It is difficult to assemble a coalition of the willing to keep or enforce a peace which has not yet been negotiated. So far 25 countries including some outside Europe have been willing to talk, but there has been less clarity about how much money and or how many troops they would each contribute to peace keeping.
Meanwhile the possibility of peace rests on the talks between the US and Russia and the US and Ukraine. Russia has made additional demands to the outline agreement the US has persuaded Ukraine to accept in principle. One of those is no troops from NATO countries to be in any peace keeping force in Ukraine. It has already been accepted that Ukraine will not join NATO.
It is possible Russia could give up this demand but unlikely. It makes NATO countries planning a peacekeeping force premature. It is a very long potential border between Ukraine and Russia, so it would need a large force if the idea is soldiers patrolling a neutral area along the border.
Little is clear about this proposal, save the important point that the European countries of NATO have no power to commit NATO and have no intention of sending any personnel in to help fight the current war. The EU is struggling to increase armament supply to Ukraine to replace the US resources.
March 16, 2025
The first Rule of War: don’t pick fights with people who can and will beat you.
Most of us learned that in kindergarten.
March 16, 2025
The second Rule: speak softly, but carry a large stick ….. to deter potential aggressors.
Two-Tier is doing the exact opposite.
March 16, 2025
So let the bullies step on your toes and say ‘Thank you very much’! Is that the British way?
March 16, 2025
It was Russia that picked the fight, and everyone said they would win within days.
March 16, 2025
You believe Ukraine picked this fight?
March 16, 2025
I don’t ‘believe’, I know.
March 16, 2025
Indeed if you are certainly going to lose anyway then is it better to lose now or after 3 years or six years of losing on the battlefield?
Just listened to Stella Creasy on Choppers Politics, she read Social and Political Sciences (Magdalene Camb.) then a PhD (LSE) with a thesis titled “Understanding the lifeworld of social exclusion”.
In the podcast Stella demonstrated that she can talk quite quickly & yet she said nothing even remotely rational and several moronic things. Not a single milligram of ability to think logically. Followed by some sense from Sir David Davis if you get bored with her.
March 16, 2025
Depending on the point of view, the ‘fight picker’ could be Russia, Ukraine, the US, the EU, NATO or the UK, in various combinations.
March 16, 2025
Judge Judy ”who threw the first punch”
March 16, 2025
Who killed 14,000 Ukrainian civilians?
March 16, 2025
Indeed.
March 16, 2025
Should a 30 day ceasfire be agreed leading to negotiations for a permanent one, I would leave it to the Ukrainians to provide the boots on the ground.
I would back it with geostrationary satalite surveillance for real time intelligence. Drones for close up realtime views of specifics, backed by AWACS and fighter cover if necessary. All of this feeding to the Ukrainian boots on the ground to oppose any violations.
I would feed selected intelligence to the world media to ensure that the propaganda war was under control. At the same time applying leaverage to Putin’s very existence that encouraged his compliance to any agreement struck.
See how all the above worked out, modifying as circumstances demanded. Make it abundantly clear to Putin that there was a big stick just outside Ukraine should he abuse the agreement.
March 16, 2025
But what if the Kiev forces commit the violations, Agricola, as they did in 2015 onwards? How could they also be a ‘peacekeeping force’?
March 16, 2025
Putin knows that without NATO troops there can be no peacekeeping force. The countries of Africa and Asia are unlikely to join The UN which has been captured by Russia and China won’t be able to muster a force.
Let’s face it, Putin doesn’t really want peace whilst he’s gaining ground. America and Europe won’t supply Ukraine with enough hardware to make a difference.
It’s going to be a war of attrition ending in stalemate.
Any ceasefire will just be a window for Russia to rearm and regroup. Putin wants nothing less than total capitulation by Kyev.
March 16, 2025
@Ian Wragg. NATO countries have been supplying “hardware” (and intel, starlink and missile expertise) for 3 years. Every few months some new weapon was going to be a “game changer”. It wasn’t. More Ukranians and Russians died. More hardware = more of the same.
If you believe Ukraine is worth defending in its own right I disagree. Few Brits can even point at it on a map. It’s been under Russian/ottoman domination for centuries. If you believe Ukraine is a first step in Russian expansion across the west, I also disagree. Its not a re-run of the 1930s, in my opinion.
March 16, 2025
Keir Starmer stretched too far in offering Ukraine troops to keep peace there, supported with planes in the air. That risks creating direct battle between UK & Russia.
