Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Reports from Reports from Ukraine that the last Russian occupiers of Kupiansk have been eliminated or surrendered.

there you have it, Ukrainians are more expert at using Patriots than US

Also seems that Ukrainians liberated a bunch of villages and continue to push

”Ukrainian counterattacks continue to make gains in southern Ukraine, creating operational and strategic effects against Russian forces going into the Spring-Summer 2026 offensive against the Fortress Belt.Russian forces are unlikely to seize Ukraine’s Fortress Belt in 2026.”

The sooner we get the Ukrainians into the European fold the better. I can see a scenario where the US try to outmanoeuvre Europe and strongarm Ukraine into falling in line with US requirements. It would be absolutely sickening if they derive free benefits from Ukraine after the way they've acted over the past couple of years.

Europe will never be tech independent - at least in modern tech. We are 20 years behind in nearly everything tech related compared to the US and Asia and that gap is growing and will continue to grow.

As an example - Europe's great chip plan was another huge flop - like most things the EU is involved in. The new EU master plan is that Europe can continue to make old computer chips that can control car wing mirrors so that we can continue to make our outdated cars. Welcome to 21st century Europe.

How does that prove than the EU tech independent? Much of what goes into an ASML is designed and built in the US and Japan.

There is no commercial European company that can use an EUV that ASML make. There are no plans to. We are decades behind.

On the other hand the US, China and Japan are all doing R&D to replace ASML.

Ukraine drone industry is low tech - that's the key it's success.

We are on about military tech independence and you start talking about progressive issues? What has one got to do with another?

You are taking very niche examples to try and prove a general point. SAMPt out performing Patriot after the Russians specifically designed their missiles to avoid the Patriot interceptors is hardly a smoking gun.

Europe has Meteor as we don't have a stealth aircraft. You don't need a long range air to air missile if the enemy cannot detect you. It's the same reason that the Russians and Chinese have longer range air to air than the US.

What I am saying is widely accept and understood in Europe. Go read the Draghi report if you want more details.

This isn't a military tech discussion thread and your post was extremely broad-brush. Fair enough if that's what you're limiting your judgment to, but the amount of EU-bashing (no doubt fuelled by the MAGA crown on one side and the Putin Bots on the other) these days is off the charts. The Iran war isn't exactly showing US capabilities to be the gold standard.

If you are talking military tech, then yes, all indicators (including investment) would suggest that we are behind to a degree. But as Ukraine alone have demonstrated, things can shift very quickly in terms of relevance and state of the art. At the very least it's good to see European States start to take investment in their defence and military more seriously. Budgets definitely need to be committed to for the foreseeable future to ensure a level of catch up. That's all that's been lacking in Europe - we have a very proud history in all the relevant science fields.

Thanks for the link… This podcast is actually a very good listen - added to my library.

The US was the key to NATO defence. Co-ordinator supplier of weapons and interoperability. The glue uniting the separate nations etc. etc. The major EU nations will have to work together with out the US as an ally. We have read that false information was fed back to US about Ukrainian plans a few weeks back and the Russians seem to have acted on it. It was denied of course but Ukraine is doing better since.

Your post does not make any sense to me. ASML is a leader in the technology for the manufacture of silicon chips and is a Dutch company valued at over half a trillion dollars yet you are using that as an argument to say how far behind Europe is compared to other parts of the world including the USA where they can't even have a government that pays state employees or a leader who can avoid contradicting himself over the course of a full week of compulsive lying or deranged geriatric moments.

You then proceed to say Ukraine drone technology is low tech when it is clearly not so by all the footage they are able to provide of putin's terrorists being eliminated in real time first person view and the range of drones they produce. Much was made of how putin's terrorist forces were able to manufacture artillery shells at a greater volume to Europe but it appears to me that Ukraine drone technology has made old world putin artillery become very short lived on the modern battlefield with a spike in losses whenever putin orders his terrorists to increase their attacks: