Ukraine updates in English

[KD8ZM-Brady]

Sadly I tend to agree with both of you that an actual end to the war is probably a long way off, and Wlad, there is definitely a danger of a postwar Ukraine becoming even more like Russia than it was before the war. Hopefully someone from outside Ukraine can root Z out of office and replace him with someone who has some respect for the Constitution and the courts. A fresh start is needed once peace is achieved, no matter how long it takes.

[US7IGN]

Today putin gave a press conference at which he says fighting must end in Ukraine, but adds a ceasefire should lead to "enduring peace and remove underlying causes of this crisis". He says the idea of a ceasefire is "good and we absolutely support it but there are issues that we need to discuss". https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cgj5w6veqw6t?post=asset%3Acdec371a-03e2-4a23-babf-c38ea5ffbcc2#post

Neither "yes" nor "no" was the expected answer, but will Trump accept it?

Meanwhile, Poland, even as a member of NATO and having special relations with the United States and its military bases on its territory, a large and armed army with modern weapons, does not expect the whole world to save it in the event of russian aggression, but is preparing for mobilization, as Ukraine was supposed to do back in 2014. The plan announced by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to provide general military training for every Pole is part of the country's new defense strategy against the russian federation, in the event of a war with which it will be necessary to expand the armed forces many times in a short time.
It is about creating a ready reserve. And the basic military training itself is currently planned for a period of one month and only on a voluntary basis. And to support patriotism will be a monetary reward - the participant should receive 6,000 zlotys, approximately 1.4 thousand euros. https://defence24.pl/polityka-obronna/zbrojeniowe-inwestycje-przyspiesza-tusk-bedziemy-bezwzgledni

Saab and the Ukrainian defence company Radionix have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the intention to form a strategic collaboration relating to sensors and defence electronics, aiming to strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities. The collaboration aims to focus on areas within sensors and defence electronics development and maintenance across all domains, leveraging the strengths of both companies.

With its strong technology offer and proven track record of international collaboration, Radionix brings valuable know-how in areas such as radar and optical targeting equipment and is a central part of Ukraine’s defence industrial base. Saab will contribute with its solid defence industry experience and expertise in these technology areas.

“We look forward to this collaboration with Radionix, leveraging both companies’ expertise. This agreement underscores Saab’s strong commitment to supporting Ukraine’s defence capability and defence industry” says Anders Carp, Deputy CEO of Saab.
https://www.saab.com/newsroom/press-releases/2025/saab-and-radionix-sign-mou-for-sensors-and-defence-electronics

Well, about the funny thing. The Economist allegedly conducted a survey among a thousand people, which showed that more than seven in ten Ukrainians now say they approve of Mr Zelensky’s work. Eight in ten say he is still Ukraine’s legitimate president, and reject the idea of elections while fighting continues. Over seven in ten still trust him to lead negotiations. https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/03/12/is-zelensky-a-disliked-dictator-or-a-popular-hero

A joke immediately appeared that 80% of Ukrainians support Zelensky and are ready to fight until victory, and the remaining 20% ​​live in Ukraine. Perhaps the survey was conducted among employees of the President's office, but for some reason there are no lines of people willing to fight in the mobilization centers.

[KD8ZM-Brady]

I must congratulate Ukrainians on their sense of humor in the face of obvious obfuscation and misinformation by the powers that be. I just about choked when I saw the punch line.
I don't know what to make of statements from Putin about needing more concessions to agree to a cease fire. All I can say is I'm not surprised and I hope we turn up the heat on him to make him more uncomfortable.

Poland asking for nuclear cover was interesting, but the US would be nuts to shoot off a nuke at Russia unless we were ourselves attacked with nukes.

[N0TZU]

Poland is in NATO and thus the US “nuclear umbrella” covers Poland. NATO Article 5 can be read to imply a nuclear response to a nuclear first strike from Russia on a member state but it doesn’t explicitly require it.

Presently the US stores some nuclear bombs in NATO countries as part of the nuclear deterrent.

[US7IGN]

Poland is in NATO and thus the US “nuclear umbrella” covers Poland. NATO Article 5 can be read to imply a nuclear response to a nuclear first strike from Russia on a member state but it doesn’t explicitly require it.

Presently the US stores some nuclear bombs in NATO countries as part of the nuclear deterrent.

