Yes. As much as I support Ukraine, it’s a waste of money at this point. Russia can go forever. We need to spend money here to brace for impact.
Russia actually can’t go on forever. There’s a reason they’re having to buy bottom of the barrel artillery shells from North Korea of all places. They’ve had gigantic reserves from the cold war to burn through, but they have been burning through it.
Russia can still produce their own stuff and have been ramping up production pretty well. The economy still works well overall. Russians now buy more Chinese goods. Russia still exports enough to get by.
They won’t collapse any time soon. However their offensive capabilities will suffer.
of course not, but if things get bad enough for him, he may not have a choice
Russia+NKorea surely can’t go longer than US and Europe, look at the numbers in economy, population etc. Even if the US pulls out, Europe on its own would have more than enough resources to outspend Putin. It’s a matter of political will, that’s all. If Europe would be equally commited to Ukraine then Russia wouldn’t stand a chance. So whether it’s a waste of money or not now is a question of whether Europe is willing to properly support Ukraine. I guess you could make the point that it’s about time we finally decide this, but the means surely are there and at our disposal.
The key point is “if [they] would”
Europe and the US really don’t want to get involved more than they are. Sure, we can toss them some of our bullets for good measure, but they don’t want boots on the ground.
Russia really could just throw more people at the problem. They’ll draft the whole country before they give up. Putin is that crazy.
