Trump will not save Ukraine, but Marine Le Pen's betrayal could be even worse." Global media on the Russia-Ukraine war on November 12.
Today, Europe is consumed by two questions: who should represent the European Union in negotiations with Russia and Donald Trump's attitude to Ukraine. The former does not matter, because until the end of winter there are few chances for serious peace negotiations. The latter is less important than it used to be. At the same time, European leaders ignore the third, much more important question: what to do if in six months Marine Le Pen becomes the president of France? Mojtaba Rahmat, European director of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, writes about this for the Guardian.
Le Pen says she will cut French aid to Ukraine, refuses to increase France's contribution to the EU budget and threatens to veto the bloc's seven-year budget plan, including a 100 million euro program the EU plans to transfer to Ukraine after 2028. Such actions may encourage countries for which aid to Ukraine is not a priority to reduce their support even more significantly. Le Pen would also allow Ukraine to join the European Union and jeopardize the sanctions regime against Russia.
The most pessimistic development of events, in which Ukraine is forced to surrender, is not yet inevitable. However, the outlook for Ukraine is now bleaker than at any time since the full-scale invasion began. Putin's strategy has always been to "wait" for the West, and this perspective is becoming more and more realistic: not because Ukraine is losing the will to fight or Washington is backing down, but because of what might happen in Europe next year, the author concludes.
The New York Times talks about a Ukrainian collection of 5 million war videos used to train artificial intelligence drones. The database is already being used by almost 30 Ukrainian Miltech companies, and now Ukraine is opening it up to companies from allied countries. However, this pool has certain limitations - each war requires a new one.