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President Zelenskyy, the answer is no Login/Join 
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^^^^^^




"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24
 
Posts: 11066 | Location: NW Houston | Registered: April 04, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
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The Biden administration is putting the finishing touches on a foreign aid package that would allocate $100 billion in US taxpayer funds to Ukraine, Israel and other 'top security priorities,'...

It's a good reason NOT to vote for a Speaker...
sometimes gridlock is not the worst option.

quote:
Biden Admin Drafts $100 Billion Ukraine-Israel Foreign Aid Package

My answer remains the same for both Ukraine and Israel: No.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chellim1,



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24765 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
bigger government
= smaller citizen
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My answer remains the same for both Ukraine and Israel: No.


What if they put a hundred bucks for the southern border in there? Pre-tax of course.

Would that change your mind?




“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.”—H.L. Mencken
 
Posts: 9184 | Location: West Michigan | Registered: April 20, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Would that change your mind?

Uh... No!

Biden's public show of Israel “support” doesn’t seem to be helping his numbers any. CNBC ran the latest in a string of similar polling stories yesterday headlined “Biden would lose in matchup vs. Trump, according to CNBC survey; Israel funding has strong support.”

In the presidential matchup part of its poll, responses showed Trump enjoying a +4% lead over Biden (46% to 42%). But there was more bad news in the poll, like Biden’s miniscule job approval rating, now mired in the low thirties.

Not good.

The muddy water is swirling out of the bribery bathtub. Biden’s shocking 32% approval rating on the economy is the lowest since he infested the White House, while his 63% economic rating is tied for highest disapproval.

And just wait till gas prices skyrocket because of the war.

It’s not just Republicans who are unhappy with Biden. “You don’t get sub-40 approval ratings without losing large chunks of your base. And that’s what’s happening here,″ explained Micah Roberts, partner at Public Opinion Strategies, which ran the survey. He called the data “distressing numbers for a president facing reelection.”

Yes, but is he facing re-election?

In another part of the poll, Republicans and independents prioritized securing the border with Mexico followed by military funding for Israel. Democrats prioritized military funding for Ukraine, if you can believe that, followed by foreign humanitarian aid. Which tees Biden up nicely for a massively unaffordable, budget-busting, inflation-inflaming Congressional authorization request for aid to all four parts: Israel, Ukraine, Gaza, and a little for our own border. Expect Biden to ask for all that at his national address tonight.

I would give a lot to understand the mind of a democrat voter who thinks the country’s biggest problem right now is low Ukraine funding. I’d also like to sell them some carbon credits.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com...ack&utm_medium=email



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24765 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

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Posts: 35039 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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This is an extension of Ukraine believing that this segment of the Russian Orthodox Church is spying for Moscow and has been mentioned by several Eastern Euro YouTubers following the war that Russia has used these Churches in other countries for similar reasons. It's not Ukraine stifling religion for no reason. This is an older article from April, but The Guardian puts some context into this:

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...hurch-faces-scrutiny

quote:
The enemy within? Ukraine’s Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church faces scrutiny
Isobel Koshiw

Father Mykola Danylevych, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church, answered the phone before quickly hanging up. “I told you to call me on an encrypted line!” Danylevych, like his fellow high-ranking clergymen at the church, are in a state of paranoia and panic – their church, the biggest in Ukraine, is under threat.

“We are not holier than thou, we admit that there are some unresolved matters on our side … but we are for individual responsibility, not collective,” said Danylevych.

Since November, the Ukrainian state has been investigating the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church – alleging it is an arm of the Kremlin, disguising Russian propaganda as religious teachings.

Some of the top leaders of the church, along with several key monasteries, have been subject to searches, and several high-profile priests have been charged with treason and inciting religious hatred.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in December that any religious organisation found to be working for Russia would be banned, a move he explained was designed to prevent Russia from weakening Ukraine from within.

The Moscow-affiliated church has been told to leave its headquarters after its lease expired at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, the most important home of eastern Orthodoxy.

In the walled Lavra monastery on the riverbank in central Kyiv stand dozens of golden domed churches connected by winding cobbled streets. Since the eviction notice, priests, monks and seminarians dressed in the traditional long black Orthodox robes have been seen loading icons and items of furniture on to trucks.

