This is the essence of it, and US policy makers even brag about it from time to time. The reason it's not a fundamentally European adventure is because the harm to Europe is so obvious. Since 2014 one could say it is also a Ukrainian adventure, but recall that the Zelensky government was initially opposed to provoking a showdown, and forced into it by the ultra-nationalist thugs who had a blank check from US sponsors to create this scenario.
Very well articulated. One more thing….. the west is on a total hiding to nothing, anyway. If all of their wildest dreams came true, and they started to win conventionally, the very best they could achieve (once Russia understood that they could not resist), would be a general nuclear exchange. It’s puzzling to live in these end-days of Empire…… one just can’t understand wtf they must be thinking. 😵💫
An excellent and devastating analysis. What stands out most in this breakdown of The Economist’s worldview is not just the contradictions, but the sheer delusion required to sustain them. The Atlanticist establishment openly admits that Ukraine is bankrupt, that Europe cannot fund the war without incinerating its own fiscal future, that its defense industry is dysfunctional, and that Russia continues to expand production while maintaining economic stability. Yet, their conclusion is still “ten more years of war.” This is not strategy but theological commitment dressed up as policy.
The belief that Europe, already de-industrializing, energy-starved, and drowning in debt, can outspend and out-produce a mobilized Russian economy is fantasy. The belief that eurobonds on a scale larger than the COVID recovery package will be politically or financially sustainable is fantasy. And the belief that Ukraine’s manpower crisis can be solved through “long-term commitments” rather than hard demographic limits is fantasy.
What we are seeing is a leadership class incapable of adjusting to reality. They cannot explain why prolonging the war is in Europe’s interest, nor can they define what “victory” even means anymore. They simply assume infinite money, infinite political cohesion, infinite patience from their own populations, and infinite Ukrainian soldiers, none of which exist.
This elite delusion is precisely why policy has become so unhinged: they are trying to preserve the illusion of Western primacy, even when the material conditions for it no longer exist. The war has become a ritual of denial.
Amerikanets is right. Europe is not preparing for victory but for fiscal suicide at the hands of a psychopathic clique. The tragedy is that the people paying the price are the Ukrainians on the front line and working class Europeans whose economies are being hollowed out in service of a geopolitical mirage that should have died a decade ago.
Everything on this topic from the MSM fap-farm is to advocate for shoveling more money to the wartime profiteering ecosystem.
At the top of that food chain is the US MIC and their contractors. Not just Lockheed/Boeing/Andruil, but also the likes of Amazon Microsoft etc.
Second in order, wartime businesses in Ukraine itself. Maximally opaque for security reasons, hand in hand with the kleptocratic government, it's a perfect setup to loot on the order of 50% of whatever funds they figure the US MIC won't take.
Finally, whatever's left of the top-line sum - perhaps 20% - will get split between European industry and the stated spending objective within Ukraine. It's an open question which of these two has the lower priority.
If you look at discussions of future EU weapons development, it's a joke. Barely any effort is made to find an alternative to whatever US is peddling - even when it's orders of magnitude smaller-scale and slower to deliver compared to what comes out of the East. And this is with a national industry, ie Germany, that is entirely capable of efficient manufacturing scale-up.
But how do we know that the Russian deficit is so small? Do we rely on Russian figures? Are they objective? What about the sanctions on oil and other possible future sanctions on gas?
I don't know if you know about Jacob Dreizin, but he has a good track record and he says Russia's financial strain will only allow it to keep the war going until mid-2026. And that the economic war-boom is ending due to all the accumulated stress. Do you know good sources on Russia's war economy and how it can withstand the new sanctions on energy?
So in 8 months, when RF has both less debt/GDP and lower deficit/GDP compared to US and EU, and unrestricted trade with China which has more of everything - including money - than the US?
The *government* revenues from the export of all petroproducts is a big number but a small part of the Russian budget.
Both India and China are continuing to buy Russian crude. They simply buy it from mysterious middle man companies that start up to complete the transaction and then disappear after elaborate measures to physically transfer to the product manage to get it delivered. Unless the West is prepared to go to war with China, India, Kazakhstan, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and other assorted countries the trade can't be stopped.
And even if they did go to war with those countries, the Ukraine conflict would not be impacted Russia's loss of a fraction of their government revenues.
Besides, the last thing the U.S. wants is to see is the price increases following successfully blocking Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan exports to the global market.
We go through this "Will they? Won't they?" kabuki every couple of months.
Yes, escalation is reckless and unpopular, but since the rulers pay no price, they always escalate anyway.
to the last Ukranian seems not too far off...
Ukraine is “fundamentally American military adventure “ -
Really author?
