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Threabanned posters:
brickstser69
slay55
mulbot
What evidence for 'long-term strategic thinking' do you see emerging.
It was never designed to be an empire. Yes, Europe depended on the US after WWII but that was a deliberate choice after two self-inflicted catastrophes. The goal was to make war between European states impossible, not to project military power worldwide.
If anything, Putin’s war has forced collective change. A very rapid reduction of dependence on Russian energy, increased defence spending and production and long-term strategic thinking that simply didn’t exist before.
EU support for Ukraine has clearly hurt the Kremlin — and long may that coninue.
F*ck Putin.
It is an institution built on sand. It never comes to being without USA need to keep USSR in check in post war period.
No empire in history had peace and stability without a dominant military,
At it's heart there is no military presence, there is still no EU army or any idea how to get there.
It's structures are so inflexible that 4 years in they can't even donate Russian money to Ukraine or ban the buying of Russian energy.
It's structure hasn't allowed for us to produce enough children to provide an army or not need huge immigration. An issue which is tearing the union apart at the seams.
Any institution which follows the EU model in future will likely end in tears.
If you are USA/Chinese/russian/Indian leader who do you call when you want to speak EU and can the person you get speak with a mandate for all Europeans?
Putin's SMO will go down as the biggest blunder in modern history.
I can't think of anything worse.
He's probably destroyed his own country and Ukraine for generations.
Whenever it's over, which might be years away, Ukraine will join the EU and NATO.
There is of course some truth in that, I suppose the issue is how long you wait.
A hell of alot of it will never leave the EU, it will be spent directly in EU defence contractors where possible just not at inflated US prices.
To be fair it makes more sense to wait it out a bit and not interfere, as the old saying goes "Never Interrupt your opponent when theyre making a mistake". If the EU does intervene to shut down Orban its when he abandons the veneer of democracy and attempts to go full Putin/Luka and strait up cheat and undermine democracy outright (so far hes only ever done media manipulaton only to stay in power). Then its free game to shut them down and suspend them from the EU.
I think China only see two players on the board when all this is done. Them and Europe with China in the number one spot. They don't see Europe as a threat and they quite enjoy having us a large market. The US they want as a market but need to diminish their military first and they're doing that through a currency war. Russia are just a nuisance, they are the lebensraum that China needs but they'll take that by stealth rather than force.
You might be thinking about the MIG 31 that was taken out at this base a couple of days ago during an attack on the bases air defence and radar.
Having pummelled the radars and anti aircraft defences in Crimea, the Ukrainians can now hit the airfields at the time of their choice when the planes are loaded with munitions.
Thirty years ago when I played F15 on the computer, a good strategy was to shoot the radars first then go around shooting at airfields and the like.
And the three of them are takers too, astonishingly. They get billions from the EU every year, especially Hungary. Slam shut the money tap and tell Orban the Ungrateful and his fellow fifth columnists to phuck off. Let them all go and beg their master Putin for the missing money. It'll be up to the populace to then decide their nations' future path.
Merry Christmas ya filthy animal
Putin the Great mistake
While the ground war is largely static, Ukraine is ramping up their own version of sanctions. I’m VERY happy Ukraine are on the West’s side. 💪
So, it’s the Putin meat wave ground attacks from mid 20th century and apartment bombings versus increasing Ukrainian strategic attacks. Agent Trump is Putin’s best asset, but he will be severely restricted after next November mid terms.
So, the next 9 months are crucial, and I don’t see Ukraine collapsing in the mean time.
In summary, I’m confident of Ukraine’s ultimate survival and Putin’s SMO going down in history as being a huge, inept mistake. Putin The Great is not going to be a thing.
Two SU-27s hit on the runway in Crimea.
Lots of good hits in the last few days. So much so that I'm well past the point of losing track of them.
Not sure if both of these are new or if it includes the one they hit couple days ago
But still, boom, boom.
This would be massive if true. A huge loss for Russia.
Translation: "This is huge. An impressive piece of intelligence work.
