• tomatopathe@sh.itjust.works
    ·
    1 year ago

    Ukraine needs to get within artillery range of certain major logistical hubs to hamper Russian reinforcement and supply via the southern corridor. And it is close, now. The Russian administrators of Melitopol have already abandoned the place.

    With ATACMS, this would have been easier, fyi.

    Only people who don't understand the situation repeat the sort of thing you are claiming.

    Furthermore, the US aid to Ukraine was mostly stuff that was destined to be decommissioned. The "billions of dollars" is on paper, not in fact. Nothing Ukraine is receiving from the USA is current gen or in use by the US and therefore isn't diminishing the US armed forces. Arguably it's actually increasing US strength, since the USA is now ramping up artillery shell production.

    From a strategic standpoint, destroying the Russian military (estimated around 50% of Russia's MBTs and Airforce) in exchange for stuff you weren't going to use anyway is a bargain.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      no one wants them to hit those places with artillery if the Ukrainians start using American artillery on Russian cities the Americans will have kittens

      Russia has nuclear weapons which means there is a line that can't be crossed with regard to dealings with them

      • GivingEuropeASpook [they/them, comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        It's all about plausible deniability. The US didn't want to arm them with anything that could reach Moscow and hit Russian territory in general, but the Ukrainians have developed the ability to do so on their own, so now US officials I think are more willing to discuss these things, since it can't be directly traced to them (since now Russia can't prove it was specifically American armaments or equipment used whenever it gets hit inside it's territory).

        • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          but the Ukrainians have developed the ability to do so on their own

          no they haven't they're using artilery equipment we gave them.

          • GivingEuropeASpook [they/them, comrade/them]
            ·
            1 year ago

            no they haven't they're using artilery equipment we gave them.

            Don't blatantly lie.

            https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-weapons-can-hit-russia-targets-430-miles-away-zelenskyy-2023-9 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-develops-weapon-zelenskyy-says-1.6953132

            So, if you wanna say "oh secretly it was still the US that supplied the drones or whatever", extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

            • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              I thought you were talking about artillery. Those drones are just repurposed consumer drones fitted with explosives they aren't on the scale needed to make a major difference

              • GivingEuropeASpook [they/them, comrade/them]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Nope. Just to be sure I went back and checked my initial wording, and I can see why you thought I meant artillery. I should have specified that they are using their own domestically developed military equipment to strike targets within Russia, which could theoretically allow them plausible deniability to then use a couple of Western-supplied artillery, assuming they could do it in such a way that Russia wouldn't be able to tell if it was a drone, IED, or proper artillery.

            • Staines [they/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              These weapons are the kind of thing the Ukrainians have developed to "retaliate" against random civilian housing blocks whenever Russia craters a command center. They're basically modern V1/V2 rockets "This will terrify the russian population into submission!!"

    • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      You do realize that increasing us strength and military spending are bad things right? That just means more death and misery to thr world in general and US residents aslo?