Monday 10th of March 2025
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encirclement and a spat with the donald.....

  • Thousands of Ukrainian troops who stormed into Russia’s Kursk region last August are almost surrounded by Russian forces there in a major blow to Kyiv, which hoped to use its presence as leverage over Moscow in any peace talks, Reuters has reported, citing open source maps.

  • The news agency said the maps showed Ukraine’s situation in Kursk had deteriorated sharply in the past three days, after Russian forces retook territory as part of a gathering counteroffensive that has nearly cut the Ukrainian force in two and separated the main group from its principal supply lines. The situation for Ukraine comes after Washington suspended its intelligence sharing with Kyiv and raises the possibility that its forces may be forced into a retreat back into Ukraine or risk being captured or killed. “The situation [for Ukraine in Kursk] is very bad,” said Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group. Yan Matveev, another analyst, said Ukraine had a difficult choice to make.

  • About three-quarters of the Ukrainian force inside Russia was now almost completely encircled, according to the open source mapping on Friday from Deep State, an authoritative Ukrainian military blogging resource. It showed the troops were joined to the remaining Ukrainian force located closer to the Russian border by a land corridor around 1km long and less than 500m wide at its narrowest point as Russian forces move to cut that off too. Deep State said Russian forces were also pressuring Kyiv’s positions in the border area with the Sumy region and moving to try to block supplies to Ukrainian forces inside Kursk.

  • Russia carried out huge ballistic missile and drone strikes across Ukraine a day after the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv which had previously given advance warnings of attacks. The strikes came early on Friday as a Ukrainian delegation prepared to meet with US counterparts in Saudi Arabia next week for talks about a possible end to the war, report Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh. In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump appeared to criticise Russia’s latest bombardment. The US president posted: “Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED.” Separately, Trump said he found it “easier” to deal with Russia than with Ukraine in efforts to end the war and that he trusted Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. “I believe him,” Trump said. “I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine and they don’t have the cards,” he said. “It may be easier dealing with Russia.”

  • Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to Russia’s strikes by calling for a truce covering air and sea. “The first steps to establishing real peace should be forcing the sole source of this war, Russia, to stop such attacks,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France.

  • US aerospace company Maxar Technologies disabled Ukraine’s access to its satellite images after a request from the Trump administration. Maxar said it had contracts with the US government and dozens of allied and partner nations and “each customer makes their own decisions on how they use and share that data”.

  • Russian forces attacked the town of Dobropillia in eastern Ukraine late on Friday, killing 11 people and injuring 30, the country’s emergency service said. Regional governor Vadym Filashki said on Telegram that Russian forces had launched three night-time strikes on the town north of Pokrovsk, a focal point of their advance through eastern Ukraine. According to initial information, four high-rise apartment buildings were damaged in the assault, he said. Emergency crews were at the site. Donetsk prosecutors said earlier that five residents of the region had been killed in Russian attacks on a string of towns and villages. One was killed in Pokrovsk and two others in villages near the city of Kostyantynivka, farther north-east, they said. One other victim was identified as a resident near the town of Kurakhove, which Russia’s military said it captured in January. Separately, one person was killed in a drone attack and seven others wounded early Saturday in the city of Bogodukhiv, said Kharkiv region military head Oleg Synegubov. In Ukraine’s southern Black Sea port of Odesa, the regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said a Russian drone attack had again damaged energy infrastructure and other targets.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s approval rating in Ukraine has risen by 10 percentage points since his White House spat with Donald Trump, a survey by a leading Ukrainian pollster showed on Friday. The poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology – conducted from 14 February to 4 March – found 67% of respondents trusted Zelenskyy in March, up from 57% a month earlier.

