[Mentalist]

Rada recognized the wars in late 19th century as an act of genocide of the Circassian peoples, and called for their sovereignty and repatriation.

Margarita Simonyan's husband is in a coma after clinical death from 2 successive strokes. Might be dead already.

The posterboy of orc Nazis, Alexey Milchakov, the head of the Rusich diversion/assault recon group, who was outspoken in his racist rhetoric against Muscovy's "lesser peoples" was filmed in company of Alaudinov and "Akhmat", stating the 2 units have "discussed the situation and settled tehir differences and agreed to cooperation against a mutual enemy". Z-heads are naturally livid and accuse Milchakov of "selling out" and "getting bent over" by the Kadyrovites.

Orc MFA is gleefully drawing parallels to the Crimean Anschluss and the spewings of the Glorious Leader of Trumpistan ™ about Greenland.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 09 January 2025 - 09:01 PM

[Werthead]

The Czech Republic has confirmed it has delivered 1.5 million shells to Ukraine through 2024 and has plans to improve on that for 2025.

Major Ukrainian drone attack on Novorossiysk and nearby Anapa, both on the Black Sea. Several direct hits on the port areas. Drone activity over Crimea, Voronezh and Kursk.

The Russians have dubbed one highway on the Pokrovsk front "the road of death" as it is littered with destroyed tanks, trucks and IFVs. There are hundreds of bodies they've been unable to recover. They blame the advent of fibre-optic cable drones, which are totally immune to electronic countermeasures and can only be dealt with "by al lookout armed with a shotgun, there is no better solution." 

The US has upped its sanctions on Surgutneftegaz and Gazprom Neft, closing down several loopholes.

The Ukrainian project "I Want to Find" was an initiative to get information on killed Russian soldiers back to their families at home. In 2024, they reported receiving 52,000 enquiries from Russians, with an estimate of between two and three times that number reported MIA in action in Ukraine. 77% of those calling claimed not to support the Special Military Operation.

A large Russian ammunition and drone storage facility in Chaltyr, Rostov has been destroyed by a Neptune cruise missile.

An Akhmat (Chechen TikTok) fighter was seen firing his gun into the air for no apparent reason, resulting in him being taken out by a drain.

Current US intelligence estimates are that Ukraine has effectively destroyed two-thirds of Russia's military resources and that allowing a Russian victory in Ukraine would require that the US spend $800 billion in upping its military preparedness for both a wider war in Europe and the encouragement of Chinese adventurism in the Pacific theatre.

Russian forces have mostly been driven back from Vovchansk, on the edge of Kharkiv Oblast, but the price is high: Ukrainian assessment is that 100% of all buildings in the town have been hit by explosives of some kind. Before the war, 17,000 people lived there.

The first RCH 155 self-propelled guns should arrive in Ukraine from Germany this week. However, Scholz has blocked a €3 billion aid package including new Patriot systems, howitzers and ammunition. Pistorius and Baerbock had backed the package.

The command post of the 3rd Army Corps was destroyed in Svitlodarsk, Donetsk Oblast. Some indications a large meeting was underway. Unclear on the extent of casualties.

The Russian "shadow fleet" tanker Eventin has lost control and started drifting off the German coast. It is carrying 99,000 tons of oil from Ust-Luga (near St. Petersburg) to Port Said, Egypt.

Interesting analysis by Garry Kasparov on the state of the war and the risk Putin poses if he is victorious in Ukraine.

This post has been edited by Werthead: 10 January 2025 - 11:50 PM

[Tsundoku]

Werthead, on 10 January 2025 - 11:49 PM, said:

An Akhmat (Chechen TikTok) fighter was seen firing his gun into the air for no apparent reason, resulting in him being taken out by a drain.

I'm guessing he must have been feeling ... flushed with victory.

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This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 11 January 2025 - 06:53 AM

[the broken]

Re Kasparov's analysis, I suspect 'not falling out of windows' is a concern regarding whether the opposition can say 'I want Ukraine to win.'

The maths are still the same, an imposed settlement would be a catastrophe, NATO needs to keep their eyes on the ground in Ukraine and not on their own internal politics. Ukraine gets to decide if and when to end the war on their own terms. Economic victory, military victory, or Putin heart attack could still result in them getting all their territory back.

Edit: Remember that shell shortage crisis we were all talking about? What happened with that?

