Biden Administration Announces Nearly $6 Billion in New Ukraine Aid
ANTIWAR.com, Dave DeCamp, 31 Dec 24
Ukraine is receiving about $2.5 billion in military aid and $3.4 billion in ‘budget support,’ which funds government salaries and servicesby Dave DeCamp December 30, 2024.
The Biden administration on Monday announced nearly $6 billion in new aid for Ukraine as it’s determined to escalate the proxy war as much as possible before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20, 2025.
The aid includes $3.4 billion in “direct budget support,” a form of assistance meant to pay for Ukrainian government services, salaries, pensions, and other types of spending. It has also been used to subsidize Ukrainian small businesses and farmers.……………………….
Ukraine is also receiving nearly $2.5 billion in military aid from the US, which includes $1.22 billion from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a program that allows the US to purchase weapons for Ukraine. The remaining military aid is in the form of the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which enables President Biden to ship weapons directly from US military stockpiles.
The Biden administration is dumping more weapons into Ukraine even though there’s no path to a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield as Russian forces continue to make gains in the Donbas and Ukraine’s invading force in Kursk is being pushed out. Biden officials are determined to keep the war going and are even pressuring Ukraine to begin conscripting 18-year-olds.
According to the Pentagon, the new military aid includes:
Spare parts, maintenance and sustainment support, ancillary equipment, services, training, and transportation
Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)
HAWK air defense munitions
Stinger missiles
Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (c-UAS) munitions
Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition
Air-to-ground munitions
High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs)
Unmanned Aerials Systems (UAS)
Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems
Tube-launched, Optically guided, Wire-tracked (TOW) missiles
Small arms and ammunition and grenades
Demolitions equipment and munitions
Secure communications equipment
Commercial satellite imagery services
Medical equipment
Clothing and individual equipment
In recent months, President Biden signed off on several significant escalations in the proxy war, including supporting long-range strikes on Russian territory and the provision of widely banned anti-personnel mines to Ukraine.
Biden asked Congress for an additional $24 billion to spend on Ukraine, but the request was rejected by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who said any decisions on Ukraine aid would be up to Trump. https://news.antiwar.com/2024/12/30/biden-administration-announces-nearly-6-billion-in-new-ukraine-aid/
Is it realistic for Donald Trump to boast of a quick peace deal for Ukraine ?
AIMN Editorial, https://theaimn.net/is-it-realistic-for-donald-trump-to-boast-of-a-quick-peace-deal-for-ukraine/ 2 Jan 25
Donald Trump has made so many promises on what he will quickly achieve once he takes office as President. The one about ending the Ukraine war in 24 hours probably gained him support from quite a few normally left-leaning people, who understand that the history of this conflict is far more complicated than is portrayed by the Western media.
However, Trump made that statement in July 2023. By 2025, he has somewhat moderated that particular promise. He has had several conversations with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, . Zelensky praised their Paris meeting on 7 December as “productive and meaningful”, but there were no details discussed. Later, Trump opposed the sending of long-range missiles for Ukraine , but said he would not “abandon” Ukraine. He predicted “less aid” to Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-R7Gi-uLiY. BY 21st December, it was reported that Trump would continue to supply military aid to Ukraine, provided that NATO members dramatically increase their defence spending.
So, peace in Ukraine is not going to happen in such a hurry, even with President Trump and his supposed great negotiating skills. Britain considers sending troops to Ukraine to train Ukrainian regiments. NATO is not prepared for any compromises, especially about giving up the plan for Ukraine’s NATO membership. With any peace deal, the Western allies agree with Zelensky – “Security guarantees without the US are not sufficient for Ukraine.”
As well as European reluctance to a peace deal, there is the Russian point of view. Despite many set-backs, and a catastrophic loss of soldiers’ lives, Russia is now headed towards winning this war. Why make a deal now, before being in a more powerful position for demanding concessions?
Then we come to the USA. However much Donald Trump might want to end the carnage, and be seen as the peace hero, he is up against significant forces at home – making up what he calls the Deep State. This is a conspiracy theory that helped Trump to gain popularity – and I hate to agree with it, in its rather paranoid theme. BUT, war enthusiasts do exist – among the, military, intelligence, government officials, and wealthy industrialists, and they do exercise influence, and pressure politicians of both parties, to manipulate America’s defense policies. The war in Ukraine continues to be profitable to America’s weapons industries, and at no cost to American lives.
In the whole saga of the war in Ukraine, history has been forgotten. Of course Ukrainian-Russian relations have been tortuous and often terrible. In modern history it goes back to the 1930s, with Stalin’s starvation and genocide of Ukrainians. Then, following oppression from Russia, came in 1941, the short-lived moment of “liberation” by the German Nazis. That brought mass killings of Jews, slave labour, wholesale destruction, and the loss of up to 7 million lives. Russian control over Ukraine returned in 1944, and while the economy was restored, Stalin’s totalitarian rule was back again. In 1991 Ukraine gained independence from Russia.
Is it any wonder that Ukraine, with both Russian and Ukrainian languages still in common use, has been divided in attitudes and loyalties? Going even further back in history, Catherine the Great of Russia, in the 18th Century, made Kiev become Europe’s centre of art and culture, as well as making improvements in health, education, legal rights for Jews, improved conditions for serfs. Sure, she was an absolute monarch, – miles away from being democratic. Now her name and her statues are trashed in Kiev, which is a pity.
From 2014 to 2022, the Ukrainian government waged a war against the separatists in the Eastern, Donbass region. The war was about the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements which meant that the Donbass should have its autonomous government within Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky was elected on a platform that he would implement those agreements, but later he reneged on this promise. Russia’s President Putin in 2022 started what he called “a special military exercise” to support the separatists and uphold the Minsk agreement. That turned into the full-scale war against Ukraine.
