Putin evidently expected his “special military operation” (i.e., his illegal war of territorial aggression against Ukraine) to be over in three days. In a grim milestone and testament to wide-ranging Russian incompetence and the superiority of NATO weapons and Ukrainian ingenuity, that conflict just hit the 1,000 day mark.
Ukraine marked 1,000 days of war with Russia on Tuesday since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “special military operation” on Feb. 22, 2022, and initiated the largest conflict Europe has seen since World War II.
It isn’t only the scale of the fight that has resembled the infamous war that ended more than 75 years prior to Putin’s invasion. Parents loaded their children onto trains in the early days of the war, veins of trenches have scarred eastern Ukraine, and cities and towns have been completely decimated by air, land and sea-based bombardments.
But the war has done more than remind Western leaders of the global repercussions that come when major nations enter into mass conflict. A new type of warfare emerged out of the fight in Ukraine and the reliance on cheaply made drones to target cities, troop locations and military equipment that cost millions, cemented a new era in combat strategy.
The war has been a war crime for Russia, a bloody tragedy for Ukraine, and a resounding success for NATO, as Russia has used up the majority of the weapons and equipment it inherited from the Soviet Union. Russia has been grinding away for the last two of those years for what have essentially been infinitesimal gains at high cost.
Not to mention the damage to the Russian economy. Interest rates are at 21%, the ruble is worth a penny, commodity prices are soaring, and corporate bankruptcies.
Some think Trump is going to bail out Putin, but Trump sees everything from a negotiating/persuasion/bargaining perspective (along with tit-for-tat game theory), and Trump’s strategy is to threaten what his opposite number holds most dear before dangling a carrot.
I predict that any Trump-led negotiations will be…interesting.
Tags: Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Military, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukraine
Unleashing the fossil fuel industry is one of the best ways to hurt both Russia and Iran (it would actually help China, but that’s where he could break out the targeted tariffs once again). I’ve seen ample anecdotal evidence that Russia is running low on certain military stockpiles, and their economy may (finally!) reach a tipping point next spring/summer. It would also be ideal if Trump could put pressure on certain international CAD/CAM/CNC firms whose products (and ongoing software support!) are the only way for Russia to continue to build advanced airframes for planes and missiles.
You really need to add context to your economic and productive analyses of Russia.
Russian Federation corporate bankruptcies have risen by 20% thus far during 2024. American corporate bankruptcies have doubled during the very same period.
You should buy groceries some time to get a feel for American food inflation over the last three years. It was a major factor in the Democrats’ losses on November 5th among the working classes.
The Russian Federation massively increased their weapons production in 2023. It produced over 1,500 tanks, over 1 million large caliber artillery shells, and 22,000 drones. These numbers are at least three times larger than all of NATO’s output, combined. Their missile production now outstrips that of the USSR and Russian Federation at any time prior to the current war.
It is the depth of stupidity to wage economic warfare with sanctions against an autarkic federation like Russia. Russia mothballed their share of the USSR military industrial complex during the 1990’s. Every member of NATO destroyed their own military industrial complexes during that decade. The Russian military industrial complex snapped back immediately in late 2022 as they rehabbed their military factories. The NATO blowhards are making projections of what they can do, maybe in 2026.