Poles use every opportunity to make Poland stronger and this is the fundamental difference between Polish and Ukrainian politicians. I think that the fact that more and more Poles are selling real estate and moving to other countries away from russia is one of the reasons why Duda wants Poles to be able to feel safe in conditions when in Europe probably no one is confident in either NATO or the US.

It is a pity that no one in Europe and the US wants to eliminate russia as the cause of so many problems not only on the continent but also around the world. The US generally takes a separate position, intending to do business with russia. It is obvious that the world is at the beginning of the cycle of creating a new world order and strong countries are striving to take leading positions in this new world. Classic signs of decline in the form of huge debts, the risk of losing the status of a reserve currency, deterioration of education are obvious to the authorities and are forcing the US to look for ways to avoid a crisis. Perhaps this is the reason for the desire to obtain and use cryptocurrency as a possible next world reserve currency and to be able to use russia's natural resources. It would seem that where is Ukraine in all this? The point is that it is too insignificant for anyone to pay attention to it.

But generally nothing has changed at least since 1951, when this article about the Soviet Union was published in a Ukrainian magazine:

While the East does not hide that its goal is world revolution, which is now being carried out with the help of bayonets in the Far East, the West does not want to "annoy its former allies and confines itself to short-term broadcasts on the radio of the "Voice of America" ​​about the love of the American people for russia. It seems to us that such broadcasts, although truthful, for the peoples behind the Iron Curtain, instead of attracting these peoples to themselves, repel them. With bitter irony, they become even more convinced of the West's powerlessness to liberate them from the tyranny of communist rule. The West cannot or does not want to raise a clear cry, a cry that would strengthen and invigorate the struggle that the peoples enslaved by Moscow are already waging. And in the event of war, if there is a call, no Moscow propaganda would be able to restrain the thirst for freedom and revenge of those peoples for Katyn, for Vinnytsia, for Siberia, for deportation, for the shooting of millions. All the peoples who are waiting for help from the West listen only to auditions where they are shown that they only need to change the nameplate of Soviet russia and everything will be fine. No! This will be a big mistake, which will cost a lot of blood and tears in the future war with the East. Because Klyavzewitz was right: “russia cannot be defeated by physical force from the outside”... Now the West has a great treasure. A treasure that it has acquired in people of all strata of the population from behind the Iron Curtain, and especially among the intellectual forces of Soviet citizens. But the West is needlessly wasting it on physical labor, instead of using their vast experience, knowledge of living conditions in the USSR, to refute the lying propaganda of the Soviets and to provide detailed information to the peoples of the free world. We can imagine how widely the Bolsheviks would have used such capabilities. It is completely incomprehensible to neglect one of the most powerful means of propaganda—films. Appropriate organization of this area from the angle of the struggle of ideas and life facts, by comparing the living conditions in the East and the West, would have yielded very positive results and would have contributed to the truthful information of the peoples of the world. The screen would have at its disposal real heroes and victims of the Bolshevik satanic regime. They would have come forward with ready-made scenarios of their tragic experiences. Such films would have to be translated into all languages, and it is possible that the Chinese and Koreans, and we think the communists of France and Italy, would have turned away with disgust from the insidious communist propaganda. We think that in the event of war, it is necessary to include representatives of the enslaved peoples in various areas in the propaganda apparatus in order to shake the mood of the Soviet army and the peoples of the USSR. Separate national liberation armies should also be organized.

In the end, we will say that the main weakness of Western propaganda is its defensive nature. In the liberation struggle, the Bolsheviks outdid us with their propaganda, and this contributed to their success. The Germans also lost the war without taking into account the power of propaganda. They did not raise the cries for the liberation of the peoples, and they turned against them. This is how the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the Polish insurgents, and the peoples of Europe fought. In preparation for the upcoming war and the campaign to the East, attention should also be paid to the organization of propaganda, as an important weapon that operates both before the war and in the war itself.
https://ounuis.info/publications/476/propahanda-iak-okremyi-rid-zbroi.html

[KD8ZM-Brady]

Interesting article from 1951; although in my opinion it was quite naive of them to think that if the West only painted a picture more vividly and proactively of what life could be like, out from under the yoke of oppression, people would rise up and throw off tyrants, establish democracies, and so on. That idea starts to sound a lot like George W. Bush's idea of nation building in the Middle East, and we all know how that worked out.

