Ukraine has begun using longer-range ballistic missiles against Russia that were secretly provided by the US, American officials have confirmed.
The weapons were sent as part of a previous US support package, and arrived this month. Officials said they were not announced publicly to maintain Ukraine’s “operational security”.
They have already been used at least once to strike Russian targets in occupied Crimea.
Further US aid is now heading to Kyiv.
More American weaponry is expected to be sent imminently, after President Joe Biden signed off on Wednesday a new package of economic and military support for Ukraine worth $61bn (£49bn).
Cool. I hope they can beat back Russia and retake Crimea, but it’s not going to be easy.
The Russia’s military budget is not quite clear, but for 2024 the most cited number I see is $140B. ~2.5 times larger than this bill. If we include the fact that purchase parity would adjust this to even larger difference, on can see that at this point of funding Ukraine can think only about maintaining status quo at best.
Russia’s money has to cover their global assets. Ukraine is only focused on Ukraine.
Sure, but also keep in mind how much of that budget will be redirected to yachts and dachas.
And that’s just the high level corruption. There’s more theft, bribery and fraud at every level. With each step in the procurement process, another chunk of that budget is negated.
Also, at least historically, a lot of Russia’s budget goes to things that aren’t playing a primary role in the fight for Ukraine, like their nuclear arsenal, a lot of their navy, and big R&D projects that produce little more than the appearance of a modern military.
Ukraine should be getting support from more than just the US though, if you include their own military budget and EU funding what would the total number be?
America is the world’s largest arms manufacturer and exporter. Russia is the second largest. Maybe China ranks after that, but everyone else except maybe France pales by comparison.
Russian arms sales dropped to sixth place after the invasion.
Sales dropped, but manufacturing surged.
Yeah, thats why I said sales dropped.
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I know the EU/Nato wants to pass another 60ish billion to Ukraine as well so that would make things more similar. BTW this is with dollars that can be used to pay for products almost anywhere in the world vs Russia’s ruple which isn’t as easily accepted throughout the world, and also the fact that they’re basically embargo’d by most of the world. So really, that 140 billion figure is worth less than what MxM11 said.
Weirdly, they only focus on budget instead of mentioning the fact that Russia is losing more soldiers than Ukraine is (meat shield strategy) which is of course counteracted by the fact that Russia has about 4 times the population than Ukraine, but also technologies being used in the battlefield (Ukraine is increasingly using more advanced technologies as the war continues, while Russia is doing the opposite).
Things aren’t looking great for Ukraine, but they aren’t looking any better for Russia either. Considering that Russia is 2 years into a war that, according to them, should have only taken a couple of days. Things will get worse as Russia tries to control more Ukrainian land, as taking control of land is one thing, but maintaining it from people that don’t like you is also hard work.
A big portion of the world isn’t aligned with the US and has no embargo on Russia. Like we’re talking almost everything except US / Western Europe / Australia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_sanctions_during_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine#/media/File:Russian-list-of-unfriendly-countries.svg
You’re right, I misspoke. A better way to put it is embargo’d by many vendors of advanced technologies that Russia doesn’t manufacture. China is an obvious trading partner of theirs, but Russia is dealing with a smaller available supply of all of these components and other countries know this which means they are going to have to pay higher prices, vs Ukraine being supported by NATO countries and more able to purchase directly. The point remains, Russia needs to pay more to secure the components that they do not manufacture meaning their money doesn’t go as far as Ukraine’s
Dude, even India and China is getting behind sanctions. Maybe not because they want to, but because guess who are Chinas biggest economical partners? Hint: it’s not russia. And IIRC (I can be wrong here) Indias biggest partner is also the EU, maybe the USA but also China.
It could be better for sure, but russia is almost alone on the world stage. I mean they are getting saved by Iran & NK. Wow.
Russia has an economy the size of Spain/Italy, their economy is getting wrecked so hard right now we’ll better planning for when it goes full crash-burn
Today this article popped up about sanctioning china because they are supplying russian arms manufacturers with resources: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/antony-blinken-beijing-visiit-china-us-relations-foreign-minister-wang-yi
A quick google search pulls up dozens of articles about how China is helping the Russian war effort…
India however doesn’t supply arms, but instead buys them from Russia. Instead India is buying Russia’s oil, funding their war effort in another way. India is buying 13x the amount of oil they would normally buy from Russia pre-war. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/19/europe/russia-oil-india-shadow-fleet-cmd-intl/index.html
I don’t see China truly reducing their war supplies to China, nor do I see India calling off their oil deal. Unless Russia is actually cut off they’re just going to keep getting supplies.
Seems you are right, bummer :-/. Hope we can squeeze them to stop supporting russias war.
Ukraine defense spending in 2024 is $40B. It is not easy to find total number from all EU countries, but historically they give significantly less for military spending for Ukraine. There is big 50B package from EU, but it is mostly economical and over 4 years. But let me overestimate and suggest 20B as military aid for Ukraine. All together is $120B and is still less than what Russia spends and it is before accounting for purchasing parity. US, and especially EU countries should significantly increase military help for Ukraine to push back. And while EU countries increased military spending it is just not enough.
I mean US spent trillions in Iraq, more spending doesn’t mean more effective.
US won Iraq war militarily well before it spend even half a trillion. US failed at reconstruction.
How many billions of dollars worth of planes and ships has Ukraine lost? Several? Now compare that to Russian losses… many hundreds of planes and ships have been destroyed, most of them worth at minimum tens of millions of dollars.
Just look at the AWACS, strategic bombers, and large ships destroyed. Billions and billions of dollars with a handful of those, and nothing like that has been lost by Ukraine.
Yes, and they can afford it.
I think the best pro-Ukraine victory (as opposed to stalemate) argument is that Ukraine gets Western munition, which is higher quality. So single dollar gets more. This at least partly compensates purchasing (in)parity.
Lol.
Every military analyst is saying this won’t even be enough to stop Russia, just slow them down.