AND HOME OF THE USEFUL IDIOT: – President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia’s highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military.
The spring call-up for a year’s military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.
That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.
The current draft, which takes place between April and July, comes despite US attempts to forge a ceasefire in the war.
There was no let-up in the violence on Tuesday, with Ukraine saying that a Russian attack on a power facility in the southern city of Kherson had left 45,000 people without electricity.
Although Russia has turned down a full US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine, it says it did agree to stop attacking Ukraine’s energy facilities. In an apparent attempt to deny Moscow had broken the terms of that deal, Russian officials said they had told Putin that Ukrainian drones had carried out attacks with little sign of a break. – Paul Kirby Europe digital editor BBC. 1/4/2025
BIG PROBLEMS: US President Donald Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “trying to back out” of the minerals deal expected to be agreed between the two countries as early as this week, adding that Volodymyr Zelensky would face “big problems” if he didn’t sign an agreement. But Ukraine has highlighted that the conditions of the deal changed significantly in recent days.
“I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force Once on Sunday. “We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’”
“He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Zelensky said last week that the conditions of the deal being negotiated are “constantly changing,” but overall, Ukraine feels positively toward a future agreement.
Ukraine received a new draft of the text on Friday, according to its foreign ministry.
The new proposal for a natural resources agreement, of which CNN has obtained a copy, was put forward by the US Treasury Department and goes well beyond the initial draft, particularly on future US rights and reimbursement for past assistance.
But it has been revived in the form of the new proposal that would give the US more access to Kyiv’s rare earth minerals, according to two people familiar with the discussions and a copy of the draft proposal obtained by CNN on Thursday.
It does not, however, include language regarding one of Ukraine’s priorities — concrete security guarantees in the country’s ongoing war with Russia.
The deal would apply to all mineral resources, oil and gas across all of Ukraine, the sources said.
A key part of the proposal requires Ukrainian enterprises to contribute to a joint US-Ukraine investment fund that would be overseen by a five-person board consisting of three members from Washington and two from Kyiv – prompting concerns that Ukraine would be ceding sweeping control of key assets to the United States.
The draft obtained by CNN states that previous US assistance to Ukraine would be “deemed as contributions” to the partnership fund – something Kyiv has said it would not agree to, given that likely means Ukraine would not benefit from any revenues until the US has recouped all its assistance money.
The proposed agreement would give the US the “right of first offer” for all future natural resources projects and infrastructure investment projects. It also includes a clause stating Ukraine must make an effort to prevent critical minerals sales to any purchasers located in a country that the US International Development Finance Corporation “identifies as a strategic competitor of the United States.”
Meanwhile, Washington and Moscow have also started talks related to cooperation on rare earth metals and other projects in Russia.
The Kremlin said Monday that no documents have been signed yet, but there is interest in cooperation.
It comes as Trump continues to push for an end to the war, expressing open frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend.
“I was very angry – pissed off – when Putin started getting into Zelensky’s credibility, because that’s not going in the right location, you understand?” Trump told NBC News in an interview, referring to the Russian leader’s comments suggesting Ukraine be put under a “temporary administration” while the two nations work toward a ceasefire deal.
Trump continued, “But new leadership means you’re not gonna have a deal for a long time, right? … But I was pissed off about it. But if a deal isn’t made, and if I think it was Russia’s fault, I’m going to put secondary sanctions on Russia.”
“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault, which it might not be, but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said. – By Lauren Kent and Alayna Treene, CNN
What a load of shit. JD Vance and Tucker Carlson amongst many others have repeatedly said Zelensky is an illegitimate president, going as far as to call him a dictator. Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle. He’s so angry with Vlad, yet Ukraine will suffer if they don’t do as he says.
Why don’t you just admit what everyone can see is happening, robbing a poor man to enrich yourself. Ukraine is being divided up between Russia and America, shameful doesn’t even come close to describing what is happening. They are even planning on joining forces to rape and pillage as much of the land as they possibly can. Joint mining operations, seriously?
HAVING A LAUGH: Russia says it is giving serious consideration to US proposals on ending the war in Ukraine, but ‘cannot accept’ President Donald Trump’s current peace deal and has issued a fresh set of demands.
Moscow wants the US to take into account what it regards as the root causes of the conflict, a Russian diplomat was quoted by state media as saying on Tuesday.
‘We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can’t accept it all in its current form,’ Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying. – Natasha Anderson for DM.
Mar 31, 2025 9:11:12 pm
