Posted on 03/03/2025 11:05:44 AM PST by marcusmaximus
President Trump will hold a meeting Monday afternoon on the next steps regarding the crisis with Ukraine, including a possible suspension of U.S. military aid, a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of the meeting told Axios.
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Trump responded on Truth Social to an AP report that Zelensky had said the end of the war was "still very, very far away," writing: "This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!"
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Zelensky wrote on X that "it is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible."
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That exchange seems to set the tone for Monday's meeting.
Along with Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National security adviser Mike Waltz and other senior officials are expected to participate, the sources said.
The White House didn't immediately respond to questions.
(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
I hope that US cut all ties to Ukraine. Clearly, democrats and Europe ( branch of the deep state) have been working together to drag US into Ukraine war.
Time to flick this little beer bootle cap off the tavern table.
Please stop and and all aid, not even a toothbrush...
Europe can go ahead and provide the necessary items then!
Shut off the money.
The war will end.
There will be zero democracy and zero freedom in Ukraine so long as green Tshirt man is there. Get rid of him.
Oh and NATO is like USAID. We pay them to steal our Money.
There is no money for Ukraine in the House budget resolution of last week, which includes an increase in the debt ceiling.
But there is talk of a CR because the House Resolution and Reconciliation have to get through the Senate, by March 15.
The CR is to be “clean” and that looks like a few billion for Ukraine, through October, and it appears to restrict to non military. Won’t know for some days. The present CR authorized spending of $6B for Ukraine, but the present CR was signed by Biden.
It is always a complex matter, appropriation vs authorization. The $6B did not constitute new money. It was previously appropriated Sept last year and the CR authorized spending it, by DoD.
But that money is gone.
It’s showtime.
If the casualty numbers the Ukies put out a couple days ago are close (and by a lot of web searching I did last year to find news reports of fatalities in individual Ukie news reports — eg., “3 killed in missile blast in Kherson”, they seem to be plausible), an interesting comparison can be made:
Reported war casualties: ~70,000.
The Holodomor, all told, likely took around 5,000,000 Ukrainian lives in and around Ukraine.
I’m still guessing the Ukies are willing to fight a guerilla or semi-guerilla war for a very long time, if need be.
The only question now is will Zelensky make to the finish line with a deal or will he be replaced.
How is it “gone”? As of the Inspector General’s report of 9/30/2024, approx. $83 billion had actually been disbursed, out of $187 billion authorized by Congress in various bills & CR’s since the beginning of 2022. Since Bite Me DID get weapons shipments ramped up late last year, estimates of disbursements to date have been ~$114 - $120 billion. If we go with the higher number, that leaves ~$67 billion “somewhere in the system”. Per the actual Appropriations bills and past reports of releases to Ukraine, that $67 billion still has to be mostly for weapons.
In our gov’t, money can easily be sent where many of us might not want, but not leaving a paper trail from the Treasury to the initial recipient, agency, etc., is pretty much impossible.
Another question is, if the Euros dip into the over $100 billion they still have set aside for Ukraine (not including additions the last couple weeks), and asked to purchase, say, $30 billion in weapons from the USA, would Trump make the deal?
I was just looking at this question. The House budget resolution vs authorization vs appropriation.
As always, it is very complex. I found a blurb saying there was $6B in Ukraine military funding, and only $6B for DoD to send . . . In The Current CR that Biden signed.
Only $6B? That would be spent by now since the CR was signed in December.
But ya, you found numbers that appear to be pending. And others say the reverse.
The House is pushing another CR for March 15. No idea if that’s because the Senate doesn’t have time to complete work on the House resolution just passed (which included the Debt Ceiling bump).
The bottom line will be Trump. What he wants, he will get from Johnson and Thune. This morning’s poll is very powerful in that regard. Neither are going to challenge him. If he says close the spigot, or close the hot spigot leaving only a few B for food, then I suspect neither question will even reach the floor of either house. They won’t force a veto they cannot override.
There never would have been a war without the money.
Europe is sending more money to Russia than to Ukraine.
The Euros seem to be getting pretty serious about putting some troops into Ukraine. They also seem to perceive that if Pooty gets any kind of “win”, the future is a real shit show, because there are generated a lot more problems than just Russia.
IMO, that future may be a crapfest for us too, as Xi will be encouraged to test us, and Trump constantly talking about his aversion to casualties will just encourage them further. The Chinese have never been shy about taking casualties. My dad was in Korea as a radioman and among other things called in airstrikes, sometimes on human waves of Chinese. He never wanted to talk much about the results...
How much are we willing to sacrifice to have cool / top tech electronic devices? Hmmm...
Back to Ukraine though - Lacking a peace deal, if the Euro’s put troops into Ukraine, I suspect they will initially be used mostly for logistics, maybe put along the Belarus’ border, etc., to free up Ukie manpower. Will Pooty target the Euros?
Perusing vids of euro leaders the last couple days, they really back up the reports that Zelenskyy’s “obstinance” about land concessions, security guarantees, etc., came at least partially from coaching from Starmer and Macron to “stand his ground”.
All roads seem to lead to “shitshow”.
I’d put a hold on all support for Ukraine for an undetermined amount of time so that we can reassess the situation and get an itemization of what our funds have already been used for.
Wow! Look at all the pressure 47 is putting on Putin - he’ll have to come to the table. Oh wait ...
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