@EL - Thank you again for doing this. Watching the news is daily becoming more painful. It is, therefore, a great help to absorb all this information from your precis'.
I believe I agree with Holly, below, that some of this is window dressing on NATO's part. At this point, with the invasion going badly, Russia is hardly likely to cross lines that would bring added pressure to his splintered military. But it does serve to put Putin on notice that all that his invasion has done is add to the forces lined up on his borders. He would have done better to leave well enough alone, but overreach is common to sociopaths like Putin.
Just the same, those forces won't help Ukraine fight this battle. I'm not sure, either, that a no-fly zone is the answer any longer. What Ukraine needs are sophisticated long-range missiles that can shoot Russian jets out of the sky. NATO also needs to help get medicine, food, and water into Ukraine across those border countries. No army fights as well as it can whilst starving, as Germany found out when it invaded Russia.
Ukraine's resistance has probably put paid to Putin's dreams of taking back Hungary, Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, et al, especially after the West broadcast its unwillingness to fight so early.
Ukraine has paid the price for being the one to stand fast and make clear to Putin that such hopes are idle fantasies.
NATO must see, then, how critically important it is that the opportunity to defang Putin is not lost. To do that, NATO must one way or another ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to finish the job. TC
"NATO finally agrees to step up defenses in, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania after a month. This is an acknowledgement that current defensive measures were inadequate, and that Russia is a potential threat to these smaller states who are vulnerable." As I read this today, I couldn't help but feel this is less NATO actually doing something, as opposed to these countries taking matters into their own hands after recognizing the danger they are in and wanting to be prepared/proactive. Those countries have certainly seen how NATO as a whole has done nothing to diffuse and put a stop to the current conflict (which NATO, collectively, has the firepower to do and should have done long before things escalated to this point). And I'm ashamed to say that, as an American, I point the finger at the biggest culprit in that decision process right here at the U.S., with its feet-dragging philosophy.
Firstly Macron ! What does he think he will achieve? (Well I am not sure he does) think that is. Desperate to be re elected, does he seriously beleive he has some magic ability to get through to the little russian because they are both in the short man club. Poland and with good reason, along with other former Easturn block counties are wise to mount defences they know all too well the reality of mother russia's embrace. The little russian wants more than the former ussr states back he wants to have more than Stalin had when he died in 1953. He has to be stopped for the rest of Europe and if he is to be believed as much of Scandnavia as he thinks he can get away with. We in the West have I feel lost to a greater extent that viseral instinct to survive, it needs to be regained pretty damn quick.
As for Zalensky, my gut instinct is not to trust or believe this man. The time has come to dry the tears and take a very long dispassionate look at exactly what we are being shown, really look , not with the emotions but the head. Nato needs to look inward to its self at some point in the not distant future and know it has to modernise for the first time in over 70 years. The blow back I am sensing from this is starting in a small way that will grow is the well what about previous conflicts where poc have been involved. The past is the past we can learn from it but not change it, from decisions made by others in that time. I for one do not want any british troops wasteing their lives on this. The Ukraine took the decision to defend its self rather than be occupied by Russia once again with the enthusiastic encouragement of Zelensky, and quite rightly so, seeing it as defending the rest of europe was not upmost in their minds.
I do believe at some point Zelensky was made promises that could not have realistically been for filled which was wrong, very wrong indeed.
Thank you. So clearly set out and is all the more shocking reading the timeline. My husband said at breakfast this morning "I wonder how many Ukrainians will die today whilst NATO sits on its hands and looks the other way". I read a report that Putin has dropped a phosphor bomb and if this is true, then surely, as even the UN has recognised the war crimes bu Russia, NATO should mount a humanitarian strike. We live on the edge of Salisbury Plain which is the main UK training area and there has been a lot of activity recently but it has gone quiet in the last couple of days. I can only hope that RAF Brize Norton is preparing to ship out troops and weapons to help them.
I look forward to hearing some good news from the NATO Conference tomorrow. It may not be enough but it is better than doing nothing.
