No NATO cover and the ‘operation’ would cost a fortune, but pensioners don’t need heat or kids need food, right?
Keir Starmer wants to put UK troops into Ukraine ‘to protect the peace’ if a peace deal is reached between Russia and Ukraine in a war that the British government has egged on, funded and armed. Peacekeepers are meant to be neutral and Russia now has ‘Oreshnik’ ballistic non-nuclear weapons that can unstoppably devastate military installations, manufacturing facilities and even large areas of a city, without even resorting to its nuclear arsenal.
The UK army is reportedly at its smallest on record and has had problems with key weapons not working. Rachel ‘Freeze’ Reeves has cut the Winter Fuel Allowance for 10 million pensioners, killing thousands every year, while Starmer and Reeves are determined to keep 1.5 million UK children in poverty rather than abolish the Tories’ ideological ‘two-child benefit cap’ and to slash public services to fill her imaginary ‘£100bn black hole in the public finances‘ while magically claiming this will somehow generate growth. The situation is so grim that the government is going to court to keep the death data hidden.
The military operation, supposedly to keep the nuclear-armed, vastly bigger and now battle-hardened Russian forces in check, would cost billions of pounds – reportedly at least £3bn a year for at least the next 5 years – but somehow there’s always a corner of the ‘black hole’ that has cash for war posturing.
Military adventurism we can’t afford, in a war that was never ours to fuel and which led Russia to change its nuclear doctrine to target the UK and other European capitals sooner – and now the UK is somehow the ‘protector of peace’ after fanning the flames for years. What could possibly go wrong?
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Here’s a forecast: As soon as he wakes up SteveH will be here to champion Starmer’s on-going austerity so he can afford to put British troops into Ukraine. Zelensky and Biden’s fascistic anti-Russia-ism is important to the NHS don’t-you-know.. and besides, SteveH has still got a few hours to invoice LabourFirst for this month.
Sad! Starmer’s Falkland Islands moment is as sad and progressive as he is.
This idiot is so divorced from reality, and so blind to the lessons of history, that he thinks this idea will fly. Vainglorious 21st century Labour PM war leader wades into a battle of choice and gets hoist on his own petard, anyone? Ring any bells? Nope, not to Keir Starmer!
Go on then, send whatever’s left of the British Army over there and watch it get wiped out with a flick of Russia’s Oreshnik wrist! I’ll get the popcorn in…
It would appear that this morning’s meeting in Paris – attended by the UK, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Holland, Denmark and the Head of NATO, Herr Rutte, may well be looking at a European contingent under the NATO banner….
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/02/17/update-more-and-more-european-leaders-will-gather-in-paris-this-morning-to-discuss-exactly-what/
“What could go wrong” asks this sites owner?
As pointed out in the above link, recent history provides a blatant clue:
“the concept that the Europeans seem to share, that the ‘peace keepers’ are there to protect Ukraine from some expected attempt by the Russians to renew their aggressive war and seize more territory at some date in the future. That is to say, they wilfully ignore the possibility, shall we say the likelihood, that violations of any cease-fire and agreed borders will come from the revanchist Ukrainian side. That is precisely what happened during the positioning of OSCE monitors at the Donbas-Ukraine line of confrontation to enforce the Minsk-2 agreements.
The OSCE monitors were rapporteurs, nothing more. But their reports in the weeks prior to the Russian invasion in February 2022 clearly showed that the Ukrainian side was greatly increasing the frequency of its artillery barrages directed at the civilian population on the ‘rebel’ Donbas side in what could be construed as a ‘softening up operation’ ahead of the massive armed attack on the Donbas that the Kremlin feared was coming, and against which it had prepared its own 150,000 soldiers stationed at Ukraine’s borders.
If the peace-keeping force that the Europeans will propose today, specifying at their meeting in Paris the numbers of soldiers and equipment available for the mission, is intended to look only one way, at Russian violators of the peace terms, then indeed war will break out again. Under this protective cover, the Ukrainians may [again] start lobbing missiles and artillery shells over their heads against the Russian settlements on the other side of the border. In short, that would be a self-fulfilling prophecy of Russian ‘aggression’ to come and is precisely the opposite of what Team Trump’s stated objective is – namely a definitive end to hostilities and normalization of relations with Russia.”
Having already interferred in US elections twice – the fake Russiagate saga instigated by the UK intelligence agencies and the Steele Dossier from 2015 and then the supply of LP personnel to aid the neo-cons last year in the Presidential Elections – it looks like Team Starmer, along with the rest of the comprador barking shihuahua’s in Europe, is on for a hat trick which will likely fracture NATO and the Transatlantic relationships.
Oh dear, Betty!
£3 billion a year is the least of the UK’s problems in regard to its Oligarchy’s Russiaphobic obsessions stretching back the best part of two centuries.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2023-06-21/debates/23062130000011/NewLoanGuaranteesToSupportUkraine
And that only represents one part of how deep the chinless wonders running the UK have put us all financially in hock for their support of neo-Nazis in their vainglorious ongoing historical crusade against Russia.
