Russia on brink of ... NOPE! Russia INVADES Ukraine!

[gorobei]

Yeah... heard of a value of ~20% of Russia's refinery capacity have gone in the last few weeks. Massive fuel shortages have hit various regions causing kilometer long queues.

yeah ru had to outlaw selling refined products to other countries to keep supply up and domestic prices from rising even more. supposedly a pipeline hit more or less shutdown delivery to hungary and they(orban) are threatening to cut the electricity they sell to Ukraine if they keep hitting rus oil infrastructure.

 

[Jaskalas]

The enemy has spoken.

Trump Keeps Defending Russia​

This morning on Fox & Friends, Donald Trump “made clear that he does not understand the largest war in Europe, what started it, or why it continues,” Tom Nichols writes. “Worse, insofar as he does understand anything about Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine, he seems to have internalized old pro-Moscow talking points that even the Kremlin doesn’t bother with anymore.”​

“... The war, Trump said, started because of Crimea and NATO. Considering his commitment to being a ‘peace president,’ Trump was oddly eager to castigate his predecessors for being weak: ​

​

Crimea, he said, was handed over to Russian President Vladimir Putin by Barack Obama ‘without a shot fired.’ (Should Obama have fired some? No one asked.) Crimea, you see, is a beautiful piece of real estate, surrounded by water—I have been to Crimea, and I can confirm the president’s evaluation here—and ‘Barack Hussein Obama gave it away.’ Putin, he said, got a ‘great deal’ from Obama, and took it ‘like candy from a baby.’​

​

“Trump did not explain how this putative land swindle led to Putin trying to seize all of Ukraine. But no matter; he quickly shifted to NATO, echoing the arguments of early Kremlin apologists and credulous Western intellectuals that Ukraine existed only as a ‘buffer’ with the West, and that Putin was acting to forestall Ukraine joining NATO. Russia was right, Trump said, not to want the Western ‘enemy’ on their border.​

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“This might be the first time an American president has used Russia’s language to describe NATO as an enemy. Perhaps Trump was simply trying to see the other side’s point of view. He then added, however, that the war was sparked not only by NATO membership—which was not on the table anytime soon—but also by Ukrainian demands to return Crimea, which Trump felt were ‘very insulting’ to Russia.​

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“Trump is a bit behind on his pro-Kremlin talking points. The Russians themselves long ago largely abandoned any such blather about NATO and Crimea. Putin claimed early on that Ukraine was infested with Nazis—in the case of Zelensky, apparently Jewish Nazis—and that even if it weren’t for NATO and Nazis, Ukraine is organically part of Russia and belongs under Kremlin rule. For three years, Putin has been slaughtering Ukrainian civilians to make the point that his Slavic brothers and sisters need to either accept that they are part of Russia, or die.”​

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Read more: https://theatln.tc/qt2SGASu ​

 

[trenchfoot]

A bit dated Gallup Poll as of mid-March - 25 however I've likened it to a trend:

Bottom Line​

Americans’ opinions of the Russia-Ukraine war have shifted significantly in the past three months in the wake of Trump’s inauguration and a change in U.S. policy toward Ukraine. A new high 46% of Americans, including a broad majority of Democrats and almost half of independents, now believe the U.S. isn’t doing enough to support Ukraine. Despite partisan divides, a slim majority of U.S. adults now back continued U.S. support to help Ukraine reclaim lost territory, reversing the 2022-2024 trend toward seeking a quicker end to the war.

Looking ahead, this increase in public preference for stronger U.S. involvement may pressure the Trump administration to recalibrate its Ukraine policy, especially if Russia violates potential ceasefire agreements. For now, while there’s strong bipartisan skepticism about Russia’s trustworthiness in any peace deal, Democrats are far more willing than Republicans to escalate U.S. support, including taking direct military actions.

Support for Greater U.S. Role in Ukraine Climbs to 46% High

A 46% plurality of Americans think the U.S. is not doing enough to support Ukraine, marking a sharp change in sentiment since December, largely among Democrats.

news.gallup.com

I'm assuming the hesitance of the Republicans toward giving more support to Ukraine has much more to do with their loyalty to Trump and Putin in lieu of being in support of a democracy that used to be much like our own before His Highness-in-Chief showed up again.