The European Union decides to disregard Hungary’s opposition to Ukraine joining it’s group of countries…
In offering membership for the Ukraine, and Moldova, Russian President Putin gets a loss for his two year efforts to overrun Ukraine and bring it back under Russia’s control….
Finland , now in NATO, will allow US military assets to be based in its country which boarders Russia….
The Russia President is up for re-election in march, and it telling everyone that his aim is to continue trying to overrun Ukraine , even though his country has lost over 100, 000 troops in failing to do what he wanted….
Pointing to the US House Republicans turning down Zelensky earlier this week in Wash. D. C. pleading for more aid?
Putin says the West is tired of the Ukraine fighting Russia….
It should be pointed out that the Biden admin IS sending some money to Ukraine as is other countries ….
But the US is also diverting some military equipment and ammo to Isreal from Ukraine….
The just passed US Defense Bill also has some aid for Ukraine in it….
President Biden HAS been strongly FOT continuing aid and money to Ukraine…
BUT?
Ukraine President Zelensky IS coming under more and MORE pressure that due to his countries inability to gain much more of its territory back IS eating away support….
Gain entry to the U and maybe even NATO would probably be a reasonable trade off for losing some territory that was actually held by those aligned more with Russia than Ukraine….
Both Ukraine and Russian families would happy off the conflict was over …..
Finally?
Ukraine IS going want a US/NATO military presence on their soil one would presume…
All that would be a overall defeat for the Russian President….
The EU has decided to open membership negotiations with Ukraine, in an unexpected move that will be a critical boost to Volodymyr Zelenskiy and deal a blow to Vladimir Putin. The announcement, made on Thursdayafter eight hours of tense negotiations in Brussels, came despite the opposition of Hungary, whose prime minister, Viktor Orbán, had for weeks said it would veto any opening of accession talks.
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After hours of talks, Orbán walked out the room as leaders formally made the decision to open accession talks – thus getting unanimity. The Hungarian prime minister said “Hungary does not want to share in this bad decision, and for this reason Hungary did not participate in the decision today.”
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Zelenskiy said: “this is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens.”
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Later, European Union leaders failed to agree on a €50bn ($55bn) aid package for Ukraine and on the renegotiation of the EU budget after a veto by Hungary. The financial package could not be endorsed by all 27 leaders. The money is aimed at helping the war-torn country weather the Russian invasion.
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The EU also decided to open membership negotiations with Moldova.Maia Sandu, Moldova’s president, said her country “turns a new page today.”
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Putin held his annual end-of-the-year press conference for the first time since launching the invasion, saying “there will only be peace in Ukraine when we achieve our aims”, seeking to project confidence in his war machine.
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Putin also said he was open to repairing relations with Europe and the USbut added that Russia had done nothing wrong in its invasion of Ukraine. He blamed the west for “spoiling relations” with Russia.
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Ukraine said on Thursday that its air defence systems had downed dozens of Iranian-designed drones launched by Russian forces targeting the southern city of Odesa, in Moscow’s latest overnight barrage that wounded 11 people.
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The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on espionage charges, lost an appeal on Thursday to be released from jail and must remain in custody until at least 30 January.
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Putin was asked about a possible prisoner swap for Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan. He said he hoped to find an agreement with the US that was “satisfactory to both sides”.
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A Moscow court on Thursday ordered a retrial in the case of a veteran Russian human rights campaigner who is fighting charges of discrediting the country’s armed forces.
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Finland will sign a defence agreement with the US, the Finnish government has said, to grant the US military broad access across the Nordic country to the vicinity of its long border with Russia.
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Romania has identified a drone crater near its border with Ukraine after an overnight Russian attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure, its defence ministry has said.
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The Guardian visited Avdiivka. After almost a decade on the frontline, the city is a wreck, with just 1,200 people left, but it remains of huge symbolic value…..
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The United States has a much higher stake in Russia’s war on Ukraine than most people think. A Russian conquest of all of Ukraine is by no means impossible if the United States cuts off all military assistance and Europe follows suit. Such an outcome would bring a battered but triumphant Russian army right up to NATO’s border from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean. The Ukrainian military with Western support has destroyed nearly 90% of the Russian army that invaded in February 2022 according to US intelligence sources, but the Russians have replaced those manpower losses and are ramping up their industrial base to make good their material losses at a rate much faster than their pre-war capacity had permitted.