Ukraine Can't Win the War

[Nationalist]

12 minutes ago, User said:

Same old stupid BS.

You are the one supporting Russia in this war. You push their propaganda. You push the lies Putin pushes to justify it. 
 

Ukrainians will stop dying if Russia stops waging war against them. 

Of course they will...Enjoy your little war. It'll likely be the end of NATO.

[User]

59 minutes ago, Nationalist said:

Of course they will...Enjoy your little war. It'll likely be the end of NATO.

It’s not my war. I don’t enjoy the fact that Russia is waging this war at all.

You were the one cheering this on, and justifying it as you push propaganda as if you were Putin himself. 

[Nationalist]

27 minutes ago, User said:

It’s not my war. I don’t enjoy the fact that Russia is waging this war at all.

You were the one cheering this on, and justifying it as you push propaganda as if you were Putin himself. 

Cheering?

Pathetic and pedantic.

[User]

3 minutes ago, Nationalist said:

Cheering?

Pathetic and pedantic.

Yes, your behavior in cheering on Russia was pathetic.

 

[SpankyMcFarland]

Ukraine has achieved parity on the battlefield and turned a three day special military operation into an endless litany of desertions, dysentery and death for the invader. Meanwhile, Russia is running out of fuel as Ukraine destroys refineries and power plants across the country, drone sanctions having given the half-hearted efforts of the West much needed teeth. Inflation is out of control and workers are not being paid. This is more like 1917 than 1941. A foreign war has become a catastrophe for the tsars’ wretched successor and a coup is ever more likely. May it be soon.

[Scott75]

On 11/7/2025 at 9:14 AM, Nationalist said:

Its a well established tactic of Russian military. Encircle the enemy and squash them. Yet over and over, the Ukranian military falls for it.

There's been so much denial about this war that I have to wonder if it's all some strange expression of patriotism or just naivete. 

Victoria Neuland and Brandon had no business messing with Ukrainian politics. Well...they poked a bear, thinking the bear was toothless...and the bear bit them all in the ass.

With over a million dead and counting...I hope Neuland roasts in Hell for what she did. As for Brandon...he's already got one foot in his new inferno home.

Too many people are willing to completely ignore the cause of this debacle. Hopefully they are not any sort of managers in private life since, basic problem solving requires honest and indepth analysis of root causes. 

This war was over before it even started and it's fairly obvious Brandon knew it. He and his merry band of demons grossly underestimated Russian capabilities and the resolve of the Russian people.

Now Trump's trying to stop the slaughter. IMO the only way he can, is to cut Ukraine off completely. However that would pi55 the European war mongers off and relations would be further strained.

In the meantime...Ukraine is running out of men.

 

Yeah, as Professor Jeffrey Sachs says, Nuland is quite representative of the deep state. She started with Bush Jr. and went all the way up to the Biden Administration, wrecking the U.S. relationship with Russia during the entire trajectory. Here's the transcript of the start of an almost hour long interview with him and Professor John Mearsheimer:

**

University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs discuss why Republican Dick Cheney feels ideologically comfortable endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris during a conversation at the "All-In Summit" with David Sacks and the other hosts of the "All-In" podcast:

 

DAVID SACKS: Dick Cheney endorsed Kamala Harris for president. I think for people who see the world in partisan terms, this might have been surprising, but I don't think you guys were that surprised by that. Do you see an underlying logic to this?

JEFFREY SACHS: I think it is obvious that there is basically one deep state party and that is the party of Cheney, Harris, Biden, Victoria Nuland -- my colleague at Columbia University now.

[Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2021 to 2024] Nuland is kind of the face of this now because she has been in every administration for the last 30 years. She was in the Clinton administration wrecking our policy towards Russia in the 1990s, she was in the Bush Jr. administration with Cheney wrecking our policies towards NATO enlargement, she was then in the Obama administration as [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton's spokesperson, and then making a coup in Ukraine in February 2014 (not a great move), which started a war. And then she was Biden's undersecretary of state.

That's both parties, it is a colossal mess, and she has been Cheney's advisor, and she's been Biden's advisor.

It makes perfect sense. This is the reality. We're trying to find out if there's another party. That is the big question.

