Posted on 02/25/2023 7:18:59 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
Ukraine is gradually becoming the property of Western countries
Having sold almost all significant state-owned enterprises to the West, the Ukrainian government is not going to stop.
The American edition of The Telegraph reported that the leaders of the British defense industry visited Kiev to discuss the terms of the purchase of some large defense enterprises of Ukraine. Negotiations are currently underway on the sale of the Lvov Armored Plant and the Lvov Automobile Repair Plant.
Defense companies from other European countries are also negotiating with Ukraine. Armin Papperger, CEO of German Rheinmetall, said that the concern plans to acquire the Kharkov Armored Plant. According to Ed Arnold, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute analytical center and a former officer of the British NATO army, the British do not want to lose this competition with French and German companies, and strive to put their country “at the top of the queue.”
It is noteworthy that the issue of the purchase of defense enterprises by Western countries began to be publicly discussed after Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to London and Paris last week. There, the Ukrainian president was most likely given to understand that it is still necessary to pay for a large number of Western weapons.
@ukr_leaks_eng
Which is why the US should sent weapons to Ukraine, to make sure there are no Russian tanks left to roll to the Polish border.
------------
I was just thinking the same thing... When he gets his money set up, he will disappear and retire.
🇺🇦🇪🇺 In an interview with a German magazine, Zelensky said he never planned to honor ceasefire agreements signed with Russia in 2014 and 2015. If that’s true, he’s basically admitted to wanting this war from the start, presumably to bait a NATO intervention.
The Washington Post reported on Feb. 23, 2022, that France and Germany, in particular, “pressed for implementation” of the “Minsk peace accords as the best chance for a diplomatic solution” in a last-ditch effort to avoid war. Zelensky has suggested he sabotaged that effort.
He could be lying. Or it could be true. Either undermines the narrative built by the West that places blame on the shoulders of Russia.
📎 Pedro Gonzales
“Which is why the US should sent weapons to Ukraine, to make sure there are no Russian tanks left to roll to the Polish border.”
I wonder if their engines will start. I remember early in the war the Manpads we dumped in Ukraine had dead batteries...so a repeat wouldn’t surprise me.
In crucial military technologies, Russia is the world’s leader. For example, on December 23rd, South Front headlined “KINZHAL HYPERSONIC MISSILE PROVED TO BE UNSTOPPABLE IN UKRAINE: RUSSIAN MILITARY CHIEF”, and it’s no mere brag by Russia; it is true. (Such missiles would be unstoppable in any nation.) Furthermore, on November 14th, I headlined “U.S. GAO Finds Failure Is the Norm in U.S. Military Aircrafts”. That’s what happens when the military manufacturers serve their investors instead of the public.
On June 17th, U.S. military expert Alex Vershinin headlined at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute, “The Return of Industrial Warfare”, about how inferior America is militarily as compared to Russia, and he argued — without mentioning or even showing any awareness of it — that America’s replacing industrialization (the manufacturing economy) with financialization (the financial-services economy) had done this (hollowed-out America’s military). I would argue more specifically that the resultant intense corruptness in America’s military has done this. The U.S. ‘Defense’ Department is the ONLY federal Department that can’t be audited. Its opportunities for graft are unlimited (or else are limited only by the value of the dollar, which would mean that the dollar’s international value is bound to crash and collapse some day, as having been the ultimate Ponzi scheme). In fact, trillions of dollars in spending by the Pentagon simply cannot be traced. Nobody knows, or can find out, where it went.
However, already on 3 June 2016, America’s National Interest magazine had headlined “Russia vs. America: A Nuclear Bomber Showdown: Who wins?” and answered that Russia was way ahead and would likely remain so: “the situation is not going to change in the foreseeable perspective — each step of the parties is followed by a quick response. Thus, as long as the United States develops its antimissile defense, Russia is going to develop ICBMs and warheads likely to penetrate this antimissile defense. The only beneficiaries in such a situation are weapons manufacturers.” And, as things have turned out, even Russia’s antimissile defense systems are superior to America’s. However, to America’s rulers — its billionaires — their net worth is more important, and their system is very successful at increasing that.
Another reason why Russia gets far higher bang for each military buck spent is that whereas America’s military is designed to expand the American empire throughout the world, Russia’s is designed to protect the nation’s sovereign independence and to ward-off America’s constant (ever since 1945) aim to turn Russia into yet another U.S. ‘ally’ (vassal-nation). Whereas America’s billionaires drive America’s military for increasing their empire, the Russian population drive Russia’s military for the nation’s protection and very survival.
