Peloni: Complete reversal of Ukrainian support for war in Ukraine from 2022 to the present. Of course ending the war means a return to elections, and for some who are enjoying the lack of even the pretense of democracy in Ukraine, this will be a problem.
Some pretty astounding new polling out of Ukraine from Gallup. Suggests a 20% shift in just the last year away from “fighting until victory” to “negotiate as soon as possible.” pic.twitter.com/gEvX3oQkgB
— Emma Ashford (@EmmaMAshford) August 7, 2025
From the Ukrainian alternative universe:
Zelensky claims he us and always has been one of the Ukrainians who wants to end the war. He claims he has only supported armed resistance to the Russian invasion of his country because there was no other way to prevent Russia’s military conquest of his country. It is true, however, that he has modified his position on territorial concessions to Russia, and now is willing to support them, because it is a necessary price that Ukraine must pay to end the war, which is utterly destroying Ukraine. He claims he is one of the “88%” of Ukrainians who support such concessions, ( the 88% figure is taken from a recent poll.)
Like many other Ukrainians, Zelensky says Ukraine will needrealistic security guarantees from the United States and other NATO countries in order to accept territorial concessions to Russia. However, he has dropped his demand for full Ukrainian membership in NATO.
Adam
So again…has Ukraine acted in the role of.Proxies in the destruction of Russia on behalf of world capitalism? Is THAT the wat?
I think thus report from Bloomberg gives a reasonably accurate idea of what is going on in the diplomacy aimed at achieving at least a cease-fire in the war
99+
J
Trump Issues Warning to Putin After Summit Prep With Europe
Samy Adghirni, Arne Delfs and Alberto Nardelli
Wed, August 13, 2025 at 1:58 PM EDT 6 min read
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US President Donald Trump during an event at the Kennedy Center on Aug. 13
US President Donald Trump during an event at the Kennedy Center on Aug. 13
(Bloomberg) — US President Donald Trump warned he would impose “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin didn’t agree to a ceasefire agreement later this week, following a call with European leaders ahead of his meeting with the Russian president.
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Trump also said he hoped to use the Friday meeting to set up a “quick second meeting” with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy after allies pressed him to push for such a summit.
“There’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a second meeting which will be more productive than the first,” Trump told reporters Wednesday at the Kennedy Center, adding that he was “setting the table for the second meeting.”
WATCH: President Donald Trump says he had a very good call with European leaders ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Source: Bloomberg
WATCH: President Donald Trump says he had a very good call with European leaders ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Source: Bloomberg
The president’s remarks signaled both that he was looking to downplay expectations for the delivery of a full peace deal from his Anchorage, Alaska summit with Putin, and responding to concerns from his European partners who urged him to prioritize direct Putin-Zelenskiy talks.
Skeptics of Trump’s effort have expressed concern that the US president — who has said an eventual deal would include territorial exchanges — could agree to peace terms proposed by Putin that would disadvantage Ukraine.
Trump assured leaders on the call he wouldn’t negotiate territories with Putin and would push the Russian leader to meet with Zelenskiy, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions. He reiterated his public claim that he would know quickly if the Russian president was serious about the negotiations, and said the US would be willing to contribute to support some security guarantees short of full NATO membership for Kyiv.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters Wednesday after the call, said that any decision on possible concessions on territory will need to be made by Ukraine and there were no “serious territorial exchange plans on the table today.”
“Trump was very clear on the fact that the US wants to obtain a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska,” Macron told reporters in Bregancon, France. “We have reiterated that until there is a ceasefire and a lasting peace, we must continue to support Ukraine, and when I say we I mean Europeans and Americans.”
Trump and US Vice President JD Vance joined European leaders including from Germany, France, Poland and Italy as well as Zelenskiy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the roughly hour-long discussion. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who also took part, said in a post on social media that the leaders had a “very good call” and that it “strengthened the common ground for Ukraine.”
Trump described the call similarly, saying he would “rate it a 10” and said he had promised to brief Zelenskiy and European leaders immediately after concluding his conversation. Trump also said he would be willing to walk away if he judged Putin as insincere.
“Now there may be no second meeting, because if I feel that it’s not appropriate to have it, because I didn’t get the answers that we have to have, then we’re not going to have a second meeting,” Trump said.
Turkey was mentioned on the call as one location for a potential trilateral summit between Trump, Putin and Zelenskiy if the meeting did in fact come together, a person familiar with the matter said.
The talks came after days of intense diplomacy between US, European and Ukrainian officials ahead of Trump’s planned meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who hosted the call with the US leader, reiterated that Ukraine would need to be involved in any decisions.
“We have made it clear that Ukraine will be at the table as soon as there is a follow-up meeting,” Merz told reporters in Berlin alongside Zelenskiy. “President Trump wants to make a ceasefire a priority.”
