Why involve the US? They’ve just sold Ukraine a pup.
I genuinely don’t understand what is holding the EU back. There are billions available immediately for reinforcing Europe’s defence, without any pain for the involved countries. It’s easy money, the Russian oligarchs deserve to have that money taken away from them in order to reinforce the country they attacked in the first place.
So, what has held the EU leaders back since so long, and why can’t they still not take it?
Also, as @Noo_Noo noted, this US administration shouldn’t be asked for anything anymore. They have proven to be moronic beyond any reasonable measure, and higly untrustworthy. Europe has to take these vital decisions on its own.
Bottom-line: come on Europe, grow some balls ffs! 
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Just out of curiosity, would Switzerland be willing to pay towards that defence ?
There has been an attack with a car in Mannheim. Very little details so far. I have a friend, who is a paramedic, there at the moment.
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What they are afraid of is the following:
International Law: It is legally a bit so-so to take these money. This is however not the main worry and pure window dressing our politicians parrot because it sounds good. Macron himself used this argument 2 days ago. UK on the other hand, seized some Russian cash. It is a bogus argument and a substitute motive if you have just a tiny tad of cynicism inside of you. Besides, if there is a gun to your head, no state on earth in the end cares about following International Law to the tiniest letter (because you have to retaliate) and Russia breaks it all the tine. The pretense that Russia did not comit a far larger breach by actually invading Ukraine and forcing such reactions, is utterly absurd.
See for instance here from 2024 (the idea that any of this is new, is 100 percent bogus and something only someone ignorant would say,the West have been arguing seizing Russian assets pro and con since 2022 and the discussion have been going back and forth between think tanks and politicians on twitter for all to see for years):
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10034/
The second and the driving worry, is “shock to the financial system” because there are so MUCH Russian oligarch money there.
The 3d worry, which is a clear worry sadly for many, is that it cements conflict with Russia. With the US leaving and article 5 in doubt, there is much fear of what Russia will do. It is seemingly irrelevant that they already conduct sabotage and terror operations against most European states, the fear is about “Russian Escalation” as usual. That this is not very logical, doesn’t matter, since fear is powerful and often overrides logic.
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Russia will do , as ever , what it wants to do , regardless. We’re caught in this trap where we fail to respond in the correct way for fear of escalatory retaliation. Short of launching a nuclear missile there is nothing these fuckers haven’t already done and continue to do. If we want them to stop laughing at us then it’s time to take the gloves off and ignore the consequences.
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And instead we get this ; " France and the UK are proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister have said, as European efforts to bolster support for Kyiv accelerate in the face of uncertain US backing.
On Monday, a day after European leaders rallied around Ukraine at a summit in London, Jean-Noël Barrot said: “Such a truce – on air, sea and energy infrastructure – would allow us to determine whether Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith” and gauge his attitude to “real peace negotiations”.
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Unfortunately correct. The idea should be to instill a deterrance so that nuclear war becomes less and not more, likely. But the way this ship has been steared, nuclear use becomes more likely, which is absolutely bonkers, but here we are.
I simply for the life of me cannot understand why. The Russian conventional force is a paper tiger and there is absolutely no way it’s capable of taking on anyone west of the Baltic states. A flying columm from Poland takes Moscow, in my honest opinion, given the state of degradation of the Russian Army. So what is everyone so deathly afraid of? A nuke appearing over Berlin, or London, or Paris? Never going to happen because despite the orange malaise infecting the US, there are still enough nukes between the UK and France to vaporise Russia as well so MAD is still very much, well, assured. I think Western politicians should collectively grow a pair.
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In a more likely scenario, European forces enter confined hostilities with Russian forces in Ukraine. Russia then has to threaten MAD despite Moscow etc. not being under threat.
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I don’t agree with you that Europe would win an offensive war against Russia, even conventionally, at current. But a defensive one we would most certainly win, but it would be very costly.
