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Apr 13 2025 05:09pm
The US probably thinks that it can just wait out the Russians:

1) Liquid assets in their NWF are depleted and can only be used to fund Russia's budget deficit for approximately one year.
2) The recent drop in the price of Ural crude will reduce the ability of Russia to fund the military while keeping domestic expenditure intact. The FT article I linked estimates a 2.5% decrease in oil revenue from this, which is significant, but not catastrophic.
3) The rate of Russian advances have slowed in the past few months.
4) It's relatively cheap for the West to fund Ukraine with their economies intact, while Russia suffers.

Meanwhile, the Russians likely want to wait out the US:

1) Any land they take from Ukraine will almost certainly be ceded to them permanently in a US-negotiated deal, so a big push this year makes sense.
2) Recruitment rates in the Russian military are increasing, at a time when many western analysts forecasted a decrease. This is likely due to the government having to increase the financial incentives for joining, but it's having the desired effect.
3) Ukraine have a manpower issue that isn't going away. Ukraine's strength is in unmanned systems but that can only do so much.


If those truly are the assumptions by the two sides, I gotta say that the Russian assumptions sound far more robust than the American ones. :unsure:




Ye similar to the Israeli thread I am losing a bit of time responding to posts like this. This has all been said and argued before.


Totally fine by me. But let's pick one single point: do you really think the Russians would be willing to split the minerals and rare earths plundered from Ukrainian soil equally with the US? No fucking way.
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Apr 13 2025 05:16pm
If those truly are the assumptions by the two sides, I gotta say that the Russian assumptions sound far more robust than the American ones. :unsure:






Totally fine by me. But let's pick one single point: do you really think the Russians would be willing to split the minerals and rare earths plundered from Ukrainian soil equally with the US? No fucking way.


I don't think they would be split evenly, but it's in Russia's interests to let the US pick clean the Western portion of Ukraine's corpse as a gesture of good will. This also is a sort of "salting of the land" such that the people living in that region will be poorer, and not as big of a threat. I believe Russia and USA are moving towards mending relationships, and making a deal to carve up Ukraine's corpse seems apt here. Since of course in reality this was a proxy war waged by the USA against Russia by the old regime, Ukrainians are just useful idiots.

This post was edited by El1te on Apr 13 2025 05:21pm
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Apr 13 2025 05:43pm
If those truly are the assumptions by the two sides, I gotta say that the Russian assumptions sound far more robust than the American ones. :unsure:






Totally fine by me. But let's pick one single point: do you really think the Russians would be willing to split the minerals and rare earths plundered from Ukrainian soil equally with the US? No fucking way.


The way you frame this question is highly questionable. Why does everything have to be 50/50 ?
The US and Russia are both Global Super Powers. Both "empires" have "stolen" or however you want to frame it, other countries natural resources.
Russia has a history of stealing natural resources from Ukraine, and the US has a history of stealing natural resources from a lot of places (it has a greater global reach).
The US and Russia are likely to have some minerals they both want and the US and Russia will also not care as much about some of the other minerals.

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Apr 14 2025 01:09am
The way you frame this question is highly questionable. Why does everything have to be 50/50 ?
The US and Russia are both Global Super Powers. Both "empires" have "stolen" or however you want to frame it, other countries natural resources.
Russia has a history of stealing natural resources from Ukraine, and the US has a history of stealing natural resources from a lot of places (it has a greater global reach).
The US and Russia are likely to have some minerals they both want and the US and Russia will also not care as much about some of the other minerals.


The bolded statement requires correction. In nominal terms, South Korea has a bigger GDP than Russia. In purchasing power, they are a distant 4th: 20% of the US, 15% of China and only just ahead of Japan and Germany.
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Apr 14 2025 03:15am
The bolded statement requires correction. In nominal terms, South Korea has a bigger GDP than Russia. In purchasing power, they are a distant 4th: 20% of the US, 15% of China and only just ahead of Japan and Germany.


