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I hear this a lot, but nobody can explain: why? What good are they to Russia? Ukraine is obvious to anyone who's studied history: as a buffer. What good are the Baltics to Russia, to justify the military expense of capturing them?
U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
651–660 of 1001 posts
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#652I know very well it's a drop in the ocean, you can donate to ukraine here https://u24.gov.ua/ You can decide how to allocate your donation, defense, demining, humanitarian aid (...)
Ukraine also still exports a surprising amount of stuff. For example, my local liquor store carries Krol vodka which I recommend. I also found an Etsy store with some awesome belt buckles; particularly if you are into Celtic/Viking or punk aesthetics: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Klamra
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#653Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have trouble following the logic here. Putin has not been able to conquer the whole of Ukraine after 3 years, but somehow, suddenly, he will be able to conquer all of the Baltic states without breaking a sweat? So which is it? Is the Russian army fighting with shovels or are they a ferocious horde that is unstoppable? Those two things cannot be true at the same time. I am getting tired of people parroting this narr…
As someone living in the Baltics, most people here are fully aware that when Putin chooses to attack we would have trouble holding the mythical 72 hours for full NATO help to arrive. If NATO help is not coming it is over quite quickly. You have to remember that Ukraine has/had 40 million population, Baltics has about 7 million. We also do not have the miles of mined out defenses that Ukraine has had since 2014. We do…
Look at your situation from a different perspective: the Baltics have ~3 times the population of Gaza, and at the very least something resembling air defenses. Gaza was bombed into rubble but the governing body still exists. Or you have roughly the same population as Lebanon, where Hezbollah completely stymied the IDF ground offensive (they wanted to force Hezbollah north of the Litani) even after paralyzing Hezbollah C2 with the pager attack.
Why are the Baltics not fortified as well as Gaza? Why haven't you spent the past 3 years mining the ever-living fuck out of your border with Russia? Why can't 7 million Baltic citizens hold your territory for 72 hours, when 7 million Lebanese are able to bog down the heavily-mechanized IDF for weeks? Now I will admit that terrain is a HUGE factor, but the seeming total unpreparedness of Europeans to invest in the defense of their own homeland communicates a ton to me....none of it positive.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#654Thus two messages for every other country: 1. Make nukes, never give up on those regardless of what assurances of safety you get 2. If you are bigger and stronger - you are right, do whatever you want, international laws and rules do not matter any more Lets see where all this will bring the world to in the next 10 years or a generation.
Yes. If Ukraine kept the soviet nukes, they wouldn't be in this position.
Non-proliferation - and relying on the benevolence of a few mercurial and spiteful superpowers - is, in hindsight, a horrible miscalculation.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#655When will the US start to go all in an deliver military aid to Russia? Like North Korea, Iran and China...
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Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#656Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone living in the Baltics, most people here are fully aware that when Putin chooses to attack we would have trouble holding the mythical 72 hours for full NATO help to arrive. If NATO help is not coming it is over quite quickly. You have to remember that Ukraine has/had 40 million population, Baltics has about 7 million. We also do not have the miles of mined out defenses that Ukraine has had since 2014. We do…
> We also do not have the miles of mined out defenses that Ukraine has had since 2014. I'd say you guys should have started building yesterday. Like what the heck to wait for? This isn't some temporary blip but permanent course of direction. Want to avoid having thousands of sleeper agents with double citizenship causing mayhem before invasion? Revoke it all for dual citizens that won't revoke their russian one, its…
Ending dual citizenship is a great idea that needs to catch on in the US too.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#657Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's plausible that Trump owes some $$$ but what would stop Trump from just refusing to pay the debt back?
It would come as no surprise if Russian intelligence has some juicy blackmail material.
> It would come as no surprise if Russian intelligence has some juicy blackmail material.
I’m pretty sure the only blackmail that could be bad enough to motivate Trump would be if he had relations with a minor. I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing that could make the core of his base alienate him.
Whatever kinks people speculate about, none of that will matter. In fact, I bet whatever kink he is into would instantly become more popular amongst his core constituents.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#658Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The idea that Russia's economy will collapse is highly unlikely. Yeah, no way it's collapsing when the central bank rate is at 21%.[0] Totally unrelated, but might I interest you in a lucrative land opportunity in Florida? [0] https://apnews.com/article/russia-interest-rates-0fa1d7385be...
Certainly Russia's economy has difficulties. It has inflation roughly 9-10% and (dangerously low) unemployment around 1%. Russia's Central Bank key rate needs to be extremely high to fight its inflation because it is not as primary a lender as the US Fed for example - there's way more private lending. The inflation is caused by raising labor costs (due to unemployment), supply chain disruptions from sanctions, and we…
> Due to the national security nature of a hostile military alliance at its doorstep
Finland shares a massive border with Russia and joined NATO almost 2 years ago and what 'hard choices' have been made since? Please, do tell!
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#659Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Russia can pull out of their invasion literally any time.
They cannot because they have already added 4 new regions into the Constitution. And it doesn't allow removing.
> They cannot because they have already added 4 new regions into the Constitution. And it doesn't allow removing.
If there was ever a bullshit reason.
Russia, just leave. What an embarrassment.
Re: U.S. pauses all military aid to Ukraine
#660Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what to think. Ukraine can't militarily defeat russia or reclaim its lost territory, and as long as it continues to try to do so, there will be war and the world will be less stable. But if a line is not drawn against russia, I think we have every reason to believe putin will continue to conquer more land over time. Russia is the source of instability, but it can't be defeated or reasoned with. What to d…
In theory West could offer something in exchange for peace, so that Russia will not want to break it, for example: withdrawing NATO forces from Eastern Europe, withdrawing nuclear weapon from Europe, lifting sanctions, paying a compensation for losses due to sanctions etc. There is actually a whole spectrum of options for negotiations.
All these suggestions seem comically unsound.
Eastern Europe contains many NATO countries, and many European countries feel an increased rather than decreased need for nuclear weapons. Compensation for losses due to sanctions would also effectively legitimize the war, as if though Russia were in the right.
Lifting sanctions could maybe be done, if Russia actually left Ukraine entirely, including Crimea.
I think what's really interesting at the moment, at least to me as a European, is a proper war where we simply go in and pound the Russian positions in Ukraine with bombers, strike all sorts of factories, plants, gas conduits, electrical infrastructure etc., in Russia so as to ensure a reasonable outcome.
This is a very large and difficult to defend country, relative to its population. The Russians are incredibly vulnerable and increasing the violence level to something more appropriate is the going to be the only alternative.
We're planning to borrow money to get weapons. This will be interesting, considering today's interest rates. I think it might be we who must be given something that we can agree is some kind of 'win', rather than the Russians, if the world is to be orderly.