[delta7]

I suspect President Trump will fail in dictating a Ceasefire. A Ceasefire only favors the decimated Ukie forces.

Vlad will meet his stated objectives. The Ukies have no choice but to accept ceding the ethnic Russian provinces OR suffer to the last Ukrainian.

[kiryandil]

IBTS

[dfwgator]

Plenty of fighting-age Ukrainian men hiding out in Poland.

[Celtic Conservative]

You seem to think you’re playing a grand symphony but in fact you just keep on hitting the same note, over and over.

CC

[Uversabound]

Dear father, please change Putin‘s heart

[nathanbedford]

On the ground, the Alaska meetings coincide with a major rupture of the front. We want to avoid using overly dramatic verbiage, particularly the much dreaded “collapse” label. To be clear, it should not be expected that the AFU is on the verge of being routed completely from the field. Russian forces are not going to roll over the Dnieper next week or sweep into Kiev or Odessa. Ukraine is not “collapsing”, but it is losing, and more specifically it is about to suffer a major defeat at Pokrovsk italics

At last, an article from the isolationists side that provides something more than propaganda.

Only a fool would deny that in this war of attrition Russia holds the better hand but it is equally foolish to say to Zelinski, "you have no cards. " As good as this article is in describing the grim facts of the war of attrition as it applies to Ukraine, it wholly fails to address the deficiencies plaguing Russia's war effort.

When Trump repeatedly insisted to Zelinski's face on international television that he had no cards, Trump was not fully informed about the impact drones would have on the course of the war. The fog of war is always there so to deny uncertainties, as has been shameless habit of the isolationists in this forum, is a disservice. The article is weak on setting the same light on the problems that plague Putin that he must carry his negotiation in Alaska. That is unfortunate because it opens the way to those who have engaged in predictions of doom for Ukraine to sell Ukraine out.

There is a widespread opinion in Europe and throughout the world that Donald Trump has long regarded Ukraine as an impediment to his geopolitical vision of a world in which he decouples Russia from China and gains the freedom to contain and deter China's threat to the United States. Trump's actions from the beginning demonstrate that this might be his core motivation.

The article following this one, written by general Flynn, is of the type the tells us that Ukraine's position is hopeless, that they are being unreasonable, that Ukraine is its own worst enemy, that Trump as their Savior. Perhaps that is not quite true. Perhaps Ukraine is not entirely without resources, perhaps Putin is conscious that his problems mount and his resources diminish, and he, if he is prudent and concerned for his own welfare, must find a settlement or at least by time when in Alaska. Perhaps Putin believes his window during which he can dominate Ukraine on the ground is limited not so much by Ukraine but by his own domestic problems.

This is a different scenario than what we are being told time after time designed to condition the American electorate to forsake Ukraine and romance Russia.

[tennmountainman]

One thing you never hear from Zeepers is why YouCrayne does not
go on offense and take their land back from Ruzzia.
They avoid that topic like the Plague.

[BobL]

As usual, Big Serge makes GREAT POINTS. In this article he points out that there is really no longer any front line and that Ukraine’s defense has been reduced to ‘forts’ with drone operators (towns and cities) and that when conditions are right, the Russians can zoom right past the forts and get set up for encirclements, as is happening to Pokrovsk.