EU leaders reaffirm support for Ukraine, but Hungary, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal obstructed Kaja Kallas' initial €40B military aid plan. Now, only €5B remains—and on a voluntary basis. Meanwhile, von der Leyen pushes for the ReArm Europe defense initiative.

www.lastampa.it/esteri/2025/...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 20 March 2025 at 10:01

❗️ France & Italy block EU’s €5B ammo aid for Ukraine – Bloomberg. Despite broad support among EU leaders in Brussels, Paris & Rome delay committing funds.

Zelensky urged immediate action, warning Ukraine needs shells “as soon as possible.”

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 20 March 2025 at 19:15

The EU decides not to confiscate over €200B of frozen Russian assets. Instead, the interest will be used to support Ukraine. Some EU countries argue it's a strategic lever for peace talks and a necessary measure for financial competitiveness.

www.dw.com/ru/es-ne-bud...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 20 March 2025 at 16:35

This is why we can never blame Ukraine for bending over backwards to please America, despite how much shit America throws towards it, Ukraine is forced into this position because of Europe's inability to step the fuck up, Europe continues to shit the bed, a pathetic display from Europe once again, and when I say Europe, I once again largely mean Western/Southern Europe.

I have to say, this was quite a bad sign last night when 🇪🇺President @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu backed away from the #ReArmEurope name of her defence plan and converted to #Readiness2030 - amid criticism from the Spanish and Italian prime ministers that the original sounded too militant.

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— Dave Keating (@davekeating.substack.com) 21 March 2025 at 07:14

Meloni & Sanchez say their citizens don't support the idea of arming - and they don't seem ready to try to sell the idea either. Sanchez said 🇪🇺 should focus on "soft power"

"Our threat is not a Russia bringing its troops across the Pyrenees" he's said.

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— Dave Keating (@davekeating.substack.com) 21 March 2025 at 07:15

It comes as EU PMs rejected the @KajaKallas plan to surge €40 billion in aid to Ukraine now. They wouldn't even approve a pared-down €5 billion ammunition plan on the table yesterday, despite pleas from🇺🇦President @ZelenskyyUa to send it.

This was not a good #EUCO for Ukraine.

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— Dave Keating (@davekeating.substack.com) 21 March 2025 at 07:20

EU national leaders keep undermining 🇪🇺foreign affairs chief Kallas, one of the strongest voices on the Ukraine issue.

They even debated yesterday replacing her with someone else as an envoy for Trump's 🇺🇦 "peace talks", because of fears she is too militant.

— Dave Keating (@davekeating.substack.com) 21 March 2025 at 07:25

The ignorant Western freeloaders once again trying to undermine Eastern Europe's concerns, if European unity breaks the blame will squarely be on countries in Western/Southern Europe which aren't even fucking at risk and hide behind the Eastern European countries are scared about words. If Ukraine has to surrender to America then the only one to blame is Western Europe.

"Our threat is not a Russia bringing its troops across the Pyrenees" he's said.

You absolutely stupid motherfucker. Of course it's not! To get to the Pyrenees Russia would have to march through at least 5 European countries before even reaching you, are these Western European politicians this fucking dense? No shit there's no threat to you of Russian Troops coming into your country, "thankfully" for you, Russia would have to slaughter multiple other countries first before reaching you, so you can sit comfortably behind the piles of bodies knowing that Eastern Europe will die on your behalf.

The threat of Russian troops only applies to Eastern European countries. The threat of Russia's navy and air force however, does very much apply to Western/Southern Europe. These bellends in Western/Southern Europe are utterly pathetic, there's no chance these guys would defend Finland/Baltics/Poland, etc.

Trump is right about something, Southern Europe are the freeloaders in NATO; Spain, Portugal, Italy are amongst the lowest spenders in NATO. They're also amongst the lowest contributors to Ukraine. They take in all the benefits of NATO and provide little in return, they get to block things because they don't feel at risk, with absolutely zero consideration for Eastern Europe.

Hope to see military equipment and companies pulled from these countries and relocated to Northern/Eastern Europe.

Sanchez essentially whipped out the "It's too far away from us, who cares" to justify backstabbing Eastern/Northern Europe, Lol. Short-sighted idiot, because that has never backfired before, I can't wait for defence industries to pull out of these countries and be moved towards Northern/Eastern Europe and then for them to start crying because they aren't receiving billions in investment and/or protection.

Hopefully Merz puts his money where his mouth is and applies pressure to Southern Europe. Europe desperately needs a leader, Northern/Eastern Europe are consistently that but Western/Southern Europe will never let them be that, so we need someone as equally as strong as them here. Turns out Macron is all talk. We need a strong Germany now.

🇳🇴 Norway triples military aid to Ukraine, raising it to $8B.

“This unanimous decision by Parliament will fund artillery, ammunition, drones, and investments in Ukraine’s defense industry,” said PM Jonas Gahr Støre.

He added that Ukraine fights for values that matter to all.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 20 March 2025 at 16:59

I don't believe the EU as an institution is capable of stepping up to the plate, it's too bureaucratic, too slow, impossible to move forward when all it takes is one bad faith actor or a few freeloading cowards. When huge decisions agreed upon by the majority can be blocked by the minority, it will never be a suitable military replacement to NATO. It will never as able to counter America/Russia/China.