Moscow is demanding that Ukraine cede its entire eastern Donbas region as well as Crimea, which Putin’s forces illegally annexed in 2014, as a condition to unlock a ceasefire and enter negotiations over a lasting settlement, Bloomberg previously reported.
Such an outcome would require the government in Kyiv to give up parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces still under its control and hand Russia a victory that its army couldn’t achieve militarily for more than a decade.
Zelenskiy told reporters earlier this week that he won’t cede Donbas, adding that the Kremlin could use it as a launchpad for a future offensive. European nations have made clear to the US that they will not formally recognize territory illegally occupied by Russia.
Macron said questions about the territory “will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president.”
“We support this position and it was very clearly expressed by President Trump,” he told reporters, adding that the US leader “will also fight to obtain” a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskiy.
Kyiv and its allies argue that a truce along the current battle-lines should be the first step toward formal negotiations. European leaders also stressed to Trump that Ukraine needs robust security guarantees to ensure that any deal holds.
“If there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and we Europeans should and must increase the pressure,” Merz said. “President Trump is aware of this position and largely shares it.”
Trump hasn’t implemented any direct measures against Moscow so far, though he doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50% last week for its purchases of Russian oil, sparking outrage in New Delhi.
He threatened to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow unless Putin agreed to a ceasefire by last Friday. That deadline passed without any further action after the two sides announced their first summit meeting since Trump’s return to the White House in January.
European leaders also said that Trump, Putin and Zelenskiy could aim to formalize a ceasefire alongside an agreement on the core parameters for peace negotiations at a trilateral meeting, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Zelenskiy said the participants in the call agreed that there “must be security guarantees and they must be stronger if Russia does not agree to ceasefire in Alaska.”
“We need more pressure — not only American but also European sanctions,” Zelenskiy said.
On the other hand:
“The Russian violinist Asya Sorshneva has been placed under house arrest on charges of ‘financing extremist activities’.
According to The Moscow Times and Chesnok, Sorshneva, 42, had pleaded guilty in a Vladimir-region court to donating funds to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) between August 2021 and February 2022.
Navalny founded the FBK in 2011 and Russian authorities outlawed the foundation in 2021, declaring it as ‘extremist.’ Navalny died in 2024.
Police statements reported that Sorshneva made seven payments during the period in question. In the Vladimir region, courts have typically handed down fines rather than prison terms in similar cases, even though the charges carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years.
Sorshneva is also facing separate charges in Vladimir’s Oktyabrsky District Court, where according to Mediazona, she stands accused of ’discrediting’ the Russian military.
Sorshneva is a graduate of the Gnessin Secondary Specialized Music School and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. She is a laureate of international competitions, including second prize at the Brahms Chamber Music Competition in Austria and the Grand Prix in Chesapeake.
She has performed in numerous festivals with orchestras and ensembles, including with the ‘New Russia’ orchestra under Yuri Bashmet, Kremerata Baltica under Gidon Kremer, and musicAeterna with Teodor Currentzis. She performs with the group ’Pakhom Vam Recall.’”
https://www.thestrad.com/news/russian-authorities-place-violinist-asya-sorshneva-under-house-arrest/20056.article
“On 19 January 2021, two days after he was detained by Russian authorities upon his return to Russia, an investigation by Navalny and the FBK was published accusing President Vladimir Putin of using fraudulently obtained funds to build a massive estate for himself near the town of Gelendzhik in Krasnodar Krai, in what he called “the world’s biggest bribe”. The estate was first reported on in 2010 after the businessman Sergei Kolesnikov, who was involved in the project, gave details about it. According to Navalny, the estate is 39 times the size of Monaco, with the Federal Security Service (FSB) owning 70 square kilometers of land around the palace, and the estate cost over 100 billion rubles ($1.35 billion) to construct.[179] It also showed aerial footage of the estate via a drone, and a detailed floor plan of the palace that Navalny and the FBK said was given by a contractor, which was compared to photographs from inside the palace that were leaked onto the Internet in 2011. Using the floorplan, computer-generated visualisations of the palace interior were also shown.[7]
There are impregnable fences, its own port, its own security, a church, its own permit system, a no-fly zone, and even its own border checkpoint. It is absolutely a separate state within Russia.[7]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Navalny
“The compaint further alleges that the Met and Gelb inflicted further harm on Netrebko’s career by publicly dissuading other opera companies from employing the soprano. The complaint further notes that the Met and Gelb acted with common law malice.”
https://operawire.com/anna-netrebkos-lawyer-files-supplemental-complaint-documents-reveal-peter-gelbs-disregard-for-sopranos-anti-war-statements-safety/
Maybe they are tired of watching the dwarf Zelli running about in his pretend “military garb” representing them.
Who thought it was Ok for him to show up at the G7 in loungewear, when everyone else was in Business attire??? Did he think that people assumed he just stepped out of an Apache helo from killing Russians?
What a douche!