The U.S. expects Ukraine's response Wednesday to a peace framework that includes U.S. recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and unofficial recognition of Russian control of nearly all areas occupied since the 2022 invasion, sources with direct knowledge of the proposal tell Axios.
Why it matters: The one-page document the U.S. presented Ukrainian officials in Paris last week describes this as Trump's "final offer." The White House insists it's ready to walk away if the parties don't make a deal soon.
I hope to someday justice prevails and Trump is tried for treason and has similar final offer of electric chair or firing squad. I also hope that the woman he raped when she was a 13 year old child gets to carry out the order
"De jure" U.S. recognition of Russian control in Crimea.
That would contravene the Budapest memorandum, in which other signatories (including the US) promise to "Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders". Most likely, the president of Ukraine cannot simply sign this, but is required by constitution to hold a referendum. Which is not possible in war time. So to my understnading, this point sabotages the rest entirely. Ukraine cannot sign and ratify this, and consequently won't.
"De-facto recognition" of the Russia's occupation of nearly all of Luhansk oblast and the occupied portions of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
That would be merely untenable for Ukraine.
The lifting of sanctions imposed since 2014. / Enhanced economic cooperation with the U.S., particularly in the energy and industrial sectors.
That would be active cooperation with the agressor.
I'm not sure if my crystal ball is cheap glass or a real palantir, but I see this proposal in the paper bin. I see the US overstepping promises made in better times. As a consequence, I also see certain European countries give zero damns about which weapons systems contain US components, and give those systems to Ukraine while they re-arm themselves with locally made items.
Looks like Russia will have to throw another several hundred thousand working age males into the meat-grinder, to maintain that few hundred square kms of dirt.
Putin: "It's a sacrifice my billionaire narcissism is willing to make"
That's been true since slow-walking advanced equipment and allowing Musk to remain free and not nationalizing Starlink after he fucked parts of the counteroffensive.
It is fucking bonkers to me that the intelligence agencies and/or the DoD didn’t immediately say “we’re taking that over” the instant it was discovered that he was communicating directly with Putin.
If the so-called left and the slack-ass MFs who refused to or didn't vote could have gotten their goddamned shit together we could have resolved this - and every other fucking thing under the sun - better.
Lmao Trump is 100% Putins bitch. I wonder what Putin actually has over him cause Trump could get away with anything right? Why is he such a bitch then?
My guess is that Trump world view benefits with more dictators in power and justifies his own dictatorship goals but sucking this hard?
I think putler has videos.
I think it'll either be of Fatboy pissing on hookers, or fucking children. Or both.
It's probably both, and other things too, but one of these two is a definite.
It's 2025, videos don't matter anymore, definitely not to Trump.
First off we've had deepfakes for years so he could just claim that. Secondly, and this is more important, Trump's base wouldn't care anyway. They'd start off denying the whole thing, and then if it's proven to be real, they'd just say it's not that big of a deal because dems do it more and it's worse, until finally they'll say it's actually a good thing, but only when Trump does it.
Honestly, I think Putin might actually be appeasing to Trump's ego. Seems like a much easier way to control him than holding something over him tbh. Remember, for Putin, total control of Trump forever isn't necessary. Even if he jumps off Putin's dick right now, he's already achieved so much for Putin that it'll have been worth it for him.
I think pedo shit is the only one he couldn't get away with so this definitely makes sense. Though, now he could say it's fake and AI and maybe even get by.
Being able to get away with anything is vastly different than being able to handle criticism and embarrassment associated with (yet another) scandal, especially something of a more personal nature that draws his "character" into question among his base.
Basically DJT is the biggest snowflake there is, he would rather incite global conflict than let the world know he has smol pp
Due to our administration we are 100% going to abandon them, so this is worse than nothing. It's the exact same result if Russia wins the war, plus all the lives and money and devastation spent.
He is maintaining a stupid stageplay for his stupid base whom he still needs to retain power, as they are basically an army he could mobilize if he has to.
Sure he would probably be happy and make sacks of cash if he got Ukraine to surrender, but nobody expects that to happen. Outside of said idiots who believe Trump to be Stupid-Jesus risen again. Most of them are too dim to understand what's happening and delight in their own cognitive dissonance. They read a statement like this and go "YEAH BROTHA TELL THEM FREELOADERS TO STOP STEALING AMERICAN CASH" then tell all their friends and family and nonconsenting coworkers how Trump "resolved the ukraine war" like he promised.
If anyone thinks any part of that is hyperbolic, you're not getting out enough. Ya'll gotta understand that the quarter of America who worships this orange turd are cheering and partying all day, every day. They're not worried, they're not regretting shit. All of that is distraction and pandering. They believe themselves to be winning, and their leader controls the world's most wealthy and powerful nation.
