Zelensky Thanks US for Over $3 Billion Arms Package, Calls It an ‘Awesome Christmas Present’

151 thoughts on “Zelensky Thanks US for Over $3 Billion Arms Package, Calls It an ‘Awesome Christmas Present’”

1. It is not “new,” nor is it “additional.” Antiwar.com continues to insist on following the MSM’s inaccurate hyping of each already approved “drawdown” as “new.” Just as it continues to ape the MSM in trumpeting every trivial, one off, strategically and tactically insignificant, “victory” by the Kiev regime. Perhaps the folks who run this site think they are doing the right thing, highlighting the extent of US involvement in this immoral and unjust war, but, IMO, they are instead playing right into the hands of the MIC. By repeating and front paging these “stories,” Antiwar.com is merely amplifying the MIC’s notion that the Ukraine is “winning.” Which serves to bolster, not undermine, support for the war.

   1. Very interesting perspective.
      I don’t believe they promote mainstream propaganda narratives. It’s easy for anyone to see MS propaganda BS just by paying attention to little things, like spelling of Ukrainian capital. Very useful delimiter. There are also other, more subtle clues and not just within confines of MS propaganda machine.

      To me it looks like Antiwar does a little bit of gaslighting/trolling to keep people involved. Nothing wrong with that. You got to keep your audience interested and participating.

   2. “is merely amplifying the MIC’s notion that the Ukraine is winning” – whether Ukraine (NATO) winning or not, one can see by the shifting frontline. If the frontline is shifting westward, it means the invested money are wasted. I think it is good to talk about the useless waste of budget money anyway.

      1. So you would think, but each ship sunk, each airplane damaged, each and every trivial attack behind the lines, and each “new” and “additional” “round” of spending “package” is what drives the Western public’s understanding of the war. They (from the right to the left, and the center) truly believe the Ukraine is “winning,” and are thus on board for more spending.

         1. About 4 months ago, Ukrainian (NATO) army captured Kherson and before that, it captured quite a big piece of territory in Kharkov region. Of course, it should produce impression that Ukrainian army is winning.
            At the moment, it looks, Ukrainian (NATO) army has a difficult time in Bakhmut and Soledar, but so far, Russian advance isn’t great over there. So we watch and see what happens next.

            1. RE “captured.” One city. Which it can’t occupy.

            2. Russia can’t occupy it either. Kherson region is recognized by Russia as a part of Russian Federation. Russia can’t finish the war before, at least, those four new regions of Russian Federation are completely under Russian control.

            3. And two of them never will be.

   3. These stories highlight the weakness of the US, not its strength.

      These packages have too little equipment . Absolutely nothing is a game changer in any way.

      Russia gained about 20% of Ukraine in year 2022, and it seems likely that more gains will happen in 2023.

      When Thomas Knapp described how little effect the Bradleys would have – oh they will definitely help locally for a while – it reinforced the idea that we really are in it to sacrifice Ukraine for the purpose of stalemating the Russians and depleting their military stock.

      I did not want to believe that our stated primary goal was the real intention.

      1. “These stories highlight the weakness of the US” – it depends upon the outcome of this war. If US will be able to push Russian army out of Donbass (which is highly unlikely), then those stories could highlight American greatness. Otherwise it definitely works against American image. Particular if Russia will take this year more territories.

      2. i think that we need to differentiate between the USA in general and the MIC in particular, because if we can’t then we have much bigger problems than the ukraine issue

         1. I think that is a good point PN.

         2. Fair enough. I am not sure what a proper way to phrase these types of comments would be.

            1. sorry, i wasn’t trying to be a dick

      3. “These stories highlight the weakness of the US, not its strength.”

         Yes. Look at the list. For the most part, these are trivial counts and amounts in the context of this war. For instance, 70K 155mm rounds is less than two weeks worth at Ukraine’s rate of fire, as reported by Ukrainian and US sources.

         1. One analytical problem is that we don’t really know for sure how much stuff either side has, how much stuff either side is producing, or how much stuff either side is successful at moving into the theater of the war and usefully deploying.

            For the US/EU/NATO Ukrainian side, it could be that much less than claimed is actually making it there — or it could be that much more is being sent than we’re told. There are a lot of “black box” budget areas that can be tapped by the president (in some cases in confidential consultation with congressional “leadership”) without public disclosure.

            As Mikhailovich noted, the shifting of lines, etc. will tell the story insofar as that’s harder to hide.

            1. I’m pretty sure, indeed I’m virtually certain, that there are no US black budget categories that either legally cover the secret provision of large quantities of military materiel or have sufficient funds to do so. Also, the available stockpiles of most of this stuff is public information and so are the rates of production.

               I don’t think there’s any way that what you suggest could be done secretly, and trying and being found out would be a political disaster.