European and USA support for Ukraine developed into a campaign, at enormous cost, to weaken Russia. The phrase “too big to fail” is used to describe financial crises. But it could apply to the Russia-Ukraine war. From the Western perspective the war is seen as a battle between good and evil – the evil giant Putin against the heroic little Zelensky. With NATO, with most European countries lined up against Russia, it is world democracy to be desperately defended, For Russia, it now is to prevent that last big nation on its border joining that threatening USA-armed line-up.
It was a mistake that Russia started a ‘special military enterprise’ -to evolve into a full-scale war. Some argue that by encouraging Zelensky to reneg on the Minsk agreement, the Western nations provoked the war.
Whatever started the war, the majority of Ukrainians, and especially those in the East, now just want it to end. The prevailing cry of Western leaders – “Putin must fail, Ukraine must prevail” expresses that simplistic view of good versus evil, and just ignores the complicated historic and local concerns of Eastern Ukraine. Diplomacy is jettisoned. As one writer puts it – voices calling for pragmatism and peace remain drowned out by the cacophony of war rhetoric.
Ultimately , every war ends in some sort of a diplomatic outcome. It is doubtful that Trump can make this one end quickly. It might be just one of the promises that he has to give up.
How Ukraine is Helping the HTS Militants Who Overthrew Assad
Scheerpost, December 29, 2024 , By Stavroula Pabst / Responsible Statecraft
As Islamist, al-Qaida-linked group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) overruns Syria amid President Assad’s sudden ouster, evidence suggesting Ukraine has assisted the group’s triumph continues to mount.
Namely, the Washington Post reported Tuesday that Ukraine sent 150 first-person-view drones and 20 drone operators to Idlib about a month ago.
The New York Times reported earlier this month, moreover, that Ukraine and HTS were coordinating efforts including “countering Russian misinformation and providing medical assistance.” The reporting also highlighted Ukrainian intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov’s repeated suggestions that Ukraine would target its enemy Russia internationally.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius mused that Ukraine’s intentions for assisting HTS were obvious, writing that the war-torn nation was looking for other ways to “bloody Russia’s nose and undermine its clients.” In turn, a source told the New York Times that the HTS offensive in Syria was likewise timed in part to strike a blow against mutual enemy Russia.
………………………………………. “Ukraine’s alleged assistance to HTS forces is of limited military significance insofar as the SAA was inherently unprepared to resist the rebel offensive,” said Dr. Mark Episkopos, Quincy Institute Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor of History at Marymount University.
“But it is part of Kyiv’s broader effort to court Western support for its NATO accession bid by demonstrating to the US and other stakeholders its effectiveness in countering Russian interests around the world.” https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/29/how-ukraine-is-helping-the-hts-militants-who-overthrew-assad/
Trump suggests Zelensky consider ceding territories – El Pais
COMMENT. We may not like Donald Trump much.
But sometimes he gets it right.
https://www.rt.com/news/609772-trump-zelensky-territorial-claims/ 24 Dec 24
America’s president-elect has reportedly relayed the message this week.
US President-elect Donald Trump has sent a message to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, asking him to start thinking about a ceasefire and to abandon claims to territories that are currently under control of Russia, El Pais reported on Sunday.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to end the Ukraine conflict within a day of taking office, but has yet to elaborate on how he plans to achieve this. His vows have raised concerns in Kiev that it may be facing not only a decline in aid but also an audit of the billions of dollars it has received from the White House under President Joe Biden.
“You look at some of these cities and there is not a single building in good condition left. So, when you say “restore the country,” restore what? This is a 110-year reconstruction,” the Spanish newspaper cited Trump as saying in a “message” to Zelensky from his Florida golf club this week.
Earlier this month, Trump called on both Ukraine and Russia to reach an immediate ceasefire. He posted the call on his social media platform Truth Social after meeting in Paris with Zelensky and President Emmanuel Macron.
The Wall Street Journal reported in early December, citing officials, that Trump had said Western Europe should deploy its troops to Ukraine to monitor a potential ceasefire. He reportedly added that the EU should play the main role in defending and supporting Kiev, while Washington could support the effort without sending troops.
Speaking at his end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Russian president Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow remains open to negotiating with Kiev without any preconditions, except those that had already been agreed upon in Istanbul in 2022, which envisaged a neutral, non-aligned status for Ukraine, as well as certain restrictions on deploying foreign weaponry. He also noted that such talks would have to respect the realities on the ground that have developed since that time.
Regulator warns against delays in work on Chernobyl’s shelter
“Further delays in the implementation of the project to dismantle the unstable structures of the Shelter under the NSC shell increase the risk of their collapse, which could lead to extremely negative consequences.“
WNN, 20 December 2024
The head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, Oleg Korikov, has urged against any further delays in the project to dismantle the unstable shelter facility, which was built at speed in 1986 to cover Chernobyl’s damaged unit 4.
He was speaking during a meeting of backers of the International Cooperation Account for Chernobyl, which was established in November 2020 by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) at the Ukrainian government’s request to support a comprehensive plan for Chernobyl. The EBRD had already led the project to fund and construct the New Safe Confinement building which is now in place covering the whole of the reactor involved in the accident, including the initial shelter built around it in a matter of months.
Korikov said that equipping the New Safe Confinement with the necessary equipment and the dismantling of the unstable structures of the original shelter had already been postponed because of funding issues. This work was an integral part of the three-stage international Shelter Implementation Plan, which was firstly to stabilise it – the 2008 work gave it a design life to 2023 – and secondly to build a larger secure construction to enclose it – the New Safe Confinement (NSC) which was completed in 2017 – which would then pave the way for the dismantling and decommissioning stage.
“Further delays in the implementation of the project to dismantle the unstable structures of the Shelter under the NSC shell increase the risk of their collapse, which could lead to extremely negative consequences. This state of affairs causes serious concern for the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine,” he said.
The Shelter Object – also known as the ‘sarcophagus’ – still contains the molten core of the reactor and an estimated 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material. The stability of the structure has developed into one of the major risk factors at the site.
