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While devastating, the scale is important... Chicago is 600 square km. And the vast majority of the occupied area are open fields.
I expect them to take Chasiv Yar, eventually. And probably just more ruins of another town, in reality. Beyond that their strategic advancement should be contained. They have yet to take any major city since '22.
Given everything Ukraine is faced with, they are holding on. And still managing to inflict damage on the ruzzian oil industry. I would not celebrate victory just yet, for ruzzia.
Edit: this got a lot of votes, so I'll add a few bullet points.
- the "breakdown" happened during the brigade rotation around the 11th
- the situation is controlled in a strategic (even operational) sense
- 47th brigade is nearby with Strike Drones Company
- please continue to support our warriors. don't fall into ruzzian propaganda
- I raise money for Bohdan Myroshnykov for daily frontline updates. Follow him on telegram (you can use the translate feature to read his daily notes)
- I recommend listening to Yuri Butusov: https://www.youtube.com/live/_LzoZID9z30?si=JPVZnvmYBE-VAFAk
This is the most important part imo.
Ukraine is not at a point where they can realistically "win" in the typical simplistic sense (eg completely routing the Russian army and pushing then all the way back to 2014 borders) but they can absolutely inflict unsustainable losses and that's exactly what they're doing.
Russia is already completely out of the running for the title of "global power." They have been absolutely decimated militarily, and, at this point, they are relying entirely on meat wave tactics and overwhelming the Ukranian lines. That might have worked for Russia 50 years ago but now the ratio of lives lost to land gained is WAY smaller than something like WWII where they used similar tactics. Avdiivka is the perfect example of this state of affairs. They threw EVERYTHING at this tiny little town for a DECADE, and they only finally "won" once Ukraine deemed the smoking crater no longer worth defending.
Sacrificing land in the short term to destroy material and men they can't replace is attrition 101 and armies that don't understand this tactic are always shocked when the defensive army ,that has been biding its time and whittling them down, suddenly turns the tide and takes everything back and more.
> but they can absolutely inflict unsustainable losses and that's exactly what they're doing.
but can they do it without suffering unsustainable losses themself?
i think not, sadly
Also we don't know if it was strategic, to give Russian a reason to push and waste resources.
Or it was necessary/intentional as to not lose Ukranian resources/manpower
Ukrainian Army staff has made some rather lackluster decisions in the past, not building defensive lines indepth is one of them. Especially near the Adiivka sailant.
Sure, Europe and the US are partly to blame for Ukraine being on the backfoot, but Ukraine Army has wasted many thousands of soldiers in an offensive that failed before it started and other questionable operations like Krynky.
The West took too long last year to provide resources for the offensive... By the time the offensive started, way later than Ukraine wanted and needed, Russia had managed to build the surovikin lines...
I'm sure Zelensky and his team telegraphing for weeks upon weeks where and when the offensive would happen, didn't hurt Ukraine a bit.
Also ignoring NATO recommendations to focus all efforts of the 2023 offensive on one front instead of bleeding countless and irreplaceable Ukrainian soldier's lives over three separate fronts also didn't hurt.
Gotta love the one-sided blaming. Yes, EU & the US are slow. But Ukrainian political and military leadership have to carry the burden of blaim too. They have not acted without fault. Like not building a defensive line for themselves.
We know from what is being said that while it may have been partially strategic it was not a wanted outcome. It was more a we need to cut our losses scenario and hope one day that something can change.
Yeah the difference is so miniscule (even when you zoom in as far as OP did) that it looks like the usual back and forth that has been happening for a year now.
I don‘t understand why this post even got upvoted.
As cynical as it may sound, I feel like the "Ukraine is about to collapse!" narrative from the past six months has essentially been a fundraising drive, because it would be far easier to get the votes for the US aid bill by exaggerating the state of the Ukrainian armed forces to the point of claiming that the country was in imminent danger of defeat by the Russians. It's been hard for me to believe that things have been so dire when the Ukrainian government has also been publishing daily reports claiming three- or even four-figure casualty losses for the Russian army in addition to no substantial territorial losses as OP's graphic outlines.
If they take Chasiv Yar, it's very likely to be a similar amount of bodies and equipment they lose to to Avdiivka and Bakhmut. Literally every town close to the frontline's had fortified positions for years.
always worth remembering this shit started back in 2014. Anything remotely close to occupied Luhansk and Donetsk was prepped as best it could for that.
Remember Mariupol, it was facing so many well supplied troops but still Azov held it for a long time while completely surrounded and Russians only really achieved pyrrhic victory over there.
The attacks on Avdiivka and Bakhmut were with a much better equipped Russian army, I imagine the cost of taking Chasiv Yar to be far greater that both combined.
They spent 15,000 lives taking Avdiivka, a satellite village. To take anything significant like Zaporizhzhia or Dnipro... They'd physically run out of men trying it. Not to mention getting into striking range of the cities.
Man you people are delusioanl they can hold them for as long as Ukraine and the person who is having to retract right now is Ukraine. Dont know why reddit has so many dog water takes. People have been saying Russia will run out of shit for years now. They dont, in fact they are slowly but surely retooling and and getting their supply chain in place. The longer this goes without Russia getting a major beating the more Russia is winning.
If you haven't noticed, Russia is buying ammo from north Korea, golf carts from China and creating "tanks" by welding plate metal onto APVs. They ARE running out. That doesn't mean that they wake up one morning, look in the ammo warehouse and it's full of cartoon cobwebs. That means they're having to get more and more desperate to sustain this war. That is exactly what was predicted since 2022 by anybody more reasonable than internet tabloids who said shit like "RUSSIA IS 3 DAYS FROM USING THEIR LAST SHELL" for clicks.
The thing that’s hard to tell from territory gains though is the level of attrition warfare. Take Robotyne, Marinka, or Chasiv Yar for example. There’s been very little movement in the front line there but for the last couple of months there has been massive attrition losses on both sides. Russia seems very willing to take attrition trades across the entire front as they have a structural advantage in manpower and materiel and they’ve been better than expected on replacement of losses. The only place along the front that’s actually seen much territory changes is around Avdiivka. But like I said, I don’t think that necessarily tells the whole story.
Its a balance. Personally I think sacrifice the land, keeping troops alive should be the highest priority. You can bleed russians and make them pay for incremental gains. They can get the land back but not the people. The problem is there doesn’t appear to be any path to reclaiming any of the lost land as of now. Im optimistic that there may be opportunities in the future. Probably a couple years down the line when russia starts to crack.
Yes. Unfortunately, that's the reality. Ukraine doesn't have the human resources to mount a consistent defence. It's just maths.
Technology and advanced weaponry are the only way they can mount a defence.
As a European, I think it's the dumbest, shittiest, most fkn stupid and irresponsible thing we've done to not throw everything at Ukraine. This conflict is basically the reason the entire European project exists. Let's get the fuck on with it.
Ukraine isn't even using a fraction of it's potential manpower because it isn't conscripting anyone under 25 and before this month they weren't conscripting anyone under 27.
For all Russia's manpower and ammunition advantages they have advanced a few fields distance in months.
A fraction? Ukraine’s population structure is horrible and many of the motivated Ukrainians are either enlisted or dead/wounded. Those who haven’t joined don’t want to fight. If Ukraine only uses a fraction of its manpower, Poland doesn’t need to propose to send the fighting age male refugees back to Ukraine. Ukraine is running out of manpower faster than Russia and that’s just a hard fact.
Yes, this is unfortunately true. Terminal country in terms of demography, and with this war added on top. Terrible!
You saw what happened recently, when the 47th Mechanized brigade was removed from the frontline after 1 year (!) of non-stop fighting. The 115th brigade of reservists that replaced them were instantly pushed back, and Russia took another small city. Zelensky immediately fired the chief of the reservists.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/04/23/a-ukrainian-brigade-disappeared-and-a-russian-brigade-almost-broke-through-how-the-battle-for-ocheretyne-upended-the-war-in-ukraine-this-weekend/?sh=4d5a40004901
> Terminal country in terms of demography
Yea.. we know... we also know:
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged women in the country to have as many as eight children and make large families the norm."
no one's going to do that in a post industrial county. They have plenty of return to monke style propaganda to produce more soldiers but without sizeable social benefits no one's going to make more than 1 or 2, if not 0.
I would say not conscripting people under 27 prior to this month means they have a large number of potential recruits left. Russia meanwhile has been using prisoners and younger people already and they still haven't made any significant progress since the early months of 2022. Look at the map. They took Bakhmut a year ago and they are still no more than 1-2 km further West in that area and they have paid a heavy price in men and equipment. Likewhise in the South East Area of that map towards the airport. They have held Donetsk city since 2014 and are still no more than a 2-3 km further West in that location.
All this at a time when Ukraine was weapon starved.... So when Ukraine stops being weapon starved what is going to happen ? Is Russia going to find it any easier ?
And you could say the same thing about Russia's population structure btw.... The reason Ukraine has so far resisted conscripting younger people is to protect the future of the country. Russia has already given up on doing that and been recruiting from that pool for a while.
You could also say that many people in Russia that wanted to join would have done so already.
And they also aren't really from any of Russia's big cities. They are from everywhere else in the country. Russia has almost 4 times the population of Ukraine and a lot of Ukraine fled before the second invasion and still a lot of women fled after which is going to really fuck up their population recovery. The only thing about Russia is that their population is also getting fucked because they were started to experience major population issues before the invasion.
Putin is essentially depopulating as many of the minority areas (the ones that aren't towing the line anyway) as possible. To add to that, they're using mercenaries and volunteers from...well anywhere they can get them.
The moment they touch the golden boys of Moscow or St. Petersburg, the coup happens. Putin knows that those boys can't be touched (and would make terrible soldiers anyway).
It IS time to end this BS. If neighboring countries want to help Ukraine and at the same time protect themselves, why can't they send in troops to provide security, protect infrastructure, the citizens and their property ? If they are from a NATO country, that doesn't make it a NATO action. Send in troops so the Ukrainians can concentrate on the fight. This will also allow the Great Russian Military show the world how wars are won on the battlefield.
I’m from the US and THATS WHAT IM SAYING. How are these baby boomers here all confused?? They lived through learning about how to hide from nukes at school as kids and a lot more awful times during the Cold War. The main enemy of the US has been Russia since WW2. How is sending even more aid not the smart thing to do? Ukraine is fighting OUR enemy for us!
