At what point should or would international aid to Ukraine stop?

It will end when Putin realizes he has a lost cause and the Russians start protesting.

Putin will realize when he is 12 foot under.

Putin would probably wholesale slaughter the remaining Ukraine population if the West stops supporting Ukraine. There would be only Putin supporters and piles of dead rotting bodies. That would be left to remind the population never resist the RUSSIAN BEAR !!

It’s a question of principle rather than a question of aid. Russia has become a very dark place under the Putin regime and its expansionist policies have to be resisted. If there was an alternative to the use of force that would be great but there isn’t.

It ends when Ukraine has its territory back. The cost is pennies on the dollar from what we would have to spend fighting Russia directly to accomplish the same objective. Also, when Ukraine gave up its nukes we guaranteed their security. If we don’t follow through on that promise, the end result could be devastating.

Once Russia is driven from Ukraine, and it is ensured they are not coming back.

You know, it is funny.
You spent decades occupying Afghanistan and Iraq to “defend freedom and democracy”, but now, when you have the opportunity to actually defend freedom and democracy, it is all “oh no, the expense!” And you do not even have to send a single person to the frontlines. It is just money and equipment, much of which was scheduled to be discarded anyway.

It shouldn’t stop. That would be a major cop-out for all of us.

@ragingloli Who’s the “you”? Not everyone is saying that and Germany took quite a while to come on board. Please don’t tar us all with the same brush.

IMHO, the aid should flow until the job is done. Put aside the moral mandate to help Ukraine for a moment, speaking from a purely geopolitical point of view, every aggressive dictator with eyes on a weaker neighbor’s territory is watching this thing play out. If the West lets Ukraine fall, how long before Taiwan or Kashmir, or Transnistria, or any other disputed territory follows? Not long.

The Ukrainians are doing the world a public service. The LEAST we can do is give them the tools to do the job. And we should give them in massive amounts SOONER rather than LATER. This garbage where we give aid, but only belatedly is dumb. It plays into Russia’s belief that the west will get bored and walk away. By not giving tanks or himars or jets or atacms or whatever quickly, Russia concludes that we’re close to our limit. WE are prolonging the war.

This aid is a FRACTION of our defense budget in the US. It’s a trivial amount of money for each western nation. Yet it will save so many lives in the long run. And my prediction is that the west will keep providing aid until Russia finally cries uncle…I just fear that is years away, and we’re going to continue giving the Ukrainians JUST ENOUGH to maintain parity with Russia, not enough to end the war.

@Entropy “WE are prolonging the war.”

Have you considered that this is precisely what the US military wants? By drawing Russia deeper into a losing conflict, they’re essentially guaranteeing that Russia will no longer be a global power at the end of this mess.

@gorillapaws I think that is exactly what @Entropy meant. It’s a good thing.

@kritiper I got the impression that @Entropy thinks slow-playing Russia is a bad move, whereas I think the US Military may want to escalate things more slowly.

If we’d sent Ukraine “all of the things,” Russia may have retaliated with a chemical or biological attack for example, which would have forced our hands. By employing the current strategy, they’re killing Russia with a thousand cuts in a way that’s going to be very problematic for Putin. Any fantasies of a USSR 2.0 have been thoroughly crushed, and they may even have a hard time maintaining control of all of their existing territories.

I have the most unpopular answer. After-all there’s (no right or wrong) answer. A quick end to this Russian murder-fest. One meeting with Putin, “What do you want to end this” Putin: “_____________!” Us and the Ukraine” Yes or No!” If yes, Okay. End of story. If no. Carpet bomb Russia with nukes and apologize to China for the fallout. End of story.

Okay, so this won’t ever happen. I just get tired of these never ending wars to fund the Military Industrial Complex

@Dig_Dug “Carpet bomb Russia with nukes and apologize to China for the fallout. End of story.”

Are you familiar with mutually assured destruction? Russia will respond with a second strike and our planet will be plunged into nuclear winter.

That’s definitely the WRONG answer.

@gorillapaws Obviously this is an over-exaggeration. Unless we eliminated all their nukes, first. ”Okay, so this won’t ever happen. I just get tired of these never ending wars to fund the Military Industrial Complex” Why can’t these things be hashed out before thousands if not millions of people are killed and billions of dollars spent and countless tons of resources are wasted. The Earth is plundered and polluted, economies ruined, trade collapsed and governments toppled.

What the hell does Russia really want? Isn’t their “Mother” Russia big enough to supply whatever it is they need? Last time I checked, it’s a pretty big country! They have all kinds of oil and minerals.

@Dig_Dug “What the hell does Russia really want?”

Ukraine is sitting on a huge reserve of fossil fuels that have only recently been discovered and become available for extraction with modern techniques. Russia’s economy is based primarily on exporting fossil fuel. Ukraine was in the process of getting western oil companies to help them start extracting it. That’s when Putin invaded Crimea. Russia does not want a major competitor for selling Europe its oil and natural gas. Furthermore the immense wealth such oil and gas sales would provide Ukraine would allow them to build a modern military, join the EU and likely NATO.

Once that happens, any fantasies of a USSR 2.0 would forever be closed and Putin’s legacy would be the president who allowed the crown jewel of Russia to forever remain the the western hegemony.

As for the military industrial complex thing, I completely agree. In this case though a slow war that ruins Russia’s long-term imperial ambitions is probably better (and ultimately cheaper) than a fast war that preserves their resources and keeps Putin in power, waiting for his next opportunity to strike.

So (if willing) make the Ukraine the USA’s 51 state. Declare war on Russia if they don’t cease and desist immanently. Fund our new state and the very likely new war with all this new oil and gas we now own and become a new stronghold in the EU. The world just became even MUCH smaller and our policing can rein supreme. ragingloli will love this :)

..sorry I dozed off there, I had the most vivid dream just now!