               As for shifting lines, that really is not an adequate measure by which to judge the progress of the fighting. If it were, it would suggest that Ukraine is losing. Kiev holds less land now than it did at the beginning of the war. And if it were, this would be a bad time to measure it.

               What seems, mostly, to be going on right now is two armies trying to kill each other and each of them working to degrade the other’s ability to fight.

               We shall see.

            2. Well, the nice thing (for politicians) about the black budget is that it’s secretive enough to cover a lot of illegality. The last number I’ve found for the official black budget is $81.1 billion in 2019. A lot of people seem to think that the real thing usually runs $200-$300 billion per year, but I don’t really know. There are also regimes other than the US whose expenditure claims might be at least semi-fictional in any direction.

               Also, you seem to be looking at only one angle of my suggestion. Another is that not nearly as much stuff as the US regime claims to be sending is actually getting there, and that the Ukrainian situation is even worse than the published numbers would suggest.

               It will probably be years (if ever) before we know who is sending what where, and how effectively what’s being sent is getting there and being used. Probably long after the military outcome is settled, to the degree that’s likely to happen.

            3. I hope we have years Thomas, I most certainly do.

            4. Yeah, $80 billion is probably about right. Most of it is typically spent on things like Wunderwaffen R&D, but that leaves plenty for various creepy black ops and similar nastiness.

               Even if there were enough money in a slush fund, it just wouldn’t be possible to secretly procure, ship, deliver, train on, maintain, etc. large quantities of the stuff we’re talking about. Too many people involved, in too many places. Way too many. And that’s leaving aside the likely underlying reality: The stuff doesn’t exist.

               I actually think that most of the stuff that’s said to be transferred to Ukraine actually is being transferred. It’s hard to imagine that Zelensky and the other crazies wouldn’t be yelling from rooftops if it wasn’t showing up. Of course, whether it’s getting to the front is another question.

            5. I fully expect eventually to discover some things on the scale of Air America (CIA airforce flying in Laos during the Vietnam War). We have done this sort of thing before, and often.

               This is the same crowd that did the Nicaraguan Contras, and before that the Bay of Pigs. Over and over again they’ve done it.

               So when Thomas Knapp suspects it, he suspects only more of the same as we’ve seen so often before.

            6. No, it would not be more of the same. It would be very different. Providing small arms to guerrillas, sponsoring a half-assed “invasion” by a couple thousand exiles, or even the relatively-larger (and much longer) Air America operations are not nearly undertakings on the scale of secretly sending massive quantities of weapons, equipment and munitions to support a full-fledged land war in Europe.

               There plenty of possibilities for operations related to the war in Ukraine which the US might be funding from the black budget. Sending meaningful quantities of conventional materiel is not likely one of them.

         2. It means 3.5shells per second-barrels will overheat.

   4. “Antiwar.com continues to report news that I DON’T WANT TO HEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.”

      Fixed, no charge.

      1. Start charging people , Thomas. It’d be a nice source of income 😉

      2. It isn’t “news” at all.
         If it ain’t “new” (and, it isn’t), then it ain’t news.

   5. It’s not about demoralizing pro-Russia people or supporting Ukraine. Sometimes you just have to look at facts on the ground. The US is playing dirty and using only the language of force- they have no morals and don’t abide to ceasefires.

      This is a massive bipartisan PR war and Europe is pretty much subservient to the US. The weapons companies are making a killing from this war- literally. The US is going for broke. It would be an absolute miracle at this point if Russia managed to pull out a victory and drive NATO out of Ukraine. They have the entire West against them. They have suffered lots of casualties. Ukraine is in shambles.

2. Putin not long ago gave a warning if the US supplied Kiev weapons like this. He stated he will destroy bridges, railroads and etc if it happens.

   1. With or without NATO giving aid to Ukraine sooner or later Putin will go after these targets.

      1. True because what people here don’t realize is that Ukrainians will fight with or without the “evil, Neo Nazi” West.

   2. If the Russians could, can you give a good reason that they have not already done so – destroying bridges and railroads in Ukraine that deliver weapons and troops to the front is a legitimate military target, supposedly the Russians do not want to occupy most of Ukraine west of the Dniepro – so why have they not made resisting so much more difficult for the Ukrainians?

      1. You just answer your own question. “If the Russians could” Like any army they don’t have infinite resources.

         1. Actually I believe they cannot, as in they do not have the conventional weapons capable of doing the job, or not the pilots willing to do the suicide mission to try to deliver the weapons capable of doing it.

            1. Lack of motivation is a big problem for the Russian troops. If Russian troops are painting themselves with cell phone calls, they are fighting like a defeated army, like the US was in Vietnam. This is Putin’s war, it is not Russia’s war.

