Leader of the Ukrainian State Property Fund says “If we don’t sell them this year, then next year their only value will be real estate, and in the following year, just the land they stand on"
Leader of the Ukrainian State Property Fund says “If we don’t sell them this year, then next year their only value will be real estate, and in the following year, just the land they stand on"
When the war started, multiple sources in the US predicted Ukraine to fall in a few days -
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/kyiv-russia-ukraine-us-intelligence/index.html
In Russia, a newspaper published a victory article four days after the invasion and then retracted the story. -
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60562240
And of course, various politicians and Putin and news organizations repeatedly reported that the war would be won within days.
As for the economy, before Russia was proven to be militarily incapable of even defeating a small country, their economy was believed to be robust, but since the war started their tech and goods imports have gone way down, public spending is down, more and more countries are introducing indefinite sanctions and I think most importantly, moving away from gas and oil toward sustainable local energy, so I don’t see how that benefits the Russian economy in the short or long term.
I don’t think anyone is sacrificing the Ukraine or EU economy, they’re spending the available resources to neutralize a threat. You don’t sacrifice a road by using it for your work commute, you’re using the road for a necessary action. Or a shield stopping an arrow? You aren’t sacrificing the shield, you’re using a shield out of necessity.
Nobody is forcing Russia to fight this war. Russia broke a treaty, annexed territory, invaded a sovereign nation, refused negotiations, and is actively enduring sanctions in order to continue its fight for…something that I can only interpret as saving face (not really working). It seems like the country is being manipulated by a demagogue to believe that they must support their president in this endeavor that is important to him personally.
Wherever Russia had chosen to strike, conflict would have taught them to fight more practically, if not effectively. I appreciate that the Russian blunder is happening against an ill-prepared nation that surprisingly saps their resources for an indeterminate amount of time, teaches the rest of the world everything they need to know about the Russian military, and damages the russian economy and military reputation for years or decades. From the numbers of the Russian losses, it doesn’t seem that this education is benefiting the Russian military at all.