Posted on 11/29/2025 12:04:27 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
The release of a 28-point plan last week to end the war in Ukraine has generated heaps of commentary—and controversy. Part of that is outstanding questions over its authorship, which Reuters reported on Wednesday drew from a Russian paper submitted to the Trump Administration last month. Following a diplomatic scramble from Ukraine and Europe this week, a 19-point plan far more favorable to Kyiv has been developed. But unfortunately the revised plan, based on a European counter-proposal, stands no chance of being accepted by Moscow.
The stakes are enormous. If the peace talks fall apart, a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives, will grind on. And there is a real risk that Ukraine’s military position will worsen if not collapse; the U.S. Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll reportedly warned Kyiv as much last week as Russia stockpiles enough long-range missiles that could deliver a knockout blow. The warning comes amid ongoing concerns about Ukraine’s manpower shortages and Russia’s seemingly endless ability to sustain the war.
Read More: Ukraine Can’t Win the War
It’s important to stress that while the original draft plan entails some painful concessions, it does not represent Ukrainian “capitulation” to Russia’s war of aggression. Compared to the Russian hope at the start of the war for the total subjugation of Ukraine, and the past 400 years of Ukrainian history, it could indeed be called a qualified Ukrainian victory. Almost 80% of Ukraine will remain free, independent, heavily-armed, and with an accepted path to join the E.U.
The Trump Administration should urge Ukraine and Europe to accept the original plan with only limited changes.
On the crucial issue of Ukrainian NATO membership, the original plan read that “Ukraine...”
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
The case for why women ought not be raped. Convincing to all but the rapist.
Putin needs to feel more pain. Just isn’t enough to stop the giggles yet.
Moscow. Sewage. That always sways public opinion.
. . . the stakes are enormous . . .
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No they aren’t.
the U.S. Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll reportedly warned Kyiv as much last week as Russia stockpiles enough long-range missiles that could deliver a knockout blow. The warning comes amid ongoing concerns about Ukraine’s manpower shortages and Russia’s seemingly endless ability to sustain the war.
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The quote from Driscoll was “Russia can build missiles and drones at a rate the US cannot match to supply both the US and Ukraine”
This got grabbed and interpreted incorrectly. He did not say will not match or would not match. He said cannot match. The world does not yet understand the magnets situation. BRICS gets all the neo magnets they want. The US, nope. Why should China supply magnets to the US as a military adversary? It would make no sense.
“BRICS gets all the neo magnets they want. The US, nope. Why should China supply magnets to the US as a military adversary? It would make no sense.”
I think the Neocons are new reduced to removing magnets from Washing Machines, in order to build drones.
You're blind to reality if you think there is anything more that can be done.
Ukraine can only more territory and lives fighting on.
The issue with the Trump proposal isn’t that there are bits of it that egregiously cross the red lines of Europe and Ukraine; the deal egregiously doesn’t satisfy ALL of Putin’s maximalist demands so it’s guaranteed to be a “no” from Russia too.
All of which means the warm words about it being a “starter for ten” are bovine excrement. Trump is guaranteed to be disappointed. So he really needs to stop proclaiming victory, until he actually gets a serious concession from Putin.
Putin still expects the Baltics to be expelled from NATO, despite NATO having no expulsion mechanism. (If countries could be kicked out of the alliance for working against its interests there’d have been serious discussions about Hungary and Turkey.)
That impossible demand was in the December 2021 ultimatum, and the USA couldn’t say yes. Putin insisted on adding it to the 2022 Istanbul deal, derailing it to the point where Russia’s diplomats quit in protest AND THEN Boris Johnson advised Zelensky that the UK and USA couldn’t possibly agree.
Watch Putin throw it back into negotiations to derail the Trump deal.
Trump might be tempted to consider agreeing to it, but if he does he should bear in mind that the UK and EU combined are holding $2.34 trillion of USA debt and that’s a peace dividend - if Trump totally breaks the NATO charter and leaves Europe footing the bill to protect its Eastern flank from Russian attacks, they’ll have no option but to call in the loans or sell it off.
There are already voices in Brussels that are saying, if Trump allies with Russia then they will go down that route.
So Trump really has a tough problem. It might be unwise to piss off a whole continent that could bankrupt the USA if it had a reason to, purely in an effort to get some shady deal with Muscovy over the line.
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