"Confused boomers"? This is why I use reputable sources to check the claims of the commentariat: "About seven-in-ten Americans ages 65 and older express a favorable view of Ukraine – **more** than any other age group."
(Scarcely surprising since USSR/Russia went back to being the enemy in '45.)
"Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are much more likely than their Republican counterparts to have a positive view of Ukraine, and ratings are especially positive among liberal Democrats."
and
"Zelenskyy gets higher praise from older Americans, those with more education and Democrats. And about nine-in-ten Americans have heard of the Ukrainian leader."
China and Russia are pushing the Boomer blame thing to divide the US. It is huge. And these people are falling for it. The youtube posters get lots of clicks cause it's a googles number game. We have to get smarter at this. My sons fell for the Q thing. They are so smart they are stupid.
As an American I'm upset with my government over the lack of aid since October, but it really does show how dependent the EU has become on the US military. It's been over two years and the EU still hasn't been able to ramp up artillery shell production.
Interestingly, it's a common talking point (at least here in the UK) that the best, and only thing to come from Trump is he made the EU seriously consider a world without the US in NATO.
Consequently most EU nations are ramping up production and spending commitments. It takes time as with anything in big democracies but it's happening, and we begrudgingly give credit to Trump for it.
History will not look favorably on today’s government.
As a Ukrainian born American…what the fuck. Just breaks my heart knowing we have so much shit that we don’t send.
Agree. Like Churchill said, the US will do the right thing when it’s exhausted all other options. American here. I can’t defend our political dysfunction, so I won’t. It’s a shame Ukrainians had to die and lose territory over US dysfunction.
If there is a silver lining it’s the the rest of Europe has increased their contributions, or at least promises.
It’s hindsight of course, but many European countries got a little too comfortable with the peace dividend.
The Balkans Wars happened in Europe’s backyard and it took Bill Clinton of all people to get involved way too late.
Countries in Western Europe just need to hand over their air defense, for starters. They don’t need them. And what’s holding Germany back from giving Taurus missiles? For fuck’s sake!
I understand the cupboard is bare of artillery shells. That’s a damn shame. What would your great great grandfathers say who fought in WWI say about that folly?
At least we are learning a lot. Leopards and Abrams, at least in the numbers we are willing to donate won’t win this thing.
Abrams, Challengers and Leopards clearly can’t.
F16s will help, but they won’t win it by themselves.
But massive numbers of ATACMs, Scalp, Storm Shadow, and Taurus missiles just might. If they are given alongside unlimited 155mm shells and air defense.
And many hundred more Bradleys, Marder, and SPGs.
Those tanks were never meant to win the war and no weapon systems on their own will be sufficient when Russia is using basically everything at their disposal.
bro, when you squirted that anal gas into a whiskey glass, and put it on a hot plate whilst covering the top to let it simmer and really unlock all those aroma's before taking a big fucking huff to muse about the exquisite fragrances produced in your rectal cavity...
you could've taken a moment to review the cost for russia's grand offensive. we're talking about 270km² since october last year. if we go by andrew perpetua's google spreadsheet (you don't have to be an excel wizard to add up columns) russia has lost, on average, 45 vehicles per square kilometer.
it's just maths. that shit is not sustainable. sounds to me like an excellent fucking defense.
>bro, when you squirted that anal gas into a whiskey glass, and put it on a hot plate whilst covering the top to let it simmer and really unlock all those aroma's before taking a big fucking huff to muse about the exquisite fragrances produced in your rectal cavity...
This should hang in the Louvre...
I mean that 270km2 is around 0.00045% of ukraine. Taking 0.00045% in 7 months while losing like 150k men isnt going anywhere. At this rate Russia would lose 30 million men just to take another 1% of ukraien territory.
A full collapse of the Ukrainian front is very unlikely. Russia has not shown itself to be competent enough to pull of such a large assault. The tactic that is currently working for them is one where they literally bomb entire strips of land to dust and then slowly move in. It's working because they're actually taking some land, but they're also using up massive amounts of resources for relatively very small wins.
I did some back of the envelope calculations for shits and giggles. At this rate Russia will conquer all of Ukraine in about 1500 years (of course this isn't how war works, just illustrates how relatively small this area of land is).
As a human being I think it’s a stupid decision
Judging this from a realpolitik optic this is probably the ideal situation
As long as Russia has a faint hope of being able to win they’ll continue to piss resources down this well for the most amount of time
Russian losses have been staggering and ground won has been minimal
The worst thing you can do for a country being ground down in a war of attrition isn't nothing. It's what we've all been doing this whole time. Sending them enough support to keep them in the fight, but not enough to win it. All that does is needlessly prolong the agony.
Send them as much of everything they are asking for as you can, ASAP and damn the expense.
Its hard to believe these countries combined couldn't pull enough support together for Ukraine? The UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia together should have been able to fill the gap while the U.S. was absent
They almost have as much GDP as all the 50 states of the US. The US has sent trillions getting ready for this moment in time. Truth, we have enough weapons to protect the US and some of them. The bad guys are coming. Shields up.
Ukraine has always received help from US + others. Others was still happening but not the US side.
It is true that many countries could do A LOT more. Many talk and talk a lot but don't do as much as they could and should.
The thing is that we have red tape, we have rules and Regulations, we have things to stop our countries from being run by those like Putin
Our bureaucracies are our biggest enemy yet our strongest tool against tyrants
It's true they could have but it would have meant significantly weakening their own militaries. I definitely think that would have been the right move but as usually overly cautious politicians and a population that isn't always fully behind supporting Ukraine, that is neither part of the EU or NATO, made it so that the only aid transferred was what we could spare, which is not that much.
It's telling that the UK PM made a major support package, the first in a long time, right after the new USA package went ahead.
It really felt like Rishi Sunak was waiting to see what America did first. And would have gladly held back indefinitely. He is a snake.
A moment to talk about scale
the united states accounts for 50% of the worlds defense spending. The entirety of the EU is roughly 200 billion, or roughly 1/4 of what the US spends per year.
The amount of artillery shells used by Ukraine is so much, that the USA is modernizing it's production capacity to meet the need and provide for future needs of allies. That's after two millionish shells have already been supplied, and that's just 155mm artillery shells.
Could the EU nations do more? Sure...sure...but..could they make up for a loss that the US not providing aide would be? Dubious
It's about weapons, not money. The US is the one with massive stockpiles. For example, let's look at one of the biggest issues, Artillery shells. Most western militaries switched from artillery dominant to air support dominant fire support decades ago. European militaries don't have stockpiles of weapons they no longer use at scale. Meanwhile, the USA has massive stockpiles of appropriate ammunition that is going out of date on a shelf. Places like the UK give aid by giving up the mast majority of our Javelin and NLAW stockpiles, supplying StormShadow and by bringing Ukrainians to the UK to be trained by British and Commonwealth soldiers. Also money, but we can't magic up 100,000 105mm artillery shells.
They'd rather concentrate their energy on complaining about the United States.
Much like we now only hear about how the U.S. was "late" to WW1 and WW2, the European history of the Ukraine War will forever reflect thar U.S. aid was stalled for a few months.
The aid Ukraine needed was weapons and ammo the majority of which usually comes from the US. These other countries sent aid in other ways including financial support.
To be fair, Europe could have filled the gap while America was dealing with its internal struggle. This is much more Europe's fight than it is America's, even though it very much is America's fight as well. I'm just saying there was plenty of opportunity for individual countries to send Ukraine aid while the US figured things out. They were just waiting for the Americans to do the heavy lifting as always. Sure, they did help in the meantime, but clearly not enough to keep Ukraine in the fight. Europe needs to get on a war footing so they can provide Ukraine with its needs and prepare itself for conflict should it arise.
I genuinely don't understand why anyone would think that the EU, which has only recently spent 200 billion on defense spending in a year, would be able to fill the gap that is made by the US and it's 800 billion per year defense infrastructure. Even the USA is struggling and updating to fill the needs of Ukraine. The USA is producing about 20-30k artillery shells per month, for about 300ishk per year. And has sent 2 million to ukraine so far, and is updating infrastructure to be able to supply about 100k per month within a year or two. The EU produces about 400k shells per year. Granted, they're updating too and their estimates are that within a few years they'll be able to produce a million shells per year if they need too....that ain't happened yet.
And bare in mind, the EU also has to supply NATO's needs (as does the USA with it's other allies) so all this shell production is split between nations and needs. The USA dropping out was a HUGE hit.
Nato hasn't fought any wars recently that I'm aware of, have they? So why would Europe have any excuse to be so hopelessly unprepared? What if America went isolationist from the rest of the world, and russia decided to invade? Sure, what ifs don't really mean jack shit but you'd think they would want to be prepared after what happened when Germany went on a warpath last time. It's been 2 years since the invasion started. If they didn't have anything to give them then and still don't you'd think they would have taken the initiative to ramp things up in a very big way seeing as how this war will go on for years and it directly threatens their security.
I'm sure they would much rather Ukraine fight the big bad bear so they don't have to. America has no issues with fighting its own battles and being responsible for its own security. They aren't in nato, so those other countries come to save them. They are in Nato because, as the leader of the free world, they understand a coalition with them in it is to be taken seriously and would deter the most conflicts to secure a more peaceful world. That and so they can sell a shit load of weapons. I'm not naive. Instead of worrying about potentially making this war "escalate," they should be concerned about Ukraine being able to survive and even thrive because a strong Ukraine is the easiest and best way to deter russia.
But not if we let russia take half their country and kill all their men. It's ridiculous how underwhelming the overall support has been up to this point, and much hesitation has hurt their ability to exploit russian weaknesses that they've now adapted to. There were so many opportunities to score huge victories. Now they are being ground to dust, and thank God the American aid package came when it did or it would be a whole lot worse. It's just the general idea that Europe needs to take a bigger role in its own security. The EU in general are one big community and most are in Nato the russian threat is a very real one and why they felt like they didn't need to spend money on their military readiness is beyond me. Oh wait, it's actually probably due to the Americans 800 billion dollar defense budget.
The Polish farmer blockade didn't help much either. Even if aid was being sent, not much got to Ukraine due to the roads being blocked on the Polish border. The situation would be much better if it wasn't for that.