The licence for the storage of radioactive waste within the shelter was extended last year from 2023 to 2029, with a 2025 deadline for the development of a new design for the dismantling of “unstable structures with an unacceptably high probability of collapse”, and a 31 October 2029 deadline for completion of the dismantling.
In October it was announced that a new study was being funded by the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account which aims to determine the scope of deconstruction work for unstable Shelter structures and provide an initial cost estimate and enable the beginning of design work for the dismantling of the unstable Shelter structures………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The New Safe Confinement is the largest moveable land-based structure built – with a span of 257 metres, a length of 162 metres, a height of 108 metres and a total weight of 36,000 tonnes equipped…………….. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/warning-against-delays-in-work-on-chernobyls-old-shelter
U.S. Corporate Land Grab in Ukraine Underlies War With Russia
Heralded as a hero in Western media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has allowed foreign private interests to steal his country’s best land
Jeremy Kuzmarov, Dec 20, 2024 Originally published in CovertAction Magazine
In early November, Barbara Bonte, a Belgian member of the European Union (EU) parliament, raised concern about the sell-off of Ukrainian land on a massive scale to U.S. private equity firms along with some Saudi agro-industrial and investment businesses.
Bonte wrote to the EU parliament that, “according to several disquieting reports, mainly U.S. but also Saudi agro-industrial and investment businesses are purchasing Ukrainian farmland on a massive scale. Cargill, ADM, BlackRock, Oaktree Capital Management and Bunge Limited, for instance, have reportedly gained control over much of Ukraine’s farmland.”
Bonte then posed two questions to the EU parliament as follows:
“1. What is the Commission’s assessment of the impact of this sell-off of European farmland to multinationals serving only U.S. interests on EU strategic food-supply dependence? How does the Commission intend to address that impact?”
“2. This strongly suggests that the United States is seeking to recoup its military support for Ukraine, and ensure a geopolitical presence there in a post-war scenario through control over Ukrainian farmland and the profits it generates. How does the Commission intend to prevent the United States from cherry-picking in Ukraine and Europe from being left to deal with just the handicaps?”
Bonte’s questions are significant ones that point to a hidden, underlying motive to the war in Ukraine and U.S. and European support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The bonanza offered to foreign investors resembles past wars where young people were sacrificed on the altar of corporate profits.
War and Theft
A detailed analysis of the land grab in Ukraine by Western corporations was provided in a 2023 report by the Oakland Institute[1] entitled “War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land.”
Written by Frédéric Mousseau, a food security consultant, and Eve Devillers, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, the report starts by emphasizing Ukraine’s function as a “breadbasket of Europe” with its 33 million acres of arable land and “large swaths of the most fertile farmland in the world.”
In 2021, Zelensky initiated a land reform program as part of the structural adjustment program begun under the auspices of Western financial institutions that enabled U.S.-based corporations to take over Ukraine’s land.[2]
The structural adjustment program had been opposed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in the 2014 U.S.-backed Maidan coup.
After Zelensky’s “land reform” was initiated, about five million hectares—the size of two Crimeas—were outright “stolen” by private interests.
The thieves included Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street investment firm well represented in the Biden administration, which in April 2022 bought NN Investment Partners Holding N.V., a Netherlands-based company that is a major shareholder in Ukraine’s biggest landowner, Kernel Holding S.A, and in Astarta, another large landowner in Ukraine.[3]
Vanguard Group Inc., which gave $45,473 to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and $98,551 to Joe Biden in 2020, was another Wall Street firm that bought up Ukrainian land cheaply.[4]
Some large U.S. pension funds, foundations and university endowments are invested in Ukrainian land through NCH Capital—a U.S.-based private equity fund headquartered at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, which is the fifth largest landholder in Ukraine with its possession of 290,749 hectares.[5]
NCH Capital currently faces accusations of unlawful land acquisition, tax evasion, and illicit financial activity. In 2015, its founder and CEO, George Rohr, was part of the high-level meetings involving Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Commerce secretary Penny Pritzker that led Ukraine to agree to the structural adjustment program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a condition for two $1 billion loan guarantees from the Obama administration.[6]…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The Oakland Institute report compares the generous financing of multinational corporations and local oligarchs with the inability of Ukrainian small farmers to access loans and their being displaced from their land and plunged into poverty. Some have migrated to the U.S. to seek farm work in the U.S. Midwest, sending remittances back home.[9]
Mousseau and Devillers wrote that “the Partial Credit Guarantee Fund established by the World Bank to support small farmers is only US$5.4 million, a negligible amount compared to the billions channeled to large agribusinesses.” https://jeremykuzmarov.substack.com/p/us-corporate-land-grab-in-ukraine?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2091638&post_id=153373724&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1r1sdz&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Europe fears nuclear catastrophe: This plant sets off all alarms due to risk of explosion
Eco News by Sanusha S.. 12/14/2024
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), located in eastern Ukraine, has been a focal point of global attention due to the conflict in this country. The Russian troops captured this plant in 2022 and since then have faced a multitude of threats like fire, military action, or damage to infrastructure. Notwithstanding clarifications from nuclear safety experts regarding the safety precautions taken at plants, it has been a severe reminder of the need for urgent global protocols to guard against those facilities during armed conflict.
……………………………………………………………..Zaporizhzhia: A plant which is embattled in a nuclear fire unprecedented conflict
This is the most unprecedented scenario: a nuclear plant turned into military target. Constant shelling, drone strikes and even presence of landmines on the premises intensifies risk of nuclear incident because of the occupation of ZNPP by Russian forces.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sent inspectors and even suggested creating a demilitarized safety zone around the site, thus, these measures remain unimplemented. The agency has identified that all seven pillars of nuclear safety are compromised at Zaporizhzhia. These include protection of critical infrastructure and prevention of military use of the facility……………………………………….
https://www.ecoticias.com/en/europe-fears-nuclear-catastrophe/9437/
On Ukraine war, will Trump channel JFK or LBJ?
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 17 Dec 24.
Donald Trump will inherit Joe Biden’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine on January 20.
Biden has made clear he’ll never negotiate an end to his failed war that includes any concession whatsoever to Russian security interests. Biden is furnishing Ukraine with billions more in weaponry to prevent a Ukraine collapse on his watch. He’ll be damned if he allows a US defeat in Ukraine in his last year to bookend his accepting a US defeat in Afghanistan in his first year.
That presents a huge dilemma for Trump whose who routinely called for a quick end to this senseless war during his successful campaign.
But just like in his first term, Trump may be trumped on negotiating peace and disengagement by the US war party. Trump achieved nothing in terms of détente with North Korea, China, Iran, Russia or cutting America’s bloated 34,000 troop presence in NATO Germany. He may also fall victim to the same dread Biden has of being president when Ukraine does sue for peace, losing four provinces, committing to neutrality between East and West, including no NATO membership as the basis for a ceasefire.
Trump’s situation recalls the dilemma both JFK and LBJ faced over US involvement in America’s lost war in Vietnam 611 years ago.
JFK inherited his predecessor Ike’s 700 ‘advisors’ and Vietnam and ironclad US commitment to keep South Vietnam free from communism. By the end of 1962 Kennedy hiked the advisors to 11,000, incurring over 50 deaths in their non-combat role.
But by spring of 1963 JFK, more a realist than fanatical Cold Warrior, understood that no US presence could save South Vietnam from defeat. He began to secretly plan for a full US withdrawal. In May, 1963 he had Defense Secretary Bob McNamara draw up a withdrawal plan. Kennedy made this plan official policy with his National Security Action Memorandum 263, dated October 11, 1963. It called for withdrawal of 1,000 advisors by December and rest of the now 16,000 personnel out by the end of 1965. The 2 year gap to complete the US pullout was due to waiting till after his reelection to avoid political pushback from Republicans that could jeopardize his reelection.
This was US policy on the day JFK died. Had Kennedy lived there is no basis for believing he would not follow through on his pledge to end US military involvement in Vietnam.
When Lyndon Johnson became president, he immediately cancelled National Security Action Memorandum 263. His administration, Congress, the military and compliant national media all rallied around the fiction of complete continuity between JFK and LBJ on Vietnam. Johnson began pouring in more advisors before pivoting to direct US warfare after he hyped the August, 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident to militarize US action against North Vietnam. LBJ famously remarked ‘I’m not going to be the first US president to lose war’.
In so doing Johnson destroyed his presidency and his legacy, along with over 58,000 soldiers killed, 150,000 inured, of which 21,000 were permanently disabled.
That is the dilemma Trump most likely is grappling with today. Will he follow thru with his campaign pledge to end America’s proxy war with Russia without total victory for our Ukraine proxies? Or will Trump succumb to the tragic Lyndon Johnson syndrome of continuing to pour hundreds of billions in US treasure, if not US lives, into a lost cause America should never have provoked.
Based upon Trump’s sorrowful record of caving to the war party in his first term, the latter course is the safer bet. But we should all work to push President Trump on Ukraine to channel JFK, not LBJ.
Biden Aims to Go Out With a Bellicose Bang
Does the white house get it, any of it? No. See the RT headline, December 2: “White House touts ‘massive surge’ in arms shipments to Kiev.” The article quotes Jake “World War III” Sullivan blabbering about throwing more money down the endless Ukraine drain. You’d think he might have got the November election message that half the country has had it with this war. But no, the morons in charge shout from the rooftops that they will not be deterred from their wickedness and stupidity.
Eve Ottenberg, 13 Dec 24, https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/13/biden-aims-to-go-out-with-a-bellicose-bang/
Having failed thus far to ignite Nuclear Armageddon, what’s up next for the U.S. military industrial complex? I’ll tell you: New bases in Europe, 47 of them, to be exact, in Scandinavia in coming years. That’s Joe Biden’s legacy, a blood transfusion to NATO’s moribund carcass by adding Finland and Sweden and thereby ballooning the Empire’s global military footprint, a footprint of over 800 imperial foreign military bases already bankrupting us Welp, we’re gonna get 47 more, per journalist Patrick Hennigsen, and they’re gonna be near Russia. If you’re a Finn or a Swede, you might want to consider emigrating, since the pusillanimous NATO to which you now belong has set you up as a tripwire for the Atomic Apocalypse. That’s Biden’s legacy.
Don’t think for a minute these bases make anyone safer. Quite the contrary. Besides being hugely provocative and thus endangering the local population, the bases’ U.S. soldiers are in harm’s way. Moscow eloquently demonstrated this on November 25. That was when Russia retaliated for recent ATACMS assaults, manned and operated by U.S. personnel. Most of that personnel are now dead. That’s because Russia shot its unstoppable Iskander missiles at the launchers, killing at least 30 U.S. operators.
Also “up to 40 fighters, mostly from the U.S. were eliminated in a missile strike on a command center…in the city of Kharkov on November 25,” RT reported November 28 [“Russian Defense Ministry reveals response to long-range Ukrainian strikes”]. This is the fate that may await U.S. soldiers on foreign military bases, because Russia’s extensive weapons menu is chock-a-block with all types of hypersonic missiles against which the west is defenseless. And Washington’s so busy provoking Moscow, that the kremlin will much more eagerly share this technology with its allies – China, Iran and North Korea – than it did before Joe “War Is My Legacy” Biden idiotically triggered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
So dozens of Americans have or will be coming home in body bags, and U.S. weaponry got crushed and surprise! Not a peep in U.S. corporate media. That’s because our news outlets report American, ahem, “Ukrainian” strikes on Russia, using our vaunted but really mainly symbolic ATACMS, and report it with great fanfare, groveling before supposed superlative American weapons, but the consequences? The punishment? Not so much, since, Gee, that might make Biden and by extension Washington look bad. Can’t have that in American legacy news media. But hey, the Hindustan Times reported it, with headlines, like, “Russia Reduces Ukraine’s Western Weapons to Rubble,” and “Ukraine Loses All ATACMS, Storm Shadows? ‘NATO Train’ with Long-Range Missiles Blown Up by Russia.” How reassuring to know some nations still have a free press, even if they are halfway across the globe.
