Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba slammed the EU on Thursday for taking too much time to work out its plan to deliver one million artillery shells to Ukraine for its war against Russia.
“The inability of the EU to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine is frustrating,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
The EU has been trying to work out a plan to jointly purchase the artillery rounds. According to POLITICO, the main impasse between EU members is whether to restrict the €1 billion set aside for the shells to EU manufacturers or look to also procure ammunition from the US and Britain.
Coordinating EU military aid and sanctions usually takes time, but Kuleba made clear Kyiv was running out of patience. “This is a test of whether the EU has strategic autonomy in making new crucial security decisions,” he said, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for European independence from US policies.
“For Ukraine, the cost of inaction is measured in human lives,” Kuleba added. Throughout the war, Kuleba and other Ukrainian officials have been willing to strongly criticize their Western backers even though their war effort is entirely reliant on such support.
Earlier this year, Kuleba said that “no one has done enough” to support Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought the same message to the US when he visited Washington in December and addressed Congress, saying Kyiv didn’t have “enough” artillery.
“For Ukraine, the cost of inaction is measured in human lives.” ~ I just can’t with this guy. You would think the lack of 1 million artillery shells would disable them from giving marching orders to the soldiers perhaps even withdraw them from the front line…to save lives. NO. He wants them available immediately so they can press them even more to go out their and sacrifice their lives whilst 1 billion earmarked can be spent in US or UK for procurement. And this is the whole purpose of such reckless statements, pressure the EU into sending money to US/UK MIC (money from US treasury I presume). Rinse and Repeat. Its disgusting! This guy reeks of sulfur.
I presume the money spent for Ukraine’s benefit from the U.S. was borrowed from the Federal Reserve, who created it out of thin air!
Interesting point. Yes, the Federal Reserve is the largest holder of US government securities. But about a third of the debt is borrowed from foreign sources. The top 3 foreign holders are Japan, China, and the UK. China reduced its holdings by 20% in the 12 months ending January 2023. Japan and the UK have increased their holdings.
https://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt
Close 2nd is Soc Sec & Medicare, … and all the public sector pension funds. US citizens are in store to get hit very very hard, … and are blissfully unaware.
Robert, us seniors are good and ready to start the Revolution. The Grey Panthers live on!
All the millions they’ve skimmed, the liquid part anyway, will be suddenly worthless if those shells & co. don’t show up PDQ.
Perhaps this is his way of placing blame for their inability to win or even push Russia back on somewhere than Ukraine?
This really smacks of someone saying they “coulda won” but it’s your fault for not giving us every single thing promised when we wanted it.
If it all swings on one thing going against a “enemy” nimble enough to have plenty of substitutions for weapons they run out of, they might as well see reality and sue for peace.
I agree. Everything you suggest is potentially true, I may add that time isn’t on their side and their cut of that fed money needs to exchange hands quickly, so apply pressure.
This is a bit of a sticky wicket… If we continue to give Ukraine ‘all it needs’ for its warfare, we could find ourselves at war with the Russians, which is not something I have any desire for any of us to do. (…)
It’s a sticky wicket because we are getting lectured on human rights by Neo Nazis who could have avoided the whole war before it started, and yet the Democrats have done nothing to win the next election except push this war. So making progress and continued escalation in a war that very well could end humanity is going to be a huge part of the next election. So remember, as much as you might not like the Dems sicking the Fed on the job market to intentionally ruin American families for the benefit of entrenched wealth, or the fact that they have done nothing in Covid’s wake to prepare or fix the huge holes in our healthcare system, even as thousands of Americans are still dying; that if you don’t vote for Biden you might push him into killing all of us.
This is the year the Democrats pivot to greater evil.
I agree more trouble is down the line no matter which corrupt politician gets elected.More war,no peace and more poverty and sickness is in our future. This is not changing any time soon.
I won’t vote for Biden, even if the Pubs dig up Adolf Hitler and his crew.
