A sellout to Putin forecoming making the NAZI - Soviet pact division of Poland look quaint in comparison. The forecoming destruction of Ukraine
https://lnkd.in/gQdmntvZ. This is the ultimate betrayal Trump and Putin will destroy Ukraine in a move remiscent of Hitler and Stalin dividing Poland in 1939 . The defacto resulted horror will lead to Russia occupation of much of Europe with all that entails. As for Trump the cowardice of Trump in this situation rivals Chamberlain over Munich in 1938. Trump has not only shown his fealty to Vladimir Putin he has stabbed the EU and 509 million EU citizens in the back as well. If Trump declares a security emergency it is one of his own making Having created a stupendous crisis Trump will use that as a cowardly excuse to annex Greenland and intimate Canadian government politicians. What is worse is that Putin wants Trump to do it. At a stroke NATO will be destroyed and the entire world will see Putin occupation of most of the EU and the USA invasion of Greenland forecoming as well as occupation of regions in Canada
. I speak to all of you to be aware this surrender to VLADIMIR PUTIN is unnecessary. Also Trump is not a political genius. He is a study in abject cowardice who is making Russia great again in a show of cowardice never witnessed in American history. Again the surrender to VLADIMIR PUTIN directives is a choice. Strategically unnecessary and a crisis created by Trump due to his fealty to VLADIMIR PUTIN
Live Updates: Zelensky Insists That U.S. Talks With Russia Include Ukraine
Concern that President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia might sideline Ukraine in discussions to end the war also appeared to bubble up at a NATO meeting in Brussels.
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Feb. 13, 2025, 10:39 a.m. ET35 minutes ago
Here are the latest developments.
European leaders sought on Thursday to respond to President Trump’s moves to broker a deal with President Vladimir V. Putin for peace in Ukraine. In meetings and statements, the leaders asserted Kyiv’s right — and theirs — to be at the negotiating table and argued against prematurely surrendering critical bargaining chips like territorial borders and NATO membership.
Mr. Trump characterized a lengthy phone call with Mr. Putin on Wednesday as the start of negotiations, and the Kremlin said a meeting between the two leaders could be organized “fairly quickly.” But neither side mentioned any role for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, adding to concerns that the Trump administration would soften U.S. support for Kyiv and push it to make concessions to Russia that Ukrainian officials have previously deemed unacceptable.
“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told journalists, adding that Europeans also “must be at the table for talks.”
His comments came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters before a meeting of allied defense ministers on Thursday that the call with the Russian leader was “no betrayal” of Kyiv. At the NATO meeting in Brussels, Ukraine’s European allies insisted that Kyiv had their support.
“It is crucial that Ukraine is closely involved in all talks on its future,” Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, said ahead of the meeting. John Healey, Britain’s defense secretary, said: “There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine, and Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks.”
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Feb. 13, 2025, 10:58 a.m. ET16 minutes ago
Brussels bureau chief
NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, just wrapped up a news conference after the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. He emphasized the issues on which NATO allies agree — that Europe should spend more on defense, that military production should ramp up and that Ukraine needed a sustainable peace. But he was repeatedly asked about whether Ukraine and Europe were likely to be left on the sidelines as President Trump and Russia negotiate. “We are closely coordinating,” he insisted.
Feb. 13, 2025, 10:23 a.m. ET51 minutes ago
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Reporting from Berlin
The push for talks on Ukraine comes as Russia’s battlefield advances have slowed.
President Trump’s decision on Wednesday to “start negotiations immediately” over ending the war in Ukraine came at a time of dwindling prospects for a military resolution of the conflict.
The pace of Russia’s multipronged offensive across eastern Ukraine has been dropping since November, with the Kremlin’s forces occupying just 19 additional square miles so far this month, according to Deep State, a group that analyzes combat videos and has close links to the Ukrainian army. The Russian military is also struggling to dislodge Ukrainian soldiers from a sliver of Russian territory in the western Kursk region, despite committing tens of thousands of fighters to the campaign.
Ukraine has been able to slow the enemy advance by committing some of its limited reserves to counterattacks in Kursk and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in recent weeks.
These operations have also aimed to show the Trump administration and other Western allies that Ukraine’s smaller military is still capable of taking the initiative on the battlefield and staying in the fight. Few analysts, however, believe Kyiv will be able to achieve its official goal of recovering all land lost to Russia since 2014. On Wednesday, the U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, called that goal “unrealistic.”
Russia and Ukraine are both struggling to replace soldiers that have been killed or injured on the battlefield. Both sides are incurring those losses at one of the fastest paces since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago.
The Russian government has been forced to offer ever-growing bonuses and salaries to attract new recruits, a financial spiral that is contributing to destabilizing the Russian economy. Ukraine, for its part, is resorting to ever more draconian mobilization tactics to make up for the decline in volunteers.
The reasons for the slowdown of the Russian advance are not clear. Some analysts attribute it to an operational pause, with the Russian military taking advantage of bad weather to replenish units and prepare for a new push, perhaps in a new area.
A new offensive could come even while peace talks are underway.
“We should expect the Russian Army to renew offensive operations after it regroups,” said Dmitri Kuznets, a military analyst at Meduza, an independent Russian media outlet.
Other analysts see signs of structural exhaustion. They believe the Russian military is running out of troops and equipment to sustain its highly costly tactic of overwhelming Ukrainian defenses with constant attacks by small groups of soldiers over exposed terrain.
These analysts believe that repeating last year’s scale of offensive operations would require Russia to draft more troops, a politically risky option that President Vladimir V. Putin is prepared for, but would rather avoid.
Regardless of the reasons for the slowdown, Mr. Putin’s ability to end the war by forcing Ukraine to capitulate remains as distant as ever. Even at last year’s fastest pace of advance, it would take the Russian forces years merely to conquer the four Ukrainian regions that the Kremlin has proclaimed to be part of its territory.
This makes the timing of Mr. Trump’s negotiation offer particularly attractive to Mr. Putin.
He has long signaled that he wanted to reach a deal on Ukraine directly with the United States, which he views as the ultimate decision maker in Kyiv. Mr. Trump’s apparent willingness to bypass Kyiv and deal directly with Mr. Putin could provide the Russian leader with a diplomatic victory at a time when the battlefield remains deadlocked.
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Feb. 13, 2025, 10:22 a.m. ET52 minutes ago
Brussels bureau chief
Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, addressed the Trump administration’s pressure on Europe to shoulder more of a defense burden and reiterated his own call for more European military spending. “We all agree that we need to put Ukraine in the best possible position for negotiations, and we need a durable and lasting peace,” he told a news conference after the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
Feb. 13, 2025, 10:23 a.m. ET51 minutes ago
Brussels bureau chief
He also said that “allies took note of President Trump’s initiative for peace talks.” When asked if there was a risk that Ukraine was going to be rushed into talks in a way that would leave it negotiating from a place of weakness, Rutte said that “even if talks start, they will not end on day one or day two.”
Feb. 13, 2025, 9:57 a.m. ET1 hour ago
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said it was vital that his country be included in any negotiations to end the war. “We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” he told journalists in Ukraine, a day after Trump spoke to Putin about ending the war.