• oscardejarjayes [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    Corruption is seen by Ukrainians as one of the biggest obstacles to win this war. Concretely speaking, corruption today in Ukraine means money that could have been used to protect energy infrastructure or fund the army, but which instead vanishes in the pocket of corrupt officials.

    Honestly pretty solid reasoning on why even pro-Ukraine people should talk about. The shear amount of corruption, and just how little the EU or US report on it, really makes me wonder whether winning was ever actually important to any of these people.

    Lining your own pockets and hurting Russia (at the, sometimes literal, expense of Ukrainians) seems like the much more common motive.

    • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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      4 days ago

      But why do they need money? They got their weapons for debt. They can just do a Keynes and employ their people to build what they need to build. Is it just that they weren’t importing protection materials like concrete and rebar and stuff?

      • oscardejarjayes [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        Is corruption really limited to money? They can just as easily steal and sell physical items, and even get those employed people doing labor that doesn’t actually support the war effort. You can fit a whole lotta corruption in that bad boy.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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          4 days ago

          I guess? If you’re selling literally weapons, body armor, and shielding from a fucking warzone to somewhere else, I would think corruption would simply not be a forceful enough word to describe that action

          • oscardejarjayes [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            4 days ago

            I mean, unfortunately, that’s one of the most common kinds of corruption. War is messy, so it’s easy for stuff to get “lost”. The Western media loves reporting on when it happens in Russia, like with those ERA plates that didn’t have any explosive in them.

      • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        They don’t just have infinite money because they have a lot of weapons from the west. Wars involve a ton of other ongoing expenses, especially when you’re being invaded.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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          3 days ago

          Money isn’t real. Sovereign governments can’t run out of it. Of course issuing more can cause inflation, but are you gonna tell me that inflation is worse than not having defenses?

          • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            3 days ago

            I think inflation can cause their society to completely crater without Russia doing anything further, and Zelensky needs to avoid getting couped for completely wiping out what meager savings people have and getting on the bad side of enough of the military.

            • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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              3 days ago

              Can to just consider what you said here?

              It’s better that bullets, missiles, and drones kill people and destroy infrastructure than it is for Ukraine to devalue their currency.

              Is that really the position you hold?

                • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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                  3 days ago

                  Got it, so how many ukrainians should die in order to prevent a point of inflation?

                  • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                    3 days ago

                    I’m not talking about “should” anything, and I think controlling inflation is a factor in conducting the war effectively, but I think Zelensky has demonstrated repeatedly and quite explicitly that any amount of Ukrainians dying is acceptable when the alternative is him losing his position and/or the favor of his western masters.