Ukraine Invasion: Part 54

[MagicFox]

We're on 54. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
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I keep seeing worse and worse news about Trump but at this point it seems redundant to post it.

I spent the morning with a business that is planning delinkage with anything American. It is challenging and one has to be careful not to end up spiting your face too much. However, they are working on immediate measures but mostly on developing a 10 year plan to quit. This is much like avoiding Chinese spy chips.

Speaking of China. That’s Trump’s big foreign policy nightmare. His own personal nightmare. In his mentalverse the closest countries to bully are those who thought they were friends. Next come the mass of countries he doesn’t know or care about and all he can do for now is cut USAID, cause some suffering and give China yet another opening. Then there are the countries he feels at ease with, that’s Russia above all others. Maybe Hungary. Standing outside this threefold division is China. He sees China as a threat and an untameable challenge (not without justification, but he is going large on this).

I expect China will try to smooth things over, but who knows?

Any images I post today were found on Russian social media. There’s glee on there.

Here he is, apparently in Moscow in 1995. He was a lot more lucid then. I’ve sat in a kitchen and eaten some of that monochrome food. He was divorced from Ivana then. It was another 10 years before he married Melania. Who know what the Russians have on him regarding his trips? I doubt it is anything he would be ashamed of.

[Says my last image is under review - if it never appears it is Yalta conference with Xi, Putin and Trumps heads instead of...]

[This post has a B&W image of Trump 1995 looking at a Slavic platter at an event in Moscow.]

[I won't post the image of Zelensky in bed looking surprised as Starmer and Macron snuggle up to him.]

Wasn't going to post this but...

‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book

Also weirdly this daily beast article now gets a 404

Sorry it didn't post the grab

Oh...don't think mumsnet is letting me post jt

That claim's been aired before.

He wasn't so extremely pro-Kremlin when he was president before, though, was he?

Well, apart from saying loudly and publicly that he believed Putin's word against his own secret service, stuff like that.

Yes, exactly this!

Oh dear. Had forgotten that.

Ms Ostapenko was in Olenivka prison on July 29, when an explosion in one of the barracks killed 50 Ukrainian POWs and injured 100 more – an incident that became known as the Olenivka Prison Massacre.

Moscow blamed the massacre on a HIMARS missile launched by Ukraine, but both the United Nations and Ukraine have disputed their claims.

“Well before the explosion, the guards suddenly disappeared,” said Ms Ostapenko. “They were usually around, but this time, they weren’t. We all noticed and found it suspicious.”

Quelle surprise

Yes was reading this earlier. Alexander Dugin had apparently been suggesting that Trump is an asset and Lavrov’s been his handler for years. Probably conspiratorial nonsense but it’s crazy we live in a World where you pause to wonder if just maybe…

Absolutely, it's hard to know isnt it?

He's a Russophile. I don't think he is 'controlled'. It is reasonable to entertain the idea that divorced and single Trump might have done things that might be considered compromising if recorded. I'm sure he would shrug that off. He admires Putin.

Yes, he's the sort of person who's likely to be supremely unaware of the role he's been playing for Russia, because he can't imagine a scenario where he isn't in charge – being a very stable genius and the bigliest winner.

Well, well, well.
I just don't know what to make of it all.
Is this a pre orchestrated act constructed for ages between USA and Ukraine?
"look zel, I'm gonna chuck you under the bus, I'm gonna offer you a deal, you reject it, we're gonna soften putin up.. Get him where we want them"

Is this the greatest ruse of all time or... Yes, perhaps he is an asset?

It seems that perhaps the ships in the fleet that used to sail behind the US are starting to plan how to plot their own courses

MAKS 24

Macron is considering increasing France's military spending from 2.1% to 5% of GDP, — Franceinfo

Italy is sending Centauro 1 to Ukraine.

EU's aid package meant to send 'very strong' message to Ukraine could come on Monday, - The Guardian

Macron: "We want peace, not just a ceasefire, which is Ukraine's capitulation."

"For every two dollars invested in our long-range capability, we already receive almost ten dollars in Russian losses," — Zelensky

Europe is entering a new era, it is necessary to increase military efforts in response to the war between Ukraine and Russia, — Macron

We will see how drone swarms work this year, — Fedorov

Extensive and positive discussions with Zelensky, the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war and his team, — Kellogg

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated an additional $190 million for the purchase of drones.

Merz: This is the Russian narrative, this is how Putin has presented it for years, and I am, shocked that Trump has now apparently accepted it himself.

Merz, after Trump's threats to abandon Europe, called for negotiations with France and Great Britain on nuclear defense.

France and Estonia will host a meeting of European defense ministers on Monday to discuss how to bolster support for Ukraine, - Bloomberg

Petr Pavel: Europeans need to learn to make their own decisions and act as soon as possible."

Don't you mean Trump and Russia?

It's funny, I've been on and off considering that Trump was a Russian asset for years, since before his first presidency. I've even been heard to say, tongue in cheek, that this is why he has an East European wife.

These "revelations" are actually making me think that was a ridiculous thing to even enter my head. Joking abut it is one thing, but actually seriously considering Trump a Russian spy seems ludicrous. He's not smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

Wasnt Ivana linked to the Czech secret service?

That's great, except for one inconvenient fact: European armies are designed to work with American air support, which they won't have. You can acquire the tech, but you will also need to dramatically upsize in men (and women) and materiel, while changing your training and doctrine from the ground up. That is doable but will take time, which Ukraine doesn't have.

You will also have to completely reconfigure your C3I, which may be problematic since Starmer tried to intimidate Tim Pool into turning over UK Apple users' data and now some very influential US politicians are saying that the US needs to greatly reduce its intelligence-sharing with the UK.

My point is not to upset people, but to show that raising a European army after 80 years of depending on a foreign power for your defense is going to take longer, cost more and be more problematic than you think.

The loss of satellite recon and signals intelligence are going to be very hard to mitigate.

For what it’s worth Trump has confirmed that he won’t be at the Victory Day parade on 09 May.

@LifeExperience

European armies are designed to work with American air support, which they won't have

Suppose a lot depends on what you mean actually mean by support..if you mean support in the context of moving materiel I’d pretty much agree.

If it’s support with teeth believe it or not there is “air” indigenous to Europe, though not a lot. At least one army has worked on the basis for years that they won’t get US support. That said there’s no doubt if the USAF went missing it would leave significant holes in some capabilities…

I would agree with your comment that any increase in European effort would probably be too late for Ukraine.

now some very influential US politicians are saying that the US needs to greatly reduce its intelligence-sharing with the UK.

If we’re going to get to that stage, and I really hope we don’t, then maybe those US politicians need reminding that at least some of it’s intelligence gathering capability is literally built on, or operates off, UK soil or UK sovereign territory overseas.