Meanwhile, all-around nitwits in the Biden administration chatter blandly about “Ukraine taking the fight to Russia.” Ukraine? Hello? Is that the new shorthand for the United States? Because make no mistake, the kremlin isn’t under any illusions about who’s firing ATACMS into Russia. Moscow’s leadership knows full well the info downloaded from U.S. satellites is classified and thus only Americans can eyeball it, and that only Americans are allowed to do the targeting. A Ukrainian may push the last button, but everything done before that comes from Washington. And the Russians are mad as hornets. For those of us who dwell in or near major American cities, that paints a big bullseye on us; in fact, the only thing stalling such targeting is the patience and sanity of Russian president Vladimir Putin. But remember, he’s a politician too, and one under tremendous pressure from his right flank to retaliate hard against the U.S.
Luckily, for those of us oddly averse to being incinerated, the recent Russian Iskander strikes, as the Hindustan Times reported, may well have destroyed much of the ATACMS and Storm Shadow cache. And we all know the west lacks the military industrial production depth to replace them quickly. Once the western military cupboard is bare, it will stay that way for a good while. The U.S. simply ain’t the manufacturing behemoth it once was.
In fact, much of our military production depends deeply on supply chains linked to China and, indeed, directly on Chinese manufacturing. And clouding the American defense picture, on December 1, Beijing’s sanctions on “the export of about 700 dual-use items took effect,” reported Asia Times that day, although what really grabbed headlines two days later was Beijing’s ban on sale of three rare earth minerals – gallium, germanium and antimony – to the U.S., a ban predicted in these CounterPunch pages, long ago. China has also sanctioned multiple American defense firms and senior executives. And more such export controls are coming. Bye the way, dual-use refers to civilian-military. So at the very least, Beijing’s new export control list will “prevent the U.S. from obtaining China’s critical metals, rare earths and key electronic parts.” China, long in the cross-hairs of voluble American congressional nincompoops, finally took their blather seriously. Incidentally, it’s not at all clear how these sanctions will affect China shipping weapons materials to Russia. My suspicion is, they won’t.
According to one Chinese military writer quoted by Asia Times: “The launch of the export control list is a precise attack to the heart of the U.S. military industry. This is not an ordinary ‘embargo’ but an all-round blockade to completely cut off the Chinese supply chain that the U.S. relies on.” So Biden’s oft-repeated, imbecilic crowings about war over Taiwan, and congress’ dimwitted howls for attacks on China have consequences, namely, Beijing taking steps to defang the American military beast, a monster directed, apparently, by birdbrains.
Does the white house get it, any of it? No. See the RT headline, December 2: “White House touts ‘massive surge’ in arms shipments to Kiev.” The article quotes Jake “World War III” Sullivan blabbering about throwing more money down the endless Ukraine drain. You’d think he might have got the November election message that half the country has had it with this war. But no, the morons in charge shout from the rooftops that they will not be deterred from their wickedness and stupidity.
China’s list of weapons-necessary products now prohibited from sale to the U.S. includes “computers, electronic devices, chemicals, sensors, lasers and aviation navigation systems. If China uses the list to fight a technology war, the U.S. won’t be able to find alternative products elsewhere.” So, um, about arming and equipping those 47 military bases in Scandinavia, I suppose Uncle Sam could always cannibalize dishwashers and washing machines to propel American weapons, the way the Biden team’s supposed geniuses like commerce secretary Gina Raimondo told us the Russians did in Ukraine (ho, ho!). Or we could use shovels, like the bubbleheads in our corporate media claimed those desperate Slavs did. Those were the same news outlets that told us, early on, Russia would soon run out of missiles. Well, now we learn that in addition to Russia positively BRISTLING with missiles, Moscow has all sorts of unstoppable hypersonic missiles, some of them as powerful as nuclear bombs without the radiation, and evidently, to judge from the Oreshnik, far more precise and capable of busting bunkers hundreds of meters underground. We in the west have failed to assemble even one hypersonic missile, while a few Russian Oreshniks could likely wipe out an entire military base. I guess now they’ll all be pointed at Scandinavia.
Eve Ottenberg is a novelist and journalist. Her latest novel is Booby Prize. She can be reached at her website.
Six major NATO states sign document on Ukraine’s accession plans
https://www.rt.com/news/609282-nato-declaration-ukraine-membership/ 13 Dec 24
The countries have backed Kiev’s “irreversible path” to eventually joining the bloc.
Six European members of NATO have released a joint statement backing Ukraine’s plan to join the US-led bloc, and promising to support the peace terms offered by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to Russia.
Moscow has previously rejected Zelensky’s insistence on restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders as unacceptable.
The foreign ministers of the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Poland signed a declaration after meeting with the Ukrainian leader in Berlin on Thursday.
“The goals of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine and durable security for Europe are inseparable. Ukraine must prevail,” the statement said.
The countries pledged to support an end to the conflict in accordance “with full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“We reaffirm our commitment to President Zelensky’s Peace Formula, as a credible path towards a just and lasting peace,” the statement read.
Kiev’s backers vowed to “support Ukraine on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership,” as well as “its path towards accession to the European Union.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga thanked the six nations and the EU for “candid discussion and readiness to take concrete steps.” He called for additional sanctions, targeting Russia’s metals sector, shipping, and banks.
“We are closely monitoring the increase in trade with the countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia,” Sibiga said.
The meeting in Berlin took place amid uncertainty over whether US President-elect Donald Trump will continue the previous administration’s unconditional military and financial aid to Kiev.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has described Zelensky as “the greatest salesman on Earth” and promised to do his best to quickly end the conflict through diplomacy. Although he has not yet produced a concrete plan, during the presidential campaign he appeared open to pressuring Kiev to start negotiations with Moscow.