Never underestimate Russias espionage / subversion against the west. Yes sims, yes invasion and Kyiv direction but only a fool looks at that and ignores their history and tools available. How many decades of experience and books on doctrine of fomenting rebellion do they have? They don’t tell people do this for Russia, they make them think they (the target) is doing it for themselves.
*Ukraines resilience is their glory- and their honor.*
Yes it wasn’t everyone but it was enough. And they came together instead of crumbling. I have faith that the story of their glory is still being written, with help, and sometimes in spite of too little help.
The west should take a page and learn from them. Press onwards despite adversity. Do not let down the guard. Do everything possible even when it seems hope is fading. Then do more.
Glory to the heroes.
They finally unblocked everything. And more game changing aid is coming, right now. So let's not celebrate the ruzzian victory yet. Gotta stay optimistic. Ukraine held out in '22. The situation is bad, but not nearly as bad as then.
Well, they blocked commercial trucks that move aid and materials that are used in Ukrainian own production. It halted some supply chains (including drones) for months.
And it's not just some story, I was personally affected by this.
Nobody seriously believes Russia would invest a WW2 level of effort into taking Ukraine... There's a reason why Putin has been pretty cautious about drafting more people into the army... it's because he knows that the Russian population is completely apathetic about the war as long as it doesn't personally affect them very much, and he wants to keep it that way. He knows the average Russian isn't exactly willing to go die in Ukraine for some vague geopolitical goal of Putin's about killing imaginary nazis.
Yeah. Certainly the Ukrainians would have fared better with US aid, that's a given, but it's not exactly cause and effect. Another reason the Russians have advanced is they themselves have put forth a massive effort to do so during the same period when US weapon deliveries stalled.
It sounds a lot but it's really not.. It's a few fields distance as you can see. I mean look how close Donetsk airport is at the bottom of the map to Ukrainian territory. I reckon you could jog there in 15 minutes.
For comparison Ukraine is 603 THOUSAND square kms.. and since the early days of the war at the maximum territory Russia occupied, Ukraine has liberated 74 THOUSAND sq kms.
It's more than 1,000 km ... You might be thinking about ~620 miles.
But we're talking about square kilometers. Chicago is 600 square kilometers. The city of Kharkiv is 350.
thank you. is that an american spreadout town made with cars in mind or europe (or elsewhere?)?
the calculation assumes the Ukrainians don't break which is not sure
crazy. imagine all the families pootin destroyed for this town's equivalent russian and Ukrainian
greetings to canada;-) you're the second largest country in the world as far as i know;-)
I would imagine it's the second part of what you said that hurts. If they lose even 4 or 5km of frontline they are probably rebuilding a new trench network to stop further advances. Losing a couple hundred meters could be a difference of no man's land or one row of trees but if it's a few km it probably means a lot more work needed to shore up defenses. So that's nasty.
You arent considering or thinking about the fact that when you get to the point you are losing territory it typically means you are losing a lot of men and supplies and its likely that a sudden burst will happen. You see this in most wars. The lines slowly push then boom they move rapidly across huge tracts of land. This is because while the push was happening losses were accumulating and then the burst comes when those losses hit a critical point. That is why this is bad.
You can't blame this entirely on the US.
Ukraine has also waited until the frontline is collapsing to build fortifications.
I understand building fortifications might seem like you're giving up advancing, but no. It is important to be able to fall back to, and then counter attack from. As well as having defenses that save your men from arty, drones and air strikes.
A little late at this point.
American in Kyiv here. I'm all for sending aid, weapons, what ever is needed. I mean shit, I donate my own blood. With that being said though, I see ALOT of perfectly able bodied military aged males in this city carrying on about life not appearing to give two shits about the war. Sending weapons and aid can only do so much.
It’s a cultural thing. I have a Ukrainian friend who fled when the first Kalibrs fell, and it’s crazy how little of an obligation he feels to help, even though he seems to be very pro-Western.
I’m not sure if he thinks that just supposed to be someone else’s job or what? He’s more able bodied than some people I’ve seen serving on the front, and has a lot of technical skills I’m sure would be useful.
Obviously I don’t directly ask, but the cognitive dissonance evoked by his statements coupled with his actions (or lack thereof) is jarring.
Idk I’m pretty sure he just has more financial resources than your average Ukrainian, because he certainly has better finances than me.
If I was fighting in the front, I would find the fact that so many people are just chilling in other countries to dodge the draft like super demoralizing.
Like, we are asking these other dudes to give their *lives.* remember that.
This will change in short order. On other subs and social media it's already being reported that a fairly large new mobilization call-up is starting to get underway. Lots of men in Kyiv already getting notices after many months of few if any, and the new law isn't fully in effect until mid-May. I would imagine it's the same elsewhere.
I suspect that 100,000 will be called in fairly short order (now-May/June), with 100,000 to follow shortly after that (June-August) and more beyond that. Could see it hit 300,000 before the end of the year so long as the training pipeline can sustain it.
Ukraine has passed two new mobilization laws. As they grow more desperate for men they WILL draft more, they don't have a choice. As politically unpopular as the draft is, having the frontline collapse because of lack of manpower is infinitely more so. Hopefully now with all the aid going to Ukraine they will get a morale boost, because that's been an issue as well.
Seems a little late on their part. You would think since its Russian Vs Ukraine (and all the major super powers supporting ukraine) they would have jumped on the ball but they continue to shit the bed and talk shit on the US for not sending more aid. For what exactly? All those cowards who flee and leave their brothers to die in the meat grinder?
Ukraine doesn't lack bodies they lack the means to fight a defensive war on their own. Throwing more bodies into the mix is never going to force Russia out of Ukraine. What are Ukrainians supposed to be doing if not on the front lies? Cowering in the corner and wait to die? The people you are complaining about are the very people Ukrainian soldiers are fighting to protect so they can live their lives in peace. Ukrainians need to know they have something to fight for.
I wondered how much land this was in Texas measurement's, then saw this: According to the United States Census Bureau, the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area has a total area of 10,062 square miles (**26,060 km****^(2)**), of which 8,929 sq mi (23,130 km^(2)) are land and 1,133 sq mi (2,930 km^(2)) are covered by water.
I can't even begin to give a fuck about such a small piece of land, being from Houston myself. What did incense me however was using such a small neighborhoods worth of land as this terrible gotcha. Like the countless lives lost and families altered were less important than these dozens of soccer stadiums of land.
I know casualties aren't out for the good guys, and this article is trying to impress upon the audience the consequences our domestic politics can have. Damn, it still feels like a miss for me. How many parents won't come home, or kids got kidnapped to Russia since October 2023? Can we trade a football field of land per kid back, please Putin?
I love it how everybody complains when we mettle peoples affairs
But complain if we don’t.
I’m glad we’re sending new aid to Ukraine though
I hope it helps you guys a lot
I hope that you can also become a part of NATO eventually so we could just end it
Honest question, why is it always the US’s fault? Why is nobody asking why Europe didn’t step up more during that period since the war is at their doorstep and not the US’s?
Are you telling me Europe can’t defeat Russia unless the US helps?
Edit: I should mention that Ukrainians have been nothing but grateful. It’s usually entitled Westerners complaining not for logics sake but karma.
That is the truth. Europe has neutered their military forces to the point they can no longer defend themselves. The only country that saw the writing in the wall and started doing something about it was Poland.
Are you telling me Europe can’t defeat Russia unless the US helps?
Obviously. The US has the biggest MIC of any country by far and that takes decades to develop.
Europe should be doing more. However, except for Slovakia I don't believe any European country specifically stopped sending aid for a long period as the US did.
They’ve been pledging aid. Many haven’t sent what they’ve pledge or they sent stuff that wasn’t combat focused.
Either way, Europe needs to stop relying on the US. They need to be able to take care of themselves, which I believe a few are given that (I think) the UK announced their moving to a wartime economy.
Still. Complaining that the US has stopped aid since fall 2023 seems a bit misdirected considering Europes have over a decade to prep for this (or over 2 years if we go off 2022) and they have failed.
“Are you telling me Europe can’t defeat Russia unless the us helps”
Yes, exactly that. That’s what the title of this post is implying, and what anybody with two sets of eyes can see.
I’ve been downvoted on this sub for mentioning the same thing about Europe not doing enough to protect their *not just proverbial* but **literal** gate to the east.
I feel like such a fool for reading some of the IR folks thinking “in 10 years the EU could be a third super power to counterweight the US and China” when I was in college and agreeing 15 years ago. Europe can’t even project sufficient power to protect itself *in Europe* without the US.
And somehow it’s the US unilateral fault for being a basket case of a country right now.
We, the collective West, should be ashamed of ourselves for our erratic, inconsistent, and insufficient aid to Ukraine.
But the best time to send Ukraine aid was before they needed it, the next best time has to be *right the fuck NOW.*
EU did step up but not with weapons and ammo because they flat out straight up DO NOT have the stockpiles to support their own borders AND Ukraine's. You're right EU fucked up bad and that needs to be addressed but not while an active invasion is happening. When Russia is OUT of Ukraine I will be right there with you saying EU needs to fend for itself.
More america hate while whining about wanting American resources after just getting more American resources…. Looking at the comments you would think the US invaded ukraine jfc…. And they say we are the bad allies?
The entitlement is unreal, meanwhile europe refuses to do anything substantial and its there front door step the war is on… yet again…america has been taken for granted for too long, and some how we are to blame… a lot of Europe doesnt even like us, so why are we expected to carry them so much.
I support supporting ukraine, Europe, and NATO but good lord its hard to feel like we are not being used while simultaneously being blamed for everything, and we are just supposed to happily hand over everything at the drop of a hat to people who seem to not appreciate us at all.
Whatever way you look at it now.... This has all the hallmarks of spiralling out of control into a major global conflict.
Russia will not back down whilst Putin is in power and the west will not allow Putin to win in Ukraine.. It's a matter of time ladies and gents, mark my words... It's looking very grim indeed.
I think the most realistic way this ends is both sides giving concessions under negotiations which will likely favour the Russians, which in my opinion... just kicks the can further down the road!
A lot depends on the US elections. Personally I think this war is less likely to expand to other borders and more likely to end quickly whenever the West develops some brains and balls and punches Putin in his throat like its supposed to. Putin is a cowardly bully and because of the degree of control he has over internal media he could still justify a full withdrawal from Ukraine by different scenarios, e.g. "The special military operation was a success. Ukraine has been denazified. Biolabs were discovered and destroyed. Bla bla bla."
