Russian Ukraine Invasion

[Syne]

Please cite your source on Trump lifting sanctions on Russia.

I haven't heard anything about sanctions being removed. 

Trump only entertained the possibility of removing sanctions.

That's what I heard. It makes sense: offer to reduce sanctions if Russia does what we want, and threaten to increase them if they don't.

Can you show otherwise, or have you just been drinking from the MSNBC fountain?

The alternate-reality fountain of disinformation!

Thanks, Yaz. God knows, MR will never have the intellectual honesty to eat crow.

[Yazata]

The Ukrainian Kursk offensive, which has been on defense for months, finally seems to be collapsing. Malaya Loknya, which has been holding out against Russian attack for weeks, was suddenly evacuated today because the Russians threatened to surround them by cutting the road to Sudzha. And today the Russians are right outside if not in the middle of Sudzha.

Compare the two maps below, only one day apart.

[Image: GloztsTW0AEOW2o?format=png&name=medium]

[Image: GlkAf8sXoAAs2FT?format=png&name=medium]

Elsewhere along the front there is little change, although fighting continues.

[Yazata]

Today's situation in Kursk

[Image: Glt4GeqWwAAKRZN?format=png&name=medium]

[Yazata]

The US and Ukraine are currently having talks in Saudi Arabia.

And today Ukraine's Zelensky, who previously had been holding out for Ukrainian "victory" before he would talk, agreed in principle to a ceasefire with negotiation on a more permanent settlement to follow. The US government in turn ended its recent freeze on military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Now the US delegation says that it will travel to Moscow on Thursday in hopes that Putin will agree to the same thing.

President Trump says he hopes that a ceasefire will happen in the next few days.

[Yazata]

[Image: GlzCwplXsAAZGcN?format=jpg&name=medium]

[Yazata]

Geolocated photographs have appeared (all from Russian sources) showing Russian flags raised in the middle of Sudzha. The accompanying Russian accounts say that the Ukrainians pulled out in good order without destroyed armored vehicles or captured soldiers.

It's unclear where the Ukrainians are now. There are claims that they have retreated back across the nearby Ukrainian border, about 6 miles away. It's unknown if that is true. If it is true, then it would mark the final failure of Ukraine's 2024 summer offensive into Russia.

[confused2]

BBC on Putin's response so far (before contact with Trump)

No surprises from Putin today
published at 16:58 GMT 13 March 2025
Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring
No surprises there, it’s a no disguised as a yes.
Vladimir Putin put forward conditions that will be devastating for Ukraine: No more weapons supplies, no more mobilisation, surrender rather than withdrawal of Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, and most importantly the removal of “underlying causes of this crisis.”
Recent history suggests that for President Putin, these “underlying causes” include the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state free to pursue its own policy at home and abroad.
The US and Ukraine have both said that the ball is now “in Russia’s court,” but Russia’s president has just tried to push the ball back into their court.

So.. ceasefire and cease Ukraine..?
Hopefully Trump can do better.

[stryder]

BBC on Putin's response so far (before contact with Trump)

No surprises from Putin today
published at 16:58 GMT 13 March 2025
Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring
No surprises there, it’s a no disguised as a yes.
Vladimir Putin put forward conditions that will be devastating for Ukraine: No more weapons supplies, no more mobilisation, surrender rather than withdrawal of Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, and most importantly the removal of “underlying causes of this crisis.”
Recent history suggests that for President Putin, these “underlying causes” include the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state free to pursue its own policy at home and abroad.
The US and Ukraine have both said that the ball is now “in Russia’s court,” but Russia’s president has just tried to push the ball back into their court.

So.. ceasefire and cease Ukraine..?
Hopefully Trump can do better.

I think Putins objective is SeizeFührer and Seize Ukraine

Trumps not exactly up to the job of Peace diplomat... The threat of more sanctions makes Putin quake in his boots (Not!).
Allowing Russia to dictate the lines, was what got us in the coldwar bullshit in the firstplace.

[Syne]

Talk about the blind leading the blind.

The "underlying causes" (to anyone who's actually paid attention) would be Ukraine seeking NATO membership. Trump has already said Ukraine joining NATO is not on the table of any peace deal... even before Putin mentioned this. It just makes sense to deescalate the region. Proxy hostilities from the West arming Ukraine is in the same vein.

I'm willing to bet there's some negotiation room between surrender and withdrawal from Kursk, which is Russian territory.

But any rational person should readily recognize that no one, other than Trump, has/had any feasible plan for peace... much less even a foreseeable strategy to end this war.

[Magical Realist]

Well imagine that! Putin doesn't want to end a war that he started in the first place. Who woulda thunk it?