This post has been edited by the broken: 11 January 2025 - 10:37 PM

[Werthead]

The fuel depot at Engels Air Force Base is still burning after four days. Three tanks have now exploded and six are seriously damaged and compromised. The local fire service cannot extinguish the fire as it doesn't have fuel-retardant foam, so it can only just monitor the situation.

The AfD has said it will restart the Nord Stream pipeline if it wins power. However, the Nord Stream company itself is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The Eventin is still stuck off the coast of Germany, German vessels have been trying to assist but there are concerns over the fuel tanks rupturing and dumping 100,000 tons of fuel into the Baltic.

Heavy fighting in Kursk remains ongoing. Ukraine has repulsed multiple Russian attacks on their newly-advanced positions. The 810th Separate Guards Marine Brigade ammo depot in Plekhovo has been destroyed. Meanwhile, the 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army's headquarters in Donetsk was hit during a staff meeting. Ukraine has stepped up these attacks recently, trying to decapitate the leadership of different formations, with some success.

Ukraine has noted that new command has taken over on the Kursk front, abandoning the "small formation" attacks that had successfully driven Ukrainian forces back in favour of returning to the "massed meat assault" tactic using large numbers of troops and vehicles to attack en masse. These attacks are much easier to detect and destroy, with some assault groups effectively obliterated before even leaving Russian lines. This has resulted in Russia's daily casualties, which had been running at a lower 1,100-1,300 recently, returning to its more standard 1,700-1,900.

Switzerland has offered to host a possible Trump-Putin meeting.

For about the eighth time running, Ukraine has destroyed 100% of Shahed drones used to attack the country before they could reach their targets. Russians are increasingly frustrated at the inability of the Shahed platform to overcome Ukrainian EW. Apparently Russia has gone all-in on the model, making it difficult for them to pivot to new iterations.

Ukraine has conducted a limited counter-attack in the Kurakhove region, retaking Zelenivka and capturing a Russian infantry formation after it was cut off in a nearby forest. Russia secured control over Sukhi Yaliy and Yantarne but is facing heavy counter-attacks.

"Trench candles" sent to the front to support Russian soldiers have been occasionally exploding, injuring Russian troops. Inspections have indicated the supply chain might have been compromised.

Russian Telegram reports that Ukraine has perfected tactics where drones and artillery are used to suppress Russian tanks and AT teams, allowing Ukraine to use its tanks more effectively in direct combat. This tallies with recent footage of Ukrainian tanks attacking Russian positions successfully, whilst Russian tanks can barely move without being destroyed by drones.

Ukrainian shotgun drones are the latest thing. These drones use powerful shotguns to destroy Russian drones at close range, and have even eliminated individual Russian anti-drone soldiers in a "shotgun-off."

Former "people's governor of Donbas" Pavel Gubarev, noted for collaborating with Russia since 2014, has confirmed that Russia has suffered over 700,000 casualties since the start of 2022.

Belarus is preparing for Presidential elections on 26 January. The last elections saw massive unrest and protests, so the authorities are concerned about the potential for more problems this time around, though the leaders of the Belarusian opposition movement have mostly fled abroad. Belarus has also refused to allow out-of-country voting.

Quote

Edit: Remember that shell shortage crisis we were all talking about? What happened with that?

Ukraine has leveraged its massive drone superiority to make up for it. Drones are cheaper, more precise and much more guaranteed to do more significant damage. In addition, Russia has run into shell problems of its own, and no longer has the massive shell superiority it enjoyed for much of the first two-thirds of the war. It is reliant on North Korean shell production, but the quality of NK shells is poor, with around 50% not detonating at all, exploding in the air or exploding in the barrel. Russia has been trying to get brand new shells straight off the NK production line, but NK seems to be backfilling its frontline stockpiles with new shells and sending Russia its old stuff instead. Russia's own production seems to be logjamming because of barrel shortages. The figures are all over the place, but it appears that Russia has fired less than half the number of shells in 2024 that it did in 2022.

In the same time period, Ukraine has managed to import a million shells from the Czech initiative and is expecting the same in 2025, with around a million more from other sources. This is allowing Ukraine to make targeted artillery strikes and, in some sectors, more ferocious artillery bombardments which have been effect in breaking up Russian attacks.

Ukraine could certainly do with far more shells, and they are exploring a deal with South Korea that could result in millions of new shells, but it's not a massive problem right now. Ukraine's main issue is manpower, air defence and infantry equipment.