  • Iran’s foreign ministry denied accusations by Emmanuel Macron that Tehran had supplied equipment to Russia for use in the Ukraine war. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei was quoted by state news agency Irna as saying the French president’s remarks were “baseless and false”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/08/ukraine-war-briefing-thousands-of-kyivs-troops-in-kursk-nearly-surrounded-by-russian-forces-report

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TKeNCE4h-4

10,000 TRAPPED: Kursk Encirclement Complete - Ukraine's Worst Military Disaster Unfolds

 

ACCORDING TO THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, THE KIEV FORCES HAVE LOST MORE THAN 65,000 SOLDIERS AND MORE THAN 350 TANKS IN KURSK, SO FAR... THEY ARE ABOUT TO LOSE ANOTHER 10,000 TROOPS WITHIN A FEW DAYS: EITHER THEY SURRENDER OR THEY GET BOMBED TO OBLIVION... 

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

a deal rather than war....

The leader of the free world doesn’t believe in the free world

Michael Fullilove

Lowy Institute executive director

The institute has been described as "neoliberal", "centre-right" leaning and "reactionary".

 

The leader of the free world doesn’t believe in the free world and doesn’t want to lead it. Such is clear from US President Donald Trump’s ugly Oval Office exchange with President Volodymyr Zelensky and his withholding of US military aid, security guarantees and vital intelligence from a democracy fighting for its survival, even as he eases pressure on its authoritarian invader.

This is not the savvy use of leverage to end a forever war. Rather, it is the capitulation of a president determined to do a deal with a dictator, regardless of the cost.

GUS: WHO IS A DICTATOR AGAIN? AH, ZELENSKYYYYY… SURE… SO WHAT IS THE COST TO DISREGARD? ANOTHER 300,000 UKRAINIAN TROOPS DECIMATED? THE WAR — AN AMERICAN/WEST PROXY WAR AGAINST RUSSIA — IS LOST FOR THE WEST… SHOULD TRUMP WANT TO WIN IT, HE WOULD HAVE TO GET NATO SEND ONE MILLION TROOPS INTO YUCKRAINE (THE KIEV NAZI REGIME) TO FIGHT THE RUSSIANS… THIS HAS NO OTHER OUTCOME THAN NUCLEAR WORLD WAR THREE…

UNLIKE FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT, TRUMP DOES NOT HAVE THE LUXURY OF LAUNCHING A FULL-BLOWN WAR ON RUSSIA… HE HAS TO MAKE A DEAL WITH RUSSIA REGARDLESS OF THE COST… THE DEAL THAT TRUMP IS TRYING TO MAKE IS DIFFICULT. THE EUROPEANS WANT TO CARRY ON FIGHTING, WHICH IS STUPID ON SEVERAL FRONTS: BY THE TIME THE EU HAS ENOUGH WEAPONS TO FIGHT RUSSIA, RUSSIA WOULD HAVE INCREASED PRODUCTION OF BETTER WEAPONS UP TO FIVE FOLDS (AT LEAST THREE)… AND EUROPE WOULD BE SO BROKE, THEY WOULD FIGHT AMONGST EACH OTHER FOR CRUMBS… SO THE REST OF FULLILOVE’S ARGUMENT IS SO SO SO 1939… WE LIVE IN 2025…:

Franklin D. Roosevelt took the United States into World War II – and into the world – by persuading Americans they had a stake in preventing aggression in Europe and Asia. Every US president since FDR has defined the US national interest broadly. They understood that global leadership enables Washington to embed its own values and interests in the international system.

Donald Trump disagrees with them all.

 

FDR defeated America First; Trump has revived it.

John F. Kennedy promised that America would “pay any price” and “bear any burden … to assure the survival and the success of liberty”. Trump reckons it is for others to pay the price and bear the burden. Liberty is for losers.

