Though it is hard to imagine a Ukrainian solider fighting for Putin.

As the Ukrainians would never be forced to fight for ruzzia, they would sabotage everything.

We can also see the Ukrainians are smarter and better organized than the Russians.

that seems to be how stalin dealt with his veterans, and

sounds close to what trump has planned for us "suckers and losers" by defunding the va.

the tarps under the interstate already shelter a disproportionate number of us.

i wonder if the ukrainians have captured any norks yet? i'm sure kim sent them to die.

And would kill him in a heartbeat if they can get their hands on him.

even when Musk deserts it.

Ukraine can fight more boldly, can launch more invasions into Russia once the United States has abandoned it. Putin's threat of nuclear war will not carry any weight with his 2 puppets in charge of the United States.

Ukraine will fight on without us, other nations need to fill our void.

Lost in the magical thinking about Trump/Putin solving this all in a heartbeat is the burning hot hatred for Russia that Putin has inspired in Ukraine. That’s not going to resolved at the negotiating table over chortles.

Trump can try to hand Ukraine to Putin.
Then Putin will have an entire country which hates his guts and will fight him every inch of the way.

Putin is letting his pride do the thinking for him.

Putin really thought it would be a cake walk.

His troops didn't even have combat gear when they invaded, brought dress uniforms for the parades.

How could Putin have been so very wrong?

But the biggest intelligence bungle in history was NOT putting Trump in handcuffs when he invited a foreign power to interfere in our election. " Russia if your listening "

All of our institutions failed us, including CIA and military intelligence agencies.

Dictatorial/communist militaries always keep the rank & file in the dark and not able to function individually. Because they're scared of them standing against the leadership. As UKR showed early on; take out the communication & they troops dont know what to do
Western militaries are trained to function in small or large groups & know their mission.

Which Putin does not have right now.

The fact is, the extent of Russia's claimed territory has changed very little over the last year or so, in return for savage losses of troops and materiel.

Just because a village gets coloured in on the map, the assumptions seems to be that it's permanently changed status. Levelling buildings and invading territory is one thing, holding it over an extended period is quite another, never mind trying to administer it as functional territory and maintain civic order and daily life among any population. What we know of how the early oblasts Russia grabbed have been administered isn't exactly an advert for the whole enterprise.

Given the terrible state of most of Russia outside the wealthier belt on the St Petersburg-Moscow axis, it's hard to see why Putin wants or needs more territory anyway, since he's been unable to do anything worthwhile with the vast landholdings and resources, not to mention populations, within Russia's existing internationally agreed borders.

Another factor that's glossed over in discussions of any aftermath of the conflict is the legal processes concerning the vast number of war crimes. Even in the most Trump-friendly or Putin-friendly settlements envisaged, I don't think Ukraine can be expected to shrug its shoulders and say bygones will be bygones when murder, torture, rape and other genocidal atrocities have been rife in Russia's conduct of the war and will no doubt continue to be so.

Henry Kissinger said this years ago and it seems very true today

They're basking in their image of Russia as a glorious imperial power continually seeking to expand and suppress any countries - the decadent "Nazis", the disgusting West where so many of them have hypocritically been only too happy to spend time and enjoy the fruits - that don't bend to its will. They're delusional, of course, but that's the underlying motivation and public stance, in their own deranged words.

That's why I'm so skeptical about any talk that concessions by Ukraine during any negotiations will buy any lasting piece. If Russia's leadership lacks any vision of a future where the country prospers within its existing borders, and not just its oligarchy, then it can never be trusted in any way.

The main thing Putin wants to do is diminish the United States as much as possible, so he can take as much land as possible. Remember the Republicans want to shrink the government so small they can drown in in a bathtub. That’s Russia talking. I don’t know why we are ignoring Russia as the main villain in this story. Take a look at Putin. He’s happy as a clam.

And many of my friends had lived in another US occupied country after WWII.
(Japan and Germany.)

People have no idea the infrastructure required for this kind of situation.
And what it is like on a day to day basis.

And yes this does not take into account the added layer of the horrendous war crimes Russian has committed.

Putin's goal was geopolitical and about power.
He wants control of Europe.
Xi wants control of the Pacific.

Their goal is to be the 21st century superpowers.
First they must get regional control.
Putin takes Ukraine and threatens the rest of Europe.
Xi takes Taiwan and threatens the rest of the Pacific.

It is about raw power and shifting the global power structure.

The crime of the century and they pulled it off flawlessly.

We like to think that other countries leaders are as reasonable as we are. Guess we’re the ones with the crazy leader now.

They dont care about the cities or the people; they just want to control the resources.
Of course, they'd take ALL the land if they could because thats what russia DOES.

with more than 20 divisions of ground troops and I don't know how many air forces. Wikipedia says Ukraine is more than 5 times larger than East Germany was.

UKR is NOT going to the Russians regardless of trump. The worst that will happen is UKR losing what they've already lost. They will NOT disarm & they will NOT abandon the front.
Putin still doesnt control ALL of any of the 4 regions he claimed voted to join russia.

Of course, I'm as skeptical about that as if he told me "The check's in the post", but there seems to be this premature presumption, even among some DUers, that all is over and Putin has won.

Putin was humiliating Trump after the election with public nude pictures of Melania.
And telling Trump he was "not safe."

Now Trump says he is not handing over Ukraine to Putin.

Of course they could both be lying and playing games with the public, not each other.

Time will tell.

Who is the richest man in the world - Putin or Musk? I think its Daddy Musk.

Donny has to decide who has the real power and he will listen to that Daddy. Daddy Vlad for the longest time had the power and ear of Donny and Donny owed him. But now that Daddy Musk helped Donny with his money and helped save his ass from prison, Daddy Musk appears to have Donny's ear.

Daddy Musk seems to want to be King of the World - actually King of the Universe - and have all the power - for now. If Daddy Musk decides that between meddling and trying to control the US and also now Germany and the UK - and decide at some point to favor Vlad and Russia - then Donny will follow what Daddy Musk tells him to do. But Daddy Vlad doesn't seem to have the power over Donny - its what Daddy Musk tells him to do.

If Daddy Vlad thinks he is being dissed.
Right now, it's all about showing how weak the West is. If Musk interferes too much one way or another with Russian State interests or starts trying to boss Putin around, Putin has far more resources to deal with Musk than Musk can buy in time to stop him.
And Musk is under the influence of drugs and Ego.

Haele

But as stupid as Putin has been in this war I cant see him being dumb enough to not know Trump is easily used if he's praised.

At worst they'll lose the areas currently held by RU.
Ukraine is not going to fold.

Poland has one of the largest militaries in Europe. is a member of NATO, which means he is fighting most of Europe, and his army is a shell of the pathetic organization it was.
Poland's answer to Putin, "you and what army?"

I am trying to understand how this is even a possible scenario. The USA does not own Ukraine as a territory or state and has no providence over them. Trump could with the GOP cut off funding Ukraine and could also not support NATO financially - but no where in those scenarios can Trump give Ukraine to Putin because the European countries will step up and do all they can to fill the gap of the funding and support. Also, last I checked - the Ukrainians have a say in whether they give themselves up to Russia.