Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘European Defence and Security’ Category

EMERGENCY SOCIAL MEDIA STORM August 14, 19.00-20.00 Irish Time – PARTICIPATE!

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PARTICIPATE!

EMERGENCY SOCIAL MEDIA STORM August 14, 2000-2100 Central European Time

2100-2200 Ukraine * 1900-2000 UK * 1500 Brazil * 1400 US/Canada East Coast * 1100 US/Canada West Coast * 2330 India * 0300 (Friday) Japan 0400 (Friday) Eastern Australia*

Suggested hashtags | Рекомендовані хештеги | Hashtags suggérés | Hashtags sugeridos

#NothingAboutUkraineWithoutUkraine #OccupationIsNotPeace #StopPutinStopTrump #SolidarityNotSurrender #StandWithUkraine
#НічогоПроУкраїнуБезУкраїни #ОкупаціяЦеНеМир #СтопПутінСтопТрамп #СолідарністьАНеКапітуляція #ПідтримайУкраїну
#RienSurL’UkraineSansL’Ukraine #L’OccupationN’EstPasLaPaix #StopPoutineStopTrump #SolidaritéPasCapitulation #SoutenezL’Ukraine
#NadaSobreUcraniaSinUcrania #LaOcupaciónNoEsPaz #StopPutinStopTrump #SolidaridadNoRendición #ApoyemosAUcrania

Please post on whatever social media platforms you’re on with statuses, photos, etc.

Statements and background

French Committee of the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine * Ukrainian World Congress * Ukrainian government peace proposal

MEDIA RELEASE

TRUMP AND PUTIN: HANDS OFF UKRAINE! NO PEACE WITHOUT UKRAINE! NO PEACE AGAINST UKRAINE!

August 10, 2025

Putin and Trump want to reach an agreement at a summit meeting without the main party concerned, Ukraine, in defiance of international law and the right of peoples to self-determination.

Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart in Alaska on August 15, without the Ukrainian president. The latter responded strongly and rightly: “Any decision that is made against us, any decision that is made without Ukraine, is a decision against peace.”

According to the US president, a settlement of the war will include territorial concessions.

“The Ukrainians will not give up their land to the occupiers,” Zelensky added, while Trump spoke of “exchanges of territory”.

Crimea and territories in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts that Putin has declared annexed are occupied by Russian troops in violation of international law.

Occupation is a crime, those who occupy are criminals, and those who support it are accomplices!

Trump is preparing to hand victory to the aggressor after claiming that he would issue an ultimatum to Putin.

No, the era of placing one country under the tutelage of another against its will by decision of the “great powers” is over.

Mobilisation against this imperialist banditry between Putin and Trump and in solidarity with Ukraine must be organised quickly.

French Committee of the European Network for Solidarity With Ukraine (ENSU)


Thomas Weyts, Ghent, Belgium :

Not only in Anchorage, Alaska, but also in Munich, Bavaria, there will be protests tomorrow against the gangster conclave between Trump and Putin. Not by chance at the place where the infamous agreements between Chamberlain and Hitler were signed in 1938, while Czechoslovak Prime Minister Benes was allowed to wait in the hallway…

Thomas Weyts, Ghent, Belgium :

Protest at the American Embassy in Prague, 13th of August. The Czechs know what they are talking about

Reject Trump-Putin Partition of Ukraine Plan

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Reject Trump-Putin Partition of Ukraine Plan

Ukraine must determine its own future. Surrender to Trump-Putin will create a carnival of reaction in the heart of Europe. Been there, done that: Collins-Griffith 1922 Irish surrender to British Empire.

A useful article on the Trump-Putin Partition of Ukraine Plan is below.

Financial Times Saturday August 9 2025

 Christopher Miller in New York and Fabrice Deprez in Kyiv

Zelenskyy looks to European allies to stop handover of territory to Russia

Donald Trump said a peace deal with Russia could involve ‘some swapping’ of Ukrainian land

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukrainians ‘will not gift their land to the occupier’ 

Zelenskyy looks to European allies to stop handover of territory 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to shore up European opposition to any loss of Ukrainian land to Russia after Donald Trump said that a peace deal might involve “some swapping of territory”.

People close to the Ukrainian president told the Financial Times that he was alarmed by Trump’s decision to hold a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week without inviting Ukraine to participate.

Read the rest of this entry »

USA President of Vice JD Vance flounders in Greenland Snow – Sniffer Dogs on Trail of 2nd Lady Usha Vance

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Great mocking description : dogsled diplomacy – USA President of Vice JD Vance and his wealthy wife Usha flounder in Greenland snow. 

