How Do You Say “Screwed the Pooch” In Ukrainian?
Yesterday morning I was composing a post in my head, to the effect that Zelensky had come to Washington to sign a deal that would give Trump the justification for continuing to provide US funds (and weapons) to Ukraine.
Then yesterday afternoon happened. Get me rewrite!
I won’t give the blow-by-blow. If you are reading this you’ve probably already seen several of those. So I’ll just give some reactions and analysis.
The basic conclusion: it was the most idiotic play I’ve ever seen by a national leader in public. Ever. I mean, screwed the pooch doesn’t even come close to describing it.
One administration person said “Zelensky didn’t read the room.” That’s totally wrong. Zelensky acted like he didn’t even know what fucking room he was in. He was in the American White House, with the American president and vice president, in public.
You don’t talk smack about someone in their house with the world watching. Especially is that someone is notoriously thin-skinned and not that well-disposed to you to begin with. (In fact, the bigger the asshole you consider Trump to be, the dumber Zelensky’s stunt has to look). And especially especially if that thin-skinned host holds your fate in his hands. And you don’t wrangle an invitation under false pretenses, as Zelensky did, by claiming that he was there to sign a deal.
Trump has one overriding objective: to stop the fighting. That’s not enough for Zelensky. He repeatedly emphasized that he wants total victory (meaning return of all territories lost since 2014) and security guarantees including Nato membership and US troops in Ukraine.
These things are not in his opportunity set. Not even within hailing distance of his opportunity set. Hell, you can’t see them with the James Webb telescope from where he is.
Zelensky kept emphasizing that Putin started it, that Putin is evil, etc., etc., etc. Which means absolutely fuck all even if totally true (which I believe it is).
In the real world–which Zelensky does not inhabit–cosmic justice is unattainable. Deals with the devil are frequently the best of bad alternatives. Half loaves are preferable to none.
This is why Trump repeatedly told Zelensky he didn’t have the cards to play. This is a home truth, and one that the administration has expressed repeatedly in private, but which Zelensky refuses to accept.
Zelensky and his European and American enablers remind me of the heads of belligerent governments in WWI. They all–all–believed the other side was evil, and was to blame for the war. As a result, they utterly refused to countenance anything but total victory. Though the rational thing to do once stalemate arrived on the western front in late-1914 would have been to negotiate an agreement that would have satisfied no one, they fought on and on and on.
Due to their obduracy, millions died and nations and empires collapsed. And that process and dying did not end in November 1918 or even in June 1919 at Versailles. It kinda sorta ended (but not completely) in May 1945.
What’s more, Zelensky wants a Versailles-like diktat imposed on Russia, including reparations. (He reacted enthusiastically to a question suggesting that Russia pay for the damage inflicted on Ukraine).
Putting aside the wisdom of such a diktat (didn’t work out well for the Allies post-1919, did it?), only a total victor is in a position to impose one. And there is no universe in which that is happening today.
So Zelensky came to DC under false pretenses to make impossible demands, threw a fit when he was told–at first very politely–that they were impossible, and kept up the fit until he made it necessary for first Vance and then Trump to smack him down. And even then he was rude–interrupting, calling Vance by his initials, rolling his eyes, crossing his arms in highly passive aggressive body language, etc.
Frankly, he got off lucky. Trump and Vance would have been perfectly justified in bitch slapping him silly.
Whatever capital he had had with this administration, he lit on fire. Marco Rubio, not a hot tempered type, was obviously furious and at the end of his rope:
I have never seen the man so amped up, let alone for 18 plus minutes straight.
Even Ukraine’s biggest fanboi is over him:
All of which is why this was the most self-destructive performance by a national leader that I have ever seen or read about in history. The only way to conclude that Zelensky behaved intelligently is to believe that he wants to self-destruct. Because that’s what he did.
Of course the Europeans immediately rallied to console him. “Oh poor boy! Were those brutes mean to you? Mommy is here for you!”
And maybe that’s Zelensky’s problem–he really believes that. Another reality that appears to escape him is that the Europeans are as useless as tits on a bull. (Ditto if he was playing to the US press, which was the biggest loser of the 2024 election).
Actually, they are worse. They feed his delusions.
Those Europeans-Macron and Starmer-who have pledged troops for Ukraine came to DC and made it plain that pledge would vanish without US troops on the ground. Which ain’t happening. I further note that even the European pie crust promises are conditional on a cease fire, which can only be obtained on terms that Zelensky has rejected.