This will likely dwarf the amount of debt these same arrogant cretins took on in the 1830’s to recompense the owners of slaves, following the abolition of slavery. A debt which was not paid of until some one hundred and eighty years later in 2015.
When 404 goes belly up, which it will, and the UK is left holding that steaming pile of debt as a guarantor the only way they will be able to service it will be to introduce the US privatised prison system in which inmates – in this case likely to be the majority of the populace under lawfare Starmer – work for next to nothing in forced labour regimes.
When Billy boy wakes up later today, it is to be hoped he has something better to offer than an inane “Oh dear”.
Starmer is doing his level best to ensure the destruction of the Labour Party, if we were to take him seriously, he might see himself as Napoleon Bonaparte.
I find this rightwing ignorant position a distortion of history. It is a little Englander one and so bad I suspect Steve and Skwawkbox’s understanding of Ukraine’s history and the threat Putin poses to Europe is one fed by the Kremlin. The left’s position is as ill informed and blinkered as Starmer’s slow realisation of what is needed.
The idea that Russia poses a threat to Europe once they’re done with Ukraine is pure NATO propaganda bullshit. Without it, Project Ukraine is meaningless, finished. No, we’re not brainwashed by the Kremlin. We can just think critically and objectively. What evidence is there that this (Putin invading Europe) would happen? Has Putin ever suggested it even slightly? He’s more interested in restoring Mother Russia than the Soviet Union/Eastern Bloc.
That’s one helluva case of historical myopia:
Just remind us all how many times Russia has been invaded from the West?
Followed up by how many US/NATO military bases there are surrounding the Eurasian Heartland of Makinder compared to, say, how many military bases the RF have outside their own borders?
Not forgetting, a comparison of how many wars the US and the West have started since the end of WW2 in comparison?
Or the location of the defence linked company (RAND) whose report to its Government in 2019 set a policy of Balkanising Russia and Eurasia into a plethora of small ethnic states to plunder its resources?
And concluding with just how far NATO has moved its borders and weapons systems eastwards towards the borders of the RF since the collapse of the Soviet Union?
A clue to that last one can be found here:
https://steelcityscribblings.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/nato-map-compared.jpg
The Americans would not put up with foreign military facilities and weapons systems located in flight times measured in minutes from major US cities based in Mexico, Cuba, Guatamala and Honduras. Why should the RF, or the Chinese, or anyone else for that matter?
It’s bollocks. They need a minimum of 120k troops and the best the whole of Europe can muster is 25k. The racism was top class though. Europeans don’t want peacekeepers from Ethiopia or Bangladesh because they may run away when things get tough…
What’s the reaction going to be when they find out that Ukraine is losing even more territory?
Time for more popcorn
Olaf Scholz will try to manage the 120k from Germany alone. The Third Reich owed Ukraine a hell of a lot at the end of WWII. Pay-back time! Captain Kier will do his damned-est too, and Rachel Reeves will even volunteer a fictitious Mega-Big tory Black Hole or two…..
Good old Starmer …
Ex-Trilateral Commissioner turned Colonel Blimp.
Laughable !
You got to laugh whot army have we left didn’t a brigadier say so in the last week he’s aving a laugh is stammer the spammer
Have at you, Vladimir…
https://tenor.com/bCdft.gif
Christ, that Starmer punches like a girl. What a pansy!
Churchill once told Roosevelt:“Give us the tools, and we’ll finish the job”
Keef: Dad was a toolmaker
During my career in metal processing, the word was:
“GIVE US THE JOB AND WE’LL FINISH THE TOOLS”
[Some of which were very costly]
Chey Anderson in The New Left Review showed a cable from the US Ambassador in Moscow to the US Sec of Defence warning what would happen if NATO encroached on Ukraine and this was dated Feb 2012 so the US knew 13 years ago!
Anderson also argues that the US Neo-Cons have always wanted a Polish/Ukraine corridor to the Caucuses and the riches beyond so tragically Ukrainians tragically have been slaughtered for US profits and Zelensky recently privatised Ukrainian land with much of it now owned by US Corporations so perhaps this is how it is done!
At the beginning of the conflict I said to a Stop The War meeting that the Left has opposed Putin in Chechnya but shortly after that conflict Blair then rushed to Moscow to congratulate Putin on becoming President again and gave him a state visit, and why there’s Cherie Blair outside no 10 kissing Putin on both cheeks & there’s Putin in a gold carriage with the Queen off to a Buckingham Palace State Banquet with MPs fighting to get in!
Putin was the West’s friend then allowing them to use Russian bases in Afghanistan & there are claims that he even offered to join NATO but the US said no.
Now Lightweight Western politicians big up ‘Enemies’ because they think the fear of war will make them popular and of course they call for arms build ups which of course feeds arms profits!
If these bourgeois lightweight careerists had an ounce of our imagination & humanity (as Socialists) then they would try to build peaceful & co-operative relations with other countries but such a thought seems beyond the lumpen warmongers thinking.
