Charlie

Water watcher.

[Malcontent News @MalcontentmentT]

Starlink shutdown coming

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

It's all been bullshit. All of it. Diesel, energy deals, peace negotiations, everything between Trump Co. and Putin's mafia is a charade. All they're doing is laundering money and trying to lift sanctions. It's all they care about and all they know how to do.

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

The Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List is how the United States sells weapons to Europe, which are then provided for Ukraine’s defenses. The price tag for these weapons is in the billions of dollars (upwards of $6.7 billion to date), orders of magnitude higher than what the Russian diesel deal is worth. Trump would be losing money — and costing the American defense industry revenue — for a sham deal with Russia that benefits none outside of Moscow and Miami. Just to give you a sense of his prioritized requirements.

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

Starlink is not used in Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries because it doesn’t work above Russia.
If Elon Musk decides to signal his dislike of Zelensky by turning off Starlink, it will lead to many thousands more Ukrainian deaths on the frontline, will severely damage the SpaceX brand internationally (countries will know they can’t rely on it in times of real crisis), but will have zero effect on Ukrainian strikes against the Russian oil and gas industry.
It will also not end the war.

[Tammy Duckworth @SenDuckworth]

Putin told Iran the locations of our warships.

Today, Trump rewarded him by lifting sanctions and allowing American dollars to fuel Russia’s war machine.

Our troops are in harm’s way, and the President cut a deal with the adversary putting a target on their backs.

[Armchair Admiral 🇬🇧 @ArmchairAdml]

What a fucking headline! Well done @Telegraph

[Charlie @cloversKeeper]

@akoz33 fwiw. I'm pretty sure that's his golf caddy writing those posts.

[Marc Polymeropoulos @Mpolymer]

Hell of a record

[WarTranslated @wartranslated]

Zelensky says the ceasefire announcement came as news to him, but Ukraine will accept it too if Russia agrees, adding that if Trump struck this deal with Putin, Kyiv just needs to be told when it starts.

[WarTranslated @wartranslated]

The first Russian diesel shipment is reaching the US East Coast barely 24 hours post announcement, indicating the pact preceded its public reveal as the tanker Minerva Zen departed St. Petersburg back on September 22.

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

“Misreading the room”? Get fucked. You started a needless war with Iran, it went sideways, and now you want to make Ukraine pay the price.

[Halli @iamharaldur]

Attacks Iran.

Spikes global oil prices.

Buys oil from Russia.

Russia funds Iran.

Art of the Deal.

[Rep. Jack Kimble @RepJackKimble]

We can’t tolerate Ukraine interference in the midterm elections.

[La Flamme Rouge @laflammerouge16]

"Find me all the 4 Km @ 10% climbs you can in France"

(Prudhomme on the phone with Gouvenou, likely now)

#ILombardia

[Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 @jurgen_nauditt]

Trump planned his diesel betrayal weeks ago, and the diesel deal with Putin yesterday was a staged event.

The MINERVA ZEN departed St. Petersburg as early as September 22 and has since been heading for the US East Coast (destination: Wilmington, NC). Arrival is scheduled for October 11.
Yesterday, October 9, Trump announced the "diesel deal" following a phone call with Putin, and the Treasury Department immediately eased sanctions on Russian diesel. By that time, the vessel had already been underway for nearly three weeks.

Chartering, loading, and the route must therefore have been determined weeks in advance. The public announcement and the context of the phone call appear to be the staging of an operation already in progress.

Whether the cargo is indeed diesel will only become apparent during unloading. In any case, the logistics suggest that the course had been set long before yesterday's "agreement."

[Preston Stewart @prestonstew_]

Looks like the messaging is underway to shift blame for high gas prices from the Iran war to Ukraine.

[Captain Mark Kelly @CaptMarkKelly]

So what happened to the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act? The entire goal was to choke off Putin’s money for the war by punishing countries who were evading the sanctions and buying Russian oil. Does that mean we’re sanctioning ourselves now? Whose side is Trump on?

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

So this deal is largely Potemkin, but the damage is obvious: the US will give something for nothing to get realignment with Russia and of course — in the long run — to line the pockets of Trump’s friends and family. Let’s assume, based on initial reporting, that Ukraine continues deep strikes with European assistance and even escalates now. Russian refineries burn. Moscow says they can’t satisfy the demands of the deal (which they couldn’t do anyway) because of those deep strikes. Whom do you think Trump will blame when his Potemkin bargain is shown to be just that? The hucksters in Moscow and Miami who sold it to him, or the country he’s sold out? Even in the deal’s inevitable implosion, Russia snags a big strategic victory. I’m guessing they factored that into their design.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Peace never comes through weakness. Today, representatives of the U.S. Congress were in Kyiv – a bipartisan delegation – and I am grateful to them for visiting Ukraine at such a difficult time. They asked: what is needed to end the war? The answer must be strong. There must be sanctions under the Lindsey Graham bill, there must be support for Ukraine in protecting lives, and there must be pressure on Russia for its war. And today, there was a conversation between the leaders of America and Russia. A conversation that leads to something different.

Recently, there was a European decision to lift sanctions on Russian oligarchs. Since then, Russian strikes and the torment of people have only increased. This past week alone, there was a brutal Russian missile strike on a residential building in Pryluky, aerial bombs were dropped on Kramatorsk – on ordinary city buses – and there have been constant attacks on Kyiv’s energy infrastructure and on the life-sustaining infrastructure in Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, and our other cities. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds wounded.

The Russians are compensating for their inability to achieve their objectives on the battlefield with this kind of terror. This year, Russia is weaker on the battlefield than at any other point in the war. That is why Putin is relying on terror. That is why he is relying on attempts to strike backroom deals to secure some form of pressure relief for Russia, in order to buy more time and more opportunities for war.

Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness. It plays into Russia’s hands – allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world.

Ukraine is ready to take symmetrical de-escalatory steps, and the American team knows our position. Our strikes on Russian oil refineries and other oil facilities are a response to Russia’s years-long campaign of terror against Ukraine’s energy sector. Ukraine will not set Russian oil refineries on fire if Russia does not destroy our energy infrastructure. This is the kind of agreement we are proposing to America, and we believe the United States has enough power to achieve such a compromise.

Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world. Russia will “repay” the diesel with further terror and perfidy. Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged. What is needed is real de-escalation with Russia on a reciprocal basis.

We count on America’s fair support for our defense of life, for our defense of people in Ukraine – and on the United States having a correspondingly strong conversation with Russia. A strong one, not a weak one.

[David Frum @davidfrum]

Another way to think about Trump announcement today: If he increased US diesel imports from Canada by 4%, he would gain as much fuel as from this Russia deal. But the Canadians are global super-villains, so who wants to buy from them when you could enrich Putin instead?