Why are the Europeans so afraid that Trump is pushing for a cease fire that will not result in Russia’s total defeat? Looking at their public statements, it appears that they are afraid that if that does not happen, Putin will invade their welfare states and plant the Russian flag (or maybe the Soviet one!) on the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and the North Sea.
I’ve seen bedwetters before, but this takes the prize. If anything, the war in Ukraine should put such fears to rest, not stoke them. At most the war might say something about Putin’s dreams or intentions of conquest. But it clearly shows that his capabilities to pose any threat to Europe are completely lacking.
At best, Russia is able to make advances of a few kilometers here and there over a front of a couple of hundred clicks against an undermanned and under-firepowered foe. Advances on foot, mind you. Russia’s armor has been all but annihilated. Most of the front is inactive and static because the Russians cannot muster enough force to do anything except make very narrow advances.
And let’s not forget. If the Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered European nightmares of Soviet advances in 1944 and 1945, those advances were completely dependent on American trucks. Russia has no comparable logistic capabilities today.
Even at the beginning of this fiasco, Russian logistics were shambolic due in large part to very basic problems–like shoddy Chinese tires that blew out after minimal use on bad roads. And those were the glory days! Look now–Russians are using civilian cars and vans, including old Ladas, to transport troops and supplies to the front lines. They have even resorted to donkeys.
Note that the Russians cannot even sustain enough combat power to retake the Kursk bulge on Russian territory.
Fears of Russian military might were overstated in 2022. (Even the vaunted Battalion Tactical Groups–which were obliterated in short order–were optimized for defense; which is perhaps why they failed in the offense). Putin fooled the Europeans (and a lot of Americans) with Potemkin military “reforms.” Anyone who harbors such illusions now is beyond help.
Speaking of the Europeans, a European think tank estimated that it would cost ~$250 billion/year to replace America’s contribution to European defense. Thanks for that estimate of the amount by which we have been subsidizing those free riders for the past 8 decades.
The bottom line is this. Continuing the war in Ukraine is not in American interests. Ending the war is. The president of the United States has the responsibility of advancing American interests. By trying to end the war, even under conditions that do not achieve cosmic justice, and allow an evil actor to pocket some gains and live to be evil in the future, Trump is advancing American interests.
But if he succeeds, he is advancing Ukrainian interests too. Perhaps most of all. This war is destroying that nation and its people, and its continuation will only increase the destruction. Zelensky thinks that recovering blasted regions is in his nation’s interest, regardless of the cost. In that way, he is as much an enemy of the Ukrainian people as Putin.
But if he succeeds, he is advancing Ukrainian interests too.
Isn’t that for Ukrainians to determine? Now it may be that Zelenskyy is not representing them faithfully – I could well believe it – but Americans can’t possibly know what’s best for Ukraine. They’re not asking for soldiers, they’re asking for money and weapons. If the US doesn’t want to provide them – and I can see why they don’t – then the US is free to edit the arena. What they don’t get to do is exit the arena and then tell Ukrainians what they should do.
Comment by Tim Newman — March 1, 2025 @ 8:10 pm
I think you’re off-base on all your Russia-Ukraine posts.
Comment by John Hall — March 1, 2025 @ 8:27 pm
Here what I think is most likely to have happened.
1) Trump, in his infinite wisdom, has a while ago determined, that it is in the US interest (as in “L’État, c’est moi!”) to achieve a ceasfire at any cost (to Ukraine). His blocking of military aid for half a year during Biden administration was already part of the implementation.
2) Ukraine, like the esteemed Professor, has determined, that the Russian army is at its weakest currently, but it won’t be in a few years, if Trump’s ceasefire allows Putin to rearm for a coup de grace while Ukraine won’t be able to match it for various reasons, not least Trump’s desire to return to business as usual with Putin.
3) The shitshow at the White House was a setup, made easier for Trump by Zelensky’s inability to communicate effectively in English.
Comment by Ivan — March 2, 2025 @ 1:26 am
Couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My jaw hit the floor.
The reactions, especially of the Europeans, remind me of Covid: people in leadership positions openly panicking and talking themselves into hysteria when what is called for is calm consideration, and ending up committing to self-defeating and irrational positions which they will defend with increasingly shrill and moralising rhetoric the more that irrationality is exposed. They’re treating the loss to Russia as something like the end of the world, when really it’s just the end of a stupid and ill-conceived adventure in NATO expansion, and the world on the other side of recognising this loss will look much like the one we live in now, except our side will have to do a lot of soul-searching as they emerge from their psychosis and delusions of grandeur, and adjust their expectations and dreams down to the level of their capabilities.