I believe that the reason no one wants to eliminate Russia as a world troublemaker is because we know we don't have that power: Certainly not militarily (especially once nukes are accounted for), and probably not even through trade; that's what we tried with the Chinese Communist Party, and all it did was make them into a more powerful dictatorship with global ambitions. I can't imagine why it would work any better with Russia than it did with China?

As far as Poland and the American nuclear shield, no one disputes from a technical sense that Article 5 covers them already, but yet the Poles don't believe it would be acted upon by the US (or they wouldn't be asking to be covered, now), and neither do I. No American president in their right mind would shoot a nuke at Russian territory simply because Russia shot a nuke at eastern Europe. (That is, unless we had some sort of North American "Iron Dome" in place and had 100% confidence in its reliability).  If any of us were actually sitting in the seat of any US president, rather than just sitting powerless at our keyboard, we wouldn't put the very existence of the US at risk for the sake of any eastern European country. We weren't even willing to risk putting fighter jets in the air to defend Ukraine in accordance with the Budapest Memorandum, for fear of provoking a nuclear response, and it wasn't an irrational position to take. The US won't shoot nukes at Russia unless Russia first shoots nukes at the US.

In my estimation, Europe had better start arming heavily, including nuclear, and stop relying on an illusion of being under the American nuclear umbrella - that only exists on paper.

[N0TZU]

I wholeheartedly agree that it’s always been a big risk for one country to depend on another country to defend  it. National interests and alliances shift over time. I also agree that European nations need to rapidly increase their own defenses.

Yet the NATO alliance, with the US as the key power, kept Russia from expanding its postwar empire for decades. Why did that deterrence work, and why does it seem to be crumbling now? Is it simply that the US no longer seems to be a reliable partner, or does it go much deeper? Is it partly a mirage projected by Russian propaganda and psychological operations to make us doubt each other and think we are far weaker than we are? If so, why are those so much more effective now than in the past?

There are many factors, and I have some thoughts about it, but these questions need to be answered by far more qualified people than me. If we in the West fail to understand this, then I fear we will blindly blunder into the next world war.

One thing seems certain: A nation that possesses deliverable nuclear weapons is much more secure from attack than those without them. It also seems certain that if many nations have them, we would all be less secure from an accidental or miscalculated use and a subsequent general nuclear war.

Does the first outweigh the second? Until recently the answer was no because proliferation was unquestionably a bad risk. It may no longer be so.

[US7IGN]

In an interview with the BBC, Polish President Andrzej Duda spoke about peace in Ukraine, the deployment of American nuclear weapons on Polish territory, threats to security in Europe and Moscow's "imperial greed".

He expressed confidence that Donald Trump has a plan to bring russia to the negotiating table and is aware of the importance of Ukraine's interests.

The Polish president also explained his position on American nuclear weapons in Poland, noting that this could be a response to the deployment of russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Duda, who is the commander-in-chief of the rapidly developing Polish armed forces, believes that today's russia is no less aggressive than the former USSR.

He noted that the only way to ensure Europe's security is to increase its defense capabilities and recalled that it was thanks to significant defense spending that the West managed to win the Cold War "without firing a single shot." https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/articles/c5y05pnj17ro

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said military planning to protect a potential Ukraine ceasefire is moving to an "operational phase" after a virtual meeting with 29 other world leaders. In a speech after the video call, Sir Keir said "the world needs actions...not empty words and conditions".
In a statement, he said the "Kremlin's dithering and delay" over the ceasefire proposal and its continued attacks on Ukraine "run entirely counter to President putin's stated desire for peace".
Leaders agreed on Saturday that if putin refused an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" they would need to "ratchet up pressure...to convince him to come to the negotiating table", Sir Keir said. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ymrz8d21yo

Bla-bla-bla...

Another sad news, especially for radio lovers. The US is cutting Voice of America and Radio Liberty - President Donald Trump has issued an order to reorganize the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

This agency deals with five major American media corporations broadcasting in 49 languages, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Office of Broadcasting to Cuba.

These media are considered an important tool of US diplomacy, and the decision to cut them is called a betrayal of democracy and a "gift to America's enemies."

The United States founded Radio Liberty during the Cold War to wage an information war against the Soviet Union. This was in 1953. Radio Liberty broadcast uncensored news, music, and literature to countries where freedom of speech was under threat.

In 1954, the first broadcast of Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service was broadcast from Munich; at that time the radio station was called Radio Vyzvolennya.