Acting as a supplier or donor to provide Ukraine with adequate advanced intelligence and weaponry to defend itself would have been better, had it been done early enough. Then drones or more selective technology may have prevented the danger without troops fighting face to face on the battlefield.
As in chess, knights can move in powerful ways, but the victor is the one who plans most moves ahead. Starmer plays it like a slogging match, thinking gaining one piece wins peace.
March 16, 2025
Wars don’t end in stalemate. You are totally unprepared for the decisive result. So is Stammer and the EU.
March 16, 2025
President Putin had sold his Ukraine action to the Russian people (and others) as a special military operation to protect the Ukrainian people. According to analyses by the Royal United Services Institute, the operation should have been achieved in ten days, Kyiv should have fallen within a couple of days, the government should have been captured or killed, and a new regime/administration installed during that time.
More than three years later the situation is stuck, Russia occupies 20% of Ukraine, but Putin’s initial objectives have not been fulfilled despite hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides.
To pretend as some do it repeatedly on this blog that Putin’s actions have just to be accepted is rather curious. Would those have opposed PM Thatcher going to the Falklands?
March 16, 2025
No, Hefner, he presented it as an operation to protect the Russian-speaking people in Eastern Ukraine. That has largely been achieved. They have become part of Russia, and Kiev’s army no longer shells their civilians regularly as it did before. This war has not been about territory anyway, but about removing a vicious ultra-right regime that imprisons journalists and opposition leaders, and whose partisans sport neo-nazi symbols. (Your friends, apparently.) Now with the Kursk debacle, the regime’s demise will not take much longer, I would say. Especially now that Trump sees Zelensky as an obstacle to peace, and Putin as a partner he can work with.
March 16, 2025
Poland has said it needs all its troops to defend Poland. Probably any country with a Russian border thinks the same way. Any force is likely to be more symbolic than practical. Cash and weapons would be more useful. The only NATO country with a large army is Turkey. It might commit a large number but whether Ukraine would welcome them is another matter; the Crimea and much of Ukraine was once part of the Ottoman empire.
March 16, 2025
Cash and weapons have not been much use for 3 years. Plenty of both.
The resources of the west (including USA) and their personnel providing aiming information, handling the missiles and plenty of NATO troops on the ground under a false flag (Ukraine) have not helped so far.
Why does Stammer and Micron think they can beat Russia without the USA, no weapons and economies which are a hairsbreadth from bankruptcy?
Ukraine had a standing army of 700,000 professional soldiers 3 years ago. You think 10,000 British troops will be able to fill that gap?
March 16, 2025
Has anyone asked the people in Donbas or Crimia what they want ?
They were happy to be in Ukriane until the EU/ USA (under Bindin) overthrow the Government they voted for which had close ties to Russia.
Almost All European (in UK) politicians, and political commentators, ignore this basic fact so they can support a proxy war with Russia as a matter of tradition rather than logical thinking.
We are only funding the killing Ukraines and Russians. Perhaps that helps in support of the war. The justifications is that Russia invaded Ukraine which is also a fact. But did they do this just to gain more land or stop the Ukrainian Goverment shelling its own people in a Civil War?
We can add that the USSR took Crimea away from Russia in 1954. Was this a thing the people of Crimea wanted ?
March 16, 2025
@John McDonald – ‘Has anyone asked the people in Donbas or Crimia what they want ?’ That would be democracy the EU and the UK don’t do democracy, they do personal ego and grandstanding
March 16, 2025
The European countries should keep out of this now, and not create an EUNATO equivalent that is just as destabilising as an expansionist NATO. Britain should stay well clear of a re-arming Europe led by megalomaniacs in Brussels who support cancelling elections and changing elected regimes in their member states.
As for peacekeeping troops, none would be needed if the former belligerents genuinely want peace. I think the problem will be Ukranians, not Russians. They were in a civil war before Russia lost patience and invaded. I think peacekeepers will be needed only in the zones bordering the separatist areas, if the Kiev regime genuinely wants peace and has control of its armed forces. Obviously NATO troops are a non-starter in the role.
March 16, 2025
Quite so. The EU is a German led imperialist, anti-democratic and expansionist empire. As Gorbachev said, it is re-creating the USSR, not in Russia but in Europe. It should be disbanded and Europe should be re-structured as independent sovereign states loosely allied in a similar way to the CPTPP.
