Europe
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Europe has gotten complacent in thinking the US would always be their ally. They need to strengthen their military NOW instead of relying on the US as it's clear their connections can change on a whim.
As I see it EU has about three years before agent Krasnov starts his invasion. He needs this war to extend term limits and keep his power. Watch how over the next few years he dismantles our allied relationships and places the blame on the US old allies while removing anyone in the US that dares go against him installing yesmen in their place.
Putin is too weak to go against the EU alone. China is a wildcard. My guess is that russia, US, North Korea and China will form a new axis of evil within four years.
I hope I'm wrong and there is still so much that can happen in a few years. But If I was the EU I'd be getting ready.
China fully aligning with Russia is a stretch. That would be an incredibly fragile alliance.
They don't need a full alignment.
Russia is weakening the USA and its relationship to its allies, weakening resistance to a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan and its claims to the South China Sea.
The only issues they may come to clash with is Central Asia, but China seems ok with letting Russia have geopolitical control as long as China has economic access to these countries.
Complacency is basically the whole vibe of everyone in the West and their top local quintile. I miss the old days when powerful dudes were supposed to know history.
He's working with donkeys because he's out of vehicles to carry supplies to the front line. I think they can take him.
I really wish someone would kill Putin, Trump would no longer have marching orders, Ukraine would be left alone, and we'd all have fewer trolls in comment sections.
The Economist is always a piece too easily discarded.
It's delusional to think Russia would have any chance. They failed to beat Ukraine before it received any military aid. A single nation. What makes anyone seriously think Russia could take on an entire military alliance?
I am not a military expert, so that's certainly a reason why I can't follow everything in this article. The Bruegel analysis the Economist mentions, however, says:
From a macroeconomic perspective, the numbers are small enough for Europe to replace the US fully. Since February 2022, US military support to Ukraine has amounted to €64 billion, while Europe, including the United Kingdom, sent €62 billion. In 2024, US military support amounted to €20 billion out of a total of €42 billion. To replace the US, the EU would thus have to spend only another 0.12 percent of its GDP – a feasible amount [...]
A significantly more challenging scenario for Europe would be an unlikely peace deal accepted by Ukraine. In such a scenario, Russia is likely to continue its military build-up, creating a formidable military challenge to all of the EU in a very short period, given current Russian production. The EU and allies including the UK and Norway would need to accelerate their military build-ups immediately and massively [...]
It also says:
A Russian attack on a European Union country is thus conceivable. Assessments by NATO, Germany, Poland, Denmark and the Baltic states put Russia as ready to attack within three to ten years 4 . It could be sooner [...]
Europe’s first priority is to continue supporting Ukraine – Ukraine’s experienced military is currently the most effective deterrent against a Russian attack on the EU. If Ukraine decides that a US-Russian deal to end the war is unacceptable – because Putin’s peace guarantees are not credible, for example – Europe is capable of providing additional weapons to Ukraine to ensure its fighting capacities remain as they are currently. Ukraine and the EU rely on some critical US strategic enablers, including intelligence and satellite communications. These are difficult to replace in the short term but there are substitutes if necessary [...]
Rapidly generating such increases [in military equipment and production] requires an extraordinary effort, though experience [in Eruope] shows market economies can do it [...]
Bruegel says -unsurprisingly- that Europe must significantly increase its defense spending, and also makes suggestions how this could be done best (amongst others, by replacing the US military-industrial base). Overall it provides a different picture than the Economist imho.
The report also just stops very short of saying the quiet part out loud: the strategy so far has been to use Ukraine as a sacrificial pawn to bog down Russia. This cynical strategy worked so far, but there are signs that the Ukrainians don't want to take part in this any longer, and this is what has all the military analysts running around like headless chicken right now. Trump is basically just accelerating the inevitable.
What lessons we can take from that and what the best new strategy will be is disputed right now.
The problem is going to be deciding what the peace looks like.
Russia is asking for more land than it controls and doesn't provide security guarantees to Ukraine, opening Ukraine up to a possible third invasion in the near future.
Ukraine seems open to accepting its current losses, but likely needs security guarantee by some entity powerful enough to deter a third invasion. You also have NATO/EU nations being unwilling to withdraw troops from nations bordering Russia because this is the second time Russia has invaded a neighboring country in 11 years and these nations aren't belligerents yet.