European troops fighting for Ukraine…a fantasy

This hot air about Europe being willing to put troops into Ukraine was again deflated by the latest failure to even conditionally attach Russian assets,

……..

If Russia does ever triumph over Ukraine, history will observe that Western Europe and the United States lacked the will to do more than half-measures to block the Kremlin’s imperialism. The latest example is the European Union’s decision to provide a loan to Ukraine after it failed to tap Russia’s frozen assets held in Europe.

The nearly $105.5 billion loan for Ukraine will at least ease Ukraine’s looming cash crunch that would have weakened its position in peace negotiations. The EU loan will cover Ukraine’s financial needs through 2027, and under this week’s agreement Kyiv will repay it only after Russia pays reparations. The loan can also be used for Ukraine’s military, unlike previous financial support.

The EU text also says an important “element” of the loan is “Ukraine continuing to uphold the rule of law, including the fight against corruption.” Recent graft scandals have rocked Ukraine, though there’s been no suggestion Western funds were embezzled. European safeguards reinforce Ukrainian reformers’ anti-corruption efforts.

The agreement further states that Russian assets will remain frozen until the Kremlin pays reparations, and last week the EU invoked an emergency provision to prevent Moscow-friendly members like Hungary from obstructing long-term sanctions. The EU also “reserves its right to make use of the immobilised assets to repay this loan,” warned European Council President António Costa.

The EU will borrow money for the loan on the capital markets rather than relying on debt issued by member states. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opted out. But even frugal Germany signed on, despite its longstanding opposition to this funding model. This entailed real political risk for Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron, given recent polling that shows diminishing enthusiasm among German and French taxpayers for financial support for Ukraine.

This is nonetheless a halfmeasure because Europe couldn’t agree to use some $245 billion in frozen Russian assets in Europe, most of it stranded in Belgium at the global settlement house Euroclear. Instead the Eurocrats came up with a scheme to borrow from Euroclear on the basis of the frozen assets and loan it to Kyiv.

This so-called reparations loan met fierce resistance from Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who feared Brussels could be left on the hook for billions of euros if anything went wrong. Europe scrambled to offer burden-sharing reassurances, but the Belgian PM wouldn’t budge.

Russia had threatened retribution if the EU went ahead with the reparations loan, and one risk is that the Kremlin will conclude it succeeded with its intimidation. Suspicious drones have been spotted over Belgian military sites and infrastructure, and a possible Russian intermediary reportedly issued violent threats to Euroclear executives.

It’s hard to believe Vladimir Putin can wreak four years of bloody havoc in Europe and still may get his money back. President Trump sees the frozen assets as a lure to get Russia to agree to a cease-fire. That means Ukraine will have to make do with the loan and whatever weapons it can buy to survive.

Why Assets Weren't Used

Belgian PM Bart De Wever blocked the asset-backed plan over legal risks, fearing Belgium's liability if Russia sued; EU efforts for burden-sharing and indefinite freezes failed to sway him. Russia threatened retaliation, amid reports of drones over Belgian sites, reinforcing perceptions of Kremlin intimidation.

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I would have preferred to have used the Russian money, but the loan to Ukraine has been agreed.

Jarrid Kusher, Witkoff and Trump wanted a cut of the $250 billion. In the original peace plan their would be a data centre provided by America, and 100 billion of this would be used by joint venture projects between America and Russia. (Basically given to the Russian Oligarchs, the Trump family & associates).

America said it was going to support Ukraine for however long it takes. A change of president, and that is all in the bin. Suddenly, Putin is the good guy and America wants to rebuild relations with Putin.

America knows it is a country in decline because, most importantly, the average IQ is decreasing due to poor education and eroding culture. It is rotting from within. The $7 minimum wage for slave labour says it all. America has bet everything on AI to keep it as the top country; they know that over the longer term, they. are not on the right path.

The important thing now is to start blocking Big Tech in Europe to create a gap in the market for replacements.

By the time the Chinese have copied our AI initiative the US will be deep into the next technological breakthrough. There are leaders like the US followers like China and HasBeens like Europe.

Europe has allowed itself to be infested with an American cabal that works together instead of a free market system of competition. This has created a onside relationship; many European politicians are talking about this. Once we phase out these companies, we will replace them. Our market is twice the size.

We can have our own privacy laws, etc. The likes of X and Facebook are certainly not needed, and once other search engines have access to the database index of websites and user behaviour, creating a search engine will not be difficult.