There is no evidence — none — that Russia, spending $70 billion annually on its military, is militarily inferior to America, which spends $1.5 trillion per year on its military.
In a country that spends 20 times more for its military but gets military inferiority instead of military superiority, deceiving the public is essential (in order to function as being a ‘democracy’, which the U.S. Government needs in order to be able to call any country it aims to take over — or regime-change — a “dictatorship”). And that is the way it is done, and has been done, for decades, now. So, the military has been, at least since 2001, the highest-respected institution of all, by the American people. The trick has been very successful. https://orientalreview.org/2022/12/30/why-russia-which-spends-one-twentieth-what-america-does-on-military-is-militarily-more-successful-than-america/
I have read a great deal of commentary about this. I love Ram an but I don’t think he is up to it.
Recently I read that after this war he wants to start his own private military group. Much like the musicians now employed by Mali.
US taxpayers have given this guy exponentially more money / arms than all other countries combined - enough
Oh, this is very typical of Euro bureaucracy. Esp. the Germans. As one wag put it (paraphrasal) “If the Russians are not literally crossing the German border, they’ll think about what to do for 10 years, plan for 15 years, debate it for 8 years, take 2 years to re-evaluate the cost analysis, and spend a year conducting the vote. 3 years later, equipment will begin to move.”
OTOH, Poland is a NATO country too, and a very important contributor in all this, and their approach is quite different. And, Germany built those LNG plants faster than anyone thought possible.
BGTW, suggest you read up on the political divisions in Germany. And between Germany and its neighbors. Spend a few hours on it, at least. Beneath that placid, controlled, everybody cooperating face that the leadership presents.... Under the hood lurks a lot of the “old” Europe of the early 1900’s. Which is this weird dichotomy to a Europe that truly a believed a war like this was impossible, and so has been caught woefully unprepared, both in munitions and in sense of urgency.
Russia will take out those tanks in a few weeks.
They have about 12000. Their older version us faster and much easier to maneuver, esp in mud.
I will let you know.
He has a very high end place in London.
See my post 35 on why these tanks were in the news.
Will the real liar please stand up?
But in an interview with Der Spiegel published on Feb. 9, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he never planned to honor the accords, although he was elected president on the promise of ending the Donbas War. He also accused the West of being insufficiently supportive of Ukraine, despite billions of dollars in aid and matériel committed before and after Russia invaded last year.
American media is not reporting the protests in the EU.
Correct. And they have been put in huge crowds!
Germany especially.
Right, that's why Russia is bogged down in Ukraine a year later, fighting a country that basically has no navy, no air force or cruise missiles.😂😂😂
“US taxpayers have given this guy exponentially more money / arms than all other countries combined”
Not true at all. Europe was actually ahead in total aid a month or 2 ago, although recent US commitments have again pushed it out into the lead for “pledged” expenditures. Some of those go out for years to add up to the total.
Where the US is way ahead is in arms, mostly because we are the only Western country with big stockpiles. But, that said, several countries are ahead of us in aid per GDP. A few, way ahead. France, well, hey, you can hurl any insult you want at them.
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/
Also, the $$ value of old arms that would be replaced soon anyway (and often requiring substantial funds to decommission*) is overstated. They’ve already done most of their job, so to speak.
*One reason we still have over 200k of those old rockets that (some of) will be converted from cluster munition missiles to GLSDB’s is that appropriations to scrap the rest of ‘em (we started with something like 400k!) were never made. Then SAAB & Boeing engineers came up with the idea of the GLSDB’s.
yes, who broke their word first?
Russia promised in 1991 to respect its neighbors boundaries
Russia broke that promise in 2006 by invading Georgia, with zero provocation
Russia signed the Budapest Agreement (1994), promising to respect Ukraine’s borders ... Russia violated that treaty too
Russia signed a deal with the EU to sell natural gas, and payment was to be in Euros ... and Russia violated that treaty as well
see a pattern here?
so, nobody is under any obligation to honor any agreements with a dysfunctional country like Russia that repeatedly lies and violates their own signed deals
I saw a video today of idiot Russian tankers driving their tanks into a known mine field with the expected results. These Putinists live in a fantasy world. No amount of proven facts will change their positions because, like Al Qaeda, this is a holy war for them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.