[Werthead]

Ukraine has carried out its single largest attack on Russian soil. Over 200 drones and cruise missiles were fired at dozens of targets, many of them close to Ukraine but some over 1,000km from the border. Engels Air Force Base, where three fuel tanks were destroyed later week and six more endangered by fire, was hit again. It appears seven tanks in total have now been destroyed. Multiple targets in Tula and the Bryansk Chemical Plant were targeted, and two fixed-wing long-range UAVs were engaged over Tatarstan, which is a significant distance from the Ukrainian border. Oryol, Voronezh, Saratov, Belgorod and Rostov Oblasts were all targeted as well. A distillery in Tambov that had been converted to military use has been destroyed. The Saratov Refinery is ablaze.

Russia was also hit by a cyberattack, which stooped websites from working and halted bank payments for several hours.

Russia has apparently destroyed a "western-supplied Ukrainian air defence system." They then abruptly pulled the imagery after Russian Telegram sources pointed out they'd actually blown up a North Korean Tor-NK anti-air launcher in Kursk Oblast.

Sweden has assigned three warships and a spotter plane to NATO's maritime defence mission in the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland, joining three Estonian ships and multiple Finnish ships and aerial observation platforms. They are are monitoring the security of energy and communications cables after two attempts to cut cables in recent months.

South Korea has confirmed it is open to repatriating captured North Korean soldiers from Ukrainian custody, if they so wish.

New US sanctions have left three Russian tankers stuck off the coast of China, with 2 million barrels between them. Shandong Port has refused to allow them to dock, fearing crippling US financial reprisals.

Two employees of the Russian FSB Counterintelligence Department got into an argument in a MoD building in Moscow, with the argument ending with one of them shooting the other one in the head.

Zelensky has invited Slovakian PM Fico to Kyiv to discuss the energy supply issue.

Ukrainians at home and in the United States have begun fund-raising efforts to donate aid to California during its battle with the wildfires.

[Cause]

 Werthead, on 14 January 2025 - 08:56 PM, said:

.

South Korea has confirmed it is open to repatriating captured North Korean soldiers from Ukrainian custody, if they so wish.

This is brilliant. Never thought of it before but no reason South Korea wouldn’t make the offer. Maybe I’m wrong but i feel like this would put extreme fear into NK. If surrendering to Ukraine becomes an easy way to defect….

Though I also suspect the soldiers that were sent over weren’t chosen at random. Hensley indoctrinated but they likely all have living relatives, wives, children etc still in NK.

[Werthead]

Cause, on 15 January 2025 - 12:28 AM, said:

This is brilliant. Never thought of it before but no reason South Korea wouldn’t make the offer. Maybe I’m wrong but i feel like this would put extreme fear into NK. If surrendering to Ukraine becomes an easy way to defect….

Though I also suspect the soldiers that were sent over weren’t chosen at random. Hensley indoctrinated but they likely all have living relatives, wives, children etc still in NK.

Under South Korea's constitution, all NK citizens are automatically citizens of South Korea.

[Mentalist]

Fico refused to come to Kyiv. His opposition in Slovakia is trying to do a no-confidence vote against him, given he's clearly compromised with his pro-Moscow ties.

Germany is s till trying to figure out what to do about that broken tanker in the Baltic.

new prisoner swap sees 25 UAF servicemen coming home.

Putler still demanding UA guarantee not to join NATO and reduce its armed forces as peace preconditions.

[Werthead]

Fico was caught skiving off government duties to go to Vietnam and staying a luxury hotel his salary could not afford, which has raised questions even from his own allies. Hopefully that could do for him.

Russian domestic politics getting interesting due to public confidence in the economy dropping. Corporate debt is running at 71% and there are increasing fears of a banking sector collapse. The public information space is buzzing with rumours that banks will be frozen and prevented from allowing cash withdrawals. We've seen several mini-runs on the banks, but each time the government was able to reassure customers and stop it becoming a major problem. But the room to maneuver there seems to be running out.

Several economic analyses inside and outside Russia agree that a banking sector meltdown could be halted by a state intervention equal to between 50% and 60% of the entire Russian 2025 budget. This would prop up the sector (but little more), but would obliterate public spending in all other areas, with defence being very hard hit.

Since the Kremlin refused the central bank permission to hike interest rates in December, the overheating is becoming more visible (food prices continuing to rise). The central bank may be hoping the situation becomes serious enough to convince them to allow an interest rate hike in February, otherwise inflation could get completely out of control.