Is also funny when European Leaders say there should be self-determination for Ukraine but about 9 months ago Russia & Ukraine agreed a Peace Deal but it was vetoed by the US & Tory UK Govt!
Some of us called for a Ceasefire in Ukraine from day one and still do.
The meeting in Paris earlier today seems to have been a flop:
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/02/17/meeting-in-paris-is-a-flop-no-agreement-on-sending-troops-for-peace-keeping-in-ukraine/
Apparently, the questions the Americans were posing were too taxing:
“1) What do you view as a Europe-backed security guarantee or assurance that would serve as a sufficient deterrent to Russia while also ensuring this conflict ends with an enduring peace settlement?
2) Which European and/or third countries do you believe could or would participate in such an arrangement?
Are there any countries you believe would be indispensable?
Would your country be willing to deploy its troops to Ukraine as part of a peace settlement?
3) If third country military forces were to be deployed to Ukraine as part of a peace arrangement, what would you consider to be the necessary size of such a European-led force?
How and where would these forces be deployed and for how long?
4) What actions do U.S., allies and partners need to be prepared to take if Russia attacks these forces?
5) What, if any, U.S. support requirements would your government consider necessary for its participation in these security arrangements?
Specifically, which short-term and long-term resources do you think will be required from the U.S.?
6) What additional capabilities, equipment and maintenance sustainment options is your government prepared to provide to Ukraine to improve its negotiating hand and increase pressure on Russia?”
Dave – they seem like exactly the right, incisive questions that NEED to be asked. Only uncommitted “players” (like Starmer, Scholz and who-ever Macron’s current PM is) would call them “too taxing”. Why? Because – as a class – they are uncommitted “players”, class C celebrities who work-out that being a willing marionette for the billionaire-class is very lucrative. They’re the proverbial ‘with strings attached’ puppet politicians the oligarchs NEED to maintain control of our supposed-democracies.
Love your links, sir (well, most of ’em).
On the subject of links, try this one from the Daily Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/17/revealed-trump-confidential-plan-ukraine-stranglehold/
I suggest you site down first, though, and remove any sharp objects or items you value from your vicinity.
The bottom line is not simply the fact that the USA has demanded of Ukraine an agreement which, if accepted , “would take a larger share of Ukraine’s GDP than the reparations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles”.
It is the fact that the major protagonist in this conflict against the RF – following the policy of the 2019 RAND Report to Balkanise Russia and Eurasia into a plethora of small controlled ethnically based state lets in order to plunder the vast resources of Makinder’s Eurasian Heartland – which is the USA, is the party demanding war reparations from its proxy.
Having driven it to sacrifice over one million of its populace in its failed project to weaken Russia. Not to mention its entire economy.
“The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv…..
…..The agreement covers the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)”, leaving it unclear what else might be encompassed. “This agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of laws principles,” ”
This is what the USA is doing to its allies in Ukraine, who it used as human shields for its own nefarious purposes. Having failed to achieve those objectives with its pound of flesh, these vampires want to take possession of the dead carcass in much the same way the German Nazis picked clean the bodies of its many victims.
This represents a stark reminder of the culture we are dealing with here that can only and will only accept a zero-sum game in which it wins and everyone else loses.
Any self-respecting Russian negotiator should not bother getting out of bed in Riyadh until this nonsense is off the table.
Wow – thanks a lot Dave. “would take a larger share of Ukraine’s GDP than the reparations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles”?
Holy Hell! Versailles CAUSED Hitler (and fascism generally). These Americans are never to be trusted……
Although Hyacinth (as I think of SteveH) would never admit it, even today, the (non-soviet) Russian Federation (and its extreme-neoliberal Putin figurehead) is once again saving the world from (US-caused) Fascism!
Thanks DH.
What a shithouse keef is.
“We WILL send troops, but there MUST be an American backstop in Ukraine”
NOPE. What keef ought to have said was…
Your the ones playing billy big-bollocks; this is YOUR grand scheme. So, if you DONT send the majority of peacekeeping troops, we’re not buying any more of your nukes, and will, instead, cooperate a lot closer with the French.
…And that includes adding our support, alongside the French, to Denmark over Greenland.
And we’d see then, just how much the orange one supposedly respects strength….But when you’ve a spine of custard…😒
Herr Starmer does not seem to be interested in Greenland.
However, speaking of Greenland……
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5138543-buddy-carter-donald-trump-greenland-name-change/
“Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) introduced a new bill this week aiming to rename Greenland to “Red, White, and Blueland,” as President Trump seeks to acquire the island territory.
The legislation, called the “Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025,” directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to oversee the implementation of the name change and to ensure official documentation and maps refer to Greenland by its updated name.
The legislation also authorizes Trump to enter into negotiations with Denmark “to purchase or otherwise acquire Greenland.”
“America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland,” Carter said in a statement Tuesday, after introducing the legislation.”