THIS IS SO GLIB… SO POORLY ARGUED. SO WHAT WOULD YOU DO? GIVE ZELENSKY ALL THE MISSILES TO HIT MOSCOW WITH AND PAY THE PRICE? WHAT WOULD BE THE PRICE? NUKES EVERYWHERE AS FRENCH LITTLE MACRON IS THREATENING RUSSIA WITH. REMEMBER CHURCHILL WANTING TO NUKE MOSCOW IN 1947? HARRY S TRUMAN TOLD HIM A CATEGORICAL NO — DESPITE THE DESIRE OF AMERICA TO DESTROY RUSSIA SINCE 1917…

 

FULLILOVE CONTINUED....:

Most of the foreign policy themes of Trump’s second term are familiar from his first. He remains sceptical of alliances, though, of course, Moscow or Beijing would dearly love to have alliance networks as powerful and cost-effective as those of the US. Trump still prefers the company of autocrats and strongmen to democratic leaders. His hostility to free trade has intensified. Tariff is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”, he says: both a means to force concessions from other states and a revenue-raising end in itself.

But Trump 2.0 also contains an innovation. Trump has always believed, despite the evidence, that America is on the wrong end of the global deal: ripped off and disrespected. Last time, his solution was to reduce America’s stake: to retrench, to withdraw from international institutions and geographies. This time, Trump’s idea is to increase America’s payout: to expand, to grab more protection money and more land.

Trump’s stated desire to acquire new territories for the US, including Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada and Gaza – in some cases, perhaps, through the use of force – is genuinely shocking. It blurs the clear bright line breached by Russia in its brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine. It may well encourage China to chance its arm on Taiwan. If this were to occur, it is unlikely that Trump would deploy America’s forces in Taiwan’s defence. He seems more disposed to seek an accommodation with Beijing than a confrontation.

The irony is that Trump’s plans to make America great again will subvert the pillars of American greatness. The US alliance network is a key comparative advantage vis-à-vis its adversaries. America’s companies and entrepreneurs dominate the international economy. Trump’s graceless conduct will alienate the world.

The genius of FDR and his successors lay in the fact that they were able to achieve what historian John Lewis Gaddis described as “hegemony by consent”. America’s friends could see a place for themselves in Washington’s worldview, so they went along with Washington’s ways.

But if you push your friends to the brink in every negotiation – if you demand the very minerals from the land they are defending with their lives, and then insist they thank you for the privilege – well, then, sooner or later, that consent will evaporate.

“The free world needs a new leader,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. But Europe is not up to this task. The hope of the free world – especially Australia and other US allies in Asia – must be that the fever in Washington will soon pass.

YES EUROPE IS NOT UP TO THE TASK BECAUSE THEY ALL THINK WITH THEIR BUTTS INSTEAD OF THEIR BRAINS... DREAM ON, DREAM ON...

 

Michael Fullilove is executive director of the Lowy Institute. He is writing a book about John F. Kennedy.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/the-leader-of-the-free-world-doesn-t-believe-in-the-free-world-20250307-p5lhqc.html

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

no intelligence....

The recent suspension of US intelligence sharing with Ukraine has critically weakened Kiev’s defense capabilities, leading to substantial casualties, territorial losses – particularly in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk Region – and plummeting morale, Time reported on Friday, citing Western and Ukrainian officials familiar with the situation.

One unnamed official claimed that the lack of US intel directly resulted in “hundreds of dead Ukrainians,” adding that “the biggest problem is morale,” as Kiev is unable to effectively use some of its most powerful Western-supplied weapons.

https://www.rt.com/russia/613927-ukraine-losses-us-intel-freeze/

 

ME CAN TELL YOU THAT THE US INTELLIGENCE HAS BEEN OVERRATED IN THIS CONFLICT. EVEN WITH THE BEST INTELLIGENCE, THE AMERICANS WERE UNABLE (UNWILLING?) TO WIN IN AFGHANISTAN...... IN REGARD TO SADDAM'S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, THE AMERICANS FABRICATED THE "INTELLIGENCE" TO SUIT (TOLD PORKIES).... SOME OF THE MOST "POWERFUL" WESTERN SUPPLIED WEAPONS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED BY THE RUSSIANS, US INTELLIGENCE OR NOT....

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.