Citing what he called the “constant military threat” the nation feels from Russia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced a $3 billion increase in Ukraine’s military spending today.
Where Ukraine is going to come up with an extra $3 billion is totally unclear, as the nation is constantly on the brink of bankruptcy, and just had to get a multi-billion dollar bailout to avoid a default.
$3 billion may not sound like much, to those used to discussing US military budgets in the many hundreds of billions, but for Ukraine, it represents a 62% increase on their $4.8 billion annual budget.
Costs of the military are no doubt on the rise with the invasion of the east, but with Ukraine literally unable to pay their gas bill, and winter just a few short months away, it seems difficult to sell the idea that more military spending was the truly pressing need.
We all know who's going to come up with that money–the US taxpayer of course.
Perhaps, but Angella Markell Christian Democratic Party and Germans taxpayers are first in line, then there is this English monarchism, then you have the Swedish king and other Swedish or French Mafiosi/bankers.
Nah. A large percentage of former US taxpayer are broke and on public assistance. The additional funds needed to protect Kiev from Russia's non-threat will come from the Fed's printing presses.
> the Fed's printing presses.
.i.e. future taxpayers will pay.
The ones being promised "sovereign wealth funds" and the prospect of being "shareholders in the US enterprise".
Kiev government without the eastern Ukraine industries is not only bankrupt, but the system trying hard to destroy everything when the people of eastern Ukraine are in charge. Like when Hitler was bombing England, hitler wanted nothing to be left for English to live for, so is with Netanyahu regime bombing the houses of Palestinians in Gaza p, so is with Saudis barbarians, the ISIS, so is with the kiev Neo fascism, is just that some of them are older then the either, like in ferguson, or in NY or in Chicago or in Los Angeles when African Americans are massacred, so is with the European governing buddy, so is with the Turkish religious government, they way that the governing system is conducted and if is not there yet, that doesn't mean that is not going to be there in a feature time.
re: " Like when Hitler was bombing England, hitler wanted nothing to be left for English to live for,"
—
Curious that you point to Hitler & Germany, which did relatively little damage to England, but you fail to mention that USA & England bombed the hell out of Germany, destroying 75% of German civilian infrastructure, rendering 7 million German civilians homeless, incinerating 600,000 German civilians.
All of this was NOT "collateral damage," it was a consciously & deliberately planned and rehearsed scheme to terrorize working-class German civilians.
ooooh, but 6 million Jews!!!!!
Yeah.
How many German Jews died in the Allied firebombing of Germany?
see Jörg Friedrich, "The Fire: Allied Bombing of Germany 1940-1945."
I totally agree.
No matter how bad a shape the economy is in, there is always money available for murder.
The point of course is to get military aid from NATO members, particularly the US. The US has to remain credible as Israel's protector and to do that, it has to clobber Putin. So I would guess that Ukraine will get the arms and training it wants. Putin has only himself to blame. No Soviet leader ever acted so stupidly.
what has Putin done wrong then? In plain English and with facts would be nice
Oh really? He got the Crimea, and bloodlessly too.
I've yet to see an intelligent comment from you.
On top of Ukraine not being able to pay for their natural gas from Russia, they've also basically shut down their own production of coal with most of the coal fields in the east, which is what they use to fire their own power generation plants as well as being a major export product.
And RickR30 is most likely correct, it will be the American taxpayer as well as the EU taxpayers who will pay for this. Someone needs to use this "need" as leverage to end this ethnic cleansing.
Only time well tell
Now either Putin is striving to degrade and demoralize the NATO nations in the eyes of the international community, before he most forcefully brings East Ukraine back into Russian fellowship, or he is doing what is in the best interest of his $140 billion and be dammed all of his fellow countrymen.
How is he degrading NATO? Has he attacked any NATO country? Has he even threatened to attack any NATO country? As I have said many times on this site, I guess I must have missed the part when Ukraine joined NATO.
Funny how the Ukraine never has any money to pay Russia the billions it owes for gas but has money for this.
no money, they just promise to pay it back like the US does
West deny to Donetsk any legacy.It is their right but it is not the way to solve the problem.West under the influence of Kiev accuse Russia of all sins without seeing the bobing of civiilians.The only way to get out is to stop to kill people of Donetsk and discuss with them -without dictating conditions-It is not with Russia that Kiev /west has to discuss but with the governement of Donetks.Otherwise fighting from both side will continue.Kiev has also to dismantlle the private army of Kolomoyskii : it is not normal that a private army is fighting on the side of Kiev army.Americans specialists are already acting on the field