            2. I think you are absolutely right – I do not think the Ukrainians have a realistic chance of beating a motivated Russia, but I do think that they like the Afghans can beat a Russia which is not really motivated to fight them, and by beat them I mean get them to decide to vacate the lands they occupy more so than beat them on the battlefield.

            3. The Ukrainians don’t need the “beat” Russia. They will win if they continue to resist. Miraculously, Ukraine has been able to continue to fight effectively with a conventional army. But Ukraine’s ultimate strength is the will of the indigenous people to resist the Russian invasion by any means, including guerrilla war. That is why Russia can’t win. In fact, on a cost benefit analysis, Putin’s invasion has already failed.

            4. Russia is not fighting “Ukraine “, per se.
               it is fighting NATO and Amerikkka. Where would Ukraine be without these scores of billions gifted them?

            5. Russia is fighting a Ukrainian national resistance that is receiving aid from the US and some aid from NATO. If the US/NATO cut off their aid, the Ukrainians would fight a guerrilla war for as many years as it takes the drive the Russian army out. US support cannot create a national resistance (e.g., Venezuela, Cuba, South Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq). But on a few occasions, the US aided legitimate national resistance movements (e.g., mujahideen and Ukraine). The Taliban is a good example of how an authentic national resistance movement can prevail over a stronger invader even in the absence of foreign support. BTW, I abhor a lot of what the Taliban stands for. But they have a lot of support among the Afghan people which the US supported warlords did not.

               NATO is aiding the Ukrainian. But the Ukrainian will to resist centuries of Russian and Soviet domination is th driving force of the national resistance movement and the reason Putin’s invasion cannot succeed in the long run.

            6. Without “help” from US, Ukraine would never have a military conflict with Russia.

3. Throw more gasoline on the fire!

4. The Russian MOD is fighting a very successful war of attrition disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March,), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense.
   NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
   360 Aircraft, 199 helicopters, 2843 UAV’s, 400 Anti Aircraft systems, 7441 tanks inc. APC’s, 972 multiple rocket launchers, 3787 rocket launchers and 7957 military automotive equipment.

   In March 2022 Ukraine reached the Istanbul peace agreement and Russia withdrew its forces from Kiev. Boris Johnson intervened and promoted a NATO solution to the Russian problem. And here we are today with Poland calling up 200,000 reserves, Ukraine is collapsing and Poland/Romania are now being called up to die for empire. What the empire looses in the Ukraine, they loose for the final NATO war against Russia.

   In the past year we have seen the Rules Based Order (NATO) act in a state of criminal insanity. They blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline which will deindustrialise Europe. The shelling the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station in an effort to cause a nuclear accident. The planning of a false flag nuclear weapon detonation on their own soil!!! This is the actions of criminally insane psychopaths.

   1. Well said DS, well said and this situation gravely concerns me…

      1. NATO continues to escalate in a very desperate way, its very concerning. Russia will achieve its goals, disarm and denazification, no matter how much NATO throws into Ukraine. That is the point of my Russian MOD updates, to show how much NATO is being disarmed.

         What NATO is doing is the definition of evil.

         1. We appreciate all of your efforts DS.
            Thank you.

         2. The industrial capacity of NATO is much greater than one of Russia. The only way to disarm NATO is to nuke it, which Russia can do only in a really extreme situation.
            For the demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine, it is necessary to occupy all Ukrainian territory or, at least, take under control all the borders, which is hardly achievable with the currently employed half million troops. Putin said in December they don’t plan any soon a new mobilization. It looks, maximum what Russia can do in following months, is to take under control the rest of pro-Russian regions (four of them are still under Kiev regime occupation).

            1. In the case of weapons and munitions, I think NATO’s potential industrial capacity is much greater than Russia’s, but its current and near-term capacity is not. Except for the US, most NATO countries haven’t been focused on “defense” production and US manufacturing has been centered for a long time on fancy, expensive (it’s all about profit), fragile systems not particularly suitable for the fighting under way on the steppes of Eastern Europe. It takes a long time to ramp up additional production.

               I agree that it appears that Russia’s current goal is mostly to secure the recently-annexed oblasts/breakaway republics and perhaps additional regions where Russian culture, language and sociopolitical alignment make that effort sensible.

               I think Odessa is the biggest question in the foreseeable future. There’s no question that Russian populations want that, but the US-NATO would almost certainly resist in a very big way.

            2. Did you say that the Russian population in Odessa would like to be annexed? If so, you have clearly never been in Odessa.

            3. I’m going to stop responding to your posts when they amount to no more than either deplorable failures of reading comprehension or almost-laughably amateurish attempts at straw man construction. Hmm. Maybe they are both, simultaneously. 🙄

            4. That’s cause I call out your biased BS.

               I know you prefer the folks that agree with you. I’m not and surely don’t need your one sided responses.

