The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported that the June 1 “Spider Web” drone operation caused approximately $7 billion in damages and disabled 34% of cruise missile bombers in key Russian airbases.
The agency confirmed that more details about the attack will be revealed later.
“And you thought Ukraine was easy? Ukraine is exceptional. Ukraine is unique. All the steamrollers of history have rolled over it. It has withstood every kind of trial. It is tempered by the highest degree. In today’s world, its value is beyond measure,” the SBU wrote, quoting Ukrainian poet Lina Kostenko.
They also vowed to continue to drive Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory.
It’s really good news that a military state lost their war assets used to wage war (they should have never been built to begin with) but i’m gonna use this thread to highlight something else:
If 34% of russian strategic missile bombers got destroyed in a ukrainian drone operation, EU governments are simply lying when they say russia is going to invade europe and that we must stack more billions on the ones we already spend in war.
Ukraine is part of Europe
The threats used as a leverage to increase the already high military budget of the european union countries are about a widespread invasion of europe and attack to nato.
I agree that Russia wouldn’t stand a chance against NATO, but that’s because NATO is well funded. Spending money on the military is expensive, but not as expensive as Russia invading.
Given ukraine managed to wipe 34% of their strategic missile bombers with a drone operation it sounds like there’s room for cuts
And what about US aggression towards parts of the EU like Greenland? You sure you want to decrease military spending against an increasingly facist super power right on your doorstep that has already openly stated to be very much interested in forcefully attaining your overseas territory? I don’t think so. Pacifism, unfortunately, is dead in this new age of multilaterlism and worldwide resurging authoritarianism.
Great, let’s spend the budget in weapons right before the far right authoritarians reach all governments in Europe! Can’t see that going wrong! After all, Europe has never done anything bad militarily!
What would change without having the weapons? Nothing, other than the EU being a soft target for rivaling power blocks, inviting more war into Europe. Look at poor Ukraine. Putler thought them weak and attacked. Same power dynamics since the dawn of man.
You should also keep in mind that the EU is a supra-national federalist construct. So a sudden and all-encompassing power grab of the executive branch by the authoritarians - like the one in the US - simply isn’t possible due to all participating nations still being sovereign and having their own military.
It still supports the ongoing genocide in Gaza and supported the invasion of Iraq, the bombing of Yugoslavia, the destruction of Libya, Afghanistan, colonialism in Africa… Seriously, tell me three military interventions done by European countries in the past century that were arguably moral.