Political Crossfire Forums

Europe may tighten sanctions, or they may not. One thing they won't do is get into a shooting war with Russia. Neither will the US. Why? Because due to these actions, Finland and the rest of the countries neighbouring Russia are going to join NATO. So we'll be making serious strategic gains against Russia, while harming their economy and thus ability to project power, in exchange for Ukraine losing territory that by-and-large doesn't even want to be part of Ukraine anyways.

I do love how you Cold War keyboard commandos are so eager to compare this to WWII though.

WWHD? (Godwined, FTW)

That said, good perspective Ex.

There'll absolutely be no military response from any of the European countries. Getting European countries to agree on military action in any country is never going to happen, they all have completely different mindsets. What they do all agree upon (in general) is the EU (a predominantly economic union), so expect more sanctions meaning Russians can no longer by their favourite Italian spaghetti on their supermarket shelves.

well despite what they claim, the EU != Europe. so europeans can still respond. as in the french and germans could march a show of force over there to stop the advance, short of military engagement. something like that.

or they will do nothing

There won't be any military action. But I think over time these sanctions will start to do some pretty serious damage to the Russian economy, which might turn the people, the businesses, and some of the politicians against Putin. . And because of that I think Putin is in a hurry to get his land grabs done.

Remains to be seen if its actually land grabs. Consensus seems to be that its a distraction to take pressure off the rebels, who've been gradually losing ground further north. Of course, if Russia is taking chunks off of Eastern Ukraine...well...I called that months ago. Got laughed at, but called it.

No threat will be taken seriously by Putin and Ukraine can't handle open warfare with Russia. It really seems to me that the longer we sit on our thumbs the easier it'll be for Putin to landgrab. I mean, Ukraine is about to get really desperate and I honestly dont think anyone is behind them ready to back them up. Somebody has to take a stand and unfortunately it'll be the US when push comes to shove.

Well, there is something to be said about sanctions. After all, how was the USSR defeated? Not militarily, but because their economy collapsed, forcing change from within.