In the USSR, Radio Liberty was perceived as one of the harshest and most radical critics of the regime, and efforts were made to jam its broadcasts.
https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/articles/cvg1l48q81do

I understand that in the age of the Internet, spending money on shortwave radio is considered wasteful by some in developed countries, but there are quite a large number of potential listeners of alternative information without censorship in their native language in russia or China using radio. At least Chinese radio in English and russian can be heard in any part of the world. And in the event of a large-scale attack on satellites or the Internet, radio may remain the only source of information in the whole world for a certain time.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and russia Keith Kellogg was excluded from high-level talks on ending the war after the Kremlin said it didn't want him there, a U.S. administration official and a russian official told NBC News. According to the official, russian dictator Vladimir putin considers Kellogg “too pro-Ukrainian.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-urkaine-war-kremlin-keith-kellogg-special-envoy-barred-talks-rcna195981

Asked about the US-backed proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, putin gave a long and convoluted answer during his Thursday news conference. Early on in his answer, Putin said “we agree with the proposal” – a quote that made headlines across the world. But he went on to make it clear that Moscow will not agree to an actual deal any time soon.

In his full response, putin effectively shut down the idea – demanding concessions from Kyiv, raising numerous questions and repeating the maximalist demands that russia has held since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “We agree with the proposal to cease hostilities but we have to bear in mind that this ceasefire must be aimed at a long-lasting peace and it must look at the root causes of the crisis.” - putin

Trump himself commented positively on putin’s reaction to the ceasefire proposal, saying in an upbeat tone that it was “promising… but it wasn’t complete.” https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/14/europe/putin-ceasefire-analysis-intl/index.html

The issue of ending the war in Ukraine consists of a plan A and a plan B. Until the first issue is resolved, the transition to the second is impossible. This was stated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CBS News reports.

"Plan A is to cease fire so that we can move to plan B, to the second phase - to bring everyone to the negotiating table, perhaps with the participation of mediators, to find a way to end this war on a solid basis, with respect for the interests of all parties. Nobody is saying that the second part will be easy, but we cannot even start it until we pass the first," Rubio said.

He noted that no one said that the second part would be easy. However, it will not be possible to start it until the first is passed. The Secretary of State emphasized that it is difficult to negotiate a strong end to the war while the sides are shooting at each other. That is why US President Donald Trump is seeking a ceasefire. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marco-rubio-secretary-of-state-face-the-nation-transcript-03-16-2025/

President Donald Trump is likely to speak this week with his russian counterpart Vladimir putin as discussions intensify on brokering a ceasefire in Ukraine, Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff said today.

“I think the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week,” Witkoff told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying later he expected a ceasefire deal to be reached within weeks. https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-administration-presidency-03-16-2025#cm8blrioy00003b6nokus54zl

[N0TZU]

Shutting down the VOA is indeed a reprehensible betrayal of democracy and weakening of American resolve to defend it, in my view. It gives another green light to authoritarians around the world.

VOA was not only doing shortwave broadcasting, it also provided a lot of streaming and social media. People are ingenious in finding ways around internet censorship.

This is the justification for shutting it down:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/03/the-voice-of-radical-america/

Not mentioned except in passing (“Hunters laptop”) is that the VOA had reported on issues during the response to Covid and other topics during the first Trump presidency that he thought were critical of him and I recall his vehemently criticizing them at the time.

The proper, mature solution to the alleged editorial issues is to address those directly, not to pull the plug on the entire operation.

[US7IGN]

Apparently, someone is not interested in the existence of independent media. But even once serious media, apparently trying to match the level of consumers, increasingly, instead of checking sources and objectively assessing the situation, increasingly offer loud headlines and sensations. I don’t want to think that, for example, this article in Forbes was paid for by the russians.
On Feb. 25, an elite russian drone group—the Rubicon Center of Advanced Unmanned Systems—launched a devastating wave of attacks on the main supply line supporting the Ukrainian garrison in Sudzha, the center of the Ukrainian-held salient in western russia’s Kursk Oblast. Employing what analyst Andrew Perpetua described as “advanced drone tactics” including elaborate ambushes involving multiple explosive drones “striking the front, back and sides of a vehicle almost simultaneously,” Rubicon swiftly knocked out hundreds of Ukrainian vehicles. Starving for supplies and in danger of being cut off, the retreating Ukrainians moved quickly, apparently under the cover of darkness. Whatever heavy equipment they couldn’t take with them, they simply abandoned—effectively leaving them for the russians to seize. In all, the Ukrainians lost around 500 vehicles and other heavy equipment in Kursk. The russians lost around 600.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/13/the-things-they-left-behind-retreating-from-kursk-the-ukrainians-abandoned-some-of-their-best-weapons/

