Trump sent Radcliff to Moscow to threaten and when that didn’t work Trump sent Witkoff to Moscow to bribe and when that didn’t work Trump then phoned Putin himself, presumably to beg.
Trump really needs a break with the upcoming US midterm elections where the real drop in MAGA support is likely to be realised and no amount of Trump bluster will be able to hide it.
Meanwhile Russia steps up its air campaign against the whole of Ukraine which has no defence left at all. Germany just sent the last of its own older Patriot missiles which is crazy because Germany already told us that the Russians will be heading to Berlin next even though Ukraine is winning the war, err, apparently.
Merz is now trying to tell us that Russia is a direct threat to western Europe and only Ukraine stands in their way, and that western Europe is of no threat to Russia at all. Which is odd considering western Europe is busy at this very moment firing drones directly at Moscow.
The reality is that Merz knows full well that Putin has no wish to come anywhere near western Europe, there is nothing there for them, no resources and impoverished, fractured societies with crippling demographics. If the Russians ever arrived in western Europe they would be expected to take on the responsibility for all of the EU countries pension payments.
Back to Ukraine and a serious escalation in the Russian air campaign is the use of their huge 3000kg FAB glide bombs, as mentioned in earlier posts these do an enormous amount of damage to a target, far more than any drone and even the ballistic missiles that usually carry around 500kg of explosive though they have added kinetic force due to their high impact speed.
The lack of Ukrainian air defence means that the Russian aircraft used to release the FAB bombs can fly closer to target, bringing more Ukrainian cities within reach. Mykolaiv (Ukrainian) or Nikolayev (Russian), which is a historic Industrial & Maritime hub, came under intense FAB attack for the first time the night before last destroying much of the Ukrainian stores used to supply the southern Ukrainian war effort.
And great news, Zelensky has placed an urgent order for 150,000 women's winter battle jackets. Now all those ladies forced into service on the frontline will be looking their best before being pushed into the meat grinder. ‘To the last Ukrainian’ don’t forget, that’s what we in the west are paying for after all.
Speaking of paying, the 90 billion agreed by the EU for Ukraine earlier this year was to last for 2 years. Well Zelensky now tells us he’s desperate for another 60 billion just for this year alone. Probably to pay for all those women’s military uniforms I guess.
But there’s a big new problem on the horizon and that is that winter is coming and western Europe is very short of stored natural gas since Oman stopped exporting it. The open markets are going sky high and Asian countries keep out bidding Europe for the stuff. Zelensky will find the EU money cupboard is getting bare.
Interesting gold story, 60 countries still keep their gold in the US where it was sent before WW2 for safe keeping. But France and the Netherlands just decided to repatriate their gold and more interestingly chose not to wait the 4 years it would take but simply sold their holdings on the US market and immediately re-bought on the European market. It would seem there’s a growing lack of trust in the custodian (the US) and that time is also an issue.
