The UK has “nothing” left in its military stockpiles after sending weapons to Ukraine, The Times of London reported on Sunday, citing an anonymous Ukrainian military source.
The report said British and other European officials were “cranking through the gears” to ramp up weapons production to continue fueling the proxy war even though it’s clear Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield.
The report reads: “Britain’s military intelligence chiefs believe Ukraine cannot win the war against Russia in 2024 because it does not have the manpower or the weapons for a big battlefield breakthrough.”
Despite reality on the battlefield, some British officials believe NATO just needs “time” to ramp up arms production to beat Russian President Vladimir Putin. But time is clearly on Putin’s side as war fatigue is growing in the West.
President Biden has yet to secure the over $60 billion he’s seeking to fund the proxy war through 2024 as Republicans are holding out for a border deal. Republican leaders in Congress have said they plan to approve the Ukraine aid once they reach an agreement, but as time goes on, it will become more and more difficult to keep funding the war.
Officials in Europe are concerned that the US would no longer support Ukraine if former President Trump won the 2024 election. Trump has said he could end the Ukraine war, although he has sent mixed signals and was the first president to send “lethal” aid to Kyiv after he signed off on the delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles in 2017.
A British source told the Times that Europe must continue the proxy war even if the US isn’t involved. “Can continental Europe afford to fold just because Trump says no more US dollars? I think most realize that Putin can’t be allowed to win as consequences for European security are grave,” the source said.
But the US is the biggest spender on the war by a huge margin, and the EU has previously acknowledged Europe can’t fill the gaps if the US withdraws its support. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s time may also be running out, as a former Ukrainian official told the Times he’s losing support.
The official said there is no war strategy in Ukraine and that Ukrainian men and women were being “sent to the front line to die.”
Maybe peace would be more practical?…
Yes. It would. Peace would be immediate if Putin left Ukraine immediately.
And it would have been immediate if the US didn’t dismiss Russia legitimate security concerns regarding NATO on its borders as “out of hand”. Especially after the assurances of “not one inch eastward”.
And after Russia’s assurances to respect Ukraine sovereignty? Yes.
If NATO hadn’t expanded and Ukraine didn’t get in bed with the West, that wouldn’t have been an issue. Plus, Ukraine could damn near be whole right now if the West would have allowed for negotiations to continue in March of 2022. Something that Ukraine can only dream about now.
Promises are promises.
I’m pretty sure Putin would’ve invaded anyway but you keep on believing, Wars!
Yes, promises are promises. So, why don’t we go in sequence as to who started breaking promises first? It’s pretty hard to imagine what it would be like if Russia had been accepted into the International community when the cold war ended so everything after that is pure conjecture. But Putin would have had absolutely no reason to invade Ukraine if Russia’s security concerns had been addressed beforehand. And it’s well known that the agreement that was close to being agreed upon by both sides in March of ’22 would have had Ukraine agreeing to neutrality and Putin removing his troops. So, it’s not me believing in anything, other than the facts.
Russia was not considered a superpower after the breakup so they got their panties-in-a-bunch. Russia began to be controlled by oligarchs who were criminals and former KGB. That all led to the rise of Putin (former KGB oligarch).
At some point, Putin decided to “get the band back together” and began to make overtures toward re-establishing the Russian Empire — or at least regaining influence in the region and the world.
Problem is, outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia is the third world; AND their military has been degraded so much by grift that is can’t be effective against a more potent adversary.
How’s that?
You don’t really address my comment but I’ll play along.
It’s hard to come up with a rebuttal to such a strong argument as Russia getting their panties in a bunch because they weren’t considered a superpower after the cold war ended. I’m not quite sure how they gave that impression or what it means as far as their behavior is concerned, or even what it had to do with what I said. And Putin pretty much “came to power” the same way H W Bush came to power. If Putin were an American politician, he’d be a moderate republican. He’d be on the dovish side when it came to war as compared to the ultra-hawks like Linsey Graham or Tom Cotton.
There is no way Putin even considered getting “the band back together”. How? And regaining influence in the region and the world is hardly evidence of reestablishing the Russian empire. It’s what every country in the world does to some degree or another. Our own country being the king.
Exactly. Putin is just like everyone else — except he’s a calculating, murdering, dictator. (And yes, H W Bush probably fits that bill — with the exception of dictator.)