The Ukrainian state’s investigation into the church – prompted by an undated video of congregants at the Lavra praying for “Mother Russia” – has sunk its already dwindling reputation. In wartime Ukraine, where at least 100 soldiers are injured or killed on the frontlines each day, collaboration with Russia is viewed as the ultimate sin.

But the Moscow-affiliated church rejects the charges. It says it broke its ties with Moscow after the February 2022 invasion and vehemently denies being influenced, controlled or financed by Russia.

Instead, it insists that even before February 2022 the only connection had been its spiritual recognition of the Moscow Patriarch as the mother Orthodox church and the church had administered itself and received no money from Moscow.

In an interview, the Metropolitan (bishop) Clement, the head of information policy at the Moscow-affiliated church in Ukraine, claimed the Ukrainian state’s investigation is a plot to sow disunity among Ukrainians by Russian agents in the Ukrainian presidential administration.

Metropolitan Clement also claimed that the video filmed at the Lavra had been doctored, and the singing was added over it. “Did you see anyone singing in the video?” Clement asked. “We have, are and will continue to help the country in the time of war, there are many [Ukrainian Orthodox] believers fighting in the army.”

Yet there many examples of high-ranking priests in his church propagating the Kremlin’s narratives before the 2022 invasion – such as saying in televised interviews that Crimea was Russian or that the war in the Donbas was a civil war, as well as refusing to criticise Russia or Vladimir Putin. Russia occupied Crimea and engineered a pro-Russian armed conflict in the Donbas in 2014.

The raids on the church by Ukraine’s security services since November have unearthed pro-Russian literature and flags, and even Russian passports.

Ukraine’s security services have also published wiretapped conversations allegedly featuring the church’s second most senior priest, Metropolitan Pavlo, celebrating the occupation of Kherson by Russia and discussing the Russian conspiracy theory that Russia was targeting US biolabs in Ukraine.

So, the question is not whether there are members of the Moscow-affiliated church who did, or still do, hold pro-Russian beliefs – or may even be on the Kremlin’s payroll – but more how widespread it is, and whether it warrants the Ukrainian authorities’ crackdown.

The UN’s human rights office (OHCHR) has expressed concern that the Ukrainian government’s actions against the church could be discriminatory.

“The FSB [Russian state security services] tries to act, not through the organisation, but through certain active members of the organisation,” said Sergei Chapnin, a senior fellow of Orthodox studies at Fordham University in New York. “But again, this is not the whole church.”

According to Chapnin, most of those with pro-Russian sympathies exist among the higher levels of the church.

He described how there had been several attempts to unify the non-Moscow Orthodox church and the Moscow-affiliated church starting in the 1990s but “Moscow agents” had worked to block the dialogue.

Cyril Hovorun, a theologian who used to be a senior member of the Moscow-affiliated church and then switched allegiance, compared the issue of pro-Russian infiltration in the church with the paedophile scandal in the Roman Catholic church – the leadership knows who is a Russian collaborator but turn a blind eye, or even defend the bishop in question, in order to protect the church.

“Some of those bishops are like FSB agents. Some of them are not, but they are still in parts of the same ‘corporation’,” said Hovorun.

“They lie to protect not themselves personally, but the corporation.

“The Kremlin quite early realised that in order to control the church, it’s enough to control its bishops.

“That’s why the Kremlin invested a lot into buying the loyalty of the Ukrainian bishops. And therefore, there is, I think, a disproportionate sympathy with the Russian cause among the bishops … a lot of people on the grassroots level, they are very dissatisfied with what the bishops say and do.”

Hovorun described how the grassroots clergymen are so disconnected from the leadership that, two months ago, they posed questions publicly about whether the church was now really independent or “just pretending to be”.

The head of the church, Metropolitan Onufriy, insists he has cut ties with Russia and used the term “Russian aggression” for the first time in February. In May 2022, the top priest met and removed all the references to the Russian Orthodox church from the church’s equivalent of its founding documents.

But Hovorun said that although they eliminated all explicit references to their relationship with the Moscow patriarchy, they introduced some implicit ones, which seem to leave the door open for the future.

“The Ukrainian society, because of that, doesn’t trust them,” said Hovorun.

Part of the problem is that the idea of Ukraine being part of the Russian world is ingrained in their religious education. Onufriy has a romanticised idea of Russia and “truly believes in his soul that there is a deep spiritual connection between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus”.

