Trump's usual tactic of saying something outrageous and hoping people will react in the way he wants, is in play.
He doesn't think much of the Europeans' antics on importing fuel from Russia, and not growing their own defences.
"FFS Europe what are you playing at", perhaps.
He obviously wants Europe to shout foul and do something, but I don't know what.
Trump has power over Russia in that he can undercut them on LNG and oil costs. Russia's Shadow fleet is breaking sanctions, which the Euros could do a lot about. How big that is I don't know.
The US has choices due to their "exceptionalist" economic might. They could support or encourage European govs/companies to grow rapidly, for example. It doesn't need to be overt, they could buy bonds for example.
Not sure what Zelensky is doing wrt minerals. He wants arms, he has minerals. Zelensky said no.
Again Trump has probably demanded something stupid as his opening gambit.
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I've been saying for years that I think drones are the future of warfare, more than is realised. I used to know a fair bit about how they worked, I'll be way out of date now. The Ukranians are very good at effective cheap military drones, as are many countries such as China.
They're cheap. If you can send huge numbers of drones with relatively small amounts of high explosive, throughout another country without getting most of them stopped, you can stop that country operating. Completely.
Oil, gas, water and electricity supplies as well as comms and transport controls, and computer centres, are quite delicate.
How many incendiary grenades does it take to knock out an oil refinery or an LNG carrier? In the latter case, just one hit, could knock out the entire fleet's operation.
I wondered if Putin's(?) strike on the Chernobyl reactor was just an example saying, "Hey, we can hit anything we like, regardless of its defences".
I daresay we can't find out what current capabilities are. Here's a sniff of what there was, TWELVE years ago:
"The Orion UAS completed its first flight in August 2013. It can carry multiple payloads of 2,600lb, including full-motion video electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensor, communication relay equipment, radars, signal intelligence (SIGINT) and wide-area airborne surveillance (WAAS) equipment. The wing hardpoints of Orion can also be mounted with munitions.
The dual Austro Engine AE300 heavy-fuel engines fitted in the Orion UAS ensure a high endurance of five days or more than 120 hours with a 1,000lb payload. The UAS has a dash speed of 120k and ferry range of 24,140km. It can fly at a maximum altitude of 30,000ft."
There were, even then, solar powered drones which could stay aloft indefinitely.
As the Ukranians point out, they have drones which are offensive but also very cheap. Whatever the Russians knock them down with, costs far more than the drone. And it still crashes somewhere.
Who would be the overall commander ??