russian President Vladimir putin has called on Ukrainian troops in the russian region of Kursk to surrender, as diplomatic back-and-forth continues over a potential US-brokered ceasefire with Kyiv. At a meeting with members of russia’s security council on Friday, putin accused Ukrainian troops in the region of committing crimes against civilians, but acknowledged US President Donald Trump’s wish to spare the soldiers’ lives as russian forces retake the area and claimed surrendering soldiers’ lives would be guaranteed. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/14/europe/putin-kursk-ukrainian-troops-zelensky-intl/index.html

The Ukrainian military has indeed almost left the Kursk region, withdrawn from Sudzha and withdrew from most of the settlements that were under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine until recently, but the retreat was organized and the losses were much lower. As of Sunday, March 16, the Ukrainian military is occupying a strip of russian territory along the common border of the russian Federation and Ukraine to prevent the penetration of russians into the Sumy region of Ukraine. Unfortunately, another military adventure ended in vain. https://today.ua/477711-vyhod-ukrainskih-voennyh-iz-kurskoj-oblasti-vsu-ostavili-za-soboj-polosu-rossijskoj-territorii/

While the US government is cutting spending, the Ukrainian government has increased state funding for the national telethon "United News" by a quarter for 2025 compared to the previous year. Its budget now stands at $17.5 million. https://focus.ua/uk/ukraine/697897-finansuvannya-telemarafonu-v-ukrajini-zbilshilosya-do-738-mln-griven-na-rik?utm_source=ukrnet_news
I understand the government's desire to increase propaganda, but it seems that no one has believed it for a long time...

Strange events also occurred last week. First, a person associated with MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, an associate of former President Petro Poroshenko, was brazenly murdered https://24tv.ua/merezhi-pokazali-moment-vbivstva-aktivista-ganula-odesi-video_n2775623
And then Petro Poroshenko's lawyer Ilya Novikov stated that the Pecherskyi Court of Kyiv took into custody on bail of 400 million hryvnias the former deputy head of the State Security Department Vadym Chuchkovsky, who is allegedly being asked to testify against Poroshenko https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2025/03/15/7503070/
If in the first case everything is very ambiguous, information about the criminal activities of the murdered person was spread on social networks and the version that he was simply being retaliated against is being considered, then in the second case it really looks like an attempt to persecute Poroshenko. It seems that the elections are really not far off.

Today I had a headache and high blood pressure all day, but I was able to make about a dozen interesting QSO, including with the USA, Canada and even South Africa. I think all this is due to the fact that after almost +20C during the day last week, the temperature dropped to +5C.

[KD8ZM-Brady]

I wholeheartedly agree that it’s always been a big risk for one country to depend on another country to defend  it. National interests and alliances shift over time. I also agree that European nations need to rapidly increase their own defenses.

Yet the NATO alliance, with the US as the key power, kept Russia from expanding its postwar empire for decades. Why did that deterrence work, and why does it seem to be crumbling now? Is it simply that the US no longer seems to be a reliable partner, or does it go much deeper? Is it partly a mirage projected by Russian propaganda and psychological operations to make us doubt each other and think we are far weaker than we are? If so, why are those so much more effective now than in the past?

There are many factors, and I have some thoughts about it, but these questions need to be answered by far more qualified people than me. If we in the West fail to understand this, then I fear we will blindly blunder into the next world war.

One thing seems certain: A nation that possesses deliverable nuclear weapons is much more secure from attack than those without them. It also seems certain that if many nations have them, we would all be less secure from an accidental or miscalculated use and a subsequent general nuclear war.

Does the first outweigh the second? Until recently the answer was no because proliferation was unquestionably a bad risk. It may no longer be so.

I can't disagree with any of that, my friend. Two things that have definitely shifted are: 1. Russia has exposed itself as a third-rate conventional military power via its largely-failed invasion of Ukraine (which greatly lessens or eliminates the need for NATO, which existed only to counter Russian conventional military power), and 2. It's clear that American governmental borrowing, spending, and looming "entitlements" commitments are unsustainable, and lots of "somethings" are going to need to be cut. I would guess that those two facts will figure large in the future of NATO and many other old-world-order sacred cows.  How exactly it will come out is impossible to predict.