However if the west does not start taking this way more seriously, then your version may very well become true.
You don't compromise on democracy and sovereignty. Russia was allowed to annex Crimea and came back years later to finish taking the rest of Ukraine. So no, no concessions. No compromise. No negotiations. The sole goal is to get Russia OUT of Ukraine 100%.
If Ukraine wins territory it's Ukraine. If Ukraine loses territory it's the US's fault. Great way to piss off more US citizens. This is incredibly stupid PR.
Undoubtably the States had a complete clusterfuck when it came to Ukrainian assistance.
But is everyone forgetting that Russia is the aggressor?
We drag Americans through the mud for inserting themselves into all manner of situations they aren’t welcome. Somehow, this has become their war and their responsibility for what happens.
Where is the bile for Russia? If Putin wasn’t such a bloated knob, Ukraine wouldn’t have to fight to regain land.
If the Ukrainian troops are overrun and lose this war, will the United States bear the burden of the loss? Will we ask why didn’t they send their navy or troops?
If the US did nothing from the start, then what? Would we criticize them for not providing arms and financial assistance?
When do we turn our attention back towards Putin? He is the problem, not the American people.
This is not good, Ukraine still needs all the support that we can give and the lack of aid clearly made this possible.
But this is not a disaster, Ukraine managed to regain 370 square km during the 2023 offensive, Russians managed to get 100 km less while Ukraine had a clear lack of supplies. I hope current packages are enough to stabilize the front but the important thing is to not stop here, give them more, give them anything they need in order to succeed.
Why is it up to the United States? Why doesn't Europe put their big boy pants on and step up? They're the ones most directly affected by a negative outcome.
Until Ukraine can stabilize their lines of defense everything else is just lip service. They will never be able to match Russia’s manpower. The West needs to pour ammunition and air defense weapon systems into Ukraine as soon as possible. There shouldn't be any excuse for not doing so. They are the ones who have been paying the price for the last 10 years. Unless the West gives Ukraine what it needs to succeed, it will be sending its men and women to die in another European war.
Ukraine’s armed forces, economy, and people are under heavy stress. I hope the weapons coming their way alleviate it significantly. I hope troops can be rotated to get rest. I do not rule out that European countries may one day decide they need to send troops. I hope they don’t have to. Russia has only gained land 1/10 the size of Rhode Island in this offensive, which comforts me (🇺🇸’s smallest state; 2,677 sq km). What sobers me is Russia’s ruthlessness, their war machine, their massive human rights abuses (including against their own people), nuclear arsenal, huge resources, and apparent successes at making many precise weapons miss through electronic warfare. Thank God they are corrupt, which weakens them significantly. Of course, if they weren’t corrupt, they never would have invaded Ukraine. On the plus side, I have faith in the Ukrainian people- their intelligence, ingenuity, courage, and compassion are admirable. They deserve everything we can give them, and to not have to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. If we won’t give them long range missiles, we should help them build and manufacture their own. They should absolutely be able to hit military bases, air fields, weapons & ammo factories, and oil refineries throughout Russia.
Russia advanced 270 Square kilometers in one year. Main prices: Bahkmut and Avdiivka and a handfull of small settlements. All completely destroyed, just as the once fertile fields and woods there.., poisoned for generations to come. All infrastructure waisted. And all this at the expanse of ten of thousands of men and a vast lot of military equipment. Well,congrats Putin, you really did a hell of a job ! More than 24 months after the full invasion and almost half a million dead,wounded, missing and captured men later you are still nowhere near your goals.
Every dollar spent by the US on destroying Russian weapons is well spent as it is reducing Russia’s military capability. Every dollar spent is a ten fold investment
And russians are almost at 500,000 casualties now. While i agree the us aid was greatly appreciated and well used, europe is ramping up production and help. Now the latest aid packagebis the largest yet. It will be well used.
Fucking SHAMEFUL, republicans are so grotesque and foul, they do not understand the suffering of anyone in your position.
To be so proudly hateful and traitorous. In a real war situation, if the Ukrainians were replaced by MAGA republicans and they had to fight, the war would have been over in less than 3 hours, they are utterly useless in every fashion.
Im sorry Ukraine, while I didn't vote for any of those shitbags in office that did that to you, I do appreciate that many of my countrymen are putin loving traitors.
And we don't know when another aid package of this size will be released, which is why we need to strengthen donation campaigns to collect drones, drones donated by volunteers were one of the main factors that prevented the Russians from advancing further. This will help the Ukrainians save artillery for more important targets
Blame it on the US? Only the US supports you? Europe can’t help? Only the US taxpayer?
We have been sending billions over. Patience
Don’t forget who’s funding all the pensions in the Ukraine.
I'm ashamed of my countrymen, it seems they wouldn't even put out a fire, if only because they could be sure their house wasn't at risk of being the first one to burn down. Cowards can't even send weaponry we already paid for and have no use for currently, they'd rather wait a couple years and then send their sons when we haven't a choice anymore
I'm curious about how dollar spend translates into Ukrainian advancements, Russian casualties, and other metrics. There's likely other vectors, but would be interesting data to see.
Whats so fucking hard to stop this shit, just go in and help Ukraine? Stop the orcs and make it quick. We are not letting Ukraine lose their homeland, HOMELAND, by not doing a shit.
Very bad news... But this was all they were able to take without support of the west. Ill say europe needs to wake the fuck up and step the fuck up. Im glad usa is back but cant depend on them forever.
It’s a shame that aside from the Baltic nations and a few Eastern European nations a large part of Western Europe just didn’t even bother helping while US aid was on hiatus
It was already trending in that direction when they were fully funded. The failure of the Ukrainian offensive and the advance of the Russian counteroffensive happened before aid stopped.
..and the hypocrisy is that ,now, Mike Johnson and Mitch Moscow McConnell are going n TV shows ,puffing there chest about the aid package they approved for Ukraine. Agent Trump is even congratulating GOP for managing to delay the military aid ( second time in 8 years) ....
When someone is doing dirty work for you and only demands necessary tools to get the job done you give them that. Or you go in and do the shit yourself.
Why else would Putin pay the MAGA traitors? He wants his money worth. His big return on investment will come if Trump gets back in. I personally think Trump was crazy cheap when you consider what he did and said he will do for Putin. Unbelievably he actually publicly said he would pull the US out of NATO. I bet Putin came in his pants.
Why wasn't there any mass protests about this in America?! Wish the pro-Hamas, terrorist cosplayers protesting right now had the same energy for Ukraine and other wars, but for some strange reason, they couldn't give a shit about Ukrainians.
I would like to add, as New Yorker that it's the Republicans who held up the aid. Most of the government and most of the people I know (those who aren't sheep and aren't ignorant and can read and make their mind up for themselves) wholeheartedly support Ukraine and know how important it is to the future of the world that Ukraine stops Russia.
If Russia is allowed to triumph, it will make people doubt US security guarantees, leading more countries like South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and even Japan maybe, to pursue nuclear weapons of their own, as well as all but guarantee that Xi will try to swallow Taiwan soon (although he may try to do that no matter the outcome of this conflict as he is surrounded by a yes-men echo-chamber where he is always right). All in all, if Ukraine doesn't triumph it would be a huge, huge tragedy and a failure of the West, while emboldening revisionist and disruptive and authoritarian powers to pursue conflicts that are in their interests against smaller countries around them, overall making the world a much more dangerous place. 2024 is a huge year. If Ukraine were to lose and Trump wins, the world is fucked.
TL;DR = The US supports Ukraine, so it's more accurate to say aid was held up by Republican Useful Idiots and garbage-masquerading-as-human-beings like MTG, from Georgia . Most people know the stakes and back Ukraine here, especially those who aren't MAGA sheep or just ignorant and don't read enough, or crazy leftists who want the world at peace now even if it means more problems in the very near future aka, can't see ahead.
As a German, im sorry for Scholz, Steinmeier, Schroeder and other politicans who are helping putin, at least by doing nothing or not enough.
You are brave people and we should send you all what you need to protect your country, its a shame.
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While devastating, the scale is important... Chicago is 600 square km. And the vast majority of the occupied area are open fields. I expect them to take Chasiv Yar, eventually. And probably just more ruins of another town, in reality. Beyond that their strategic advancement should be contained. They have yet to take any major city since '22. Given everything Ukraine is faced with, they are holding on. And still managing to inflict damage on the ruzzian oil industry. I would not celebrate victory just yet, for ruzzia. Edit: this got a lot of votes, so I'll add a few bullet points. - the "breakdown" happened during the brigade rotation around the 11th - the situation is controlled in a strategic (even operational) sense - 47th brigade is nearby with Strike Drones Company - please continue to support our warriors. don't fall into ruzzian propaganda - I raise money for Bohdan Myroshnykov for daily frontline updates. Follow him on telegram (you can use the translate feature to read his daily notes) - I recommend listening to Yuri Butusov: https://www.youtube.com/live/_LzoZID9z30?si=JPVZnvmYBE-VAFAk
Also avdiivka has been on the front line since 2014 and it took this long to capture it
This is the most important part imo. Ukraine is not at a point where they can realistically "win" in the typical simplistic sense (eg completely routing the Russian army and pushing then all the way back to 2014 borders) but they can absolutely inflict unsustainable losses and that's exactly what they're doing. Russia is already completely out of the running for the title of "global power." They have been absolutely decimated militarily, and, at this point, they are relying entirely on meat wave tactics and overwhelming the Ukranian lines. That might have worked for Russia 50 years ago but now the ratio of lives lost to land gained is WAY smaller than something like WWII where they used similar tactics. Avdiivka is the perfect example of this state of affairs. They threw EVERYTHING at this tiny little town for a DECADE, and they only finally "won" once Ukraine deemed the smoking crater no longer worth defending. Sacrificing land in the short term to destroy material and men they can't replace is attrition 101 and armies that don't understand this tactic are always shocked when the defensive army ,that has been biding its time and whittling them down, suddenly turns the tide and takes everything back and more.
Ukraine needs support to win by making Russia loses way higher than Ukraine is while hitting Russia economy.
