Quote (ofthevoid @ Sep 21 2023 05:02pm)

It’s a very easy explanation. Most of Europe was willing to give away their Soviet era leftovers, especially as the US promised to basically replace it with more modern weapons. Those are gone. Now the euros are being asked to buy and actually pony up the cash for war to continue. Even the most ardent supporters like Poland are chafing at it. These aren’t rich nations and when you combine much higher energy costs and how they are spurring inflation, they can’t really keep feeding hundreds of millions into Ukraine when domestic inflation in places like Poland and Baltic states is over 10%. At some point people care more about the price of bread and stop giving a fuck about how Russia will supposedly invade Europe if we don’t continue the war. This is a real threat to politicians in democratic countries. You can only ignore the voters for so long.

Quote (ofthevoid @ Sep 21 2023 04:02pm)

It’s a very easy explanation. Most of Europe was willing to give away their Soviet era leftovers, especially as the US promised to basically replace it with more modern weapons. Those are gone. Now the euros are being asked to buy and actually pony up the cash for war to continue. Even the most ardent supporters like Poland are chafing at it. These aren’t rich nations and when you combine much higher energy costs and how they are spurring inflation, they can’t really keep feeding hundreds of millions into Ukraine when domestic inflation in places like Poland and Baltic states is over 10%. At some point people care more about the price of bread and stop giving a fuck about how Russia will supposedly invade Europe if we don’t continue the war. This is a real threat to politicians in democratic countries. You can only ignore the voters for so long.

Quote (Prox1m1ty @ Sep 21 2023 12:35pm)

Russia has payed a heavy price in material and personal to create a land bridge to Crimea; Which is now within Ukraine's cruise missile range and paying the price.

Nobody has won anything. If anything Russia is the second best loser after Ukraine.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Sep 21 2023 06:12pm)

The dispute between Ukraine and Poland is pretty easy to explain: the Polish PiS government has a tight election coming up soon and Polish farmers are one of their most vital constituencies. Therefore, they politically have no other choice than to appease the farmers and limit the import of Ukrainian grain.

Zelensky, failing to understand or consider this, has behaved like a bull in a china shop and tried to brute force Poland to remove the grain embargo via the EU. The PiS represents nationlistic and anti-EU voters to whom it would be completely and wholly unacceptable for Poland to be forced to do something against its national self-interest by Brussels. Therefore, these events have again left the Polish government no other choice than to escalate/retaliate.