@ariadne Stating the obvious, Ukraine should drastically ramp up domestic weapons development and production. A sizeable part of the economy is still untaxed; the war tax is currently at 1.5%; there are intact old industrial plants that have not been involved in weapons production and are barely making ends meet otherwise.
It's really long, long past time for #Scholz and #Germany and #Poland and #Switzerland to tell their oligarchs and kleptocrats that #NATO and #Europe need to stop caring about how much more wealthy European oligarchs and kleptocrats get from doing endless back-door business with #Russia and perhaps consider the interests of the citizens of their countries
@ariadne I think the Ukrainian “offensive” last year was a super bad idea that they were pressured into by the west, hoping that they would get more weapons and stuff.
I think they should stick to defense. Wait for the Russian front to collapse, then expand. Rather than trading lives for land.
The alternative is to have Russia do that to them (they are). No one is going to win this war. One side is going to lose first.
#Corruption in #Ukraine is also an on-going and serious problem. From a recent article in Foreign Policy Magazine - "Because corruption is hidden, estimating its scale is always problematic. According to the most widely cited source—the annual ranking of corruption by Transparency International (TI)—Ukraine has scored poorly for decades. As late as 2016, amid major anti-corruption reforms, TI’s survey still judged Ukraine to be as corrupt as #Russia. The most recent TI index suggests that Ukraine has made some strides since then, but it still ranks 104th among 180 countries. Denmark is ranked first—meaning that it is perceived as cleanest—while Russia ranks 141st."
Die Ukraine wurde schon zu UdSSR Zeiten, als extrem Korrupt eingestuft, und galt deswegen zeitweise auch als unregierbar.
Habe selbst bekannte aus der Ukraine, welche mir vom gelobten und sehr weit verbreiteten "big Business" die letzten Jahre berichtet,.. Waffenschmuggel in und aus der Ukraine gern als Nahrung getarnt.
Ist wohl gerade eine Art Modeerscheinung in der Ukraine, und jeder versucht dort mit zu machen.
@ariadne
The fight should be taken into Russia. Not that I'm for war, but they aren't going to be stopped until they are forced to stop.
Their should be a coalition of the willing to support Ukraine in this effort.
here is an interview with retired #US army General Ben Hodges (former commander of the #USArmy in #Europe) about what "boots on the ground" in Ukraine would mean (DeutscheWelle Interview from 1 March 2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBbLfwQfTXI
@ariadne There is probably no way for Ukraine to regain the lost territory using conventional means, but they can probably hold a defensive line if they dig in. Russia under Putin is unlikely to negotiate honestly under the current circumstances, so what really needs to happen is to destabilize the Russian regime from within.
@kris if only ... still hold out hope, though. If Putin were gone, Russia would plunge into chaos and I think the war might come to a (near) halt from the Russian side.
@kris@ariadne they are losing ground because support dried up, there were many lost opportunities in the last 12 months. They could have taken a lot more back, and I believe they still could buy that requires a lot more commitment.
@tshirtman absolutely. And a lot of ground was lost because France, Germany, and to an extent the US have not come through with promised weapons systems, fighter jets, and munitions @kris
@TomSwirly I suppose it would mean de facto bringing Ukraine under NATO's protection. NATO would declare Ukraine a "no fly zone", as they did in the Balkan War, and shoot down any non-NATO aircraft or drone airborne over Ukraine. In terms of ground troops, I suppose it would be along the lines of what Macron and Donald Tusk have been talking about.
@TomSwirly I don't know (my original question had slightly different wording, but it was too lengthy for the poll, so I substituted the word 'insist' to make it fit ;)
I was also interested in the answer to Tom's question but from another angle: what does "insist" mean here, given that the Ukrainian government has already been pleading for help for the duration of the war?
Usually if I insist on something then there's some implicit "or else" lurking there, some way to coerce them into doing as I say. Without that coercion it's just begging, and beggars are accustomed to the answer usually being a silent "no."
@passenger I suppose the "or else" would be that Russia can and will outlast Ukraine if the status quo is kept up, in terms of production of the instruments of war and a much larger population to draw on for soldiers (who the Russians have no qualms about sacrificinf in great numbers). Ukraine is already running out of fresh and replacement troops, and so far, countries such as #Germany and #France have not come close to providing Ukraine with what they've already promised, let alone beyond that (also true of the #US, but not to as great an extent) @TomSwirly
The current situation is that Ukraine is losing the war, and when they lose the war everyone will find out whether the fears of Russian forces pushing on even further were justified or not. This is something that people in Paris and Berlin and London and Warsaw and Washington DC already know. This knowledge has not been enough to make them do anything about it - my understanding is that they're giving less help now that Ukraine is losing than they were early on when Ukraine was not losing.
The Europeans and Americans appear to either have made the decision to leave Ukraine to its fate, or to be too paralysed due to their own lack of state function to do anything about it.
My question is: with this being the case, what new coercion can the Ukrainian government apply to the West to change this decision?
Otherwise, it's not insistence, it's just begging, and as any Kurdish person can tell you, begging the West to help keep you alive doesn't get you much.
I’m hoping that the US will throw some more help to Ukraine until the elections here in November, that the elections go well, and that even more assistance is given afterwards. Putin, I’m sure, is doing what he can to make sure the US elections go his way.