So, the difference between the calculating murdering (KGB/oligarch)Putin and the calculating murdering (CIA/oligarch)H W Bush is that Putin is a dictator. Got it. I can only shudder to think what we would have done in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Iraq again if we would have had a dictator like Putin in charge.
With the US military controlled by dictator? (What? Cheney wasn’t close enough for you?)
It would be been total destruction. Good thing the Russian military is a joke, huh?
The military is controlled by the President. Hence, Commander in Chief. And it was total destruction in all those wars. Now tell me the difference again between what Putin does and what our Presidents do.
When Russia promised to respect Ukraine’s sovereignity Ukraine had neutrality written into its constitution
The Budapest Memorandum was in 1994 and the Ukrainian constitution was ratified on June 28th 1996. How did Russia pull that off?
The Declaration of State Sovereignity of Ukraine of 1990 declared that Ukraine intended to be a permanently neutral country that doesn’t participate in military blocs. But, you’re right, it wasn’t incorporated into the constitution until 1996.
My apologies
Peace through surrender? NO. That’s what Trump wants.
The UK has nothing…. What was the rest? I forgot.
Yeah, that’s what’s wrong with the world. The US and EU just aren’t making enough weapons. What a relief we have leaders taking corrective action.
But there’s nothing wrong with the world if Russia makes more weapons?
Yes, it would be nice if no one made more weapons. As a compromise maybe we should just all agree to spend the same amount of money. We can use what Russia spends as the ceiling.
Like a salary cap in sports! I agree!
The moment my tax money starts buying weapons for Russia I’ll get a wee bit irate. Oops, actually I already am.
So, it’s not peace you’re after. It’s just your money you don’t want used for war. Very humanitarian of you!
War has been going on for 2 years, but Bidumb put enormous sums into net-zero fantasies instead of weapons production.
Net-zero fantasies?
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-blew-up-new-russian-radar-system-after-it-arrived-2024-1?op=1
Not “net-zero” I’m afraid, my tankie friend!
I see you handsome feline, emptying your AR into a cat 5 hurricane. Try just one more clip. That’ll work.
“Trump has said he could end the Ukraine war, although he has sent mixed signals and was the first president to send “lethal” aid to Kyiv after he signed off on the delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles in 2017.”
Trump is another P.O.S. war mongerer, but yet there are so many people who think he is “antiwar.”
Both Biden and Trump are corrupt scum and theyre going to put the U.S. through more drama because both have huge egos and want to be Commander in Chief.
If enough of Trump’s base and “gettable” Undecideds or Disenchanted Lefts signal a want for an antiwar version of Trump, I think The Donald would flip that way.
Trump always struck me as a political windsock. His policy and passion is whatever feeds his need for popularity and support.
He is malleable as he is on the insecure side of the narcissist scale, IMO. Self enrichment and positive reinforcement of his persona seems to be a driving force. But all administrations are stocked up on establishment continuity of government.
Indeed – within Washington, as here with Ottawa, there are entrenched bureaucrats in public service continuing their pet projects / retirement countdown activities, who are neither interested in who runs the country nor what the current leaders want to do or change. And from them comes a resistance to real change or acceptance of new ideas or policy.
It’s always about who is in the room with him. Unfortunately, we have so many more Lindsey Graham types than Rand Paul types.
Trump is a Putin stooge. He is also a liar and a criminal. Oh, yeah, and a con-man and a rapist and an incompetent; and a whole bunch of other negative things. But you MAGA, delusional, deplorables keep at it!
True, (on the surface) but he will continue to sell weapons and increase instability in the world for the M.I.C. He will just do it quietly. He will distract people with a stupid tweet or some other shenanigan so the media focuses on that instead of his actions. That’s what he did for four years while ending nuclear treaties and war mongering.
Agree. Except for this, “He will just do it quietly“. He does nothing quietly.
Hahaha!
Trump sent Javelins to Ukraine only because Congress threatened impeachment if he didn’t. He complied, but they impeached him anyway. And the Javelins were delivered with a restriction. They could not be used in the Donbas. Same as Obama, Trump was afraid of provoking Pootin.
Obama didn’t send lethal aid. Trump did. He was fine with giving them it, as long as he got some dirty info on Hunter Biden and Burisima (which I agree needs to be investigated), but he was doing that for political reasons, and the democrats were all too happy to have their theater and drama to distract us from the fact that the U.S. was in the middle of a proxy war with Russia. Corruption all the way around. Trump is just the joker in this theater of the absurd.
