Zelensky claims he wants a ceasefire for 30 days or longer. Trouble is that Russia doesn't recognize him as the Ukrainian president. He would have to step down and let Ukraine vote in a new president. Zelensky won't do that, just like he hasn't honored the ceasefires of the past.

^^^ Well, they can't steal power from us. We don't have any.

DaRude, since Ruzzia decided to invade crimea in 2014, Putin has always SAID that he wants to talk to achieve peace. The obvious problem is that when he says peace he means "dictating the terms of the surrendering".

I told you, I am already in the "advanced" level of Ruzzian diplomacy and have learned to translate "Peace" from "Putinian" into English. Peace means surrender, negotiating means repeating the same over and over, "agreement" means "toilet paper" and "safety guarantees" mean ... well, nothing.

I am starting to wonder if all this due to translation mistakes.

Call it whatever you want but as the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 10yrs ago, the second best is today. If the outcome is the same (or gets even worse with time) the best time for negotiation was in 2022, second best is today. Boris wanted to observe others in a war, think this should be enough for him and it's time to end it. What's the point of spilling more blood for a worse outcome? Or you want to spill even more Ukrainian blood and for Ukraine to loose even more land just to disarm Russia a tiny bit more?

And do you dare to predict what would happen to Ukraine if the war continues for another 2 years? How about just another winter?

Ukraine grapples with lowest birth rate in the world subtract from that whatever death rate you want to believe, and then subtract the emigration out of Ukraine. Literally to the last Ukrainian?

"may actually turn to be the opposite"
And that's a strategy?? How much more Ukrainian blood and land you're willing to sacrifice for a chance that this "may" actually materializes and turns to be the opposite? I'm pretty sure if you ask Boris he'd answer everyone in Ukraine. And then who would answer if this doesn't happen and then Ukraine has to negotiate but now from an even worse position? You keep treating this as a game with no downsides, but the real world just doesn't work like that, these improbable outcomes have a real world cost and real consequences. Oh well it didn't work out but at least we tried, would be hard for Ukrainians to swallow, but who are we kidding, we all see how much Ukrainians and Ukrainian laws (impossibility to negotiate with Putin) really matter to anyone.

Easy to answer, let's try to disassociate a hypothetical so even you would understand. Two sides, "A" and "B". "A" is on the offensive and slowly grinding through while "B" is defending and cannot hold the line and constantly has to retreat back under fire. During a ceasefire, "A" looses initiative and just sits there idling waiting for the ceasefire to end, "B" on the other hand can regroup, rotate tired forces out and bring new ones in, evacuate wounded out, bring provisions and ammo to the front, safely take forces out of disadvantageous positions, and bring forward engineering equipment and dig up as many tranches for defending on the front line and every 5km for retreating under a total safety of a ceasefire. Now can you see who would benefit from this?

Lol NATO the strongest military alliance in the world needs a ceasefire to move in its troops? And they can otherwise be rendered completely useless if one just doesn't provide that ceasefire that they need? This is a joke right? Plus I'm sure Orban and Fico can just give their consensus while they're visiting Moscow.

Not too long ago drones were not a war thing. At most, they were used for surveillance. Now they are dropping bombs if not being 'kamikaze drones', exploded, themselves, once they hit the enemy.

Enter, a new technology that can work on land to do the same things that the drones do in the air. And they only take half of the electronics of the drones.

Who will develop it for war first, Russia or the West? Watch the 1-minute Youtube video at the site.


Watch this video... a different subject.
The real story behind Xi's Moscow visit


Air-powered robot uses physics instead of circuits to run on tube-legs

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https://newatlas.com/robotics/soft-robot-physics-locomotion/
Such is not the case with a new bot, however, which utilizes a phenomenon of physics to automatically move its inflatable legs.

Designed by Alberto Comoretto, Mannus Schomaker and Bas Overvelde at the Netherlands' AMOLF institute, the tiny robot has been built in both two- and four-legged variants. In both cases, each leg consists of a loop of elastomer tubing with a kink in it.

As air is smoothly and continuously pumped into that leg, the kink moves down the length of the tube, causing it to oscillate. It's the same principle which is at work in the gyrating inflatable "tube dancers" used to promote businesses.

When the robot's legs are initially activated, they move chaotically.

Within milliseconds, however, as they interact with one another and with the terrain, they automatically all start moving in unison. The bot is then capable of scooting at speeds of up to 30 body lengths per second (on flat surfaces), which is far faster than any other air-powered robot.