I kind of keep expecting some kind of Republican super science to create a perfect Republican Serpentor as their 2024 candidate. Mostly Strom Thurmond and Ronald Reagan, with some Levi Strauss and a splash of Goldwater and Atilla the Hun.
I still wouldn’t vote for Biden.
Agreed. The man is a stick figure from the cold war – nothing more.
I dunno, he’s inadvertently hilarious running a party and country that are totally humorless. If we survive the present, there’s some deep veins of irony and comedy to be mined.
I can only imagine all the fun Rush Limbaugh would be having with the Biden administration if he were still around.
I can think of more positive things to say about Hitler than ByeDone.
He neither smoked nor drank.
He was an accomplished artist.
He banned testing on animals.
He was a vegetarian.
He especially loved dogs.
I know I’ll get flak for this remark, but it just goes to show that there is good even in the worst among us, if one cares to look for it. However, I’m still looking in ByeDone’s case.
Hitler was Zelensky of his time. Same formulae different space in time.
I thought we were all safe to go to the movies, shopping, have sex changes, and generally throw caution to the wind. I mean its a proxy war, our lives are not being taken away. Just because we promote some military personal, give them marching orders, arm them, direct them, I mean what could go wrong? sarc.
Toss China in there too Donna!
Ukraine – full of the biggest ingrates in the world.
The Kiev regime is repulsive in so many ways. With ingratitude being right up there…
“Kyiv doen’t have “enough” artillery”
….. Zelensky
well maybe it’s time to give up
The EU does not have one million artillery shells. It can’t send them.
It also can’t manufacture then within the next year or two. It needs first to build plants that could do such work.
Rage against reality. But it is what it is. Ukraine can lie, does constantly, but reality intrudes.
It’s almost like peace is a better option than trying to wish a world war into being.
This whole debacle is just weird beyond belief. The world press couldn’t poo-poo national sovereignty enough for the last 20 years, now the INSULT of Russia invading a sovereign nation is just too much for civilized people to bear, and they are all clamoring for a potentially nuclear world war. Did Saddam Hussein implore Russia to start a global conflict that could kill billions in 2003? Would we have respected him for putting his “national sovereignty” ahead of the lives of everyone? Every man, woman and child, everywhere?
And yet, we’re supposed to give acclaim to this Ukrainian bozo and consider his willingness to start a war that has far higher odds of killing every Ukrainian than actually helping his people?
The purpose of current Ukraine’s disposition was to was to wage 3rd World War on Russia. It was the last piece on the diabolical board that began with the 7 countries war that included Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Syria & ultimately boil over into Iran. In the first 3 great destabilization (regime change operations) occurred but those nations incorporated some reforms and worse case scenario was averted. In the other countries resistance. In the last 2, some strategists in Iran and Russia read the tea leaves and took measures to dead that shit. The spectacular appearance and performances of the Russian contingent and the Revolutionary Guards + Hezbollah completely threw off US and rearranged the equation in that region. You would think the strategists in US/NATO would smell the coffee, nope!, based on their delusions of grandeur, they decided to shift all the resources to the bear, once again miscalculating and thus exposing itself as an incompetent & incapable paper tiger. Zelensky is one of those instruments of incompetency and disgrace on full display everyday…cocaine et al.
Zelensky is laying the groundwork for a ‘we were stabbed in the back’ explanation for losing the war, which is not far off. Given his connections to fascism via the Azov outfits and other assorted fascist/nationalist groups, it’s not a stretch to see from where he might have gotten the inspiration for this: a certain WW1 veteran- an Austrian- used the same explanation in his rise to power in Germany.
Dmytro Kuleba
This guy is a train wreck.
Lol
Didn’t Trump have problems with the same folks not paying their NATO bills?
The Europeans are famous for their promises involving this type of stuff that they don’t exactly follow through with at the end.