            5. The West is determined to support Kiev regime, so, most likely, the war will carry on in 2024. For finishing it before 2024, Russia will need to mobilize, may be, one million more and, of course, make enough weapons. In the last months, the military production in Russia increased drastically, but NATO countries, of course, can do the same.

            6. “. . . but NATO countries, of course, can do the same.”

               Yes, potentially, but the political and economic realities are very different from those in Russia. The Russian MIC is largely state-owned and -controlled, while NATO’s is investor-owned and profit-driven. Ramping up weapons production in the US and Europe requires extremely expensive contractual commitments to manufacturers, reduces spending on domestic programs that are popular and important to politicians in our frequent elections.

               I think there are very real constraints on the US-NATO ability to massively increase production and that, even to the extent that increases are possible, they won’t happen very quickly.

            7. US have a huge military budget. I think, they can redistribute the money within it in favor of those weapons which can be used in Ukraine.
               On the other hand, I do agree that it is impossible to win the war against Russia. And what is remarkable, this war is making Russia stronger: military, economically and politically.

            8. One million?
               What is this?
               Is Russia fighting China now?

               I know Red Douglas may agree with you a lot but come on, try to be more realistic.

            9. Russia cannot nuke NATO without being obliterated.

            10. I don’t think US or UK will start a suicidal attack against Russia in case if Russia nukes, for example, Poland.

            11. Only an insane person would test that hypothesis. Unfortunately, the face of defeat seems to have unhinged Putin.

            12. Insane persons pushed NATO to Russian border. Now they have the consequences.

            13. On February 22nd Putin said that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people.” (False).
                He also said the goal of the invasion (a/k/a “SMO”) was to de-Nazify, demilitarize and neutralize Ukraine. Russian leaders insisted that this would be accomplished without the use of conscripts or a draft. You now admit above that these goals cannot be accomplished with 500,000 troops. So the failure of the invasion is manifest. The only options left for Russia are holocaust level genocide or retreat. Either way, the war was a mistake that has weakened Russia and devastated Ukraine.

            14. “Russian leaders insisted that this would be accomplished without the use of conscript or draft” – where did you heard this? From CNN?

            15. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-says-will-not-use-conscript-soldiers-ukraine-2022-03-07/

                https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/07/putin-says-will-not-send-conscripts-or-reservists-to-ukraine-a76812

            16. The mobilization was among those who already served in army. They are not sending to Ukraine fresh conscripts.

            17. False!
                Russia grabbed anyone with a pulse regardless of military experience. It even sent elders and men unfit to serve.
                Many from poor villages from Siberia. The rich kids from Moscow and Saint Pete are saved. Not sure if you know this but in Russia anyone with money can bribe their way out of anything.

            18. You are lying.

            19. Nonsense. It is the Ukraine that is forbidding the old grandpas from leaving the country, giving them 2 weeks training, and sending them into the front lines.

            20. Because Russia never lies, only the West does.
                https://www.irishsun.com/news/272541939/reports-of-russian-full-mobilization-false-moscow

            21. Only Russia has plenty of gold and oil to purchase weapons from China,North Korea, and Iran. The US is stripping itself of resources to fight China or anyone else in the next war.

            22. They say Russia purchased some Iranian drones. Maybe it is true, but that was an emergency. Now Russia is making enough weapons of every kind.
                Sure, US is also capable of producing every kind of conventional weapons and in huge quantity.

   2. “Ukraine was disarmed in March” So why are Russian soldiers still dying?

      1. Russian soldiers are still dying for the same reason Ukrainian soldiers are dying. They are dying because the US, primarily, has insisted on prolonging and escalating this war.

         1. The Ukrainians are therefore not disarmed not in March and still not now, and you have just argued that Doom Sternz is just wrong!

         2. Because it could never be due to Putin’s full scale invasion. It has to be only because of the US.
            Yeah, Let’s put the blame on one side only.

         3. And because Putin took the bait and hasn’t found a way to get the hook out of his mouth yet.

            1. I know that’s how you see this and you may, of course, be right. I would say that Russia finally decided, probably in the summer of 2021, that the US would never relent in its decades-long aggression and that there is almost no chance that the “collective West” would ever enter into and abide by a truly-mutual security arrangement that meets Russian needs. And since Russia views US-NATO aggression as an existential threat that must be met, we have a war.

               Given that the Russian leadership was willing to take the risks that launching the invasion carry, and given that it has responded to US-led prolongation and escalation by mobilizing several hundred thousand reserves, annexing the DPR-LPR republics and the two oblasts, has been methodically destroying much of the Ukrainian power grid, while it digs into extensive fortifications in the Donbas, I see no indication that it intends to do anything but persevere in the foreseeable future.

