Latest news with #RussoUkrainianWar
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Trump's threats against Russia are a charade meant to buy Putin time
Donald Trump was going to end the Russo-Ukrainian war in 24 hours. Then it was two weeks, then 100 days, then two weeks again – several times – and now 50 days. Trump increasingly resembles Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland. Words mean whatever he wants them to mean – that is to say, nothing. Trump reversed the announced suspension of weapons transfers to Ukraine on July 14th, when he promised to sell Patriot missiles and other weapons to Nato members, who could in turn pass them on to Ukraine . And if Vladimir Putin doesn't accept peace with Ukraine in 50 days, Trump says he'll slap 100 per cent tariffs on trade with Russia and countries including China and India which fund Putin's war with purchases of Russian hydrocarbons. Since his inauguration, Trump has punished Ukraine, the victim, repeatedly; Russia, the aggressor, not once. So what are we to make of the apparent change in policy? Nothing, says Phillips Payson O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at University of St Andrews in Scotland. 'Trump basically gave Putin 50 days' protection from new sanctions,' O'Brien says. 'Trump is allowing Putin to hit Ukrainian cities hard for the rest of the summer and take little pieces of land. Then Putin can ask for a ceasefire if he wants to, keeping everything he has. What Trump has done benefits Putin. The weapons will take months to reach Ukraine and are in any case significantly less than transfers before Trump took office.' READ MORE Trump's threat of 100 per cent tariffs on Russia 'is all fantasy', O'Brien says. A Bill proposed by Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal would impose 500 per cent tariffs on Russia. 'Trump was under pressure to allow a vote on Graham-Blumenthal by the end of July, and now he can put that off until September ... The White House wanted to create a narrative that Trump is standing by Ukraine, but it's not true.' In his book War and Power: Who Wins Wars and Why, to be published by Penguin Viking next month, O'Brien criticises those who predicted Ukraine would rapidly collapse, and who believe Ukraine will inevitably be defeated. They labour under the 'great power paradigm' – a 19th century belief that powerful countries do what they please while weak countries suffer what they must. The so-called experts 'had a high school boys' war game view of war: the Russians win and march to victory. But war doesn't work that way. It's unpredictable. War always goes off the rails'. A 'monoculture' comprised mostly of western Russia experts with a Russo-centric view, who saw Ukrainians as 'almost-Russians', badly misjudged the conflict, O'Brien says. The Ukrainians did not just roll over. Like the Vietnamese and Afghans before them, they have fought fiercely because they are fighting for their independence. Ukraine still controls 80 per cent of its territory, despite Russia's superior strength and numbers. Ukraine's ability to 'win the adaptation cycle' or 'fight smart' is one reason, O'Brien says. [ Nato's new defence spending commitment aims to reverse decades of military decline Opens in new window ] Former defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk last month defined 'strategic neutralisation' as a strategy for Ukraine's survival, based not on battlefield victory or negotiations, but on systematically denying Russia the ability to achieve its military goals. Precedents are Ukraine's destruction of much of Russia's Black Sea fleet using unmanned sea drones . The Russian navy still exists, but it can no longer blockade Ukraine's ports. Likewise, Ukraine's use of kamikaze drones has created a frontline 'kill zone' 20km to 40km deep which prevents Russian troops from advancing. The air war remains Ukraine's greatest problem, with Russia firing hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities nightly. Europe's failure to draw up a serious plan for Trump's presidency was 'a huge failure of European leadership', says O'Brien. Europe has often let Ukraine down, but now it must try to compensate for lost US support. The 'Coalition of the willing' led by British prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron is 'not very good but it's all we've got', O'Brien continues. The British are desperate to preserve their 'special relationship' with the US. 'The French in many ways have been the great disappointment, because de Gaulle was saying this moment would arrive 60 years ago: 'The US will go home. The US is unreliable. Europe needs to look after itself, have the capacity to be a power.' This is the French narrative and this is their moment. They have bungled it until now.' [ Republicans' rush to shift stance on Ukraine shows Trump's iron grip on party Opens in new window ] O'Brien is scathing about liberal American academics including Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, who claim that confrontational policies on the part of the US and Nato provoked Russia's war on Ukraine. 'You cannot counter it, because they believe it. It's like a religion, not actually fact. How does one counter the belief in papal infallibility?' But why has Putin's 'Nato made me do it' excuse won such broad currency in the West? 'People love lies,' O'Brien replies. 'Look at Trump. We live in an era of lies. This is just another one.' Lara Marlowe will interview Professor Phillips O'Brien at the Galway Arts Festival today, Saturday, July 19th, at 2pm in Bailey Allen Hall, University of Galway
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russian War Casualties Top One Million as Ukraine Strikes Deep Into Russia
As the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian War enters its fourth calendar year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Thursday that Russian casualties have exceeded one million. In a statement posted on June 12, Zelenskyy described the figure as 'the price Putin is willing to pay for his sick geopolitical fantasies,' underscoring the staggering human cost of Russia's invasion, which began on February 24, 2022. The figure is in line with estimates from Western defense officials. The U.K. Ministry of Defence and the Associated Press both reported that Russia has suffered over one million casualties, including roughly 250,000 deaths. Zelenskyy also touted a recent covert operation, codenamed SpiderWeb, which damaged 41 Russian aircraft—worth an estimated $7 billion—at airbases deep inside Russian territory. According to the report, the attack hit bombers and surveillance planes used in missile strikes. The Ukrainian president urged Western nations to tighten sanctions on Russian oil exports, backing a European Union proposal to lower the oil price cap from $60 to $45 per barrel. Ukraine's government claims Russia lost $4 billion in oil revenue in early 2025 alone. Framing the war as a global security issue, Zelenskyy called for more military aid and stronger partnerships with NATO and the EU. 'No country can afford to stay behind in defense tech,' he said.