March 16, 2025
Apparently the EU has now caught up with the US by discovering its own “manifest destiny”:
https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/blogs/building-an-inclusive-and-growth-led-economy-and-society/the-signs-that-the-eu-has-completely-changed-its-perspective-on-adding-new-members-since-russia-invaded-ukraine
“Von der Leyen’s words on the “call of history” to expand the EU due to geopolitical imperatives”
March 16, 2025
+1
March 16, 2025
Bulls Eye!
March 16, 2025
European countries can’t stay out of this. Russia maintains a hostile stance with the west, with thousands of nuclear missiles intended to come in our direction, some of which might actually work. They continue to test our air defences with bombers, conduct assassinations in our country and cyber attacks on our infrastructure.
One hopes that perhaps one day the leadership of Russia might actually get a life.
March 16, 2025
Trump should throw the EU to the wolves. Let’s face it the EU elite despise Trump more than they do Putin. The enemy is in London, Brussels, Paris and Moscow.
March 16, 2025
@DOM +1. The threat to our freedom in Britain and Europe is internal, not external.
March 16, 2025
There will not be peace unless and until Russia and the US reach a settlement on the question of Ukraine. When the WP and USSR fell apart Ukraine wanted to be independent, to act as a neutral buffer between Russia and Western Europe. Merkel told it neutrality was not an option, it muct choose either Russia or the EU. In late 2021 and early Germany declined to send anything to assist Ukraine apart from money, blankets and helmets. It agreed to send arms on 27 Feb 2022 on condition Zelensky signed over the future sovereignty of Ukraine to the EU. The EU wants control of Ukraine’s vast reserves of critical minerals for Green Energy – Ukrainian lives for the lunacy of Energiewende and EU Green Energy.
BTW Ukraine was never part of the Ottoman Empire. A small part of Ukraine was, including the Khanate of Crimea. However, much of Ukraine had been ruled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then Poland. Ukraine’s history is complex, it only recently became a unified country.
Germany occupied it and exploited it ruthlessly in WW1 until thrown out by the Treaty of Versailles. It did so again in WW2 and the Ukrainian Nazis did much of the work for the Nazi cause in Ukraine for the German occupiers, leading to the massacre by the Nazis of over 100,000 people, nearly all Jews, in a ravine called Babi Yar, near Kiev, in September 1941, 34,000 of them in the two days around Yom Kippur.
Make the EU pay and make the EU put its own people’s lives on the line.
March 16, 2025
@ OF
Stalin starved Ukraine (aka the breadbasket of Europe) in the 1930 after forcing them to give up family farms into Collectives. Millions starved but Stalin regarded them as slaves.
Unsurprisingly they were in a similar situation to Poland but with Stalin the aggressor not Hitler. Unsurprisingly they thought they would be better off only to be squeezed between them both.
Nothing is ever straightforward and simple.
Putin’s childhood memories of hearing Nazis starving Leningrad WW2 and he still thinks he is taking revenge on Nazis but Ukraine remembers Stalin and Communist Russia from the 1930s and unsurprisingly again wants out of it and freedom.
March 16, 2025
@Peter G
March 16, 2025
What do you mean, UKRET 123? Ukraine got out of the Soviet Union 35 years ago. Where we are now, there are Russian speakers who want to get out, or stay out, of Ukraine, because they know what it has done to them more recently. That is how this war began, never mind Stalin and WW2.
There’s been too much replaying the past in how we view this conflict: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill etc. At least Trump is trying to deal with how things are at present.
March 16, 2025
One must be very careful before believing war propaganda coming from the Russians. Their latest lies claim Ukraine troops are “surrounded” in the Kursk salient, which Russian milbloggers and Ukrainian officials continue to deny.
Starmer noted yesterday that the war criminal Putin is attempting to delay discussion of the US-Ukrainian 30-day ceasefire proposal by spreading these claims.
Putin clearly has no intention of agreeing to any ceasefire. Last night he was bombing a hospital in Zolochiv, Kharkiv Oblast with drones – this was a “double tap” attack where a second attack took place an hour later, designed to kill first-responders. Source;
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-15-2025
Starmer is understandably being cautious about who is in his “coalition of the willing” but the following countries have expressed willingness to provide boots on the ground; France, Türkiye, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Spain, Australia, Canada, Italy and the new German government have not ruled out sending troops
March 16, 2025
But why should we believe any propaganda coming out of Ukraine?
March 16, 2025
One must also be very careful before believing the propaganda coming from the EU and UK.
