Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I would say there are many such assets in big militaries. Aircraft carriers for one. Even main battle tanks are vulnerable now.

What has changed?! Is that a real question?

What has changed is that the US has effectively left NATO. Why are people struggling to understand this?

An air defense mission alone would be massively helpful. Provide coverage in the interior to allow Ukraine to push its organic assets closer to the front, to where they could penetrate into Russian territory. Deny the Black Sea airspace for the Russians. Not explicitly confrontational but enough to tip the balance. The Euro countries would have to be prepared to engage any air defense assets that might try to engage them though.

Yes, it would of course need to have a bit of weight to mean anything. It doesn't necessarily have to threaten Russia but the countries involved would want to accept they are going to have to make a serious response if (say) Russia is advancing in East of Ukraine and Putin decides to test their will to protect [rest of Ukraine] by directly attacking any troops they have sent into still unoccupied parts of the country. Will be very scary times anyway if it happened.

I am not sure if there's additional information (other than what we can all see/what is being reported on - Ukraine is being starved of resources and suffering from it). Also not sure if it is that sudden a change. Macron has always struck me as a pretty cold and rational creature and I think for a good while he's accepted that Putin/Russia are not backing away from this any time soon, despite the horrific cost. The days of the phone calls to Putin are long gone.

So either they will have some kind of "win" over Ukraine by Putin's own lights (even if it looks insane to us at the price/cost), they will be fought to a standstill and finally just run out of energy and will to continue the war (a N/S Korea type situation?) or they will be beaten backwards by military force. The latter 2 outcomes will not happen without large amounts of Western support to Ukraine continuing + increasing. The idea of peace deals and negotiations seems like a pipedream for now, and he realises that IMO.

Did you miss the word effectively? Having an alliance with an ally that is no longer reliable isn't worth a damn. Europe needs to see that. Poland sees it, hence why it is arming itself to the teeth. Other European countries are starting to wake up to that reality but at its usually snails pace.

Given at least an outside possibility that Trump could come back, why would Europe trust the USA implicitly at this juncture??

It's wise to allow for the fact that a Trump presidency would either just thumb it's nose at NATO commitments in Europe and / or just leave the pact.

We've a lot more to lose and very foolish to rely heavily on the kindness of the USA.

America is NATO, there are alot of accompanying plates in that meal but it is America.

Every US President for the last 20 years should have been repeatedly calling out the diabolical State of European armies and the absolute refusal to take their own defense seriously or pay for it.

One good thing from Trump refusing to pay Europes tab is that it will force some in Western Europe to take their own security and well being seriously, not all, some. For some there is an ideological opposition to do so.

We l

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/politics/biden-trump-2024-poll.html

NY Times

Can they really take on heavy duty long range interceptors with extreme long range missiles and long range radars such as the Mig-31 though?

Not to mention the stealthy Su-57 felons (albeit yet to be introduced to Ukrainian theatre) and more modern flankers such as the Su-35s and Su-30s which also can carry very long range AAMs.

Gripens and F-16s are light short range clear weather day fighters that will struggle against more rugged russian gear imo

So no planes and help 'them' to survive. Is 'them' the Russians?

i could see Macron being a voice in the wilderness with what he said last evening

Unfortunately as we've seen the other main NATO partners have all rejected the idea today anyway, much to the delight of Peskov and the other Kremlin criminals, who can again relax knowing there's no real unity or will in the West to deal Russia a fatal blow in this war. It's f*kin depressing, basically just a green light to Russia to hang in there, even Ukraine's allies basically saying the country has little chance of regaining territory this year and none of their allies seem particularly bothered by it: