is actually psychotic, the Western Europeans are cowardly hypocrites (all the finger wagging from France and the others might actually mean something if they weren't sucking down Russian LNG like water), and Eastern Europe is a pit of vipers, with Slovakia and Hungary openly undermining everything and the others wavering.

Ukraine didn't do shit to deserve what's happening to it. Whatever your opinion about Israel/Gaza and proportional responses, Hamas DID attack Israel on 10/7 from Gaza. Feel free to let me know when Ukraine did anything even remotely similar to Russia.

So most likely, Ukraine ends up losing a big chunk of territory and then everyone rushes to drop the sanctions against Russia, which then rearms for round two, launching the next invasion from a better strategic position. They're not going to stop until they've either annexed or turned most of Ukraine into a vassal state. (They don't care about Western Ukraine and have repeatedly dangled Poland annexing it for some reason). Russia has a massive chip on its shoulder regarding Ukraine (study up on "Kievan Rus") and views it like an abusive husband views his ex-wife - either he will have her or nobody will.

There are too many variables to predict an outcome.

They are both locked in an eternal death grip. The struggle is existential for Ukraine and for Putin.

Yes, Putin, not Russia. Russia will always be there whether it’s under Putin or not. But Putin’s kleptocracy will likely fall if he pulls out of Ukraine with no annexations secured. He’s spent too much capital — human, material, financial and diplomatic — for that.

But if Ukraine permits annexation, the country is dead. The areas claimed by Russia have enormous economic value. Ukraine will be hobbled by giving them up.

And the hobbled country will be attacked again by Russia. And they’ll take more and more until it’s gone.

Death by a thousand cuts is the way Russia moved east and south. Read about the statist conquest of the Caucasus. They took one tiny bit, waited until people weren’t oissed off anymore, then took another tiny bit. Over and over and over again.

^^^ tsarist not “statist”

There’s a difference!

r11 Like most every war in the past 80 years, the war in Ukraine was provoked by American meddling. If Russia had wanted to take Ukraine they would have done so in the 1990's. They wouldn't have waited 30 years for the U.S. to stage a coup in Kyiv. There never would have been a war if the Biden family hadn't set up shop in Ukraine in 2013 and before. You think it's a coincidence that Biden's investments and a grand money laundering scheme preceded the Russian invasion?

You can leave now—and take your fake history with you. TIA

[Quote] [R11] Like most every war in the past 80 years, the war in Ukraine was provoked by American meddling.

Absolute bullshit.

The Russians have regretted giving up their empire for decades. Especially old cold warriors like Vladdy Poots. He has been rebuilding it incrementally ever since. Small steps for two decades.

Then he risked bigger steps.

The first big step was Crimea. It worked.

This emboldened him to get even more ambitious. Big mistake. Big big mistake.

Of course he blames America for everything. That seed gains purchase in Russia. Russia is utterly blameless and pure. Everything is the fault of the evil United States.

In America, it only gains traction with a certain kind of MAGA moron who wants Putin to win, because they want the USA to become a rightwing dictatorship, like Russia.

Unless both the EU and US begin forcing the Russians back by supplying much, MUCH more lethal weaponry to Kyiv, Putin will continue advancing Eastward.

It's that simple.

Doh!! Westward, not Eastward.

Yes, roguish international man of mystery, Hunter Biden, was secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes to mastermind an overthrow of the government of Ukraine.

We filthy leftist liberal American piggies owe the world a big mea culpa for our complicity.

I'm wondering who is financing Russia? They're not thriving on oil sales. Half the country is tundra.

I have a feeling that Zelensky is going to resign. I can't explain it.

<- They keep haroing on him that his term has expired and he is technically no longer the leader of Ukraine.

If I was him I'd take it as an excuse to get the hell outta there. He only ran as a celebrity gag anyway. Little did he know he'd be living in a bunker in a war-torn country fighting for it's existence.

OH, I see the vatniks have arrived.

Trump should not be meeting with Putin, no good will come from it.

[quote] Russia never wanted to rule all of Ukraine. Putin needs to prevent NATO from building a base there.

Nice try, Boris. This is Russian propaganda.

Everyone who has investigated this conflict a tiny bit knows that Putin doesn't recognize Ukrainians as a seperate people, thus justifying the dissolution of the Ukraine as its own state and absorbing it into his Russian Empire.

What r3 said

President Shit for Brains had better not agree to something outrageous.

I think it will grind on until Putin dies. He successor likely won't share Putin's fucked up imperial delusions and will seek to quietly end the war. I think the war has hurt Russia in many ways and only continues because of Putin's iron grip on every aspect of society.

Whose idea was it to meet in Alaska? Everyone knows Russia wants it back.

I have a feeling that Zelensky is going fall out of a third story window. I can't explain it.

I think Putin could kill Zelensky at any moment with a precision missile strike, r32. He probably hasn't done that because it would be a major escalation and would motivate the US and European governments to become more involved in the war. Killing a foreign leader is still a big taboo. It might also motivate the Ukrainians to keep fighting.

Lavrov arrived in Alaska wearing a USSR sweater.