            2. Escalation is an inevitable stage in asymmetric wars of national resistance. Typically the resistance forces’ casualties are 20 to 1 over the casualties of the invaders (e.g., Vietnam, Afghanistan, Algeria, Palestine) But the resistance persists and eventually a leadership arises in the invader that recognizes that under a cost benefit analysis, the best thing for the invader is to withdraw.
               Russia is worse off in every way as a result of this war. NATO is revitalized and expanded. Putin replaced the threat of war with a generational war that Russia can’t win. The war was a terrible mistake for Putin. It is hastening the decline of Russia as a conventional world power.

            3. “. . . asymmetric wars of national resistance . . .”

               That’s what you’re supposed to believe this mess is, and many of you do believe it, because the most elaborate and concerted Western propaganda campaign since WWII is working as designed. No doubt many Ukrainians believe the same and, for them, that is what this war is.

               But that’s a a narrow and fundamentally-flawed understanding. Led by the US, the “collective West” has provoked this disaster with relentless aggression against Russia, false diplomatic dealings and blatant lies, all undertaken deliberately and with malice aforethought. The US is primarily responsible for the provoking this war, is primarily responsible for prolonging and escalating it, and will be primarily responsible for the already-awful and potentially cataclysmic consequences.

            4. As far as Palestine goes-both sides have no where else to go-they will keep fighting.

            5. Eventually the Palestinians will get the vote. When that happens many Zionists who don’t want to live in an Arab majority state will emibrate tothe US or EU or South America. The white population dropped in South Africa since apartheid ended, Same thing will eventually happen in Palestine.

            6. I hope you’re right, Sky, but I’m not standing on one foot waiting.

            7. Meanwhile,life in South Africa isn’t so nice-potential wasted.

            8. Don’t count on NATO. maybe Poland and the Baltic states Russia haters. The support of the corrupt elite is one thing, but the public opinion is turning against this war, and the demonstrations are against NATO not with NATO.

            9. Only in the case of Israel vs Palestine,neither side has anywhere else to go.

            10. Russians wanted peace, but they were lied to and cheated by the Americans and NATO for decades, finally the dyke broke, now there is not a shred of trust left. No one trusts the USA, not even their allies can trust them.
                And at home they can’t trust each other either. American politicians are walking POS. Slimy, scum to put it mildly. One administration makes agreement at home or abroad, and the next one breaks it, just like they did the American Indians. The people can’t trust the government they elected, the
                social contracts are unpredictable what is the law today is not so tomorrow, they cut benefits like SS and health care, citizens can’t be sure, see Roe v Wade and all they do one branch of government suing another.

            11. “I see no indication that it
                intends to do anything but persevere in the foreseeable future.”

                You are projecting a generational war. The Russian people will not support this.

            12. You are making shit up. I said nothing of the sort. You should undertake remedial work in reading comprehension, along with some other regular posters here.

            13. Just when I think you said the stupidest thing ever, you keep talking!

            14. In January/February I thought Putin realized that Biden was deliberately provoking Putin to invade to get Russia trapped in another Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Putin is a classic Russian chauvinist who doesn’t believe that Ukraine is a separate nation where most of the people resent past Russian conquests and interventions. Putin can’t fight an enemy he doesn’t believe exists.

            15. Right. That’s why Putin waited 20 years after taking power to do anything at all about the fascist, anti Russian, western lick spittle scum who run the Ukraine, and who are salivating over the opportunity to use it, their own country, as a god damn stooge for the West. Because HE, not they, is the deranged genocidalist!

            16. Putin could not trust Biden or any American, he knew about the neocons, they have undercover intelligence agents operating in our institutions too. He is a proud Russian just as you are a proud American.
                Biden has a long list of wars he was actively involved in, including Iraq and Iran and Libya. He is up to his neck in blood, including the blood of children on his hands.
                You have a double standard. Biden is bad.

            17. He was provoked by NATO plans to put missiles in the Ukraine.He held off through years of provocation in the Donbas. Print money,let the inside trackers in the Ukraine take a cut,funnel the rest back to the big boys here.

            18. “He was provoked by NATO plans to put missiles in the Ukraine”
                – not just that.
                2 – American military biolabs were already functioning in Ukraine.
                3 – At the beginning of February, Ukrainian artillery sharply escalated the attacks against civilian targets in Donetsk. So the refugees went from Donetsk Republic to Russia in great numbers every day and it was clear that Ukrainian army started a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Donbass.
                Third reason was most important.

            19. Took the bait? Your worst characterization yet. There are times when there is only one choice. The fact that you can see it coming doesn’t make it possible to avoid it.
                Obviously you do not believe that the plight of the people in the east was or is real, or you wouldn’t ignore the most obvious reason for Putin’s move.

