| Zelenski on Europe 07:40 - Jan 23 with 578 views | Churchman |
Interesting speech by Zelenski on Europe’s weakness.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/2
He is right. All talk, no action. At the forefront is Starmer. Puffed up in a smart suit all he offers is hot air. An example is Putin’s tankers using the Channel:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/art
Easily stopped, but not by Britain. 12 miles offshore it’ll do what Putin says or face the consequences. Empty words, fear, inaction. And that neatly sums up where the government is. Lots of talk while the military shrinks (other priorities). Poor old Sir Kier took a well deserved kick up the @rse from Trump. Grovel to a bully you can expect nothing less, but in many ways Zelenski’s speech is far more telling.
Europe is beyond weak and ripe for plucking because it cannot get its collective head around the fundamental change in the world. It’s been obvious for a long time now but there they all are, hiding behind big flags, designer glasses old dead structures like UN, NATO etc. They are as much in denial as the Appeasers were in 1938. We all know how that ended.
There is little hope for it until the mindset changes. Just a view. [Post edited 23 Jan 7:51]
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| Zelenski on Europe on 09:38 - Jan 23 with 429 views | Swansea_Blue |
His description of Europe (presumably the EU) as “not a real political force, not a great power” is of course correct. The criticism isn’t valid though as the purpose of the EU has never been to be a great power. Not in military terms which is what he seems to be alluding to. The aims of the EU have always been about improving trading opportunities, promoting justice, providing social opportunities (mobility, training, education, etc). If it was a single political and military power then he’d have a point (and so would the Brexiteers).
Ironically, Trump cooling on NATO and turning against his traditional allies is going to strengthen Europe. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the EU takes more control and has more impact on it’s members’ sovereignty and we may well end up with an EU army. The MAGA movement and ideologically aligned conservatives across Europe are going to end up creating something they despise. That would be hilarious. |  |
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| Zelenski on Europe on 11:16 - Jan 23 with 304 views | BloomBlue |
I think he's aiming more at Europe/EUs inability in the financial aspect rather than the miltary. I think he understands how they built around the NATO model.
His annoyance is for example the EU frozen Russian assets and said they would use them to help fund Ukraine, but they’ve been unable to agree on that. Hence an economical union made up of different individual countries that is incapable of being a combined economical force which makes them weak. |  | | |
| Zelenski on Europe on 11:38 - Jan 23 with 265 views | GlasgowBlue |
| Zelenski on Europe on 11:16 - Jan 23 by BloomBlue |
I think he's aiming more at Europe/EUs inability in the financial aspect rather than the miltary. I think he understands how they built around the NATO model.
His annoyance is for example the EU frozen Russian assets and said they would use them to help fund Ukraine, but they’ve been unable to agree on that. Hence an economical union made up of different individual countries that is incapable of being a combined economical force which makes them weak. |
The biggest issue is that Europe is a continent, not a country. For Europe to rival the USA, Russia vor China, it would require 28 countries to give up their sovereignty to form a single United States of Europe and that simply isn't going to happen. |  |
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| Zelenski on Europe on 13:57 - Jan 23 with 162 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
Should have started rearming after the brazen annexation of Crimea, and invasions of Georgia and Chechnya (as well as Putin’s open rhetoric on the Baltic’s etc), the writing was on the wall.
Instead Europe (including the UK) went down the route of appeasement believing economic ties with Russia (gas to Europe, Cars etc to Russia). Unfortunately history has shown appeasement to be a folly with expansionist dictators.
Edit: on second thoughts I should caveat the above as there are some nations like Poland who are really pulling their weight and aiming to have a standing army of 350k (largest in Europe). But they’ve been invaded about 3 times by Russia in the 20th century alone so are all to aware of the threat. [Post edited 23 Jan 14:05]
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| Zelenski on Europe on 14:20 - Jan 23 with 110 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| Zelenski on Europe on 11:16 - Jan 23 by BloomBlue |
I think he's aiming more at Europe/EUs inability in the financial aspect rather than the miltary. I think he understands how they built around the NATO model.
His annoyance is for example the EU frozen Russian assets and said they would use them to help fund Ukraine, but they’ve been unable to agree on that. Hence an economical union made up of different individual countries that is incapable of being a combined economical force which makes them weak. |
I think actually economically the bloc is more influential than militarily. The sancations not only on gas but losing access to financial markets, things like parts for cars and aviation has all been quite crippling to Russia. Total gas exports are roughly half of the pre-invasion quantities, they don’t have the infrastructure to export to other markets in the same volumes. They’ve been burning through their liquidity very quickly as a result, which I think will see it end as a frozen conflict, probably with front lines largely as they are. | | | |
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