March 16, 2025
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine officially acknowledged the fact of the liberation of Sudzha in the Kursk region by the Russian military.
The rump of the Elite Ukrainian forces are surrounded in pockets, and Trump is begging for their lives. Putin says if they surrender they will be spared (and tried for the crimes committed against the Russian civilian population – many so horrific the cannot be discussed publicly – but there is film).
Mr Cold runs true to form. 100% wrong.
March 16, 2025
‘Sending troops’… and sending lots of body bags, SG?
March 16, 2025
You are right in your implied criticism of Starmer’s current stance on this, which amounts to little more than grandstanding. I hope he isn’t implying that the UK will send troops to do ‘peacekeeping’ of some sort, even if other countries do not. I suspect most UK people would prefer him to devote as much time to UK border security, but his words on that ring hollow too. ‘Looking into how other countries operate better than us but still subject to ECHR membership’ is pure hot air and will do nothing to stem the flow of cross channel migrants. Talking of which – the weather is improving and soon up to 1000 new arrivals per day will not be surprising.
March 16, 2025
Indeed the only deterrent is the weather. Starmer has arranged warm hotels, food, phones, driving lessons, tennis lessons, free money, bicycles… funded in part by the removal of even poor pensioners fuel allowances! Sound very fair Starmer and Reeves.
March 16, 2025
@MPC Starmer’s grandstanding on the Ukraine issue is to deflect attention from his disastrous domestic policies, including the open sea border.
The same motive applies to the EU leaders’ responses too. Covid’s over, climate fear is diminishing…people might start thinking about how their nations are being run!
March 16, 2025
How can a combatant be part of a ‘peacekeeping’ force?
Many British military personnel and one ex-Conservative MP have openly gone to fight.
March 16, 2025
India is nearer to Russia than the UK and has a population of 1.4 billion with an active army of 1.4 million. That would be a large peacekeeping force. However, India is on the side of peace and stays out of it.
March 16, 2025
“It is possible Russia could give up this demand but unlikely. It makes NATO countries planning a peacekeeping force premature.”
Yes, but it allows Two-Tier to posture; play at being Churchill; pretend to be a patriot; demonstrate to those awful Brexit voters that we need to remain close to (ie rejoin) the EU; distracts the gullible from the destruction Labour is carrying out in the UK ….. and it gives him plenty of opportunities to fly around the world pretending to have the status of Global Statesman.
And that’s what it’s really about. His coalition of the willing (with their Toy Town armies and no munitions) depends on American security guarantees …. which won’t be forthcoming. And that’s his get-out clause.
March 16, 2025
Little is clear yet – however it’s time now for European countries and others to crack on and devise a defence mechanism for us all otherwise this aggression coming from the East will continue. Sooner of later we’re going to have to face up to the danger and as we now know America may not ge there to help.
March 16, 2025
I think we should keep out of it
March 16, 2025
Starmer and his counterparts in the EU have jumped the gun. Foolishly believing their military in Ukraine as peace keepers would be acceptable to Putin. This was never a possibility. They overlook the brutal truth that Russia has military superiority over Ukraine. Of course Russia will never accept Ukraine in NATO this was the primary reason for the conflict. This is yet another failed US proxy war. UK and European leadership have failed to exercise necessary diplomatic leadership to stop it happening in the first place. After all this conflict directly impacts Europeans not Americans! Look at the economic impact and an estimated million casualties. It is morally unacceptable to use another nation’s military personnel as cannon fodder in order to pursue American ideological aspirations. We never seem to learn.
March 16, 2025
Anyone who believes a word that comes from Putins mouth is easily fooled. The man is a vile snake, there will be no peace in Ukraine or in the world as long as he lives.
March 16, 2025
Germany are busy dismantling their ‘debt brake’ regulations to allow defence spending to be excluded.
The UK and EU are committing great amounts to defence – and all at the expense of future generations who will have so much debt to pay back it would take many decades.
This rush to war is not just a snub to Trump after his comments that Europe should fund it’s own defence, it goes much deeper. With economies virtually destroyed our leaders need a major distraction. War is that distraction, and if they can wear down Putin, they will, with the ultimate aim of overrunning Russia, stupid as that is, but grabbing Russian resources would justify some of the perverted thinking behind Europe’s insane dash to war!
March 16, 2025
“The EU is struggling to increase armament supply to Ukraine to replace the US resources.”