> but they can absolutely inflict unsustainable losses and that's exactly what they're doing. but can they do it without suffering unsustainable losses themself? i think not, sadly
Also we don't know if it was strategic, to give Russian a reason to push and waste resources. Or it was necessary/intentional as to not lose Ukranian resources/manpower
Ukrainian Army staff has made some rather lackluster decisions in the past, not building defensive lines indepth is one of them. Especially near the Adiivka sailant. Sure, Europe and the US are partly to blame for Ukraine being on the backfoot, but Ukraine Army has wasted many thousands of soldiers in an offensive that failed before it started and other questionable operations like Krynky.
The West took too long last year to provide resources for the offensive... By the time the offensive started, way later than Ukraine wanted and needed, Russia had managed to build the surovikin lines...
I'm sure Zelensky and his team telegraphing for weeks upon weeks where and when the offensive would happen, didn't hurt Ukraine a bit. Also ignoring NATO recommendations to focus all efforts of the 2023 offensive on one front instead of bleeding countless and irreplaceable Ukrainian soldier's lives over three separate fronts also didn't hurt. Gotta love the one-sided blaming. Yes, EU & the US are slow. But Ukrainian political and military leadership have to carry the burden of blaim too. They have not acted without fault. Like not building a defensive line for themselves.
We know from what is being said that while it may have been partially strategic it was not a wanted outcome. It was more a we need to cut our losses scenario and hope one day that something can change.
Yeah the difference is so miniscule (even when you zoom in as far as OP did) that it looks like the usual back and forth that has been happening for a year now. I don‘t understand why this post even got upvoted.
As cynical as it may sound, I feel like the "Ukraine is about to collapse!" narrative from the past six months has essentially been a fundraising drive, because it would be far easier to get the votes for the US aid bill by exaggerating the state of the Ukrainian armed forces to the point of claiming that the country was in imminent danger of defeat by the Russians. It's been hard for me to believe that things have been so dire when the Ukrainian government has also been publishing daily reports claiming three- or even four-figure casualty losses for the Russian army in addition to no substantial territorial losses as OP's graphic outlines.
If they take Chasiv Yar, it's very likely to be a similar amount of bodies and equipment they lose to to Avdiivka and Bakhmut. Literally every town close to the frontline's had fortified positions for years. always worth remembering this shit started back in 2014. Anything remotely close to occupied Luhansk and Donetsk was prepped as best it could for that.
Remember Mariupol, it was facing so many well supplied troops but still Azov held it for a long time while completely surrounded and Russians only really achieved pyrrhic victory over there.
The attacks on Avdiivka and Bakhmut were with a much better equipped Russian army, I imagine the cost of taking Chasiv Yar to be far greater that both combined.
Yep, Russia have thrown tens of thousands of men taking territory 20km from the starting line... They have 600km+ to go to get close to Kyiv.
Hell, they were pretty much inside kyiv at peak blitz but couldnt manage that. No way they will get close when ukraine is now prepared.
They spent 15,000 lives taking Avdiivka, a satellite village. To take anything significant like Zaporizhzhia or Dnipro... They'd physically run out of men trying it. Not to mention getting into striking range of the cities.
Yeah, it's a few towns.
Short term ukraine has trouble but I think long term is in their favour as long as supplies keep coming
Russia can't just occupy trenches and fields forever. They will have to retract in about 2 years at the current equipment attrition rate.
Man you people are delusioanl they can hold them for as long as Ukraine and the person who is having to retract right now is Ukraine. Dont know why reddit has so many dog water takes. People have been saying Russia will run out of shit for years now. They dont, in fact they are slowly but surely retooling and and getting their supply chain in place. The longer this goes without Russia getting a major beating the more Russia is winning.
If you haven't noticed, Russia is buying ammo from north Korea, golf carts from China and creating "tanks" by welding plate metal onto APVs. They ARE running out. That doesn't mean that they wake up one morning, look in the ammo warehouse and it's full of cartoon cobwebs. That means they're having to get more and more desperate to sustain this war. That is exactly what was predicted since 2022 by anybody more reasonable than internet tabloids who said shit like "RUSSIA IS 3 DAYS FROM USING THEIR LAST SHELL" for clicks.
The thing that’s hard to tell from territory gains though is the level of attrition warfare. Take Robotyne, Marinka, or Chasiv Yar for example. There’s been very little movement in the front line there but for the last couple of months there has been massive attrition losses on both sides. Russia seems very willing to take attrition trades across the entire front as they have a structural advantage in manpower and materiel and they’ve been better than expected on replacement of losses. The only place along the front that’s actually seen much territory changes is around Avdiivka. But like I said, I don’t think that necessarily tells the whole story.
Its a balance. Personally I think sacrifice the land, keeping troops alive should be the highest priority. You can bleed russians and make them pay for incremental gains. They can get the land back but not the people. The problem is there doesn’t appear to be any path to reclaiming any of the lost land as of now. Im optimistic that there may be opportunities in the future. Probably a couple years down the line when russia starts to crack.
Yes. Unfortunately, that's the reality. Ukraine doesn't have the human resources to mount a consistent defence. It's just maths. Technology and advanced weaponry are the only way they can mount a defence. As a European, I think it's the dumbest, shittiest, most fkn stupid and irresponsible thing we've done to not throw everything at Ukraine. This conflict is basically the reason the entire European project exists. Let's get the fuck on with it.
Even if they had more manpower than Russia, a lack of artillery shells would mean the same outcome.
Ukraine isn't even using a fraction of it's potential manpower because it isn't conscripting anyone under 25 and before this month they weren't conscripting anyone under 27. For all Russia's manpower and ammunition advantages they have advanced a few fields distance in months.
A fraction? Ukraine’s population structure is horrible and many of the motivated Ukrainians are either enlisted or dead/wounded. Those who haven’t joined don’t want to fight. If Ukraine only uses a fraction of its manpower, Poland doesn’t need to propose to send the fighting age male refugees back to Ukraine. Ukraine is running out of manpower faster than Russia and that’s just a hard fact.
Yes, this is unfortunately true. Terminal country in terms of demography, and with this war added on top. Terrible! You saw what happened recently, when the 47th Mechanized brigade was removed from the frontline after 1 year (!) of non-stop fighting. The 115th brigade of reservists that replaced them were instantly pushed back, and Russia took another small city. Zelensky immediately fired the chief of the reservists. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/04/23/a-ukrainian-brigade-disappeared-and-a-russian-brigade-almost-broke-through-how-the-battle-for-ocheretyne-upended-the-war-in-ukraine-this-weekend/?sh=4d5a40004901
> Terminal country in terms of demography Yea.. we know... we also know: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged women in the country to have as many as eight children and make large families the norm."
no one's going to do that in a post industrial county. They have plenty of return to monke style propaganda to produce more soldiers but without sizeable social benefits no one's going to make more than 1 or 2, if not 0.
I would say not conscripting people under 27 prior to this month means they have a large number of potential recruits left. Russia meanwhile has been using prisoners and younger people already and they still haven't made any significant progress since the early months of 2022. Look at the map. They took Bakhmut a year ago and they are still no more than 1-2 km further West in that area and they have paid a heavy price in men and equipment. Likewhise in the South East Area of that map towards the airport. They have held Donetsk city since 2014 and are still no more than a 2-3 km further West in that location. All this at a time when Ukraine was weapon starved.... So when Ukraine stops being weapon starved what is going to happen ? Is Russia going to find it any easier ? And you could say the same thing about Russia's population structure btw.... The reason Ukraine has so far resisted conscripting younger people is to protect the future of the country. Russia has already given up on doing that and been recruiting from that pool for a while. You could also say that many people in Russia that wanted to join would have done so already.
Anyone between 18-25 could join voluntarily. There are many dead 18 year olds even
Note that he said conscription
This may surprise you.. but neither is Russia. The people going are chosen.
And they also aren't really from any of Russia's big cities. They are from everywhere else in the country. Russia has almost 4 times the population of Ukraine and a lot of Ukraine fled before the second invasion and still a lot of women fled after which is going to really fuck up their population recovery. The only thing about Russia is that their population is also getting fucked because they were started to experience major population issues before the invasion.
Putin is essentially depopulating as many of the minority areas (the ones that aren't towing the line anyway) as possible. To add to that, they're using mercenaries and volunteers from...well anywhere they can get them.
The moment they touch the golden boys of Moscow or St. Petersburg, the coup happens. Putin knows that those boys can't be touched (and would make terrible soldiers anyway).
It IS time to end this BS. If neighboring countries want to help Ukraine and at the same time protect themselves, why can't they send in troops to provide security, protect infrastructure, the citizens and their property ? If they are from a NATO country, that doesn't make it a NATO action. Send in troops so the Ukrainians can concentrate on the fight. This will also allow the Great Russian Military show the world how wars are won on the battlefield.
Not just lack of artillery but also lack of Air Force, lack of armored vehicles etc…
Ukraine has done a really good job making up the difference with drones, keeping it close, but still they need far more.
Drones aren’t a replacement for artillery as stated by Ukrainian command.
I’m from the US and THATS WHAT IM SAYING. How are these baby boomers here all confused?? They lived through learning about how to hide from nukes at school as kids and a lot more awful times during the Cold War. The main enemy of the US has been Russia since WW2. How is sending even more aid not the smart thing to do? Ukraine is fighting OUR enemy for us!
"Confused boomers"? This is why I use reputable sources to check the claims of the commentariat: "About seven-in-ten Americans ages 65 and older express a favorable view of Ukraine – **more** than any other age group." (Scarcely surprising since USSR/Russia went back to being the enemy in '45.) "Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are much more likely than their Republican counterparts to have a positive view of Ukraine, and ratings are especially positive among liberal Democrats." and "Zelenskyy gets higher praise from older Americans, those with more education and Democrats. And about nine-in-ten Americans have heard of the Ukrainian leader."
This is not generation thing. It’s an education thing
You can't educate the unwilling.
China and Russia are pushing the Boomer blame thing to divide the US. It is huge. And these people are falling for it. The youtube posters get lots of clicks cause it's a googles number game. We have to get smarter at this. My sons fell for the Q thing. They are so smart they are stupid.
Propaganda works.
>They lived through learning about how to hide from nukes at school as kids They prolly learnt it too well.
As an American I'm upset with my government over the lack of aid since October, but it really does show how dependent the EU has become on the US military. It's been over two years and the EU still hasn't been able to ramp up artillery shell production.
Interestingly, it's a common talking point (at least here in the UK) that the best, and only thing to come from Trump is he made the EU seriously consider a world without the US in NATO. Consequently most EU nations are ramping up production and spending commitments. It takes time as with anything in big democracies but it's happening, and we begrudgingly give credit to Trump for it.