Having talked themselves into the ‘Putin is evil, to the last man and the last dollar’ corner, many are having a hard time exiting that corner. Some don’t realise the ground has shifted beneath them and a new strategic reality now exists. For example, here in Australia, both the PM and the opposition leader are both repeating the ‘We stand with Ukraine’ trope, an implicit criticism of Trump, even as a Chinese flotilla circumnavigates our island-continent, and despite the fact that a US re-balance from Europe to Asia would be strongly in our interests – it sure as hell won’t be the Ukrainian navy that will come help us chase the PLAN out of our waters.
For those who want to see how a press conference in the Oval Office ought to be conducted, even when the principals clearly disagree about serious topics, see Macron’s presser with Trump held some days before the one with Zelenskyy. Like a jazz improv, long and serious preparation beforehand means the principals can sparkle with informality and spontaneity; even the translator’s reading her own pen-written notes off a pad of paper is full of charm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmL0g7PNsmc
Lastly: I remember in some long miniseries about the Civil War, towards the end of the series, two columns of troopers were lined up for a final battle, when a dispatch rider rushed in and gave the Union officer a letter announcing the end of the war. Before sharing it with the Confederate commander, he said with joyous relief ‘It’s over. Thank God it’s over’. I can’t wait for the day the same is said all along the front in Ukraine, and the killing comes to an end.
Comment by Ex-Global Super-Regulator on Lunch Break — March 2, 2025 @ 3:11 am
I guess we all saw what we wanted to see. Personally I thought Zelenskyy acquitted himself superbly even given the language barrier. The man obviously doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and man, that room was stuffed full of them.
The nub of the issue which set the whole thing was the absence of specific security guarantees, and Trump’s “assurance” that they weren’t necessary i.e. Putin would keep his word while he was in power (worth every penny of the paper it was written on). Zelenskyy diplomatically pointed out that Russia has been violating agreements for over a decade i.e. during Trump’s first term. And when that journalist specifically asked about this, Trump’s response was to revert to type and reel off a stream of his petty grievances – positively statesmanlike (not). Shame someone didn’t ask if he was so sure Putin could be trusted, why then did he authorise military support to Ukraine during his last spell in office?
As for Rubio, I’ve read that he was deeply embarrassed by Trump’s & Vance’s histrionics. Well, you sold your soul, Marco, expect consequences. Same goes for Graham.
@John Hall: Nope, this is positively on base for Craig nowadays, in this cowardly new world.
Comment by David Mercer — March 2, 2025 @ 4:24 am
Russia hasn’t done too badly in this war. Up against the best technology that the USA has to offer, including Starlink natch, and being outspent by a factor of ten or more, Russia has easily beat off every Ukrainian offensive and even made some gains.
Don’t be fooled that the Ukrainians are fighting the war. They are merely the cannon fodder while the real killing is done by American weapons.
Comment by Michael van der Riet — March 2, 2025 @ 4:46 am
All Zelensky had to do was to keep his mouth shut. Sign the mineral deal and let Trump talk to Putin and his pet tarantula. Russians would likely be unwilling to cede an inch from their maximalist demands, show themselves to be an obstacle to any genuine peace agreement and Trump would line up more powerfully behind Ukraine. But no, Zelensky had to grandstand.
The man showed more balls than any of the wannabe “leaders” we are cursed with in Europe, when hunted by Specnaz kill teams in the early days of the war, refusing to run away and standing his ground. His example was critical for the troops and people to rally. He lead by example. But three years later, he could not do more harm to Ukraine if he was paid by SVR.
I hope he resigns, but given his unwillingness to even apologize for his outright insult towards Vice President of the US, he would have to be forced to do so by his own people.
Comment by deith — March 2, 2025 @ 5:18 am
@ deith: “Trump would line up more powerfully behind Ukraine” How so, exactly? Trump has been timid at best when confronting Russia militarily – recall in Syria in 2017 at the lengths the US forces were instructed to go to prevent antagonising Russia.
As for Vance, does he have a thin skin, or an ulterior motive, feigning insult to serve this purpose? I thought he was a man’s man, or are all ‘American folk’ this fey?