@EL - Thank you again for doing this. Watching the news is daily becoming more painful. It is, therefore, a great help to absorb all this information from your precis'.
I believe I agree with Holly, below, that some of this is window dressing on NATO's part. At this point, with the invasion going badly, Russia is hardly likely to cross lines that would bring added pressure to his splintered military. But it does serve to put Putin on notice that all that his invasion has done is add to the forces lined up on his borders. He would have done better to leave well enough alone, but overreach is common to sociopaths like Putin.
Just the same, those forces won't help Ukraine fight this battle. I'm not sure, either, that a no-fly zone is the answer any longer. What Ukraine needs are sophisticated long-range missiles that can shoot Russian jets out of the sky. NATO also needs to help get medicine, food, and water into Ukraine across those border countries. No army fights as well as it can whilst starving, as Germany found out when it invaded Russia.
Ukraine's resistance has probably put paid to Putin's dreams of taking back Hungary, Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, et al, especially after the West broadcast its unwillingness to fight so early.
Ukraine has paid the price for being the one to stand fast and make clear to Putin that such hopes are idle fantasies.
NATO must see, then, how critically important it is that the opportunity to defang Putin is not lost. To do that, NATO must one way or another ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to finish the job. TC
"NATO finally agrees to step up defenses in, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania after a month. This is an acknowledgement that current defensive measures were inadequate, and that Russia is a potential threat to these smaller states who are vulnerable." As I read this today, I couldn't help but feel this is less NATO actually doing something, as opposed to these countries taking matters into their own hands after recognizing the danger they are in and wanting to be prepared/proactive. Those countries have certainly seen how NATO as a whole has done nothing to diffuse and put a stop to the current conflict (which NATO, collectively, has the firepower to do and should have done long before things escalated to this point). And I'm ashamed to say that, as an American, I point the finger at the biggest culprit in that decision process right here at the U.S., with its feet-dragging philosophy.
Firstly Macron ! What does he think he will achieve? (Well I am not sure he does) think that is. Desperate to be re elected, does he seriously beleive he has some magic ability to get through to the little russian because they are both in the short man club. Poland and with good reason, along with other former Easturn block counties are wise to mount defences they know all too well the reality of mother russia's embrace. The little russian wants more than the former ussr states back he wants to have more than Stalin had when he died in 1953. He has to be stopped for the rest of Europe and if he is to be believed as much of Scandnavia as he thinks he can get away with. We in the West have I feel lost to a greater extent that viseral instinct to survive, it needs to be regained pretty damn quick.
As for Zalensky, my gut instinct is not to trust or believe this man. The time has come to dry the tears and take a very long dispassionate look at exactly what we are being shown, really look , not with the emotions but the head. Nato needs to look inward to its self at some point in the not distant future and know it has to modernise for the first time in over 70 years. The blow back I am sensing from this is starting in a small way that will grow is the well what about previous conflicts where poc have been involved. The past is the past we can learn from it but not change it, from decisions made by others in that time. I for one do not want any british troops wasteing their lives on this. The Ukraine took the decision to defend its self rather than be occupied by Russia once again with the enthusiastic encouragement of Zelensky, and quite rightly so, seeing it as defending the rest of europe was not upmost in their minds.
I do believe at some point Zelensky was made promises that could not have realistically been for filled which was wrong, very wrong indeed.
Thank you. So clearly set out and is all the more shocking reading the timeline. My husband said at breakfast this morning "I wonder how many Ukrainians will die today whilst NATO sits on its hands and looks the other way". I read a report that Putin has dropped a phosphor bomb and if this is true, then surely, as even the UN has recognised the war crimes bu Russia, NATO should mount a humanitarian strike. We live on the edge of Salisbury Plain which is the main UK training area and there has been a lot of activity recently but it has gone quiet in the last couple of days. I can only hope that RAF Brize Norton is preparing to ship out troops and weapons to help them.
I look forward to hearing some good news from the NATO Conference tomorrow. It may not be enough but it is better than doing nothing.