JD Vance

[Workingman]

The US is also saying that if there are no negotiations then they will not continue funding the war in Ukraine indefinitely. Something I assume, WM, you are in favour of.

Well, kind of.

Russia always wanted a corridor to Crimea, sort of like NATO's link to Berlin during the cold war. If they get that the war stops. They never wanted to take over Ukraine or even the Luhansk and Donestk oblasts. Whether or not Crimea is Russian is for another day, and Ukraine joining NATO is a sideline.

When it comes to kit I have seen the mish-mash at first hand on detachments from Germany to France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Italy and Spain. Everybody has their own version of, essentially, the same things from aircraft, tanks, vehicles to small arms to gas masks. Nothing is the same and parts are not interchangeable. Europe, not the *king EU, needs to standardise, and the UK needs to be part of that. It's a cost-efficiency thing and Europe has the capacity and skills to do it if the will is there. We could actually produced our own and not buy in overly expensive USA kit - see the F35 for details.

[Workingman]

I also said, at the very start, that the sides needed to talk. I was shot down by the hawks.

Yet, what's happening three years later? Infrastructure destroyed and 100,000s of thousands dead, and now the sides are going to talk.

[Suff]

I was always in favour of defeating Russia and pushing them out.

But what was done is just bleeding Ukraine dry. I have been extremely irked by the Biden Administration for only giving them enough to just keep dying but never enough to win outright.

Now Trump is in and he's essentially making weapons delivery contingent on talks and a deal. I suspect it will eventually led to an ultimatum for Ukraine. Accept the deal or lose all US weapons and funds. This will then trigger the EU and that won't help anything. Simply put they can't funnel enough kit into Ukraine fast enough to make a lasting difference. It will just keep this war going until Ukraine no longer has able bodied people to fight.

My take is either they get what they need or it needs to end. It doesn't look like they are going to get what they need so talk has to come.