Ukraine Can't Win the War

[SpankyMcFarland]

On 3/12/2025 at 9:29 PM, -TSS- said:

Russophiles, unless they are Russians themselves, is about the lowest form of human life. Our parliament in Finland passed the NATO-application by votes 184-7. I think that is fairly accurate proportion of people in our country how many people are Russophiles how many most definitely are not.

I would just add the tiny caveat that a foreigner can be a cultural Russophile, admiring Russia’s extraordinary achievements in music and literature, or a lover of the country’s vast steppes and forests. Any northern Canadian is a comrade of the boreal forest. 

[SpankyMcFarland]

Imagine sending a real estate guy to negotiate a Ukraine deal with Putin. Witkoff is a brilliant businessman, whose paternal grandparents were born in the Russian Empire, but he fell at the first fence when talking to Tucker Carlson, being unable to name the four eastern Ukrainian regions under dispute. Needless to say, this did not go down well in Ukraine: 

Quote

…after praising Putin, Witkoff moved on to reveal something even worse: His utter lack of knowledge about Ukraine and the war.

At the center of this conflict, Witkoff said, is the fate of “these so-called four regions.” He made an attempt to list them, only to fail embarrassingly. 

“Donbas, Crimea…” he started. 

“Luhansk,” Carlson helpfully added. 

“Yes, Luhansk!” Witkoff said. “And two others.”

Neither of these two men who have strong opinions on Ukraine and Russia (and in the case of Witkoff — the power to dictate their futures) even know the names of the embattled regions of Ukraine that Russia has pronounced theirs. 

Here’s a primer for Witkoff and Carlson. The four regions they were trying to recall are: Donetsk Oblast, Luhansk Oblast, Zaporizhizhia Oblast, and Kherson Oblast. “Oblast” is a region. Like a state, but with less autonomy.

https://kyivindependent.com/editorial-what-steve-witkoff-doesnt-get-about-ukraine-and-russia/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SpankyMcFarland]

Even the way Witkoff talks about well-established oblasts as “so-called four regions” is gratuitously insulting to our side, the Ukrainian side. 

[SpankyMcFarland]

This does not sound like the action of an ally:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/12/us-demands-control-from-ukraine-of-key-pipeline-carrying-russian-gas