Putin issues ultimatum to NATO leader
Putin issues ultimatum to NATO leader
Ukraine has expressed concern at the first phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Summary
Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that NATO must accept “new territorial realities” in Ukraine as a precondition for peace talks, reiterating claims that NATO’s “aggressive policies” and disregard for Russian security interests caused the war.
Scholz condemned Russia’s aggression and called for troop withdrawal during the call, which has drawn criticism from Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Zelensky warned the talks could ease Putin’s international isolation without altering Russia’s stance.
A Western diplomat suggested Scholz might leverage the call domestically amid Germany’s upcoming snap elections.
Scholz is not the leader of NATO though
Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that NATO must accept “new territorial realities”
Is he talking about Kursk by any chance?
Maybe my reading comprehension is failing me here, but where's the ultimatum? He hasn't made any demands with a specific time limit and repercussions if Scholz didn't meet them. He has only stated his preconditions for peace talks.
The subtext here is brutally simple: Putin knows Trump is willing to withdraw from NATO, taking 70% of its defense budget with him, if Putin's demands aren't met. At that point, NATO becomes little more than letterhead, and new territorial "realities" manifest regardless of NATO's protests. Putin's saber-rattling serves a calculated purpose--he knows the actual foundation of NATO's power is already compromised through Trump.
Expect this antagonistic posturing from Putin to increase. Trump is already looking for an excuse to leave NATO, and his staff have outlined the executive branch's unilateral power to do so. Putin's role, which he's gleefully accepting, is to provoke NATO into actions that will give Trump his justification for withdrawal.
The withdrawal seems nearly inevitable at this point, especially given Trump's planned purge of military leadership. While the EU is attempting to plan for this contingency, losing 70% of your military strength is essentially an insurmountable problem for a coalition that has structured its entire defense strategy around U.S. backing.
The numbers here are stark: the U.S. spends four times what all EU member states combined spend on military funding - not just NATO allocations but total military spending. This creates an irrefutable power imbalance within the coalition. When Trump previously threatened withdrawal, NATO's attempts to develop alternative deterrent strategies went nowhere because the EU simply cannot afford to compensate for a U.S. exit. They essentially did nothing and hoped Biden's election would solve the problem.
This allowed the EU economy to avoid difficult choices, as making up for a U.S. withdrawal would likely destabilize the European economy. But now they face an impossible dilemma: attempt to compensate for U.S. withdrawal and risk economic crisis, or maintain current spending levels and leave member states critically exposed. Many NATO states, like Estonia, have defense strategies that amount to "try to survive for two weeks until NATO arrives." Putin understands the leverage he's gained through Trump and the Republican party's capture of the federal government. It's tremendous leverage. The EU should be in crisis mode, but they seem unable or unwilling to fully grasp that U.S. withdrawal from NATO isn't just possible but probable.
Pay attention. The tectonic plates of geopolitics are shifting beneath our feet.
The US have only delivered 10% of the 61BN dollars last year (remember the hold up in the house?) and Ukraine did without it.
Think about that a little bit.
Sure, aid from the USA is better than no aid, but it is not a life or death situation for the country Ukraine. More people will die, the war will not be won as quickly.
Europe will probably step up too if US steps down.
Also, you just figure Trump will quit NATO (spoiler: he won't) and then get high on USA Murica Best Army publicities lol.
Edit: USA, France, UK just all have now given the permission to deep strikes inside russia! Putin can whine all he wants now lol, slava Ukraine!!
The EU is plenty strong enough to defend itself -- and Ukraine -- against Russia. Several times over. Without switching to a war economy. Your maths fall flat once you realise that much of those 70% are aircraft carries in the Pacific and random research projects into fusion or whatever, utterly irrelevant to the question at hand.
On the contrary without the US in the game expect Poland to put boots on Ukrainian soil pretty much instantly, and that's after the rest of the EU convinced them to not march straight on Moscow.
The ultimatum is to finally ban Newsweek for the complete gutter trash it is.
Putin is definitely the type to pick a fight and then play the victim. At some point he probably fell on the floor and stamped his feet like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum