Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Sorry for going on at length then on the problems…well you never know to be honest. There are other people posting here who at least claim they believe Trump will swoop in and solve it all quickly (maybe not 24 hrs…) somehow.🤷‍♀️

Thanks for that link.

You might not like it but to be honest in age of "Trumpism" I think countries/politicians like France/Macron pushing for an EU defence autonomy, and not dumping vast amounts of EUR into the US (or indeed other non EU countries' arms companies - Turkey would be the worst of the "allied" countries imo…) for weapons are totally correct and sensible. Their position (held over many years) has been proven out by this war. Also, in my mind all the billions in the world spent on US weapons now may not guarantee any future support, given how febrile and unstable US politics is.

Ultimately, no matter how good they are or the cost saving, they are never your "own" weapons and you are dependent. The countries that have wanted to support Ukraine but have, for example some Swiss developed systems or Israeli developed systems were stung in this current scenario, even when they have licences to construct these weapons for themselves.

However being realistic, if it'll be years before required amounts or particular types of weapons can be sourced from within the EU (?) and they need them for Ukraine now (i.e. they are not for themselves later), the Europeans have no choice.

I suppose I am separating 2 requirements for weapons here a little here, what Ukraine needs right now and in 2025 when Trump comes in (what I was thinking of) and what EU/Europeans need somewhat later but still soon (more subject of your article I think) and would be best if as much of latter as possible can eventually be designed and built within the EU.

I guess that I can forget about the Rubles that I was holding onto now….😕

Looks well all the same when Russian residents see banners for military enlistment destroyed on public highways. Adds a touch of finese. Man destroyed 13 banners.

I would imagine Putin can't believe his luck having all them troops tied up in a big fish bowl hiding in the woods. Far better there than defending the Donbass front lines.

What are they going to do all winter, sit around and hope a one tonne bomb does not drop anywhere near them. They will have to leave some time you know.

You can't just drop "with his falling support" into the conversation out of the blue and not provide any references/ evidence/ links for context. What exactly are you basing his falling support on? And if he started off with support through the roof, the only way to go is down, so "falling" isn't really the metric to be referencing, but "level" is… what level of support (assuming you have the info.) do you think is acceptable for a war time leader to have?