The Independent
05-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump tells German leader WWII defeat ‘was not a pleasant day for you' as chancellor is forced to school him on Nazis
A meeting between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Frederich Merz took an awkward turn on Thursday when Trump suggested that Germans would not view the anniversary of D-Day favorably because the U.S.-led invasion of Europe was carried out against the Third Reich. Sitting in the Oval Office, Merz and Trump were discussing the death toll from Russia's three-year-old war against Ukraine, the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the end of the Second World War, when Merz noted that tomorrow marks the 81st anniversary of Operation Overlord, the allied amphibious assault on Nazi Germany that began with American, British, Canadian and Free French troops storming the beaches of Normandy in France. Merz told Trump he wanted to discuss how to bring the current Russo-Ukrainian conflict to an end. 'I'm here, Mr. President, to talk with you later on on how we could contribute to that goal. And we all are looking for measures and for instruments to bring this terror war to an end. And may I remind you that we are having June 6 tomorrow. This is D-Day anniversary when the Americans once ended a war in Europe,' he said. At that point, the American leader interjected, asking Merz: 'That was not a pleasant day for you?' The chancellor began to reply that it was 'not a pleasant day' before stopping himself and delivering a bit of a history lesson for his U.S. counterpart. 'In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship,' he said. Merz continued by stating that Germans know what they owe to America for liberating their country from Nazis, telling Trump that the U.S. is 'again in a very strong position' to help end Russia's war by throwing steadfast support to Ukraine's defensive efforts. 'We know what we owe you, but this is the reason why I'm saying that America is again, in a very strong position to do something on this war and ending this war. So let's talk about what we can do jointly, and we are ready to do what we can,' he said. The bizarre moment was not even the first example of questionable historical references from Trump, who also attempted to crack a joke about Merz's efforts to push past decades of German pacifism to help bolster Ukraine's defense and jump-start his country's own arms industry. Asked whether Germany is doing enough to meet their commitments to NATO by spending a set percentage of GDP on defense needs, Trump replied that he knows Germany is now 'pending more money on defense now and quite a bit more money' and called the development 'a positive thing' before waxing on about the late American general Douglas MacArthur's views of Germany in the wake of two world wars. 'I'm not sure that General MacArthur would have said it's positive, you know, he wouldn't like it, but I sort of think it's good,' Trump said. 'He made a statement, never let Germany rearm. And I said, I always think about that. When he says, Sir, we're spending more money on defense, I say, Oh, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think it's a good thing. But you know, at least to a certain point, there'll be a point where say, Please don't arm anymore. If you don't mind.' The president then, perhaps jokingly, suggested that the U.S. would be 'watching' Germany's re-armament efforts with skepticism. In what appeared to be a reversal from his first-term position, the American leader told reporters that the U.S. would be keeping the tens of thousands of troops based in Germany in that country, the site of some of America's largest European bases. Asked whether the U.S. would continue to base troops in Merz's country, he replied: 'The answer is yes.' 'We'll talk about that. But if they'd like to have them there, yeah,' he said. 'We have a lot of them, about 45,000 it's a lot of troops. It's a city,' Trump continued, adding that their presence is good for Germany's economy because they're 'highly paid' and 'spend a lot of money' there.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Poland believes Türkiye talks tested Russia's intentions
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski holds out little hope for a breakthrough in the Russo-Ukrainian war after talks between the delegations of the two nations took place in Türkiye on 16 May, though he believes that it was a test of Russia's intentions. Source: Sikorski in an interview with German newspaper Tagesspiegel, as reported by European Pravda Details: When asked to comment on the talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Türkiye, Sikorski noted that he was not very hopeful that they would "lead to a breakthrough". "But you never know," he said. "This is a test of Russia's intentions. If Russia doesn't agree to a ceasefire or makes outrageous demands, it will only confirm our view that Putin is not ready for peace." Sikorski also believes that Türkiye, which hosted the first Russo-Ukrainian talks since 2022, is playing a "very clever game". While supplying Kyiv with military aid, it simultaneously hosts "millions of Russian tourists". Background: On 16 May, talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations were held in Istanbul. Media reports indicated that Moscow had demanded the absence of US representatives from the negotiations with Ukraine and had presented a number of unacceptable conditions to Kyiv. Following the meeting, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umierov noted that the discussions had covered a ceasefire, humanitarian issues and the possibility of a leader-level meeting. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump likely not going to Türkiye after UAE visit
US President Donald Trump, who had earlier suggested he might visit Istanbul on 16 May, where talks between Russia and Ukraine are planned, has said that he will most likely not go to Türkiye and will come back to the US. Source: Sky News, citing a senior White House official Details: According to a Sky News source, Trump will not visit Türkiye after it became known that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not attend the talks. However, speaking in the United Arab Emirates, which is the third and final stop of Trump's Middle East tour, he suggested that he will most likely head home next. Quote from Trump: "We'll be leaving tomorrow. It's almost 'destination unknown'. We're getting calls, 'could you be here? Could you be there?' But we're probably going back to Washington DC." Background: On 14 May, Putin approved the composition of the Russian delegation for talks with Ukraine in Türkiye on 15 May. Putin himself is not on the list. Earlier media reports had indicated that Trump would not travel to Türkiye either, although he had previously said he was "considering" visiting if Putin attended. On 15 May, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Türkiye for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Zelenskyy had earlier said he was ready to come to Istanbul if Putin arrived there. Trump also said he was willing to come to Istanbul on Friday 16 May for talks on the Russo-Ukrainian war. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