This post has been edited by Werthead: 15 January 2025 - 08:26 PM

[Mentalist]

And we're still waiting to see what happens in real estate. Developers are struggling to sell, due to subsidized mortgage program finally getting shut down last year (the Centrobank's been harping on it as a big driver of inflation), but this now means no one's buying, due to insane interest rates. meanwhile, developers have to pay the bank loans they took out to build all the unsold places- and the variable interest rates are killing them as well.

If the war continues, things should get very interesting later in the year.

[Werthead]

South Korean intelligence has said that 300 North Koreans soldiers have died and 2,700 have been wounded in Ukraine. This is approximately one-third of the total force North Korea sent. They are monitoring to see if North Korea will send any further troops.

Chinese companies have bought out several failing Russian businesses, including a mine in Kemerovo region. In each case, talks began some months ago but were then put on hold until the businesses were on the verge of bankruptcy, and then China stepped in to pick them up at a bargain price. Other Chinese companies are circling failing Russian ventures, and some whispers that even state-affiliated companies like Gazprom might be in the firing line. Gazprom has had to cut 1,600 employees at its Moscow HQ, almost 40% of the workforce.

Polish intelligence has indicated that Russia was planning deniable terrorist strikes involving airliners all over the world. Polish intelligence uncovered the plot and has shared details with its allies. The details of the plot have not been made public.

The idea of the Russian government "freezing" all access to bank deposits is continuing to circulate on Russian media. Some citizens have withdrawn some or all of their money, but so far there is no mass run on the banks.

BAE Systems in the UK is producing new artillery gun barrels for Ukraine.

The Liski storage depot in Voronezh Oblast was hit overnight and continues to burn.

Latvia and the Netherlands have sent warships and coastal vessels to the Gulf of Finland to join Estonian and Finnish ships and aircraft patrolling the area after attacks on undersea cable infrastructure.

Ukraine has said that it believes Russia reached a high point of around 600,000 deployed troops on Ukrainian territory in 2024. Ukraine itself currently has over 800,000 deployed troops. However, it has to defend the entire border with not just Russia, but Belarus and Transnistria as well, whilst Russia is able to choose areas to concentrate troops in and then attack. However, since Kursk Russia has to be careful itself about where to draw troops from in case Ukraine can take advantage and counter-attack.

On January 14 alone, Russia mounted five assaults on the Siversk front. 39 motorcycles, 2 BMPs, 2 ATVs, 16 FPVs, one EW antenna and 2 civilian vehicles converted into ad hoc APCs were destroyed by the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade. 52 Russians were killed, 12 were injured and one was captured.

France, Poland and Britain have discussed scenarios for sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, including enforcing a post-war buffer zone, or even taking over some roles (along the Polish and Moldovan border, for example) to free up tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops to redeploy to the east.

The Red Cross has requested unfettered access to Ukrainian POWs in Russian care. It has had access to Russian POWs in Ukraine.

Russian forces have advanced south-west of Pokrovsk and cut the highway to Mezhova. They have run into heavy Ukrainian resistance at Kotlyne, with some reports that some of the Russian gains have been lost, but the situation is unclear. Russia's goal seems to be encircling Pokrovsk, but of the two "pincers" needed, only the southern one has had any success, the northern one has been bogged down by fierce Ukrainian resistance and counter-attacks. However, the Ukrainian defence of Pokrovsk has been compromised by the loss of Shevchenko and its pre-prepared defensive positions to the south of the main town. Ukrainian sources seem divided on whether that's survivable or not. If the northern pincer starts gaining ground, that may make a defence of Pokrovsk unsustainable; if not, and the Russians have to storm the town from the south alone, the Ukrainian defensive position in the town itself is potentially a deathtrap at least approaching that of Avdiivka and Bakhmut.

Russia's breathtakingly insane attacks across the Dnipro in Kherson continue. The 40th Coastal Defence Brigade has used artillery and drones to turn back continuous attacks by speedboat and jetski (!). These attacks are even dumber than ones elsewhere because Russian attacks elsewhere do degrade Ukrainian forces (if at a heavily lopsided rate), but here they simply don't get anywhere near to actually start firing at Ukrainian positions (which are on high ground, behind the mouth of one of the biggest rivers in Europe). Russians here are dying for absolutely no reason.

Scott Bessent, incoming Treasury Secretary, has said that he has identified strategies to cripple Russia's oil majors through much heavier sanctions, should Trump request so as part of his strategy to end the war.