Well, this is going to be impossible if at the same time the EU intends to de-industrialise and transition from affordable, reliable, hydrocarbon energy whichcan be easily and cheaply stored and transported to “clean” electricity which is expensive to produce and transport and impossible to store at grid-scale as well as unreliable, chaotically intermittent and weather dependent.
March 16, 2025
What’s needed are peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine aimed at removing the sources of future conflict. They would involve agreeing on: (i) the installation of a democratically elected government and head of state in Kiev, free of ultra-nationalist pressures as previously, (ii) inscribing neutrality in Ukraine’s constitution, (iii) inscribing in Ukraine’s constitution respect for the human rights of Russian (and Hungarian) speakers remaining in Ukraine post-settlement. Given the Kiev regime’s long record of duplicity, Russia should not cease fighting until Kiev has agreed in writing to the treaty, and should not remove its forces until they have been fully implemented. Any attempt by Kiev to backtrack, eg. by bringing in Western military supplies or ‘advisors’ should be taken as immediately abrogating the treaty, with the consequence that Russia is free to continue the war. This is the only way to deal with the sort of people currently running Ukraine and their Western sponsors.
March 16, 2025
Hat Man
All of which was available in the peace treaty Johnson torpedoed, I believe…
March 16, 2025
How is the weather in Moscow Hat Man?
March 16, 2025
Why is it commonly supposed any settlement deal will require troops from third countries “to keep or enforce a peace”? Very old-fashioned thinking. Troops would more likely be hostages than peace preservers: do we want that for any of ours?
At least Starmer’s ridiculous and cringing pre-occupation with peace in Ukraine keeps him away from our affairs. It is a pity he acts for the E.U. though. If he really, really wants to be photographed sitting on top of a tank, can’t the army arrange a visit for him to Salisbury Plain instead, possibly with added smoke grenades?
March 16, 2025
The UK has got its-self saddled with an absentee PM & Government; they like to be seen running around the World doing what they think is great personal, very personal things to appease personal ego. It’s all about deflection, from the fact they don’t know how to do the job they have been awarded with. All the time they don’t realize those they are talking too don’t care and have more important issues than a Foreigners personal ego.
What they shouldn’t be doing is committing UK taxpayer money to these personal adventures. This before getting to gripe with expenditure at home is pure betrayal. They shouldn’t be committing the lives of the brave people that ‘just’ signed up to protect their communities and Country (the UK)
March 16, 2025
It is another example of how limited our PM is. Grandstanding about a peacekeeping force for Ukraine, when he can’t even keep UK borders secure. Ignoring the reality of the state of our armed forces to burnish his non-existent credibility as a world statesman.
The PM has no right to commit UK troops to Ukraine when it will take 5 to 10 years to rebuild our armed forces, providing the money flows into defence spending. But will that happen when our Government is busy taking money away from defence to pay for their vanity projects like Net Zero.
The PM needs a reality check. What is he going to do when Russia or Ukraine break the ceasefire? If he is not careful, we could end up at war with Russia! The UK should stay out of it completely!
March 16, 2025
On the subject of national security. Ed Miliband, the SoS of DESNZ, is in China this weekend, He has written a piece in the Guardian to say he is in China to convince them to “build back greener” and to refresh the UK-China Clean Energy Partnership originally signed by PM Cameron in 2015. This “partnership” gave China our research and our commitment to go green and in return the Chinese would build more coal-fired power stations in order to supply us with all the green kit – wind turbines, solar panels, steel, cabling, evs, heat pumps, motors, generators, transformers and cabling etc and invest in the Moray East windfarm that has been selling electricity at £234/MWhr when DESNZ and the CCC say the LCOE of wind is £44/MWhr . At the last Auction Round (AR6) the CfD for new contracts for fixed offshore wind was £80/MWhr.
March 16, 2025
On the subject of national (energy) security. Are countryside solar estates guarded at all, particularly at night when a loss of power would not be noticed by the National Grid or the DNO? How much damage could a gang of young men of fighting age armed with just hammers do to a solar estate in a night?
March 16, 2025
I have a friend who has a smallish solar field which feeds directly into the grid (ie no accommodation on the site). It’s completely unguarded.
March 16, 2025
Starmer, as usual, is misunderstanding the game and messing it up. Russia regards the UK, with its army of anti Russian blimps and armchair generals but few troops and aircraft carriers that can’t be used, as its main enemy. Trump has removed the US hawks and neocons and is trying to get a ceasefire agreeable to both sides. Russia will not agree to Ukraine being rearmed or the same countries that supplied arms and support for the war over 3 years acting on the ground in Ukraine. They know that they have won the war and don’t see why they should compromise. They know that Starmer and the EU unelected bureaucracy are toothless windbags. If they wreck this chance for peace and an end to this stupid and dreadful war, they will be known for their deeds.