Comment by David Mercer — March 2, 2025 @ 6:49 am
Mark Steyn: “The Beltway rumour is that, on his flight to DC, Zelenskyyyy was telephoned by Victoria Nuland, She-Wolf of the Donbass, plus Susan Rice and Anthony Blinken and advised to get tough with Trump.”
I also saw mentions of Vindman (yes, the “Russian collusion” hoax Vindman!)
Comment by Tatyana — March 2, 2025 @ 9:12 am
You’re blind or naive if this is what you think transpired. Watch the tape again.
Trump and Velensky were getting on fine – the mood was even cordial – Trump seemed happy, Velensky seemed happy. For example Trump defended Velensky’s dress code with “actually I like the way you’re dressed” after the inane question from MTG’s idiot boyfriend.
Trump wanted “a deal” and Velensky wanted a deal and the meeting was concluding exactly as you’d hope and expect. The “deal” is actually a completely innocent and fair memorandum which would have provided some US oversight during reconstruction. Signing it would have allowed both to walk away happy.
But it’s clear this is NOT what JD Vance wanted and he jumped into the conversation, uninvited and for no reason at all and clearly deliberately sabotaged the opportunity for a sensible conclusion to the meeting. He insults Velensky by repeating a bunch of Russian propaganda, Velensky tries to respond and of course the temperature rises. It’s ONLY after Vance starts shouting for a while that Trump gets heated before it descends into a shouting match.
Wtf was Vance doing there anyway, it’s the office of the president? This guy was a political nobody groomed and funded into the VP spot by Peter Thiel – the same Peter Thiel who has declared that democracy and freedom are incompatible. Thiel is the guy who go the rest of the tech bros onside. This guys believes that any sort of restraint on billionaire “freedoms” are an offense – hence his dismissal of the notion of democracy. For him, Russian society represents the ideal – a country of oligarchs – subject to no restraints and lead by a strong figure. Trump is but a figurehead, the real story is that ordinary decent patriotic Americans have been fooled into supporting an agenda to establish an oligarchy.
When Russians are gloating and gleeful about what’s going on in the US, you can be sure that they see the US is being weakened. “Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the foreign policy alignment of the U.S. administration largely mirrors that of Moscow. The new (U.S.) administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision, Peskov said”.
Comment by derriz — March 2, 2025 @ 10:10 am
Note how Macron had publicly called bullshit in the same sacred Oh-val Office on the same supposedly “thin-skinned” Trump’s statements about “Europe getting its money back”, with no tantrum at all. I would be very much surprised if I could somehow learn the TV show was not premeditated.
Comment by Ivan — March 2, 2025 @ 10:27 am
Jesus wept, there are some serious buffoons in this thread. Mercer I expected, since he’s wrong about almost everything, but the rest of them take the cake.
Comment by Christopher L Hunt — March 2, 2025 @ 11:10 am
A few observations about that Rubio interview:
– He didn’t seem to have any objections to Russia making its own maximalist demands during their meet in Saudi
-Its evident the door is still very much open to Ukraine
– Still no elaboration on how the US intends to protect any economic interests they secure in Ukraine (will they be unconcerned what happens beyond the mines and transport routes out of the country, like China in Africa?)
– Was he really that amped? He seemed relatively level to me
Comment by David Mercer — March 2, 2025 @ 12:16 pm
I’ve just started reading a book by a historian, one Perry Anderson, about the historiography of the Great War. Chapter two, which I’ve not finished yet, contains lots of stuff I didn’t know concerning Italy.
I recommend lots of people read that agonising account of fools and scoundrels sacrificing young men for no sensible, coherent reason justifiable by the national interest.
I admit that Anderson is clearly a lefty but even so – ugh!
(The great merit of reading about Italy and the Great War is that many people will be able to read it without getting worked up in the way that they might become reading about France, or Britain, or the US, or The German Empire, or the Austro-Hungarian, or the Russian, or even the Ottoman.)
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/disputing-disaster-perry-anderson-review
My point is, of course, that I suspect we should see Sir Kleir Squirmer, M. Micron, et al in the light of Italy in 1915.