From Tony Tassell of  the Financial Times :

Trump’s dogsled diplomacy has spooked and angered Greenland – @richardmilne.ft.com column. Nobody in Greenland or Denmark is accepting the cited reason for the US national security adviser, vice-president’s wife & secretary of energy to the island – a dogsledding contest http://www.ft.com/content/079a…

Trump’s dogsled diplomacy has spooked and angered Greenland – @richardmilne.ft.com column. Nobody in Greenland or Denmark is accepting the cited reason for the US national security adviser, vice-president’s wife & secretary of energy to the island – a dogsledding contest http://www.ft.com/content/079a…

Tony Tassell (@tonytassell.bsky.social) 2025-03-25T08:16:10.228Z

JD and Usha Vance Snowed Out : Greenland and Vermont

Denmark Sends Extra Sniffer Dogs 🐕 to Greenland

USA “Second Lady” Usha Vance has created a stink  in Greenland – Diplomacy?

The Journal.ie reports :

AN UPCOMING VISIT to Greenland by US Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, has been denounced by the country’s Prime Minister Mute Egere.

The Office of the Second Lady of the US issued a statement today announcing Thursday’s trip, saying the delegation would be visiting historical sites, learning about Greenland’s culture and attending its national dog sled race.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also be joining the delegation.

“It should be said clearly that our integrity and democracy must be respected without foreign interference,” Egede said, adding that this week’s visit “cannot be seen as just a private visit”.

Negotiations over the formation of a new government are ongoing in Greenland following elections held earlier this month that saw the centre-right Democrats come out on top.

Source :

https://x.com/SLOTUS/status/1903832168054337840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1903832168054337840%7Ctwgr%5E2e8d9bbf807fd365961481c577f11aaafcc690d5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thejournal.ie%2Fgreenlands-pm-describes-upcoming-visit-by-us-vice-president-jd-vances-wife-as-aggressive-6657521-Mar2025%2F

Denmark’s crack sniffer- dogs team retaliates :

Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory seeking to emancipate itself from Denmark, holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, although oil and uranium exploration are banned.

Greenland is also strategically significant in geopolitical terms due to its location in the Arctic. Geographically, it is closer to North America than to Europe and is also home to a US military base.

The country has its own flag, language and institutions. However, Greenland’s judiciary, monetary policy, defence and foreign affairs all remain under Danish control.

The Greenland government also relies on Denmark for more than half of its budget and the subsidies it receives from Copenhagen amount to a fifth of its GDP.

According to polls, most Greenlanders support independence from Denmark but not annexation by Washington.

Denmark has responded to Usha Vance’s planned visit by sending extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland, in order to beef up security, the chief spokesman for Denmark’s national police said today.

Rene Gyldensten said that the extra officers, deployed the day before, were part of regular steps taken during visits by dignitaries to Greenland, a self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark.

Citing office procedure, they declined to specify the number of extra police flown on the chartered flight.

Trump backs Putin against Ukraine. History turns darker – Simon Pirani

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The Trump-Putin anti-Ukraine alliance is a signal to the left everywhere – we are at a fork in the road :

The good road : The Pro-Ukraine Left

The bad road : The anti-Ukraine Left

What does the pro-Ukraine Left look like? What do we do? – Read on.

Link :
Trump Backs Putin Against Ukraine – History Turns Darker

Trump backs Putin against Ukraine. History turns darker

How bad can it get? When we strip away US president Donald Trump’s insults and temper fits, what can he actually do?

First, he can withdraw US military aid to Ukraine – which he has been talking about doing since long before the US presidential election. If the European states got their act together, which is possible, the effects of this would be constrained.

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How to finance European defence (and how not to) – and how the Irish left can assist Ukraine by all means necessary

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Hanna Perekhoda’s article highlights uncomfortable truths about European Defence. The new Trump-Putin reactionary alliance against Ukraine has brought matters to a head.

Perekhoda states “The real question now, particularly for the left, is whether it has a concrete program to address this crisis.”

Link : How to finance European defence (and how not to)

Ireland will not escape the consequences.

Do the best parts of the left in Ireland pass this Perekhoda test?

We must start by examining a misnamed policy : supporting Irish “Neutrality”. Language matters, as we shall see. This is a key part of the problem.

Photo by Matti Karstedt on Pexels.com

The best of the Irish left declares itself in favour of “Neutrality” – but in the conflict between Israel and Palestine it supports Palestine.

The best of the left should not support a policy of “Neutrality” in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It should support Ukraine.

The best of the left correctly opposes Irish state membership of military alliances such as NATO, but that is not a policy of “neutrality”. The policy is more accurately described as “non-alignment”. That, for the sake of clarity, was the policy of Tito’s Yugoslavia after his country’s progressive breakaway from the Warsaw Pact.

Does this matter in practice? The answer is Yes.

When the Irish government militarily assists the state of Ukraine by providing mine-clearing equipment, it is helping to defend the hospitals, schools and housing of people living in Ukraine. It is preventing Ukraine from becoming a new defenceless Gaza.

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