            20. I believe the plight of the people in the east was and is real.

                And I believe that Putin cares as deeply about that plight as he cares what brand of hand soap his maid puts in the dispenser next to the sink.

            21. Why would you assume that , Thomas, unless you have psychic abilities you’re not telling us about?
                I personally believe that Putin cares very deeply about his people. Call it a “feeling”; I AM an empath.

            22. What, so you have psychic powers and I don’t?

                I tend to assume that politicians are sociopaths who consider other human beings to be tools/assets because that’s the safest assumption based on history. And Putin’s personal history (including but not limited to having hundreds of the Russians he supposedly cares about soooooooooooooooooo much about murdered to provide him with a pretext for the second war in Chechnya) indicates that he considers them disposable tools/assets.

            23. I didn’t imply that I’m a psychic, Thomas; I’m an empath, which is not the same thing.
                And while I realize it’s difficult to believe that some world leaders actually care about their nations and their people ( we certainly don’t qualify) but for some, I think it’s possible…

            24. Its not a case of caring for human suffering,its pride.

            25. Read Caitlin Johnstone’s column today, Thomas.

            26. Why did they bait Putin? What is the reason for that?

            27. US/NATO and Russia are competing imperial systems. US/NATO is more aggressive, both are oppressive at times. Both are declining. Russia has been declining quicker for the past 40 years. Why should arresting the decline of Putin’s oligarchy be important to the antiwar movement?

                Our sympathy should be with the victims of both imperial system. In this case, we should be supporting the right of the Ukrainian people to self determination even though we don’t necessarily agree with the decisions they make.

                Ironically, Putin’s failed invasion has only exacerbated and accelerated Russia’s decline as a great power. By demanding Ukraine give up its right to self determination, Putin has united the country against Russia, moved it closer to NATO, cause NATO to expand and revitalized the anti-Russian military alliance.

            28. The Ukrainians were robbed of their self self-determinations by the Obama/Biden regime change of the elected government, and after that again by the Zelensky liar who campaigned promising peace, getting 70% of the votes and then betrayed the voters by ditching the Minsk agreements, the gate to neutrality, peace and prosperity.
                It was not Putin who did that to them, it was Zelensky, and the neo-Nazi Azov scum and the OBAMA/BIDEN neocons, Nuland and the Kagan mob. That is the bunch of ruthless war mongers. They are responsible for the war and the killings, and even now they refuse any approach a negotiated end of the war. Biden does not allow self determination, he tells the clown to do as Biden was told in state department ordered him to do.

            29. Zelensky was picked up for the participation in those “elections” because they knew what he is. The candidates from the real opposition to Kiev regime never were allowed to participate in those “elections”.

            30. They hoped this military conflict will allow them to break completely the economic cooperation between Russia and EU, after which, Russian industry and living standards of Russian people should decline so sharply that the regime change could be achievable.

            31. Why did we invade theUSSR after the Revolution?

            32. Good question, did they accomplish anything? They just left quietly, maybe there was nothing to steal?

            33. No ax to grind,but did you expect him to allow NATO missiles in Ukraine? He took loosing his oil service contracts in Iraq,and letting the Donbass Russians get pounded.

         4. So what are the options left?
            The most sensible and rational action would be a negotiated end of the war.
            The Biden neocons are not rational people and will not do it.
            The deranged neocons want Russia to submit to unconditional surrender which will never happen.
            The choice is a totally destroyed Europe and Ukraine or Russia.
            Russia will resort to nuclear weapons before it would submit to unconditional surrender and total destruction.
            In the end all that is left is scorched earth. Is it worth it? Who will be left to answer the question.
            The insanity of it all, there are no words for it.

            1. I’m afraid I think your summary is on target, frighteningly so. I see very little chance of this ending without getting much worse..

            2. Agree, Red.
               Considering the most likely outcome of this shitshow, I almost wish it’d be done and over with; then, let Mother Nature sort out what’s left of this planet and begin the recovery process, which will not include humanity.

            3. The goal of Anglo-Saxon political leadership on European direction, starting from Churchill and finishing with Biden, always was to keep Germans down and Russians out. This military conflict solved the problem: German industry is crippled, German political leadership is completely subordinated to Washington and Russia became a proclaimed enemy of NATO.
               I don’t say that it was wise. They forgot about the rest of the world. Particularly important in this situation is China. China-Russia alliance became a reality. And there is also India which doesn’t take orders from Washington.

