If it was purely economical, it never would have started. The only things the last two years has accomplished has been to decimate the military readiness of Central Europe and inject fascist politics into the bloodstream of every country inundated with refugees.

Nobody is winning except the Hitlerites.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They were under the impression that it was a 3 day bonanza, not a long war because they sipped their own propaganda

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Sure. Same with the US Invasion of Iraq. "Six days, six weeks, I doubt two months" per Donald Rumsfeld.

But that was to sell the war. The real theory of the conflict was going to be that it would repeat South Ossetia / Abkhazia and Crimea. A rapid land grab intended to incorporate a heavily pro-Russia border territory that wouldn't escalate for fear of reprisal.

What Russia got was an enormous escalation (fueled by NATO) and a protracted conflict. But the conflict didn't benefit Ukraine, for the same reason an armed revolt in Crimea or Georgia wouldn't have benefited either of those territories. All it produced was a new Chechnya / Afghanistan. A killing field that obliterated the accumulated wealth of generations and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Nobody is coming out of this ahead.