The Kremlin exploits the Russian world idea to get the priests to support it, said Hovorun. “It’s impossible to say what came first, the idea or the Russian state’s exploitation of the idea,” said Hovorun, noting that the idea has existed since tsarist times. “It’s like the chicken and the egg.”

Russian-Ukrainian oligarch turned deacon of the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian church, Vadim Novinsky, for instance, denied in an interview that Russia’s Patriarch Kirill supports the war in Ukraine and that the Russian Orthodox Church is used as influence instrument by the Kremlin – despite Kirill’s own proclamations.

“I haven’t heard that he’s pro-war,” said Novinsky, who also insists he supports Ukraine. Novinsky, who has Ukrainian citizenship, was sanctioned by the Ukrainian state in December for supporting Russia – a move he said is illegal because of his citizenship.

“Onufriy knows that there are collaborators but doesn’t want to deal with them and that’s a big problem,” said Hovorun.

As the security services continue their public investigation, believers and grassroots level priests of the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been increasingly switching their allegiance to the very similarly named Orthodox Church of Ukraine – which is around half the size of the Moscow-affiliated rival.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which comprises almost exactly the same religious traditions but is not spiritually subordinate to Russia, was only recognised internationally in 2019.

Both the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church believe its proclamation of independence is schismatic – creating division.

Ukraine’s military intelligence, which is in charge of prisoner swaps, has suggested exchanging some of the 12,000 priests for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia.

Despite them being Ukrainian citizens, Ukraine has already exchanged some of the charged Moscow-affiliated priests for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, told Interfax News on Sunday - in some cases stripping them of their citizenship. “The enemy highly values its agents in cassocks - yes, one such person was exchanged for 28 Ukrainian servicemen,” said Malyuk.

Hovorun and Chapnin argue that the current policy is a mistake and will not eradicate pro-Russian ideas. This week, the police stationed themselves at the Lavra, prompting a heated response from the church and its believers.

Congregants that the Guardian met at the Lavra shortly after the nationwide searches began also said they believed the searches were a punishment from God, 100 years after Russian Tsar Nicholas II was murdered by the Bolsheviks in St Petersburg.

However the investigation progresses, the future of the Moscow-affiliated church, like all pro-Russian elements in Ukraine, is far from assured.
 
Posts: 4524 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shall Not Be Infringed
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One of the BIG problems with this war, is ALL THE PROPAGANDA! We know that churches have been targeted/banned by the Ukrainian gov't AND that opposition political parties have been banned as well. Both religious leaders and political leaders that oppose Zelensky's gov't have been jailed as a result. So which propaganda do you want to believe in? That is the question... Roll Eyes


____________________________________________________________

If Some is Good, and More is Better.....then Too Much, is Just Enough !!
Trump 2024....Make America Great Again!
"May Almighty God bless the United States of America" - parabellum 7/26/20
Live Free or Die!
 
Posts: 9579 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: October 29, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Now they are telling the West how to run things.


Ukraine says Israel-Hamas war shows West must ramp up arms production

https://www.politico.eu/articl...-up-arms-production/

Facing war on two fronts — in Ukraine and in the Middle East — Kyiv is calling on Western democracies to ramp up investment in weapons, saying that arms factory output worldwide is falling miles short of what is needed.

In an interview, Ukraine’s Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin told POLITICO Western countries needed to accelerate production of missiles, shells and military drones as close to frontlines as possible.

“The free world should be producing enough to protect itself," Kamyshin said, on a mission to the German capital to persuade arms producers to invest in war-ravaged Ukraine. "That's why we have to produce more and better weapons to stay safe."

Current factory capacity was woeful, he argued. “If you get together all the worldwide capacities for weapons production, for ammunition production, that will be not enough for this war,” said Kamyshin of the state of play along Ukraine's more than 1,000 kilometers of active frontline.

The answer, says Kamyshin, is to start building out production facilities now. “What happens in Israel now shows and proves that the defense industry globally is a destination for investments for decades,” he said.

Since Russia's war on Ukraine started in February 2022, western governments have been funneling arms to Kyiv. That includes hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, armored vehicles and other equipment.

