Just a subtle reminder of what's at stake here--especially in light of the more likely by the day prospect of a destablized Russia:
Posted in the "Putin ill" thread, but I think it's relevant here as well, especially in context of above.
Excellent. I was hoping for some data on how the Javelin worked against the T90M. Maybe the Ukrainians can provide us with a burned-out hulk or two so our engineers and scientists can go over it.
I thought they already sent one of these over and it didn’t even last a day? Edit to add link: Ukraine war: New footage shows Russia's latest-gen T-90M tank being destroyed | Daily Mail Online
I feel evil. The Senate just confirmed a highly accomplished career diplomat with an advanced degree in international relations from the London School of Economics to the all important Ambassadorship to Ukraine, someone far above anything I could ever aspire to, and I just want to make a “brinksmanship” joke
Cnn live: "Failure to open ports in Ukraine a "declaration of war" on global food security, says WFP chief From CNN's Sharon Braithwaite in London A failure to open closed ports in Ukraine to ship grains out will bring millions of people to the brink of starvation, said the executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP). "Failure to open the ports will be a declaration of war on global food security, resulting in famine destabilization of nations, as well as mass migration by necessity," said David Beasley on Wednesday, addressing a food security meeting at the United Nations hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "It is absolutely essential that we allow these ports to open because this is not just about Ukraine. This is about the poorest of the poor around the world who are on the brink of starvation as we speak," Beasley added. He noted that Ukraine is a nation that grows enough grain to feed 400 million people and that is now out of production."
Naval blockades are acts of war under international law. But it would require another nation to intervene. The Turks could possibly leverage it without direct confrontation by cutting off all Russian transit through the Dardanelles until lifted. They did a lesser version with warships earlier. Just thinking out loud
How would Putin have known the results of the US election ahead of time? Or that Biden would even be the nominee since the campaign was in trouble until South Carolina. The reasoning of that post is wrong. And what the former Ambassador has said is that Putin was waiting for a Trump second term because Trump would have tried to pull out of NATO or at least not aligned with the NATO countries in a response to Russia since Ukraine is not a member. The latter is a more reasonable assessment given Trump’s treatment of the NATO allies and the compliments he showers toward Putin. Putin lost the gamble by waiting.
Assuming Hill’s statement was not a slip, the other more logical read is that Congress was running Ukraine policy under DT (don’t know if that it would continue in a second term), and VP misread Congressional results, esp. Senate, and thought a Rep. controlled Senate would not support Ukraine under a Dem. President.
I must be missing something which is quite possible since I haven't had coffee. But I didn't see anything in the article regarding your statement about September/knowing ahead of time. I saw Putin had to keep explaining stuff to Trump because he didn't understand geopolitics, etc. But yes absolutely on the waiting part for Putin and why I laugh when folks claim Trump would've been tougher on Putin.