         5. The US deliberately provoked the war. But soldiers are still dying because Ukrainians are pissed off and determined to fight until the Russians leave. Even if Russia eventually succeeds in driving the Ukrainian resistance underground, Putin started a generational war that won’t end until the Russians withdraw. The war was a gambit that Ukrainian resistance would quickly fold. Having lost that gambit, Putin lost the war. Putin’s war will continue until Russia gets a leadership with the courage to withdraw. The tactical/political situation is like Vietnam. Like the 1968 Tet Offensive the September 2022 Ukrainian offensive demonstrated that the invader irretrievably lost the hearts and minds of the invaded. In an asymmetric war of national resistance where the invader loses the hearts and minds of the invaded, the invader typically escalates until the invader gets a political leadership sober enough to do a cost benefit analysis and realize that tactical measures against the resistance only strengthen the resistance.It’s over for Russia in Ukraine. But it may take years or even decades for the Russians to get a leadership that can admit that and end the war.

            1. “The US deliberately provoked the war. . . . Putin started a generational war . . .”

               Both of these statements cannot be true. They are mutually exclusive.

            2. The first statement is true.

            3. Yes.

            4. “Provoked” /= “started.”

               “Provoked also /= “justified.”

            5. Provoked, in this case, absolutely does equal started. The US started this.

               Discussion of justification is pointless and irrelevant. There is no common moral or ethical basis on which to judge. Belligerents always believe their actions are justified.

            6. As Knapp implied, Putin did not have to take the bait. Hitler and Tojo were provoked. But they started WWII. Putin chose to invade a country that did not have the capacity to threaten Russia for revanchist geo-strategic reasons. That is a war of choice. And a war of aggression.

            7. At a certain point, aggression and provocation is no longer mere “bait.” It is an existential challenge to your existence and continuity as a nation. Not every fish that bites is “baited.” If you attack a fish, and it fights back, there is no scope for talk of “bait,” and, you, the attacker, are to blame.

            8. There was never an existential challenge to Russia from Ukraine. That is delusional propaganda. The Soviet/Russian empire and the US empire have been declining since the 1970’s. Russia has been declining faster. But the balance of power in Europe shifted when Gorbachev wisely decided that nuclear war had to be avoided even if it meant
               the end of the USSR. The accession of Ukraine to EU and its turn toward NATO only incrementally affect Russia’s decline. Ukrainec would never invade Russia and NATO has no reason to. But the decline of Russian imperialism should not a cause for the anti-war movement.

               There are three sides in the Ukrainian conflict, Russian imperialism, US/NATO imperialism and the Ukrainian national resistance. I am on the side of the Ukrainian people. I wish the Ukrainians has chosen to be closer to Russia, but they have the right to self determination.

            9. Lies and distortions from start to finish.

            10. “At a certain point, aggression and provocation is no longer mere ‘bait.'”

                That is an infantile, irresponsible and dangerous POV for a nuclear power.

                The worst imperialist alliance in the world got the upper hand over a declining imperialist country. Why is that a concern for people who care about liberation, freedom and peace? imperialist countries rise and fall. We should support peace , liberation and self determination, not our favorite authoritarian imperialist systems.

            11. Your slogans just don’t match the reality. “Liberation.” So a bunch of ethno suprematist fascists can lord it over people who don’t want to be part of their country, merely because a Soviet era internal adminstrative border of convenience says so. Like the Azov battalian, et al, want “freedom and peace.” Give it a rest. Your propaganda doesn’t mean jack you know what, to me.

            12. Most Ukrainians are not “ethno centrist fascists”. But the racism of people like you and other Putin supporters is certainly strengthening the anti-Russian feelings of the vast majority of the Ukrainian people. US aggression and NATO expansion put Russia in a deteriorating strategic position. But Putin’s war has only made things worse for Russia and diminished Russia’s power.

            13. The Ukrainian ethno centrist fascist racists run the government, and started the war. Vast swaths of the population prefer independence and/or Russian affiliation. The US and NATO certainly are to blame as well. The Russian speakers on the “wrong” (ie the Kiev Fascist regime) side of the border are the victims, and are the true fighters for national liberation. The Russians are fighting to help them, and to prevent strategic encirclement of their own country. IOWs, the Kiev Fascist regime and the USA/NATO are in the wrong, while the Russian speakers and the Russians are in the right. End of story.

            14. Hitler was provoked-he had all the Western Democracies offering appeasement.

            15. The US deliberately provoked the war.

                Stopped reading right there. Becuase (1) you are quite correct, and
                (2) nothing else matters.

                The US (with an assist from NATO, and the local Nazis) provoked the war. End of story. End of blame game. End of BS about Russian “aggression.”

      2. Why are Ukrainians still dying not only soldiers, women and children and their young men in their best years and old men?

5. All of the German and American infantry fighting vehicles promised, taken together, would be enough to equip four infantry companies (20 each), as the infantry component of two mixed heavy battalions, plus a few command vehicles, or perhaps an AA manpad platoon for each.

   Our cheering section needs numerical literacy, avoiding Krugman’s frequent complaint of “innumeracy” when reality does not add up to the fantasy suggestions.

