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Russian President Vladimir Putin waited only six months before switching from a special military operation to full scale war against Ukraine. Putin's initial assault was limited to barely 150,000 troops. He expected a quick victory followed by negotiations on his principal concerns: Russian control of Crimea, Ukrainian neutrality, and autonomy for the Russian population in the Donbas, but he was wrong. Putin had not counted on Ukraine's stiff resistance or the West's massive military and economic intervention. Faced with a new situation, Putin changed his strategy. Now he is about to unleash his own General Sherman and make Ukraine howl....

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/far-left-dems-urge-biden-push-peace-deal-ukraine-throw-party-uproar#:~:text=The%20Democratic%20Party%27s,the%20group%20wrote.

'Progressive' Democrats have been slammed for penning an open letter to Joe Biden calling on him to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine with Vladimir Putin. Thirty left-wing politicians - among them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar - wrote to Biden on Monday saying that 'direct talks with Russia' to 'seek a rapid end to the conflict' should be his 'top priority'.

Members of “The Squad” – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley – were among 30 signatories on the letter urging Biden to calm tensions. 30 Democratic US Congressmembers – most notably the young progressives who have become colloquially known as “The Squad” – penned a letter to President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday in which they ask the administration to avoid direct military conflict and attempt to bring Russia and Ukraine to a ceasefire. “Given the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation, which only increase the longer this war continues, we agree with your goal of...

A group of liberal Democrats in the US Congress is pressing president Joe Biden to pursue direct talks with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, opening a new front of pressure on his Ukraine strategy as his administration tries to maintain domestic support for Kyiv. -snip- Talks with Moscow have the potential “to reduce harm and support Ukraine in achieving a peaceful settlement”, according to the letter, which was signed by lawmakers including Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley — a group of liberal congresswomen known as “the Squad”.

Putin was surprised at how easy Crimea went. Obama is nothing if not consistent when it comes to undermining allies and appeasing enemies. He kept on being flexible even as Russia was invading a potential NATO member. As Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces took over Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in early 2014, the interim Ukrainian government was debating whether or not to fight back against the "little green men" Russia had deployed. But the message from the Barack Obama administration was clear: avoid military confrontation with Moscow. That's easier to do when you aren't being invaded by Moscow. But nonetheless, McFaul...

The United States Government has declared that it will no longer be performing tests of Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapons. In a public statement during a visit to the Vandenberg Space Force Base, Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that this policy has the primary purpose of setting an example to other countries. It represents an important step in the direction of establishing “space norms” for all countries to follow.ASAT weapons go as far back as the early years of the Cold War. According to the Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems, ASAT weapons were designed for strategic and tactical military...

President Biden said the United States is “rallying the world to stand with Ukraine” and pledged to support the cause “as long as it takes.” U.S. officials have downplayed the (Russian} gains, calling them halting and incremental. The scrutiny is fueled by U.S. government assessments of other wars, notably in Afghanistan, where officials habitually glossed over widespread dysfunction and corruption and sidestepped questions of whether battlefield successes were not only achievable but sustainable. A Ukrainian lawmaker shared similar concerns. “We are losing the most valuable thing, our soldiers and officers.” Benjamin Friedman, a policy director at Defense Priorities, said that...

Ukraine is losing and will lose its war with Russia. For Moscow not to lose the peace, it is unfortunately the case that a rump Ukraine may no longer provide in Russian eyes the security from the NATO/Ukraine threat it understandably (to some) seeks. Time is running out to avert a larger, truly Ukraine-wide war carried successfully by Moscow into the country’s more anti-Russian western regions and Kiev, putting an end to the Ukrainian state in lieu of NATO military intervention. However, a Russian-occupied Ukraine will simmer with partisan warfare and neofascist terrorism for some time, leaving the risk of...

Laurie Meadows 11 June 2022 [ last edited 13 June 2022 2040 UTC] This is a follow up article to the article I wrote on 19th of February 2022, 5 days before the launch of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. It was called 'Mutually Assured Destruction - the Prelude to Mutually Assured Security'. At the time, I didn't think Russia would move into the Donesk. I wrote: "The current lead that Russia has in missile and defensive systems might persuade the US to agree to verifiable arms control, but this is the work of years. In the meantime,...

