re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

Ukraine and Europeans present their plan for negotiations with Putin to US – WSJ

Oleh Pavliuk, KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — Saturday, 9 August 2025, 19:05

European countries and Ukraine have responded to the "Russian ceasefire plan" with a counterproposal, which, in their opinion, should form the basis for upcoming negotiations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Source: The Wall Street Journal with reference to two informed European officials, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The proposal from Kyiv and its allies calls for a mandatory ceasefire before any other steps are taken, as well as any "exchange of territories" only on a mutual basis – that is, if Ukraine withdraws its troops from some regions, Russia must withdraw its troops from others, writes the WSJ.

"You can’t start a process by ceding territory in the middle of fighting," one of the publication's sources said.

In addition, this plan stipulates that any territorial concessions by Kyiv must be backed by ironclad security guarantees – in particular, Ukraine's potential membership in NATO, the article says.

WSJ sources say the goal of the plan is for Europe and Ukraine to establish a common red line that should apply to any potential negotiations with Russia.

This proposal was presented on Saturday at a meeting of national security advisers. The American side was represented by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg.

European representatives told them that Ukraine's future cannot be discussed without Ukraine and that Europe will continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and funds regardless of the US position, one source told the WSJ.

Ukrainska Pravda

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In addition, this plan stipulates that any territorial concessions by Kyiv must be backed by ironclad security guarantees – in particular, Ukraine's potential membership in NATO, the article says.

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So Z doesn't want piece, since that's the fricking reason this war started.

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The good news is that Zelinsky and the Ukrainians are too smart for that,

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Ukraine has suffered many betrayals by the hands of Moscow going all of the way back to the Mongol invasion.

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Not to be blunt, but what can the Ukrainians do to stop it?

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Well, how's that Russian offensive been going? It seems like you were thinking that was a key factor this spring, and it's not been going all that well for them.

Can Russia overrun Ukraine before their economy and public opinion collapse? I doubt it, but that's entirely up to NATO nations. If support for Ukraine continues then Russia is screwed. I have zero confidence in Trump to do the right thing based on the latest information, but Ukraine doesn't need the US to prevail. Europe is not going to let Russia win this. They know better.

That’s true but a lot of Russians have soured on Putin and this was. It’s clear to anyone that understands Russia and Ukraine that Ukraine is getting significant help inside Russia from rebel Russians

Set your clocks, another night, another Ru refinery goes boom.

Tick Tock.

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The Saratov region, located approximately 500 kilometers (311 miles) from the Ukrainian border in the Kharkiv region, is home to Russia’s Engels-2 strategic air base and an assortment of oil facilities.

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The designed capacity of the Saratov Oil Refinery is 7.0 million tons of oil per year.

The Saratov Refinery processes Urals crude oil and Saratovskoye field crude oil from the pipeline, as well as crude oil from the Orenburg fields shipped by rail.

All motor fuels produced by the plant comply with the environmental class K5. Products are shipped mainly by rail, and also by water and road.

In 2013, the Saratov Refinery commissioned an Isomerisation Unit for the Pentane-Hexane Fraction with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year, and carried out extensive work to repair and reconstruct the ELOU-AVT-6 unit, bringing its annual capacity to 7.0 million tonnes of crude (oil) and the Visbreaking Unit for Vacuum Residue, increasing its annual capacity to 1.0 million tons of raw materials.

In 2014, a short cycle adsorption unit for hydrogen was commissioned.

From 2015 to 2018, several major investment projects were implemented at the Saratov Oil Refinery:

replacement of furnaces was carried out at the diesel hydrotreater L-24-6 in order to increase the capacity of the unit for raw materials from 1.9 to 2.2 million tons per year;

The K-2 column of the ELOU-AVT-6 primary oil refining unit was upgraded, which allowed increasing the selection of light oil products;

technical re-equipment of the loading and unloading trestle was carried out, which allowed increasing the productivity of the loading and unloading trestle.

At the beginning of 2019, work was completed on the development of the expanded basic design of the vacuum gasoil hydro conversion complex.

The Saratov Refinery organized the production of motor gasoline with improved environmental and operational properties of AI-95-K5 Euro-6 according to STO 44905015-006-2017 in order to supply consumers in the regions of Russia.

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One of Igor Sechin's Rosneft complexes. That makes three Rosneft refineries hit this week. I repeat, this week.

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Two of Rosneft’s largest oil refineries have been knocked offline following Ukrainian drone strikes last week [plus Saratov last night], sidelining key infrastructure for at least a month and forcing Russia to ramp up crude exports through its western ports.

Repairs at the Ryazan Oil Refinery — Rosneft’s largest — and the Novokuybyshevsk Refinery are expected to take about a month, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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Ryazan had a capacity of 13.7 million m/tons per year (100.4m/bbls or 8.4m/bbls/month)

Novokuybyshevsk had a capacity of 8.3 million m/tons per year (60.8 million bbls/year or 5.1.million bbls per month)

Saratove had a capacity of 7.0 million m/tons per year (51.3 million bbls/year or 4.3 million bbls per month)

To compare, our old friend Exxon BR does 16.4 million bbls per month.

So depending on damage at Saratov and repair timeline for the other two, Igor's looking at a budgetary hole of 17.8 million bbls/month. Just with these three.

And once repaired... well, you know what happens then... The Russian Midnight Sun:





Beautiful.


LINK

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Ukraine has hit 14% of Russia's total refining capacity in the past 8 days.

August 2 Novokuibyshevsk Refinery – Capacity: 8.8 Mt/year (~3.1% of Russia’s total)

Ryazan Refinery – Capacity: 17.1 Mt/year (~6.1%)

August 7 Afipsky Refinery – Capacity: 6.25 Mt/year (~2.2%)

August 10 Saratov Refinery – Capacity: 7.0 Mt/year (~2.5%)

Total capacity of these four = 39.15 Mt/year (~13.9% of Russia’s total).

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In eight days...

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Putin gets nothing if Ukraine doesn’t agree to ignominious terms and [her] NATO allies back its refusal. Congress has oversight, thanks to the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, over many U.S. sanctions on Russia, including on waivers.

U.S. wants to stop selling arms to Europe and eliminate the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List mechanism after all this? Well, American aid also means American leverage on how Ukraine wages war. No aid, no right to escalation manage on things like targeted assassinations, deep strikes, etc. (There will be nothing stopping HUR and SBU from doing to the Russians anywhere in the world what GRU and FSB routinely do to Western equities on Western soil.)

Trump is teeing up for weeks of relentless media coverage making him look a coward and a dupe—a tanning-bed Henry Wallace without his lasting Damascene moment.

Veterans from Slavyansk and Kramatorsk going back a decade will turn up in the pages of the New York Post and on Fox News.

Kyiv has been on a prolonged and understandable charm offensive since the Feb. debacle in the Oval Office. It doesn’t have to last unto Ukraine’s being forced into a suicide pact just so a venal, corrupt and silly little man can receive a bauble from the Norwegians.

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X makes a lot more sense when you realize most of the anonymous accounts are actually run by Indians

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