Going on the offensive, inside Russia, is a whole different animal and requires many echelons and a million men. But it’s an unrealistic scenario anyway, no one wants to do it. No one, so it’s not something we should talk about really. Let’s focus on defence instead (which yes, involves counter offensives obviously).
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I have to kind of disagree with you on that one. My line on a flying column taking Moscow was not intended to be something I see happening, or suggesting, simply a metaphor to show how unlikely it is that Russia be able to invade Europe successfully when they’d be hard pressed to defend their own capital from Poland, even. Call it a throwaway line in a purely hypothetical scenario, if you will, although I do believe a flying column from Poland would cut through Belarus and onto Moscow like one of Putin’s worse nightmares… anyways,
My point is, with such obvious weaknesses in the Russian armament the only sabre they can rattle is the nuclear one and with their destruction assured as well, why bother about it. Harden up, take their fucking lunch money and say ‘come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough’. There is so much hand wringing and angst going on it’s like Europe has collectively forgotten that they do have military capacity of their own. It’s just down to willpower and calling Russia’s bluff.
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I think that flying column would be swamped and annihilated myself as it would have no logistics and no troops to occupy towns and cities it drove past. It’s all hypothetical, but to wage war in a land where civilians report intel to the enemy, where you have little intelligence, where you would also have to fight civilian guerilla, is suicidal unless you bring a very large army and you can occupy territory behind your armoured thrust. You will get surrounded and destroyed and there is no logistics train to support such a campaign.
Moscow and St.Petersburg are huge cities and designed with warfare in mind.
And if it broke through, tactical nuclear weapons would be deployed targeting logistics as well as the force. Incurions and (such as the Ukrainain Kursk offensive times 20x) is entirely different, but to take the large extremely populous Russian cities is not something a flying column can do.
I am not really a fan of such hypotheticals, particularly in a time where what we in Europe lack is chiefly mass in land forces and ammunition.
But it’s not important, I agree with the main of what you are trying to get across, I agree that they are incredibly beatable and I agree that they can absolutely be easily beat now and that they are fantastically degraded and stuck in Ukraine. The goal of beating back their expansion is truly within reach and easily achievable with economic sacrifice, if EU and UK are serious.
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I think that it should.
We have a long history of neutrality, but that was in a context of national wars of conquest in Europe. Post-WW2, the country upheld its neutrality because the Western block needed someone as a bridge towards the communist block. The allies asked us to play that role.
Here, we have a completely different situation, where Europe (and the UK) will find themselves sandwiched in-between two hostile blocks. Neutrality is one of our permanent features, so I don’t expect us to take part in any war against Russia, or the US for that matter. But I expect us to keep pace with the EU in terms of rearming ourselves, and to continue/intensify our common military exercices with the NATO, or rather, if the US withdraws from NATO, with the new European military alliance which will come out of it.
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Chemical weapons?
I wouldnt put it beyond Putin. Assad hot his from somewhere (I don’t know where).
I think everyone is rightly afraid of what push back would come from an offensive in Ukraine. But being honest I’m not sure what other choice there is. To prevent Rusdia having a go again in a couple of years they heed to be beaten somehow.
https://x.com/auonsson/status/1896503348964278572
This has been almost monthly events now for years, and yet, no one does anything about it out of lack of cohesion in the EU and fear.
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Would love to wargame it sometime 
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https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1896583061309124651
The last two days have been only this message from London.
In addition, you have Mandelson running solo saying crazy things to appease the US. It’s looking very bleak.
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This crime will not be made into a big deal, as the perpetrator is a German without a migration background. Unfortunately, some of the usual channels are spreading false reports again.
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Dont seem to be many here wanting to say much about Mandelson, but he is a cunt of the highest order and like trump is open to russian bribes.
If this was a tory i suspect there would be a fair bit of comment to be made, all as bad as each other , and starmer is just another blair model, all mouth and no backbone…but when he finishes being PM, like Blair he can make millions on the same circuits as Blair no doubt.
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