Member Info for DShox

The weekend you say? Then as the saying goes, "wouldn't want to be out of this over the weekend." 😉

Live updates that'll have MMs glued to the screen. Turned out listening to BBC "News" and following Starmer's weekly "coalition of the willing" juants around Europe were a waste of time.

The Russians have now advanced 2km and entered Lyman in Donetsk. Konstantinovka, the RFU has a more than 1km deep position. Kupyansk is largely under Russian control. This only leaves Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, under full Ukrainian control, and which will be deeply exposed to encirclement once the North and South nodes fall. This'll increase pressure on Zelensky to deal now, as Trump previously reportedly threw Zelensky's maps on the floor last time he went to Washington.

FOMO £42k buy. Just saying.

Listening to Witkoff, he mentioned in Davos that he met with Budanov and David Arakhamia last weekend. He's flying to Moscow tonight with Jared. Budanov - a hardliner turned realist in 2024 who predicted a Ukrainian army collapse taking hold from summer of 2025 - and Arakhamia, the head of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation that inked the Istanbul deal and who criticised western intervention to wreck the deal. Arakhamia is in fact head of Zelensky's parliamentary faction. Interestingly, Witkoff quotes the Ukrainian side saying were "90% done" and that there's one solvable issue left, which is likely to be AFU withdrawal from Donetsk, where RFU has now penetrated deep into Konstantinovka. In Zaporizhzhia, RFU is collapsing AFU lines that'vw been static since 2024.

I suspect the last issue is Zelensky's lifetime exit and protection package. He has no future in Ukraine. Perhaps he gets a slot on CNN or more likely, he'll be adopted by Britain or France. Sadly I suspect the financial and political burden will fall on the British taxpayer.

Yes, the Ukro parliament needs to change the constitution. Trump in his last phone call with Putin, as per a readout from Ushakov, told Zelensky that he needed get serious about a permanent settlement and there'd be no ceasefire that'll allow him to reconstitute his army. This is consistent with what Trump and Putin agreed in Alaska.

Nice start.

Predictably he's gatecrashed, getting him out of Kiev again for his own safety and security, where there's now a full blown open row between the oligarchy, each accusing each other of corruption. If he has any sense of self preservation, he'll realise the Europeans have no influence over Trump. As for Putin, his speech last week revived the two draft treaties presented in 2021 to roll back NATO and agreeing a new security architecture, representing a hardening of terms and undoubtedly freaking out the Europeans.

Trump, who wants quick deals, is clearly frustrated. His planned Greenland acquisition fits somewhere into the equation. Trump can represent that his actions secured the Western hemisphere and was something the Europeans were incapable of doing themselves.

Zelensky was advised to stay away and has since thrown a tantrum, accusing the US of weakness over Russia. Meanwhile the EU is in full realisation its behaved like a vassal and needs to change its foreign policy, a Von der's commission.

What's happened over the last year is that the US administration has understood how weak Europe is politically, economically and militarily. Given that understanding Europe is useless for defence of the western hemisphere, on a pure hardnosed security strategy basis, whatever imaginery security threat to, that is why the US is going to take Greenland [for a punitive sum].

Finally, Mercedes and other German companies have been quietly filing registrations to re-enter the Russian market.

Oh dear. Pro this pro that. Grow up. Enjoy your afternoon.

* should read 'never' mention a city's loss.

I'll just address your Pokrovsk claim. Geolocations prove it is false. Like Bakhmut, your go to propaganda outlets that source from the ISW (founded and run by Victoria Nuland's sister in law), ever mention a city's loss. "Best to let it fizzle out." The other point - Pokrovsk is part of a twin city of Myrnohad - which geolocations show is also lost. Further, claims that its taken "so long" to capture Pokrovsk is more out of Western political media class frustration that the RFU didn't pile in and sustain heavy losses. As is always the case shown by mapping projects, RFU first forms a cauldron to surround and choke off supplies. Further, after moving to the SW of Pokrovsk, RFU turned South West and then West, cutting right across Dnipro Oblast and now collapsing the Zaporizhzhia Obl from the east. Finally, ISW and other aligned sources map large swathes of territory lost by AFU in grayzone, thereby allowing media pundits to understate Russian gains. Independent mapping projects debunk all this with geolocation of troops. Just saying.

Just to add, Britain won't recognise Donbass or any other territory as Russian. It's not necessary or important. Britain didn't recognise the Baltics as Russian territory even under the Soviet Union. The only deal that matters here is that between US-Russia, which is already motivating Merz and other Europeans to revisit their failed war policy in favour of dialogue with Moscow. It's reasonably clear Trump is bored with Ukraine and Zelensky. An interesting fact from the vessel seized by the US was that only 2 of the crew were Russian, and they were both released.

I understand the British army is c.75k. That's the entire size, not infantry. Some analysts estimate that theoretically Britain could after some work, deploy a force of 7.5k to Ukraine. It will then need another 7.5k prepared to rotate those troops. So 15k combat ready to support 7.5k active any one time, before even considering losses. This rhetoric is as boring as it is reckless. It is but a distraction from the hardpower reality that is defining the next steps. It remains the military situation on the ground that will define the diplomatic resolution.

A few weeks ago, Zelensky's handlers started drone attacks on third country vessels using Russian Black Sea ports. One of those attacks was in Turkish waters. This provoked a response in kind, with Moscow now drone striking vessels moored at Odessa, effectively creating a sea blockade. No ship owner will send his vessel to Odessa in the knowledge it'll be attacked. Whereas as in 2022, Global South countries cautioned Moscow against such moves as it'd interrupt grain exports, today there's no such condemnation. The story of this conflict has been whatever escalation or new idea gets introduced and cheered in the media, it turns into an own goal. The response is always larger and more devastating.

Here's my tuppence. Trump will take Greenland in the week's ahead. He'll do so while having maximum leverage over Europe, which is singularly and obsessively focused on Ukraine. Fearing a backlash from Trump on Ukraine and NATO, only Denmark is and will protest the annexation of Greenland, with Britain, France and Germany reportedly quietly telling Denmark to appease Trump. Once Trump has what he wants, at which point Putin will have rolled up most of whats left of Donetsk Obl, he'll do his Arctic deals. He won't do anything until he has Greenland.

Meant to read - biggest mistake he made was NOT to end US involvement and the war immediately.

This chat started in June 2024 when the European globalist warmongers realised Trump had a good chance of winning the presidential elections. It was talked about in corporate legacy media as a way to "Trump proof" Project Ukraine, creating a tripwire that would apply political pressure on Trump to enter the conflict directly. French and British troops would inevitably get into trouble, "forcing" Trump to continue and deepen involvement. Trump isn't dumb and said if Macron deploys troops "he's on his own." At the end of the day, the loser political media class are itching to pin the blame on Trump for this massive avoidable geopolitical blunder that's unnecessarily costs scores of lives. The biggest mistake Trump made was to completely end US involvement, and the war, immediately when entering office when he was politically strongest with his MAGA base. Yes there were the deepstate neocons to contend with, but they were given time to organise and create strife. Still, we seem to be getting there.

Reasonably clear to me EUA is choosing not to sell today rather than being unable. The independent valuation at WK is likely an "anti fraud" statutory requirement, and one can expect such to have been done over Kola that offers shareholders a level of protection against any stupid offers.