The “proxy war” the US is in with Russia is Russia’s fault. (It DID give the warmongers in the West the opportunity to destroy Russia and Putin.) I would never support that independently but after Putin “screwed the pooch” and invaded, I’m all in.
I’ll repeat it for those who haven’t heard me say it elsewhere:
f**k around and find out.
Id say the ones who broke agreements and treaties are the ones who started this proxy war. I don’t agree with any wars, but it seems the west was itching for a fight with it’s meddling in Ukraine.
Facts on the ground disagree with you. Wars of defense should always be supported. (I respect your anti-war position. It’s just unrealistic.)
This war could have been avoided. Here is a great lecture I found with some background information and history on this:
https://youtu.be/JrMiSQAGOS4?feature=shared
That is an oversimplification of the precipitating events.
What are his credentials?
Wow you watched that hour + long video that fast?
For some reason, it started towards the end. Also, Mearsheimer is a tool (I saw the name attached to the video.)
I won’t waste any more time watching. (Maybe get better videos?)
https://reason.com/2022/03/23/when-professors-do-foreign-policy/
That article you posted was a whole lot of assumptions and garble. It seems like the author agreed with him, but was just trying to find something to criticize him with. It also reads like something someone would write who was calling everyone a Russian hacker a few years ago.
Perhaps your reading comprehension is off. Sorry. I don’t have a video available.
Trump:
The Fake News Media refuses to report that I was the one who very early and strongly gave the anti-tank busters (Javelins) to Ukraine, while Obama/Biden was giving blankets, to great and open complaints.
This is utter nonsense:
So What if Putin wins? It will take him years to fully absorb Ukraine and rebuild his army. Perhaps even decades. Surely, that is enough time for the sniveling smug Europeans to get their act together and build a common defense. isn’t it?
Does President Putin even WANT to “…absorb Ukraine…” ? Besides acquiring a wrecked and deeply divided nation-state and a nautical ass-ton of neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian gov’t and what’s left of its military, doing so would just push the Russian Federation borders up closer to even more NATO states.
No, I would suspect the RF intends to secure the ethnically-Russian regions and leave a European Union Welfare State of West Ukraine as both a “gift” to NATO (“enjoy the rebuilding and influx of neo-Nazis into Western Europe, losers”) and as a neutral zone between NATO and the RF.
With the added possible bonus of Poland stepping in to annex the EUWSoWU and letting NATO stew in its own ironic “territorial sovereignty” trope.
There’s a guy on substack https://karlof1.substack.com/
Who translates interviews with Putin and Lavrov, etc, which the western media doesn’t cover, at least not honestly. Sample Excerpt on MOA:
Very cool – thanks !
Never sure why, in a Digital Age of Instant Communication and archives of statements and interviews, people assume what others mean or think instead of ASKING them or reading what they’ve said on record.
The US also has a potential war going with Venezuela.
Oh goody! I was worried that we would run out of people to fight.
This could be why the Navy brought back one of the aircraft carriers from Israeli defense duty.
Aircraft carriers are obsolete/vulnerable.
The U.S. has a lot of potential wars under development, including in the south Caucasus where they have sponsored Maidan-style demonstrations against the Georgian government because that government is resisting pressure to open a second front against Russia. This in spite of the fact that the Georgian government supports Ukraine and has provided assistance to it.
Then there’s the South China Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, Gaza, etc.
Janet Yellen says the US will have no problem funding more wars. She caused me to wonder why European colonial powers went broke fighting each other.
*Sad trombone*
Nations of the “West” are willing to commit suicide for Ukraine and Israel. Because Neoconservatives tell them it’s the right thing to do. Brilliant.
Bunch of liars. UK is one of the biggest cheapskates when it comes to covering their own tab.
European countries are looking to ramp up weapons production to keep fueling the war in Ukraine despite knowing Ukraine can’t win.
This is just more Russian propaganda from DeCamp.
Ukraine can and will win. Russia must be defeated as soundly as Japan and Russia in ww2, and the necessary weapons will be provided.
NATO strengthens Europe’s Sky Shield with 1,000 Patriot missiles, – Reuters
https://ukrainetoday.org/nato-strengthens-europes-sky-shield-with-1000-patriot-missiles-reuters/
Ukraine will get the weapons they need. Dark Brandon is just exposing some Putin cronies in congress so he can eliminate them too. (Figuratively, of course.)