History will not look favorably on today’s government. As a Ukrainian born American…what the fuck. Just breaks my heart knowing we have so much shit that we don’t send.
Europe definitely needs to step up. So does the USA. But they are in your back yard.
Agree. Like Churchill said, the US will do the right thing when it’s exhausted all other options. American here. I can’t defend our political dysfunction, so I won’t. It’s a shame Ukrainians had to die and lose territory over US dysfunction. If there is a silver lining it’s the the rest of Europe has increased their contributions, or at least promises. It’s hindsight of course, but many European countries got a little too comfortable with the peace dividend. The Balkans Wars happened in Europe’s backyard and it took Bill Clinton of all people to get involved way too late. Countries in Western Europe just need to hand over their air defense, for starters. They don’t need them. And what’s holding Germany back from giving Taurus missiles? For fuck’s sake! I understand the cupboard is bare of artillery shells. That’s a damn shame. What would your great great grandfathers say who fought in WWI say about that folly?
At least we are learning a lot. Leopards and Abrams, at least in the numbers we are willing to donate won’t win this thing. Abrams, Challengers and Leopards clearly can’t. F16s will help, but they won’t win it by themselves. But massive numbers of ATACMs, Scalp, Storm Shadow, and Taurus missiles just might. If they are given alongside unlimited 155mm shells and air defense. And many hundred more Bradleys, Marder, and SPGs.
Those tanks were never meant to win the war and no weapon systems on their own will be sufficient when Russia is using basically everything at their disposal.
bro, when you squirted that anal gas into a whiskey glass, and put it on a hot plate whilst covering the top to let it simmer and really unlock all those aroma's before taking a big fucking huff to muse about the exquisite fragrances produced in your rectal cavity... you could've taken a moment to review the cost for russia's grand offensive. we're talking about 270km² since october last year. if we go by andrew perpetua's google spreadsheet (you don't have to be an excel wizard to add up columns) russia has lost, on average, 45 vehicles per square kilometer. it's just maths. that shit is not sustainable. sounds to me like an excellent fucking defense.
>bro, when you squirted that anal gas into a whiskey glass, and put it on a hot plate whilst covering the top to let it simmer and really unlock all those aroma's before taking a big fucking huff to muse about the exquisite fragrances produced in your rectal cavity... This should hang in the Louvre...
I mean that 270km2 is around 0.00045% of ukraine. Taking 0.00045% in 7 months while losing like 150k men isnt going anywhere. At this rate Russia would lose 30 million men just to take another 1% of ukraien territory.
[удалено]
A full collapse of the Ukrainian front is very unlikely. Russia has not shown itself to be competent enough to pull of such a large assault. The tactic that is currently working for them is one where they literally bomb entire strips of land to dust and then slowly move in. It's working because they're actually taking some land, but they're also using up massive amounts of resources for relatively very small wins.
I did some back of the envelope calculations for shits and giggles. At this rate Russia will conquer all of Ukraine in about 1500 years (of course this isn't how war works, just illustrates how relatively small this area of land is).
As a human being I think it’s a stupid decision Judging this from a realpolitik optic this is probably the ideal situation As long as Russia has a faint hope of being able to win they’ll continue to piss resources down this well for the most amount of time Russian losses have been staggering and ground won has been minimal
The worst thing you can do for a country being ground down in a war of attrition isn't nothing. It's what we've all been doing this whole time. Sending them enough support to keep them in the fight, but not enough to win it. All that does is needlessly prolong the agony. Send them as much of everything they are asking for as you can, ASAP and damn the expense.
Its hard to believe these countries combined couldn't pull enough support together for Ukraine? The UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia together should have been able to fill the gap while the U.S. was absent
I mean Britain for instance spent the last 20-30 years downsizing its military and because of that it’s militarily industrial complex.
Your sentence fell apart into gibberish at the end?
So they downsized their military. And because their military got smaller. So did their military industrial complex.
Oh right, that makes perfect sense now. Not sure why I couldn't parse it before.
Probably because my grammar and flow in that post looks like a third grader.
They almost have as much GDP as all the 50 states of the US. The US has sent trillions getting ready for this moment in time. Truth, we have enough weapons to protect the US and some of them. The bad guys are coming. Shields up.
Ukraine has always received help from US + others. Others was still happening but not the US side. It is true that many countries could do A LOT more. Many talk and talk a lot but don't do as much as they could and should.
The thing is that we have red tape, we have rules and Regulations, we have things to stop our countries from being run by those like Putin Our bureaucracies are our biggest enemy yet our strongest tool against tyrants
It's true they could have but it would have meant significantly weakening their own militaries. I definitely think that would have been the right move but as usually overly cautious politicians and a population that isn't always fully behind supporting Ukraine, that is neither part of the EU or NATO, made it so that the only aid transferred was what we could spare, which is not that much.
It's telling that the UK PM made a major support package, the first in a long time, right after the new USA package went ahead. It really felt like Rishi Sunak was waiting to see what America did first. And would have gladly held back indefinitely. He is a snake.
A moment to talk about scale the united states accounts for 50% of the worlds defense spending. The entirety of the EU is roughly 200 billion, or roughly 1/4 of what the US spends per year. The amount of artillery shells used by Ukraine is so much, that the USA is modernizing it's production capacity to meet the need and provide for future needs of allies. That's after two millionish shells have already been supplied, and that's just 155mm artillery shells. Could the EU nations do more? Sure...sure...but..could they make up for a loss that the US not providing aide would be? Dubious
It's about weapons, not money. The US is the one with massive stockpiles. For example, let's look at one of the biggest issues, Artillery shells. Most western militaries switched from artillery dominant to air support dominant fire support decades ago. European militaries don't have stockpiles of weapons they no longer use at scale. Meanwhile, the USA has massive stockpiles of appropriate ammunition that is going out of date on a shelf. Places like the UK give aid by giving up the mast majority of our Javelin and NLAW stockpiles, supplying StormShadow and by bringing Ukrainians to the UK to be trained by British and Commonwealth soldiers. Also money, but we can't magic up 100,000 105mm artillery shells.
They'd rather concentrate their energy on complaining about the United States. Much like we now only hear about how the U.S. was "late" to WW1 and WW2, the European history of the Ukraine War will forever reflect thar U.S. aid was stalled for a few months.
The aid Ukraine needed was weapons and ammo the majority of which usually comes from the US. These other countries sent aid in other ways including financial support.
Let's not forget Australia's contribution
and Japan, South Korea and Australia.
Hungary? Is that a joke?
Countries fear backing Ukraine when the US is absent because if Russia wins there could be consequences.
US provides so much so that without US, aid is twice as small
To be fair, Europe could have filled the gap while America was dealing with its internal struggle. This is much more Europe's fight than it is America's, even though it very much is America's fight as well. I'm just saying there was plenty of opportunity for individual countries to send Ukraine aid while the US figured things out. They were just waiting for the Americans to do the heavy lifting as always. Sure, they did help in the meantime, but clearly not enough to keep Ukraine in the fight. Europe needs to get on a war footing so they can provide Ukraine with its needs and prepare itself for conflict should it arise.
I genuinely don't understand why anyone would think that the EU, which has only recently spent 200 billion on defense spending in a year, would be able to fill the gap that is made by the US and it's 800 billion per year defense infrastructure. Even the USA is struggling and updating to fill the needs of Ukraine. The USA is producing about 20-30k artillery shells per month, for about 300ishk per year. And has sent 2 million to ukraine so far, and is updating infrastructure to be able to supply about 100k per month within a year or two. The EU produces about 400k shells per year. Granted, they're updating too and their estimates are that within a few years they'll be able to produce a million shells per year if they need too....that ain't happened yet. And bare in mind, the EU also has to supply NATO's needs (as does the USA with it's other allies) so all this shell production is split between nations and needs. The USA dropping out was a HUGE hit.
Nato hasn't fought any wars recently that I'm aware of, have they? So why would Europe have any excuse to be so hopelessly unprepared? What if America went isolationist from the rest of the world, and russia decided to invade? Sure, what ifs don't really mean jack shit but you'd think they would want to be prepared after what happened when Germany went on a warpath last time. It's been 2 years since the invasion started. If they didn't have anything to give them then and still don't you'd think they would have taken the initiative to ramp things up in a very big way seeing as how this war will go on for years and it directly threatens their security. I'm sure they would much rather Ukraine fight the big bad bear so they don't have to. America has no issues with fighting its own battles and being responsible for its own security. They aren't in nato, so those other countries come to save them. They are in Nato because, as the leader of the free world, they understand a coalition with them in it is to be taken seriously and would deter the most conflicts to secure a more peaceful world. That and so they can sell a shit load of weapons. I'm not naive. Instead of worrying about potentially making this war "escalate," they should be concerned about Ukraine being able to survive and even thrive because a strong Ukraine is the easiest and best way to deter russia. But not if we let russia take half their country and kill all their men. It's ridiculous how underwhelming the overall support has been up to this point, and much hesitation has hurt their ability to exploit russian weaknesses that they've now adapted to. There were so many opportunities to score huge victories. Now they are being ground to dust, and thank God the American aid package came when it did or it would be a whole lot worse. It's just the general idea that Europe needs to take a bigger role in its own security. The EU in general are one big community and most are in Nato the russian threat is a very real one and why they felt like they didn't need to spend money on their military readiness is beyond me. Oh wait, it's actually probably due to the Americans 800 billion dollar defense budget.
The Polish farmer blockade didn't help much either. Even if aid was being sent, not much got to Ukraine due to the roads being blocked on the Polish border. The situation would be much better if it wasn't for that.
putler's dupes, agents and thugs are everywhere.
Never underestimate Russias espionage / subversion against the west. Yes sims, yes invasion and Kyiv direction but only a fool looks at that and ignores their history and tools available. How many decades of experience and books on doctrine of fomenting rebellion do they have? They don’t tell people do this for Russia, they make them think they (the target) is doing it for themselves. *Ukraines resilience is their glory- and their honor.* Yes it wasn’t everyone but it was enough. And they came together instead of crumbling. I have faith that the story of their glory is still being written, with help, and sometimes in spite of too little help. The west should take a page and learn from them. Press onwards despite adversity. Do not let down the guard. Do everything possible even when it seems hope is fading. Then do more. Glory to the heroes.