Trump has also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for allowing Ukraine to use American-made missiles for strikes deep into internationally recognized Russian territory. “I think that is a very big mistake,” he told Time magazine in an interview published on Thursday.
Russia has rejected Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’ outright, insisting that a peace agreement could only be reached on its terms. Moscow has stressed that Ukraine must renounce claims on Crimea and four other regions, which voted to join Russia in 2014 and 2022.
The Kremlin has also said Ukraine should drop its plan to join the US-led military bloc in favor of becoming a permanently neutral country. President Vladimir Putin has cited NATO’s expansion eastward and military cooperation with Ukraine as one of the root causes of the current conflict.
Trump blasts Biden over long-range missile strikes into Russia
https://www.sott.net/article/496629-Trump-blasts-Biden-over-long-range-missile-strikes-into-Russia 13 Dec 24
Ukrainian attacks using Western medium-range missiles are foolish and a major escalation, the US president-elect has said
US President-elect Donald Trump has criticized Ukraine’s strikes deep into Russia using Western-supplied weapons, saying that they only escalate the conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
Trump made the statement on Thursday in an interview with Time magazine, which named him the 2024 Person of the Year.
“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that?” he asked rhetorically.
According to the president-elect, such attacks are “just escalating this war and making it worse.”
“That should not have been allowed to be done… And I think that is a very big mistake, very big mistake,” he said of strikes deep into Russia’s internationally recognized territory.
Trump returned to the issue later in the interview, saying that “the most dangerous thing right now” is the fact that “[Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky has decided, with the approval of, I assume, the President [Joe Biden], to start shooting missiles into Russia.”
“I think that is a major escalation. I think it is a foolish decision,” he stressed.
The US president-elect’s comments came a day after the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces had fired six US-supplied ATACMS missiles at a military airfield near the southern city of Taganrog.
Two of them were shot down and the rest were diverted using electronic warfare during the attack, the ministry said. The fallen debris resulted in some injuries and minor damage to two buildings and several vehicles, it added.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia’s response to the strike on Taganrog “will follow at the time and in the way that will be deemed appropriate. But it will definitely follow.”
In late November, Russia used its new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile system for the first time, striking the Yuzhmash military plant in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr.
According to Moscow, the deployment of the state-of-the-art weapon was a response to Washington and its allies allowing Ukraine to target internationally recognized Russian territory with the long-range weapons they supply to Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at the time that if Ukraine’s attacks deep inside Russia continue, Moscow reserves the right “to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow the use of their weapons against our facilities.”
Ukraine conflict updates: Record Russian gains, Kursk encirclement and Donbass push
By Sergey Poletaev, information analyst and publicist, 13 Dec 24 https://www.rt.com/russia/609229-overview-situation-on-front/
An overview of the frontline situation during November and December of 2024
Since October, intense battles have been raging all along the front. In that month and November, the Russian army advanced at its fastest pace since the start of the Special Military Operation, capturing over 1,500 square kilometers.
The Russian army is currently advancing at eight sections of the front, which marks a new record. Below, we’ll focus on four key directions, from north to south.
Kursk direction: Ongoing battles and the encirclement of the AFU
The situation here hasn’t changed much since our last report, and clashes continue. Despite major challenges at other sections of the front, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is still sending reserves to Kursk. Kiev believes that retaining control over this section of the front is crucial since it gives it leverage with the new presidential administration in the US.
According to Western and Ukrainian sources, North Korean soldiers have reportedly been deployed to Kursk region, though their presence hasn’t been confirmed.
Interesting fact: The first major encirclement of Ukrainian forces since the battles for Mariupol (which occurred in the spring of 2022) happened at this section of the front – several hundred AFU soldiers found themselves encircled near Olgovskaya grove. Russian President Vladimir Putin relayed this information on October 24, and by November 20, the area had been cleared.
What’s the current situation? This week, battles have become more intense. Kursk remains one of the few directions where Ukrainian forces are actively counterattacking, able to hold their ground and even occasionally advancing.
Pokrovsk direction: Russians advance along the railway
The Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) urban agglomeration is the second largest urban area in Donbass that remains partially under Ukrainian control (along with the Slaviansk-Kramatorsk urban area).
Before the war, its population was around 200,000 people. Moreover, the city is a crucial logistics hub for supplying Ukrainian forces along the entire southern front.
At the end of summer, the Pokrovsk direction was considered a priority; however, after the city of Novogrodovka was captured with minimal resistance, further progress westward stalled. Selidovo (the pre-war population of the city and its suburbs was about 50,000) held out for nearly two months, but, surrounded from the north and south, it eventually fell without major urban combat. Following a brief pause, the Russian army resumed its advance toward Pokrovsk, moving around the city’s southern flank.
Interesting fact: Russian troops mainly advanced along the main railway line, moving from Avdeevka to Novogrodovka. Now, the Russians are also advancing along another railway line further south, which leads directly to Pokrovsk.
What’s the current situation? Since the end of November, Russian troops have advanced further – breaking through Ukrainian defensive lines near Novotroitskoye, they moved closer to Pokrovsk and are now positioned 10-11 kilometers south of the city.
Civilians have been evacuated from Pokrovsk (pre-war population 60,000) and the supply of electricity and gas to the city has been cut off. Will the AFU be able to hold their flanks and engage in serious urban combat? Most likely, Ukrainians will attempt to do so, driven by the same political motivations as in Kursk region.
Kurakhovo: The main hotspot
The battles for Kurakhovo began right after the fall of Ugledar in early October. The Russians advanced from several directions: from the north toward the reservoir, from the front line via Ostroye-Ostrovskoye, from the south via Bogoyavlenka, and along a broader front from Yasnaya Polyana to Konstaninopol. The latter direction was also useful for encircling Velikaya Novoselka, which we’ll discuss below.
