General Discussions

[LP]

But where will the money come from to rebuild Ukraine's economy?  In any peace deal Russia will insist on iron clad guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO,  so the future for Ukraine seems to be that it will still be at the mercy of Russia.

With that scenario, I cannot see money from the West being invested in a rebuild.  Also, Russia seems intent on destroying Ukraine's manufacturing industries and plunging the country back to an agrarian society before holding meaningful peace talks.

What peace deal, do you really see it heading that way, and if it does what does "Peace Deal" actually mean?

Personally, I think this is now going to be long and protracted, it's really what makes sense for Ukraine and for those opposed to Putin. Financially Ukraine will get international support and that will for Russia will really hurt. Russia was already suffering in that it has now struggled for many years now to keep up with foreign competitive technologies, it's basically relying on low labour costs. I've a mate form the UK who went to the GP there just after the Olympics, and he tells me away from the Olympic venue the visit was like going back to 1960s London.

When any deal is done the sanctions will not be instantly lifted, trust will need to be restored before that happens.

Overall I have no idea, I cannot trust what I read, it's all politically coloured in some way, so that makes it very hard for the average external observer to get a handle on the situation. In fact, based on what we see we can barely recognise how Ukraine still exists, but it does. Is that a tell, is there more to this that we do not read or see in mainstream reports? I think it does tell us something, I think there is far more to the stalled progress of the Russian military than is exposed by international media.