German Chancellor Merz:
- There will be no meeting between Russia’s Putin and Ukraine Pres. Zelenskyy
What next?
More secondary sanctions? Can sanctions starve Russia of needed funds?
The writing on the wall after the Putin/Trump meeting was pretty evident. There was no ceasefire. The hope was for a Putin/Zelenskyy bilateral meeting, which really never got off the ground. Russia bombed away before and after the meeting. Putin wanted land.
EU/NATO/Ukraine didn’t want to give up land. Ukraine and EU wanted US security assurances. Russia did not want any foreign involvement and especially troops in Ukraine.
Then you have stupid things said which did not help matters, like”
- Putin may come to the World Cup (it is not time to celebrate a war criminal),
- Putin does not like Zelenskyy” (well Zelenskyy doesn’t like Putin too and has more reason to not like him).
- You are not going to win a war if you play defense and no offense” (and then have it reported that the US was urging Ukraine to not send long range missiles into Russia), and
- Being angered by the bombing of a Russian pipeline of oil to Hungary.
Trump will say he wants peace, but he also wants to sell defense. It seems he will be selling defense.
It is being announced that Trump will address the UN General Assembly on September 23.
