Summary
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, stated that Vladimir Putin has no intention of invading all of Europe, calling fears of broader aggression “academic.”
Witkoff expects progress in Ukraine-Russia talks, including a potential Black Sea ceasefire.
He acknowledged Russia’s view that occupied territories are rightfully theirs, citing disputed referendums.
The Kremlin hinted at more contacts between Trump and Putin than publicly disclosed, raising concerns among European leaders about a potential US-Russia peace deal.
Oh, shit, so he for sure is planning to invade Europe, then.
Next will be Moldova, then the Baltics.
It’s not that he wouldn’t like to, but how could he is another story.
Trump has already said the EU was made to harm America. Trump also dislikes NATO. So pretty sure he’d have little issue with it. Probably more depends on how long it takes Putin to get to Western Europe and how robust they, Western Europe, can make their MIC between now and then.
There are all sorts of possibilities between now and then so no telling how it all plays out.
The idea that Russia, a country with a GDP the size of the Benelux, could take on an economic block comparable in size to China, is simply ridiculous.
Russia hasn’t even been able to take down Ukraine, how could it ever be able to take down the entire EU?
Piece by piece, always both saying that those bits had always been Russian and that the surrounding nations have nothing to worry about.
That’s a lot of pieces ’till Western Europe, which was the scenario I was responding to. And, while I have very little faith in our politicians, they’re not complete imbeciles. An attack on an EU country will certainly lead to an even stronger push towards unification than is the case now already, with just threatening words (from Trump, though - not Putin).
Well, when the US puts its war machine behind the venture…
The scenario I was responding to implied the US would wait and see „how long it takes Putin to get to Western Europe”, at least that’s how I read it.
And the answer is: he wouldn’t ever reach Western Europe. Not in a million years. It’s simply fantasy.
Well, they’re doing a pretty good job with USA.
They could Ribbentrop-Molotov Europe with the US and China I guess
In high-stakes meeting, Russia tells U.S. it isn’t planning to invade Ukraine
January 10, 20225:12 AM ET
He’s either a lying piece of shit or a completely fucking clueless idiot.
I don’t think that those are mutually exclusive options.
Fair enough.
The President should walk among the people without any security, because most of the people don’t want to kill him. So he should test that statement openly and freely, see what happens.
Just a little bit of Europe then?
Well it’s not Europe you see it’s temporarily occupied parts of Russia, historically it belongs to Russia so really they’re just taking it back.
Same argument that China and Israel are using to annex Taiwan and Palestine.
just the tip
Well, yeah.
Europe is continent sized piece of land. Russian tanks rolling into Moldova is a bit different than Poland, or Germany.
Different politically, militarily, and strategically.
Even then, I can’t see Putin biting off any more at this particular moment. Time will tell if Trump significantly eases sanctions to a degree that would enable him to speedily recapitialize.
Of course, I didn’t believe he’d actually try and take Kiev, so I’m not going to sit here and cosplay as a Kreminologist.
Neat.
Peace in our time.
Just make sure it’s a peace that doesn’t allow for further aggression.
As sure as Neville Chamberlain was when he said it.
Not planning. Already planned.
Great. So he wouldn’t mind of the EU rearms its defensive capabilities a bit.
So just everything that used to be under the Soviet sphere of influence then? Maybe the Sudetenland, as a treat.
I think Tsar Putin wants the Russian Empire, not the USSR.
(Thanks Alamy!)
It will be a liberation, not an invasion. And anyway, not all of Europe, you can keep Portugal.
Yeah, liberation from freedom.
Freeing souls from bodies,
Letting spirits fly,
Freedom from life.
#1 liberators in the world,
Kill as well as ice is cold.
I think they have been claiming self defense.
“I take him at his word in this sense”
That’s the problem right there. Dope. His word is worth less than the air used to create it. His MO is literally to lull people into a false sense of security then rob or kill them.
So just Poland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway then. Those countries better EU up, and soon!
Woah woah woah. Moldova first. They’ve already got a start on that one.
There’s a historical precedent that Poland be invaded first, ‘officially’.
Because if history has taught us anything, if we keep believing history won’t repeat itself, it does.
The Baltics catching strays: “and I took that personally”
What do you mean? All those countries (except norway which is like an honory member) are already joined to the European Union.
The better get some mines nukes and mines on their border then. I know Poland is preparing.
I’m not sure Russia could conquer any reasonably-sized country at this point. Ukraine’s tenacity, resourcefulness, & drones plus western weapons has basically ensured that no matter what concessions Russia “wins,” it’ll be a Pyrrhic victory. It’ll probably take them a decade just to get back to where they were prior to the invasion.
According to independent estimates (that I just googled but seem fairly consistent across different sources from different countries), Russia has had almost 1,000,000 casualties and lost over 10,000 tanks. They’ve even lost a few T-54/55 tanks, which were designed in the 1950’s and stopped being produced in 1981. One report even said they were taking tanks out of museums and putting them back into service. (I couldn’t verify that but it’s probably not a good sign that any 40+ year-old tanks have been spotted on the battlefield.)
At this point, I’m less worried about Russia attacking an EU/NATO country than I am about Russia collapsing and all the regional instability that would follow.
You can trust that Steve Witkoff guy. He is known for striking ceasefire deals and holding violators to account.
Oh ok, well that’s good enough for me.
/s in case that’s not obvious.
Get ready
