Isn’t there a case to be made that if they thought that Ukraine had no chance, there wouldn’t be a point to send material that would essentially be gifted to Russia? After all, what would the point of sending weaponry be if all that was going to happen was a walkover and the Russians could just capture those?
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The last I read in particular, I think was about Sunak wanting to hold back on more deliveries?
EDIT: Sunak’s review of aid for Ukraine suggests cracks appearing in UK policy | Ukraine | The Guardian
See also: Rishi Sunak orders audit of Ukraine war progress, source says - BBC News
That said, however, apparently he made a speech 3 days ago in which he pledged to send more? All I could find without clicking on hate rags is: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/uks-sunak-promises-long-term-support-ukraine-after-drone-attacks-2023-01-03/
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There is of course such a case if you want to be cynical, yes. But such calculations, which after all were not particularly altruistic, can damn you as we have seen and are not soon fogotten. And really, we are not just talking about February/March and april, remember.
Anyway, personally I would like to move away from the topic. There is no point debating it to death I think. What has been done was done, and I will hope for better and wiser politics for the future. I have a hell of a lot of respect for Germany and I will remain hopeful this trust issue can be dealt with in time.
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Better graphics
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interesting what you say about Eastern Europe and the Poles in particlar,
i mind when the missile landed in Poland killing 2 people, (November)
it was all over Polish media that it was a Russian Missile and it was an attack on Polish Nand NATO soil,
(i got the impression that they were war momongerring due to their relationship with Russia)
I did not actually remember the timelines.
That’s the price to pay unfortunately. Would you rather that he move fast, having already been losing his post-election momentum, and then see his support collapse, before a cynical opposition party starts campaigning on doing exactly what he has done, or even more Russophilic a stance, and actually bringing down his government and then forming one that is more reluctant to support Ukraine?
You personally want a more vigorous reaction, and I would prefer one too, but apparently the German people were not that much in favour of that, and that’s something we have to live with.
Nah, they were in reality quite careful (it was just not official from Poland that they thought it was Russian, but a statement from a lesser guy ). Very quickly they claimed it to be Ukrainian while Ukraine adamantly claimed it was -Russian. Then Ukraine got the message and accepted the facts.
Poland doesn’t want real war. No one does (well, maybe Ukraine). Poland just wants to flood Ukraine with the best weapons and higher volumes, because they calculate this will not get a nuke response. Others more wary.
True enough, but it has damaged their standing which is very unfortunate I think.
But stuff like this has created real tensions. and I of course worry about European unity and NATO as well as Ukraine
I don’t disagree, I’m just pointing out that his calculus was different.
I wish they weren’t being so reticent either, but the reality is that the German population is elsewhere.
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I know, I know 
I am just pointing to the damage, that¨s all. I understand the political gauntlet running and the cause. But that is why i have been disappointed in the lack of leadership shown by the SDP. It’s easy to run on auto pilot politically, to not make waves. But if SDP was and is serious with Zeitenwende I had expected and hoped for more daring and proactive policy proposals and messaging. So I am a bit disappointed that they failed to take the chance to assert themselves on the global security stage even at political domestic risk (what is most important ? European security or getting reelected after all).
Anyway, good night, @redalways .
A bit interesting to watch actually
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Not sure whether this belongs here or elsewhere but there is more evidence of advanced planning by Oligarchs before the start of the conflict last year.
Assuming that MI5 monitor this sort of thing, I wonder why the UK government gave them 3 weeks advance notice of sanctions rather than actually backdating them?
The possibility of this happening was flagged up as soon as the government made their intentions known. Nobody should be surprised that that is precisely what came to pass. The real question is who was able to exert influence on the timing of the government’s announcement that allowed Abramovich to safeguard his assets. The name Evgeny Lebedev immediately springs to my mind.
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Soledar seems lost. Tonight Ukraine counter attacked and regained the salt mines which fell to Wagner yesterday. Soledar falling is important since it allows flanking movement of Bakhmut