NATO's Rutte warns against a war on the scale of that seen by past generations
reuters.comI really don't get it. Russians are trying to conquer Ukraine and they are nowhere near it. Ukraine is armed with scraps from old Soviet stocks which are by now almost completely out, scraps from literately Western scrapyards whereas they are getting equipment that becomes surplus when the West upgrades, and whatever they could buy from Aliexpress and glue together.
Ukraine is an incredibly, systemically corrupt country where people steal from their own family and from themselves (due to cultural reasons to a large extent), where half the people don't speak their native language, and a good third is confused as to what their nationality was. A country that was the Europe's topmost shithole (after Moldova) ever since 1991, with deeply dilapidated infrastructure, defunct industry sold for scrap metal in the 1990s, and famously prevailng cynical, nihilist mindset. It is just like Russia but a lot more divided, and without oil.
Only thing that plays in favour of Ukrainians is that they have by necessity become tough people living through this hell for 35 years.
If Putin can't defeat Ukraine, idk how is he planning to go against Poland, or Finland.
I am also kind of perplexed by Rutte's statement. It's not just Ukraine who is exhausted, Russia is not faring much better.
Thousands of tanks, MLRS and artillery from soviet stock are gone - See https://www.youtube.com/@CovertCabal Covert Cabal who is counting it. Now Russian attacks are civilian vehicles and bikes, sometimes APC here or heavily drone proofed tank there.
Russia does not control sky over Ukraine, it can only lobe bombs and ballistic missiles from afar - compare it to what happened in Iran this summer when Israel was just dismantling Iranian AA defense, which is largely based on Russian assets.
Even worse, Russians barely control sky over Russia as Ukrainians are systematically dismantling their energy infrastructure.
Sure they can launch lot of drones every day, be it FPVs or Shaheds. But if Russian AA defense is possible to be dismantled in the same manner as Iranian one, then these drones will be quickly neutralized by destroying manufacturing and distributing and deploying facilities, the FPV and Shaheds will just run out. And then what?
Russia is also running out of resources at current global oil prices. China’s rapid electrification and EV deployment is destroying oil demand growth, causing global oil oversupply, a confounding factor on top of sanctions. If you’re a petrostate, the future is not bright.
Strikes on critical Russian oil infrastructure would likely speed this along.
https://www.energyintel.com/0000019b-082a-d02f-adfb-cebb5e2a...
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/12/09/russian-oil-prices...
>where half the people don't speak their native language
You need to look up the definition of "native language".
Ukraine is holding because it's still being dripfed weapons and money by the remaining partners it has. If it dries up they will be steamrolled. Probably not immediately but it will become bad for them very quickly
One way it could dry up is to distract NATO or eu countries with a defense treaty, by something that feels like a real war but not serious enough. Enough that those countries finally say "Oh shit, no more weapons for UKR now we really need to bolster our own flank"
Then Ukraine falls and their 1 mil. of well experienced soldiers get force-conscripted into Putins army and Europe has a problem
>If Putin can't defeat Ukraine, idk how is he planning to go against Poland, or Finland.
He isn't.
He certainly plans to. It's just that he's up to a much bigger disappointment that he is already experiencing in Ukraine...
This whole fear-mongering for re-armements of Europe smells like lobbying from the military-complex to capitalize on the Ukraine war by sowing fear in the european population, to justifying spendings.
Rutte only is in that position to "enjoy immunity" after his crimes against humanity by victimizing over 113k children herstel.toeslagen.nl