this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 95 points 3 months ago (3 children)

How this man hasn’t crumbled by the all the responsibility and pressure is beyond me.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (3 children)

He probably has Ukraine's best psychologists and a team of specialists helping him

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't think he has the time to consult psychologists tbh

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Same. After the war he will retire from the politics because he just needs to rest for many years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

… or he’s just a tough dude with the right motivations and his head on straight? Not everyone needs a psychologist lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

A lot of "tough dudes" could use one though. Mental health is in shambles across the world.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I don't think it works like that. Many top politicians crumble under much less stress, especially those trying to be on the right side of history.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

He’s honestly one of the most savvy and intelligent statesmen I’ve ever seen. Maybe his understanding of humor lends to understanding how power dynamics work. He is extremely good at figuring out a message quickly that pivots him into a position where he is able to defend himself and his country while calling to and tying himself to greater powers.

He does this in a way where allies would lose face or have to take an aggressive stance if they reject Ukraine. And at this point taking an aggressive stance against Zelenskyy is making yourself a soft ally of Russia. That’s partly due to Zelenskyy’s constant pivots.

He runs a good gambit. I wish other world leaders were half as caring or savvy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

He is without a doubt one of the Great Man that shape history.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Superhuman.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Awful lot of cards in this mans hand.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Have anyone figured out what game is being played though?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Idk, but he seems to be doing pretty well at it. He outplayed Trump, masterfully, who looks dumber by the day with his whole "you don't have the cards" trap he thought he laid with that press conference.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Trump's holding all the cards? Must be a game of Uno.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Quite the reverse-o that you just played!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Donald is only capable of Go Fish or 52 Pickup.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Jeux sans frontières.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (2 children)

According to renowned scientists, Ukraine doesn’t actually have minable Rare Earths.

The contentious 28 February Oval Office meeting can’t be understood without a crucial piece of context: there are no deposits of rare-earth ore in Ukraine known to be minable in an economically viable way. And that would be true even if full-scale warfare were not raging in the country’s east, where a great deal of its mineral resources are concentrated.

Ukraine is believed to have four areas with substantial deposits of rare earth ores, according to Erik Jonsson, senior geologist with the Geological Survey of Sweden. “There are four slightly bigger deposits: Yastrubetske, Novopoltavske, Azovske, and Mazurivske. All but one of them seem to be now within or near the zone that the Russians control, as far as I can tell,” says Jonsson. “And when it comes to resources in those deposits, I mean, we have numbers; yes, that’s nice. But we have no real, detailed, outline of how those numbers were arrived at.” The numbers are believed to come from Soviet surveys dating as far back as the 1960s.

“The rare-earth deposits don’t look that relevant,” Jonsson concludes. “I mean, I wouldn’t go for them.” Two of the deposits are dominated by a mineral called britholite, he notes, which is not desirable because it has not been processed for rare earths, which means that almost nothing exists in the way of process chemistry and equipment.

“If you want critical minerals, Ukraine ain’t the place to look for them,” declares Jack Lifton, executive chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute. “It’s a fantasy. There’s no point to any of this. There’s some other agenda going on here. I can’t believe that anybody in Washington actually believes that it makes sense to get rare earths in Ukraine.”

[Emphasis mine.]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

This needs to be its own post maybe. Jesus of course. It’s very on brand for America.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Jesus fuck.

EU + GB, can you please just buy enough time for the US to pull its head out its arse? We cannot let the blyats win.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I think most of us are coming to the realisation that America pulling its head out of its arse is not going to happen, and this is a permanent change.

[–] CosmicTurtle0 13 points 3 months ago

I fully expect another civil war and when that happens we will need support from the international community, even if it's covert.

So please encourage your representatives to watch us with a close eye.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We’ll have a strong indication one way or another in less than two years. I just heard a news broadcast of protesters at a republican town hall in Indiana, which is as backward a state as most republican strongholds. The Speaker of the House, mike Johnson, has asked that republicans not hold town halls for fear of what he calls “professional protesters”. Again, we are talking here about states that are home to vast swaths of degenerate cretins. They are the ones who are pissed off. The midterm elections may bring some sanity back to the USA. Dems need a simple majority in the house to stymie much of what the traitor cunt wishes to suffer upon us all.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I hope it works out as you say; however, I can't help but think the situation is much worse than that and it will be difficult to recover normality even if the dems win the midterms and resist trump for the rest of his term.

From an outside perspective it seems like people knew what trump was like in the first term, had some time to reflect on it, and then decided they wanted another hit. The kind of propaganda he used to win is incredibly corrosive but apparently it works, and certain oligarchs have thrown their weight behind it to maintain their power. AI and deregulated social media is going to make it easier for bad actors (both foreign and within your own country) to pump it out at scale, using more sophisticated and targeted methods. I can't see regulators controlling it given what your political culture is like, and how powerful the tech lobby is.

If your country is so fractious that you get one term for each party repeatedly, the republicans will win, because it's so much quicker to break things than it is to fix them.

In Europe we need alternatives to American tech and weapons systems in case this trend away from democratic norms and rules based international order continues.

Edit: I realise I've assumed you are american here, apologies if not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sure. How much time do you need?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Lol, I wish I could still live on a reality where this is an option...

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago

Don’t give into the US’ bullying. Ukraine will join NATO and Putin and Trump will one day be rotting in the ground. All decent people are working towards and looking forward to that day.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's pretty clear that Trump couldn't do shit about the war, even after gorging on Putin's balls. So good on them for not signing this extorsion deal.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Oh he could, but he won't.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Selenskyj is quite smart.

I suppose it's mostly a play for time so trump, who will for sure drop or backstab him and Ukraine, can't do it right away without losing the wee bit of face trump has left.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Perhaps Trump still wants that Nobel peace prize too, since Obama got one. So if Zelensky could convince him that that's still possible, ideally, while Vance isn't in the room, that might be good.

[–] 5714 2 points 3 months ago

I'm not sure how long he long he can keep on doing that though. History is full of rulers who smart at first, but burnt out over the time, AFAIK. It doesn't seem sustainable psychologically.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He generally should avoid publicly associating himself with the EU or "Europe, the continent" or "European values". The EU is Trump's, and more importantly Vance's, declared arch-enemy and the ultimate target. Since they are the last big bastion of liberal values. This will tick off Trump again, which while cool, is not a good idea at all.

Instead he should say how he would love to join the US as the 51st or 52nd state. No, he won't mean it nor should he. It's all just kabuki theater anyway.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Its a fine idea if you assume trump's opinion changes based on what Ukraine says or does. I think trump tends to say or do whatever his goals provoke (whatever those may be) rather than adjusting his opinion to match changing circumstance.

If that's true, then Zelenskyy is making the correct choice assuming trump is already antagonist and anything Ukraine does to apparently provoke him is pretext to further his a priori objective.