If the robot breaks its stride upon stumbling on an obstacle or uneven terrain, its legs get back into sync as soon as it picks up speed again. And even more impressively, due to the physical properties of liquid, the buoyant bot automatically adopts a back-and-forth alternating-leg swimming gait when it enters the water.

"Simple objects, like tubes, can give rise to complex and functional behavior, provided we understand how to harness the underlying physics," says Assoc. Prof. Overvelde. "There is no brain, no computer ... But when properly designed, it can outperform many robotic systems and behave like an artificial creature."

It is hoped that the technology could one day be utilized in applications such as micro-robots that deliver medication within the body, energy-efficient assistive exoskeletons, or machinery designed for use in harsh environments where electronics may fail, such as outer space.
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Good reality check.  Propaganda or not, it matches what I figure is going on when I think about it, and I normally don't think about it that much.  I think it is an unusually brutal conflict.

It remains the case that as I see it, the Russians are constantly shifting their strategy such that they put as few of their people into this kind of fighting as practical.  Obviously that can never be 100% (absent the robot shit which fills the fantasies of Western leadership.)

To this day it seems to me that the Ukrainian side not only doesn't care if their people face this kind of fighting but actually welcome it.  It's the only way you can lose 8:1 or whatever when losing the war, on the defensive, and with hundreds of billions of dollars in support.

Looks like we are nearing the REAL end of negotiations. But what will happen after? A simple stopping of negotiation attempts? Or an official war - WW3 like?


Third-Party Mediation Between Russia & Ukraine Is Approaching Its Limits

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https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/05/no_author/third-party-mediation-between-russia-ukraine-is-approaching-its-limits/
The US' mediation between Russia and Ukraine captivated the world due to the hopes that many observers had of it leading to a breakthrough, but expectations have since been tempered, including on the American side as evidenced by the toughening of its negotiating stance towards Russia. The latest developments saw Ukraine and the West demand Russia's compliance with an unconditional ceasefire, to which Putin reacted by offering the unconditional resumption of bilateral talks with Ukraine instead.

Zelensky's response was to declare that he'll visit Istanbul on Thursday, the place and day that Putin suggested for resuming bilateral talks, though it's unclear whether the Russian leader will go. The spring 2022 peace process that Putin mentioned in his video address early Sunday morning only involved their delegations, not direct talks between their presidents, plus Putin considers Zelensky to be illegitimate now. He's also unlikely to meet him unless Zelensky agrees to significant concessions ahead of time.

Therein lies the problem because Zelensky refuses to budge on Putin's demands that Ukraine restore its constitutional neutrality, demilitarize, denazify, and cede the disputed territories, and Trump won't coerce him into doing so either. The only outcome from the US' mediation efforts thus far has been talk of a strategic partnership with Russia, likely built upon energy and rare earth cooperation, that's it. From Russia's perspective, it looks like the US wants to buy it off, not resolve the core issues of this conflict.

The US is the only country with leverage over Russia and Ukraine that could be wielded to influence them into compromising as part of a grand deal, something that other potential mediators like China and Turkiye lack, yet its approach has been uneven. The US is threatening Russia with more sanctions and possibly even more military aid to Ukraine, while all that Ukraine is threatened with is the US walking away from the conflict, but it just greenlit a new missile package so that might just be a bluff.

If the US doesn't soon correct its approach to evenly pressure Russia and Ukraine, and seeing as how no other country is capable of wielding leverage over both to influence them into compromising, then third-party mediation will have reached its limits. In that event, an escalation might be inevitable, either due to Russia initiating it through the potential expansion of its ground campaign into new regions and/or the US defiantly doubling down in support of Ukraine if Trump blames Putin for the peace talks' collapse.
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That's so good, the way you say it. We realized this about paxmao ages ago, but you say it so well.
But don't really blame him. He's scared to death of Oreshnik. And probably others of the UK are, as well. Like all the leaders and especially Starmer.

The UK would be quite capable of intercepting this vehicle if the distance/time gap is even slightly sufficient. It is the obsfucated methods of delivery that would pose the most serious threat. If I were looking for weak points I would be looking at what could bring the launch site yards/meters from the the door at the most high value potential target areas in the first place especially around the strait of dover
/north sea regions looking for modified "cargo" ships and aircraft that look innocous , "routine" bom_ber , ship and sub movements especially while this arranged meeting is taking place in case there would be any incident or conflict elsewhere to provide an accelerated global escalation from here on.