The Ukraine War thread

[Yulia]

@Ragey Erasmus will you yourself go to Ukraine? Just a genuine question

 

[McTallshort]

You forget that it's not only 1.5mln active and 2mln reserve resources. It's also around 31mln of mobilisation resource that doesn't take part in the war with Ukraine and kept for the worse scenario.Not to mention that it's also the largest nuclear arsenal (as well as a good system of its delivery). Putin's strategy is to show that he can win this war cheap and with small resources, by sending mostly "consumables" like prisoners, foreign contractors,new contractors from poor regions etc without any serious motivation

Ok Yulia that's Russia's paper army which given what we have seen in the last 3 years is probably untrue.

I would be shocked if it had anywhere near as many active and reserve forces as is stated, if they did they wouldn't be asking North Korea for extra troops. Also if they tried to mobilise 31 million men the lights would absolutely go out in Russia and the economy would completely collapse. Russia is already at close to full employment and has a terrible demographic. The reason it's sending consumables as you put it is because it has no choice. If it does even a partial mobilisation it would cripple the economy even more and push inflation up even higher. It's not fighting it on the cheap. You don't spend 30% of your GDP on a cheap war.

 

[Yulia]

Ok Yulia that's Russia's paper army which given what we have seen in the last 3 years is probably untrue.

I would be shocked if it had anywhere near as many active and reserve forces as is stated, if they did they wouldn't be asking North Korea for extra troops. Also if they tried to mobilise 31 million men the lights would absolutely go out in Russia and the economy would completely collapse. Russia is already at close to full employment and has a terrible demographic. The reason it's sending consumables as you put it is because it has no choice. If it does even a partial mobilisation it would cripple the economy even more and push inflation up even higher. It's not fighting it on the cheap. You don't spend 30% of your GDP on a cheap war.

I have a different view (and took official numbers) but ok. Do you really think it's better to send your troops to Ukraine now? I just can't believe you really do
P.S. I wrote "consumables" in quote marks because that's how Putin treat these people, rather from his point of view not mine (I know it sounds terrible)

 

[AlRums]

Fact Check: Did Europe spend more on Russian oil and gas than Ukraine aid?

President Donald Trump made the claim during his address to Congress.

www.newsweek.com

This highlights the issues in relying on a nation like Russia for your energy though
More money being given to Russia for oil and gas than it is giving in aid to Ukraine. Seems like that makes zero sense and is actually harmful to Ukraine in the end. You (collectively) are funding both sides and actually funding Russia more, then saying we need to keep funding Ukraine. How about stop the flow of money to Russia that they can use to finance the war?

There's very little real fact in there along with the source cited

Although not easy to check oil imports/exports the "financial aid" figure was easy to check.

Although it was wrong cera, (Newsweek's source) only took into account cash aid. It left out military and humanitarian aid.

How about some facts:

February 24, 2025, marks the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Looking back, it becomes clear that Western donor countries have provided a continuous flow of aid to Ukraine, almost following a linear trend. In total, approximately EUR 267 billion in aid has been allocated to Ukraine over the past three years, amounting to more than EUR 80 billion per year. Of the total around EUR 130 billion (49 percent) were allocated in military assistance, EUR 118 billion (44 percent) in financial support, and EUR 19 billion (7 percent) in humanitarian aid.

Source:

Ukraine support after 3 years of war: Aid flows remain low but steady - Shift towards weapons procurement

Over the past 3 years of war, donor countries have provided a low but continuous flow of support to Ukraine, with a value of about EUR 80 billion per year. European donors have been the main source of aid to Ukraine since 2022, especially when it comes to financial and humanitarian aid. At the...

www.ifw-kiel.de

 

[AlRums]

@Ragey Erasmus will you yourself go to Ukraine? Just a genuine question

You can't really ask that given that you've already stated you don't want any of your adopted involved.

 

[Yulia]

You can't really ask that given that you've already stated you don't want any of your adopted involved.

I can, because I don't say that others should go there.
And I would like to say one more time: word "consumables" was used only in quote marks to explain the way of thinking (and treating of these people) of another person. I respect our Slavic men very much (as well as I respect men in general)

 

[Saintjay]

Would be interesting to estimate what Russia could really deploy into Ukraine realistically including reservists with a full mobilisation . With some figures estimating Russia recruited apx 200k-250k recruits last year. This included prisoners. Putin's official figures were nearly double that.

Not that I think Putin could survive a full mobilisation politically

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

@Ragey Erasmus will you yourself go to Ukraine? Just a genuine question

If there was a mass mobilisation, yes. However the whole "you can't advocate something unless you do it personally" is a weak and lazy argument. I am firmly of the belief that firefighters should fight fires, I don't have to do that myself to hold that position. I also think police should arrest criminals and face the potential dangers associated with that, I don't need to do that myself to advocate that.