Well, no, not really, not that can function as a higher power over NATO anyway
but that’s not the point—Russia rendered all those precious arguments about policy and strategy moot by invading its neighbor right after it literally promised not to
Putin is the best thing to happen to NATO ever, he’s a one-man justification for its existence
This is of course largely symbolic, the EU is not a military force, but it’s good news for the reconstruction.
NATO would be what they really want.
ETA this goes to the Council next - while the Commission runs the EU the Council, which is really the individual states, makes the big decisions. This requires unanimity so Hungary can block it. This is an example of why rushing accession is a mistake.
Russia has ‘strategically lost’ war, says UK defence chief, as Lavrov says Moscow unashamed
US agency aware of photograph showing two Americans captured by Russians
Hologram Zelenskiy promises Ukraine will defeat ‘the empire’
@orenwolf Oneboxes on Guardian articles stopped working a few days ago. Is there anything you can do?
Third American volunteer fighter reported missing in Ukraine
I know that, of course. Tongue was slightly in cheek forming a response to “criminal act” coming out of the mouth of someone whose entire modus operandi is never to say anything that doesn’t have a large chunk of tongue in cheek accompanied by a serious pretence it’s all true.
Exactly! One alleged (and clearly not) criminal act does not justify another blatantly obvious criminal act however much it is dressed up as something else.
This bears quoting from the end of that article
A new report by the Institute for the Study of War this week listed a series of recent guerrilla-style attacks by Ukrainian partisans in cities including Berdyansk and Mariupol.
“Russian authorities are continuing to face difficulties implementing their occupation agendas due to pro-Ukrainian pressure in occupied areas,” the report noted, describing teachers “refusing to teach under Russian curricula” in Berdyansk and “unidentified Ukrainian partisans” targeting staffers of Russia’s Emergency Ministry in Mariupol.
Petro Andriushchenko, an aide to the Mariupol mayor, described the latter incident in a post on Telegram on Wednesday.
He said two tractors and three large truck trailers parked outside the Russian Emergency Ministry’s headquarters “suddenly” went up in flames on July 9 due to an arson attack.
Two days later, he said, on the eve of the city’s “Day of Russia” celebrations, a staffer for the same ministry was stabbed in the back while standing in a crowd.
“The injury turned out to be fatal,” he said. “We’re talking to you, scum. Start looking behind you. Retribution is already near.”
If it drags out too long, perhaps an option would be to admit them into NATO. Give Russia like 2 weeks to GTFO. After that time frame, any attack in Ukraine would trigger Article 5.
It would be a bold move that would have to be telegraphed ahead of time and make slow progress towards. Like I said above, you have to trickle the weight on the balance beam to prevent Russia acting rash.
Russia never would have attacked Ukraine had they been part of NATO. While they might wield small nukes against an un-allied country, their bluster against NATO is just that.
This is odd - very surprising. If Putin does not object to Ukraine joining the EU, then how does that square with Ukraine not existing as a separate country and being part of Russia, eh, Vlad? How does that fucking work? Or are you admitting that Ukraine IS a sovereign nation and by implication that your invasion MUST THEREFORE BE an international crime?
Someone had better publicly take him to the cleaners on this one. Hey Macron, try and get us an answer to this on your next Kremlin Zoom call please.
Putin: Russia has ‘nothing against’ Ukraine joining EU
Vladimir Putin said he has no objections to Ukraine joining the EU following the European Commission’s decision to back Kyiv’s bid to become a member of the bloc.
The Russian president was speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, when he was asked about the prospects of Ukraine joining the EU.
Putin replied:
We have nothing against it. It is not a military bloc. It’s the right of any country to join economic unions.
However, he questioned whether it was “advisable” for the EU to permit Ukraine to join, saying Kyiv would need huge economic subsidies that other EU members may not be willing to give.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a plenary session of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Photograph: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images
Earlier today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was closely following Ukraine’s efforts to become an EU member.
The issue “requires our heightened attention, because we are all aware of the intensification of discussions in Europe on the subject of strengthening the defence component of the EU,” Peskov said in a briefing with reporters.
(Boris Johnson has of course made a surprise visit to Kyiv today for a photo op with Zelensky, to distract from the ongoing series of disasters domestically, including the resignation of his ethics advisor - the second in 2 years - illustrating that all ethics have been purged from No.10 for the duration of Johnson’s occupancy.)
Reconstruction is one aspect, but there is more. It is pretty clear that, fair or not, the EU and its constituent countries would care orders of magnitude more about a Russian invasion of Finland than the one of Georgia. An EU membership greatly improves Ukraine’s chances of being and remaining in the Finland category.
France and Turkey propose rival plans to get grain out of Ukraine
Putin calls Ukraine war sanctions ‘insane’ in combative speech
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Boris Johnson promises Ukraine UK-led troop training scheme on Kyiv visit
He’s concern driving trollies about Ukraine being a money pit for the EU.
I mean, on a civilized planet it would be reasonable to expect international courts that worked … Poe’s Law strikes again I guess
‘A shot went through my cheek’: the human cost of Ukraine’s defence
Eurovision 2023 should be held in Ukraine, Boris Johnson says
Actually I don’t think structural funds and reconstruction would be a big problem (governance and corruption would), the immediate problem is Hungary, after that, the big one, is the Common Agricultural Policy. EU doesn’t rely on Ukrainian grain. Think about it. That’s the popcorn one.
Regardless of the facts, Putin wants to promote the belief that Ukraine will be a money pit so that public opinion in EU members will turn against Ukraine joining.
Everybody could be Brazilian. If the reports are right, the Russians spent a lot of money in this guy biography.
What called my attention that apparently He never spent even a day in Niterói, a city by the Guanabara Bay. He lived/studied in Dublin, what is a clever cover up, as a lot of Brazilian students live there.