Comment by dearieme — March 2, 2025 @ 4:26 pm
“Thanks for that estimate of the amount by which we have been subsidizing those free riders for the past 8 decades”
Don’t be silly. Trump went along with US military spending in Europe (albeit unhappily), Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, all of them… What do you think caused that? Was EVERY single US President somehow oblivious to the fact that the US was being fleeced? This is nothing more than a cheap re-writing of history. If the US was spending so much money, for so long, then either it was worth it to them, or the last 8 decades of US administration has been monumentally incompetent. While I agree that it is absolutely ridiculous that Europe relies on US protection, it is dishonest to pretend that the US is doing so just out of the kindness of their hearts. It was obviously worth it.
I also agree with other commenters that it’s not only Trump who is playing a clever game here. The US has been a fairly tepid supporter of Ukraine since war broke out. Fair enough, as the Prof pointed out beforehand, it is not in US interests to die for Donbass. But the US has also held back certain European support, either explicitly (e.g. Gripens) or implicitly (i.e. European states are weak because of choices both they and the US made together). By pressing the US to either provide more support or to bow out, we see now that Zelensky has forced European leaders to step up, and to do so while Russia is at its weakest in decades. Maybe that’s a losing move due to European military weakness, but it looks more reliable to me than agreeing to the minerals deal and hoping that now the US has an economic interest that they’ll maybe-kinda-sorta decide to provide more capable weapons, since the US might equally decide to just forego the minerals and leave the war where it is – to the present and future detriment of Ukraine (since anybody who thinks Russia won’t come back soon for another bite clearly hasn’t been paying attention).
Comment by HibernoFrog — March 3, 2025 @ 3:04 am
The amusing thing about the minerals deal is the US has no companies which could actually mine and process the minerals. The US just isn’t in this space, their mining is mostly coal, silica, gold and copper. The companies that are in this space are South African, French, Canadian and Australian. Oh, and Chinese.
What’s less amusing is I don’t know if Trump even knows this. The people cheering him on and promoting the merits of the proposal certainly don’t.
Comment by Tim Newman — March 3, 2025 @ 7:15 am
“and hoping that now the US has an economic interest that they’ll maybe-kinda-sorta decide”
All this while the Trump administration is unabashedly signalling Ukraine is but a mere inconvenience standing in the way of pursuing “great opportunities” with Russia. All with the history of bilateral relations ranging from “you fucked up: you trusted us” on the Budapest Memorandum to establishing diplomatic relations with the Stalin’s Russia just as it was wrapping up the Holodomor in Ukraine.
That not a single Ukrainian politician has called for Trump to resign just shows the enormous gratitude and respect Ukrainians feel for the American people despite their screwing the pooch in the latest presidential election.
Comment by Ivan — March 3, 2025 @ 1:00 pm
I’m a cynic. I assume the US military and State department are too.
They have successfully degraded Russia’s ability to wage war for the next five to ten years, tested some new kit, made Sevastopol an unusable navy base.
Job done, so they want out.
Comment by philip — March 4, 2025 @ 6:27 pm
Interesting comments on WW1. I always wondered why Germany did not pocket its winnings after knocking Russia out of the war and gaining a massive amount of territory. I think the hardest thing to do for political leaders is to make rational negotiation decisions after a lot of blood has been spilled. Still, Germany would well be the world dominant power if they had done that in 1917.
Comment by Scott Irwin — March 5, 2025 @ 1:41 pm
1) the whole thing was going just fine, until 40 minutes into the deal, a Polish reporter put a question to Vance, to which Vance responded (phrased generally) – “that’s why we’re engaging in diplomacy”
that’s when Zelensky jumped in – “what diplomacy” – and began reciting – what – everyone – already – knows – the Kremlinoids don’t honor agreements, and there is no security provided at this point in the minerals agreement, etc.
2) why did he do that? Because, as SWP pointed out, Zelensky is right about the Kremlinoids violating agreements and invading countries. And because, prior to the meeting, he had met with Dems who told him that he could buffalo Trump in front of cameras to get a “security” deal.
Big mistake
3) Because the mineral agreement does NOTHING except act as an agreement to negotiate another agreement – the Fund Agreement.
Here is the full text of the mineral agreement – it does use the word security, but that amounts to nothing
https://www.eurointegration.com.ua/eng/articles/2025/02/26/7205922/
Note the following —
The completion of negotiations was officially announced on Wednesday by Denys Shmyhal, Ukrainian Prime Minister, who also mentioned that the agreement with the US includes Ukraine’s key condition to include a reference to security guarantees in the deal.
The main legal obligation for Ukraine is to begin negotiations with the US on a more detailed agreement that will regulate the activities of the “Reconstruction Investment Fund” – a bilateral structure to be created by Ukraine and the US.
4) Zelensky and the Ukrainians failed to grasp that this was only a very preliminary step in getting to negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, with Trump acting as mediator
The US met separately with Russia in a 3 on 3 meeting in Saudi Arabia- 40 minutes – with Sec. of State Rubio plus 2 on the US side, and with Mr. Crocodile, Lavrov, plus 2 on the Russian side.
At that meeting, Sec. Rubio asked whether Russia would do a cease fire – to which Lavrov responded – NYET!!!!
Afterwards, Putler released a statement that nothing was discussed about Ukraine, only “better relations between the US and Russia.”
In other words – nothing.
5) at this point, as President Trump announced in his speech to Congress, everything’s been patched up with Ukraine, and the minerals agreement will be signed very, very soon
6) yep – the Dems are trying to torpedo everything that Trump does, and Zelensky, who had been dealing with the Dems – of necessity – fell for it.
Plus – a bit of misunderstanding on Zelensky’s part about where this fits in for getting to a negotiation, and understandable panic about the security of Ukraine, given that Kremlinoids DO NOT NEGOTIATE, AND THEY BREAK EVERY AGREEMENT THAT THEY ENTER INTO
7) yep -= a mistake on Zelensky’s part, but all in all, it looks like the US-Ukraine deal is moving forward – as part of a step towards negotiations.
Comment by elmer — March 5, 2025 @ 9:43 pm
A Russian missile slammed into a hotel hosting British and American aid workers in Volodymyr Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rih late last night.
At least four people were killed and 31 injured as the Iskander ballistic projectile erupted in a large, orange fireball at the moment of impact.
A flurry of other shocking clips showed how emergency responders were pulling limp bodies from the rubble as the roof and facade of Kryvyi Rih’s ‘Central Hotel’ completely caved in.
The strike came hours after the US suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine as Donald Trump seeks to force Zelensky into signing an exploitative minerals deal with Washington and enter peace talks with Russia.
Without US intelligence, Ukraine’s capacity to track and shoot down Russian missiles and drones is likely to be significantly diminished, not to mention its ability to deploy Western missiles on key targets.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14467777/Moment-Putin-missile-slams-five-storey-Ukrainian-hotel-hosting-Brit-American-humanitarian-workers-hours-Trump-suspends-intelligence-sharing-Kyiv.html
Comment by elmer — March 6, 2025 @ 9:08 am
A top Russian state television presenter known as Vladimir Putin’s ‘Iron Doll’ is revelling in Donald Trump’s decision not to set any conditions on Russia for peace in Ukraine.
Olga Skabeyeva, a TV host who once threatened to nuke Downing Street, made the shocking comments on Telegram in response to Andrii Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, saying that Russia could stop the war at any time by ceasing its attacks on Ukraine.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14467835/Putins-iron-doll-threatened-NUKE-Downing-Street-delights-Trump-not-setting-conditions-Russia-forcing-Kyiv-compromise-Ukraine-peace-deal.html
Comment by elmer — March 6, 2025 @ 9:09 am
At The Conservative Treehouse today (Mar 6) they said it is evident the US Intelligence community was engaging in a proxy war vs Russia. In another post there, Marco Rubio said as much.
Ukraine could not target deep into Russia sites with drones without US cooperation. It is speculated US Special Forces were doing the targeting and operation of those drones.
Comment by Jeff Carter (@pointsnfigures1) — March 6, 2025 @ 9:22 am
Now that Rubio’s role has been reduced to repeating Lavrov’s talking points, maybe it’s time DOGE eliminated his clearly redundant position and returned the money to the American taxpayers.
Comment by Ivan — March 6, 2025 @ 10:48 pm
Maybe the circus at the Oval office was even part of a “deal” Trump negotiated with Putin.
It went something like:
“You must understand me, Donald: I can’t have a ceasefire while a part of Russia is under Ukrainian occupation. All you need to do is withold intelligence for a while. You can invent the pretext on your own”.
Then it would make sense for Trump to literally repeat as he did Putin’s disinformation about encerclement of Ukrainian troops. He’s reminding Putin he’s kept his part of the deal. And if course Putin, having gotten something for nothing, will keep telling how he is ready to honor his side of the deal, but … , as long as Trump’s ego prevents him from admitting he has been conned.
Comment by Ivan — March 16, 2025 @ 3:14 am