This is the essence of it, and US policy makers even brag about it from time to time. The reason it's not a fundamentally European adventure is because the harm to Europe is so obvious. Since 2014 one could say it is also a Ukrainian adventure, but recall that the Zelensky government was initially opposed to provoking a showdown, and forced into it by the ultra-nationalist thugs who had a blank check from US sponsors to create this scenario.
Regrettably if understandably the author abandons credibility for Russian Chauvinism.
Very well articulated. One more thing….. the west is on a total hiding to nothing, anyway. If all of their wildest dreams came true, and they started to win conventionally, the very best they could achieve (once Russia understood that they could not resist), would be a general nuclear exchange. It’s puzzling to live in these end-days of Empire…… one just can’t understand wtf they must be thinking. 😵💫
An excellent and devastating analysis. What stands out most in this breakdown of The Economist’s worldview is not just the contradictions, but the sheer delusion required to sustain them. The Atlanticist establishment openly admits that Ukraine is bankrupt, that Europe cannot fund the war without incinerating its own fiscal future, that its defense industry is dysfunctional, and that Russia continues to expand production while maintaining economic stability. Yet, their conclusion is still “ten more years of war.” This is not strategy but theological commitment dressed up as policy.
The belief that Europe, already de-industrializing, energy-starved, and drowning in debt, can outspend and out-produce a mobilized Russian economy is fantasy. The belief that eurobonds on a scale larger than the COVID recovery package will be politically or financially sustainable is fantasy. And the belief that Ukraine’s manpower crisis can be solved through “long-term commitments” rather than hard demographic limits is fantasy.
What we are seeing is a leadership class incapable of adjusting to reality. They cannot explain why prolonging the war is in Europe’s interest, nor can they define what “victory” even means anymore. They simply assume infinite money, infinite political cohesion, infinite patience from their own populations, and infinite Ukrainian soldiers, none of which exist.
This elite delusion is precisely why policy has become so unhinged: they are trying to preserve the illusion of Western primacy, even when the material conditions for it no longer exist. The war has become a ritual of denial.
Amerikanets is right. Europe is not preparing for victory but for fiscal suicide at the hands of a psychopathic clique. The tragedy is that the people paying the price are the Ukrainians on the front line and working class Europeans whose economies are being hollowed out in service of a geopolitical mirage that should have died a decade ago.
what about the Norwegian wealth fund?
Everything on this topic from the MSM fap-farm is to advocate for shoveling more money to the wartime profiteering ecosystem.
At the top of that food chain is the US MIC and their contractors. Not just Lockheed/Boeing/Andruil, but also the likes of Amazon Microsoft etc.
Second in order, wartime businesses in Ukraine itself. Maximally opaque for security reasons, hand in hand with the kleptocratic government, it's a perfect setup to loot on the order of 50% of whatever funds they figure the US MIC won't take.
Finally, whatever's left of the top-line sum - perhaps 20% - will get split between European industry and the stated spending objective within Ukraine. It's an open question which of these two has the lower priority.
If you look at discussions of future EU weapons development, it's a joke. Barely any effort is made to find an alternative to whatever US is peddling - even when it's orders of magnitude smaller-scale and slower to deliver compared to what comes out of the East. And this is with a national industry, ie Germany, that is entirely capable of efficient manufacturing scale-up.
But how do we know that the Russian deficit is so small? Do we rely on Russian figures? Are they objective? What about the sanctions on oil and other possible future sanctions on gas?
Please click the fourth link in the opening paragraph of this article
Is it the one about the Soviet Union's collapse?
I don't know if you know about Jacob Dreizin, but he has a good track record and he says Russia's financial strain will only allow it to keep the war going until mid-2026. And that the economic war-boom is ending due to all the accumulated stress. Do you know good sources on Russia's war economy and how it can withstand the new sanctions on energy?
So in 8 months, when RF has both less debt/GDP and lower deficit/GDP compared to US and EU, and unrestricted trade with China which has more of everything - including money - than the US?
The *government* revenues from the export of all petroproducts is a big number but a small part of the Russian budget.
Both India and China are continuing to buy Russian crude. They simply buy it from mysterious middle man companies that start up to complete the transaction and then disappear after elaborate measures to physically transfer to the product manage to get it delivered. Unless the West is prepared to go to war with China, India, Kazakhstan, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and other assorted countries the trade can't be stopped.
And even if they did go to war with those countries, the Ukraine conflict would not be impacted Russia's loss of a fraction of their government revenues.
Besides, the last thing the U.S. wants is to see is the price increases following successfully blocking Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan exports to the global market.