It’s sad to see these final betrayals from Trump and Musk, but hardly surprising. Even now, there’s room for optimism though. These are desperate measures from Putin’s goon squad of supervillains. That isn’t even hyperbole, and it’s really shocking that we barely blink an eye that the president of the US and the richest man in the world are so obviously in cahoots with the Demon King of Moscow.

But - this is supposed to be optimistic. And here’s why: This is ALL they can do, and Ukraine still has the capability to say “Fuck Off”.

And also an upside - their masks are fully off. You can see who the teams are and what they care about.

This is not going to change the battlefield dynamics in a time frame where both Trump and Putin are alive and in power. It will force Ukraine to find some workarounds, and may reduce their capabilities, but does nothing to improve Russia’s in the near term.

There are more threats from the populists on putin’s payroll in Europe - but Ukraine doesn’t have to accept a bad peace just yet. There’s even cause for optimism that Trump and Musk have to do these things at all - it means that Russia is at a late stage of desperation and wants them to get Russia peace it doesn’t deserve on military basis.