i could be misremembering but wasn't this exactly what he did to Tucker Carlson on his Russia trip? Tucker thought he'd be lobbing softball after softball and all Putin wanted to do was recite "history".
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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So far not much newsworthy regarding the meeting between Trump and Zelensky.
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No tomahawks for Ukraine.
And trump telling them to stop where they are and end the war.
No tomahawks for Ukraine.
And trump telling them to stop where they are and end the war.
That call with Putin fulfilled its purpose then.
Looks like Ukraine held off Russia relatively well this summer. Ofcourse the situation remains vulnerable in areas like Pokrovsk but surely Putin hoped to achieve far more.
Russia's latest big Ukraine offensive gains next to nothing, again
Russia's latest big Ukraine offensive gains next to nothing, again
https://www.economist.com/interacti...ukraine-offensive-gains-next-to-nothing-again
It's what he does all the time nowadays. He's one of those odd conspiracy history enjoyers that tragically got to the position of ultimate power.
He said both sides should stop where they are and claim victory. Which none of the sides want to do. And Ukraine still holds land in Kursk region, freezing the lines in that way would be more humiliating for Russia than returning to pre war borders.
Not the most accurate take away from the meeting imo. In his own Art of the Deal style, Trump is basically using a carrot and stick approach with Putin by threatening to give Zelenskyy cruise missiles if Putin doesn't make some concessions. If Trump would've announced at the meeting yesterday that Zelenskky was definitely receiving them, that would've disincentivized Putin to meet with Trump in Budapest, nevermind make any concessions.
German intelligence on the Russian threat:
- Undermining NATO and destabilizing European democracies.
- Election manipulation.
- Exploiting groups like the Reichsburger movement.
- Infiltrating the German military.
Sounds about right since that's largely been Putin's strategy against democracies for at least the past 15 years. It was also one of the hallmarks of old Soviet strategy in Europe to foment discontent among domestic publics to weaken them during the cold war.
Looks like the White House meeting was a bad one. Trump insisted that Ukraine should concede the entire Donbas region but Zelensky swinged him back to endorsing a freeze on the current frontlines.
The Washington Post reported earlier that Witkoff also said that Ukraine should just give up Donbas because it's a Russian-speaking region.
Which is a silly argument by Witkoff, who knows feck all given that his background is in NY real estate. I hope Zelenskky told him that people in Odessa, Kherson, and Mykolaev also mostly speak Russian and they want to be part of Ukraine.
Kindergarten hit today and last night there were also casualties.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czjpe0193geo
I read Zelensky is now open to a peace treaty along current war lines. I'm not sure what that helps, cause he doesn't want to fully cede those territories and Russia hasn't seemed interested in any compromise on their objectives. But maybe showing some flexibility helps Ukraine regain some favour with Trump (once again).
My guess is that this is what it is. He probably knows that Putin wouldn't go for it anyway, so is using it as an oppurtunity to curry favour with Trump a bit.
Its a bluff , Putin will never accept it because Ukraine also holds some territory in Kursk. So its safe for him to "agree" with such a proposal and show that Ukraine would like to cooperate.
Do they still? I thought Russia had regained all that Kursk territory by now.
Despite Russian claims, it was the governer (or whatever his title is) of Kursk region complaining to Putin recently that Ukraine still has control over some settlements. Which got him reprimanded.
Ah okay. Embarrassing.
Package 19 approved.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china...ssian-sanctions-including-lng-ban-2025-10-22/
"Huge" US sanctions on Russia just announced. Whatever that actually entails have not been provided.
Eh, moderately good news given the administration.
Eh, moderately good news given the administration.
There have been US sanctions against these companies since 2014, so not sure what these add yet.
Any source to that? I haven't heard anything of the sort and struggle to find anything now. Sounds unrealistic (not to say that it can't be true).
It wasn't in English, struggling to find it myself now. Might be nonsense.
I think so. It would’ve been bigger news (and findable), I’ve searched in Russian as well.
They’ve obviously announced the news of “liberation” of Kurskaya oblast prematurely, as one does, but it was by days or, maximum, weeks. And it was last spring, I believe? So no, Ukraine doesn’t hold anything there, especially nothing valuable enough to make any difference in negotiations.
Unfortunately this war also includes Ukrainians being forced to fight against Ukraine.
Fighting their own country: Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been forcibly conscripted by Russia
Fighting their own country: Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been forcibly conscripted by Russia
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...y-conscripted-by-russia-s-army_6746688_4.html
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In other news, former russian athlete Tikhonov now wants to nuke Finland, over nation getting banned from, yes, some sport competition.
Don't want to paint everyone with the same brush, but, something can't be right with the mentality of the average russian either, it goes deeper than just Kremlin being bad.
Don't want to paint everyone with the same brush, but, something can't be right with the mentality of the average russian either, it goes deeper than just Kremlin being bad.
Ultra-masculinity and ultra-nationalism is a deadly combo.
You insult me I break your legs and murder your family type of shit.
I suppose knowing how pathetic the rest of us find that just helps feed the cycle too.
MediaZona confirmed KIA counting stands at 140,000 now.
^ If you take the 140,000 figure it's about:
- 737 killed per week.
- 104 killed per day.
For Ukraine by the way, this June study from CSIS has Ukraine at 400,000 casualties:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/04/europe/russia-war-casualties-1-million-ukraine-intl
This Sky report shows how a wounded Ukrainian soldier is evacuated with a ground drone. Very tense.
Former athletes in Russia are hardly average Russians. Usually they’d retire and proceed with an administrative/political career as since USSR there’s been a direct funnel from sport into politics — a popular and, ideally, dim and uneducated hero is well-known and well-loved by the public and is easily controllable by the party. Especially if it’s a less popular sport and he doesn’t have a lot of options. Tikhonov also went into politics even though he had to take a break after hiring a hit man to eliminate his opponent (and getting caught).
Generally former athletes are often just about the most blood-thirsty and unhinged political speakers in Russia. Plus if it’s sports related, it’s twice as effective (they love jumping on the boring “sport is non-political”, “what about U.S., Israel”, “Western hypocrisy” etc. train).
UN report accuses Russia of war crimes in drone warfare and forcible transfer of civilians
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/27/europe/russia-war-crimes-un-report-drone-latam-intl
Even a hero like Fedor Emilianenko, he speaks out against child fight clubs and a group puts his young daughter in the hospital.
A hero? Especially in the context of this thread…