The attacks and counter-attacks in Kursk are continuing. Having gained ground last week, Ukrainian forces paused to regroup and were able to destroy significant amounts of Russian armour. Ukrainian forces operating here have said that Russia's decision to switch back to "meat grinder" attacks has been massively counter-productive, with Ukrainian losses dropping and Russian ones shooting right up, which has not been effective for Russian goals. Ukrainian forces seem to be surprised by the fact they've been able to counter-attack and gain new territory as the Russians have failed to build defences. They thank the recent changes in Russian command in the area.

Ukraine's economy is proving much more resilient than anticipated, with the country making more money from agricultural exports in 2024 than it did before the war started. This has allowed Ukraine to fund the war with over $40 billion of its own money, matching Russia's pre-war military spending. Allied contributions have more than doubled that.

The renewed Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, which had paused in the winter out of respect to Biden's requests, seem to be paying off, with appreciable decreases in Russian oil and diesel production, and increased internal stress as the oligarchs and the state fight over air defences. Most surprising has been that Russia has seemingly run out of foam needed to fight chemical fires, leaving several Russian fire units to simply leave fires to burn out as they have no way of bringing them under control.

[Cause]

Poland Intelligence has accused Russia of planning attacks against nato members cargo planes. This was better then what I first assumed was attacks against civilian airliners. However if this intelligence is true, and I cant see why Poland would make it up whole cloth, I cannot fathom the logic. If i learnt Russia blew up my countires planes I would want us to support ukraine more not less. Am i missing somethign obvious or is this idea just plane stupid?

[Abyss]

Cause, on 17 January 2025 - 05:03 PM, said:

.... Am i missing somethign obvious or is this idea just plane stupid?

Werthead, on 16 January 2025 - 09:47 PM, said:

...Russia mounted five assaults on the Siversk front. 39 motorcycles, ...

...Russia's breathtakingly insane attacks ... by speedboat and jetski (!).... dying for absolutely no reason....

You have your answer, i think.

[Garak]

Well Putin thinks Western countries are weak sissy girls who will bow before if he kills some of them and makes it clear he will kill more of them if they don't do as he says. Add the fact that I'm seeing more countrymen saying how Ukraine isn't our problem and why should we get involved, despite it being right next door to us. Despite Moldova being next to us and they have issues with Russia etc. I've heard plenty of dumb idiots going on about how Putin is a real man (because of course that crowd would drink russian kool-aid).

[Chance]

Quote

Well Putin thinks Western countries are weak sissy girls who will bow before if he kills some of them and makes it clear he will kill more of them if they don't do as he says. Add the fact that I'm seeing more countrymen saying how Ukraine isn't our problem and why should we get involved, despite it being right next door to us. Despite Moldova being next to us and they have issues with Russia etc. I've heard plenty of dumb idiots going on about how Putin is a real man (because of course that crowd would drink russian kool-aid).

There are always some significant minority of stupid people, in this case including Putin who obviously haven't learned anything about how democracies have ganged up and defeated basically every challenger since the first world war.

For the regular folks I always wonder what they really complain about, the current expenditure on aid to ukraine is basically barely measurable on the economic output of the nations supporting ukraine and obviously enough to stop Russia for as long as Ukraine can and are willing to pay the hard cost of war.

Much of the support for ukraine especially in the USA could even be seen as economic stimulus as very large part of the money end up in arms manufacturing outside the ukraine.

Sure we are probably paying somewhat higher energy prices in Europe but at least around here its a minor inconvenience not exactly a hardship.

This post has been edited by Chance: 19 January 2025 - 12:52 PM

[Garak]

It's not helped by news channels saying sstuff like 3 millin dollar aid package and that gives people the impression that 3 million dollars are just given over to Ukraine as opossed to ammo and and stuff worth that ammount. Plus I'm pretty sure most countries are giving them their older stuff which they now replace by buying newer stuff. The fact that the various grifters aren't being shut down and countered by actual information isn't helping. The Russians have succeeded in spreading and helping grifters spread enough lies that people don't believe anything, especially from official sources.

[Werthead]

Fighting is pretty heavy in Chasiv Yar, Russia has not made significant headway into the town.

Russia is consolidating after Kurakhove, they seem to be trying to straighten the line down to Andriivka. Some counterattacks in the area.

Russia is continuing trying to outflank Pokrovsk from the south, but has run into heavier resistance. The town remains outflanked to the south, Russian forces to the north and east are trying to accelerate towards the town to properly try to encircle it but no great progress so far.

