Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

yet tying themselves to the west got their GDP per capita on purchase power parity basis from slightly higher than Russia’s in 1990 to about half of Russia’s just before the war.

In fact just before the war the purchasing power of the average personal income in Ukraine ranks dead last in entire Europe, and world wide it is comparable to such underdeveloped states as Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Libya.

By all measures,  Ukraine economic performance had been calamitous, even if we were to ignore the natural resources and soviet bequeathed infrastructure.

I think it's apparent to everyone observing that Ukrainians will defend their humble grubstake rather than kneel.

Their military performance has been surprisingly good, and that of the Russians surprisingly bad. Now, who's more motivated?

I doubt many will fear the Russian army after this mishmash.

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Yup this was a huge overplay and shows us just how complacent Putin has become

Or overconfident, right. He may well have misread our shitsplat at the end of Afghanistan as a signpost that we were weak. And we're clearly not strong enough to give Ukraine much more that a few thousand missiles and some lip-service right now.

In either event, he misread the tealeaves and now Russians and Ukrainians are paying the price. Apologists aside, this invasion was his decision, and the lives lost here are on him.