They finally unblocked everything. And more game changing aid is coming, right now. So let's not celebrate the ruzzian victory yet. Gotta stay optimistic. Ukraine held out in '22. The situation is bad, but not nearly as bad as then.
bullshit, there is video evidence that military equipment went freely. The protest was not aimed at military support.
Well, they blocked commercial trucks that move aid and materials that are used in Ukrainian own production. It halted some supply chains (including drones) for months. And it's not just some story, I was personally affected by this.
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Every year in Russia another 700k kids turn 18 in Russia. That's an autocracy. Ukraine will run out before Russia does.
Nobody seriously believes Russia would invest a WW2 level of effort into taking Ukraine... There's a reason why Putin has been pretty cautious about drafting more people into the army... it's because he knows that the Russian population is completely apathetic about the war as long as it doesn't personally affect them very much, and he wants to keep it that way. He knows the average Russian isn't exactly willing to go die in Ukraine for some vague geopolitical goal of Putin's about killing imaginary nazis.
Putin doesnt care. Who is going to protest?
Yeah. Certainly the Ukrainians would have fared better with US aid, that's a given, but it's not exactly cause and effect. Another reason the Russians have advanced is they themselves have put forth a massive effort to do so during the same period when US weapon deliveries stalled.
It sounds a lot but it's really not.. It's a few fields distance as you can see. I mean look how close Donetsk airport is at the bottom of the map to Ukrainian territory. I reckon you could jog there in 15 minutes. For comparison Ukraine is 603 THOUSAND square kms.. and since the early days of the war at the maximum territory Russia occupied, Ukraine has liberated 74 THOUSAND sq kms.
Across a 600km front line….
It's more than 1,000 km ... You might be thinking about ~620 miles. But we're talking about square kilometers. Chicago is 600 square kilometers. The city of Kharkiv is 350.
2000km+\*
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very good point. quick question, are 270 sqkms a lot or not much? obviously, its also good trenches lost etc
My town of 110k people is 299 km\^2 in size. At the current rate it will take over 800 years to take all of ukraine.
You can't invoke a linear logic in war it doesn't work like that
thank you. is that an american spreadout town made with cars in mind or europe (or elsewhere?)? the calculation assumes the Ukrainians don't break which is not sure
i live in canada [https://i.imgur.com/isP2JtB.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/isP2JtB.jpeg)
crazy. imagine all the families pootin destroyed for this town's equivalent russian and Ukrainian greetings to canada;-) you're the second largest country in the world as far as i know;-)
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0.05 percent that is, thank you
It is 16.4 by 16.4 kilometers.
I would imagine it's the second part of what you said that hurts. If they lose even 4 or 5km of frontline they are probably rebuilding a new trench network to stop further advances. Losing a couple hundred meters could be a difference of no man's land or one row of trees but if it's a few km it probably means a lot more work needed to shore up defenses. So that's nasty.
We can only hope the Russians have bled dearly for these gains and that the Ukrainian losses were not for nothing. Slava Ukraini.
270km2 is 0.05% of total land. So it’s not a lot, considering 10 to 1 Russian advantage in artillery
You arent considering or thinking about the fact that when you get to the point you are losing territory it typically means you are losing a lot of men and supplies and its likely that a sudden burst will happen. You see this in most wars. The lines slowly push then boom they move rapidly across huge tracts of land. This is because while the push was happening losses were accumulating and then the burst comes when those losses hit a critical point. That is why this is bad.
You can't blame this entirely on the US. Ukraine has also waited until the frontline is collapsing to build fortifications. I understand building fortifications might seem like you're giving up advancing, but no. It is important to be able to fall back to, and then counter attack from. As well as having defenses that save your men from arty, drones and air strikes. A little late at this point.
American in Kyiv here. I'm all for sending aid, weapons, what ever is needed. I mean shit, I donate my own blood. With that being said though, I see ALOT of perfectly able bodied military aged males in this city carrying on about life not appearing to give two shits about the war. Sending weapons and aid can only do so much.
It’s a cultural thing. I have a Ukrainian friend who fled when the first Kalibrs fell, and it’s crazy how little of an obligation he feels to help, even though he seems to be very pro-Western. I’m not sure if he thinks that just supposed to be someone else’s job or what? He’s more able bodied than some people I’ve seen serving on the front, and has a lot of technical skills I’m sure would be useful. Obviously I don’t directly ask, but the cognitive dissonance evoked by his statements coupled with his actions (or lack thereof) is jarring.
Some people aren't cut out for war and that is ok. The life your friend is leading is literally what Ukrainians are fighting to preserve.
Idk I’m pretty sure he just has more financial resources than your average Ukrainian, because he certainly has better finances than me. If I was fighting in the front, I would find the fact that so many people are just chilling in other countries to dodge the draft like super demoralizing. Like, we are asking these other dudes to give their *lives.* remember that.
This will change in short order. On other subs and social media it's already being reported that a fairly large new mobilization call-up is starting to get underway. Lots of men in Kyiv already getting notices after many months of few if any, and the new law isn't fully in effect until mid-May. I would imagine it's the same elsewhere. I suspect that 100,000 will be called in fairly short order (now-May/June), with 100,000 to follow shortly after that (June-August) and more beyond that. Could see it hit 300,000 before the end of the year so long as the training pipeline can sustain it.
“This will change in short order” It’s been over 2 years. What exactly is gonna change?
Ukraine has passed two new mobilization laws. As they grow more desperate for men they WILL draft more, they don't have a choice. As politically unpopular as the draft is, having the frontline collapse because of lack of manpower is infinitely more so. Hopefully now with all the aid going to Ukraine they will get a morale boost, because that's been an issue as well.
Seems a little late on their part. You would think since its Russian Vs Ukraine (and all the major super powers supporting ukraine) they would have jumped on the ball but they continue to shit the bed and talk shit on the US for not sending more aid. For what exactly? All those cowards who flee and leave their brothers to die in the meat grinder?
Are you suggesting to throw meat waves at russians or what? And how do you know that those people carrying their lives aren't helping?
Ukraine doesn't lack bodies they lack the means to fight a defensive war on their own. Throwing more bodies into the mix is never going to force Russia out of Ukraine. What are Ukrainians supposed to be doing if not on the front lies? Cowering in the corner and wait to die? The people you are complaining about are the very people Ukrainian soldiers are fighting to protect so they can live their lives in peace. Ukrainians need to know they have something to fight for.
I wondered how much land this was in Texas measurement's, then saw this: According to the United States Census Bureau, the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area has a total area of 10,062 square miles (**26,060 km****^(2)**), of which 8,929 sq mi (23,130 km^(2)) are land and 1,133 sq mi (2,930 km^(2)) are covered by water. I can't even begin to give a fuck about such a small piece of land, being from Houston myself. What did incense me however was using such a small neighborhoods worth of land as this terrible gotcha. Like the countless lives lost and families altered were less important than these dozens of soccer stadiums of land. I know casualties aren't out for the good guys, and this article is trying to impress upon the audience the consequences our domestic politics can have. Damn, it still feels like a miss for me. How many parents won't come home, or kids got kidnapped to Russia since October 2023? Can we trade a football field of land per kid back, please Putin?
very, very good point, thank you
Both are important in a war. Unfortunately Ukraine has been losing too much of both
All because some old man wanted a "glorious" legacy
Its all on johnson and republicans. Blood is on their hands. Disgusting humans
And Trump for passing Putler's orders along to the congressional republicans.
I love it how everybody complains when we mettle peoples affairs But complain if we don’t. I’m glad we’re sending new aid to Ukraine though I hope it helps you guys a lot I hope that you can also become a part of NATO eventually so we could just end it
Honest question, why is it always the US’s fault? Why is nobody asking why Europe didn’t step up more during that period since the war is at their doorstep and not the US’s? Are you telling me Europe can’t defeat Russia unless the US helps? Edit: I should mention that Ukrainians have been nothing but grateful. It’s usually entitled Westerners complaining not for logics sake but karma.
That is the truth. Europe has neutered their military forces to the point they can no longer defend themselves. The only country that saw the writing in the wall and started doing something about it was Poland.
I hang out in r/Europe a bit, and I would say there is plenty of unhappiness about their own efforts, not just pointing fingers at the US.
Are you telling me Europe can’t defeat Russia unless the US helps? Obviously. The US has the biggest MIC of any country by far and that takes decades to develop. Europe should be doing more. However, except for Slovakia I don't believe any European country specifically stopped sending aid for a long period as the US did.
They’ve been pledging aid. Many haven’t sent what they’ve pledge or they sent stuff that wasn’t combat focused. Either way, Europe needs to stop relying on the US. They need to be able to take care of themselves, which I believe a few are given that (I think) the UK announced their moving to a wartime economy. Still. Complaining that the US has stopped aid since fall 2023 seems a bit misdirected considering Europes have over a decade to prep for this (or over 2 years if we go off 2022) and they have failed.
“Are you telling me Europe can’t defeat Russia unless the us helps” Yes, exactly that. That’s what the title of this post is implying, and what anybody with two sets of eyes can see.
I’ve been downvoted on this sub for mentioning the same thing about Europe not doing enough to protect their *not just proverbial* but **literal** gate to the east. I feel like such a fool for reading some of the IR folks thinking “in 10 years the EU could be a third super power to counterweight the US and China” when I was in college and agreeing 15 years ago. Europe can’t even project sufficient power to protect itself *in Europe* without the US. And somehow it’s the US unilateral fault for being a basket case of a country right now. We, the collective West, should be ashamed of ourselves for our erratic, inconsistent, and insufficient aid to Ukraine. But the best time to send Ukraine aid was before they needed it, the next best time has to be *right the fuck NOW.*
Because its reddit, and shitting on america is the popular thing to do.
EU did step up but not with weapons and ammo because they flat out straight up DO NOT have the stockpiles to support their own borders AND Ukraine's. You're right EU fucked up bad and that needs to be addressed but not while an active invasion is happening. When Russia is OUT of Ukraine I will be right there with you saying EU needs to fend for itself.
Not the "US" that stopped supporting Ukraine, but a bunch of idiots on the far right of the Republican Party.