With ASML the largest European tech company, ranking 14th largest in the world Europe has about as much chance of doing what you say as they have of marching into Russia. Dream on Cobra.

Creating a social media website is easy. The hard part is getting the users. If Facebook or other American social media companies no longer existed in Europe, then it would create a gap for European social media sites.

Google Search is actually not much better than other search engines, except it has a unique ability that prevents other search engines from competing with it. (User data)

Google does not decide the rankings (list of pages); users determine them.

When a user makes a search on Google and then clicks on a website URL link, Google continues to track the user. (Unlike other search engines).

Tracking techniques Chrome, Android and Google Analytics (which is on most websites in the world). Even Gmail can be used by matching an identifier, such as a past cookie, to a purchase receipt email.

For example, let’s use e-commerce as it illustrates the concept easily.

An internet user wants to purchase a bed. They type the search term "king-size bed" in Google. They now see a list of website pages ranked organically. (Product pages).

This search engine user browses multiple websites comparing different products (Pogo-sticking using the browser back button).

Finally, the user returns to the website of their preferred product and makes the purchase (Google records this product purchase). While there are other factors (signals)- mostly correlating, in e-commerce, it is very obvious what the most important signal is (it outweighs all other signals put together in the ranking algorithm).

So, all a competitor search engine has to do is sort (rank) product (pages) based on the average conversion rate (number of clicks/purchases). This is not difficult. So, Google is actually not that much better than other search engines- except that it can track user behaviour after the click. This is how many niche e-commerce search engines like Amazon work, but just with their own database. Google's tracking turns the whole internet into one website.

Amazon is a search engine, but Google is a Search engine aggregator.

It is all about user data. Cutting of the American companies, and giving it to European companies, and things change quickly.

"

Creating a social media website is easy. The hard part is getting the users. If Facebook or other American social media companies no longer existed in Europe, then it would create a gap for European social media sites.

Lol, Snark, you'll fit right into the ANC...can't create your own on a level playing field, so you have to tie down the competition...the road to hell is paved with good intentions...no wonder! You're a comrade at heart.

It is very funny. Liberals display not a hint of universalism. Their denial of human beings is unmatched in human history. And the tremendous part is they claim their tenets to be inherently universal.

It is not as the Tik Tok event happened in the last year or so. When you are a simple minded person, this kind of behaviour always impresses. Always. It is not about lacking the knowledge of it. It is something deeper, it must be how brains work and are wired. Every time, it impresses. There is something deep running.

Incredible stuff, liberals' mindset it is only bad when others do it is unmatched.

"Creating a social media website is easy. The hard part is getting the users. If Facebook or other American social media companies no longer existed in Europe, then it would create a gap for European social media sites

No. Being first is the hard part.

@Draad, America are the ones who recently started making threats to restrict Spotify and other European companies from the American market. (And their are the one-sided tariffs of course).

Many countries ban US tech products such as China. This allowed them to create their own local home grown alternatives. Many countries ban Chinese data products like TikTok.

Trump claims that American companies have unfair advantages when accessing the EU market.

However US companies based themselves in Dublin, and declare all profits in Ireland.

This allows them to avoid paying Tax. Yet, Spotify must pay something like 24% tax on all American sales.

Trump is complaining about a measly 2% digital tax that some European companies charge.(Given Ireland steals their corporate tax).

Also, it is not just the EU that loses tax money because of America's arrangement with Ireland .

Ireland declare sales profits from Africa and other places around the the world. So instead of paying the South African government corporate tax, they just say they made no profit in Africa - but declare all profits in Ireland instead.

1. The Office of the US Trade Representative (under Trump) posted a statement on X warning that the US may impose fees and restrictions on European services operating in the US, specifically naming Spotify, along with firms like SAP, Siemens, Accenture and others.?
2. The statement accused the EU of “discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines, and directives against U.S. service providers” under regimes like the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act.?
3. It argued that EU service providers such as Spotify have “operated freely in the United States for decades” and “enjoyed expansive market access”, whereas US platforms face heavy compliance costs and penalties in Europe.?
4. 
   

Threatened measures

1. The USTR said that if the EU continues on this path, the US will use “every tool at its disposal,” including tariffs, fees, or other restrictions on European digital services in the US market.?
2. Trump himself had already trailed this line in August, talking about “substantial additional tariffs” and export restrictions on countries that “harm or discriminate” against US tech firms, with EU digital rules seen as a key example.?

