Free Republic

US president-elect Donald Trump has pushed back his campaign pledge to end the war in Ukraine in “24 hours” to several months, in a shift European partners have interpreted as a sign that his administration will not immediately abandon support for Kyiv. -snip- The incoming administration was also wary of comparisons being made with Joe Biden’s calamitous US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was something the Trump camp would not like to see repeated in Ukraine, the official added. -snip- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort last week, has ruled out that Washington would “abandon”...

Thefts of packs of butter have highlighted the impact of skyrocketing inflation on Russia’s war economy. -snip- Security footage in Ekaterinburg, the capital of Russia’s defence industry, recently captured two masked men breaking into a dairy shop. As one raided the cash register, the other made off with 20kg of butter.

Russia is no longer requesting Ukraine be “denazified” and is prepared to let Kyiv join the EU if it remains military non-aligned as part of ongoing ceasefire negotiations, according to four people briefed on the discussions. Moscow and Kyiv are discussing a pause in hostilities as part of a possible deal that would involve Ukraine abandoning its drive for Nato membership in exchange for security guarantees and the prospect to join the EU, the people said under the condition of anonymity because the matter is not yet finalised. The draft ceasefire document does not contain any discussion of three of...

Max Seddon identifies the danger of treating Ukraine like the “new Georgia”: More dangerously, the western politicians basking in the adulation of the protesters risk giving pro-European Ukrainians false hope. For all the caveats McCain and his colleague, Sen. Chris Murphy, dropped into their speeches, telling the crowd that, “if you are successful, the U.S. Senate will stand with you every step of the way,” as Murphy did, leads ordinary Ukrainians to assume they have the backing of Western governments while raising the ominous question of what happens if the protests fail. As much as the senators might enjoy pandering...