But as the grind of war continues, Kyiv has changed tack — appointing Kamyshin, the former boss of Ukraine's state railway — to the post of minister for strategic industries. Ukraine, formerly a major military hub in the Soviet Union, is now trying to increase output of armored vehicles, ammunition and air defense systems, he said, and wants Western partners to invest.

A key step is expected on Tuesday, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal will announce a new joint venture between Rheinmetall and Ukroboronprom, a Ukrainian defense company, Kamyshin said.

Last March, EU countries pledged to send a million artillery rounds to Ukraine over the following year as part of a program to lift production. Ukraine may need as much as 1.5 million shells annually to sustain its war effort, a daunting task that Kamyshin hopes he can help, at least partially, with domestic output.

In total, Ukraine has received over 350 self-propelled and towed artillery systems from NATO countries and Australia. Combined with Soviet-era pieces in Ukrainian stocks prior to the Russian invasion, Kyiv has approximately 1,600 pieces of artillery in service — but must cover a massive front.

"This war can be for decades," he said. "[The] Russians can come back always."

More at link


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"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."
Mark Twain
 
Posts: 13374 | Registered: January 17, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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“The free world should be producing enough to protect itself," Kamyshin said, on a mission to the German capital to persuade arms producers to invest in war-ravaged Ukraine. "That's why we have to produce more and better weapons to stay safe."

Good idea!
We'll keep ours; you build yours.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24765 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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So now that we're also sending weapons to Israel, WE need to increase production so as to be able to continue GIVING Ukraine everything it wants? For a war that according to Ukraine, may last "for decades"? Sounds like our domestic woke progressives aren't the only ones with an entitled mentality.
quote:
Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
America should never have provided dollar one to prolonging this war. Putin wins? Yeah no shit. Any other possibility was always a wet dream.

Dead on. Enough is enough. FJB.
 
Posts: 7478 | Location: Idaho | Registered: February 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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This is an extension of Ukraine believing that this segment of the Russian Orthodox Church is spying for Moscow


The Russian Orthodox Church since Stalin has been under KGB/FSB control.


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Sigs Owned - A Bunch
 
Posts: 4361 | Location: Nashville, Tennessee | Registered: December 16, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by wcb6092:
In an interview, Ukraine’s Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin told POLITICO Western countries needed to accelerate production of missiles, shells and military drones as close to frontlines as possible.


Stuff it up your ass.

quote:
Originally posted by wcb6092:
Current factory capacity was woeful, he argued. “If you get together all the worldwide capacities for weapons production, for ammunition production, that will be not enough for this war,” said Kamyshin of the state of play along Ukraine's more than 1,000 kilometers of active frontline.


Then it sounds like you've lost. I have far less of a problem with that than I do all of the west ramping up production and sending everything to a country that can't fight and win it's own wars. Sorry, it sucks, but that's how I feel. I'm not alone, either. When shit gets real spicy here next year and our goddamn cities are burning down because Politics, patting each other on the back because "at least Ukraine didn't fall" isn't going to mean much.

quote:
Originally posted by wcb6092:
"This war can be for decades," he said. "[The] Russians can come back always."


Someone in DC has a raging hard-on after reading that. We fucking love Forever Wars®™.


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Carthago delenda est
 
Posts: 17822 | Location: Sonoran Desert | Registered: February 10, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

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Oh boy. This never ends well, does it?

quote:

Zelensky Exposed: Former Advisor Reveals How Ukrainian President Thinks He's Omnipotent

ZeroHedge WEDNESDAY, OCT 25, 2023 - 02:00 AM
Authored by Grzegorz Adamczyk via Remix News

The arrogance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is causing problems with Kyiv’s allies and he believes that, as his country is at war, he can do anything, his former adviser has claimed.

In a bombshell interview with Polish news outlet dorzeczy.pl, Oleksyi Arestovych slammed his former boss for his increasingly overbearing behavior and believes he has fallen victim to delusions of grandeur and a belief that he is all-powerful.

Arestovych cited Zelensky’s response to the ongoing diplomatic conflict over the dumping of Ukrainian grain as an example, accusing the president’s office of “behaving as if it has a decisive voice in the European Union rather than being a country aspiring to join the bloc.”

The former adviser, who himself is a possible candidate in any future Ukrainian presidential election, expressed his fear that Zelensky “has become deluded into thinking he now rules the globe.”

