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→Ukraine
*''[[NYT]]'': "Ukrainian officials and analysts acknowledge that such strikes cannot inflict as much damage on the [[Russian]] [[economy]] as Russia’s strikes on Ukraine...And they fear that [[Moscow]] is now better positioned to succeed in its air campaign than at any other moment in the war...They point to three main factors. Ukraine’s air defenses have been depleted by years of attacks and a drop in [[American]] [[military]] assistance...Russia’s arsenal of [[missile]]s and [[drone]]s has grown in both size and effectiveness...And Ukraine’s [[energy]] [[infrastructure]] is now so fragile that a single hit can inflict as much damage as several strikes once did. [https://archive.is/aqPBZ]
*''[[NYT]]'': "Ukrainian officials and analysts acknowledge that such strikes cannot inflict as much damage on the [[Russian]] [[economy]] as Russia’s strikes on Ukraine...And they fear that [[Moscow]] is now better positioned to succeed in its air campaign than at any other moment in the war...They point to three main factors. Ukraine’s air defenses have been depleted by years of attacks and a drop in [[American]] [[military]] assistance...Russia’s arsenal of [[missile]]s and [[drone]]s has grown in both size and effectiveness...And Ukraine’s [[energy]] [[infrastructure]] is now so fragile that a single hit can inflict as much damage as several strikes once did. [https://archive.is/aqPBZ]
*Stinking Kiev - Or - The Sh*t Hits The Fan [https://robcampbell.substack.com/i/219556901/stinking-kiev-or-the-shit-hits-the-fan]
*Stinking Kiev - Or - The Sh*t Hits The Fan [https://robcampbell.substack.com/i/219556901/stinking-kiev-or-the-shit-hits-the-fan]
*[[Ian Proud]]: [[Prof. Jeffrey Sachs]], author of [[user:Conservaqtive]]'s oft quoted [[Happiness Index]], plan to end the Ukraine war. [https://thepeacemonger.substack.com/p/professor-jeffrey-sachs-plan-to-end] ''This will be a bitter pill for [[Zelensky]] and [[European]] leaders to swallowing, but the final [[political]] reckoning with [[strategic defeat]] draws ever closer as events in [[France]] are showing.''
{{quotebox-float|The plan is quite simple and there is nothing that hasn’t been raised before.
[[Ukraine]]’s military neutrality
Ukraine to pursue membership of the [[EU] as a neutral state, much like [[Austria]] and [[Ireland]]
An armistice line to be drawn along the line of contact
[[NATO]] to commit to no further eastward expansion
Clearly - or at least to me - this is an edited version of the plan that the [[Trump]] [[White House]] has been pursuing.
The biggest blockages are:
getting [[Zelensky]], the [[EU]] and [[Britain]] to commit to implementation of a plan that is based around this template, having refused to [[negotiate]] with [[Russia]] in a substantive way thus far;
getting [[Europe]]an [[State]]s to commit to a plan that would finally end the folly of Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership;
getting the EU finally to face up to the enormous challenge of admitting Ukraine to membership in some form, recognising the huge [[financial]] challenges this will pose to the project;
getting the EU and Britain to commit to [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]] removal from Russia, having taken steps to make them permanent. This will include the issue of the mobilisation of Russia’s frozen assets.
The list is longer than that, but the key point is that landing a deal, the shape and substance of which Ukraine and Europe have been resisting since the war started, represents a massive hurdle.
Why?
Because, at the very least, taking NATO off the table and making Ukraine a neutral state will represent an enormous [[strategic defeat]] of [[the west]], that political leaders will have to account for to their [[public]]s, following years of open-ended and exorbitant [[financial]] commitments, during which time Europe has grown demonstrably poorer because of its [[war]] [[policy]].
So the biggest blockage to this plan is [[political]]. But the political facts on the ground in [[Europe]], characterised by what is happening in [[France]] right now, are bringing the final political reckoning with defeat ever closer, while making the pill more bitter.}}
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