President Donald Trump has suspended weapons shipments to Ukraine. Here is Alexander Mercouris with his daily report. You can listen to the first 10 minutes of his podcast - the whole thing is over an hour long. ttps://youtu.be/OKNKbp7xl4U?
The Russians are pushing forward slowly but surely along the entire frontline. I believe the Russians can move much more quickly but Mr Putin was waiting for Trump to become president again - which has happened. Mr Putin has said that there shall be no ceasefire in Ukraine. A ceasefire means both sides can re-arm and replenish supplies and then continue fighting again. He says either Ukraine agree to his terms or they will settle the outcome on the battlefront - meaning Russia will invade and occupy the whole of Ukraine.
Mr Putin's terms of peace are simple i. Ukraine cannot join NATO forever ii. Ukraine becomes demilitarised iii. Russia keeps all the Russian majority areas of eastern Ukraine iv. Ukraine gets rid of Nazi elements in that country v. Russian speaking people inside Ukraine shall not be discriminated against.
The term of the Ukrainian president and the government has also expired and Zelenskiye is no more the lawful president of Ukraine. Mr Putin wants him gone from the scene as well.
I believe Mr Putin will also tack on other things like removing Western sanctions against Russia and the West reestablishing normal relations with Russia. Russian gas must flow to Europe again. He wants a comprehensive settlement. Everyone will live happily ever after.
Acting in favour of Mr Putin are the collapsing Ukrainian armed forces. Ukrainian troops are deserting their positions en masse - between 100,000 to 200,000 Ukrainian troops have deserted their positions. Just in the past week two Ukrainian generals and one Colonel have been arrested for the collapse of Ukrainian positions under their command. Here is a brief video.
Hence it is a clever move by President Trump to suspend arms shipments to Ukraine. It will hasten the end of the conflict and also help to preserve more territory under Ukraine. Otherwise the Russians will over run the entire country.
This is a good development.
As a footnote, the war in Ukraine is actually a religious war. The Ukrainians belong to the Church of Constantinople (Eastern Orthododx). The Russians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. Here is some trivia - the founding of the Russian Orthodox Church was in Kiev in Ukraine.
The history of the Russian Orthodox Church begins with the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988 during the reign of Vladimir the Great. In the following centuries, Kiev and later other cities, including Novgorod, Pskov, Rostov, Suzdal and Vladimir, became important regional centers of Christian spirituality and culture.
The 2018 Moscow–Constantinople schism is an ongoing schism between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC, also known as the Moscow Patriarchate) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which began on 15 October 2018 when the former unilaterally severed full communion with the latter.
There is some bad blood going on as well.