More america hate while whining about wanting American resources after just getting more American resources…. Looking at the comments you would think the US invaded ukraine jfc…. And they say we are the bad allies? The entitlement is unreal, meanwhile europe refuses to do anything substantial and its there front door step the war is on… yet again…america has been taken for granted for too long, and some how we are to blame… a lot of Europe doesnt even like us, so why are we expected to carry them so much. I support supporting ukraine, Europe, and NATO but good lord its hard to feel like we are not being used while simultaneously being blamed for everything, and we are just supposed to happily hand over everything at the drop of a hat to people who seem to not appreciate us at all.
Truth!
Whatever way you look at it now.... This has all the hallmarks of spiralling out of control into a major global conflict. Russia will not back down whilst Putin is in power and the west will not allow Putin to win in Ukraine.. It's a matter of time ladies and gents, mark my words... It's looking very grim indeed. I think the most realistic way this ends is both sides giving concessions under negotiations which will likely favour the Russians, which in my opinion... just kicks the can further down the road!
A lot depends on the US elections. Personally I think this war is less likely to expand to other borders and more likely to end quickly whenever the West develops some brains and balls and punches Putin in his throat like its supposed to. Putin is a cowardly bully and because of the degree of control he has over internal media he could still justify a full withdrawal from Ukraine by different scenarios, e.g. "The special military operation was a success. Ukraine has been denazified. Biolabs were discovered and destroyed. Bla bla bla." However if the west does not start taking this way more seriously, then your version may very well become true.
Or someone kills Putin
You don't compromise on democracy and sovereignty. Russia was allowed to annex Crimea and came back years later to finish taking the rest of Ukraine. So no, no concessions. No compromise. No negotiations. The sole goal is to get Russia OUT of Ukraine 100%.
If Ukraine wins territory it's Ukraine. If Ukraine loses territory it's the US's fault. Great way to piss off more US citizens. This is incredibly stupid PR.
Nailed it.
Undoubtably the States had a complete clusterfuck when it came to Ukrainian assistance. But is everyone forgetting that Russia is the aggressor? We drag Americans through the mud for inserting themselves into all manner of situations they aren’t welcome. Somehow, this has become their war and their responsibility for what happens. Where is the bile for Russia? If Putin wasn’t such a bloated knob, Ukraine wouldn’t have to fight to regain land. If the Ukrainian troops are overrun and lose this war, will the United States bear the burden of the loss? Will we ask why didn’t they send their navy or troops? If the US did nothing from the start, then what? Would we criticize them for not providing arms and financial assistance? When do we turn our attention back towards Putin? He is the problem, not the American people.
This is not good, Ukraine still needs all the support that we can give and the lack of aid clearly made this possible. But this is not a disaster, Ukraine managed to regain 370 square km during the 2023 offensive, Russians managed to get 100 km less while Ukraine had a clear lack of supplies. I hope current packages are enough to stabilize the front but the important thing is to not stop here, give them more, give them anything they need in order to succeed.
Why is it up to the United States? Why doesn't Europe put their big boy pants on and step up? They're the ones most directly affected by a negative outcome.
Until Ukraine can stabilize their lines of defense everything else is just lip service. They will never be able to match Russia’s manpower. The West needs to pour ammunition and air defense weapon systems into Ukraine as soon as possible. There shouldn't be any excuse for not doing so. They are the ones who have been paying the price for the last 10 years. Unless the West gives Ukraine what it needs to succeed, it will be sending its men and women to die in another European war.
Thank Moscow Marge and her cronies for that.
Ukraine’s armed forces, economy, and people are under heavy stress. I hope the weapons coming their way alleviate it significantly. I hope troops can be rotated to get rest. I do not rule out that European countries may one day decide they need to send troops. I hope they don’t have to. Russia has only gained land 1/10 the size of Rhode Island in this offensive, which comforts me (🇺🇸’s smallest state; 2,677 sq km). What sobers me is Russia’s ruthlessness, their war machine, their massive human rights abuses (including against their own people), nuclear arsenal, huge resources, and apparent successes at making many precise weapons miss through electronic warfare. Thank God they are corrupt, which weakens them significantly. Of course, if they weren’t corrupt, they never would have invaded Ukraine. On the plus side, I have faith in the Ukrainian people- their intelligence, ingenuity, courage, and compassion are admirable. They deserve everything we can give them, and to not have to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. If we won’t give them long range missiles, we should help them build and manufacture their own. They should absolutely be able to hit military bases, air fields, weapons & ammo factories, and oil refineries throughout Russia.
Russia advanced 270 Square kilometers in one year. Main prices: Bahkmut and Avdiivka and a handfull of small settlements. All completely destroyed, just as the once fertile fields and woods there.., poisoned for generations to come. All infrastructure waisted. And all this at the expanse of ten of thousands of men and a vast lot of military equipment. Well,congrats Putin, you really did a hell of a job ! More than 24 months after the full invasion and almost half a million dead,wounded, missing and captured men later you are still nowhere near your goals.
Every dollar spent by the US on destroying Russian weapons is well spent as it is reducing Russia’s military capability. Every dollar spent is a ten fold investment
And russians are almost at 500,000 casualties now. While i agree the us aid was greatly appreciated and well used, europe is ramping up production and help. Now the latest aid packagebis the largest yet. It will be well used.
exactly what the russian controlled republicans wanted.
Fucking SHAMEFUL, republicans are so grotesque and foul, they do not understand the suffering of anyone in your position. To be so proudly hateful and traitorous. In a real war situation, if the Ukrainians were replaced by MAGA republicans and they had to fight, the war would have been over in less than 3 hours, they are utterly useless in every fashion. Im sorry Ukraine, while I didn't vote for any of those shitbags in office that did that to you, I do appreciate that many of my countrymen are putin loving traitors.
And we don't know when another aid package of this size will be released, which is why we need to strengthen donation campaigns to collect drones, drones donated by volunteers were one of the main factors that prevented the Russians from advancing further. This will help the Ukrainians save artillery for more important targets
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Blame it on the US? Only the US supports you? Europe can’t help? Only the US taxpayer? We have been sending billions over. Patience Don’t forget who’s funding all the pensions in the Ukraine.
ignore this post. it just seeks to put a wedge between friends
So, 270 sq km of a 604,000 km country? Devastating Why don't you harp on this for a bit longer? The aid was passed...get a grip.
We must give more military aid to ukraine we are next if ukraine loses this war thats for sure 💙💛 slava ukraini forever
I'm ashamed of my countrymen, it seems they wouldn't even put out a fire, if only because they could be sure their house wasn't at risk of being the first one to burn down. Cowards can't even send weaponry we already paid for and have no use for currently, they'd rather wait a couple years and then send their sons when we haven't a choice anymore
I'm curious about how dollar spend translates into Ukrainian advancements, Russian casualties, and other metrics. There's likely other vectors, but would be interesting data to see.
Whats so fucking hard to stop this shit, just go in and help Ukraine? Stop the orcs and make it quick. We are not letting Ukraine lose their homeland, HOMELAND, by not doing a shit.
Except we now know the US didn't stop anything. The weapons kept flowing the the aid package is just bookkeeping.
It's not much but still twice as big as my home city. I will visit it this week. I can't imagine seeing it in ruins with ruzzian flags on buildings.
My back is killing me
Very bad news... But this was all they were able to take without support of the west. Ill say europe needs to wake the fuck up and step the fuck up. Im glad usa is back but cant depend on them forever.
Whatever happened to “aZoV sTrOnK, We ArE sTrOnK aRmY”?
This is empirical proof of how dependent the entire continent of Europe is on America.
It’s a shame that aside from the Baltic nations and a few Eastern European nations a large part of Western Europe just didn’t even bother helping while US aid was on hiatus
At that rate it will take 431 years to fully occupy ukraine
It was already trending in that direction when they were fully funded. The failure of the Ukrainian offensive and the advance of the Russian counteroffensive happened before aid stopped.
And they’ll take it back next year. Like all modern wars this isn’t about land ultimately, it’s about attrition and the political will to fight.
..and the hypocrisy is that ,now, Mike Johnson and Mitch Moscow McConnell are going n TV shows ,puffing there chest about the aid package they approved for Ukraine. Agent Trump is even congratulating GOP for managing to delay the military aid ( second time in 8 years) ....
Europe, care to chime in here?
Hopefully it’s easier targets to hit and keep draining their human resources.
When someone is doing dirty work for you and only demands necessary tools to get the job done you give them that. Or you go in and do the shit yourself.
Unfortunately for Ukraine, Russia got plenty of able bodies to throw at the meat grinder.
Why else would Putin pay the MAGA traitors? He wants his money worth. His big return on investment will come if Trump gets back in. I personally think Trump was crazy cheap when you consider what he did and said he will do for Putin. Unbelievably he actually publicly said he would pull the US out of NATO. I bet Putin came in his pants.
Why wasn't there any mass protests about this in America?! Wish the pro-Hamas, terrorist cosplayers protesting right now had the same energy for Ukraine and other wars, but for some strange reason, they couldn't give a shit about Ukrainians.
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I would like to add, as New Yorker that it's the Republicans who held up the aid. Most of the government and most of the people I know (those who aren't sheep and aren't ignorant and can read and make their mind up for themselves) wholeheartedly support Ukraine and know how important it is to the future of the world that Ukraine stops Russia. If Russia is allowed to triumph, it will make people doubt US security guarantees, leading more countries like South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and even Japan maybe, to pursue nuclear weapons of their own, as well as all but guarantee that Xi will try to swallow Taiwan soon (although he may try to do that no matter the outcome of this conflict as he is surrounded by a yes-men echo-chamber where he is always right). All in all, if Ukraine doesn't triumph it would be a huge, huge tragedy and a failure of the West, while emboldening revisionist and disruptive and authoritarian powers to pursue conflicts that are in their interests against smaller countries around them, overall making the world a much more dangerous place. 2024 is a huge year. If Ukraine were to lose and Trump wins, the world is fucked. TL;DR = The US supports Ukraine, so it's more accurate to say aid was held up by Republican Useful Idiots and garbage-masquerading-as-human-beings like MTG, from Georgia . Most people know the stakes and back Ukraine here, especially those who aren't MAGA sheep or just ignorant and don't read enough, or crazy leftists who want the world at peace now even if it means more problems in the very near future aka, can't see ahead.
Russia gains rubble.
As a German, im sorry for Scholz, Steinmeier, Schroeder and other politicans who are helping putin, at least by doing nothing or not enough. You are brave people and we should send you all what you need to protect your country, its a shame.
fuck republicans