His diplomacy concentrates on making demands and using moral blackmail to claim Ukraine is fighting for the West, said Arestovych, who claimed this tactic may have been successful at the beginning of the conflict but is no longer effective.

“The West is increasingly irritated by Ukraine’s arrogance,” he added.

Arestovych claimed that Zelensky’s behavior had led to tension among Kyiv’s closest allies including Poland and Romania, while its relations with the U.S. and the U.K. have also cooled.

The West will continue to support Ukraine because it is in the West’s own interests to do so, but it may well stop supporting the current Ukrainian government and back an alternative, he warned.

However, Arestovych was dismissive of the argument that Ukraine was colluding with Germany against Poland, claiming that this is only purely due to the fact that Ukraine has no clear foreign policy under Zelensky.

Ukraine wants Germany to be a counter-balance to Russia and that is why Ukraine backs its ambitions of securing a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, the former advisor told the Polish news outlet.

Arestovych admitted that Poland could have gotten more out of Ukraine on issues related to the Volhynia massacre by pursuing a more transactional policy towards the country, but that would not have been beneficial to it in the longer term. “Even if Zelensky is ungrateful for all the help selflessly offered by Poland, Ukrainian people are grateful and that will be more important in the longer term,” he assured.


Link


 
Posts: 35039 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
quote:
Originally posted by bubbatime:


Putin wins. Way to go idiots.

Putin knew from the beginning that he just had to wait out American support. And now the Biden white house admits that's exactly what has happened.


Man, just what did you imagine was the end game here? I mean seriously, what? America should never have provided dollar one to prolonging this war. Putin wins? Yeah no shit. Any other possibility was always a wet dream.


You guys are missing the ENTIRE PICTURE. This isn't about supporting other countries wars at all. It's a giant F'ing washing machine for the Democrats to embezzle money out of the US government. Money gets sent to Ukraine to fund this war. Ukraine then funds offshore bank accounts or bitcoin accounts with a percentage of that money, for the people that sent them the money in the first place. It's embezzlement. The money we sent them, they could've bought every war machine, every gun, every mercanary and every bullet, that every company in the US has produced in the last few years. Hell, they could've just stood at the border and paid off 90% of the Russian soldiers to do nothing.
 
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Peace through
superior firepower
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Posts: 109737 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Now, who ever could have seen this coming?

U.S., European officials broach topic of peace negotiations with Ukraine, sources say

WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.

The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.

They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements.

And there is unease in the U.S. government with how much less public attention the war in Ukraine has garnered since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a month ago, the officials said. Officials fear that shift could make securing additional aid for Kyiv more difficult.

Some U.S. military officials have privately begun using the term “stalemate” to describe the current battle in Ukraine, with some saying it may come down to which side can maintain a military force the longest. Neither side is making large strides on the battlefield, which some U.S. officials now describe as a war of inches. Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said.

“Any decisions about negotiations are up to Ukraine,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “We are focused on continuing to stand strongly in support of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russian aggression.”

An administration official also noted that the U.S. has participated with Ukraine in discussions of its peace summit framework but said the White House “is not aware of any other conversations with Ukraine about negotiations at the moment.”

President Joe Biden has been intensely focused on Ukraine’s depleting military forces, according to two people familiar with the matter.

"Manpower is at the top of the administration’s concerns right now,” one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, “but if they don’t have competent forces to use them it doesn’t do a lot of good”

Biden has requested that Congress authorize additional funding for Ukraine, but, so far, the effort has failed to progress because of resistance from some congressional Republicans. The White House has linked aid for Ukraine and Israel in its most recent request. That has support among some congressional Republicans, but other GOP lawmakers have said they’ll only vote for an Israel-only aid package.

Before the Israel-Hamas war began, White House officials publicly expressed confidence that additional Ukraine funding would pass Congress before the end of this year, while privately conceding concerns about how difficult that might be.

Biden had been reassuring U.S. allies that Congress will approve more aid for Ukraine and planned a major speech on the issue. Once Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the president’s focus shifted to the Middle East, and his Ukraine speech morphed into an Oval Office address about why the U.S. should financially support Ukraine and Israel.

The Biden administration does not have any indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate with Ukraine, two U.S. officials said. Western officials say Putin still believes he can “wait out the West,” or keep fighting until the U.S. and its allies lose domestic support for funding Ukraine or the struggle to supply Kyiv with weapons and ammunition becomes too costly, officials said.

