"Blinken spoke to him at the COP 21 climate summit in Glasgow in early November and provided a summary of intelligence about Russia’s plans. 'I basically had the task of telling him that we thought it was likely that his country was going to be invaded,' Blinken recalled. Zelensky was skeptical, according to a State Department official.... [I]n December, Blinken and his colleagues began seriously discussing with allies what steps they would take.... As a result, [Blinken] said, “when the aggression actually happened, we were able to move immediately.”... The Biden administration’s organization of this coalition to support Ukraine may look simple in retrospect. But it was a complicated coordination of diplomatic, military and intelligence resources that pulled together dozens of nations at what may prove to be a hinge point in modern history. Putin thought he could roll through Biden and the West to an easy victory in Kyiv. The Russian leader made a catastrophic mistake in overvaluing his own strength and underestimating the resolve of Biden and his team."
Writes David Ignatius, based on "new details" "Blinken and other officials gave me... this week," in "The secret planning that kept the White House a step ahead of Russia" (WaPo).
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underestimating the resolve of Biden and his team.
Yeah, right .. How did Zelensky put it? I need ammo, not a ride?
The secret planning that kept the White House a step ahead of Russia.
Does anyone believe that they had a secret plan? Another WaPo puff piece!!
"Putin thought he could roll through Biden and the West ... Writes David Ignatius, based on 'new details' 'Blinken and other officials gave me... this week,'"
The Democratic counter-attack for November had begun, helped by a media which does not want to see them lose big.
Why didn't the US Government assign Hunter Biden to persuade President Zelensky?
Ukrainians trust Hunter Biden enormously. They paid him $85,000 a month to advise their country's natural-gas industry about compliance policies.
If Hunter Biden had been tasked to warn Zelensky, then Zelensky would have complied with the warning.
"As a result, [Blinken] said, “when the aggression actually happened, we were able to move immediately.”.
Translation: Biden is the hero and has stood up to the evil Vlad.
Who wouldn't be skeptical of an historic invasion?
“Secret planning”…
Academics, no physical skills, self-puffery…
Let’s say we hold-off with the accolades and backslapping until the outcome is known.
Stop colluding with the people you are supposed to oversee, Ignatius.
Of course. It was all the great planning by Biden and Blinken. We are so fortunate to have them in charge.
I am speechless. It is astonishing to me that our feckless leadership and their media sycophants are trying to spin this to make it look like Zelensky is the country bumpkin and they are the mature, worldly adults. "I don't need a ride. I need ammo. " will go down along with Churchill's "fight them on the beaches" speech.
For the record, I am not hugely pro-ukrainian but, corrupt or not, Zelensky has balls. Our guys are both corrupt and cowards- a very bad combination.
So, Biden and his team handled the Ukraine war well. If things have gone bad, its Zelensky's fault. Do NOT blame Biden. The Wapo/NYT rides to the rescue.
I guess this means, the whole "Ukraine is winning and on the verge of victory" and "Just wait till they get that $40 Billion in aid, LOOK OUT PUTIN!" can't be suppported on anymore and we're in the blame game territory. Who lost Ukraine?
“Biden” w/1000 “resolve” = file not found
"The Russian leader made a catastrophic mistake in overvaluing his own strength and underestimating the resolve of .... Biden (????)"
I'd imagine the strength and resolve of Ukrainians soldiers would be the key operator here.
Create a crisis or let it happen, then get credit for fixing it, even though nothing is actually fixed and things are worse than they would otherwise have been -- it's what Team Biden does best.
If we were so on top of this, why did the rest of the world commence to begging Biden and the US to start getting serious about supporting Ukraine with arms and 'other' assets like Europe was? Not that I'm all in on us sending boatloads of more arms to yet another world Hot Spot (coming off of just arming the Taliban for the next 50 years, this thing gets expensive).
David Ignatius. Wasn't he one of the key go-to 'Journalists' for the Russia Collusion bullshit? Don''t answer that. He was a primary. And is apparently still in the business of carrying the water for Democratic Administrations.
Yet, this story is barely plausible, though I would expect this sort of communication- with more follow-through- from any US Administration. But creating this story around Blinken and the Biden team looks like desperate digging for something to toss out to the masses who are fleeing this Administration in droves.
