Ukrainian War Developments

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sardaukar20

Sardaukar20

Captain
Registered Member
james smith esq said:
There were alternative ways to achieve the desired objectives; those should have been exhausted before all out war, at least!
Click to expand...
Agreed. Looking at how the 'free world' is now sanctioning the crap out of Russia. I wondered why Russia didn't just turn off the gas going into Europe via Ukraine years ago? And aldo sanctioning other Ukrainian businesses making money from Russia, both directly or indirectly.

That would have deprived Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue, and pressured Europe into using alternative routes like NS2. US LNG might make short term gains, but its never gonna truly compete with cheap Russian gas.

That might have turned Ukraine from a pseudo failed state into an actual failed state. Those pompous upper and middle class Ukrainians who were so eager to hate the Russians. They would have lost most of their income. Then the Kiev fascists would be running a failed state with a hungry and angry populace. Russia could then stir up trouble in Ukraine and try to achieve a reverse color revolution. Or failing that, just provoke a wider civil war and then Balkanize the country. Like what Russia did with the DPR and LPR.

Destroying Ukraine through economics will surely invite Western sanctions. But its still not war. Thus the international condemnation and boycotts would be far less crazy.

Alas this is just hindsight. We might never truly know why Russia chose this course if action.
 
R

Richard Santos

Captain
Registered Member
tamsen_ikard said:
What I'm seeing is a Russian Army that is taking over a country with 44 million people who are industrialized, developed and has 200K strong army with just 30-40 thousand mobile fast moving and lightly armed forces without using significant air power, significant use of artillery and bombing. When was the last time US did something like that?

Never.

Last time US took on Iraq, it was already degraded by 10 years of no fly zone bombings by the US. And even before that US used 500K troops to take on Iraq again with just 10 million population at the time. And that Iraqi army was not even a full industrialized country like Ukraine but a rural country with imported weapons.


Russia is doing extremely well while having its hands tied behind back by the top leadership. Just makes you wonder what They would have done if they invaded with full force without having to worry about Nato intervention and used bombings and artillery without limit. I think Ukraine would surrender in 3 days if that happened.


Anyways, you can doubt about Russian army competence all you want. But don't doubt that Tactical Nukes Russian missiles will be carrying if Nato decided to fight.
Click to expand...

When people say Ukraine is industrialized and developed, keep in mind Ukraine’s GDP per capita, on PPP basis, is about the same as civil war torn Libya and Sri Lanka.

It was twice as high under the Soviet Union, and actually higher than that in Russia SSR. It is now less than half of that in Russia.
 
j17wang

j17wang

Senior Member
Registered Member
tokenanalyst said:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Oh oh. it would be interesting if Russia secretly ship to Iran some weapon grade uranium and some blueprints to make things interesting in the Middle East.
Click to expand...

TOT by China and Russia to other allies opposing western hegemony is probably the most effective method of sanction-busting, since very little goods change hands. Also, makes it impossible to tell if a weaker country is developing its own technologies and butressing against sanctions or simplying being subject to technological uplift. TOT might be a game changer to increase the comprehensive and resistive powers of Iran, Pakistan, and other mid-tier powers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top