Russia invades Ukraine

[Huntingwhale]

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...ay-2025-03-06/

[Fuzz]

####ing monsters

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Playfair

It makes sense that Trump would be easy on Russia for invading Ukraine, if you think about it. It makes his claim to Greenland, especially and to a lesser extent, Canada, more "plausible" from their perspective.

It opens the door to Trump doing what he wants while turning a blind eye to Taiwan and Ukraine. History is repeating itself, but this time we are sitting on the other side looking out. God have mercy on us all

You have those reversed. Canada is the Ukrainian parallel. We have deep cultural ties, population that transferred over a border created through the break up of old imperial settlements, language ties, resources, and a transportation corridor that trump wants to secure. Those are the exact reasons Putin invaded Ukraine and wants the donbass.

[Sainters7]

Or even worse, Poland in WWII, given how Donald has cozied up to Putin, and how Russia is on the other side of us if you look at the globe top-down.

But I highly doubt he'd would allow Russia to take any land in the Americas, he sees it as Donnieland. Not saying I think any of that is actually going to happen, but I'm just saying.

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...ay-2025-03-06/

I’d like to say this is unbelievable but given recent actions taken by the US this is par for the course. I don’t know what capacity Canada has to help allow some of them to come here but I hope it can be considered. Deporting people back to a war zone…I’m at a loss for words

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

I’d like to say this is unbelievable but given recent actions taken by the US this is par for the course. I don’t know what capacity Canada has to help allow some of them to come here but I hope it can be considered. Deporting people back to a war zone…I’m at a loss for words

Canada accepted Ukrainian refugees en masse 100 years ago when Stalin tried to wipe them out. I would gladly accept them again now that Putin is trying to wipe them out. A wonderful people who shaped our prairies. Not sure why Moscow (and now Washington) hate them so much.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Trump's staff met with Ukrainian political opposition in a bid to remove Zelensky from power

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/202...-power-en-news

Seems like every day there's a new impeachable worthy offence from the orange rapist

[Jacks]

The goal seems pretty obvious. Force elections and then the Russians (probably with help from Trump) do their regular sham voting, bribery, blackmail, extortion, death threats, etc to stack the deck and install a puppet regime. Not sure how an election is even possible with a big part of the country under occupation. I'm guessing the Donbas would be returning 99% of their vote for the Russian puppet candidate.

[WideReceiver]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...ay-2025-03-06/

He’s acting on orders from his boss, Putin

[FlamesAddiction]

Every country that spent two decades in Afghanistan after the U.S. requested support, should send them a bill and demand a minerals deal.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Trump's staff met with Ukrainian political opposition in a bid to remove Zelensky from power

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/202...-power-en-news

Seems like every day there's a new impeachable worthy offence from the orange rapist

Hopefully this is true.

Ukrainian opposition leaders have dismissed the idea of holding a wartime election, after a media report of contacts between them and U.S. officials and in the wake of President Donald Trump calling his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy a "dictator" for not holding one.
Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday his team was working with U.S. "partners" to maintain support for Ukraine - but he added that he was opposed to a wartime election.

Yuliia Tymoshenko, another opposition leader, said her team "is talking with all our allies who can help in securing a just peace as soon as possible," and said that elections should not take place before this had been achieved.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...on-2025-03-06/

It's no longer about trying to convince people that Trump is a russian asset. It is well past that point and needs to be treated as such.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Hopefully this is true.






https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...on-2025-03-06/

It's no longer about trying to convince people that Trump is a russian asset. It is well past that point and needs to be treated as such.

I know nothing about internal Ukrainian politics but I'd imagine it would be fatal for any party to try and oust Zelensky during wartime. The voters would rightfully punish any politician or party that did so.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bowmanm...he-polls-show/

https://www.dw.com/en/what-ukrainian...kyy/a-71774172

[Fuzz]

U.S. satellite mapping company Maxar Technologies has blocked Ukraine's access to its imagery, according to a report by Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi.

The publication quotes unnamed users of Maxar's commercial service as saying that the company provided them with an official explanation that the restriction was made "in response to an administrative request."

Maxar's reported move could be a consequence of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to stop supplying American military intelligence data to Ukraine. It could be seen as evidence that the ban affects not only state institutions, but also U.S. companies and commercial services providing satellite data to Ukraine.

https://www.politico.eu/article/us-s...y-report-says/

Disgusting. How much more evidence do we need Trump is doing Putin's biding?

