15th January 2026
As the Curtain falls on the Nine Til Noon Show for 2025, our contributor Seamus Gunn opened this morning on the topic of the ongoing peace initiative in Ukraine referencing the comparison in history to “Peace for our time” when Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938 having come to an agreement with Adolf Hitler over Germany’s accession of part of what was then Czechoslovakia and what transpired as a result. Gunn said it was remarkable that history was now repeating itself, referencing Vladamir Putin’s move into Ukraine in February 2022 and his forceful incursion into 20% of the country to date. Greg Hughes brought up the point that pre-2022 there were significant issues between Russia and Ukraine and that Russia would maintain that they are only protecting their property rights in annexing what they claim to be rightfully theirs. Gunn thought that the current peace initiative had many strands and significant areas in which agreement would be extremely difficult as the Russians were insisting on Ukraine not pursuing their NATO Membership, reducing their armed forces to 300,000 and that they be allowed to retain as their own, property in the area currently controlled by it in Ukraine and the whole of the Donbas region. Greg Hughes mentioned about the war mongers in Europe and following the money to which our contributor responded that there was circa € 300 Billion in a frozen assist fund, mostly in Belgium, that Europe wanted to put towards reparations in Ukraine while the US see this fund as potential for it being used to invest in Russia which would ultimately be for the benefit of both super powers. While talks continue, Gunn made the point that this was in the backdrop of not only populations being displaced but thousands of children being deported to areas such as North Korea to indoctrinate them in their beliefs which he said in 2023 resulted in the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin and his commissioner.
As we approach the end of 2025 and 4 years of war, peace remains evasive.
The Q&A that followed is available to listen to below..
Season’s Greetings to all our clients and listeners.