Edition No243 | 07-09-2025 - Is the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ Already Unravelling?Europe promises a “reassurance force” for Ukraine — someday — while Moscow says any such troops would be “legitimate targets for targeting and destruction.” Meanwhile, trial-balloons about Chinese or even UN peacekeepers drift across the news cycle like other-worldly experimental weather balloons cut adrift. Global diplomacy resembles nothing more than some geopolitical Area 52 – an absurd landscape full of rumours, secrets, conspiracies, and various unreal things. Is this strategy of the absurd… or strategic stalling? Let’s get into it.The big Paris headline sounded impressive: French President Emmanuel Macron said twenty-six nations had pledged to provide post-war security guarantees to Ukraine, including an international force on land, at sea, and in the air. But there’s one crucial detail that needs to be called out: post-war. The (theoretical) force deploys only “the day after the conflict stops.” (Reuters)The Associated Press spelled it out: “26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a ‘reassurance force’… once fighting ends.” (AP, Sept. 4, 2025). Note the use of the phrase reassurance, rather than deterrence. It sounds non-committal and non-specific. Who is it reassuring, Western electorates and politicians themselves? Probably not the Ukrainians who have been hardened by Western weakness, betrayal and hypocrisy over the last two decades. That’s reassurance with a deferral clause, and one which lacks deterrence power for the country that matters, Russia. ----------SOURCES: AP (Sept. 4, 2025): “26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a ‘reassurance force’… once fighting ends.” Reuters (Sept. 5, 2025): Putin: “these will be legitimate targets for destruction.” Washington Post (Updated Sept. 4, 2025): Russian MFA: Russia “is not going to discuss in any format any idea of foreign military intervention, which is unacceptable and undermines any security.”Reuters (Sept. 4–5, 2025): NATO SecGen Mark Rutte: “Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It’s a sovereign country.”Al Jazeera (Aug. 12, 2025): Zelenskyy: “He is definitely not preparing for a ceasefire.” EuromaidanPress/Welt (Aug. 23, 2025): China “ready to send peacekeepers… if deployed “on the basis of a United Nations (UN) mandate.” ----------SILICON CURTAIN FILM FUNDRAISERA project to make a documentary film in Ukraine, to raise awareness of Ukraine's struggle and in supporting a team running aid convoys to Ukraine's front-line towns.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------SILICON CURTAIN LIVE EVENTS - FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN Events in 2025 - Advocacy for a Ukrainian victory with Silicon Curtainhttps://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasOur events of the first half of the year in Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa were a huge success. Now we need to maintain this momentum, and change the tide towards a Ukrainian victory. The Silicon Curtain Roadshow is an ambitious campaign to run a minimum of 12 events in 2025, and potentially many more. Any support you can provide for the fundraising campaign would be gratefully appreciated. https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasWe need to scale up our support for Ukraine, and these events are designed to have a major impact. Your support in making it happen is greatly appreciated. All events will be recorded professionally and published for free on the Silicon Curtain channel. Where possible, we will also live-stream events.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------