False choices and an absence of an exit strategy in Ukraine (03-03-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. Happy Monday. Welcome to the program, News Talk 1110-993-WBT.

[00:00:33] I hope you had a good weekend. I spent probably too much time, yeah, I spent too much time over the weekend reading how Donald Trump and J.D. Vance ambushed the Ukrainian president. Is it Volodymyr? Volodymyr? Zelensky?

[00:01:00] I did not realize he had two Y's at the end of that name, but whatever. So, yeah, so that they ambushed him and that he ambushed them.

[00:01:13] Much like almost everything, it seems like whatever your opinion is of the orange man, that will determine how you saw what we saw play out on Friday and we heard live here on the show.

[00:01:33] It seems like if you don't like Donald Trump and he is the orange man, who is bad, then you think that he ambushed Zelensky. And if you like Donald Trump and you like J.D. Vance, then you saw it as Zelensky ambushing them.

[00:01:58] And I got to tell you, watching the entire exchange going on, it did not, I do not agree that the president and the vice president ambushed the Ukrainian president. That is not what I saw happen. It's not even what I heard happen as it was happening when we were listening to it. And the thing degenerated into the screaming match. That wasn't even what I heard happen in real time.

[00:02:27] It never crossed my mind that this was some sort of an ambush because it was all precipitated by Zelensky. Interrogating our vice president in the Oval Office. When the Oval, when Vance said what he said, basically criticizing Joe Biden, it wasn't even a criticism of Zelensky.

[00:02:52] Right. J.D. Vance said we're going to do something that the previous administration didn't, which is we're actually engaging in diplomacy. And then Zelensky uses that as an opening. Like, well, what do you mean by diplomacy? Because Russia has violated all of the previous ceasefires and Russia did this bad thing and all of that. And here's the thing. I agree that Russia sucks. I don't have to choose. I don't have to pick. Like, this is a false choice, people.

[00:03:22] This idea that somehow, you know, in the Trump administration saying last week that Ukraine started the war or whatever. Ukraine did not start the war. Right. Vladimir Putin has invaded what Georgia, Crimea and now eastern Ukraine.

[00:03:40] And like, honestly, the reasons for those two areas, those two peoples to be fighting for what I understand to be could be like hundreds of years over this territory. I don't even know if they needed any kind of an impetus for Russia to go in there, except the ability to do it.

[00:04:04] An opportunity, which I do believe they sensed a weakness in Joe Biden. I wonder why. Hmm. And they rolled in. And they knew that they weren't going to get any kind of real pushback from NATO. Because Ukraine's not in NATO.

[00:04:30] So I don't agree with the Trump comments, the administration comments about, you know, Ukraine starting it. I don't believe that to be the case at all. I think the war started when Russia invaded Ukraine. Now, did Ukraine do stuff inside of this area before Russia invaded? There were Russian speaking people there and they wanted to be part of Russia, supposedly, whatever. Like all of that stuff, all of that history. Right.

[00:05:00] I as an American, I am not up to speed on it, nor I like I don't know if I should be required to be up to speed on all of that. Because, again, you know, we have people who are like we're not the world's policemen. And that means we don't have to take an interest in all of that. You know who should take more of an interest in all of that history? Europe.

[00:05:23] Which is why I was very excited to see that Europe now says that they're going to stand up and they're going to lead on Ukraine. Which it only took three years. But, hey, better late than never, I guess. Although they did say they're going to be committing troops. They're going to be committing ground troops into Ukraine.

[00:05:45] Now, that's a little bit more problematic, you see, because those countries in the EU that are members of NATO, unlike Ukraine. If they commit ground troops and then they get attacked. And then they try to trigger Article 5, I believe it is, of the NATO agreement.

[00:06:08] That then would require all NATO nations to band together in the mutual defense of a NATO ally. So, wait a minute. So, we don't want to send troops. We've said what Trump has said we are not sending ground troops into Ukraine. That has been the position of America since the beginning of all of this. Even going back to Obama. Right?

