Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I don't actually care how much debt they have except that in the future it's going to impact the world's economy and their ability to intervene in countries like Ukraine. There's always going to be another conflict and another country being invaded who will need their help. Ukraine isn't the first and sure as hell won't be the last unfortunately.

Russia's economy is so far beyond trouble that the sooner it dies the better for Ukraine and the basic Russian soldier.

Seems Putin is looking for Gas customers to pay for it using Rubles only! I wonder how that will work out for him?

….oops meant as a message to the mod, not sure how it ended up here.

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Still finding this funny

Americans should give the Ukrainians a good few of their retiring A-10 thunderbolt warthogs , and let them convert them to super drone, autonomous weapons . Or even let some Kamakaze pilots loose in them and supply them a nil balance on the ledger .

Is someone confusing this guy with Jeffrey Sacks?

Must have been even worse in winter

Let's hope so. It's been a very difficult start to the year for Ukraine and at the very least this buys them time. Importantly it also buys the EU time to finally get its act together because the US might not deliver a package like this again.

And with every passing year scumbag Putin gets a bit older and more vulnerable and maybe more fractures will appear internally in Russia.

Still not worth the effort, if not even crazier. The reason those converted sports planes are getting through is because, apart from a few structural beams and the engine, there’s next to no metal involved in their construction and as a result, their radar cross section is pretty much as small as you can go. Also, they’re relatively quiet and the engine noise can easily be confused with a moped or something similar.

Compare that to an A-10, or indeed any combat aircraft approaching retirement in the west, which is an all-metal design and has a correspondingly massive radar cross section that will show up clearly on any air defence radar. Also, anyone who hears such a thing go by will know that that was a combat aircraft that just passed by. Besides, you’d be throwing away an aircraft that, despite its flaws and age, is still a highly capable combat platform in the right environment, with a ton of weapons hard points.

I say we just nuke Moscow from orbit...only way to be sure.

Get that reference and see what Russians are to humanity now

Any "peace treaty" not guaranteeing post war borders & Ukrainian territory by NATO forces won't be viable as Russia won't be stopped from tearing up such an agreement at a future date & invading the rest of Ukraine. The tankies & useful idiots, far right & hard left vermin won't want this as they demand total Ukrainian surrender as always, whilst "calling for peace", then demanding NATO be abolished.

Ukraine giving away the currently occupied lands to Russia means it would not be a viable state without proper defensive access to the Black Sea. Whilst parts of Donbas region could be handed over, both the south coast & Azov sea region & Crimea being also given to Russia would never happen unless Ukraine is totally conquered.

Maybe parts of Crimea & the Azov south coastal region could be a United Nations demilitarised zone, ensuring Ukrainian access to the inland sea coast after a peace treaty. That's all Russia will potentially get, Donbas & a bit more if Ukraine decides to do a deal IF NATO agrees to secure Ukraine's borders. To do so would require having defendable territories against a future Russian invasion.

I don't see any future peace treaty for another 2 or 3 years, even then there might be a ceasefire & no peace settlement, with Ukraine being in limbo, similar to the Korean peninsula. Until then the war will continue as both sides are essentially not beaten in a military capacity for a long time yet.

The EU & Western European governments now need to properly step up & ensure more substantial aid arrives in Ukraine by the end of the year. Everything Ukraine needs should be supplied unless Europe wants to deal with 10 million refugees displaced by a Russian victory, which would cost every European citizen much more in financial costs than giving Ukraine proper military & civil aid & assistance.

What do you think would be Trump's approach to ending the conflict? He has stated that he will bring it to an end.

Are Europe really as hawkish politically as the Americans, when it comes to backing these sort of military engagements? The yanks certainly seem to think we're lacking in that department.

Personally, I would take that as a compliment coming from some of the neo-cons in Washington, who seem eerily calm about the possibility of a third world war breaking out. We seem a bit more sensible over here in Europe. (hopefully anyway)