Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted his European allies Thursday for what he portrayed as the continent’s slow, fragmented and inadequate response to Russia’s invasion nearly four years ago and its continued international aggression.
Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy listed a litany of grievances and criticisms of Europe that he said have left Ukraine at the mercy of Russian President Vladimir Putin amid an ongoing U.S. push for a peace settlement.
Your whole framing is suspect, not to mention you’re talking finances and you can’t even figure out that $150 B (EDIT: as written in the post, when I posted this I didn’t check that the nominal figure really was) in 1944 dollars is closer to $2,800 B in 2025 dollars.
$11.3 B in 1944 dollars is equal to $207 B in 2025 dollars.
It was in today’s dollars. See my edit. And I don’t think it is suspect to ask Ukraine’s allies to do more to help them actually win when Zelensky is saying it himself ad nauseam.
What does a win for Ukraine look like to you? Just wondering.
And btw, from an outsider perspective it’s funny and cringe to see the attacks on your comment. I’m afraid those commenters don’t have wherewithal to be as embarrassed as they should be, but it’s a good point, that Ukraine has gotten a lot more outside funding (about $380 bn) than the USSR did to defeat Germany in WWII (about $250 bn in today’s $). I hadn’t noticed that.
I mean at this point I’m all in on Ukraine and I’m sorry to see my comment interpreted as anything but the hope that Ukraine could get the support they are asking for.
I know peace deals are precarious and complicated, but I dream of nothing less than pre 2014 borders, the end of all Russian hostilities, and a defense pact, if not full inclusion, between Ukraine and the EU.
That would be nice, but what about the Minsk agreements? Just ignore them? Could they even be implemented at this stage?
Not really sure. Not an expert but it seems like Russia already trashed them.
Fair enough. Most people with that opinion don’t know about them, or about Ukraine in general or their civil war at all. Just going back to 2013 borders wouldn’t solve anything, especially considering the number of Ukrainians that defected to the Russian side. It would just be an even more divided country.
Edit: the commenter above (Skiluros) made up the $2.8tn figure by applying inflation to a commenter above saying that the USSR had received less money through lend-lease than Ukraine has since the invasion by Russia. This figure Is wrong because the original commenter was already discussing inflation-adjusted figures, and they refuse to correct the mistake.
According to Wikipedia’s article on lend-lease, the USSR got $11.3bn, which today would roughly be $250bn. It’s higher than what Greg said (which I assumed was taking inflation into account, hence me cheking), but still lower than what Ukraine has gotten (assuming the $300bn is correct, didn’t fact check that).
I wasn’t refusing to correct the mistake, thanks. I just hadn’t checked my replies until now. I have made the edits now to clarify.
I meant Skiluros, not you, hence me referencing the $2800bn figure they made up
Ah - respect, cheers friend.
All good, buddy! Clarified who I meant :)
I have no clue around the exact sum provided to the USSR (although I have read about the nature of the support and what it focused on). I am just pointing you can’t compare dollars in a nominal manner.
You can compare dollars in a nominal manner if you apply inflation indices, that’s what inflation is calculated for. Why did you literally make up the numbers by assuming that it wasn’t inflation-adjusted instead of saying “you can’t compare dollars”?
How do you think I got the $2800 B figure?
The whole framing is dumb.
So, you CAN compare dollars. You can just delete or edit your previous comment to eliminate the misinformation of $2800bn because you applied inflation twice on the original figure by (for some reason instead of checking it up) assuming Greg hadn’t applied it
Ah, you’re a tankie who supports russian genocidal imperialism.
No, wonder you’re being so holier than thou.
Bye!
This is such a weird response. You are really making yourself look bad here. Why can’t you just accept that you inflation adjusted a number that had already been inflation adjusted? It’s an easy mistake to make and not a big deal but instead you are coming back with this bizarre non sequitur ad hominem.
Huh? Where have I expressed support for Russian invasion of Ukraine? I’m simply correcting your made-up numbers. Anyone who corrects you is a Russian imperialist?
Also, why genocidal? Using that word lightly isn’t a good thing. It’s harmful to actual genocide victims like Gazans to call everything a genocide.