[00:06:36] Like, we were not sending ground troops anywhere into Ukraine. But now Europe says it's going to stand up and it's going to do more. And by doing more, they're talking about sending in ground troops. And now that may commit us? Well, that doesn't sound very neighborly. We didn't commit ground troops from the Europeans.

[00:07:03] Not that there's a lot to commit, but we didn't do that to them. Why would we like it if they did that to us? Especially in a theater where we have said we are not going to do that. So, over the weekend, after he got kicked out of the White House, Zelensky went and met with these European leaders.

[00:07:29] And after that meeting, the UK Prime Minister, Gitter Starma, he's German, announced a four-point plan to work with Ukraine to end the war and defend the country from Russia. So, you're sending in military support to defend Ukraine from Russia. What part of Ukraine?

[00:07:57] The part that Russia's already taken? Are you talking about a ground invasion of the area that has already been seized by Russians and is under the Russian Federation control? You're going to be sending in ground troops over there? Again, I'm no military strategist or historian of the Russo-Ukraine troubles or anything.

[00:08:23] But this seems kind of like an escalation with a nuclear power, right? Doesn't it? That's what it seems like. The UK, France, and other countries will step up their efforts in a, quote, coalition of the willing, according to the BBC, and will seek to involve the U.S. in their support for Ukraine. Zelensky said, quote,

[00:08:51] We are all working together in Europe. I'm trying to get my Zelensky impression down. It's been a little difficult, but anyway, he says, we are all working together in Europe in order to find a basis for cooperation with America for a true peace and guaranteed security. And this is what he kept talking about in the Oval Office. He was there, though, to sign a minerals rights deal. That's what he was there for.

[00:09:22] And that's what he was there for at his own demand. The deal could have been signed outside of the Oval Office. They could have signed it back in Kiev or wherever. Like, he did not have to be at the White House. But he demanded it. And so they said, OK. And then he shows up and he keeps hammering away at demands for guaranteed security, which means what?

[00:09:52] What does that mean? Guaranteed security. Well, I guess to one extreme, it could be nukes in Ukraine. We we send nukes back into Ukraine after we convinced them after the fall of the Soviet Union to to get rid of them all. Right. That was a mistake. But because if they had nukes, they probably would not have been invaded or what membership in NATO.

[00:10:20] Is that what he thinks the guaranteed security is? Is it ground troops, American ground troops? In order to fight the Russians, again, a nuclear power. This is why Donald Trump, when he was screaming at Zelensky at the end of that Oval Office press availability, he said, you're you're leading us down a path towards World War three. And that's when he was like, you don't have the cards. You don't have any leverage.

[00:10:50] He's like, we are not playing cards. It's not card game. Which I guess that's an idiom that is lost to the Ukrainian president that, you know, you don't have any you don't have a strong hand. You're not. It's not saying it's a card game. It's a it's a question or it's an analogy rather for leverage for your strength in your position. And he doesn't have it.

[00:11:15] And this is the thing that I keep wondering as I see the analysis coming in from not just the lefties, but also people on the right that also, by the way, hate Donald Trump. That are like, we got to keep supporting, keep supporting, keep supporting. It's like, what's the end game here? How do you think this ends? What's the like what's the what's the the solution? What's the exit strategy? Is there one? Because I never hear it.

[00:11:43] I never hear an exit strategy from the people that are promoting this guarantee of security. What is it? What does that look like? Nobody will say. Why? It's a brain buster. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain and cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable

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[00:13:06] Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. News Talk 1110-993-WBT. The phone number is 704-570-1110. The email is pete at thepetecalendershow.com. And that is spelled K-A-L-I-N-E-R. On Twitter, at Pete Callender. Okay, so this is according to the BBC report from over the weekend.