Heavy fighting on the Siversk front. A Russian attack was beaten back and they were forced to retreat, leaving behind a fully intact T-62, which is now in Ukrainian service.

Some Ukrainian concerns about another border incursion on the Kharkiv front, nothing solid so far.

Russia has been unable to resupply Kalibr cruise missiles to the Black Sea Fleet at speed, because they only had one crane capable of doing it in Crimea. They have to instead be loaded onto missile destroyers in Novorossiysk manually, which takes immensely longer.

An entire Russian column moving through Kursk Oblast was destroyed by Ukrainian drones and mines.

The Engles Air Force Base fire is finally getting under control, but at least eight fuel storage tanks have been destroyed.

Several Russian communications towers in Krasnodar have been burned by saboteurs.

Six Russian soldiers were captured during fighting near Vovchansk. Ukraine seems to be resisting saying they have retaken the town in full, though it looks like they're almost there. The town has been pretty thoroughly obliterated though. Russian forces have tried to re-enter parts of the town but failed.

A Russian military storage facility in Tula was destroyed by Ukrainian drones overnight.

Operation Baltic Sentry is now fully underway in the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. Multiple warships, coastguard vessels and aircraft from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania are effectively standing guard over undersea cables and strategic islands. Russia seems to have been taken aback by the relative speed and severity of the response. No Russian ships have gone anywhere near the cables for a while now.

Syria has imposed an embargo on fuel and goods imports from Iran and Russia. It also continues to refuse to allow Russian military equipment to be embarked from Tartus; two Russian heavy cargo ships are stuck outside Tartus harbour.

A Ukrainian team won a NASA competition to use space technology to better understand soil status. The application could be useful in identifying areas on Earth that become more or less fertile over time.

Russian sources are claiming that the 73rd Special Operations Forces Regiment of Ukraine has assembled firepower equal to three battalion tactical groups (!) near Sudzha in Kursk and is preparing for a major offensive, possibly dwarfing the Russian defenders and counter-attacking forces available in the region. Russian soldiers in Kursk have been forced to start using civilian tractors to get around due to a lack of vehicles.

Hundreds of Colombian soldiers are currently fighting for Ukraine as part of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. They decided to come over due to highly competitive wages being offered by Ukraine. Colombia currently doesn't have an embassy in Kyiv, which is making it difficult to renew passports and process paperwork, but there's some talk of opening one.

A Russian unit on the front line was attacked by Ukrainian drones. The drones identified many of the Russian soldiers having injuries. One soldier chased through a field was trying to flee on crutches.

[Mentalist]

Garak, on 19 January 2025 - 01:11 PM, said:

It's not helped by news channels saying sstuff like 3 millin dollar aid package and that gives people the impression that 3 million dollars are just given over to Ukraine as opossed to ammo and and stuff worth that ammount. Plus I'm pretty sure most countries are giving them their older stuff which they now replace by buying newer stuff. The fact that the various grifters aren't being shut down and countered by actual information isn't helping. The Russians have succeeded in spreading and helping grifters spread enough lies that people don't believe anything, especially from official sources.

The majority of money that's spent on ammo actually stays in-house, b/c it goes to MIC to make new shells and rockets- so it's actually being invested to make jobs at home for the welders and machine operators assembling this stuff. or being handed out to families who support Ukrainian refugees.

Yes, UA does get several million a month so that Kyiv can keep paying state employees and pensioners, and allocate all of its own taxes and revenue to the war; But the more air defences UA has, the more industry can go back to normal, the more things we can manufacture and export, reducing the need for such "stabilizing support".

Romania will be in a terrible position if the orcs break through to the Dnister and Danube and eat Moldova. It will find itself wedged between the Muscovites and Magyars, who continue to dream about recovering Transylvania. If NATO should crack, it won't be pretty. So you'd think it would be in their interest to have our backs in this regard.

[Garak]

You'd think that but people are blind. Even when I point out there is no negotiating with someone who goes "we just want this land because we have some people here". Like, it hasn't been a century since the Austrian did that, how is this not obvious? People just go "Why should I die in someone else's war?". They refuse to think at least 5 minutes into the future. And on some level they are scared. Which is understandable but not an excuse to be a dumbass.

The grifters lie and say if so and so becomes president then he'll send us to fight and die in Ukraine. Aha sure, that's how NATO works. Leaving aside if it comes to that then the rest of NATO will also be moving and the shit will have hit the fan so hard that staying out isn't an option anyway.