Message #48305

[mccoy]

Steve, the issue about the attrition war is that people in most nations (barring Poland and some bordering Russia) are not willing to support economically Ukraine for too long. Another issue is the cost of energy, the less wealthy are having problems with winter heating and electricity bills, big problems. Also, an invasion into European territory is highly unlikely, since we have seen how poor have been the military performances of the Russian army, surprisingly poor. It clearly would not be able to withstand a full NATO counteroffensive.

The main issue though is that Ukraine is running out of fighters. Some are killed or wounded, some others need some rest from the front, having PTSD or other problems. Russia is importing soldiers from North Korea, even Yemen, and these are used as pure cannon fodder. Russia has this direct help from other rascals, plus significant indirect help from China.

The only way for Ukraine to resist would be to start a 3rd world war, which Zelenski has really tried hard to trigger. By allowing western NATO troops to be on the front. This is excessively dangerous, since Russians are crazy rascals, they might be capable of firing nukes and this would total destruiction on the ground and irreparable global pollution and climate changes for decades. This is a far bigger hazard than global warming.

Presently there are no alternatives to the negotiations led by the POTUS. He is the only one who can potentially stop this war now. Again, if he's able, I hope he'll present fair conditions for Ukraine. The russians are very interested in peace, they make it believe otherwise but they ran to the negotiations in Ryhad. They don't want to be the satellites of China.

I still wonder though about the apparently cruel interruption of US intelligence support to Ukraine. Maybe it's an unspoken part of the deals with Russia.
campaign

Proofs of direct help from Putin in the first mandate are lacking. We can hypothesize, but the lack of evidence means that it can be a defamation campaign coming from the democrat elite. The alleged collusion with Russia has been used to defamate Tulsi GAbbard as well.