US-specific: Spotify USA Inc. pays federal 21% + state taxes on local profits, but exact totals undisclosed; sales taxes collected/remitted vary by state (e.g., 0-10% on subscriptions).

Everybody is just complaining because of Trump's refusal to let America pick up the brunt of the bill for the crisis in Ukraine...about time someone says no to the nonsense going on in Europe.

And, as The Traditionalist correctly states, look what happened with TikTok in America.

Trump may be trying to do the same thing where he forces Spotify's American office to become owned by Trump, and his billionaire sidekicks.

America is a cabal of monopolisation, with politicians being significant shareholders of Big Tech.

They killed competition from TikTok to preserve "American excellence".- basically shareholder profits.

Everybody is just complaining because of Trump's refusal to let America pick up the brunt of the bill for the crisis in Ukraine...about time someone says no to the nonsense going on in Europe.

Oh would you fuck off with that absolute bilge water.

Firstly even before Trump Europe was picking up slightly more of the bill than the US was, so the idea the US was paying the brunt of the bill is wrong. Since Trump has come to power Europe is now paying substantially larger share as the US has effectively reduced its support to a minimum levels, something like $400 million a year and that part of legislation passed by Biden.

What Europe and a lot of other places are actually complaining about is Trump actively pressuring Ukraine into accepting a deal that jeopardizes it's long term survival and European security. What we complain is why if Donald Trump wants to say it's a European problem, that European's can pay for why the fuck he think's he's entitled to negotiate a deal above Ukraine and Europe's head. What we complain about is Trump constantly demanding America be thanked for its aid to Ukraine when his administration has provided barely any aid and has actually switched to war profiteering. We have a load of other shit to complain about as well, like him starting a trade war with us which indirectly makes it harder for Europe to support Ukraine and we also complain about both the political meddling in European affairs by both US politicians and the the spreading of misinformation enabled by US tech companies.

The OP takes very lightly the issue of capital seizure. Already, freezing assets when not being at war with the entity is a dodgy move. Seizing them is going to be another step. The form of capitalism as it happens in the US or the EU is different from capitalism as it happens in China, India and other places.

The US are flooding the world with USD enjoying in return their high rate of consumption (that the US paint shamelessly as being fleeced off when they are the ones leeching on the rest of the world) and the US expect entities that receive those massive injections of USD to use them to buy the US debt bonds and stuff.

Money by concept is debt by concept but it is expected to be redeemable immediately and if possible while retaining value.That is direct consumption. The US kind of deal is to postpone direct consumption in order to get richer The main thing is that one must be able to wait (this is a scheme for richer people who can afford waiting, most of the planet can not and rely on direct consumption) and people are discovering that the USD is bound to buy less and less (which does not matter for richer people since they have an excess of USD anyway)

On the other hand, China wants to flood the rest of the world with Yuan for people to buy goods from Chian and their tremendous offer that keeps expanding (Chinese expansionism as called by liberal countries) China trades goods for goods and not goods for debt. Remember, peeps, liberals have made consumption the ordinal value in people's life, people must consume to be considered and now, China is the large enabler of the consumer society. It is not a mistake if a poor country like Lesotho ended at top of the Trump list, it is not by mistake. Lesotho is merely too poor to afford buying from the US especially US bonds, so they have to be punished for that. The main problem for liberals is that China is the partner of choice for a very large segment of the world population, including in the liberal countries.

Trump's aggression toward South America is largely motivated by this fact. China has flexed its muscles and re designed trade routes, that circumvent the US military control over the old ones, control the US inherited from the colonial era. And most of people in South America will get much more by trading with China than the US. So China is going to flood that area with Yuan that people in South America will use to buy Chinese goods and increasingly services. The US are going to be phased out by the sheer industrial power of China. It is a danger the US can not afford so they are mostly pushing alliances with far right regimes (the ones that will sell the hate on China as a political program since they will be unable to address their population's problems etc) and will try to topple the regimes that are others or do not want to jump on the anti China band wagon.

As the rest of the world economy grows in superficies, seizure is a disaster in the making. It will destroy an essential element: trust. At the moment, people bear temporary lack of access to their capital, but robbing it is going to be another story. Sooner or later, as China and India middle class grow, the same scheme of consuming goods with the expectation of getting one's debt funded will show up, and people will put their money where it is the most secure. The EU, with its colonial history, must think carefully before seizing capital as it will be quickly painted as a retribution measure from formerly colonial power.

