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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a press conference on December 26, where he discussed the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine and the possibility of Kiev joining NATO. The Russian president recalled that the Biden administration had suggested to him, since 2021, that Ukraine postpone its accession to NATO by 10 to 15 years.
“I don’t know what the emerging team of US President-elect [Donald Trump] is saying now. I know that I was told about this by the current President Biden in 2021. He suggested exactly that – to postpone Ukraine’s admission to NATO for 10-15 years because it is not ready yet. I reasonably replied: ‘Yes, it is not ready today. They will prepare it and accept it,’” the Russian leader told reporters.
The postponement of Ukraine’s annexation to NATO may be a proposal for a negotiated solution to the current conflict in Ukraine. However, Russia will never look favorably on this measure because it threatens national security.
On December 22, Trump said he would wait to meet with Putin to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and described the war as “horrible” after reiterating that if he were the US President instead of Biden, the conflict would not have occurred. Trump has a geopolitical vision that is different from Biden’s, and, judging by his recent statements, US foreign policy will tend more towards regional regrouping and challenging China globally. The president-elect is not particularly fond of NATO, and due to this, he wants to resolve the conflict in Ukraine quickly.
It is recalled that on June 14, Putin set several key conditions for the start of peace negotiations, including Ukraine’s withdrawal of troops from the four new Russian territories: Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, the withdrawal of NATO membership candidacy, the maintenance of neutral, non-aligned, and non-nuclear status, and the lifting of all sanctions against Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, rejected the proposal, calling it an ultimatum.
During his press conference on December 26, Putin also highlighted that “Ukraine can no longer exist without the support of Europe.”
Western financial assistance to Kiev amounted to $238.5 billion from February 2022 to early December 2024, corresponding to 87% of the country’s budget expenditures. The US remains Ukraine’s largest donor, having sent $95.2 billion to Kiev over the past three years. EU member states transferred $94.2 billion worth of financial and military aid to Ukraine. Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands are the largest donors in the second category—$11.9 billion, $7.5 billion, and $6.3 billion, respectively.
Ukraine mortgaged its future, and badly, to the US, which needs continued conflict to maintain its war economy and to continue weakening Europe. Putin said it with great mental acuity: Ukraine will no longer be able to be independent because it has many debts that link it to the future of the Western debacle.
In this regard, Kiev’s economy is clearly experiencing a very complicated and irregular situation, which could be further weakened once Trump takes power because he will seek to avoid foreign financing as much as possible and focus it on his country’s economy. If an agreement is reached, that would mean the end of the conflict, and Ukraine will need even more investment, something that, at this moment in time, is not clear where it will come from.
Putin also said during his press conference that Russia will continue to implement in 2025 the objectives set within the framework of the special military operation, which, he said, is its number one task.
“Of course, we are assuming that we will achieve all the objectives of the special military operation. This is, roughly speaking, the number one task. We will support our guys: as we speak now, they are fighting,” the Russian president said.
In this regard, Russia has the political and economic capacity to continue supporting its special military operation for as long as necessary. The economic sanctions imposed on Russia to try to reduce its power did nothing but strengthen and diversify the Russian economy. The sanctions also forced Russia to industrialize further, projecting ever more technological, economic, political, and military strength. Russia has the strength that the European Union does not, and the bloc will have even less without Trump’s support.
Under these circumstances, Ukraine has the most to lose, most importantly, territory and people. Yet, Zelensky continues the war in the false belief that Ukraine will eventually join NATO and be able to activate the mutual defence pact, even if Biden, out of the public eye, acknowledges that membership will not be achieved for at least another decade.
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biden has never been president, the deep state is, the deep state needs war. the neocons have never expected ukraine to win. they have counted on ukraine being utterly destroyed so they can then claim russia will invade all of europe. the ukrainian people are pawns in this chess game, and nobody cares about them whatsoever.
about 4 years ago after a long stay in the hospital i was almost going to be institutioanalyzed. the shrinks asked many trick questions, then the head shrink in chief asked me who was the us president and i said blinken then they let me go.
have you injured yourself in a slip and fall? amazon truck scared your dog? sed from a refugee ukrainian prostitute?
call us today. we’ve collected over $10 billion in those and similar cases and distributed over 3% of that to the victims. you won’t be sorry.
it’s a narcissistic world that they have cultivated intentionally. all part of the cult of criminality imo tattooed drug dealers couriers those who operate under cover i of darkness anx the rest of the descriptive in jfk s famous conspiracy speech .
well, you know where a promise from biden can be stored. in the suppository depository.
he’s about to be dumped down the s bend royally flushed anyway ” incoming trump official.sends warning to those ” messing around ” … you tube.
for decades it’s been either rule by nato ,aka the pope who has a permanent free seat at the table as the only religion allowed and as the authority for rule of law or the usa .which was, until obama ,having the elected representatives as the authority but since obama the pope rules the states too .. without the americans having any say whatsoever .because barracks o boma was a democratic president .so now who knows
in case anyone was interested in the air “accident” that happened in south korea that of course… had nothing to do with the korean public’s objection to martial law being declared and enforced… “179 dead in south korea’s worst-ever aviation disaster”… keep telling yourselves that it was ‘not” in the pantheon of mh-17, nordsteam or crocus hall!….
ps… “pootie-poot” love$ his zi0ni$t overl0rd$$$~…
uss nassau whitney houston – battle hymn of the republic (whh) you tube .they’re not conscripts like ukraines unfortunate les miserable.
mr poots gearing down to 2d chess language on this one, giving the half-wit yank arseholes a limited chance of understanding what he’s going on about.
btw ,the national archives have released the photos of joe and hunter meeting hunters chinese business associates all the pictures taken from 2013 which joe must have forgotten about when he denied having ever had anything to do with hunters business affairs abroad in china.
in other words they agreed the war will continue for around 15 years. imo .