Posted on 02/24/2025 6:41:30 AM PST by Starman417
This morning, I watched a video of Jeffrey Sachs explaining the facts of life to the EU regarding Ukraine. His speech echoed the sentiments I have been writing about here for a long time now. I don't necessarily agree with Sachs about Israel, but it's a great video about the Ukraine conflict.
The war in Ukraine is at a stalemate and has been for almost three years, except that Russia seems to be gaining ground more and more quickly. Things are not going well for Ukraine. It's a lot worse than the media is portraying.
Soldiers are tired and thousands are deserting
Desertion is starving the Ukrainian army of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia, which could put Kyiv at a clear disadvantage in future ceasefire talks.Ukraine is running kidnap conscription raids:Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, according to soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials. Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers.
Some take medical leave and never return, haunted by the traumas of war and demoralized by bleak prospects for victory. Others clash with commanders and refuse to carry out orders, sometimes in the middle of firefights.
Ukrainian military recruitment officers raided restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv, checking military registration documents and detaining men who were not in compliance, media and witnesses reported Saturday.There are three possible outcomes for the war in Ukraine. It goes on unabated and Ukraine likely loses everything, there is a negotiated settlement, or there is real nuclear war.Officers descended on Kyiv's Palace of Sports venue after a concert Friday night by Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy. Video footage aired by local media outlets appears to show officers stationed outside the doors of the concert hall intercepting men as they exit. In the footage, officers appear to be forcibly detaining some men.
Checks were also conducted at Goodwine, an upscale shopping centre, and Avalon, a popular restaurant.
How did we get here? When did Russia become so much more evil? Something changed along the way.
"Jake Sullivan's come back to me, saying you need Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the details to stick. So Biden's willing."Here's more
In response, Putin annexes Crimea.
Pro-Russian groups, supported covertly by Russia, started seizing government buildings and declaring "people's republics" in Donetsk and Luhansk. This marked the beginning of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, often referred to as the War in Donbas. The separatists, backed by Russian military and financial aid, sought greater autonomy or outright independence from Ukraine, fueled by a mix of regional identity, economic ties to Russia, and opposition to the pro-Western shift in Kyiv.The Eastern provinces- which Russia now holds- never wanted to be part of pro-Western government.
The Minsk II Agreement, signed on February 12, 2015, was a diplomatic effort to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. It built on the earlier Minsk Protocol from September 2014, which had failed to stop the fighting. The agreement was negotiated by leaders from Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany—known as the Normandy Format—and endorsed by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).Then comes 2016. Hillary Clinton destroys relations with Russia with her vile Russian collusion hoax.
Once you understand the causal effect of the Russia collusion hoax on the Ukraine war you realize how fundamental Hillary Clinton was to the bloodshed.Jeff Carlson on X:
The Russia-Collusion hoax fundamentally altered our entire foreign policy - making it impossible to have normalized dialogue with a nuclear world superpower. The political weaponization of Ukraine for Trump's first impeachment was gasoline on the fire.Stephen McIntyre on X:
if the hoax had expired with the 2016 election, it wouldn't have mattered. The hoax matters because of actions taken by Obama administration after the election to expand the hoax through the Intel Community Assessment and its endorsement of Steele dossier hoax and, critically, the actions of Comey and FBI in 2017 to institutionalize the hoax into a special counsel even as the predicate totally collapsed. Comey and FBI have responsibility for the metastasis of a campaign dirty trick into the national flesh-eating disease that sabotaged incoming administration and poisoned international relations for a decade and counting.2016-2020Russiagate is the greatest political scandal of all time for a simple reason: the combined forces of Obama, the sitting president at the time, along with the FBI and CIA, worked to take down President Trump based on something not only fabricated—but fabricated by them. It was an attempted coup by a sitting president against his democratically elected successor. Yet here we are, eight years after the full weaponization of government to remove Trump, and not only has no one been held to account, but vast troves of critical documents remain unreleased.
Russia makes no further aggressive moves toward Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden spent the first anniversary of his inauguration in damage control with his top aides clarifying a blunder over Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine.Hours after suggesting during a press conference that the West might accept a “minor incursion” into Ukraine, Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and senior White House officials moved to clear up the comments amid criticism that Biden appeared to be giving the go-ahead for a small-scale invasion by Russia.
Currently Donald Trump is doing as Barack Obama did- trying to lower tensions and end the war because it is, as Jeffrey Sachs points out, a loser. But when Trump does it, it's awful and he's a Putin puppet. It makes no sense to insult the person with whom you seek a peace agreement but that's where democrat heads are.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
Oh, and I’m with him on Europe, Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East. He hurts his credibility on China.
By the way, German casualties during their spring 1918 offensives were roughly the same as Russian casualties in Ukraine since the summer of 2022, meaning the Germans had paid the same price in blood for 1,200 square miles of French territory as the Russians have paid for the same amount of Ukrainian territory.
At that time, US Pres. Wilson had offered the Germans "Peace Without Victory" and "Fourteen Points" for a fair, just and lasting peace.
By October 1918, German Gen. Ludendorff decided that was a pretty good deal and accepted it.
Later, Ludendorff realized he'd been had and so tried to go back on his acceptance, but by then it was too late, and the results included the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
But neither Ludendorff nor anybody else on the German General Staff in 1919 considered Versailles to be anything other than a temporary truce, to last for 20 years, until Germans were ready for Round Two.
Well worth remembering in our current historical times.
Please write another 2000 word essay on the topic
No problem!
What would you like me to explain?
😉
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.