[FlamesAddiction]

I don't know a heck of a lot about how weaponry works, especially the higher tech stuff, but I watched a video where the person said that the U.S. not sharing intelligence with Ukraine means that Ukraine won't have access to the real-time software that some advanced weapons require, rendering them essentially useless.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I don't know a heck of a lot about how weaponry works, especially the higher tech stuff, but I watched a video where the person said that the U.S. not sharing intelligence with Ukraine means that Ukraine won't have access to the real-time software that some advanced weapons require, rendering them essentially useless.

I imagine it has to do with targeting. If the Russians are using shoot and scoot tactics and you miss the 10 minute window that the unit is stationary then you've lost the opportunity to hit it. I don't believe lack of real time information prevents the weapon from working, it just limits the ability to target moveable targets. Still a pretty big deal.

[Fuzz]

Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin was “doing what anybody would do” after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike on Ukraine days after the US cut off vital intelligence and military aid to Kyiv.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday Trump said he finds it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin “wants to end the war”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...to-end-the-war

Russia has rejected the possibility of any concessions in future peace talks regarding the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin has stated that it will not make compromises, denied the possibility of deploying peacekeepers in Ukraine and dismissed the prospect of a ceasefire through talks.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/03/7/7501693/

So Trump has said he'll make a deal with Russia who won't make a deal, while also cutting Ukraine off and throwing them to the wolves. I'm not sure there was ever an intention for a deal, it was just to delay and give him excuses to bail and hand it over to Putin.

[LanceUppercut]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So Trump has said he'll make a deal with Russia who won't make a deal, while also cutting Ukraine off and throwing them to the wolves. I'm not sure there was ever an intention for a deal, it was just to delay and give him excuses to bail and hand it over to Putin.

I believe this to be the exact situation. Europe needs to hand over any and all military equipment they can as soon as possible. My arm chair analysis is that the Russian's are not in a position to invade Europe at the moment after being bled dry by the Ukrainians for 3 years. The stockpiles are bare, and the troop quality is abysmal.

[Dunnyberg]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Canada accepted Ukrainian refugees en masse 100 years ago when Stalin tried to wipe them out. I would gladly accept them again now that Putin is trying to wipe them out. A wonderful people who shaped our prairies. Not sure why Moscow (and now Washington) hate them so much.

Most old-stock "Ukrainians" in Canada arrived prior to that and are actually Ruthenians/Red Russians/Galicians from a diverse area in the Carpathians that became part of Ukraine after WW2.

Millions of Russians died during the Holodomor too. Slavs as a whole were persecuted in the Soviet Union until de-Stalinization.

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...to-end-the-war

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/03/7/7501693/

So Trump has said he'll make a deal with Russia who won't make a deal, while also cutting Ukraine off and throwing them to the wolves. I'm not sure there was ever an intention for a deal, it was just to delay and give him excuses to bail and hand it over to Putin.

All he wants/needs is to get a deal, no matter how terrible it is so he can continue to stroke his ego and claim that he got it done. He also sees creating this relationship with Putin as a major foreign policy win.

As a result of this everything he is doing is toward that aim, and that means devestating the ability of Ukraine to defend itself, thus weakening their position.
This will force them to cede all the ground given up in the campaign and get no guarantees of anything moving forward.

It’s the peace at all costs strategy.

[Cheese]

Putting all of this here as it links to Facebook....worth the read.


Transcript below of an incredibly powerful and deadly accurate speech in the French Senate two days ago by Mr. Claude Malhuret.
This may some day take its rightful place alongside the best of Sir Winston Churchill and President John F Kennedy.

Brace yourself:

“President, Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen Ministers, My dear colleagues,

Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is crumbling, Ukraine risks being abandoned, Russia strengthened.

Washington has become the court of Nero, a fiery emperor, submissive courtiers and a ketamine-fueled jester in charge of purging the civil service.

This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will impose more customs duties on you than on his enemies and will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you.

The king of the deal is showing what the art of the deal is all about. He thinks he will intimidate China by lying down before Putin, but Xi Jinping, faced with such a shipwreck, is probably accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.

