I wish they didn't have to wait for things like this. It sucks that Ukraine is at the whims of other countries while it's trying to fight to maintain its sovereignty.
It makes me so depressed thinking about how many thousands of Ukrainian lives could’ve been saved by just giving Ukraine full and enthusiastic support immediately instead of dragging it out this long.
This was done on purpose so the crisis didn't escalate. There's no world police to prevent Russia from nuking everyone. It's better for outside actors to focus on de-escalation anyway.
Also, Putin is not doing this because of Ukraine. I mean that's part of it, but he is doing it for domestic appeal. He wants to appear tough to Russian citizens. Two situations allow that: beating Ukraine easily, and losing to NATO forces. He knows NATO will not risk invading Russia, so he's in no real danger from the second one.
NATO is intentionally not intervening because it makes Putin look weak domestically. Russia has created their own problem and the war will not end until the people of Russia demand it.
No it doesn't. The US especially has spent a ton of money building up countries it has defeated in war.
The prime minister decides that their only course of action is to declare war on the United States. Expecting a quick and total defeat (since their standing army is tiny and equipped with bows and arrows), the country confidently expects to rebuild itself through the largesse that the United States bestows on all its vanquished enemies
Except the Duchy won the war against the US and brought back a hydrogen bomb. They then used that threat to make the league of micro nations. The bomb didn't work, but the threat of it allowed a tiny nation to gain leverage on the geopolitical stage.
That's Putin's doing. His bluff was strong and he had a big pile of material, so the West is using a Russia technique known as the salami slice method, by slowly escalating and gauging the reaction from Putin. It means no world war 3 scenario, no allies that have to come to his defense and also not letting Putin taking whatever he wants with just bluff and threatening speeches. It is costly in lives and material though.
The US has too many bases to defend simultaneously to engage with Russia directly. It would be the 18th Anglo-French Wars all over again but with the possibility of a spicy nuclear conclusion at any given moment.
Keeping the conflict contained to the Ukrainian theater means western states get to "bleed" Russia in a protracted conflict without drawing the rest of their assets into a firefight. But we're already seeing the US/Russia conflict leak into the central African states, the Korean border, and recently the coast of Florida.
Americans don't actually want this to become a full blown World War. That drives up our defensive costs significantly and skews the "Stupid Russians Lose Again" headlines with a bunch of "Brave NATO Soldiers Fucked By Insidious Russian Treachery" articles.
The United States spends in a year, what the rest of the world spends in 1.2 years. https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison There is no historical analogue to the power of the United States military. Unfortunately, this is what we spend our money on instead of Universal Healthcare or our infrastructure, or our schools etc. etc.
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Battle of Khashamor in Wikipedia to check for alternative titles or spellings.
shrug
The US is able to project power globally in a way that Russia has tried to and simply cannot counter.
Who can forget their famously successful efforts to project power into Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen.
Even Ukraine is projecting power in Sudan and Syria
In a report on Monday, the English-language Kyiv Post said it had obtained video from Ukraine's military intelligence directorate (GUR) filmed in March
Listen, I know we're all "Rah Rah Ukraine! Can't wait till they've got boots on the ground in Moscow!" But you can't seriously link to a fucking press briefing by the GUR as unbiased news.
The United States spends in a year, what the rest of the world spends in 1.2 years.
Yes, yes. This is why we can't afford health care. Ye-haw.
But we spend all this money on an endless parade of Wall Street executive compensation packages. Nobody in Russia is getting paid a Boeing CEO's salary to make aerospace equipment that strands folks on the IIS. And while Lockhead and Raytheon have made a mint selling the Pentagon loot boxes, the physical hardware we've produced still doesn't seem capable of winning the fucking war.
There is no historical analogue to the power of the United States military.
There are numerous analogs. But none of them are particularly flattering.
LOVE what you cherry picked to respond to and completely ignored any direct response to my points. Those Boeing Billionaires are making it soooooo hard for the Russians to project their will against the world at large.