   1. “. . . enough to equip four infantry companies (20 each). . .”

      Right. In the context of this war, it’s a trivial number, although those IFVs could help in a skirmish or three. Of course, normally they would be expected to advance behind the tanks that aren’t available in this situation. And their armor is only protection against small arms fire.

6. Zelensky will be either dead or in exile soon.

7. How did we get here? Tracing failures of diplomacy back to their roots: From 1991 and beyond.

   The final bill for expenditures in Ukraine may well exceed the $110 Billion wasted so far. The final bill could be an existential crisis for all humanity!

   Diplomatic Colossal Failure of Century | Jeffrey Sachs & Oliver Stone

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdD_kb_x4o4&t=34s

   1. This is, I think, the very best short summary of the history and background of this crisis I have ever heard, and I know the history very well indeed. Highly recommended.

      1. Hear hear. Too bad our resident hostiles won’t comprehend what it so clearly implies about their Volk Heroes.

   2. Excellent, thanks for posting, CT!

   3. Thank you for posting this clip. I am aware of Sachs’ career but have not seen this. For anyone with a smattering of brain matter between their ears who hasn’t already swallowed the Kool-Aid being broadcast by the MSM and the Biden administration, this is one of the most coherent narratives on the genesis of this clusterfuck I’ve seen.
      Thank you.

8. “Zelensky thanked President Biden”. Wrong, it is the US taxpayer who owes the thanks.

   1. That is true and Zelensky did thank American people in his address to Congress.

      1. Well, as far as I’m concerned, that money was stolen.

         1. They’s been stealing money to finance boutique wars hosted by American presidents ever since congress put its tail between its legs and stopped doing its duty to the voters.

      2. WAR POWERS ACT.
         Renders all the BS about democratic control over spending on ware moot.

   2. Who weren’t able to vote for or against.

9. https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/stirring-the-pot-for-war/

   Stirring The Pot For War.

10. Zelensky Thanks US for Over $3 Billion Arms Package, Calls It an ‘Awesome Christmas Present’

    Israel is now burning in jealousy…!

11. The Russian MOD is fighting a very successful war of attrition disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March,), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense.
    NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
    367 Aircraft, 200 helicopters, 2856 UAV’s, 400 Anti Aircraft systems, 7460 tanks inc. APC’s, 972 multiple rocket launchers, 3793 rocket launchers and 7978 military automotive equipment.

    In March 2022 Ukraine reached the Istanbul peace agreement and Russia withdrew its forces from Kiev. Boris Johnson intervened and promoted a NATO solution to the Russian problem. And here we are today with Poland calling up 200,000 reserves, Ukraine is collapsing and Poland/Romania are now being called up to die for empire. What the empire looses in the Ukraine, they loose for the final NATO war against Russia.

    In the past year we have seen the Rules Based Order (NATO) act in a state of criminal insanity. They blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline which will deindustrialise Europe. The shelling the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station in an effort to cause a nuclear accident. The planning of a false flag nuclear weapon detonation on their own soil!!! This is the actions of criminally insane psychopaths.

12. Well, hell, I’d thank anybody who sent that kind of cash to me, too.
    Doesn’t mean ZelBoy deserved it any more than I do.

    1. I’m almost certain you deserve it more, Gypsy, and I know you’d spend it in ways more beneficial to humans and the planet.

       1. No one deserves that kind of wealth, if i was in power i would limit peoples wealth…..to limit the damage they do.

       2. Thank you for your kind words Red.
          I would like to think that I would do such.

13. Same crap different millennium.
    Hey robotic imbecile, I edited sh*t to crap….

14. According to the Kyiv Independent, the Russian attack on Soledar, a city near Bakmut, has been partially successful.

    It seems like the war is repeating Feb -> Summer of last year when Russia made small gains each day. Russian sources argue that there are still fairly large defensive resources in each of these cities, so at worst for Ukraine one or both if these cities will be held for a while.

    It is back to grind it out WWI tactics it seems

15. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev has stated that it’s not Ukraine that Russia is at war with now but all of NATO inside Ukraine.

    “The events in Ukraine aren’t a clash between Moscow and Kiev. It’s a military confrontation of NATO, first of all the US and Britain, with Russia. Fearing a direct engagement, NATO instructors push Ukrainian men to certain death,” he said.

    1. Yes, it is a military confrontation between NATO and Russia. But also it is a civil war in Ukraine which started in 2014. One may call it even a civil war in Big Russia. Bolshevik criminal gang divided Russia in several republics by cutting from Russia the territories historically populated by ethnic Russians. There would be no problems if those newly created independent states have normal relations with Russia and respect the human rights of Russian minority. US sponsored radical nationalism in all post-Soviet republics exactly for the purpose to create conflicts.

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