President Biden on Friday declined to rule out Ukraine having to cede part of its territory to Russia in order to end Moscow’s more than three-month-old invasion.“Does Ukraine have to cede territory to achieve peace?” a reporter asked Biden after his remarks on the May jobs report.“But it appears to me that at some point along the line, there’s going to have to be a negotiated settlement

French President Emmanuel Macron said it is vital that Russia is not humiliated so that when the fighting stops in Ukraine a diplomatic solution can be found, adding that he believed Paris would play a mediating role to end the conflict. Macron has sought to maintain a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February. His stance has been repeatedly criticised by some eastern and Baltic partners in Europe, as they see it as undermining efforts to pressure Putin to the negotiating table. "We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting...

When Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in late February, the Russian president vowed his forces would not occupy the country. But as the invasion reached its 100th day Friday, Moscow seemed increasingly unwilling to relinquish the territory it has taken in the war. The ruble is now an official currency in the southern Kherson region, alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia. Residents there and in Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporizhzhia region are being offered expedited Russian passports. The Kremlin-installed administrations in both regions have talked about plans to become part of Russia. The Moscow-backed leaders of separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s...

Once we have eliminated all the impossible scenarios, the least improbable outcome of the war in Ukraine is a Russian victory. Any conceivable Russian victory now will entail such a loss of blood and treasure that it will have to be judged Pyrrhic at best. But it will be a victory nonetheless — and we in the West had better come to grips with that hard truth. Let’s begin by eliminating the impossible. The first unrealistic endgame is the reduction of Ukraine to a vassal state of the Russian empire. The second impossible scenario is the total defeat of the...

Henry Kissinger, the 99-year old former secretary of state, suggested that Ukraine would likely have to give up some territory in a negotiated settlement, though he added that “ideally the dividing line should be a return to the status quo” before the invasion, which included the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the seizure of parts of the Donbas. “Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself,’’ Mr. Kissinger concluded. Almost immediately, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine accused Mr. Kissinger of appeasement, retorting angrily that “I...

According to information from the German Press Agency, there are informal agreements among the NATO states to refrain from delivering certain weapon systems to Ukraine. As the dpa was confirmed in alliance circles in Brussels on Wednesday, the risk of a direct military confrontation between NATO states and Russia should be kept as low as possible. There are fears, for example, that Russia could officially see the delivery of Western battle tanks and combat aircraft as entering the war and then take military retaliatory measures. Weapon systems of this type have not yet been delivered to Ukraine. According to information...

Henry Kissinger said that Ukraine must concede territory to Russia to end the war, and warned the West that a humiliating defeat for Russia could result in wider destabilisation. The legendary statesman, now 98, made the comments in a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Monday

In May alone, Italy reportedly imported 450,000 barrels of Russian crude oil per day. This is four times more than the country was buying off Russia in February, when Russia first invaded Ukraine, according to Kpler, a commodity data company. The move will see Italy become the EU’s biggest import hub for Russian seaborne crude.One EU diplomat told The Times: "It’s becoming clearer by the day that three sides are forming: Poland and the Baltic states, known as the Sanctionistas that want more and stronger sanctions."Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria — the Contras — that prioritise their own economic interests.”

Ten more European gas buyers have opened accounts in Gazprombank JSC, doubling the total number of clients preparing to pay in rubles for Russian gas as President Vladimir Putin demanded.A total of twenty European companies have opened accounts, with another 14 clients asking for the paperwork needed to set them up, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters. He declined to identify the companies.

Gasoline prices accelerated at a stunning pace on Friday, jumping more than 11 cents from the day before. On Friday, the national average gas price jumped to $3.837. That is as much as they rose in the entire week through Thursday, when they rose to $3.72 from $3.62 a week before. A week ago, gas prices were $3.572, so Friday’s gas price is 7.4 percent higher over the week.