Never in history has a President of the United States capitulated to the enemy. Never has anyone supported an aggressor against an ally. Never has anyone trampled on the American Constitution, issued so many illegal decrees, dismissed judges who could have prevented him from doing so, dismissed the military general staff in one fell swoop, weakened all checks and balances, and taken control of social media.

This is not an illiberal drift, it is the beginning of the confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution.

I have faith in the strength of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.

Eight days ago, at the very moment that Trump was rubbing Macron’s back in the White House, the United States voted at the UN with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Two days later, in the Oval Office, the military service shirker was giving war hero Zelensky lessons in morality and strategy before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to submit or resign.
Tonight, he took another step into infamy by stopping the delivery of weapons that had been promised. What to do in the face of this betrayal? The answer is simple: face it.

And first of all, let’s not be mistaken. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.

The countries of the South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe or whether they are now free to trample on it.

What Putin wants is the end of the order put in place by the United States and its allies 80 years ago, with its first principle being the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.

This idea is at the very source of the UN, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the attacked, because the Trumpian vision coincides with that of Putin: a return to spheres of influence, the great powers dictating the fate of small countries.
Mine is Greenland, Panama and Canada, you are Ukraine, the Baltics and Eastern Europe, he is Taiwan and the China Sea.

At the parties of the oligarchs of the Gulf of Mar-a-Lago, this is called “diplomatic realism.”

So we are alone. But the talk that Putin cannot be resisted is false. Contrary to the Kremlin’s propaganda, Russia is in bad shape. In three years, the so-called second largest army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country three times less populated.

Interest rates at 25%, the collapse of foreign exchange and gold reserves, the demographic collapse show that it is on the brink of the abyss. The American helping hand to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made in a war.

The shock is violent, but it has a virtue. Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in one day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands and that they have three imperatives.

Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that it holds, and of course to impose its presence and that of Europe in any negotiation.

This will be expensive. It will be necessary to end the taboo of the use of frozen Russian assets. It will be necessary to circumvent Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself by a coalition of only the willing countries, with of course the United Kingdom.

Second, demand that any agreement be accompanied by the return of kidnapped children, prisoners and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk, we know what agreements with Putin are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.

Finally, and this is the most urgent, because it is what will take the most time, we must build the neglected European defence, to the benefit of the American umbrella since 1945 and scuttled since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It is a Herculean task, but it is on its success or failure that the leaders of today’s democratic Europe will be judged in the history books.

Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is to recognize that France has been right for decades in arguing for strategic autonomy.

It remains to be built. It will be necessary to invest massively, to strengthen the European Defence Fund outside the Maastricht debt criteria, to harmonize weapons and munitions systems, to accelerate the entry into the Union of Ukraine, which is today the leading European army, to rethink the place and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, to relaunch the anti-missile shield and satellite programs.

The plan announced yesterday by Ursula von der Leyen is a very good starting point. And much more will be needed.

Europe will only become a military power again by becoming an industrial power again. In a word, the Draghi report will have to be implemented. For good.

But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament.
We must convince public opinion in the face of war weariness and fear, and especially in the face of Putin’s cronies, the extreme right and the extreme left.

They argued again yesterday in the National Assembly, Mr Prime Minister, before you, against European unity, against European defence.

They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump say is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of de Gaulle Zelensky by a Ukrainian Pétain at the beck and call of Putin.

Peace for the collaborators who have refused any aid to the Ukrainians for three years.

Is this the end of the Atlantic Alliance? The risk is great. But in the last few days, the public humiliation of Zelensky and all the crazy decisions taken in the last month have finally made the Americans react.

Polls are falling. Republican lawmakers are being greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.

The Trumpists are no longer in their majesty. They control the executive, the Parliament, the Supreme Court and social networks.
But in American history, the freedom fighters have always prevailed. They are beginning to raise their heads.

The fate of Ukraine is being played out in the trenches, but it also depends on those in the United States who want to defend democracy, and here on our ability to unite Europeans, to find the means for their common defense, and to make Europe the power that it once was in history and that it hesitates to become again.

Our parents defeated fascism and communism at great cost.
The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century.

Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.”

-Claude Malhuret speaking to the French Senate Tuesday March 4 2025. You have just read the transcript of a speech that will live forever in the history books.