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Maybe Donald Trump likes being humiliated? Maybe that’s another thing to add to the very long list of possible reasons why the US President is seemingly always open to doing the bidding of his opposite number in Moscow.
If, as the most powerful man on the planet, you ask someone to do something and they publicly rebut the request, that’s a very public humiliation. So when Trump announced last week that he has secured an agreement from Russia and Ukraine for an energy ceasefire, and Russia follows that by spending all week carrying out waves of attacks deliberately targeting energy facilities in Ukraine, that would be embarrassing for Trump. So how does he react?
On Friday night, a time when news is dropped in order to be buried, Trump announced that “in the national interest” he was signing an Executive Order to waive the sanctions on Russia that were contained in a bill designed by the late Lindsey Graham. One wonders, which nation this is in the interests of?
That bill went through the Senate with an 86-11 margin. In seeking to help Vladimir Putin, Trump is defying an overwhelming vote from a bipartisan group of lawmakers. This comes in the wake of Trump, along with Elon Musk, calling for Ukraine’s President to be replaced. Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed, saying he will call elections that could see an end to his own rule, if Russia can be persuaded to agree to and respect a 60-day ceasefire in order to create the necessary conditions for the vote. And once again the Kremlin refused. Another humiliation for Trump. Once again his wishes were taken into account by Kyiv but there was rejection by Moscow.
And yet, pressure continues to mount on Ukraine, rather than on Russia. As well as having to deal with the realities of a brutal war being waged by the Russian Federation, it is clear that the United States is now acting in tandem with Russia in an attempt to end the war through forced Ukrainian capitulation. The nature of the latest act of sabotage against Ukraine is the limitation of the Starlink/Starshield technology that is provided and controlled by Musk’s SpaceX company, but is largely paid for (on regular commercial terms, there’s no altruism involved) by Poland.
Starlink services are employed throughout Ukraine in a variety of ways. As well as being integrated in logistical operations dropping food and water to frontline troops, Starlink is an essential component in the weapons systems that have been designed to combat the evolving threat to civilians from Russian and Iranian drones. Those drones are now being equipped with jet engines, enabling them to fly at speeds of up to 600 Km/h. With Starlink usability being limited to a maximum of 160 Km/h, the interceptors simply cannot catch the drones.
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As a result, civilians that could have been saved have been killed or injured. By Russia. With assistance from the United States.
What’s noteworthy about this deliberate obstruction to Ukraine’s defensive capabilities is that nobody wants to own up to having made the decision or given the order. Musk has pointed the finger at the White House. Trump has said that he doesn’t know who did it (a shocking admission that he’s unaware of who does what within his government, were he telling the truth) and Secretary Rubio insists that Ukraine didn’t even have the system that was being hobbled. According to reporting in The Telegraph and Wall Street Journal newspapers though, it was Musk’s idea, he brought it to Trump, and Trump gave the thumbs up.
Civilians that would have been defended were killed or injured. By Russia. With the United States playing the role of collaborator.
If this is all an effort to pressure Zelenskyy to capitulate, or to leave office so his successor can capitulate, it’s misguided. Zelenskyy will not capitulate because the vast majority of Ukrainians will not allow that. If the elections that the US is calling for did take place, which Russia will not allow the conditions for in defiance/humiliation of the US, no candidate who would campaign on a pledge to give in to Russia would stand a chance of being elected.
Here’s the recent pattern. Trump announces a planned diesel purchase, war income for Putin. Trump announces Ukraine needs a new leader, a key Russian demand delivered. Starlink use is curtailed, allowing Russia to inflict more casualties. Graham sanctions are waived, telling Putin there’s no punishment for his war crimes. And on top of that it is also reported that Trump offered to unfreeze $100 billion of frozen Russian Central Bank assets, allowing more income for Putin’s war machine.
If any of that is supposed to sway thinking in Russia away from warmongering and towards looking for ways to end the conflict, it isn’t working. The response to this catalogue of weakness from Trump has been intransigence from Putin and more humiliation.
Ukraine, meanwhile, rather than being humiliated, is doing what it can to actually finish the war – taking the fight to Russia and hitting Putin’s home town with a massive swarm of drones.
On the night of Saturday 17th and into the morning of Sunday 18th of October, as many as 1,000 drones were dispatched in the direction of St. Petersburg. Among the targets struck were an oil facility on the port from which exports are sent out to immoral consumers of Russian hydrocarbons. A data centre supporting VKontakte (Russia’s Facebook rip-off) was hit. An electrical substation was also hit causing widespread blackouts in the city and the region. And there was a tap on one of the city’s key bridges as well.
The message behind these strikes is hardly hidden. Ukraine will strike at Russia’s ability to import currency by exporting oil. The data centre strike is part of a wider goal to hit the daily lives of ordinary Russians to remind them that they started a war and they are going to see the consequences of that war. Hitting energy facilities is a clear warning, two can play at that game, but only one of the sides has experience of mitigating the effects of sustained power outages in a grim and cold winter. And as the bridges spanning Kyiv’s Dnipro river have been hit, Russia is being reminded that they have similar vulnerabilities.
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Vladimir Putin understands only the language of force. Vladimir Putin will humiliate anyone who shows him weakness. Someone needs to tell the President. Lest he foolishly think he and his friends can get themselves into lucrative business deals which will only lead to more humiliation when the investors are fleeced, the deals turn sour and their assets are appropriated by the mafia state which Putin leads.