Reality is that Russia is outproducing the entire West and their allies (including South Korea) when it comes to everything needed to fight a protracted land war like the one in Ukraine.

Russia's national debt is tiny while Western countries are drowning in debt despite their fantastic GDP.

Then there's purchasing power parity. A Russian artillery shell costs a fraction to produce compared to a US artillery shell.

GDP means nothing and it's a completely useless comparison. Russia's military industrial complex is state owned running 24/7 and expanding, Russia has low national debt and tons of resources and that's what matters.
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Apr 14 2025 04:08am
Reality is that Russia is outproducing the entire West and their allies (including South Korea) when it comes to everything needed to fight a protracted land war like the one in Ukraine.

Russia's national debt is tiny while Western countries are drowning in debt despite their fantastic GDP.

Then there's purchasing power parity. A Russian artillery shell costs a fraction to produce compared to a US artillery shell.

GDP means nothing and it's a completely useless comparison. Russia's military industrial complex is state owned running 24/7 and expanding, Russia has low national debt and tons of resources and that's what matters.


No way! Russia is weaponizing weapons!
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Apr 14 2025 08:00am
Reality is that Russia is outproducing the entire West and their allies (including South Korea) when it comes to everything needed to fight a protracted land war like the one in Ukraine.

Russia's national debt is tiny while Western countries are drowning in debt despite their fantastic GDP.

Then there's purchasing power parity. A Russian artillery shell costs a fraction to produce compared to a US artillery shell.

GDP means nothing and it's a completely useless comparison. Russia's military industrial complex is state owned running 24/7 and expanding, Russia has low national debt and tons of resources and that's what matters.


Fair points.

Still, at current spending levels, Russia's debt will have to increase once the NWF is depleted in the next year, and it will be difficult to source that debt from international markets.

Outproducing the West isn't hard, because EU countries have been pussies for decades while they have been preparing for a war like you said. That was a bad policy decision which could be rectified in a few years with the right willpower, but let's see if that actually happens...
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Apr 14 2025 10:33pm
I truly dont understand western propaganda messaging on the Sumy strike. They acknowledge it was an awards ceremony for the 117th and they invited children, that Russia struck a military target and they've posted obituaries for several officers. Its still being portrayed as "Russia's worst attack" and being weaponized as a bludgeon against Trump. Usually an intelligence and planning failure like this is supposed to reflect on those who failed

And unironically EU leaders calling it a war crime
"killing our officers is a war crime"

Quote
Germany's chancellor-designate, Friedrich Merz, described the Sumy attack as "a serious war crime" during an appearance on ARD television. Merz made clear he stands by his past calls to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, something that outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to do.


This is why you dont hold bring your child to work days in an active war zone

This post was edited by Goomshill on Apr 14 2025 10:36pm
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Apr 15 2025 02:55am
I truly dont understand western propaganda messaging on the Sumy strike. They acknowledge it was an awards ceremony for the 117th and they invited children, that Russia struck a military target and they've posted obituaries for several officers. Its still being portrayed as "Russia's worst attack" and being weaponized as a bludgeon against Trump. Usually an intelligence and planning failure like this is supposed to reflect on those who failed

And unironically EU leaders calling it a war crime
"killing our officers is a war crime"



This is why you dont hold bring your child to work days in an active war zone


its a narrative. any strike by Russia will get the same treatment. the bigger the strike the bigger the outcry. Russia bad.
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Apr 15 2025 04:16am
its a narrative. any strike by Russia will get the same treatment. the bigger the strike the bigger the outcry. Russia bad.


Fact is they killed 35 civilians, including old and children, with what it seems Cluster munition.

If the award was the reason for the attack or just nicely plays into russian narrative, we don't know. Willingly accepting such civilian casualties speak for itself thought.

This post was edited by BaHgerAUT on Apr 15 2025 04:19am
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