News & views related to the war in Ukraine …
Back to Main
May 11, 2025
Ukraine Open Thread 2025-102
Comments
Fit Rice | May 14 2025 13:44 utc | 300
*** The difference between Trump and Biden is that Trump doesn’t let anything get in his way. If he believes that Russia is an obstruction to end the war in peace it will be a very big trouble for Russia ***
So bloody well turn the Washington swamp into a massive pond polluted with with charred bits of US politicians — Trump included — floating around in it. Good riddance.
*** Interesting to see what’s next. Putins team must be under pressure now ***
They need replacing with genuine leaders far less sycophantic to the WEF, IMF, Western corporate entities, Zionists and cult of monopoly-capitalism.
Posted by: Cynic | May 14 2025 13:58 utc | 301
Greg the Hamster | May 14 2025 13:50 utc | 301
*** Get it in writing like any other competent leader would.***
More than two centuries of US treachery and lies proves beyond any doubt that no matter what form a treaty, law or agreement is in, the rulers of the USA will simply break it whenever that suits their purposes.
Posted by: Cynic | May 14 2025 14:08 utc | 302
Putin Announces Team For Russia – Ukraine Talks in Turkiye: LIVE UPDATES
https://www.rt.com/news/617518-ukraine-talks-istanbul-zelensky/
“2125 GMT: Kiev has expressed its disappointment with the composition of the Russian delegation, with Zelensky’s aide Mikhail Podoliak claiming the chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, was not the right figure to discuss unspecified ‘fundamental issues.’
‘No, of course not, that’s not the format. The President can’t meet, especially with Medinsky – the status won’t be entirely clear,’Podoliak told Ukrainian media.”
CrossTalk: Istanbul 2.0?
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/617453-russia-ukraine-peace-nato-defeat/
“Vladimir Putin offers peace talks, Zelensky and his western backers want a truce. And Trump appears to want to wash his hands of the Ukraine project. Ukraine was offered a very generous deal back in 2022. It won’t be so lucky this time around as NATO faces a strategic defeat.
Cross Talking with Alfred de Zayas, Aleksandr Pavic and Ian Proud.”
Posted by: JohnGilberts | May 15 2025 1:04 utc | 303
‘It’s starting. The Hungarian Military is About to Annex a Chunk of Southwestern Ukraine*.’
https://x.com/SMO_VZ/status/1922699956617388405
“Hungarian outlets claim they’ve shot down two Ukrainian recon drones in Tokay, northeast Hungary. It’s starting…”[*see thread]
Posted by: JohnGilberts | May 15 2025 1:58 utc | 304
I accept my bias, so can somebody who consider himself neutral tell me – western/ukrainian approach to this talks is really looks so childish or is it just my perception?
Posted by: Nelorfin | May 15 2025 11:55 utc | 305
Zelensky doesn’t realise that this is like 2 big companies during a buyout, and the Z man is the workers’ union. He can rant and rave all he wants, but he is basically irrelevant. When the deal is done he will be told that this is what he has to tell his people, and if they don’t like it, then tough shit.
It happened in a company that I worked for years ago, and the selling company made quite a lot of money. The unions kicked off a fuss and threatened a strike or a walkout, and the workers made out that they were due something because “they were the ones that did the work.” I pointed out that they were paid to work and that was their reward. The unions went on strike; the company laughed in their face, and a week later everybody was back to work.
Zelensky had to realise that he and the rest of Ukraine are basically working for the US, and they are going to get nothing out of this. This was true and said on here by other commentators in 2022, and the same will happen now. Middle management will thrash out a deal in Istanbul and when the contracts are to be signed Putin and Trump will sign them and give Zelensky a copy for himself.
Posted by: Wolfhound | May 15 2025 12:09 utc | 306
From what I’ve seen with less support on ukranian side, russia will be gaining more land as the war prolongs. So they dont actually want to make a deal but want to seem like they do. Zelensky knows this and tries to call out to gain support but might fall on deaf ears. Its stupid for russia to make peace when they are not losing in the field.(unless they care for civillians = lol)
Posted by: kankadir | May 15 2025 12:11 utc | 307
My bias started heavily pro-UA in 2022, but over time shifted more neutral and yes, the approach to this talks is always the dumb “all or nothing” that has affected the western “diplomatic” line vs Russia. This approach can work if you’re steamrolling your opponent and it’s in his interests to stop the war… western/ua have to put on the plate something that really interests Russia to start negotiating. Otherwise it’s just dumb.
Posted by: Rush Hour | May 15 2025 12:21 utc | 308
I consider myself neutral, and this whole situation is absolute shit from the begging to end. Neither side is interested in actual peace, no one is ready to make concessions, so we get PR show instead. Basically, “who wants peace?” reality show.
In this episode, we can see absolutely failed radical approach from Ukrainian side – they made provocative statements, exclaimed how important it was for leaders to meet, but never made any substantial effort to underline objectives and reasons to why such talks exist in the first place. It wasn’t serious from the beginning, and the main objective was to either convince Putin to attend, or make Russian side completely absent from their negotiations.
Russian side was mostly silent on this matter, apart from Putins invitation to Istanbul. The quiet response from Kremlin was public list of Russian delegation list, where Putin is missing. So, Ukrainian plan to score political points for making Putin come failed; plan to appease Trump failed (he defended Putin’ position to sent delegation); and PR value plummeted, since there is no Putin to make a show off, and there is a delegation who can speak on his behalf.
Once again, this whole situation is a sham: there is no talk about actual objective – which is the end to a decade long conflict. This whole situation hinges on Putin, not on war. And for the life of me, I cannot understand Ukrainian decision to do this in the first place – it was incredibility shortsighted plan, main objective of which was browney political points. It was manufactured as some clever, provocative plan, and ended up being a childish yapfest about “old man hiding in his bunker”.
Posted by: ferroo | May 15 2025 12:41 utc | 309
Not Western, more like EU/Ukraine. It feels like those 2 parties are weak, Ukraine militarily and EU’s sanctions are useless, but they don’t want to feel weak which is why they push their own demands and ultimatums that are “somewhat” unrealistic. They are ignored from Russia/USA, and then EU/Ukraine try to scream even louder and demands get even more unplausible, especially from Ukraine. It indeed feels like irrational behavior at this point.
I guess Ukraine got used to be supported all the time, but now when it’s serious they cannot accept to be commanded around or ignored.
Posted by: takkarakkatakka | May 15 2025 14:32 utc | 310