**

 

Full transcript, along with the video:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/09/16/sachs__mearsheimer_there_is_basically_one_deep_state_party_of_cheney_harris_biden_victoria_nuland.html

[Nationalist]

On 11/7/2025 at 11:51 PM, SpankyMcFarland said:

Ukraine has achieved parity on the battlefield and turned a three day special military operation into an endless litany of desertions, dysentery and death for the invader. Meanwhile, Russia is running out of fuel as Ukraine destroys refineries and power plants across the country, drone sanctions having given the half-hearted efforts of the West much needed teeth. Inflation is out of control and workers are not being paid. This is more like 1917 than 1941. A foreign war has become a catastrophe for the tsars’ wretched successor and a coup is ever more likely. May it be soon.

Russia is running out of fuel?

Hardly.

But this time the sanctions will work...right?

Meanwhile...Urban has Trump's blessing to buy Russian gas.

[User]

4 hours ago, Nationalist said:

Russia is running out of fuel?

Hardly.

Well, if you stopped ignoring anything bad for Russia... maybe you would know these things. 

Since Ukraine stepped up its drone attacks, going back to this summer, Russia has been struggling with fuel. They stopped exports:

Kremlin bans fuel exports until the end of the year as Russia’s supply is disrupted by Ukrainian drones

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/25/world/russia-export-fuel-ban-ukranian-drones-intl

"Russia is banning exports of fuel until the end of the year as gas pumps across the country and in the areas under its occupation are increasingly running dry because of Ukrainian drone attacks."

Analysis shows they are in fact being impacted:

The Slow Death of Russian Oil

Why Ukraine’s Campaign Against Moscow’s Energy Sector Is Working

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/slow-death-russian-oil

"Yet since August, when Ukraine began a concerted campaign to strike oil refineries deep inside Russia, fuel shortages have come to preoccupy Russians. "

[SpankyMcFarland]

Even if Putin were winning this war he would have faced a serious challenge when it ended and huge numbers of embittered young soldiers returned to Russia. As it is he can’t afford a compromise peace deal that highlights his criminal waste of blood and treasure. Militarily, Ukraine has extended the drone war right across the country; economically, his ability to sell oil is declining; politically, he faces public discontent, partisans and feuding clans in a hellishly corrupt government. He’s stuck on all three fronts and is being dragged slowly down.

Edited November 10, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[SpankyMcFarland]

On 11/9/2025 at 9:29 AM, Nationalist said:

Russia is running out of fuel?

Hardly.

But this time the sanctions will work...right?

Meanwhile...Urban has Trump's blessing to buy Russian gas.

This time ‘sanctions’ will work, yes, because Ukraine is in charge and means business with its drones and missiles, increasingly made at home and subject to no restrictions. New trade sanctions on India and China will help but Ukraine’s army does not depend on them. The world’s foremost experts in drone warfare now have the means to destroy Russia’s capacity to fuel its army. Sit back and enjoy the show. 
 

[John Stone]

On 2/25/2024 at 12:32 PM, Guest said:

"The long-awaited counteroffensive last year failed. Russia has recaptured Avdiivka, its biggest war gain in nine months. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced to quietly acknowledge the new military reality"

"The implication of Ukraine standing indefinitely on the defensive—even if it does so successfully—is that the territories currently occupied by Russia are lost. Russia will never agree at the negotiating table to surrender land that it has managed to hold on the battlefield."

With a looming US election and the realities on the battleground, one can't help but wonder why one would want to delay the inevitable any longer.

Strategically, what Ukraine would settle for and really what their realistic goal is at this juncture is an armistice. An armistice would end hostilities without a format peace treaty or recognition of Russia's claim to annexed Ukrainian territory. Of course Russia (Putin) does not want this type of settlement - the reason is that if he did agree to it after sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives he would literally be finished. Putin is fighting for survival as much as Ukraine. 

[Nationalist]

On 11/13/2025 at 2:58 PM, John Stone said:

Strategically, what Ukraine would settle for and really what their realistic goal is at this juncture is an armistice. An armistice would end hostilities without a format peace treaty or recognition of Russia's claim to annexed Ukrainian territory. Of course Russia (Putin) does not want this type of settlement - the reason is that if he did agree to it after sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives he would literally be finished. Putin is fighting for survival as much as Ukraine. 

