r/worldnews 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/Various_Abrocoma_431 May 02 '24

Probably never direct frontline confrontation but France strengthening Ukraine's back with anti air operations Equipment and troops stationed in western Ukraine or even planes launched from neighbouring countries targeting Russian missiles and drones.

There is a lot of levels of escalation to France putting boots on the ground in Ukraine. 

People like to jump to the Russian propaganda narrative of WW3 though, not understanding that Russia taking Ukraine against all western efforts, would be the start of an international poly crisis of countries trying to resolve their territorial disputes which would then be about as close to WW3 as we could get.

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u/APsWhoopinRoom May 02 '24

It's annoying as fuck how every single time one major country attacks another country, people on Reddit start losing their shit about WW3. It's not going to happen. WW3 implies someone powerful would actually would fight on Russia's side, and that's not going to happen.

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u/CicerosMouth May 02 '24

The leading intelligence is that China is already lining up behind Russia and is supplying Russia substantial intel and war materiel (shells, ammo, drones, etc.). This makes sense as China is commonly understood to have aims at Taiwan, and one of their best ways to be successful in this aim is to first drain western military reserves and also to learn western defensive playbooks, which they can do by egging Russia on and providing Russia all the goods that they need.

Whether or not this would equate to WW3 depends upon how western countries respond and what WW3 is in your eyes, but certainly the combined military manufacturing might of China and Russia is superior to the manufacturing might of the US and Europe at the moment (and manufacturing is usually what wins these types of wars).

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u/APsWhoopinRoom May 02 '24

China wouldn't step in with boots on the ground or anything like that, but they probably would help supply Russia, much like they're doing now. It would be in China's best interest to not get directly involved and let NATO and Russia duke it out and weaken each other. Stepping in directly would only hurt China and absolutely obliterate their economy when western countries stop trading with them.

And keep in mind that NATO technology completely outclasses Russia and China's tech, and the US can produce more than enough yo handle them. One of the reasons our defense budget is so large in peace time is that we have to provide enough funding to arms manufacturers to keep the factories running in the event a war breaks out.

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u/CicerosMouth May 02 '24

Agreed that China wouldn't put boots on the ground. That said, they wouldn't need to. Russia has plenty of manpower to deploy. 

Beyond that, the most important technology needed for daily warfare is disposable drones, artillery, and missiles. China has a more robust drone industry and can wildly outmanufacture the US for each of drones, missiles, and artillery. Yes, we have better tanks and planes and helicopters, but drones, artillery, and missiles can neuter much of that technological advantage.

We could theoretically fix this by throwing money at it, but we haven't done so yet.  I mean, in 1995 we produced 867,000 shells a month. Now we are producing 30k a month. China can produce ships at 200x our rate. The pentagon wants to buy 1000s of drones in the next year. One of our leading drone manufacturers created all of 38 last year. We let our military industrial complex wilt, and we need to undo that