Because the US has the most powerful military on the planet and Ukraine is dependent on it so they can continue fighting the war.
We're not seeing any news coming out of Ukraine because they're losing badly right now. It's how propaganda works. Overplay your sides' accomplishments while ignoring their failures. If we're hearing radio silence from the news outlets that were eager to promote things like Ukraine's "counteroffensive," it's because Ukraine is losing and the propaganda mills aren't allowed to report on it.
"Russia, through its 2014 invasion of Ukraine and its attempted annexation of Crimea, sought to undermine a bedrock international principle shared by democratic states: that no country can change the borders of another by force. The states of the world, including Russia, agreed to this principle in the United Nations Charter, pledging to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. This fundamental principle — which was reaffirmed in the Helsinki Final Act — constitutes one of the foundations upon which our shared security and safety rests.
As we did in the Welles Declaration in 1940, the United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin’s claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law. In concert with allies, partners, and the international community, the United States rejects Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored.
The United States calls on Russia to respect the principles to which it has long claimed to adhere and to end its occupation of Crimea. As democratic states seek to build a free, just, and prosperous world, we must uphold our commitment to the international principle of sovereign equality and respect the territorial integrity of other states. Through its actions, Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation and has chosen to isolate itself from the international community.
Wasn't it always the case, though? Wasn't he always implying that "Ukraine better be ready to lose some land" - aka we don't know how to force Russia out of the lands it already invaded? Or how to balance the clear conflict of interests between aiding Ukraine stop an invasion and Trump's agenda of getting the US closer to Russia as an economic ally?
Funny. The only difference I see is that he is now fully committed to make Ukraine capitulate by any means he can, perhaps in a last ditch effort to get that mineral deal since he needs it more now due to China stopping the mineral supply. Notice how he only began this ultimatum right after China stopped the minerals. Not suspicious timing at all.
In any case, better for incompetents to step away than fumbling the game even worse than they already did since taking office. Some "help" simply isn't worth the cost. Europe and any other allies of freedom will see this through, one way or another.
Just don't come begging for rewards or reparations once Russia's imperialist ambitions are stopped. The US is only owed what it contributed until Biden left (and the real value, not the overinflated one), plus a nice good discount for the Trump admin's interference and undermining Ukraine. And that's being generous.
I want to note on the "mineral deal" thing that access to rare earth minerals has nothing to do with China's ability to constrain their supply to the US, because getting rare earth minerals is actually relatively easy. They're found all over the Earth, although some areas do have better naturally occurring concentrations than others. Mostly, though, it's just a matter of finding a nice large swathe of land that you can easily strip-mine.
The problem is refining them. Digging up a bunch of soil and rock is easy, getting the trace amounts of rare (hence why they're called that) earth minerals out of the soil and rock is really hard. While it's true that China does dominate in rare earth extraction, it really wouldn't be all that hard for other countries to catch up to them on that score if they wanted to. But the reason China controls the worlds rare earth supply is because they also dominate in refining, which is extremely difficult, technically complex, and not easy to replicate due to the highly specialised nature of rare earth refineries.
Trump can get access to all the unprocessed rare earth minerals he likes, but it won't solve his current problems. First off, even if Ukraine were at peace tomorrow it would take most of a decade to prospect those mineral deposits and begin extracting them at scale. But even then, it doesn't solve the refining problem. You'd just be selling the raw deposits to China so that they can refine them and sell the refined product back to you at a huge profit.
Thank you for the input. Given the current US admin's way of doing things, I have to wonder if they really see the problem in its entirety, or a crudely simplified version of it.
I mean, these are the same people who started a global trade war to get manufacturing over to the US, as if that would magically happen overnight or even with the high amount of uncertainty for business investments. It really seems to them the simplest solutions are the best ones - flip the tariff switch and done, problem solved, the US is great again after "a brief period of hurt" (whatever that specifically means), as if there weren't a million nuances to the current workings of world global societies.
Anyways, regardless of the how's and why's, we can only guess what goes on on the heads of these people...
America and Trump can go fuck themselves. It’s not peace if Ukraine has to surrender the country to the aggressor! And if that’s not enough, America wants to rip everything of value away from Ukraine too.
The best solution right now seems to be let the boundaries stay where they are, but also fund the shit out of Ukraine to boost their defenses at the current boundaries and let them join NATO. Russia is too entrenched to give up their land and Putin is more than happy to murder his own people to keep it.
It’s too bad the USA is planning to strangle Ukraine instead and that Europe doesn’t have the resources to supply Ukraine.