“”Didn’t Trump have problems with the same folks not paying their NATO bills?””
yes he did, which he should have sympathized with them seeing as how he has reneged on every single bill that he has ever owed
Every bill he owed…
Sure…. whatever
I don’t do mindless politics but thank you for sharing
well maybe i exaggerated a little. but just a little.
https://www.google.com/search?q=does+trump+pay+his+bills&source=hp&ei=zdFCZOr1HZ3CkPIPtLyIuA4&iflsig=AOEireoAAAAAZELf3YL39zq4M9OpAYV31H_lzfRUTCOj&ved=0ahUKEwiqkNeuybv-AhUdIUQIHTQeAucQ4dUDCAs&uact=5&oq=does+trump+pay+his+bills&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6DgguEIAEELEDEIMBENQCOhEILhCABBCxAxCDARDHARDRAzoLCC4QigUQsQMQgwE6CwgAEIoFELEDEIMBOgUIABCABDoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6EQguEIMBEMcBELEDENEDEIAEOg4ILhCABBCxAxDHARDRAzoICAAQgAQQsQM6CwguEIAEELEDEIMBOgsILhCABBDHARCvAToICAAQigUQsQNQAFi0MGD7M2gAcAB4AIABYogBow2SAQIyNJgBAKABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz
And perhaps I exaggerated when I shared I never would refer to Joe’s overfilled depends after pudding hour at the White House or the like….
just to be clear, i couldn’t pick Joe or his depends out of a line-up. but since you are the one who brought up trump in the first place, here you go =
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trump+wears+depends
Don’t have time but thank you maybe later
All this partisan name calling is weirdly relaxing, like finding some way to ignore an ongoing axe murder to complain about a lawn sign.
Oh yeah, that’s what petty issues that don’t threaten my family and friends with horrifying death were like… Quick, someone say, “Small Hands”!
Pudding fingers is much funnier…. at least those idiotic commercials are.
I reversed my up vote just because you have no humor…screw you….
There are no such things as “NATO bills.” Rather, the NATO nations agreed to spend a certain amount of their GDP on “defense.” Some did, some didn’t. But none of them owed the money to the USA, the way Trump implied.
“Many countries owe us a tremendous amount of money from many years back, where they’re delinquent as far as I’m concerned, because the United States has had to pay for them. So if you go back 10 or 20 years, you’ll just add it all up, it’s massive amounts of money is owed.”
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/11/628137185/fact-check-trumps-claims-on-nato-spending
Also, the NATO nations did not exactly agree to an ironclad requirement that they spend 2 per cent on “defense.” Rather, they agreed to the following:
Taking current commitments into account, we are guided by the following considerations:
Allies currently meeting the NATO guideline to spend a minimum of 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence will aim to continue to do so…Allies whose current proportion of GDP spent on defence is below this level will:
halt any decline in defence expenditure;
aim to increase defence expenditure in real terms as GDP grows;
aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade with a view to meeting their NATO Capability Targets and filling NATO’s capability shortfalls.
https://www.nato.int/cps/ic/natohq/official_texts_112964.htm
Oh no!
I did not use the proper parlence in my quip on the net!
Are you really sticking up for NATO from the evil orange man?
We must not be mean to them per state-run media called NPR . I bet the VOA had some screeds about how swell NATO is too that would bolsture your case why NATO is just being maligned.
Trump lied, or is too stupid to know the difference. To hell with Trump AND NATO.
NPR has little to do with it, as they merely quoted Trump accurately, and pointed out his obvious error. VOA has nothing at all to do with it.
And, ironically, it seems, you are the one wanting NATO to spend more, just as Trump did, on “defense.”
Well, the NATO countries don’t owe the US anything, nor were they even actually required to spend more. Just as they don’t owe the Ukraine anything, either.
Spend more? We won’t and that’s my concern.
Just how does one do that after the huge expense of packing up in Europe and coming home? Surely you don’t believe I care if NATO pays for their own expence of needless protection?
