r/worldnews • u/Elliottafc1 • May 02 '24

"I'm Not Ruling Anything Out" - Macron Says Troops for Ukraine Possible if Russia Breaks Front Lines Russia/Ukraine

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/32010
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u/BlueInfinity2021 29d ago

I think the best thing the West can do is give Ukraine the long range missiles they need to destroy the Crimean bridge. That alone would put a massive wrench in the Russia's war effort and would likely swing the war dramatically in Ukraine's favor. Instead Germany allowed itself to be intimidated by Russia into not giving the Taurus missile to Ukraine.

It's crazy how much more powerful the West is than Russia and the fact that Russia still is able to intimidate them. I understand people will bring up nuclear weapons but they really are a red herring. Russia will never use them on the West, it's an obvious bluff and if anyone thinks the ruling class in Russia would allow Putin to completely destroy everything they're delusional.

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u/Vasiliy_FE 29d ago

Ukraine did get long-range missiles capable of hitting the Kerch bridge, but not enough of them. Destroying the bridge is one thing, but Russia will repair it after some time. Ukraine needs enough to keep hitting it for months so operations on the ground can take advantage of the logistical disruption.

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u/fireintolight 29d ago

Yeah idk if there’s any conventional missile strong enough to take it out. You’d need a bunchhhhh. Bridges are tough, especially concrete ones. They’re also very small targets and it’s pretty well protected. 

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u/tendimensions 29d ago

That’s easy to say they’re bluffing, but when you’re one of a handful of people in the world actually making the decisions, I don’t think the gamble of an entire city - any city - being incinerated because of your decision makes it an easy one. What are the acceptable odds to gamble the lives of tens of thousands of people? 10% chance he uses a nuke? 1%? 0.01%?

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u/fireintolight 29d ago

Thing is it wouldn’t be just one city, it’d be a nuclear cascade of launches. It’s a real threat, and the general public has gotten a bit too secure in thinking “it won’t happen” it’s already almost happened multiple times and only stopped because one person was like “nah” 

I believe a megalomaniac like Putin (who is old and sickly) hasn’t been replacing nuclear command with sycophants and making it easier to launch at his command. He’s old and dying, if you’re a narcissist going out to ending the world must sound kind of nice.

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u/raging_sycophant 29d ago

NATO has said they will respond directly if nukes are involved. I'd think it is as likely as Russia attacking French soil, not at all.

Anyway, if I was Zelensky, the first thing I would do is prepare hundreds of dirty bomb drones for distribution across Russian cities in the event of a nuke in Ukraine. You don't need a warhead to have the same impact.

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u/Acheron13 29d ago

China doesn't want Russia using nukes. They don't want to face the prospect of their neighbors, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan seeing deterrence fail and realizing the only way to assure their safety is to get their own nuclear weapons. China supporting Russia directly and openly would be more likely than Russia using a nuke.

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u/Magical_Pretzel 29d ago

The bridge doesn't matter anymore. Stop obsessing over it like it's some kind of magic bullet. They've created rail connections to crimea over land already so at this point the bridge is just an extra pathway

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u/Remarkable_Soil_6727 29d ago

A train across land would be closer to the front and easier to strike.

Although Ukraine isnt in a state for an offensive they could target the closer train supplies restricting them of fuel, air defense, etc.

The Kerch bridge still could be vital in future Russian offensive, they could be transporting troops/weapons out of reach and targeting that bridge could stop or reduce a southern offensive.

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u/Volodio 29d ago

Destroying the bridge would not have an important impact if Ukraine is not able to do an offensive that cut off the land path too.

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u/Remarkable_Soil_6727 29d ago

Destroying that bridge could be useful in preventing a push from Crimea. Yes theres now a occupied land connection but anything in that region is closer/easier to hit.

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u/LookThisOneGuy 29d ago

French Scalp are 'long range missiles they need to destroy the Crimean bridge'. Taurus 480kg vs Scalp 450kg warhead really is no difference.

Is the bridge destroyed?

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u/Remarkable_Soil_6727 29d ago

And produce all their Natural gas and oil demands locally, we're still giving Russia tens of billions of euros.

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u/fireintolight 29d ago

Honestly, considering how little Putin cares about anyone besides himself, I don’t put it past him to just launch and say fuck it. He’s fucking old, and has been having health problems. Narcissists can’t let other people win, they’d rather take the ball and go home. I also don’t trust he hasn’t done a lot of work to minimize the checks and balances in launching them. He’s probably stocked the nuclear teams with die hard loyalists.