FancyCat

Wow I completely forgot about that. France is dearly protective of their defence industry, it must kill them to be so sidelined in Ukraine due to the election. Once the election ends, I would bet on big-ticket items being offered, the opportunity is just too great to let the U.S or Germany or the U.K to have all the money. Macron of course can't tout it too much, a lot of it will be free (till the war ends) but the long term advantage of securing a Eastern European state for armament sales is going to undoubtedly outweigh any prior Russian sales or other Russian anger. Plus, while it is important to underscore that Russia is heavily disadvantaged and will lose this war in some factor, national survival being so important a factor in Ukrainian resolve and resistance, it is deeply important to emphasize that Russia's imperialist, colonial mindset in it's population and government will not disappear and die so easily. We saw in the 2nd Chechen War (that Putin made his bones on) Russian humiliation forged into revenge. Yes, Russia is gonna be screwed now, but regime change is impossible from the outside due to nukes, and impossible on the inside due to a somewhat docile population. (No offense to Russians but Maidan, the Orange Revolution illustrates Ukrainian civil society is very strong and active) Ukraine will continue to maintain a active, upgraded and aware stance towards it's larger neighbor and that entails all the lovely money for Western armament sales. Looks like China will lose out. Ukrainian arms industry will certainly have some good selling points afterwards, I expect the Ukrainian arms industry to flourish in spite of NATO armaments as Ukraine will be undeniably worried about being left alone in a future fight. Ukrainian civil society is also a deep important factor in Ukrainian civilian resolve and resistance, we now know that the U.S prewar warning that Russia prepped kill lists targeting Ukrainian government, civil society was true, and that decapitating the civil society was just as important as ending the Ukrainian government and destroying it's military.

NATO/U.S support in the background must be huge and ongoing since before the war began but I would also caution underestimating Ukrainian information warfare capabilities nor that of Eastern European states who are also experienced technologically and fighting Russia cyberwise and can support Ukraine as well. People are aware of Russian hackers, but let's not forget Ukraine's IT industry is very big and important as well, and there was a good degree of mixing with Russia's IT sector prewar. Also, the fact Ukraine is able to read Russian language basically fine, but most Russians can't read Ukrainian might help in a underhanded sense. Yes, there will be specialized groups with language skills, but I'm sure that factor helps.

Regarding France, maybe the concern with blasting them is due to the ongoing Presidential election between Macron and Le Pen. Would not do any good for Macron to get criticism, not with Le Pen basically having Putin's stamp of approval. Once the election finishes, I could see military aid ramping up. Something to think of, if I were the military industrial complex, having Ukraine get NATO armaments and equipment, would serve nicely as the beginning of integrating Ukraine into NATO and dovetail nicely with future weapon sales. If I were France, I would definitely offer a Rafale or several to Ukraine lest the U.S gets in with their F-16s.

Maybe someone who is actually Ukrainian can correct me if wrong but maybe outsiders are underestimating the level of internet infrastructure in Ukraine and underestimating how digital Ukraine is? I think there is a certain degree of ignorance of pre-war Ukraine that many Eastern European states are brushed with concerning economics. Also notable, Russia is pretty connected, at least urban Russia via the internet. The idea that Russia can do a wall dividing Russia and the rest of the world is sorta overstated?

There is a divide in German government that Ukraine is taking advantage of to pressure for more heavy equipment. Even as Zelensky rejected a meeting with the German President, a meeting with leading members of the German Parliamentary committees and from the 3 governing parties was announced with the Ukrainian parliament. https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1513907436012331017?t=_j5X465R7lVvpX1sQupb9A&s=19

Hi, just wanted to say CMSF was a lovely game, and I'm happy to see Battlefront is still ongoing all those years later. Denazification has been taken by many people as only referring to Azov and the far-right in Ukraine, but that is ignoring Russian rhetoric, which has been casting the Ukrainian government as Nazis since before the war, and hyping up Ukrainian military buildup and evolution as a dagger at the separatist republics. The rhetoric also declares the Zelensky government illegitimate representatives of the Ukrainian people whom Russia is overthrowing. During the early part of the war, Russia called on the Ukrainian military to overthrow the Kyiv government and facilitate peace talks, seemingly in complete ignorance of the reality of the resolve of Ukraine. Considering how badly Russia has misjudged Ukraine and its resolve, it's important to note while it is "propaganda" in a sense, Russia's government probably believed in it enough to have disastrously underestimated Ukrainian resistance. It's also important to note people predicting Russia was not going to invade fully, probably downplayed or did not take seriously Russian rhetoric towards Ukraine, especially domestically. https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/unpacking-putins-denazification-ukraine-and-my-forecasting-failure Something to note, Russian rhetoric has been extremely virulent and dangerous, as seen in the RIA state media op-ed, which represents a escalation of blame, in response to Ukrainian resistance and the shattering of the illusion of Russian troops being warmly greeted as liberators, while Russia invaded fully, it did so under a "special military operation", important to emphasize that the newer rhetoric accuses the majority of the Ukrainian population as Nazis, tainted and needing to be "cleansed" and its important if Russia intends on pursuing the conflict in a longer term to use more dangerous rhetoric to justify mobilization.