We need something new, a new organisation, a coalition of the willing without the bad faith actors and cowards. This is why an "EU Army" will be a failure, a thing like that needs to be agile and united, EU is "united" in the sense that the majority agree, but it's irrelevant when the rules of EU mean a minority can block something.

So basically the same as the UN/UNSC. Except every country in EU has 'veto' power / decisions needs to be unanimous?

Yep, jeez
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM:unanimity

A limited number of policy areas considered to be sensitive remain subject to unanimity voting:

• taxation;
• social security or social protection;
• the accession of new EU Member States;
• Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), including Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP);
• operational police cooperation between Member States.

How can a union operate like this (UN can't)

It's like Switzerland blocking flood prevention measures because they're in the mountains, so who cares. Then Denmark blocking avalanche protection measure, cause they don't have those.

As long as EU countries treat the EU as, what can the EU do for me specific rather than working together as a whole, EU remains rather useless on the global stage.

Spain sound like what Switzerland always thinks. Switzerland with their "we are neutral" can only say that because they

1. don't give a fuck about anyone else on the planet or they simply couldn't be neutral
2. don't support NATO, EU or anything because they still benefit from all of that without the need to invest in it with Germany/France/Italy surrounding it.

SO in the last few weeks we have gone to

NATO being the standard for alliances
to
REARMING EU
to
EASTERN EU going out on their own and potentially going nuclear.

If I was East EU i would only look to buy military arms from countries willing to be part of the fight and not flip flop fence sitters.

It may have to be up to individual countries or an unofficial coalition of peacekeepers that want to put a stop to the war.  

Talking about his two meetings with Putin on Feb. 11 and March 13, Witkoff said “I liked him. I think he was honest with me.”

Carlson said that assessment was shared by “all the presidents in the world” including Joe Biden: “They may not agree with what Russia is doing, but they say: ‘You know, Putin is an open person,’” Carlson said.

In addition to describing Putin as “not a bad person,” Witkoff said: “It’s a complicated situation, this war, and all the components that led to it. You know, it’s never just one person who’s right.”

Witkoff added that after the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump, Putin went to church and prayed for him: “… not because he could be the president of the United States, but because they had a friendship, and he prayed for his friend.” He added telling Trump of this, “He [Trump] was clearly touched.”

“… The Russians have what they want: They got back these five regions. They have Crimea. They got what they wanted. So what else do they want?” He then went on to say that the main ongoing problem to resolving the war is the issue of [the occupied] territories.

In another echo of the Kremlin propaganda line Witkoff said that the “Russian speaking residents” of these regions [Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson] had overwhelmingly indicated they wanted to be part of the Russian Federation in referendums – a process that most of the world thinks were not only illegal but were held under occupation, subject to coercion (sometimes at gunpoint) and falsification in the absence of independent observers.

‘He’s Not a Bad Person’ – Steve Witkoff’s Fulsome Assessment of Meeting Putin

America is done for unless Americans actually fight back and I have my doubts they will, it's a shame that Europe is so useless because America has been taken over by Russia and Republicans want to model their country after Russia, this attempt to rehabilitate Russia to the American public is sickening, they want the American public to not only accept Russia but like them too, it's disgusting.

Putin is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians, an army of rapists and mass murderers, an attempt of genocide, multiple wars, political assassinations, etc, and America says they like him, they say he isn't a bad guy, they say some bullshit about him praying for Trump because he got his ear clipped and that means he's a friend of America, they say he's honest, they say he has genuine reasons for invading Ukraine, they spread Russian propaganda.

Fuck MAGA. Fuck Trump. Fuck Witkoff. Fuck Rubio. America Oblast.

Witkoff's repeating of Kremlin lies about "russian-speakers" wanting to "join Russia" is truly chilling. This is nothing less than carte blanche for Putin's genocidal imperialism. Hearing Americans talk like this should be an electric shock for Europe, not a wakeup call.

— Gabrielius Landsbergis (@glandsbergis.bsky.social) 22 March 2025 at 09:08

I think the largest issue in the conflict is those so-called four regions ... Donbas, Crimea, Lugansk... and there’s two others,” he said during an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News journalist.

Mr Witkoff’s failure to remember the names of territories was taken as proof by critics that the Trump administration is out of its depth in the Ukraine-Russia negotiations. They also pointed out that Mr Witkoff had confused Crimea for one of the four occupied eastern territories, when in fact it is an area on the Black Sea that was seized by the Kremlin in 2014.

“Witkoff can’t even remember the names of the Ukrainian oblasts [territories] that Putin wants,” wrote one critic on Twitter.

Critics also pointed out that “Lugansk” is the Russian name for the territory known as “Luhansk” in Ukrainian.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff accused of not knowing names of Russian-occupied territories

So not only does he not know the names of two of the Oblasts that Russia has illegally occupied (Kherson and Zaporizhzhia) he also uses the Russian name for Luhansk and I'm pretty sure he confused Donbas for Donetsk because he doesn't mention that either but he does mention Luhansk and Donbas separately, when actually Donbas includes both Donetsk and Luhansk.

These are the fucking morons in Trump's admin, I, a VGChartz user, shouldn't know more than them, FFS. Also why the hell is the Special Envoy to the Middle-East butting his nose in and talking absolute bollocks about Ukraine? Keith Kellogg is the envoy to Ukraine (Who I actually believe will be fired soon for being too pro-Ukraine), it feels like Witkoff is seriously undermining him when it isn't even his area to comment on.