Andrey Vladimirovich Averianov, Major General of the GRU, the head of military intelligence, was indeed on board, along with several of his deputies.
Averianov was responsible for illegal transactions as well as espionage, sabotage, and bombings in EU countries.
He carried out operations abroad on Putin's orders.
He was also accused of the plane explosion involving Prygozhyn, the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, and more.
According to preliminary information, he has indeed been eliminated."
….
The Times has a report on it.
He's currently trying to change the constitution that the president could have more power then the prime minister and he'll try win that vote instead. These guys aren't going without a fight.
On the funding yes this keeps Ukraine in the fight for 2 years. This will hurt Trump.
I googled it and EU debt is around 15TN. USA debt around 38TN. So we have a lot more wiggle room to pour a few hundred billion into this over the next few years.
I'd actually prefer someone batshit crazy like Trump but on the side of Ukraine. Someone normal will take Russia's threats too seriously.
So with the deal to fund Ukraine done by the EU. The pressure on Russia will continue for 2 more years. We are getting into the stage where it will be the Russians who risk blowing their economy and therefore lose the war in earnest.
Poland considering transferring it's remaining 6-8 MIG 29s to Ukraine in return for Ukrainian anti drone technology.
Belgium’s issue re releasing the Ru €210 Bn held in Belgium financial institution is that if Ru sues for the pilferage that it could be liable for the lot. I understand that some of the EU members have gone some way to help finance he fine if that comes about BUT I wonder if the following idea was considered.
Ie if quarter of the €210 BN was used To HELP Ukr finances then that would reduce any fine by 75% and that figure would be a much more manageable one to finance . Use it as a test case
Or better still transfer over to Ukr IMMEDIATELy and let Putin START THE CLOCK re his threat to sue. I would assume that through class actions , soverign states , etc who are out of pocket for property damaged, property stolen , property confiscated, loss of income , etc, etc, etc due to his SMO would be initiated at the same time that Putin starts to sue
ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO CALL OUT HIS BLUFF
The problem with the EU's rules-based approach is that it seems to presume compliance by all parties and has no real mechanism for dealing with non-compliance. Worse, it is incredibly slow to adapt to new circumstances such as the existence of renegade members like Hungary and Slovakia (I don't know if the Czech Rep is as yet in that category). None of the lessons of the Brexit saga seem to have been learnt, perhaps because the UK actually left the Union.
Both Orban and Fico are down in the polls and the attitude in Brussels seems to be to let their respective electoral cycles take their course. This strikes me as at best hopelessly optimistic.
.
Yet more of Europe doing nothing:
The Uk also came up with Gravehawk:
Which is utterly brilliant as it uses Ukrainian made R73 missiles. Denmark helped out.
..and Raven:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sends-automated-turrets-and-missiles-to-shoot-down-russian-drones-as-part-of-600-million-air-defence-package-for-ukraine
Not that the UK hasn't already done a lot for Ukraine, but the system I really want them to give Ukraine is the cutting edge Sky Sabre, which is so good and agile it can intercept and hit a mortar or artillery shell in flight, because the Orcs are now using FAB glide bombs with a 200km range and trying to destroy Ukraine's arms supply route in the south via Romania, because it's the shortest and quickest. This and and Odessa were absolutely pounded a few days ago. Sky Sabre strikes me as the most capable tool to interdict these glide bombs.
That's fair. While most of us posting here want to see a hard(er) line taken on Russia, Trump told to shove it as well, and so idea of seizing the assets is attractive, the outcome is okay.
Ukraine is funded for now and Russia's assets are still held in limbo.
If it is a priority for the EU 27 [well those members who support Ukraine anyway] and a few others (obviously should be…), IMO Europe as a collective has the resources to fund Ukraine for a good while without seizing and using Russian assets.
They're a disaster.
Hopefully Orban will be gone next at least.
UAF marines are teasing again
Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic should have no place in an EU under assault by Russia. Forget about the rules - a hybrid war is underway and these countries are siding with the enemy. Their opinions should not be taken into account. At the very least, suspension is merited.