Both Ukraine and Russia are struggling to keep up with military supplies. Russia has ramped up production of artillery rounds, and, over the next couple years may be able to produce 2 million shells per year, according to a Western official. But Russia fired an estimated 10 million rounds in Ukraine last year, the official said, so it will also have to rely on other countries.

The Biden administration has spent $43.9 billion on security assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, according to the Pentagon. A U.S. official says the administration has about $5 billion left to send to Ukraine before money runs out. There would be no aid left for Ukraine if the administration hadn’t said it found a $6.2 billion accounting error from months of over-valuing equipment sent to Kyiv.

Progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been very slow, and hope that Ukraine will make significant advances, including reaching the coast near Russia’s frontlines, is fading. A lack of significant progress on the battlefield in Ukraine does not help with trying to reverse the downward trend in public support for sending more aid, officials said.

A Gallup poll released this week shows decreasing support for sending additional aid to Ukraine, with 41% of Americans saying the U.S. is doing too much to help Kyiv. That’s a significant change from just three months ago when 24% of Americans said they felt that way. The poll also found that 33% of Americans think the U.S. is doing the right amount for Ukraine, while 25% said the U.S. is not doing enough.

Public sentiment toward assisting Ukraine is also starting to soften in Europe.

As incentive for Zelenskyy to consider negotiations, NATO could offer Kyiv some security guarantees, even without Ukraine formally becoming part of the alliance, officials said. That way, officials said, the Ukrainians could be assured that Russia would be deterred from invading again.

In August national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters, “We do not assess that the conflict is a stalemate.” Instead, Sullivan said, Ukraine is taking territory on a “methodical, systematic basis.”

But a Western official acknowledged there has not been a lot of movement by either side in some time, and with the cold weather approaching it will be tough for either Ukraine or Russia to break that pattern. The official said it will not be impossible, but it will be difficult.

U.S. officials also assess that Russia will attempt to hit critical infrastructure in Ukraine again this winter, attempting to force some civilians to endure a frigid winter without heat or power.

Administration officials expect Ukraine to want more time to fight on the battlefield, particularly with new, heavier equipment, “but there’s a growing sense that it’s too late, and it’s time to do a deal,” the former senior administration official said. It is not certain that Ukraine would mount another spring offensive.

One senior administration official pushed back on any notion of the U.S. nudging Ukraine toward talks. The Ukrainians, the official said, “are on the clock in terms of weather, but they are not on the clock in terms of geopolitics.”
 
Posts: 109737 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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IMO, if Ukraine shrinks it's borders, Russia will just build up it's military and strike again in a few years. Their goal is to take all of Ukraine, and possibly Poland. I suspect they will not quit, until they actually lose or Putin is replaced.

Putin is like Napoleon. He feels inferior to others and will allow hundreds of thousands of Russians to be slaughtered on the battlefield to show how "tough" he is. He is prior head of the KGB when they did a false flag and blew up the Moscow apartment buildings with 200 fatalities. All that to justify a war on Chechnya.


-c1steve
 
Posts: 4138 | Location: West coast | Registered: March 31, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Peace through
superior firepower
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So, Ukraine should keep fighting, lose another hundred-thousand men, have soldiers who are average 65 years in age- and gain nothing?

"If Ukraine shrinks its borders..."

You say this as if they have a choice in the matter. They don't. The territory has been seized from them. Their borders have already shrunk. Continuing to fight a battle already lost does nothing but weaken a nation further.
 
Posts: 109737 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His diet consists of black
coffee, and sarcasm.
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quote:
Their goal is to take all of Ukraine, and possibly Poland.

I don't disagree with the first part, but what's this "he'll go after Poland next" business? Poland is NATO. That would trigger war with all of its countries, including ours. Of course, we would bear the brunt of it. Roll Eyes

It's a European problem. Let the Eurotrash handle it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,
 
Posts: 28949 | Location: Johnson City, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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https://www.rt.com/russia/5861...an-anti-jewish-riot/

"Media sources in Moscow believe the unrest has been encouraged by Ukraine-based Telegram channels running information-war operations."

And Zelenskyy has the nerve to ask Israel for support...
 
Posts: 646 | Registered: September 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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