Western allies are trying to hash out a bold European idea: sending 10,000 to 30,000 troops to Ukraine to help enforce any eventual peace deal with Russia.
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As things stand, the chance of this force ever heading to Ukraine is a long shot, says Bence Németh, a defense expert at King’s College London. European leaders say they will only send troops if there is a lasting peace in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far ruled out signing a peace deal that includes Western forces in Ukraine.
Zelensky said “ownership” was not discussed specifically, but that a U.S. role in controlling the plant was a “question of whether we are able to recover it and recover operations,” according to The Financial Times.
It wasn’t until I listened to Jim Jatras and Rachel Blevins discuss Trump’s interest in gaining control over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that it finally clicked for me. 🤦🏼♀️
March 15 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday he had urged Kyiv’s Western allies to give “a clear position” on security guarantees including about a potential foreign troop contingent on Ukrainian soil with a U.S. backstop.
His comments came after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a virtual call with other European leaders and allies, including Zelenskiy, where Starmer said a “coalition of the willing” would help secure Ukraine “on the land, at sea and in the sky” in the event of a peace deal with Russia.
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Starmer has also called for a U.S. security backstop to help secure a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine in the three-year-old war.
Zelensky is going to give his “victory” speech on October 16 to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, but much of the speech will be secret. The secret part is about giving up territory to Russia.
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The Rada has just passed new legislation that allows NATO officers to command Ukrainian units. So far, the Russians have been mostly quiet, probably because they do not believe NATO will supply field commanders for Ukraine’s military. But if it happens, and that is a big if, the Russians will see it as NATO sending combat troops and react accordingly.
Some speculate that Zelensky will hint at a desire to get some sort of ceasefire and establish a buffer zone patrolled by a kind of coalition of NATO-willing. This is being billed as a Zelensky “concession” to the reality of Russia occupying Ukrainian territory.
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There also are rumors that Ukraine may try to attack Transnistria, the breakaway area of Moldova that includes a few thousand Russian troops – some of them on an agreed peace-keeping mission and others protecting a huge ammunition dump left over from the Soviet period.
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The Russians also have been attacking dry cargo ships in the port of Odessa that are unloading weapons and military supplies from Turkey.
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Moldova also has an important election on October 20. An attack on Transnistria could backfire and topple the current pro-NATO. pro-EU Moldovan government.
Update on the conflict in Ukraine for September 22, 2024…
– Russian forces continue advancing along the line of contact;
– Ukrainian sources are claiming to have “slowed down” Russia’s advance toward Pokrovsk, but in actuality, Russian forces by necessity slow down as they approach high concentrations of urban fortifications;
– CNN admits the US is running out of weapons and ammunition to send Ukraine; – Ukraine continues carrying out high profile attacks inside Russia, the latest on an alleged munitions depot, but such attacks are not frequent enough to disrupt Russian combat operations;
– As Ukrainian fighting capacity is systematically destroyed, Ukraine’s Western sponsors are considering ways of perpetuating or escalating the conflict with the use of Western-made missiles against pre-2014 Russian territory still being discussed;
The place America is in manufacturing didn’t happen overnight, and we’re not going to get out of it overnight. Part of getting us into a resilient and robust manufacturing state of play involves making sure we can build those communities and those local investments so that you have the workforce, you have the people and you have the capital infrastructure.
As for ‘peace’ talks with Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it is ready for negotiations, but Kiev has introduced a ban on them at a legislative level. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized at the UN General Assembly in September that Moscow would not consider any proposals of a ceasefire, “because the one time we did consider it, you [Kiev] deceived us.” Speaking about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point “Peace Formula,” Sergey Lavrov noted it is not remotely realistic, although the West regards it as the only basis for peace in Ukraine.
Ukraine has spearheaded a collective call to action, joining forces with seven other Central and Eastern European nations to combat “disinformation” on social media platforms.
Social media has become a potent channel for spreading false and manipulative narratives. Paid ads and artificial amplification on Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, are often used to call for violent social unrest, bring violence to the streets and destabilize governments.
Now, Kyiv wants to repeat the trick by starting an “Information Ramstein” to combat Russian disinformation on a larger scale.
Deep Background: In a letter written by Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko and addressed to the European commissioner responsible for transparency and values, Vera Jourova, he notes that “Ukraine is up against Russia’s vast and centralized information warfare and international influence machine, which includes assets from troll farms to state media, energy companies to corruption networks. Though it cannot compete in terms of scale, Ukraine does have one huge advantage: It can ally with its international partners to create coordinated, targeted, joint-influence operations.”
Thousands of Italians have demonstrated across the country in Rome, Florence and Genoa against Western sanctions imposed on Russia and transfer of lethal military hardware to Ukraine, a day after the first anniversary of the Ukraine-Russia war.
Around the world, more people are taking the streets to demand peace and an end to the war that tragically continues to rage in Ukraine. The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that almost 7,000 civilians have been killed and 11,075 injured over this past year. Tens of thousands of soldiers are dead on both sides and millions of people displaced.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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