Extreme Commanders

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/24/politics ... index.html

Think of the folks we know that will defend, justify, and even celebrate this kind of stuff these days.

US, Ukraine agree to terms on mineral deal, Ukraine says

Ukraine and the United States have agreed to terms on a deal relating to critical minerals and other resources, according to a senior Ukrainian official.

While Ukraine has said it agreed to the deal, President Donald Trump did not confirm the U.S. had agreed yet, instead saying he had heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington, D.C., to finalize the deal on Friday and that "it's OK with me if he'd like to.

"And he would like to sign it together with me," he added. "And I understand that's a big deal, a very big deal."

However, later, he said, "We've pretty much negotiated our deal on raw earth."

Officials familiar with the negotiations told ABC News that the U.S. and Ukraine are 99.9% there on the deal. Still, the deal isn't going to be finalized until the presidents put their signatures on it, which is expected to happen as soon as Friday, when they are set to meet.

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U.K. Prime Minister, Seeing ‘Crossroads in History,’ Pledges More European Support for Ukraine

Declaring that “we are at a crossroads in history,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said on Sunday that European countries would ramp up their military spending and assemble a “coalition of the willing” to defend Ukraine against Russia.

Speaking at a news conference after hosting a meeting of 18 European leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Mr. Starmer said that “a number” of other nations had indicated that they could join with Britain and France and deploy troops to Ukraine in the event of a cease-fire between Kyiv and Moscow. He did not name those countries.

Mr. Starmer announced plans to allow Ukraine to use 1.6 billion pounds in British export financing, or $2 billion, to buy more than 5,000 advanced air defense missiles. And he said he had spoken to President Trump on Saturday night and believed there could be “a positive outcome” with the United States.

Other European leaders emerged from the summit, held in London, to say that the European Union would embark on a surge in military spending.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the European Union would present a plan to do just that on Thursday. Europe, she said, will also fortify Ukraine with economic and military aid, aiming to turn the country into “a steel porcupine that is indigestible for potential invaders.”

NATO’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, said several European countries that he did not name had pledged to increase their military spending, calling that a “very positive” signal. Mr. Rutte also insisted that Mr. Trump was committed to NATO, telling reporters after the meeting to “please stop gossiping” about the possibility that the United States would pull out of the alliance.

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Putin unleashes Iskander-M missile attack to 'sink container ship in Odesa carrying cargo of British weapons for Ukraine'

Vladimir Putin unleashed a missile strike to 'sink' a cargo ship amid unconfirmed Russian claims it was carrying British weapons for use by Ukraine.

Two Iskander-M ballistic missiles hit the Panama-flagged container ship MSC LEVANTE F - reportedly Swiss-owned - soon after it arrived in Odesa on March 1, after making a stop in Turkey.

Two port workers were believed to have been wounded in the strike, which also damaged infrastructure, Ukrainian reports said.

The report of the attack comes as British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer today hosts Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders to discuss the future of the wartorn nation following the Ukrainian president's televised spat with US president Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.

Russian Telegram channel TalipoV [sic] Online Z claimed that the vessel was loaded with drones and weaponry that had been collected from a NATO based in Turkey before being transported to Odesa in Ukraine.

However, the channel is run by pro-Putin, Crimea-based blogger Oleksandr Talipov, who was charged with 'nation-based enmity against Ukrainian citizens' and hate speech by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2022.

'Upon arrival at the port of Odesa, the ship was hit by two missiles at berth number two at 18:00.

'After the strike detonations began, the cargo was completely destroyed, the ship sank.'

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As Europe mobilizes behind Ukraine, it sits on a $218 billion ace card

https://apple.news/ALEf-01bQT8mD8odVgcBsQw


Amid growing tensions between Washington and Kyiv, calls are growing for Europe to take an unprecedented step that could unlock billions in funding for Ukraine.
Some world leaders and politicians, including former UK Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak, are urging European countries to seize the roughly $218 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets — now largely held in Brussels — and hand them to Ukraine.
"It is only fair that Russia should pay for the damage its war has caused," Sunak wrote in an opinion piece for The Economist on Friday.

Not sure what they’re waiting for. Use the money, hire mercenaries and buy munitions from US.

Trump administration pauses U.S. military aid to Ukraine https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-admi ... o-ukraine/

Does it seem like Vance/Trump staged the whole oval office thing? They were looking for an excuse to stop supporting Ukraine and so they pushed buttons and pushed for blow up?

The other thing is why isn't anybody making a bigger deal about them not getting the mineral rights agreement signed?

We were in line to get something for nothing. It didn't even require that we continue to support Ukraine. How much we would get wasn't clear. But it was lost why? Because Zelensky wouldn't didn't say thank you to Trump? Wouldn't massage Trump's ego? Even if you felt disrespected, you get the document signed.

From Berlin With Love: Ukraine Is About To Fire Germany’s Best Cruise Missiles From Its Old Soviet Bombers

The German Taurus is a 1.5-ton cruise missile with a turbofan engine propelling it to high subsonic speeds over a distance of around 300 miles under GPS and inertial guidance. Most importantly, it packs an 1,100-pound dual warhead with a smaller charge to blow a hole in the target and a bigger charge to explode the target from the inside.

The missile’s high-tech features explain why the Ukrainian air force has been so desperate to get its hands on the Taurus. The same features are why the government of German chancellor Olaf Scholz has consistently rejected repeated Ukrainian requests for the missile. “I do not think it is right to deliver destructive weapons deep into the Russian hinterland,” Scholz said last month.

But Scholz’s party, the social democrats, came in third place in the recent German elections, trailing the first-place conservatives and the second-place far right. And the new chancellor-in-waiting, conservative Friedrich Merz, isn’t as strategically timid as Scholz. Merz endorsed a possible missile transfer last fall.

All that is to say, Ukraine is likely to get some Tauruses. The only questions are: How many? How will it use them? And how soon?

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