this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What about that whole 'Ukraine did Nordstream' narrative? Guess Germany knows it's a cover story.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't think the majority in Germany care about nord stream, even if it was intact, we stopped importing gas from Russia more than a year ago and no one plans to resume it anytime soon. It's like slashing the tires on a car you sold for scrap last week.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago

The ones that care are relistic: Ukraine support against Russia right now makes sense geopolitical. Doesn't mean they won't remember that an ally was willing to conduct an active act of war against their infrastructure for their own stupid narratives - as if it wasn't actually unused already anyway. The fact that it was basically already discarded only means it's not of immidiate importance, but I'm quite sure Ukraine is aiming for more cooperation with Germany and the EU. And you can bet that there are poeple who will take that into account when evaluating how much Ukraine can be trusted.

It’s like slashing the tires on a car you sold for scrap last week.

More like you plan to sell it for scrap anyway and then your neighbour smashes the wind shields on purpose. It's not an actual loss concerning you, but the act itself will be remembered.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I guess some things are more important to them. I'm sure the drivers making the deliveries will be ordered to put on their saddest faces

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I heard Zelensky did himself while on vacation in the Baltic. No big deal, get a boat, get some snorkerls, boom!

All of this in NATO waters but he borrowed harry potters cloak, so it worked out.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

money doesn't immediately create soldiers or weapons.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Thing is that people running the west are completely detached from material reality. If you look at their backgrounds, they all come from media, law, lobbying, and so on. They think they can just will things to happen if they want them hard enough. They don't understand that you can't just spin up factories and create an educated workforce to operate them out of thin air.

This leads to hilarious outcome like this one where EU leaders thought they could just dump money into shell production to increase it. Instead, the price for one artillery shell has gone up to 8,000 euros from 2,000 euros due to lack of supply and increased liquidity.

https://www.reuters.com/world/nato-urges-common-standards-curbs-protectionism-boost-artillery-output-2023-10-24/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This doesn't appear to be anything official, right? not certain how much a coalition publicly agreeing to this translates to actual funding for Ukraine. Would also be nice to see how this funding stacks vs the US, and vs other EU country contributions.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

It's officially agreed upon by all coalition members, but the finalizing of 2024's budget where they officially introduce that change is only scheduled for next week.

Also just the original 4 billion € for next year is more than all other countries with the exception of US and UK have spend this whole war...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

That's just military aid though. In all, the EU has almost spent €85 billion to support Ukrainians.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/attachment/876709/Factsheet_EU_Solidarity_with_Ukraine_EN.pdf.pdf

For comparison, Russia is expected to have tripled their national military budget by 80 to €120 billion per year, or an increase of around 4% GDP. If the EU spends €60 billion /year on aid, that would mean around 0,4% of their GDP.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Aka Russia has a GDP comparable to Italy

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Bad ass for Germany and Ukraine. hope things go well.thanks for the context

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


If approved by parliament, where Scholz's parties hold a majority, the boost would lift Germany's defence spending to 2.1% of its gross domestic product target, beyond the 2% pledged by all North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, the source added.

Lawmakers from Scholz's Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Green party agreed on the increase in negotiations over the proposed 2024 federal budget ahead of a formal meeting of the budget committee of the Bundestag - or lower house of parliament - on Thursday, Nov. 16, the source said.

A spokesperson for Germany's Ministry of Defence said the Bundestag committee has not finished negotiations and declined to comment further.

Defence minister Boris Pistorius, interviewed by broadcaster ARD, referred to the planned doubling of military aid to Ukraine.

"It is a strong signal to Ukraine that we will not leave them in the lurch," he said, adding the move, if agreed, would mean the annual budget allocation would be enough to last the whole year.

Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper had also said the committee is due to approve the additional 4 billion euros.


The original article contains 340 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 46%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Great timing, I'm sure everybody is forgetting how it cost a small fortune to heat their home last winter right about now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

ITT: plenty of vatniks sowing doubt with further supporting Ukraine.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I do wish there was some honest reporting from at least one of the sides though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Trolls and vatniks have been telling to the people it's "getting cold" since last year to dissuade more support for Ukraine. Well, a lot more will lose than just heating for homes by tolerating Putin.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago

proudly standing tall on the bridge and saluting as the ship goes down...

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