Interesting fact: The Kurakhovo operation has been the biggest one since Mariupol; it involves two groups of troops, and encompasses an area of 1,200 square kilometers. While it may not be a strategic-scale operation, it is quite significant. For example, the area of the Avdeevka operation was less than one tenth the size, and the infamous “Bakhmut meat grinder” was one fifth or one fourth its size. The map shows only the central area of this operation.
What’s the current situation? Over the past week, two significant developments occurred. First, Russian forces have taken control over the entire northern bank of the reservoir and the village of Starye Terny, along with the dam. This gives them complete fire control over both the residential areas and the industrial zone located to the west, where a thermal power station is located.
Second, the Russians are pushing the Ukrainians out of the area along the Sukhie Yaly River south of the city. Their foes have practically been driven into a ravine along the river, with some sources even suggesting that encirclement is imminent.
However, even despite desperate situation, the Ukrainian forces are clinging to their positions along the river since if they lose control over this area, the city will fall within a few days.
Velikaya Novoselka: In memory of Ukraine’s counteroffensive
Velikaya Novoselka is a relatively large settlement with a population of around 6,000 (more than that of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region). This area is held by various Ukrainian forces, including half a dozen AFU brigades, territorial defense units, the National Guard, and some marine units.
By the end of November, the situation for the AFU grew a lot worse following the unexpected breakthrough of Russian forces toward the highway near Razdolnoye, north of Velikaya Novoselka.
Once again, the Russian army had employed its preferred strategy – flanking and encircling the settlement and securing control over communications. Combined with continuous pressure from the front, this quickly depletes the enemy’s resources. The AFU has a tendency to hold onto their positions even in desperate circumstances and to withdraw only when it’s too late, so this tactic has been particularly costly for the Ukrainians.
Interesting fact: During the summer of 2023, this was one of two key directions of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Over four months, the AFU managed to advance only 5-6 kilometers southward, from Velikaya Novoselka to the settlement of Urozhaynoye. In contrast, Russian forces have advanced about 20km on the eastern flank just in the past month.
What’s the current situation? Reports indicate that the AFU has deployed a reserve mechanized brigade to reinforce the flanks around Velikaya Novoselka. This has not been confirmed, but we do know that the Ukrainians managed to launch a series of counterattacks, successfully repelling the advance of the Russian troops in the village of Novy Komar and easing some of the pressure on the northern flank of Velikaya Novoselka.
Drone strikes UN vehicle on way to inspect Ukrainian nuclear plant
An armored vehicle belonging to the UN’s atomic watchdog was hit by a
drone strike on its way to inspect a Ukrainian nuclear power plant on
Tuesday, in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed on Russia.
The strike took place as the vehicle traveled in a convoy to the
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, as part of efforts by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to safeguard the facility amid fears it could
be caught in the crossfire of Russia’s war on Ukraine, sparking a nuclear
disaster. The IAEA said the strike destroyed the back of its armored
vehicle but the two people on board were not harmed.
CNN 10th Dec 2024 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/10/europe/drone-attack-iaea-ukraine-russia-intl-latam/index.html
Biden’s Nuclear Going Out of Business Sale
The only way Ukraine wins is for the West to stop the war and negotiate an agreement with Russia which restores Ukraine’s sovereignty, neutrality and way of life. Otherwise, the war grinds on, the casualties on both sides mount, Armageddon looms and the world gets to indulge in thinking the unthinkable, annihilation.
This is real. This is not a drill. The world is teetering on a precipice of nuclear war.
Dennis Kucinich, 7 Dec 24, https://freepress.org/article/biden%E2%80%99s-nuclear-going-out-business-sale
Has the world forgotten the real danger of nuclear war?
Do we live in a fantasy world where we think we can escalate tensions and put entire portions of the world under threat by using Ukraine as a sacrificial pawn (in what is classically sold as providing humanitarian and ally support) in a decades-long psychopathic foreign policy play to destroy Russia?
According to the laws of war, NATO, the U.S., the U.K., and France have determined to become “direct participants” in Europe’s deadly conflict as their home-grown offensive missiles are being launched from inside Ukraine to attack Russia.
Translated, a state of war exists between the West and Russia.
Putin is not absolved for his invasion of Ukraine. But how are western nations, led by the U.S., protecting Ukraine’s or their own national interests by quickening the dialectic of conflict, bringing nuclear weapons into the calculus?
Russian President Putin and his government have experienced long-standing western policies of encirclement and NATO encroachment through Ukraine, something the U.S. government swore would not happen. It did happen, reawakening Russia’s deepest fears of invasion.
Most Americans are unaware that in 2014, the U.S. forced out the elected President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, which resulted in Kiev ordering attacks on ethnic Russian enclaves of Donetsk and Luhansk, baiting Russia into the beginning of a three year war, with the lure of NATO membership fluttering above Ukraine.
As the war barrels to a climactic, perhaps irredeemably fatal stage, the Ukrainian people have lost at least 600,000 of their fellow countrymen and women. Even so, at this late hour, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken demands that Ukraine lower its age of compulsory military service from 25 years of age to 18, to send even more young Ukrainians into the slaughter. Russian casualties will soar past 400,000 dead, with latest reports of 1,000 casualties a day.
One million Europeans have been killed for a war which was not inevitable, should never have been fought and, once it started, could have been brought to a fast conclusion. According to Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel, peace talks were sabotaged by the US, just a month into the conflict.
The constitutions of the U.S., the U.K. and France, which forbid executives to unilaterally wage war, are being circumvented. Leaders have gone rogue and are consciously choosing nuclear brinkmanship over diplomacy.
In the past month, escalation is being stoked by the West. The launch of ATACMS and other advanced missiles necessarily involves U.S. personnel and intelligence data. This new phase of the war compelled the Kremlin to lower its threshold for a nuclear strike in an attempt to stop the use of even higher grade weapons against it from the West.
What happened? … The 2024 Presidential Election happened.
The escalation is intended to sabotage President Trump’s stated desire to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and for the architects of the war to try to escape the blame for miscalculations, bumbling and cynical protraction of a bloody conflict. It is clear the West does not want peace.
