As discussed before, the big winner long run is China- as always. The U.S. will continue to fund Ukraine bigtime during the conflict, but then it becomes all about reconstruction, unless one thinks Russia is going to do a Marshall Plan. NOT. But the U.S. will have topped out. I mean at least to a level that is not satisfactory to the Ukrainians. China, on the other hand, will invest bigtime. Rebuild all those ports and other infrastructure. They will wiggle that Belt and Road Initiative right through there very easily. And China only cozied up to Russia in some areas because it wanted to use Vlad's grip on Central Asia to make other parts of the Belt road work. Totally unnecessary now. Just deal direct with all the Central Asian countries.
Russia is f'ing evil. Imagine forcing Ukrainian football fans to do this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/02/euro-2012-antisemitic-football Altogether: Putin = Bad.
BTW - y'all may have missed it. But Russians are full on preparing to leave Kherson. Apparently the Ukrainians' strategy of taking out the supply routes and starving the Russian army of all ammo and supplies is working.
Yup. The most senior officers and occupying senior officials left last week. And from there the discussion has been whether they will let the troops out or post soldiers (as Kadyrov and the new Syrian butcher said they would do) to shoot them if they retreat. Of course the Ukrainians get to "vote" too. Sucks to be a Russian soldier trying to get out. Both the Ukrainians and the Russians want to shoot you. Be a good time to surrender. As I said earlier though, the Russians may - yet again- say that they are "withdrawing to a more strategic position." Yeh, okay, whatever. Just get out.
If the Russians leave not just Kherson City but the surrounding areas. Or lose control then the Ukrainians will end out with control of the bridge at the dam. Which is what sixty miles away or something? That dam is the water supply for Crimea, or a good part of it anyway. I don't think the Ukrainians would do anything rash because they want it for when they have take Crimea. Nevertheless, the Russians want that in their control and they may not get what they want. What are they going to do- take out the dam which would cut off the water supply to Crimea? I don't think so. And from there is a hop, skip, and a jump over to the rail lines leading from the Kersh Bridge up into that Kherson region. The future of those rail lines for the Russians is not rosy.
The world has a choice: act decisively now or face a larger conflict with Russia https://www.theguardian.com/comment...d-act-or-larger-conflict-russia-ukraine-putin