To think we cannot afford to support Ukraine anymore

[Saysomething1234]

This may be an unpopular opinion but it is annoying me to no end and NC

We have a littany of issues crying out for funding domestically - NHS broken. Economy going down the drain. Pound down 20% in one year. Public services collapsing, Education system requiring re-investment, high taxes driving talent out. We can keep blaming our politicians but someone needs to prioritise where money goes - and no one is willing to talk about this

Yet we are spending hundreds of billions in supporting Ukraine in a war which has nothing to do with us. Yes we are morally supporting them but is there no amount which will be too much? We are paying both directly (through weapons and aid) and indirectly (through huge energy subsidies - last totalling north of £200bn) - we need to stop this spending, reduce energy prices, stop this craziness

How is this war something we can afford on the basis on principles and why aren't we more aggressively pushing for a negotiated settlement?

We cannot afford this. It sucks for Ukrainians but this is not UK's bill to foot.

AIBU?

If you think the current cost is too great, if Ukraine does not win, the future cost to us will be even greater .

Yes and it’s worth remembering who is at risk of losing their life whilst warding off the neighbour so we don’t have to closer to home

If a child is known to SS and living with someone with known health conditions and has not been seen there should be powers to do more we need to protect known vulnerable people it's not about walking into just anybody's home.

As others have said. Ukraine is not fighting a nato style war, they are fighting a Russian style war with some NATO equipment. NATO wins wars by first establishing air superiority, Ukraine could not do that with its hand me down gear, NATO could. Russia has always relied on air defences and NATO has developed lots of air defence suppression tactics and combine that with 4th and 5th generation aircraft, Russian troops would be fighting under open skies. As for the NATO gear the Ukrainians have. There’s a big difference between a Ukrainian soldier who’s done a 3 month course on a challenger 2 tank and a British veteran who has trained with and used the same tank throughout his career. Russia talks about a combined arms tactics, NATO has used and can use them.

The last point is Russia gaining combat experience. Russia is sending troops into combat but they are poorly trained in the first place and their casualty rate is so high that they are learning nothing. Russian generals at the start of the war tried to use modern tactics but they quickly reverted back to ww2 style meat grinder tactics that don’t work against troops liberally equipped with automatic weapons, artillery and close air support.

Looks like the costs are coming home to roost. German government falling apart on Ukraine related costs. Maybe OP wasnt crazy after all.

https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1855223717338493418

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7v3r046pzzo

From the BBC article...

However, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent energy prices surging, and left Germany facing a increase in defence spending - and the cost of taking in 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees.

Scholz and his Green partners want to tackle this by loosening the debt brake to allow more spending. Lindner wanted to pay for tax cuts by slashing welfare and social budgets and pushing back environmental targets.