March 16, 2025
Putin will continue fighting until his oft stated war objectives are met, namely, a neutral Ukraine and the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhie, Kherson Oblasts absorbed into Russia. The proposals put for forward by Trump are designed to frustrate these objectives so will be ignored, thus as JR suggests, discussions about a peacekeeping force are premature. Any so called peacekeepers placed on Ukraine territory would be taken by Russia as a force supporting Ukraine and hostile to Russia.
Starmer should abandon his cosplay as a war leader before he accidentally initiates a world war; he should focus on defending our borders from invasion which he is signally failing to do in a country which is becoming less safe and less free and less English by the day.
March 16, 2025
Make no mistake; there is only peace after war when there’s a clear winner & loser …don’t follow the UN model of peace-keepers, they only prolong the conflicts ie Korea, Cyprus, Sudan, Kosovo & the middle-east
March 16, 2025
It is beyond belief that Starmer is getting such good PR for putting forward a plan for a “peacekeeper” force which cannot be mustered, which requires the backing of the USA (which has already been vetoed) and which Russia won’t agree to anyway.
Fantasy Island was a tv programme for entertainment, not a model to be followed.
March 16, 2025
Each of the following Western European countries already has a settled border with Russia/Belarus:
https://i.etsystatic.com/16461565/r/il/309831/5485574871/il_1140xN.5485574871_ozgw.jpg
Norway Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania Poland
By “settled” I mean that the border has been marked out on the ground with the agreement of both sides, even if oin some cases there is a constant nagging fear that Russia may try to expand over it. It is a nuisance having such a border, with an unfriendly power on the other side liable to make trouble, for example by sending illegal immigrants over into your territory. That makes it necessary to expend resources on surveillance and patrols, but it does not make it necessary to have a large peacekeeping force permanently positioned on the border.
Therefore that is the kind of position we should seek for a newly defined Ukraine, the previous Ukraine minus the parts that were alienated by the pro-EU anti-Russia stance that the imperialist EU encouraged in Kiev, with an agreed international frontier marked out on the ground. The reduced Ukraine should not be allowed to join either NATO or the EU and nor should there be any armed troops near the border other than Ukrainians on one side and Russians on the other; there may be scope for international observers from remote countries.
i very much admire the courage and resolution of the people in Ukraine, who should not have been led into this disaster by euromaniacs like Catherine Ashton, who has now been elevated as an unelected legislator-for-life:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2024/10/21/the-eus-conflict-with-russia/#comment-1480362
And more lately also this character:
https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/blogs/building-an-inclusive-and-growth-led-economy-and-society/the-signs-that-the-eu-has-completely-changed-its-perspective-on-adding-new-members-since-russia-invaded-ukraine
“Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s 2023 state of the union speech saw her press for expansion for the union’s own good.”
March 16, 2025
Any peacekeeping should be done under the banner of the EU. Obviously Putin won’t accept peacekeepers from NATO just as Ukraine wouldn’t accept any from Belarus.
March 16, 2025
Sorry I meant UN not EU !
March 16, 2025
USA under Trump has seen to it that NATO has had its day. Everyone is now (correctly) saying that noone can trust USA. Trump repeats his threats to take over Greenland (one way or the other) then has the nerve to turn to Denmark and ask them to supply eggs in their time of need. Don’t they realise how much they have annoyed Denmark. The tariffs against Canada are punitive and Canadians are rightly incensed. They won’t forgive USA.
NATO is dead but we can make CANZUK work and EU have been itching to make a EU military organisation. The time to make this happen is NOW. CANZUK+EUMO = NATO-USA but is still a potent force. We can tell Python that, no, Ukraine may not join NATO but there’s nothing to stop them joining EUMO.
Canada again – the have cancelled their orders for further F35s. We should do the same. Instead: accelerate the Tempest project.
March 16, 2025
So far with respect to NATO he has:
1. Decided that the US will no longer support the proposed further eastwards expansion; and
2. Insisted that other NATO members must pay their way and not batten on the US taxpayer.
I agree with him on both those points and I don’t see either of them as showing that the US is untrustworthy or that NATO with its present membership will be wound up. The errors lay with his predecessors and with the EU.