By the time the Chinese have copied our AI initiative the US will be deep into the next technological breakthrough. There are leaders like the US followers like China and HasBeens like Europe.

It is another episode of the failed perception liberals have themselves. China innovates a lot, too much already. So much that liberal countries (including the US) are now the ones begging for technology transfer (China is not the only one they beg to.) Second part, being the initiator of a technology does not mean having the lead all the time.

European countries have fallen behind mostly because of the US market and having to fight for an access which has allowed the US to slow down European innovations. Problem is that the Chinese mass market exists and provides autonomy to China. Later, India will grow its mass market too with even more devastating effects as India was colonised, contrary to China.

The heaviest part of it is that China has grown to being the powerhouse it is without relying on war. The US are being trashed by China economically without having lost a single war to China. It means that all the weaponry developed by the US served to nothing.

And more, the liberal countries built their hegemony on war technology advances, they were ahead of the rest of the world and now it is no longer the case... They no longer have the technological warfare advance.

European countries have fallen behind mostly because of the US market and having to fight for an access which has allowed the US to slow down European innovations. Problem is that the Chinese mass market exists and provides autonomy to China. Later, India will grow its mass market too with even more devastating effects as India was colonised, contrary to China.

Nope the US market has always been incredibly easy to access. And if Trump changed this, which he didn’t, please remember ASML was the largest European tech company and ranked 14th in the world before Trump came to office. And the Chinese mass market does exist but is faltering since the property bubble burst…2025 is another year where exports saved the Chinese economy. India is the dream with it’s huge population, but it has equally huge infrastructure problems…I haven't invested a penny in Indian companies and have no plans to change that,

"Firstly even before Trump Europe was picking up slightly more of the bill than the US was, so the idea the US was paying the brunt of the bill is wrong. Since Trump has come to power Europe is now paying substantially larger share as the US has effectively reduced its support to a minimum levels, something like $400 million a year and that part of legislation passed by Biden."

It's Europe's problem, they should be thanking their lucky statrs for every dime the USA gives...instead of bitching and moaning about everything they don't do...typical lefty entitlement.

It's Europe's problem, they should be thanking their lucky statrs for every dime the USA gives...instead of bitching and moaning about everything they don't do...typical lefty entitlement.

I don't recall Europe saying 9/11 was the US's problem. Typical obnoxious and ignorant right wing hypocrisy, if Europe's problems are Europe's problem then why is Trump trying to force a peace deal down Ukraine's throat, what it's got to do with him or the US? Why is Trump and Vance commenting on internal Europe politics and expressing support of far right parties in Europe?

Once again we are going to have to school you Anger:

Short answer: yes — there are several capabilities that only the United States can provide at scale, in real time, and with global reach.

Allies contribute hugely, but some pieces of the war effort are uniquely American.

Below is a clean breakdown by category, with plain-English why it matters.

1. Strategic intelligence & ISR (the biggest US-only advantage)

This is the most irreplaceable US contribution.

What only the US can really do

1. Global satellite coverage (optical, radar, infrared, signals)
2. Near–real-time fusion of space, air, cyber, and human intelligence
3. Targeting-grade intelligence updated continuously

This is not just “satellites” — it’s integration + speed + scale.

Why allies can’t fully replace it

1. Europe has satellites, but far fewer, narrower coverage, and slower fusion
2. Commercial imagery helps, but cannot replace classified ISR for:
3. missile launches,
4. troop movements,
5. logistics hubs,
6. air defense locations

Bottom line:

Without US ISR, Ukraine would still fight — but less precisely, more slowly, and with higher losses.

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A little bit of grammar help:

what it's got to do with him or the US? Why is Trump and Vance commenting on internal Europe politics and expressing support of far right parties in Europe?

should be:

what has it got to do with him or the US? Why are Trump and Vance commenting on Internal European politics and expressing support for far right parties in Europe?

Once again we are going to have to school you Anger:

You think you're schooling me by bringing up something I already know?

I've already stated before US intelligence (via satellites) is extremely important to Ukraine and its something Europe can't replace on short to medium notice. It's one of the reason's Europe is so polite in its rejection of Trump's peace plans and hasn't fought back harder in the trade war, that and they are concerned Trump will in a tantrum stop selling weapons to Europe who in turn pass them on to Ukraine.

