The west can spend a few millions to save Ukraine or pony up trillions to try to save Finland, Poland and several other small NATO countries.
If Ukraine falls US status and power will go with it.
Of course Putin emboldened because he absolutely knows he has a friend in the Republican party.
A few million sounds like a huge underestimate. The US alone has already given 44.2 billion in aid as of March.
As near as I can tell, the West doesn't want Ukraine to fall, but it's afraid of it winning, too. Then there's the matter of many countries not wanting to carry costs, risks, or political capital.
I wish this was different.
but it's afraid of it winning
No, the US leadership is dealing with a bully with nuclear weapons, sure we can take a chance, do some surgical attacks to limit any launches and such, but that would be a big time escalation, and we're not there yet, and that escalation would mean a lot more people would die, a lot lot more.
The main strategy has been to try to strangle Russia economically and isolate them to wear down the populace and hopefully force either a retreat or a change in leadership, all while providing Ukraine with what they needed to halt Russia's advances. However, thanks to the MAGA/Putin alliance they have successfully stalled our resupply efforts to Ukraine, thus giving Putin more time to keep pushing and costing Ukraine lives that they can't waste while fighting a numerically superior opponent.
So ultimately Trump's lunatics are who aren't afraid of winning, they don't want Ukraine to win, because Trump is Putin's cock holster and they are Trump's cult who follow his signals for everything and anything. There's no fear of winning, only betrayal and treasons prolonging the problem.
halt Russian advances
This is my point. If Biden had an unlimited arsenal to send I think he would think twice about doing so.
Because nukes. We aren't disagreeing here, I don't think.
Regime change happens when Putin dies and it may not improve things. Trump is more likely to win than we are to see Putin toppled.
Edit: I was never talking NATO boots on ground. That seems like fantasy when we're struggling to provide them with ammo.
It's all such a tricky situation, we all know Putin isn't going to deal in good faith, so you just have to kinda walk this tightrope, and that's what Biden and NATO are doing, and why Ukraine wasn't just brought into NATO already.
Trump is more likely to win than we are to see Putin toppled.
While you're definitely right, that just means we still have a problem until Puty dies or gets dethroned, and once Puty dies it's going to create quite the anxiety inducing power vacuum.
Agree.
My general opinion, at this point:
Ukraine has shown and singalled that without help, the lines will be moving in the wrong direction.
If they get their borders back (win), Russia will have a strong argument that the war was with the West, not just Ukraine. And I don't know that Western politicians have the stomach for that kind of win, because the nuke thing, if nothing else.
The pols may be open to it, but even when there was less push back, I didn't see the will to win. It was the will to not lose, and then trust Ukraine had what it took.
At this point I think we know that Russia and Ukraine will have a massive generation-size gap in their male populations. And at the end of this, absent significant help, will be a slow war of attrition with Russia moving lines often enough to matter.
Anything short of restoration or either historical border is a loss. At least of land and lives, if not other.
Rumor is Putin has cancer. If so, he may not have long to live but they said that two years ago.
Surgical strikes against 7,000 targets?!!
Do you not know how big the Russian arsenal is?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The West had rallied to President Zelenskyy's call for military support to enable a spring offensive, and there was an air of optimism that Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine was to be defeated.
However, a year on, the much-anticipated Ukrainian spring offensive failed to deliver any significant changes to the frontline, and 2024 started with Russia on the front foot in the Donbas.
Despite robust Western political rhetoric in support of Ukraine, actions speak louder than words, and Putin will feel emboldened by the West's hesitancy over the level of commitment to combating Russian aggression.
However, the West eventually agreed to send modern tanks and then long-range missiles - such as Storm Shadow - despite a growing tirade of threats from Putin.
This is not just about Western military personnel - such a move would also enable the West to deploy modern weapons that cannot be gifted to Ukraine for security reasons.
President Putin would recognise the significance of such a move and would increase his threatening rhetoric, but he knows that it is Russia that is responsible for the war and for invading a vulnerable neighbour.
The original article contains 784 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 76%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
The USA, Russia and China have a common goal in Ukraine, to bolster their economy. A war of attrition is the capitalist way.
It's been a wake-up call for Europe to unify their defence, hopefully soon before the imperialist forces annihilate them.
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