Ukraine

[Mr Staffordshire]

Phil, I am very curious.

How cold it can gets on the frontline? Must be in minus 10 to 20 Celsius.

[Baldman]

There it is….

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[Meerkat]

There it is….

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Nah, Phil insisted it would never happen

[Forever Stoned]

Not going to plan for Russia in Syria, this same fella was removed from his role in 2022 in Ukraine for not taking Kharkiv.

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Expect him to fall from a building sometime soon

[Barnet Ben]

Fuck around find out from the fossil proponents. They probably thought climate change wouldn't affect them.

"It's Never Been This Bad." Russia Faces Record Loss of Winter Crop

"The cause of the troubles is largely the summer-autumn drought of 2024," ProZerno notes. Due to weather problems, a state of emergency was introduced in at least five constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and in some regions there was no rain from April to October. This was preceded by frosts in May, which affected almost a third of Russian agricultural land and led to the loss of about 10% of the grain harvest and up to 25% of vegetables .

https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2024/12/04/ta...ih-a149495

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[UkrainianPhil]

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum, the agreement under which Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons in return for security and sovereignty guarantees from Britain, the US and Russia.

Now seen as a monumental mistake.

[UkrainianPhil]

I know nobody is arsed anymore but there was a massive 15 hour attack last night/this morning when the Russians sent 200 drones and 94 missiles to attack the Ukrainian energy grid and kill a few civilians.

They didn't succeed as I have electric, heating, gas and water so fuck you pricks (Russians, not NLLs).

[UkrainianPhil]

I told you those electric scooters are very dangerous. Be careful everyone.

BBC News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4gx6p347dgt
Igor Kirillov: Russian general in charge of nuclear protection forces killed in Moscow explosion - BBC News

[Mr Nice 2.0]

That'll spook a few senior bods...the live feed suggests it was Ukraine with the help of Russian collaborators. If a few more senior people are targetted and hurt or killed that's gonna put more pressure on Putin to agree a ceasefire.

[Forever Stoned]

Time for everyone in NATO to up their defence spending

Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.

The US president-elect’s closest foreign policy aides shared his intentions in discussions with senior European officials this month, according to people familiar with the talks, as he firms up his policies towards Europe and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

During his White House campaign, Trump vowed to cut off aid to Ukraine, force Kyiv into immediate peace talks, and leave Nato allies undefended if they failed to spend enough on defence — spooking European capitals.

But in a boost for allies deeply concerned over their ability to support and protect Ukraine without Washington’s backing, Trump now intends to maintain US military supplies to Kyiv after his inauguration, according to three other people briefed on the discussions with western officials.

At the same time Trump is to demand Nato more than double its 2 per cent spending target — which only 23 of the alliance’s 32 members currently meet — to 5 per cent, two people briefed on the conversations said.

One person said they understood that Trump would settle for 3.5 per cent, and that he was planning to explicitly link higher defence spending and the offer of more favourable trading terms with the US. “It’s clear that we are talking about 3 per cent or more for [Nato’s June summit in] The Hague summit,” said another European official briefed on Trump’s thinking.

Nato allies are already in discussions about increasing the target to 3 per cent at that meeting of leaders in June, but many capitals are concerned about the difficult fiscal decisions that would be required to do so.

According to the White House’s office of management and budget, the US will spend about 3.1 per cent of GDP on defence in 2024. During the last year of Trump’s first presidency in 2020, Pentagon spending hit 3.4 per cent.

Key European Nato allies — including France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Poland — met Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Brussels on Wednesday night to discuss how the continent would adapt defence policies in response to Trump’s return.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz separately had a telephone call with Trump on Thursday during a summit of EU leaders. Scholz later told reporters that he was “quite confident that the US and Europe will continue their support to Ukraine”. Senior British security officials travelled to Washington earlier this month to assess the president-elect’s plans.

While Trump still believes Ukraine should never be given membership of Nato, and wants an immediate end to the conflict, the president-elect believed that supplying weapons to Kyiv after a ceasefire would ensure a “peace through strength” outcome, they added.

After 24 hours of meetings with Nato and EU leaders in Brussels this week, Zelenskyy said on Thursday that European pledges to defend Ukraine would “not be sufficient” without US involvement.

https://www.ft.com/content/35f490c5-3abb...e804dd158f