[KD8ZM-Brady]

I've been sad to see the entire shortwave radio world shut down little by little, the past few decades, so the VOA and Radio Liberty issue are no different in terms of my emotions. But, it isn't 1955 anymore, as I sometimes have to remind people who are angry that I no longer send QSL cards. Things change.
I view the American shortwave shutdown as just one more of those many "sacred cows" that is going to need to go and will make someone unhappy. We have unconsciously slouched to $36 trillion in national debt and $70 trillion (present value dollars) in social entitlements. Everyone wants to continue ignoring this inconvenient truth, but the longer we let it go, the bigger a problem it will become.
If the American radio services truly are indispensable to Europe, they can create their own Radio Service. But considering that the UK has cut BBC radio service pretty significantly in recent years, I see them making the same choice.

[US7IGN]

What Trump wants to do is clear, but it is not clear whether he will be able to do it. The market is the ultimate arbiter of this sort of thing. Just ask Truss. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/17/business/liz-truss-markets-tariffs-trump-intl/index.html

As for the radio, it probably depends on priorities. I'm the only person in my office who doesn't drink coffee, but I was the first to approve the purchase of a new coffee machine. It's a small expense compared to everything else, but its impact on morale shouldn't be underestimated.

Winter has returned to Kyiv again. It has become colder and even snowed. There was another drone attack at night and even in Kyiv it was quite loud. Also, energy objects were damaged somewhere and electricity was cut off in some regions. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c3e4xzd8qq8t

Ukraine has a new 600-mile cruise missile, the Long Neptune, and has fired it at russia. The Long Neptune is a longer version of Ukraine’s 17-foot-long Neptune anti-ship cruise missile—the truck-launched weapon that sank the russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva in April 2022. Long Neptune, which is longer and holds more fuel than the 120-mile standard Neptune, has been in development for years.
The successful deployment of Long Neptune was apparently the March 14 strike on the oil refinery in Tuapse, in russia around 300 miles from the front line in Ukraine. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/15/ukraine-has-a-600-mile-cruise-missile/

Of course, this is great news, but unfortunately in war everything is decided by quantity. As this war shows, even hundreds of missiles a month are not capable of changing anything critically.

Donald Trump says he and Vladimir putin tomorrow will discuss "land", "power plants" and "dividing up certain assets" when they hold Ukraine peace talks. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/17/politics/trump-putin-meeting-ukraine-intl-hnk/index.html

But I remember the words of General George S. Patton:

The difficulty in understanding the russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the russian has no regard for human life and is an all-out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk. They are a scurvy race and simply savages. We could beat hell out of them.

Let’s keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened and present a picture of force and strength to these people [the Soviets]. This is the only language they understand and respect. If you fail to do this, then I would like to say to you that we have had a victory over the Germans and have disarmed them, but have lost the war.

[US7IGN]

I recently knew about the decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which rejected a man’s claim to oblige the military unit to dismiss him due to a violation of the procedure for his mobilization. The court agreed that he had been mobilized illegally, but concluded that the procedure for conscripting a person liable for military service during mobilization is irreversible, and the recognition of the conscription procedure as unlawful does not result in the restoration of the previous status of the person conscripted for military service by his/her release.

https://so.supreme.court.gov.ua/news/1138/protsedura-pryzovu-viiskovozoboviazanoho-na-viiskovu-sluzhbu-pid-chas-mobilizatsii-ie-nezvorotnoiu-a-vyznannia-protsedury-pryzovu-protypravnoiu-ne-sprychyniuie-vidnovlennia-poperednoho-stanovysh%D1%81ha-osoby-pryzvanoi-na-viiskovu-sluzhbu-shliakhom-ii-zvilnennia-%E2%80%93-kas-vs

In fact, courts exist to compensate for gaps in legislation and protect violated rights of people. But this is not about Ukraine.

The very idea that decisions about how others should serve and die are made by those who themselves will never, under any circumstances, end up at the front looks disgusting...

[KD8ZM-Brady]

Truly said, General Patton, truly said. Maybe the Neanderthals did not die out or interbreed with homo sapiens, maybe they simply traveled further east? lol