“Ukraine was going to blow regardless,”
Please feel free to check my posting history. I have often said that Ukraine was a failed and corrupt Mafia-run state, posing as a country, before the Maidan ever happened, with civil unrest barely beneath the surface. And it has been that way since the Soviet breakup.
Stories posted on FR over the last decade+ prove it, as well.
” if all outside actors and war materials left Ukraine”
MASSIVE quantities of war materials were literally just left lying around Ukraine, in vast storage areas, since the Soviet breakup. Black Market trading of this stuff was big business for the mafias.
In the Southeast of Ukraine, there were at least two large Soviet Storage depots that could outfit 7-10 DIVISIONS of Infantry and armor. (Volodarsky, Kharkov, and Artemvisk)
The areas around Slavyansk and Syeverodonetsk were the mobilization rally points for several third-tier Soviet Divisions, should the balloon ever have went up. (read up on your Clancy, and look at the rail maps.)
The rebels took control of Volodarsky early on, but never managed to take control of the Armor storage facility at Artemvisk.
“Only one side is getting significant assistance at present.”
The US taxpayer directly, through Obama, and the IMF (again, the US taxpayer) has already given Kiev billions, that they are using to buy arms all over the place, (especially Georgia and Bulgaria).
All of this can be verified by articles previously posted on FR.
Well, then, regarding Maydan, apparently you agree with me that the US was a very minor factor at most!
If the invader / rebel coalition did not / do not need the influx of weaponry and personnel coming in from Russia, then why are they:
A) Getting so much of it?
B) Begging for much more support?
I agree that there was mucho weaponry “lying around”, but aside from the fact that much of it was in poor to unusable condition, the legit Ukrainian military still controlled most of it, and the Ukrainian military is a much more capable force (once they got organized and purged the bulk of traitors) than the Ukrainian separatists. This doesn’t even consider the right wing / nationalist militias, who appear to be a very modest, but not completely insignificant force. Again, remove all outside actors and “donated” equipment today, and this thing, outside of minor flare-ups, is over in a month, maybe less.
Putin’s henchman Yanukovych pretty well decimated Ukraine’s economy and the military’s equipment capability, obviously all according to plan. Relative to that, and considering the size of this war, and that most of the loan money is going to the purpose of simply keeping Ukraine economically afloat, the outside assistance to Kiev has been pretty paltry. Perhaps after this shootdown of a commercial flight, that will change?
As far as the arms purchases go, they are for certain specifics and not really that large: Ukraine’s own capacity to crank out arms is more significant.