Posted on 08/16/2025 7:03:44 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to meet on Monday to hammer out “all of the details” about how to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
The meeting in Washington, D.C., marks the next stage of reaching a ceasefire or a more sweeping and final peace deal, which the White House now hopes could be implemented. It is set to come three days after Trump held an Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin seeking to help negotiate an end to the war that ended with “no deal,” although the White House described the friendly encounter as “very productive.” They had already said any deal would have to be agreed to by Zelensky and Putin so no agreement was expected to be struck on Friday.
Trump debriefed Zelensky and critical allies with a phone call following the Alaska meeting with Putin, with the Ukrainian president sounding broadly positive about the summit, leading him to accept an invitation from the White House for a similar meeting to further peace efforts next week.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social early Saturday morning. “President Zelenskyy will be coming to D.C., the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people’s lives will be saved.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Putin might budge due to Trump dangling elimination of Russia’s sanctions. Putin loves this war same as the Tsars of old. But he just might get enough pressure from oligarchs and others, to end this war so that Russia can prosper as a normal nation. And get back to selling hydrocarbons to Europe AKA >>> Russia as the gas station to the world that happens to have nukes.
I really don’t get how anyone can seriously believe that. It’s about as papably, obviously untrue as saying Donald Trump’s a waif-thin 18 year old female supermodel.
Medvedev and Putin are revanchists. They’ve read too many of Dugin’s books. They’re both massively butthurt that the Iron Curtain fell not at the instigation of Reagan or Bush, but as a result of the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and other countries inside the USSR choosing to dismantle the USSR.
They’re further annoyed that Gorbachev and Scheverdnaze chose not to formalise the James Baker / HW Bush pledge to not expand NATO eastwards - and both those guys said so publicly, on the record, that the offer was made and they didn’t take it up. (I mean, c’mon! It’s obvious why they didn’t! The USSR was never EVER going to put anything in an international treaty that implied Moscow had no power to prevent Poland, Latvia and the rest applying to join NATO so the USSR was begging NATO to reassure them that it’d say “no”!)
Finally, it galled Medvedev and Putin that almost all of eastern Europe actively chose to pursue membership of the EEC and NATO instead of seeking membership of the RF and CSTO. The one exception is a former commie true believer who is dependent on Moscow to keep him installed as president for life - Lukashenko. Luka knows that most of his people would much rather be aligned with the EU, Poland and Ukraine than aligned with Moscow - he’s already told Putin that if he orders his own troops to participate in the Special Military operation, there’ll be a civil war in Belarus.
The Russian revanchist leadership’s been driven mad by its delusional bitterness. They hate that every country that is allowed to let its own people exercise the “independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity” granted at the Belovezha Accords, actively rejects alignment with RF/CSTO. Revanchists are so self-deluded it doesn’t occur to them that Russia is only viewed as utterly toxic by the countries to its west because they’re all sick and tired of Russia’s toxic behaviours and constant threats. No; they have to blame someone else so it’s the fault of the Jews, or the Germans, or the Brits, or the Banderites, or the Deep State, or Soros, or the Gays, or the man in the moon. Everybody’s to blame except Putin, Medvedev, and the rest of the Dugin Parrots Club.
Their hatred, butthurt, paranoia and delusions of grandeur are the root causes of this conflict. The SMO isn’t a consequence of anything that Europe, or NATO, did to hurt Russia. Unless you count the worst things NATO’s ACTUALLY done to Russia in the last thirty years... snorting derisively at Putin’s utterly retarded demands in December 2021, and before that concluding that because Putin was already breaking Russia’s Minsk commitments before the ink was even dry, it might be wise to sign anyway and tool Ukraine up ready for the inevitable invasion.
Good valid take. I have a very low opinion of Putin and Russia since their Feb 2022 of Ukraine.
"Having oil to sell makes the no better than Venezuela, which also has a lot of oil to sell."
BTW stupid ripoff socialists who run Venezuela have half ruined their oil field by very chaotic extraction practices. Resulting in lower oil pressures, so harder to lift this crude out of the ground. And Venezuela crude is a heavy crude anyways! My roofing tar came from there.<P>
Key issues:
The government’s approach combined political interference, purges of experienced engineers and managers at PDVSA (the state oil company), and a neglect of basic infrastructure maintenance and safety.
Extraction practices have sharply deteriorated: the focus on quick returns and ramped-up production without adequate reinvestment in facility upkeep, reservoir management, or modern engineering led to frequent oil spills, leaking pipelines, and collapsing equipment.
This has resulted in both environmental damage (routine oil spills, contaminated water/soil, killed wildlife) and technical problems—such as loss of reservoir pressure. When oilfields are mismanaged (for example, by failing to maintain proper reinjection or pressure support), it becomes harder and more costly to bring oil to the surface, even when reserves exist.
Venezuela’s production capacity has collapsed by over 80% compared to peak levels—despite having the world’s largest proven oil reserves—because extraction is now inefficient and less effective due to poor practices and broken equipment.
In summary:
Venezuelan socialist leadership’s “chaotic extraction practices” have indeed reduced reservoir pressures, wrecked infrastructure, and made it much harder to extract their abundant crude. Venezuela is now an example of how oil reserves alone are not enough—sound management, engineering, and reinvestment are essential to maintain production over the long term.
and, the policies advocated by anti MAGA supporters of Russia.
“I am so proud of President Putin’s willingness to negotiate for peace even though the aggression was initiated by U and the EU.”
It’s also in Putin’s interest as the Neocons are killing his troops also, and beyond that Putin would rather not have to take Western Ukraine where the people there, unless in the East, won’t see it as a liberation, but an occupation.
Then there are a TON of reasons for Putin to want to be on good terms with the United States, although, sadly for us, we are never more than one election away from electing another psycho-government frothing at the mouth regarding Russia, a country that refuses to surrender to them.
You come off as a commie peacenik type.
THAT is an American First policy.
You, on the other hand, seem to miss the days of George W. Bush and neoconism.
You and Putin are crackpots from yesteryear.
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