But these satellites were already in orbit before the war and the fact that they are presently monitoring Ukraine and Russia is coming at no additional cost to the US as if they were orbiting any other location on the planet. It's not like its costing the US additional money they hadn't already spent. The intelligence sharing was already in place under the Biden administration. Trump has merely allowed it to continue albeit briefly stopping it in an attempt to pressure Ukraine.

The fact of the matter is Trump is an active hindrance to peace in Ukraine as I and many others called even before he was elected again. His mere presence was long before the election a deterrent to peace as Putin would never likely come to the negotiation table when another Trump presidency was on the horizon a president whom felt quite correctly he could manipulate into a more favourable deal. As predicted Trump has applied no pressure on Russia and Quislinged his way though negotiations, applying pressure on Zelenksy who he hated for not going along with his plan to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and whom he holds responsible for his first impeachment. He admires the strong man Putin and see no morale difference between Russia the invaders and Ukraine the defenders. The US under Trump has the gall to demand thanks (and it has been thanked countless times by Ukraine and Europe) when it's no only cut aid to the bare minimum left over Biden legislation required but is now actually profiteering for the war and someone thinks it can make demands over Ukraine natural resources and frozen Russian assets held in European countries.

By all means if the US want to pull back from this war and leave it primarily up to Europe by all mean's do so, but it can't seriously expect Ukraine and Europe to take a deal that compromises Ukraine's existence and Europe's security.

If it want's it can stop selling Europe weapons (to Europe's determent and at the US's expense) and it can stop supplying satellite intelligence. But long term Europe won't forgot that when push came to shove the US is not an ally, just a power that's at best indifferent to them and at worst actively hostile to them.

Good old Mick complaining about the US contribution to the latest European screw up…after Germany made common cause with Putin:

Updated Aid to Ukraine as a % of GDP (Ranked)

This list includes Ireland within the context of other major contributors based on bilateral commitments as of late 2025:

Nope the US market has always been incredibly easy to access. And if Trump changed this, which he didn’t, please remember ASML was the largest European tech company and ranked 14th in the world before Trump came to office. And the Chinese mass market does exist but is faltering since the property bubble burst…2025 is another year where exports saved the Chinese economy. India is the dream with it’s huge population, but it has equally huge infrastructure problems…I haven't invested a penny in Indian companies and have no plans to change that,

A lot of liberals will think twice before investing elsewhere than in liberal countries. No, the US mass market has always been hard to access as the US have used cultural barriers among other things to prevent access It is a major issue for Europe: the US got them to consume US American goods and services that require little adaptation while the US mass market requires cultural adaptation for them to sell in the US.

This is a point liberals prefer to avoid mentioning: trade is not neutral, it comes with cultural markers. The more products you buy, the more culturally affected one is.

For example: the Windows OS. It natively includes cultural US markers. Europeans were not taught as much to worship the markets, they do not have to check every single second whether the market is up and down. US citizens on the other hand worship the markets. The OS comes with a feature that report on the markets every single second. One boots one's PC and the welcoming screen shows monitoring of the market. If Europeans were to develop an OS, for it to be culturally european, it should not include the same level of worshipping of the market. It will not sell on the US market because US citizens worship the markets. So they would have to produce a culturally US American OS for it to sell. Weakening their own ability to produce a European OS.

Trade conveys cultural norms and this is a greater barrier than many other things.

Diversity of cultures is not favourable to trade as they make markets tight one to each other. Trump doubles down on the US plan to destroy what remains of European cultures in order to make trade even more fluid, forcing capital mergers etc The US have always been the greatest threat on European cultures, not the migrants.

As to the China mass market, it is slowed down as China is at a critical stage: so far, it has thrived on activities that liberal countries planned them to execute through their racial dividers of humanity. Liberals perceive Chinese populations as the perfect labour force (the whole high tech US industry when they globalised, looked for the right labour force on racial criteria) The problem is that due to racism, Chinese are not supposed to able to exceed their racial predetermined capabilities. Of course, which they do since racism is non sense. Liberals are now threatened in their racial hegemony. Activities they sold as being the exclusive expression of white people are shown not to be. Chinese are providing more and more products that only white people should be able to produce. This is a major threat on white people and this means that nukes are bound to fly toward China due to racial insecurity. The more China climbs up the ladder, the more China phases out liberal countries and the more useless white people are appearing.