Reading the headline made me think of one thing:
oh just like how everyone got to test out their new weapons in the Spanish civil war
The part of me that has read a lot of sci-fi thinks this is super cool from a technological viewpoint.
The other part of me, which also reads sci-fi thinks thinks it’s a scary sign of things to come from an ethical perspective.
All sides agree fuck Russia.
As someone from Russia - this was super cool 10 years ago, now this is just the obvious making its way to battlefields, and Middle-Eastern ones long before Ukraine.
Also it’s good to be far enough from the events to talk about “scary things” only in the ethical context, but I’m going to disappoint you - warfare revolutions usually affect warfare geography too. You may see killer drones near you home in 20 years or so.
That Ukraine even needs so many unmanned weapons points to a deep manpower shortage.
Another possibility is that the Ukrainian government values it’s manpower more than Russian government.
That’s not exactly a high bar
That would be a possibility if we didn’t know exactly how bad is Ukraine with manpower right now, and that it’s so bad in part due to their failed major offensives, done in exactly the Russian way.
They are, right now, pulling “replaceable” personnel from things like AD to infantry.
They are being overwhelmed. In that exact dirty wasteful way Westerners in the Interwebs are laughing about, because they are not going to be drafted to a frontline to show how it’s done right.
Ukraine loses the war if no Western country commits its troops directly.
You can bet western countries already have troops and advisors helping in Ukraine.
I was talking about mass. Cannon fodder. That thing Ukraine is running out of, and that Western countries are not supplying.
I think everyone is just hoping Russia runs out of money and political willingness to continue the war. Or if Putin dies (he seems fine, but he’s no spring chicken), good chance that ends the war.
Ukraine never had a hope of winning the war conventionally. The real question is what will be left when it’s over. Being the choke point for Russian military ambition is still a shit fucking deal.
I hope they get just as much help rebuilding after as they have gotten fighting our war. America, naturally, has a mixed record there. When someone is no longer useful to us, we tend to forget.
Only because they have fewer men. Have you seen the draft gangpress measures? People are being sent to be cannon fodder, under-equipped and underprepared.
Country Democracy Index Score (2023) Ukraine 5.06 Russia 2.22 The Ukrainian government requires much more support from it’s population than the Russian government. Ukraine is a hybrid regime that was making progress towards joining the EU which has strict democracy requirements for entry. Russia is an authoritarian regime.
“Hybrid regime” is just a fancy name for oligarchy, and the argument that Ukrainian state cherishes the lives of its military aged men is a bit silly. Democratic states and authoritarian states are equally as capable of using human lives as currency when they view a war as existential. They weigh that against demographic and economic concerns. That’s all.
That Ukraine even needs so many unmanned weapons points to a deep manpower shortage.
In soviet Russia shortage manpowers you
(to get out of prison to join the meat grinder alongside your definitely not a sign of manpower shortage north Korean fap brigade)
Forbes’ bias is showing. It was a proof of concept, not a sign of weakness.
