[Gogoman]

for a country outgunned and outmatched UA is kicking a lot of ass

[OmniJackal]

Originally Posted by Gogoman ↗

for a country outgunned and outmatched UA is kicking a lot of ass

It helps when you piggyback off the American tax payer.

[jkesil]

Originally Posted by OmniJackal ↗

It helps when you piggyback off the American tax payer.

Not only US. Every NATO country has now financed ruSSkie deratization. Imagine - dozens of thousands less ruSSkies in the world. Gone. Forever.

[kellyhound]

Proponents of support for Ukraine usually invoke U.S. strategic interests or moral obligations. Lately, they are making a more calculating case: It is good for the economy.

In the two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. defense industry has experienced a boom in orders for weapons and munitions. Business is coming from European allies trying to build out their military capabilities as well as from the Pentagon, which is both buying new equipment from defense manufacturers and replenishing military stocks depleted by deliveries to Ukraine.

Industrial production in the U.S. defense and space sector has increased 17.5% since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, according to Federal Reserve data.

Biden administration officials say that of the $60.7 billion earmarked for Ukraine in a $95 billion supplemental defense bill, 64% will actually flow back to the U.S. defense industrial base.
“That’s one of the things that is misunderstood…how important that funding is for employment and production around the country,” Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, said in an interview.

While war often has economic spinoffs, these are occurring without the U.S. actually doing any of the fighting.

Recent spending by European governments on U.S. jet fighters and other military hardware represents “a generational-type investment. The past few years are equal to the prior 20 years,” said Myles Walton, a military industry analyst at Wolfe Research.

While the $95 billion aid package, which also includes funds for Israel and Taiwan, passed the Senate on Feb. 13, its fate is uncertain in the House, where it is opposed by Republican allies of former President Donald Trump, front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.

Among their objections: The U.S. can’t afford to support Kyiv as federal deficits mount, Russia would prevail anyway, and the U.S. needs to better secure its own border before providing more aid overseas.

The latest money, on top of previous commitments, could inject funds worth about 0.5% of one year’s gross domestic product into the U.S. industrial defense base over several years.

The State Department recently said the U.S. made more than $80 billion in major arms deals in the year through September of which about $50 billion went to European allies—more than five times the historical norm, said Walton.

Poland has placed orders worth about $30 billion for Apache helicopters, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or Himars, M1A1 Abrams tanks and other hardware, the department said. Germany spent $8.5 billion on Chinook helicopters and related equipment, while the Czech Republic bought $5.6 billion of F-35 jets and munitions.

The boost to the U.S. defense industry is just one way the fragmentation of the world economy along geopolitical lines is tightening U.S.-European relations, often to the benefit of the U.S.

The cutoff of Russian gas supplies sent energy prices and inflation up sharply in Europe, while boosting European demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas.

The U.S. became the world’s largest LNG exporter last year, and its LNG exports are expected to almost double by 2030 on already-approved projects. Around two-thirds of those exports go to Europe.

Five new LNG projects are being constructed in the U.S., representing investments of around $100 billion in total, said Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG research at Rapidan Energy Group. Most of those projects only began construction after the start of the Ukraine war, he said, as the disruption to Europe’s gas supplies proved the value of LNG to potential backers and helped to move planned projects forward.

“The U.S. economy benefits significantly because of these massive investments,” Munton said.
Foreign direct investment to the U.S. increased by almost 50% between the 12 months through June 2021 and the same period in 2023, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an association of market-based democracies. European companies in particular are lured by access to cheap and abundant energy.

Military aid is, by itself, no economic panacea. While defense companies are adding jobs, those tied to Ukraine are a relatively small share of national employment and income.

“I don’t think you can say confidently that the U.S. economy is larger as a result of the war, but certain sectors of the economy are certainly larger,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The money also takes time to flow.

Congress has to authorize funds to replenish Pentagon stocks, and then the Pentagon has to sign contracts for new equipment. Foreign sales of major weapons can take years and sometimes fall through.

Poland’s annual military budget is about $16 billion, so it isn’t clear how the country can pay for $30 billion of new weapons orders anytime soon, said William Hartung, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

“We know that there are tens of billions in potential contracts on the table for U.S. firms based on the direct and indirect effects of the war in Ukraine, but it’s less clear how soon the companies will see those funds,” he said.
While European governments are paying for their orders, much of the spending is being financed by U.S. taxpayers or by borrowing, adding to the federal deficit.

“Military spending has been crowding out other spending,” said Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard University. He noted that Vietnam War spending in the 1960s contributed to an overheating of the U.S. economy and high inflation.

The Biden administration, though, sees benefits. Military experts are concerned that decades of deindustrialization and miliary downsizing have left the defense industrial base unable to deliver the weapons and munitions necessary for a more dangerous world. Many weapons systems orders are backlogged for years.

