Reader Mike has this to say about the Russo-Ukrainian war:

The reality is Ukraine has already damaged Russia's ability to produce diesel for years so why should Zelensky care. What I don't understand is why the European countries aren't on Zelensky's butt. In Belgium diesel is going for about $9.15 a gallon. Talk about a hurting, yet they are silent as Zelensky makes it tougher on them. The trade off must be what Ukraine is doing to the Russian military in losses in men and material. Ukraine has managed to reclaim about 150 square miles of territory. The territory reclaimed is a junk yard of burned out Russian vehicles and rotting corpses of dead Russians. Losses in men run from 500,000 to a million. Losses in material is running in the 100s of billions. To bad Trump cant make Putin see the light and sit down and talk peace.

Tim adds:

I hear you Mike.

I suspect the Europeans don't care about diesel because they were all committed to the Paris Accord and are going to use this to transition to "renewables" which they still believe can alter the world economy and end climate change. I suspect the Europeans hope to use this to convince their populations that dependence on diesel and other fossil fuels is bad for their own security and by letting the Russian diesel industry suffer they may suffer too but can turn that to their advantage and get more electric trucks and biodiesel and the like.

And also the plan all along was to bleed Russia to the point where they will have no choice but to stop trying to create an alternate system outside of their "rules based order" as they call it aka the international system and force them to take international aid, borrow money from the big international banks, and otherwise integrate into the European dominated New World Order system. I think they see Russia eventually establishing a liberal government that is in line with their values and willing to join the E.U. in time. I believe that is their goal and has been all along. This couldn't be attained through simple financial pressures since Moscow has already largely severed ties with the big banks and other financial scavengers. But a long, bloody, destructive war may make them more amenable. I fear the Europeans don't care about the Ukraine at all, just are using it to advance their own interests.

Putin walked right into that trap, I suspect. But of course he is the one who started the war in the first place and he should have been more adept at reading the tea leaves. Clearly he was very ill-advised by his military people.

Putin is a dirt bag and Russia would be well-rid of him, but from what I have seen anyone who would take over there would be worse.

I would also add if Russia were integrated into the European Union and even NATO they could in the end wind up being a worse threat to OUR security. How will Brussels hold control of the union with the Russians in it? Especially with France in so much trouble and Germany isn't far behind. Russia could well wind up in control in time.

But I see no way Russia would ever join an a political organization with the Germans; they hate them way too much.

Looking into the future I can see NATO and the E.U. becoming our enemy and our having a cold war with them. Integrating Russia, with her oil and gas and manpower (dwindling as we speak, of course) and with her massive nuclear arsenal into the European Alliance would make Europe at least comparable in power to the U.S. and they know it. I suspect this too is one of their goals.

So to me it makes sense how they've approached this whole war. This is, after all, the model used by France in the creation of the European Union in the first place; they wanted to integrate their economy with Germany's to make the Germans unwilling to ever attack them again. They did this by first forming an economic framework (The European Coal and Steel Community) which grew into the Common Market then the European Union. They did it and now Germany and France are little more than provinces in the European Union, run from Brussels. They hope to use this same Anschluss model on Russia, to tie Russia into their New World Order system. They hope to create a new nation with real power not dependent on the United States.

(By the by there was also a plan by the International elites to turn North America into a North American Union and that's why we had the North American Free Trade Agreement and in fact there is an African Union too, with similar goals. This was all part of an international movement to ultimately create world government, but I digress.)

Zelensky, who, I am sure, is run by the internationalists, refuses to negotiate peace. Of course Putin is making that refusal very easy as Putin is still under the illusion he can get a big win. He has been indulging in a war of attrition but he didn't anticipate drone warfare, which nullifies his larger army and greater resources. Also, I don't think he expected all the European and American aid that would flow into the Ukraine. At this point Putin needs to sit down with Zelensky in private and work out a way he can save face and get out. Both sides need to make it appear they won in this. There is too much bad blood, so I doubt it will happen.

And I would add Putin needs security guarantees to take to his people. HE didn't covet Ukraine for security reasons but economic and matters of pride, but the Russian People are suspicious by nature and also fear not having control of their borders. The country is mostly a flat plain and enemies have just strolled in for centuries. The Ukraine has always been a buffer zone; the very name means "borderland" and the Mongols destroyed it and kept destroying it so it was a wasteland that a Western army could not cross because they wouldn't be able to provision themselves. The Russians do not feel safe with a foreign power at their doorstep. When NATO expanded into Poland and the Baltic States the Russian People got very nervous. If the Ukraine joins NATO the Russians would be terrified. They want the borderland to be a borderland and not part of an enemy coalition, which they see NATO to be.

Of course Putin has other motives but the Russians themselves fear this. At least a good number of them do.

At any rate I know I made a long-winded reply to you Mike but I felt it necessary and also I'm feeling unusually windy today. So cheers!

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