This is probably true. Putin probably is under pressure to win this war. I wouldn't be surprised if most Russians would rather he level the country and be done with it. But that ain'-a-gonna happen. THIS probably will.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/russia-has-won-the-ukraine-war-and-defeated-nato/ar-AA1GdgFn

 

[User]

4 hours ago, Nationalist said:

This is probably true. Putin probably is under pressure to win this war. I wouldn't be surprised if most Russians would rather he level the country and be done with it. But that ain'-a-gonna happen. THIS probably will.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/russia-has-won-the-ukraine-war-and-defeated-nato/ar-AA1GdgFn

 

This is an opinion from 5 months ago. ROFL

[Scott75]

16 hours ago, Nationalist said:

This is probably true. Putin probably is under pressure to win this war. I wouldn't be surprised if most Russians would rather he level the country and be done with it. But that ain'-a-gonna happen. THIS probably will.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/russia-has-won-the-ukraine-war-and-defeated-nato/ar-AA1GdgFn

 

Good article. Another one I skimmed through and thought was quite good from just a few hours ago:

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-111625-overblown-energy-strikes

Simplicius' article ends with fairly extensive quoting of an article from the the Independent, this one:

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/europe/nato-war-russia-ukraine-soldiers-drones-b2863755.html

 

I'll quote the final lines from the above article:

**

Nato’s regular armed forces are rarely, if ever, trained how to treat themselves for long periods with antibiotics and intravenous drips.

And, above all, they are unprepared for the potential mass casualties that Nato forces would face in a conflict with Russia.

“We almost can’t comprehend the scale of those losses,” says Ed Arnold, a former British Army officer who is now with Rusi.

Gangrene among Ukrainian soldiers is commonplace because they are stuck on the front lines for so long. Britain’s biggest mobile field hospital has a capacity of only 80 general beds and 10 for intensive care.

In a Ukraine-type war where the UK, and Nato, can expect hundreds of casualties every day, the capacity to cope is just not there.

“We should have Ukrainians training [British officers] at Sandhurst (Royal Military Academy) at the moment,” adds Arnold.

“There should be a resident Ukrainian platoon, which regularly rotates, giving us the actual download on what’s going on.”

**

 

The final line from Simplicius' article:

**

Well, it seems the smart-alecks are finally wising up.

**

[SpankyMcFarland]

Putin’s get out of jail card remains Trump, now desperate for stories at home and abroad to distract from the Epstein scandal. His most recent ‘peace proposal’ could have been written entirely in Moscow. It was preposterous to have sent a house builder like Witkoff to negotiate for the West. 

Quote

The draft also included components that Russian diplomats have pushed and Ukrainian officials have previously rejected.

For example, the 28-point plan includes elements such as territorial concessions in areas not currently held by Russia, a limit on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces and a Ukrainian commitment in its constitution that it will not join NATO, the draft said. Reports emerged earlier this week that President Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff was working with Russia on the framework, which includes the Russian maximalist demands.

Witkoff has been working with Russian Special Envoy and the head of the Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund Kirill Dmitriev directly for many months and the two have remained engaged in crafting this new draft proposal, sources said.

As Europeans monitored reports that emerged on Tuesday that Witkoff had worked exclusively with Russian officials to develop the plan, some were on edge, according to six sources familiar with the matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/21/politics/trump-ukraine-peace-gaza-witkoff

Edited November 21, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[User]

40 minutes ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

 

Putin’s get out of jail card remains Trump, now desperate for stories at home and abroad to distract from the Epstein scandal. His most recent ‘peace proposal’ could have been written entirely in Moscow. It was preposterous to have sent a house builder like Witkoff to negotiate for the West. 

 

It helps if you read the whole thing, and not cherry pick out the parts you want to misrepresent to make your point.

”

Then on Wednesday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted that ending the war would require “an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas.” Rubio added that the Trump administration would continue “to develop a list of potential ideas” to end the Ukraine war, without saying any final proposal was being floated.

Some Europeans let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Yesterday nerves were up, today nerves are down,” said a diplomat based in Brussels on Thursday, explaining that Rubio’s tweet had appeared to chill the idea that a firm new deal was on the table that the US would be urging Ukraine to accept.”

[SpankyMcFarland]

2 hours ago, User said:

It helps if you read the whole thing, and not cherry pick out the parts you want to misrepresent to make your point.

”

Then on Wednesday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted that ending the war would require “an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas.” Rubio added that the Trump administration would continue “to develop a list of potential ideas” to end the Ukraine war, without saying any final proposal was being floated.

Some Europeans let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Yesterday nerves were up, today nerves are down,” said a diplomat based in Brussels on Thursday, explaining that Rubio’s tweet had appeared to chill the idea that a firm new deal was on the table that the US would be urging Ukraine to accept.”

Have I cherry-picked that a real estate developer has been sent to negotiate with the Russians with no effective input from Ukraine? Of course, I hope that sanity will prevail and people like Rubio will object but these outrageous Russian proposals should never have been discussed as a compromise in the first place. Let the Russians put them forward if they want to but don’t float them as something both sides can agree on. The mere suggestion of an agreement anything like this strengthens Putin’s hand in Russia and quietens his many enemies within and beyond the regime there. 

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[User]

19 minutes ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

Have I cherry-picked that a real estate developer has been sent to negotiate with the Russians with no effective input from Ukraine? Of course, I hope that sanity will prevail and people like Rubio will object but these outrageous Russian proposals should never have been discussed as a compromise in the first place. Let the Russians put them forward if they want to but don’t float them as something both sides can agree on. The mere suggestion of an agreement anything like this strengthens Putin’s hand in Russia and quietens his many enemies within and beyond the regime there. 

 

 

 

In any negotiation framework, both sides are going to have their demands… 

As was clearly stated, this is just the initial framework.

You are more obsessed with finding anything you can to twist to criticize Trump than fairly evaluating what is happening 

[SpankyMcFarland]

1 hour ago, User said:

In any negotiation framework, both sides are going to have their demands… 

As was clearly stated, this is just the initial framework.

You are more obsessed with finding anything you can to twist to criticize Trump than fairly evaluating what is happening 

This is just a dreadfully amateurish way to negotiate and I would say that if anybody did it. Witkoff is grotesquely unfit for this role. As should be clear to anybody reading these pages, I am concerned for Ukraine’s liberty. That is what concerns me here. If Trump secures that I will praise him. 

Edited November 21, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[User]

1 hour ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

This is just a dreadfully amateurish way to negotiate and I would say that if anybody did it. Witkoff is grotesquely unfit for this role. As should be clear to anybody reading these pages, I am concerned for Ukraine’s liberty. That is what concerns me here. If Trump secures that I will praise him. 

Your original comment above was a dreadfully amateurish way to describe what was happening… and now you are on to throwing more mud at the wall since that round failed. 

[SpankyMcFarland]

8 minutes ago, User said:

Your original comment above was a dreadfully amateurish way to describe what was happening… and now you are on to throwing more mud at the wall since that round failed. 

My original comment was correct. The proposal should never have been made. I can’t see how any friend of Ukraine can disagree with that. The fact that the US administration can’t present a united front should be worrying to everybody. Witkoff should be withdrawn. 

Edited November 21, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[User]

7 minutes ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

My original comment was correct. The proposal should never have been made. I can’t see how any friend of Ukraine can disagree with that. The fact that the US administration can’t present a united front should be worrying to everybody. Witkoff should be withdrawn. 

I already established the issues with your original comment, feel free to address those instead of just declaring yourself to be correct. 

[SpankyMcFarland]

Here is the American peace proposal. It contains multiple Russian demands on Ukraine’s territory, size of military and future NATO membership.

https://news.sky.com/story/trumps-28-point-ukraine-peace-plan-in-full-including-land-kyiv-must-hand-to-russia-and-when-elections-must-be-held-13473491

For a start, I can’t see how European nations could accept Putin or his representative at a G8 meeting. 

Compare the response of Zelenskyy and Putin:

Quote

As President Donald Trump pushes Ukraine and Russia to commit to a peace deal before Thanksgiving, both leaders suggested they would engage on it but signaled doubts it could succeed.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his country may face a difficult choice between losing its "dignity" or the support of its most important ally --presumably the United States, though Zelenskyy didn't mention by name -- as the Trump administration pressured Kyiv to accept the plan that would impose harsh concessions on Ukraine and that many Ukrainians fear would be effectively a capitulation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the deal, which Russia has helped develop and contains many of its key demands, could serve as a "basis" for a solution to the conflict, but accused Kyiv of being unwilling to accept it.

Here is the link for this story if you wish to read more about it.
 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/putin-zelenskyy-respond-trumps-peace-plan/story?id=127758454

 

And the European response:

https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-donald-trump-kaja-kallas-diplomat-ukraine-war-moscow-russia-peace/

And a response by Chancellor Merz:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/merz-peace-deal-ukraine-requires-154016770.html

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[User]

2 hours ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

Here is the American peace proposal. It contains multiple Russian demands on Ukraine’s territory, size of military and future NATO membership.

Yet again, this was a leaked framework to negotiate from, with the White House saying it was not final. 

 

[SpankyMcFarland]

2 hours ago, User said:

Yet again, this was a leaked framework to negotiate from, with the White House saying it was not final. 

 

The leaders of Europe are taking it seriously enough to respond to it publicly. Again, why does the US start with so many of Russia’s positions?