Finally, UK is opening up for boots on the ground in Ukraine.
Sir Keir Starmer said securing a lasting peace in Ukraine was "essential" to deter Vladimir Putin from future aggression.
www.bbc.com
While I think Trump is a fucking idiot. I like that we in Europe have woken up to the reality that big Daddy USA isn't automatically going to do our dirty work for us.
Let's kick Russian butt!!!
With what?
NATO Active Duty Personnel by Country
As much as I hate Trump, I am not one to look past evidence that might support his position. Looking at the active military personnel by country and considering which countries are likely to contribute anything more that a token amount to the cause, if NATO xUS could even put this together, it is understandable why the Trump administration is looking past Europe in these negotiations. Sure, Putin has done more to strengthen NATO than anyone else has but that doesn't build European armed forces overnight.
How long would it take for a European security force in Ukraine to collapse due to complaining? Three years, perhaps? And Trump's not going to care.
20% of the Ukrainian army is locked up in behind the front administrative roles. If these are replaced by EU troops, that would free up those troops and could be sent to the front. If that happens then Ukrainian and Russian troop numbers will be evenly matched. Those administrative roles have zero mortality risk. Unless there's some sort of freak accident involving a rampaging stapler. It's a really low political risk for the country who sends these troops. And these troops need to come from western European countries, because any country near the Russian border won't be suicidal enough to dismantle their defences against Russia to send them to Ukraine. Even though these countries are the most motivated in helping Ukraine
Once European countries start sending troops to Ukraine the risk of the war expanding across all of Europe is high. But I believe Putin is our ages Hitler and needs to be stopped. If Ukraine falls to Russia Putin will not have any reason not to keep going.
So basically, it doesn't matter Europe is not ready for war right now. I think, war is coming. I also think, until we're officially at war, we're not going to shift to a war time mentality or economy. Europe still has the mentality that if there's a problem, USA will come running to our aid. That looks less and less likely. And frankly... right now... we don't deserve American help. You can't help someone who isn't helping themselves. Europe is not doing that. Whatever it takes for Europe to start taking responsibility for our own defence, I'm for. If declaring war on Russia and moving troops into Ukraine is what is needed, I'm for it.