Russia's economy has entered the death zone • Hacker News Board

Re: Russia's economy has entered the death zone

#241

Post by fatbird » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 7:25 AM UTC

don_esteban wrote: post #235

tim333 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't just want land though. They want 'denazification' which means overthrowing the government and making it like Belarus or Bucha. I think the way is to support Ukraine to win rather than the 'escalation management' of Biden or the taking bribes to pressure Ukraine to surrender of Trump. They are not doing so badly recently. 200 sq km taken back last week.

Re: I think the way is to support Ukraine to win Nice in theory, now put that in practice. Care to share how to achieve that? Especially since Ukraine is running low on men. Should we (the West) send men to fight in Ukraine? What else would make a difference? Do we really want WW3? Ukraine is not doing great. Selective news selection, notwithstanding. They did occupy some territory in Kursk, did not help them much in…

Ukraine has an 800k+ man army, and has rejected expansion of conscription to those under 27. They literally have everyone under 27 left to conscript. They're not facing a manpower shortage. That's Russian propaganda.

No one is insisting on Ukraine in NATO. NATO has been continually refusing, officially and unofficially, membership for Ukraine because it's actively involved in a war. The NATO charter automatically rejects membership for any party actively engaged in hostilities, defensively or otherwise. Ukraine will never be in NATO unless it has an actual peace with Russia. Talk of Ukraine joining NATO is, again, Russian disinformation trying to blame NATO expansion for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Re: Russia's economy has entered the death zone

#242

Post by ivan_gammel » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 10:45 AM UTC

drysine wrote: post #226

ivan_gammel wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you realize that it’s just figure of speech, not the core argument?

My argument is that you can't bring strategic defeat without leveling cities or utterly destroying the power generation and electric grid. And that's not what is happening in the Ukraine or even Belgorod for that matter

In this war strategic victory is not the destruction of the state, but the control over development trajectory of the rival for the foreseeable future. Russian objective is and was not to annex entire Ukraine, but to ensure that it does not become menacing part of NATO infrastructure (they are surprisingly content with Ukraine joining EU). This is political goal and thus can be pursued through hybrid warfare, which includes psychological pressure on Ukrainian population, to ensure that current administration will loose political support and will be pressured into a peace deal on terms favorable for Russia. Ukraine does the same to achieve the opposite goal, but of course with much less success.

The whole story with territorial question is part of this: possible peace settlement could include just splitting Donbas region on the current front line, so that Putin could claim victory and Ukraine could just say they did what they could. But Russia wants more, they need Donbas in original borders, which is unacceptable to Ukraine. Why? Because if this question will be settled in the peace deal, it may open Ukraine eventually path to NATO. They want to create permanent tension the same way as it happened to Georgia, deferring the final settlement by a hundred years (see Taiwan as an example, which occupies China for decades).

Re: Russia's economy has entered the death zone

#243

Post by drysine » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 7:02 AM UTC

ivan_gammel wrote: post #242

drysine wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My argument is that you can't bring strategic defeat without leveling cities or utterly destroying the power generation and electric grid. And that's not what is happening in the Ukraine or even Belgorod for that matter

In this war strategic victory is not the destruction of the state, but the control over development trajectory of the rival for the foreseeable future. Russian objective is and was not to annex entire Ukraine, but to ensure that it does not become menacing part of NATO infrastructure (they are surprisingly content with Ukraine joining EU). This is political goal and thus can be pursued through hybrid warfare, which i…

>In this war strategic victory is not the destruction of the state, but the control over development trajectory of the rival for the foreseeable future.

No, it wouldn't be victory, it would be compromise. And the Ukraine isn't Russia's rival, it's just cannon fodder for the West.

>they are surprisingly content with Ukraine joining EU

Kremlin says that. Doesn't have to be true.

>which is unacceptable to Ukraine

Why is it unacceptable to the Ukraine?

I see why it's unacceptable for current regime in Kiev because they can't just say "we actually don't need Donbass, never mind hundreds of thousands lives we wasted defending it".

Re: Russia's economy has entered the death zone

#244

Post by drysine » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 7:03 AM UTC

don_esteban wrote: post #230

drysine wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It‘s a nuclear war without nukes No, it's not. Even Ukrainians rarely target civilians.

They do target civilians. It is just not convenient to show it in the western sources, so you don't know about it. However, it is true that they do not do it on the scale Israel is doing.

They do, but rarely. And I'm Russian, I don't depend on Western sources.

Re: Russia's economy has entered the death zone

#245

Post by drysine » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

bulbar wrote: post #203

benterix wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the parent lives in one of the countries neighboring with Russia and unfortunately Russia is very unfriendly towards its neighbors, invading them when it wants, so you live in constant fear. From that perspective, this is just a variation of "I want to live in peace" expressed in an extreme way.

Many welcomed the Nazis when they invaded Eastern Europe because they relieved them from the Soviets. When literal Nazis are perceived as the better option you can imagine the alternative isn't very shiny.

>When literal Nazis are perceived as the better option you can imagine the alternative isn't very shiny.

Nice story. One problem though: they eagerly joined Nazis in exterminating Jews. The ideology of nationalists aligned quite well, be it German Nazis, Baltic states, Hungarians or Western Ukrainians.