The Ukraine war served as a warning for American defense strategists, said Cynthia Cook, a defense industry expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

“What Russia’s war pointed out relatively quickly is the constraints in the U.S. defense industrial base especially in terms of surging production rapidly. The good news is that this lesson has been learned when the U.S. is not directly at war.”

British defense contractor BAE Systems plans to create 500 jobs by expanding facilities in Minnesota, while General Dynamics will create around 120 position at a new plant in Texas, according to Cook.

Biden administration officials say funding allocated for Ukraine is rebuilding America’s defense industrial base, jump-starting and expanding production lines for weapons and ammunition, and supporting jobs in 40 states.

The administration might also hope for political benefits by noting the impact on employers in electoral swing states such as Pennsylvania and Arizona, each of which will receive more than $2 billion, according to the Department of Defense.

[depraved1]

Stay strong Ukraine!

[jkesil]

Wow. Less ruSSkies in the world. Imagine you'll never meet them or their offspring EVER AGAIN.

[kellyhound]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cemented his grip on power in a landslide election victory that has been widely criticised as lacking democratic legitimacy.

In a post-election news conference, Putin cast the outcome as a vindication of his decision to defy the West and invade Ukraine.

“No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, no matter who or how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness – no one has ever succeeded in anything like this in history,” Putin said in an address from his campaign headquarters early on Monday morning.

“It has not worked now and will not work in the future. Never.”

Shortly after the last polls closed on Sunday, early returns pointed to the conclusion everyone expected: that Putin would extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years.

According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, he had some 87 percent of the vote with about 60 percent of precincts counted. The result means Putin, 71, will overtake Joseph Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader in more than 200 years.

Communist candidate Nikolay Kharitonov came second with just under 4 percent, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, early results suggested.

Nationwide turnout was 74.22 percent when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5 percent.

Putin’s victory was never in doubt as his critics are mostly in jail, in exile or dead, while public criticism of his leadership has been stifled.

The Russian leader’s most prominent rival, Alexey Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month.

For Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, the result is intended to underscore to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come.

The United States said the vote was neither free nor fair.

“The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him,” said the White House’s National Security Council spokesperson.

[pastinho]

"This was an argument in which the American, trying to prove homosovieticus how great this country is, said, "Look, I can walk into the President's Oval Office. I can pound the desk and say, `Mr. President, I don't like the way you're running our country.'' And the Russian said, "I can do that.'' He said, "You can?'' He said, "Yes. I can walk into the Kremlin to the General Secretary's office. I can pound on his desk and say, `Mr. General Secretary, I don't like the way President Reagan's running his country.''

March 28, 1988 Ronald Reagan


Almost 40 years have passed and nothing has changed, it seems that every Russian is passive and loves BDSM deep in their hearts, and such LGBT opponents seem to...

[Rikbikboo]

Is it not becoming a bit obvious that eventually if there is an end to this it is going to be likely that the land RU has taken they are probably likely to keep. Now Pootin has cemented his next 5 years and not to mention the fact an approval rating of 80% I doubt it can go any other way without escalating to a full nuclear war.

All along all I have ever heard Pootin say is that he isnt the one expanding on to people borders, that its NATO that seems to be encroaching and demanding that their rules are adhered too.

Often I wonder about this. Russia doesnt have bases dotted around the world so it can dicatate under the guise of keeping a free world to other countries and then use excuses to invade them.

I am not a supporter of the Ukraine war at all but for all its worth it really is RU against NATO but disguised with smoke and mirrors to be supporting a free country against the tyranny of pootin.

despite the various sanctions the country is still growing and more than ever the public support it. Why are we throwing more and more money at the issue let him take that strip of land and hope it stops there. I know theyll be others that say and when the other bordering countries are next what will we do?

lets wait and see. No one has the bollocks big enough to go in and out the man or really do some damage to his country without risking making the population love him even more.

The ones that seem to be doing really well out of this is the US with its gas exports seeing as they blew the pipelines up so who does the war really serve. it certainly isnt the general public.

We things not going relatively well with the Russians prior to all this were relations towards the west not improving?. It seems you have to have wars in order to line peoples pockets at the expense of others suffering.

[kellyhound]

Vladimir Putin has signed a law that will allow him to run for the presidency twice more in his lifetime, potentially keeping him in office until 2036.

If he remains in power until 2036, his tenure will surpass even that of Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the longest-serving Moscow leader since the Russian empire.


Quit sure he wants that record also just like the highest approval rating he wanted and got but not because of fair elections.

Russian Golos Movement received 156 hotline calls and 341 messages relating to election fraud during the final day of the election on Sunday.

It also claims other digital channels have received over 1,600 reports of election violations.

The group's violation map lists Moscow and St. Petersburg as the two top locations for reported violations.

"Never before have we seen a presidential [election] campaign that fell so far short of constitutional standards," the organization said in a statement on its website.

There are quite a few vids of the fraud going on.