As to Trump he was not perfect by far ( we all can count the many ways) but he is not of the Victoria Nuland crowd. Those are the ones who fought and lied to him constantly.
He’d likely encourage Macron’s wet dream of a EU army to get rid of NATO just to screw with Victoria and her ilk.
You got the right answer the first paragraph. Nukes exist in plentiful numbers, so the USA should withdraw from all this constant war bullsh-t before we f-ck all the way up. We need to come home, and spend our dollars getting ready for millions of climate refugees and rebuilding our cities and healthcare system.
We know trouble is coming beyond our control and maybe beyond our ability to survive. Instead, Biden is not fixing our ruined healthcare system, is emptying our strategic reserves and intentionally crashing banks and destroying jobs.
Let the Europeans free!
Honestly I don’t believe it’s as dire as the lies they tell us.
The newest Taiwan weapons contract is to be completed in 2029 which tells me they are lying to us about that situation as well as Ukraine.
Maybe, but no matter how sure our government is that nothing bad will happen due to their corrupt and careless shenanigans, THEY ARE STILL CORRUPT, CARELESS AND EVIL.
Read about the upcoming Thailand elections. Those suckers look to be a complete farce in comparison to what we have here.
The reporting by the local journalists have an air of comedy because they know it’s a mess and they might as well have fun reporting about it
The point was that Trump was castigating the NATO nations for NOT spending more on “defense,” as they had “promised” to (not really), and Trump erroneously or dishonestly claimed that they somehow “owed” that money to the USA.
I thought here we were AGAINST more “defense” spending?
What you care about, personally I am really not sure, at this point. You seemed to be repeating Trump’s ludicrous and/or mendacious claims approvingly.
Finally, Nuland is a lot of things, all of them bad. But she is not so stupid as to think that the European NATO members “owed” their “membership dues” to the USA, and there is no way she said that to Trump. Let’s not let Trump off the hook for his whoppers and bloopers because he got bad advice. He was the president, the buck stopped with him. Or, at least, should have.
Honestly to rehash what or not Trump was up to does not matter that much in regards to Macron’s new trade deals with China nor his want to make the EU a alternative to the China/Russia alliance that is forming.
Did you know Putin is rolling out a digital ruble this month and there’s already talk of China and India joining it?
I’m sure Macron was talking about that as they were talking about the various deals they signed and planned for the future.
Just because Trump is being talked about like Jeb! was at this point as inevitible may very well not be true anyway and we can soon ignore him.
Saw you downvoted my comment below about not voting for Biden, so I’ll repeat with context:
I voted for Biden once – never again, does not mean I’ll vote Republican. IF I vote again in one of these dog and pony shows, it will be for a third party candidate, or I won’t vote at all, and the longer these Aholes run the two parties, the likelihood that I never vote in a national election increases.
Downvoted only because you literally said that you would not vote for Biden if Hitler was his GOP opponent. In that case, IMO, we should all vote for Biden, not third party (and not Hitler, obviously).
As I live in California, Biden would win anyway.
I have come to detest the man and refuse to watch or listen to anything he or his ugly crew have to say. He is dead to me.
OK. Still, in a fight against Hitler, it should be all hands on deck. Again, IMO.
Why? Biden is working much harder to kill most life on Earth than Hitler did, AND he has pretty good odds of ultimately killing more people. Sure, his are sins of omission, but considering the times we live and his utter indifference to millions of dead and disaster building everywhere, Biden is worse than Hitler, or at least he’s a Hitler with top notch PR.
Also true in many ways, because the oaf who triggers WWIII deserves the title of all-time most heinous bastard of all.
Bear didn’t say he’d vote for Hitler, Phil. He said he wouldn’t vote for ByeDone if Hitler was his opponent, and I agree with him.
I know that. I still disagree. If Hitler literally was the GOP candidate, again, IMO, it is the duty of all citizens to vote for Biden to make sure that Hitler loses. NOT vote third party, or, obviously, for Hitler either. That’s what I mean by “all hands on deck.”