Remember, the sacrifice of Ukraine and everything that has led up to this point is due to the West’s long time policy to advance the strategic defeat of Russia.
The Cold War never ended. It has given way to a boiling Hot War whose aim is to antagonize, provoke, diminish and conquer Russia. Key elements are the attempted dismantling of Russia’s energy infrastructure, and the massive transfer of arms to our proxy, Ukraine, through US appropriations which are approaching $200 billiion dollars, an amount equal to over $5,000 dollars for every Ukrainian man, woman and child.
In order to set the stage for this war, Western interests resorted to conjuring Putin as a demon, an arch-enemy of freedom, as was done with Hussein in Iraq, Khaddafy in Libya, and Assad in Syria. Once the enemy machine goes to work, military assets are mobilized to advance the overthrow of the noxious government, and the cash registers of defense contractors ring with the energy of a pinball arcade.
The Democratic Party unleashed an entire kennel of the dogs of war upon Russia, often at the urging of warden Hillary Clinton, mastermind of the Russiagate hoax. The nadir of the Dems descent into the indecent was ballyhooing the support of its 2024 presidential ticket by Dick Cheney, the sterling warmonger whose endorsement is to mass homicide what the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval is to stylish domesticity.
Think of the political consequences to the credibility of the entire Western foreign policy establishment if President Trump succeeds in bringing the war to a close. President Biden’s foreign policy, led by Secretary Blinken, will be forever tainted, as will the Democratic Party’s steadfast support for guns over butter.
The overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government in 2014, Russia’s subsequent invasion; the Prime Minister’s Gambit, Boris Johnson’s April 2022 scuttling of a peace agreement; the severe damage to the European economy through the destruction of Nordstream pipeline, by GUESS WHO, [readers hereby invited to guess]; NATO’S teeter-totter, penny-pinching one moment, saber-rattling burlesque the next, and harrowing brinkmanship — misdirecting public attention during the inevitable collapse of Ukraine. All this chest thumping and war pimping will be called into question, presuming there is time.
Another knock-on effect of the war and the failure of sanctions: Russia and China have been pushed together into a deep long-term military and economic partnership. Could the Biden Administration have been unaware of the military, economic and political fallout from a BRICS+-type alliance?
Rational military observers predict the transfer of the newest missiles will not change the outcome of the war, and some Trump advisers believe the next president’s bargaining position vis a vis Moscow will be strengthened as Ukraine’s offensive capacity is temporarily enhanced.
However, a sharp escalation in the next six weeks could result in a devastating response from an increasingly anxious Russia. Biden isn’t trying to help Trump or the process of peace, he’s handing him, and the world, a poisoned chalice.
The only way Ukraine wins is for the West to stop the war and negotiate an agreement with Russia which restores Ukraine’s sovereignty, neutrality and way of life. Otherwise, the war grinds on, the casualties on both sides mount, Armageddon looms and the world gets to indulge in thinking the unthinkable, annihilation.
Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan of the US Strategic Command, isn’t calling for nuclear war, but he did say at a Project Atom 24 meeting recently, “If we have to have a(n) [nuclear] exchange then we want to do it in terms that are most acceptable to the United States,” where, presumably, even after nuclear war, we still lead the world, or its ashes – in strategic weapons.
President-Elect Trump, has assessed the extreme danger of the moment, saying: “We have never been closer to World War III than we are today under Joe Biden. A global conflict between nuclear-armed powers would mean death and destruction on a scale unmatched in human history.”
Vladimir Putin has clearly stated that Russia would “mirror” or match all escalations. Russia responded to an ATACM missile launch with a new hypersonic intermediate range ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, that reputedly reaches speeds of MACH 11 and delivers some 36 payloads. It devastated a Ukrainian missile factory.
It was an unmistakable message: Those six major payloads with six submunitions within them could be nuclear ones next time.
The next firing of ATACMs could bring a Russian response endangering or killing the American personnel responsible for firing these munitions. Even a skilled negotiator will find it difficult to diffuse the conflict once American blood has been shed. Why in the world would our government cause our troops, let alone our nation, to be so vulnerable?
Eight trillion dollars of our $36 trillion deficit is due to wars of choice since 9/11. The continued failure of American diplomacy, preferring war to statecraft, has been a persistent hubris. Pray that it not be fatal for our nation and the world.
Everyone who loves our country must speak out, now, to help avert a catastrophe.
Zelensky Says He’s Willing To Cede Territory in Exchange for NATO Protection
Zelensky’s suggestion is a non-starter for Moscow but reflects a shift in his position on peace talks
by Dave DeCamp , December 1, 2024, https://news.antiwar.com/2024/12/01/zelensky-says-hes-willing-to-cede-territory-in-exchange-for-nato-protection/
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was willing to temporarily cede territory to Russia to bring an end to the war in exchange for NATO protection over Ukraine.
“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky told Sky News. “That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”
Zelensky’s suggestion is almost certainly a non-starter for Russia since the invasion was launched to keep Ukraine out of NATO, but it does reflect a shift in his position. Zelensky previously maintained that his war goals included driving Russia out of all of the territory it has captured since February 2022, as well as Crimea.
In a recent conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed to a speech he made earlier this year that outlines his conditions for peace, which include a Ukrainian withdrawal from all territory Russia has annexed, Ukrainian neutrality, and the lifting of all Western sanctions on Russia.
Ukrainian neutrality was Russia’s main demand during short-lived negotiations that took place in the early days of the invasion. Ukrainian and Russian officials held talks in March and April of 2022, but the negotiations were discouraged by the US and its allies.
In the interview with Sky News, Zelensky said Ukraine wouldn’t agree to a ceasefire without guarantees of NATO protection. “We need [NATO protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back. Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous,” he said.
While Zelensky and Putin’s terms are extremely far apart, the Ukrainian side could be forced to make more concessions if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his campaign promise to end the war and pressures Zelensky to negotiate.
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