Sunshine
UkraineRussia is losing on the battlefield – and on the global stage, as the US and China distance themselves from the war.
I don't think Putin GAF about Russia or anybody in it but himself. What he wanted was to make himself a czar.
Since Russia was found in Kyiv, Putin kind of is making Russia great again.
I hope that between the war in Ukraine and the devastating loss in Iran, the world powers will start thinking twice, three times, infinity before starting a war of aggression anywhere in the world.
Although a planned 50% increase in war spending by America does not exactly fill me with confidence.
Collapse of Russia when? I think some of its neighbors would want some of that land, also would ensure that such incidents won't happen in the future.
Russia is losing on the battlefield – and on the global stage
On the global stage, yes, but i would not overstate Ukrainian's gains in the past three months. Ukraine have retaken lands smaller towns and villages, but in Donbas, Russia is close to capturing Konstantinyivka, a city which is the gateway to the bigger city of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. Even if it took Russia two years and lost more soldiers than the Ukrainians in capturing Konstantinyivka, its fall of is something that should not be underestimated and could serve as a propaganda victory for Kremlin to cover their overall net territorial losses.
If I am Zelensky, my maximalist demand is not to get the Russian out completely (because that is a Sysiphean task), but to hold on to Kramatorsk and Slovyansk to prevent the full capture of the Donbas region and embarass Kremlin to deliver a political defeat when the end of war comes.
Ukraine has some way to go in the areas of democratic processes and corruption - but it is great to see how they have risen from the ashes. Don’t underestimate Russia though; Russia will remain a pain in the arse for the next 20-30 years, and they are far from being beaten.
It's a bit sad to realise that without the kick in the nuts that the war was, we might have eventually slid completely towards the Soviet era complacency, corruption and oligarchy. At least now nobody sane is going to even think about being friendly with russia for generations.
I think we've now learnt that within one or 2 generations we seem to forget all the hard learnt lessons. Gen X was born closer to world war 2 than to today, and look at the mess we're in.
We're yet again in a world where punching fascists is deemed unacceptable by many.
Gen X was born closer to world war 2 than to today
Damnit, I didn't need to read that this early in the morning.
Nowadays there's a lot more information being retained through technology, though. One can hope for the better.
Funny enough has the opposite effect. Also introduces a new attack vector for bad actors.
I'm not saying I'm right, I'm saying I still keep hope. At least for a couple of generations.
Corruption is everywhere in politics, they don't even get that much in trouble, at most they need to leave politics.
We need real consequences.
And even when they’re beaten, they’ll still be a threat for a while yet, at least until their nuclear stockpile diminish significantly enough from lack of upkeep.
How is Ukraine growing to be a 'new rising power' in Europe? It was a poor country with a weak economy before the war, and has now been in a years-long expensive military conflict costing them massively in manpower, infrastructure and put them in insane debt that they'll be paying off for decades at least.
They have a huge new manufacturing sector with world class experience unrivalled in Europe and the west.
They are seeing huge investment within tbe EU and have received very favourable funding terms.
The UK was paying off WW2 until a few weeks ago and they did just fine becoming a world power post devastating infrastructure damage.
British empire sorta ended with WW2 tho. USA replaced Britain as the biggest world power, including Naval (thus trade) dominance. UK did rather fine despite it, because of the "special relationship" with their former colony, but the UK after WW2 was a lot less powerful and less dominant in the world than UK was before WW2... They for sure did not become a world power from it, they merely managed to sorta hold on to some of their "world power" status in the post WW2 world.
They became the number one arms manufacturer in Europe. Their expertise is being shared to many countries including the Gulf states. After the war, I would say that Ukraine's major industry is arms manufacturing especially on drones.
Speaking of drones, what Ukraine lacks in manpower makes up for it in drones. Their innovative use of it reclaimed a huge tract of land which reverses Russian gains in two years. Russia this year is at a net loss of territory held.
As someone from the USA, having your country be a large arms manufacturer may seem like an economic positive, but in the long term it absolutely ruins a country through corruption and greed.
It's unfortunate. Arms build up is one of those where it's important initially for self-defense but eventually becomes corrupt. It's making a pact with the devil and expecting the due will never come.
