After the Putin/Trump Summit- updating
Canada?
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada praised President Trump for “creating the opportunity to end Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” and agreeing to provide security guarantees to Ukraine after a peace deal. He also said Canada would intensify its support for Ukraine and is working closely with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. His statement aligned with much of Europe’s response to the Alaska summit, cautiously avoiding contradicting Trump’s decision to prioritize a sweeping peace deal over an immediate cease-fire, while showing firm support of Ukraine
Baltic and Nordic States will continue to arm Ukraine
Baltic and Nordic countries, including NATO’s newest members, Finland and Sweden, declared in a unified statement on Saturday that they would continue to arm Ukraine and bolster their own defenses in the face of Russian aggression.
Europe moves to back Ukraine after Trump drops cease-fire demand.
Much of Europe moved on Saturday to back Ukraine after President Trump abandoned their joint demand for a cease-fire, but the leaders treaded carefully to not openly contradict Mr. Trump as he aligned himself with Russia’s vision of ending the war.
In a joint statement released after Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met in Alaska, European leaders welcomed Mr. Trump’s efforts to stop the war and his declaration that America would offer future security guarantees after a peace deal.
Putin convenes top officials
Upon his return to Moscow, Putin convened top Russian officials at the Kremlin to brief them in televised remarks about the meeting in Alaska. He said his conversation with President Trump had been “very frank and informative,” adding that it brought Russia and the United States “closer to the necessary decisions” to end the war in Ukraine
As much as one can see benefits in the meeting in Alaska taking place- Particularly in the public relations aspect. For both nations. Which might make a difference? Or not. Because this can also be seen as solely an exercise in that same PR with no real sincerity. The US will happily sell arms to the EU/Baltic nations. They set up the PURL mechanism to do exactly that.
The US has demanded all NATO partners increase military spending
So the question is, what is the real value in the meeting? Keeping in mind war makes money. And America’s best business is arms making.
If you check the link above you can see that America exports more arms globally- then the 13 nations combined that follow (2022 data)
Something Trump never mentions when he talks about tariffs..
Lastly Glenn Diesen interviews Michael von der Schulenburg. He believes the meeting was a game changer
I’m less confident this is a game changer. How about you?
6 replies on “Will the Putin/Trump Summit resolve the Russia/Ukraine Conflict?”
I don’t know what I need to envision with regards to “Game Changer”, but from my point of view. We are long past the point of no return.
Whatever path they take from this point onwards will inevitably spill blood one way or another.
Hey Kaz
“Whatever path they take from this point onwards will inevitably spill blood one way or another.”
I’m struggling with this, because, I hate always being the pessimist (previously accused) when this is more about being the realist, IMO.
Larger agendas factor into this scenario. Old rivalries. Other players factor in as well. I feel as if there are too many moving parts and not all parties are well controlled or restrained.
This feels as if Trump is just off loading onto Europe. It’s not lost on me that many refugees, young men of fighting age have entered Europe. They have been used to wage war previously for empire and they will again.
We saw this already where ISIS went to fight alongside the Ukrainians.
There was a large movement of fighters a few years back into, I wanna say Moldova or Romania
Then we keep in mind NATO has been building up Poland for better than a decade now
Then we recall (this one is from my old site)
https://www.ft.com/content/d1143d40-1294-11e5-bcc2-00144feabdc0
US considers plan to store weapons in eastern Europe
The US military is considering a plan to store heavy weapons and equipment in eastern Europe in response to fears over Russian aggression in the region, in what would be the first such deployment in the former Warsaw Pact nations since the end of the Cold War.
US military leaders have proposed that the heavy weapons be pre-positioned in the Baltic States and other eastern European countries as a way of demonstrating the commitment to defend the newer members of Nato, a US official said.
All this background… I can’t ignore it. Or pretend it doesn’t exist.
Hi Penny
All of the points you make a valid.
But there is another aspect missing which makes things even more uncertain. The following might be a bit dark, but that is based on my view of humanity.
European Citizens didn’t die in enough quantity to hold a grudge against the Russians.
Lets consider the scenario they present. Ukraine pulls back from Donbass, Russia moves in and freezes the conflict.
Will/Can Europe and USA finance the rebuilding of Ukraine. Is there enough money to keep the soldiers satisfied. Can they extract enough money from European citizens without them turning against them and the Ukrainians. Can things come to a point to which the Ukrainians feel betrayed by the USA and Europe. Will the Ukrainians living in Europe be forced back to go back to Ukraine, leaving behind the standard of living they got used to in Europe. Can the Ukrainian people actually leave the war behind them. There are many more questions in my mind.
I can’t escape the thought that this conflict sooner or later will end fighting in German streets.
And while things look pessimistic. Its not our responsibility to fix this. It should be the collective humanity, but they delegated this to a small clique of people without serious consideration. We could lose half the earth population because of this, but we as humanity will probably bounce back from it.
The best thing we can do is just doing good things to the people around us, being small things, big things and prepare so much as we can for future events, be it retaliatory, damage control etc.
Because if we were aware of every negative event on this planet, we wouldn’t be able to keep our sanity.
Hey Kaz- so you make a lot of good points
“Will/Can Europe and USA finance the rebuilding of Ukraine. Is there enough money to keep the soldiers satisfied. Can they extract enough money from European citizens without them turning against them and the Ukrainians. ”
I don’t think so- And have my suspicions they (US/EU) don’t really want to rebuild Ukraine.. A chaotic Ukraine is more to their liking- And the Europeans will turn against their Ukrainian refugees.
There is a US military doctrine regarding Feral Cities in “intact states”
Had this at my old place
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/29/why-us-troops-flattened-raqqa-and-mosul-and-what-it-means-for-future-fights/
“Feral cities are major urban sprawls that lack adequate governance. Warlords, gangs or terror groups occupy a maze of concrete that largely blocks GPS links, radio communications and aircraft sensors. U.S. troops are forced to seek and destroy the enemy in an environment filled with sewage, failing infrastructure and even packs of wild dogs.”
There are already some efforts underway. The U.S. military published a manual on small unit training in subterranean environments in 2017 — focusing on fights in the subway and sewage systems underneath huge cities. The Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group has also been pushing training out to soldiers in an effort to spread subterranean warfare knowledge throughout the force.
The US can go for something like this which will keep Russia off balance. It’s an expansion of Asymmetric warfare, really (which is already engaged in)
“I can’t escape the thought that this conflict sooner or later will end fighting in German streets.”
Entirely possible
“The best thing we can do is just doing good things to the people around us, being small things, big things and prepare so much as we can for future events, be it retaliatory, damage control etc.”
In many ways, I agree with this- Because this small clique of people will do what they are going to do- what they want. I’m not sure they really consider our lives. These cliques of people are well secured and consider what is acceptable in the form of losses/wins- including how many other people can acceptably have their lives taken.
So, yes, we should do the things we can do for ourselves and those around us- big things, small things, and be as prepared as possible.
“Because if we were aware of every negative event on this planet, we wouldn’t be able to keep our sanity.”
Totally agree with this!!
“The US can go for something like this which will keep Russia off balance. It’s an expansion of Asymmetric warfare, really (which is already engaged in)”
I get what you say about feral cities, but technology then and now are quite different. If fighting reaches to a point where the enemy is holed up in a cave / tunnel. The R&D in this topic will at some point allow to identify enemy position easier in many ways which was not possible in Iraq.
And to deal with the enemy combatants, I would just send a wire guided drone in with explosives.
good points Kaz!