[00:13:36] I do have your emails. I will get to your emails. After this big meeting with the European Union leaders, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, he told La Figaro, La Figaro, Figaro, Figaro newspaper, and then he went on to say that Paris and London wanted to propose a one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine

[00:14:03] in the air, at sea, and on energy infrastructure. Speaking at a news conference shortly after the meeting of leaders, get us done, man! He's German. Said they had agreed on four points. Here they are. The four points. Number one. To keep military aid flowing into Ukraine and to keep increasing the economic pressure on Russia.

[00:14:32] Number two. That any lasting peace must ensure Ukraine's sovereignty and security and Ukraine must be present at any peace talks. Number three. In the event of a peace deal, to boost Ukraine's defensive capabilities to deter any future invasion. And number four. To develop a coalition of the willing

[00:14:59] to defend a deal in Ukraine and to guarantee peace afterwards. And if that sounds like ground troops, it's because it means ground troops. Starmer also announced an additional 1.6 billion pounds, so $2 billion, of UK export finance to buy more than 5,000 air defense missiles. Okay.

[00:15:28] That's a loan. This comes on top of a 2 billion pound loan to provide more military aid to Ukraine, backed by profits from frozen Russian assets. He said, We have to learn from the mistakes of the past. We cannot accept a weak deal, which Russia can breach with ease. Instead, any deal must be backed by strength. The prime minister did not state which countries had agreed to join this coalition of the willing,

[00:15:56] but said that those who had committed would intensify planning with real urgency. We're going to go plan, baby. The UK, he said, would back its commitment with boots on the ground and planes in the air. He said Europe must do the heavy lifting. Before adding that the agreement would need U.S. backing and had to include Russia, but that Moscow could not be allowed to dictate terms.

[00:16:26] So again, European boots on the ground, which means if they get attacked, then NATO can invoke Article 5 and drag us into war. That seems to be the framework of their plan. Countries at the summit include France, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Norway. Turkey? Wait, Turkey? Sorry. Turkey. As they pronounce it now.

[00:16:55] But do not call it the Gulf of America, people. Okay. Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Finland, Italy, Spain, and Canada. European Commissioner President Ursula von der Leyen said that there was now an urgent need to rearm Europe. Well, it took you long enough, Europe. It's only been, what, 80 years. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too.

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[00:18:20] as they make the media landscape more transparent. News Talk 1110-993-WBT, 704-570-1110. Email is pete at thepetecalendarshow.com. All right, I got some emails, some audio clips. So first off, let me... All right, I'll read some emails here. This is Junior. I'm just deciding which way I want to go here because I want to get to the audio because I also have a bunch of audio from Marco Rubio,

[00:18:49] who made several appearances for interviews and explained a lot of this stuff, which... Like, the backstory here... Well, let me start here. From that BBC article, before I get to the emails. After this European summit, Zelensky said to reporters at a final press briefing after he met with King Charles III, he said he was ready to sign a deal on minerals with the U.S.

[00:19:18] Like, well, then what the hell did you just do? Why did you blow up the Oval Office meeting? Like, why did you let that get... By the way, did you see the video of the... like, the Ukrainian ambassador to America? She was sitting in the front row. So... And you could see her and she's just... As he starts... As Zelensky starts going after Vance, she's like... She starts looking down and she just puts her head in her hands.

[00:19:49] Just shaking her head. Like, she knew right then and there. Um... And then there was this from Lord Peter Mandelson, the British ambassador, to the United States. He went on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos and called on Zelensky to give his unequivocal backing to Trump's initiative for peace in Ukraine. We need a very radical reset, as you say in the caption behind you.

[00:20:18] And the reset has to consist of the United States and Ukraine getting back on the same page and President Zelensky giving his unequivocal backing to the initiative that President Trump is taking to end the war and to bring a just and lasting peace to Ukraine. And the Europeans, George too, they need to back the calls for a ceasefire. And by the way,

[00:20:47] I think that Ukraine should be the first to commit to a ceasefire and defy the Russians to follow. And then as part of the unfolding plan for this negotiation, the Europeans and perhaps some other countries too have got to consider how they are going to put forces on the ground to play their part in providing enduring security and deterrence for Ukraine.

[00:21:16] Now, that's the reset that we are looking for. That's what the British Prime Minister is working for in his meeting in London today. All right. So the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, Rutte, Rutte, whatever, he said the meeting had seen European countries stepping up, quote unquote, to make sure Ukraine has what it needs to, quote, stay in the fight as long as it has to.

[00:21:47] So like that, so war without end? The U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned a deal on minerals between the U.S. and Ukraine could not be signed without a peace deal with Russia. The U.S. has also begun peace talks with Russia excluding Ukraine. And that's angered Ukraine. How dare you? Look, why, this is what Trump was asking, like, why do you care how we get Russia to the table if it gets them to the table?

[00:22:17] You cannot even start talking about any kind of a peace agreement, any kind of a cessation of the violence if one side won't come to the table. You gotta get them both at a table, right? Whether that happens first alone and then eventually together, whatever. Like, I'm not, I don't think I have ever seen this kind of resistance to attempts

[00:22:47] to broker a peace agreement. But I know Orange Man bad, right? That's the, that's really the big problem here. All right, Junior says, I can't figure out why we are seeing, are not seeing a forensic account of the money we have sent to Ukraine. I actually have info on this. There's no way that someone isn't getting very rich from war. Oh, people always get rich in war. Um, I am sure Zelensky is benefiting somehow. He has purchased a private island somewhere, one thing. Uh,

[00:23:17] I once worked for the U.S. Marshals. The basic techniques for the locating of fugitives were to focus on money and sex surrounding fugitives. The lives of political leaders are not different. We need an examination of Zelensky's life after receiving funds from America. Following the money trail will also lead to several American political leaders who have done very well from funding Ukraine. Yeah, Ukraine, this is the problem. Ukraine has been, and everyone has known this, has been a money laundering, uh, jurisdiction

[00:23:47] for many people. And it's been corrupt, right, for a long time. And so, there's not a lot of trust there, uh, particularly in this administration. All right? I mentioned the money part. Let me, uh, give you, this is from, um, to, to, to, to, to, to, Economists for Ukraine. Okay? So they did an analysis. They performed an independent analysis

[00:24:15] on publicly available data. The findings show that in three years of the full-scale war, the total monetary value of U.S. aid delivered to Ukraine's government amounts to just under $51 billion, of which $18.3 billion comprise military aid and the rest of $32.6 billion is direct budget support in the form of expense reimbursement through the World Bank

[00:24:45] and collateral for loans. These figures in particular, the military aid component, differ from the appropriation amounts by a factor of two to three. The U.S. government has valued its military aid to Ukraine at just under $66 billion. However, this group's estimate puts it at $18.3 billion. The discrepancy between the appropriation amounts and the values

[00:25:15] computed in the independent analysis stems from three factors. One, the majority of U.S. military aid to Ukraine has come in the form of existing equipment from U.S. stockpiles. We are giving them stuff. Okay? When they track every weapon provided and consider the vintage of these weapons, their full depreciation and their failure rates, rendering the equipment unusable by our army, the value they say is lower than what the American military estimates

[00:25:44] the value to be. See, and I've been saying this for a while too, that like, the money that we allocate quote unquote is going to our military defense contractors. They're building new systems and stuff. They're building new weapons. We are keeping those and we're sending Ukraine the old stuff. So, that, so it's difficult to determine because we're like inflating the value of what those, of what that aid looks like

[00:26:14] because that's for domestic consumption and then we send them the old stuff and that is of a depreciated nature. So, it's not as if all of the the aid is a check, right? It hasn't all been that. So, anyway, these guys are saying that the number is somewhere around 50 to 60. News Talk 1110 993 WBT 704 570

