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Posted

Posted by Zelenskyy this afternoon

The Ukrainian delegation has departed for the United States: Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, and several representatives of the diplomatic sector. They will hold a number of meetings.

I will also have the opportunity to come to Washington and meet with President Trump on Friday. I believe we will discuss a series of steps that I intend to propose. I am grateful to President Trump for our dialogue and his support.

There will be several other important meetings – with defense companies, and possibly with senators and members of Congress. I will also meet with energy companies. This is necessary – it was President Trump’s proposal – and I will meet with these companies because there are pressing needs linked to various formats of attacks, not even the attacks that Russia has already carried out. In any case, we must be prepared. So, it will be helpful.

Therefore, the main focus of the visit is air defense and our long-range capabilities aimed at exerting pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.

———-

I am going to guess that if Trump thinks hitting refineries will end the war, he will supply Tomahawks.  As dense he can be about this topic, even he understands refineries going up in flames and long gas lines.

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted
1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Posted by Zelenskyy this afternoon

The Ukrainian delegation has departed for the United States: Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, and several representatives of the diplomatic sector. They will hold a number of meetings.

I will also have the opportunity to come to Washington and meet with President Trump on Friday. I believe we will discuss a series of steps that I intend to propose. I am grateful to President Trump for our dialogue and his support.

There will be several other important meetings – with defense companies, and possibly with senators and members of Congress. I will also meet with energy companies. This is necessary – it was President Trump’s proposal – and I will meet with these companies because there are pressing needs linked to various formats of attacks, not even the attacks that Russia has already carried out. In any case, we must be prepared. So, it will be helpful.

Therefore, the main focus of the visit is air defense and our long-range capabilities aimed at exerting pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.

———-

I am going to guess that if Trump thinks hitting refineries will end the war, he will supply Tomahawks.  As dense he can be about this topic, even he understands refineries going up in flames and long gas lines.

Any chance this meeting goes to crap like it did last winter?

Posted
1 minute ago, Parliament said:

Any chance this meeting goes to crap like it did last winter?

Trump is riding high with his peacemaker mindset and knows that Russia clowned him, and that Russia looks weak.  He hates weakness.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
13 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

Seems low

No kidding.

What self-respecting Surly patriot would pass up the opportunity to vigorously butt sex the Russian propagandist - for Democracy - after insisting “Himars” is the safe word. 

IMG_1963.gif.d7cb91cf6f558f350616b529c4047fb5.gif

  • Like 1
Posted
10 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

No kidding.

What self-respecting Surly patriot would pass up the opportunity to vigorously butt sex the Russian propagandist - for Democracy - after insisting “Himars” is the safe word. 

IMG_1963.gif.d7cb91cf6f558f350616b529c4047fb5.gif

There are enough head scratcher takes in ipihb (too old, big bush, saggy tits etc) that I was wondering if 93.6 was high

Posted

Funny enough, the next interesting thing to watch is the meeting between Xie and Trump. Trump may view China as the real "adversary", but it is impossible to isolate China with the conflict on going. The Ukrainian delegation meeting in DC is nice window dressing to signal potential weapons deals and better strategic relationships, but the real "dagger" to end this is China agreeing to stop buying oil from Russia.

China needs the trade war to end with the US and the rest of the world to have the US's blessing to not have to choose between the US and Chinese markets. The Chinese economy is in trouble with deflation concerns, unemployment, housing bubbles, trade tariffs and the lot and they desperately need an outlet for goods as well as other countries be willing to be able to play the middle man with them and the US again. With the ME chaos for the most part under control, expect OPEC to be willing to increase output if the oil is earmarked for China. That keeps OPEC in the green, China getting a way out of a potential recession, and the US, the end of the war on their terms that they are after.  

Something similar will probably be attempted with India, but that one is harder to guess on because there is much bigger issues beyond simple trade/tariffs with India, and so it is much more difficult to develop what is really on the table to be negotiated around. 

That will probably be the US offer. My guess is that this is a coin flip on whether Xie agrees to do something along these lines, and when he initially drags his feet, expect to see some saber-rattling by Saudi and OPEC+ to show China that they are willing to follow through in response to the US efforts to help deal with Iran and the Israeli/Hamas war.

The hardest part of solving the Ukraine/Russia war is that China has had little reason to stop indirectly supporting this war despite its official stance of neutrality and repeated (if largely symbolic) peace proposals. Even with heavy sanctions on Russia, there are easy ways to buy their oil and keep their economy afloat. Keeping the war going is currently in China's best interest. All it does is help destabilize the US and Europe while slowly bleeding Russia dry. There was no way to leverage China away from Russia due to their immense need for oil to sustain their resource-intensive economy. They can either get it from Russia for cheap or get it elsewhere. Up until now, there was no reason for the OPEC members to do anything but complain that China is buying cheap oil from Russia, knowing that China still has to buy the rest from them. Now the ME has a reason to be involved as it can look to expand production and stabilize revenues while reducing volatility, especially with Russia nearing OPEC+ quotas and prompting compensation demands. The political climate has changed to the point that it is worthwhile for the Arab states to look to further expand ties to the west and this is one of the easiest ways to do so.

 

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