Citizens don’t have a duty to vote at all, let alone to vote for your preferred Candidate A just because you hate Candidate B more.
I’m gonna make a Nazi exception to that “rule,” and I don’t care who doesn’t like it.
By all means, make all the “exceptions” you like to your imaginary “rules.” I’ll still vote for whomever I choose to vote — if I choose to vote at all. I have no obligations to anyone on either of those matters.
Lol! Imaginary rules. Must stem from all that rules based order malarkey.
It’s Ok. I understand where you’re coming from and the point you’re trying to make. In your hypothetical, I’d probably vote Democratic 😉
Thanks for that!
Of course.
Your heart is in exactly the right place, as is the case with so many here who care about human beings wherever they are.
People I used to call Democrats continue to amaze me in how easily they abandoned their humanity in favor of becoming unquestioning fans of the MIC.
You are too kind.
I try to keep partisan politics out of it, here. D and R parties both have a lot to answer for in their war mongering and MIC pandering.
I was a diehard, Air America and Maddow listening Democrat until 2009, when Obama decided drone murders were just dandy.
I voted third party in every election since, until 2020. I didn’t vote in 2020, guys. I haven’t voted since. There isn’t an ounce of real difference anymore, neither party really cares if most Americans, the 70-90% that are never shown on TV, live or die. So I tore up my ballot. I recommend giving up on voting and devoting that energy to rabble rousing instead. Much easier to sleep at night.
Bonus: you get to watch moron’s heads explode when you confess you didn’t buy their stupid fcking narratives.
I ridicule them for supporting either fcking narrative. I love telling Hillary Clinton voters that they deserved Trump.
Zombie, I like your style.
Johnny, I like yours! 😉
Thanks.
+++
My kinda guy.
Same here, Bear. I voted for the fool “because he wasn’t Trump” and I hang my head in shame. I’ll never vote D (or R, which I never have) again.
Aside from the absurdity of “Please send more help to me to win the fight I started against my much large neighbor”, it is instructive to see how Zelensky has channeled the zeitgeist of grievance politics and social media to his advantage.
What would otherwise have ended quickly as a police action, like the Russian response to Georgia in 2008, has turned into a complete disaster for Ukraine and a quagmire for Russia, in the sense that Russia cannot simply quit the field now.
Of course, drawing Russia into a quagmire was the whole neoconservative plan from the get-go, so the neocons are leading the cheers for Ukraine.
But without social media, I don’t believe it would still be going on. And instead of fading away, it’s drawing us all closer to WW III. That’s pretty weird.
Actually, its the other way round. The solution of engaging an SMO instead of a conventional war placed the neocons in a quagmire of their own. First, on the battlefield, where all their warehouse stock is being decimated and leaving them in the precarious position of being unable to field an adequate defensive posture without sufficient equipment (aka demilitarization); Second, the commitment to mass economic suicide by NATO/EU by imposition of common sense defying sanctions. There are more examples but those 2 suffice. Russia has escalation and de-escalation dominance. In the latter scenario Russia can and will stop whne it feels its achieved its objectives, meanwhile the US/Nato cannot stop (to save face), PR wise they will be fucked esp after that last Afghan debacle and are suffering losses in primacy and political clout all over the globe. In other words, this isn’t going in any way they had planned or imagined.
Awww. The beggars are pissed off.
Better start negotiating now, ZelBoy, while you still have the remains of a country…or before you get lynched.
There are multiple victims here, the Europeans, the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Third World. They are all just pieces on the chessboard of the people who presently occupy the executive branch of the government, people who have no inhibitions against the unlimited suffering indirectly caused by the rubes who keep voting them into office.
Two year old toddler screams for attention. These idiots are right in that they need the military stature of the US to defeat the Russians, but their mission is not to defeat the Russians in battle, only to bleed them.
The US position in feeding this myth to these clowns is in itself a monstrous war crime.