“Ukraine – Russia”

Yesterday’s pacifists are today’s Rambos, it seems: 442 lawmakers in the 720-seat European Parliament just agreed to a joint declaration that “strongly deplores any attempts at blackmailing Ukraine’s leadership into surrender to the Russian aggressor for the sole purpose of announcing a so-called ‘peace deal.’”

President Donald Trump has threatened ‘devastating’ consequences for Russia if Vladimir Putin does not agree to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine.

Trump issued the ultimatum while discussing his team’s efforts to bring an end to the brutal conflict, which he said could lead to World War III.

When asked what the U.S. could do to pressure Russia into peace, he said: ‘There are things that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.’

Ukraine has said it is ready to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire with Russia proposed by the US, after a day of US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would present the offer to Russia and that “the ball is in their court” – Moscow is yet to publicly comment on the issue.

Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky said it was now up to the US to convince Russia to agree to the “positive” proposal.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — The Trump administration will immediately lift its pause on military and intelligence support for Ukraine after Kyiv’s endorsement of a U.S. ceasefire proposal, according to a joint statement by Ukraine and the United States.

“Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation,” the statement says. “The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.”

Elon Musk pointed the finger at Ukraine after claiming that a “massive cyberattack” had caused severe disruption on his social media site X.

Users began reporting problems at about 5.30am ET (9.30am GMT) on Monday, according to the website DownDetector, which tracks internet outages. The problems appeared to abate before another wave of complaints at 10am ET (2pm GMT), with some 40,000 users reporting that the platform would not load. The problems returned at 12.30pm ET (4.30pm GMT), prompting Musk to issue a statement.

Just remember that Germany’s railway infrastructure is currently in too poor a state to transfer tanks and other military hardware across the country.

Last time military Keynesianism was back in fashion we were well down the road towards a world war. This time European rearmament is principally geared towards restructuring its ailing economy. Its advocates have decided that defense is a better focus for economic regeneration than investing in useless net zero technology to save the day.

As this post on X from the European Commission shows, they have become gung-ho military Keynesians.

A significant portion of the money the U.S. allocated for Ukraine aid was indeed spent within the U.S., particularly with the military-industrial complex, rather than being directly transferred to Ukraine as cash. Here’s how it breaks down based on available information:

The U.S. has committed substantial aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, with Congress approving around $175 billion in emergency funding by mid-2024. This aid includes military, economic, and humanitarian support. However, the military component—channeled through mechanisms like the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI)—is where the connection to the U.S. military-industrial complex becomes clear.

This is a Grok answer.

Europe seeks economic salvation via rearmament.

h/t XC

I am hardly alone among conservatives in stating that I greatly admire Douglas Murray, a fierce opponent of wokeness, defender of Israel, and author of such must-reads as The Strange Death of Europe and The War on the West. And that is why his latest piece in The Spectator, titled “The MAGA Movement is Wrong on Ukraine” is such a disappointment that I felt compelled to respond (the article is behind a paywall, unfortunately, but I have excerpted the key selections below).

“How can the right be so wrong? Or at least portions of the right – especially the American right – when it comes to Ukraine?” Murray asks and then explains.

No one wants Ukraine to fall but those attacking the US should validate their concern by helping pay the bills.

Volodymyr Zelensky will not attend high-level talks between Ukrainian and US negotiators next week but insisted his country is “fully committed” to peace talks.

The Ukrainian leader said that he would visit Saudi Arabia for talks with the Arabian kingdom’s crown prince on Monday but would not stay on for talks with representatives of the US government aimed at ending the war.

“Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war. Realistic proposals are on the table,” he said in a statement posted to X.

US President Donald Trump has said he is finding it “more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine” than Russia in attempts to broker peace between the two nations.

The US is “doing very well with Russia”, and “it may be easier dealing with” Moscow than Kyiv, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

Hours earlier, Trump had said he was “strongly considering” large-scale sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire with Ukraine was reached.

GERMANY THREATENS WAR AGAINST US + RUSSIA⁉️

The German legacy media have the audacity to announce that Europe has to face both USA’s president Trump and Russia as enemies now.

All just to defend Ukraine? Clearly, a much bigger agenda is behind these WWIII ambitions!!! pic.twitter.com/cByXm73apx

— Naomi Seibt (@SeibtNaomi) March 8, 2025