[00:26:44] 1110 Email is pete at the petecalendershow.com So, a couple things. Europe says it's going to step up. To help in Ukraine, ground troops, they're going to, they're talking about sending ground troops now into Ukraine and they've given loans, not direct payments, you know, just they're giving loans, which I don't know. Like, somebody asked me on

[00:27:13] in an email, like, was Joe Biden aware that we could just do loans? I don't know. Joe Biden not being aware of a lot of things. That's pretty on brand. But, get this, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, okay, not exactly a right-wing organization. They say in the third year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU imports of Russian fossil fuels, in particular,

[00:27:42] remain largely unchanged, totaling almost 22 billion euros worth of exports, of revenue. Notably, EU imports of Russian fossil fuels in the third year of the invasion surpassed the amount of financial aid that they have sent to Ukraine. So, they're actually funding the Russian war machine more so than Ukraine.

[00:28:12] like, how insane is this? I mean, they really don't have much of a choice because they went all green energy and such, right? Shutting off all sorts of power generation forms and then they had to rely on, well, the same energy sources but from Russia this time. Russia's stronghold over new markets also solidified in the third year of the invasion. The three biggest buyers of Russian fossil fuels, China, India,

[00:28:43] and Turkey. Sorry, Turkey, however they pronounce it now. The value of India and Turkey's imports saw a year-on-year increase of 8% in India, increase in 6% for Turkey. Despite a host of sanctions, Russian revenues in the third year have dropped by a mere 8% compared to the year prior to the invasion of Ukraine. They have made, Russia has made 847 billion euros

[00:29:14] since the beginning of the invasion from fossil fuels exported. So, almost a trillion euros in revenue Russia's making. Russia's increased use of shadow tankers to transport oil to its new markets enable it to bypass the oil price cap and they relied on almost 600 of these shadow ships to transport more than half of its total seaborne

[00:29:43] oil exports. It almost seems like they don't have a clear sight line on what an exit strategy looks like here over in Europe. Right? Because they are reliant on Russian fuel. And so they're funding the Russian war machine and then turning around and doing loans to Ukraine to fight the Russian war machine that is funded by them.

[00:30:13] This is nuts. The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk before his flight to London for that EU summit he said 500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians. And then he said it again in the interview he's like 500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against

[00:30:43] 140 million Russians. Europe lacks the belief that we are truly a global force. So what happened with Zelensky? What was the deal? I don't have time to play this audio clip right now. I'm going to play it at the beginning of the next hour. But Zelensky came to the United States to sign the minerals deal. He demanded that the signing occur here

[00:31:12] and in front of the world. The deal could have been signed anywhere. But according to David Strom at HotAir.com the Z-Man wanted to sit down with Donald Trump. And this is very on brand for Zelensky. You'll recall that's what he was demanding of Donald Trump during the quote perfect phone call that prompted Democrats to impeach Donald Trump. Right? Because Zelensky was trying to get an Oval Office meeting with Trump.

[00:31:42] And Trump wanted to know like how the Bidens were doing their deals in Ukraine. He wanted information about the corruption revolving around Hunter Biden and his seat on the board of Burisma for which he was paid $50,000 a month. And that led to his impeachment. And then there were reports that the Z-Man met with Democrats

[00:32:12] before the Oval Office meeting. In fact, one of the Democrats at the meeting tweeted out a picture of the meeting. Strom says most people have conveniently forgotten that it was Zelensky himself who first proposed a minerals deal like this to tie the U.S. to Ukraine. I mean by something other than payoffs to Hunter Biden of course but that was the point of the deal. Trump said this in the Oval Office. Rubio has said it. Like

[00:32:42] you have the deal with us for the minerals. We are now there. We have an economic interest in your country and it is tied to our national security. This is a better position for you to be in because it may prevent Russia from getting any ideas about any further incursions because now we've got big time economic interest that they're going to be messing around and instead Zelensky's like I want security demands.

[00:33:13] Like what are you doing dude? Just sign the agreement. All right that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Calendar show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.