Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Do you actually think Military aid comes in the form of dollar bills?

Can you specifically call out the equipment that was junk?

This is what the US has actually provided Ukraine:

https://media.defense.gov/2023/Dec/06/2003352825/-1/-1/1/202311206_UKRAINE_FACT_SHEET_PDA_52_003.PDF

Patriots, NASAMS, AIM-9M missiles, Stingers, Himars, GLSDM, Abrams, Bradleys, Strykers, MRAPS, Javelins, TOW missiles.....

That all junk in you eyes?

Are you still talking about the US equipment? It wasn't "junk" (or rubbish, as some quirky American-language speakers still call it over here).

Some of it was pretty new I think (a patriot air defence system + the missiles for it, fancier guided shells and rockets for artillery systems, Himars etc.).

Seems like even the old(er) stuff they took from stockpiles was more than a match for the best that Russia can put out, so not "junk" by definition.

As we lament here + discussed in recent pages, the US didn't send over enough of it when they were able to, and can't send more at present due to internal politics.

On the sending of confiscated cars to Ukraine, vehicles (assuming good working order) are always useful, more to keeping a country going than fighting and weapons. I imagine Ukraine is quite hard on them at the moment, for many reasons.

The time when Putin paid Trump $95m.

There's honestly so much wrong with everything you post it's really hard to pick a place to start…… So I won't.

"Ho Chi Minh had no communist leanings before the war."

That'd be "One of the founders of the French Communist Party (1920) & founded the Communist Party of Vietnam (1930)" Ho Chi Minh?

Wherever you're getting your ideas from, it seems a bit light on historical fact.

I would not be one to say US military hardware is rubbish. A vast majority of it is perfect workable and does what it says it does. The Abrams tank, point to note, the US told Ukraine a long time ago it was not ideal for warfare in Eastern Europe. It uses alot of fuel and needs specific and frequent maintenance. I think in fact someone said to me it was designed to deal with desert war. The F16 are seriously top drawer stuff a old one in Turkey shot down a top end Russia jet a few years back. Over all, US hardware it miles ahead off Russia and I would say China. My only problem with the US these days is how slow they have been delivering the gear Ukraine so badly needed much earlier. The F16 would have helped the plan B counter attack last year. This time round I suspect they will be used for air defense.

The gear isn't rubbish, but they've been bandying around figures that made it look like they were providing astronomical amounts of money into Ukraine when in reality they were sending gear that would have cost them millions if not billions to de-commission and pricing it out as if it were new off the production line. All the tanks and bradleys they sent were mothballed, most would have been heading for scrap. The cluster munitions were to be de-commissioned. The himars were coming to end of life in many cases. The patriots were some of the only gear that was close to the value put on it. My point is, the headline figures are probably 10x the real cost figures and gave ammunition to many pro Russian senators and congressmen to use as a stick to beat anyone who wanted to send more. If they were honest in their monetary assessments from the start then they'd have been able to give more with less flak.

What good are resources if Russia remains the most sanctioned country in world where even “allies” avoid or can’t do business, eg Turkish, UAE and Chinese banks deliberately cutting off any Russia links out of fear of losing access to much larger western markets or Iran and North Korea insisting on payment in gold or India insisting their currency which can’t be used outside of India used.

Overall volumes both physical and measured in dollars of every Russian natural resource exports are down, be it gas, oil, coal, diamonds, metals, or even uranium

Their “allies” are laughing while paying (when find a loophole) a fraction of the price for these resources as the sanctions suit them quite well too. Why? Because Russia willingly became nothing more than a resource colony with no bargaining power.

Ireland has next to no natural resources yet has an economy a third the size of Russia and per capita wealth (and lower inequality) that is 10x average Russians

tl.dr: I do not subscribe to the resources theory, it’s at best a secondary objective for Putin

Drop the gavel and mobilize before we are all gobbled up by Putin…no? Why aren't NATO massing on the borders of Norway and the Czech Republic and carrier groups off the coast of Vladivostok for fear that our kids will be learning ballet instead of hip-hop dance moves?

let the mask slip there

russia has best tank.