And I wonder if Zelensky had to actually be persuaded to take it seriously when he was staring at a few hundred thousand troops, and miles of armament along his borders. Just wondering if we're supposed to believe this.
I think Biden did a good job initially (lately, I think he's getting us in too deep), but this is laying it on a little thick. We know the US didn't have much faith in Ukraine's ability to hold out (remember the offer to evacuate Zelenskyy, famously rebuffed with a request for ammunition instead?), so it's hard to believe they had such a carefully coordinated support system in place when the shooting started.
To be fair to Zelensky, would you believe anything Anthony Blinken told you?
Now do Blinken's role in Afghanistan.
Funny, just the other day on the radio I heard a teaser for a segment on how the US military's training of the Ukrainian military is key to the surprising difficulties the Russians have encountered.
I'm sure we had a hand. I can believe it helped. But I'm getting very sick at how blatantly our government takes credit for others' successes, and deflects blame for its own failures. I get that to some extent it's the nature of the beast. But they really do seem to think it's more important to be perceived as competent than to actually be competent.
We expected Ukraine to fold as quickly as the Kabul government (the one thought could hold for months after our sudden departure) actually did. I find it distasteful that we're trying to claim credit for Ukrainians' fighting as they have, and insinuate that this would all have gone better if only Zelensky had trusted our predictive powers sooner.
" … kept the White House a step ahead of Russia." = ROFL = LMAO
Did they leave out the part where they told Zelensky to flee that country and leave the keys under the mat?
David Ignatius is a known mouth piece for the US Intel Agencies.
"Blinken spoke to him at the COP 21 climate summit in Glasgow in early November and provided a summary of intelligence about Russia’s plans"
To be fair to Zelensky, the US intelligence community has not exactly covered itself with glory lately. In fact, when it comes to Russia's motives and actions they have been downright duplicitous to the stakeholders they are supposed to be beholden to. (like their own people)
The Russian Government's reasoning is:
* After the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact collapsed in 1991, the NATO countries misled Russia to believe that NATO would not be expanded eastward.
* Nevertheless, NATO did expand through the Eastern European countries (e.g. Poland, Czech Republic) and ever through the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia).
* Eventually, NATO was taking steps to expand into countries that had been part of the Russian Empire (Georgia, Ukraine).
* NATO continues to be armed with nuclear weapons, and so an expansion into Ukraine was too threatening for Russia to tolerate.
* Russia's current invasion into Ukraine will prevent that dangerous expansion of NATO into Ukraine.
I do not agree that this reasoning indeed does justify Russia's current devastation of Ukraine, but I do recognize that the reasoning is reasonable.
======
Here is an excellent argument that Russia never did obtain an actual promise that NATO would not expand.
======
This situation is largely a mutual misunderstanding about whether Russia has been deceived about the expansion of NATO. This misunderstanding should have been resolved peacefully.
The public still does not know the whole story reliably.
For example, we do not know for sure what really happened when pro-Russia Ukrainian President Yanukovych was removed from his elected position by the Maiden protests.
For example, we do not know for sure what was being done secretly by the USA in recent years to include Georgia and Ukraine into NATO.
Ain’t buying it.
Does Ignatius like the taste of Biden and Blinken sperm?
Seriously, though- how low does one's self-esteem have to be to write this piece of nonsense trying to bolster the images of people like Anthony Blinken and Nod, and Joe Shit For Brains Biden?
I have serious doubts Russia ever intended to take Kyiv. It is possible/likely that Russia wanted to initially distract Ukrainian troops into protecting Kyiv so that Russia could pursue its real goals in eastern Ukraine better.
So far though, all our reporting is NATO propaganda so it’s difficult to really know.
Zelenskyy may not have taken it seriously in November, but in January when Biden said we would ignore a "minor incursion", that got his attention.
What absolute horseshit.
My take would have been different, based on the same set of facts. Initially, Zelensky thought he could work it out with Putin, and an invasion could have been avoided. The US then and now is egging him on, "You can take him! Don't let him push you around! We'll support you!"
The result is the same: they will lose the Donbass region. Just a lot more slowly, with a lot more pain and loss.
We get what we want, making Russia bleed, and more NATO expansion, and a whole lot more money for the defense industry. Win-win.
"...the White House a step ahead of Russia"? The headline says it all. The WaPoo writer lives in La La Land.
Kipling's Just So Stories are more believable than this tripe.
Apparently Tony wasn't able to convey the urgency and did nothing to defuse the situation, and now he takes the credit for that.
Afghanistan with "benefits", Ukraine with "benefits"... The Biden/Maidan/Slavic Spring in progress.
This is several levels below embarrassing, as it is so attenuated from actual events that only a fool would consider this other than laughable. Ignatius is one of many "journalists" and media institutions who have forever forfeited their credibility.
Yancy beat me to it. Nothing to add.
So who’s idea was it for the Ukrainians to mount an offensive on Donbas while Russian troops were massed on the border, and other than following a strategy to ensure the war happened, what does Biden have to do with any of it.
Biden is getting dragged into WW3 as Russia takes more territory every day and the Ukrainian army is, as was predictable, crushed, the US makes noise that it is a vital national interest to defeat Russia and replace Putin.
Close your eyes and click your ruby red slippers while saying "there's no place like home".
I'll remember their skill when their unvetted "refugees" start going "BOOM".
I don't believe you.
Yeah, that's why they offered to fly Zelensky out. And if they knew it was going to happen why was Biden suggesting that we wouldn't respond to a small incursion.
David Ignatius is a convenience. A microphone that can be planted wherever the Democrats want to plant it, and will hear whatever they want it to hear.
Great to know we are a "step ahead"of the Russians.
How about:
The border crisis,
Baby formula,
Afghanistan,
Crime rates,
Inflation,
....
Biden is so far ahead on so many topics it looks like he's miles behind.
Writes David Ignatius, based on "new details" "Blinken and other officials gave me... this week," in "The secret planning that kept the White House a step ahead of Russia" (WaPo).
Because we all know that no one in the Biden* Admin would ever lie
Seriously?
Look, what we ALL know is that the Biden* Admin tried to get Zelensky to boogie out, and leave Ukraine to collapse into Russian control
And that Zelensky refused
And that THAT is why there's still a fight going on, a nd Russia's losing.
"The highly self-interested Blinken told me ..." is what you write when you're a dishonest and partisan hack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that while Ukraine was not eager to have a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his country has to face the reality that communication will likely be needed to end the war.
"There are things to discuss with the Russian leader. I'm not telling you that to me our people are eager to talk to him, but we have to face the realities of what we are living through," he said in an address.
"What do we want from this meeting … We want our lives back ... We want to reclaim the life of a sovereign country within its own territory," he said. - Fox News
Basically he fucked up, he trusted us, same mistake country after country has made, the Afghans who who worked with us, and were hunted down after we left, Khaddafy, when he gave up his nuke ambitions for a promise of peaceful co-existence, etc, etc,
Tens of thousands of dead Ukrainians later, looking at a much worse deal than he could have had prior to the start of hostilities, Zelensky just might have the stones to stand up to Biden and BoJo, and end the war before a whole generation is lost... except it is probably too late for that. Poland is licking its chops over getting western Ukraine now,.. If Ukraine disappears as a country, it will be due to NATO's meddling.
David Ignatius is a convenience. A microphone that can be planted wherever the Democrats want to plant it, and will hear whatever they want it to hear.
A public convenience, in other words.
Biden only pretended going ‘toe-to-toe’ with Putin. Biden was ‘one step ahead’ all the time. Now it can be told.
Wait, why can it be told Now? Are we at the point when it is time to declare Victory and move on to new challenges?
tim in vermont said...
Tens of thousands of dead Ukrainians later, looking at a much worse deal than he could have had prior to the start of hostilities, Zelensky just might have the stones to stand up to Biden and BoJo, and end the war before a whole generation is lost... except it is probably too late for that. Poland is licking its chops over getting western Ukraine now,.. If Ukraine disappears as a country, it will be due to NATO's meddling.
Jesus Christ you are so full of shit
If it weren't for "NATO meddling", Ukraine absolutely WOULD "disappear as a country", with the entirety of it being swallowed up by Russia.
instead, they're looking at getting back all that was taken in 2014.
There is NO acceptable deal with Putin other than "get your tropes out of our country". because anything else leads to Ukraine being destroyed and enslaved by Russia.
What is your fucking problem here? When did you develop your man crush for Patina nd why?
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