slurpinderpinNetherlands allows Ukraine to strike Russian territory with its F-16s
So is Ukraine supposed to micromanage how each piece of equipment is being used based on how each donor country feels about attacking Russia?
NeatoYes. They sold the equipment under stipulations on how it will be used. If the US just gives Ukraine massive long-range offensive capabilities then Russia will treat that as a declaration of a proxy war and may attack US forces elsewhere. Or escalate in other ways. No one wants a desperate Russia. They want Russia to spend itself to death, again. And die like it did in the cold war.
BlackmistYeah, that’s what the rest of the west want, but Ukraine just want to punch Russia in the face and send them packing. They don’t have the people or morale for a full-on meat grinder war over the next decade.
They don’t have the people or morale for a full-on meat grinder war over the next decade.
Russia doesn’t have the people or morale. Ukrainians are defending their homes with outside support, Russians are being dragged kicking and screaming into war with blocking troops behind them so they can’t turn and run.
Russia had a major demographic problem before any of this started, then a bunch of young men fled mobilization, now thousands are dying every week. The Kremlin’s last mobilization was deeply unpopular.
This isn’t the combined power of the USSR driven by an ideological hope for a better future, it’s a shrinking country with an unstable economy run by the Mafia.