the European Commission is not democracy sadly! It is actually a private elitist administrative body, mandate by country governments and simply vetted or not by the EU Parliament... if they care about the uses or the industry, will depend a lot of the person on charge of that area, we had good people, but also corrupt ones. The EU Parliament is a democracy and usually much easier to reach... and they can force the Commission actions if enough support is gather

sure, but those aren't cheap... the bigger they are, the more expensive they get

A Reaper vs a glide bomb, glide will be much cheaper, you lose precision, but you can use can still use more of them

Totally agree!

Many people think that winning a war is easy and with no cost... like Putin and friends... they are learning that it isn't...
Like Trump is learning that listening to Israel to engage war with Iran had a huge price... sadly in Israeli side they still didn't learn that lesson, mostly because is the USA paying most of the cost of all Israeli wars... maybe the cost will be that USA may not support Israel again and finally allow the 2 states solution!
I do really hope Hamas learn the cost lesson too

> First of all those countries didn't want to join NATO, but the European Union.

Sorry, but you are clearly American or at least with the same limited knowledge about the world... both were already in EU for many years. since 1995, the NATO is recent (2024) and only happen exactly because of Russia invasion of Ukraine. Sweden and Finland both were neutral by option, but Finland also was afraid that changing that could provoke Russia and for Russia, a neutral country between them and NATO was also a insurance.

Go check the NATO member:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

>As for south american countries, if they want to associate with Russia, good for them, they have every right. And they are far enough !!!

Sure, that is why Trump attacked Venezuela and is now (like many other presidents) treating Cuba. Cuba only have economical problems because of the USA embargo and threats to anyone doing trade with Cuba... that doesn't look like "they have every right."

a 200Kg bomb is more expensive than a drone with a 5kg bomb

one can destroy a building, the other can destroy a house/apartment
the first is only accurate if equipped to do so... a drone can't never carry high loads because it needs to grow bigger to cost way more

at least those guns point to a fixed direction... drones, by bugs, jamming, hacked may end anyware

so when Ukraine invaded Russia Sudza region, to try to divert troops from Bakhmut, transform itself in to a invader too and so can be freely bombed?

Of course not, war crimes are still war crimes, there is no justification, that is just a bad way to feel better when doing bad things

like chemical and biological weapons are banned, it is just a matter of doing the same.
those ban work because using them may trigger the other side to also use them and the number of dead skyrocket.

Those weapons were used after ww2 (sadly) mostly against civilians that could not do the same... against military targets, that can escalate quickly. It is basically the same with nuclear. Everyone knows that each superpower have stock of both... just in case the other side tries to use them

>Entire Ukrainian cities have been razed to the ground.
by both sides... fight house by house usually have that effect, even more now with drones targeting each occupied house

> More civilians were killed in Mariupol alone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... - Ukraine sources: 25k, Russia: 3k ... Uppsala: 27 to 88k (probably the region, not just the city)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... - 72,6k

So no

also notice this from the same pages:

>As of February 2023, Russia claimed to have charged 680 Ukrainians with war crimes, including 118 soldiers and Defence Ministry officials

Sadly in war, both sides commit war crimes, for sure the Russia side have more, but don't believe that the Ukrainian side is innocent as the western news try to show

The problem is not actually Zelensky, but some around him and basically all the system (similar to the Russian one, one of the reasons they are at war, power control), like that one that was promoted and a few months later was demoted because it was found it was stealing money for the army.

Both governments are highly corrupt

keep playing "global thermonuclear war" until you learn that it is just a more complex tic-tac-toe

if you are too young to understand, go view the "wargames" movie

> So you'd be okay with Russia completely taking control of Ukraine? And if Putin decides he wants Poland next, then what? Still okay?

"what if?"

Ukraine is extremely important for Russia, namely Crimea, the Azov sea (and so the Dumbass for suporting both) and its access to the Don river, that is the gateway to all river/channel traffic inside European Russia. Poland is not important for Russia, so not in danger. The hate they have for the Russian also make it unpleasant target. In Ukraine, specially in eastern side, many civilians actually do not care if they are Ukrainian or Russian The Baltic countries are more in dangers, for the Kaliningrad enclave and they also have a huge amount of Russian people. But in my opinion, as long they have friendly positions with the Russia and the Russian population inside their borders, should not be a problem... if both side have anything to win, less likely to be problems. They are also already in NATO, so again less likely to have issues there

Anyway, anytime a superpower tries to enter the zone of influence of other superpower, it cause problems... so they shouldn't even try and let them slowly evolve and break the influence

Europe DO want Russia! a EU with Russia would be huge!

But Belaruss, Ukraine, Russia need to first to solve internal problems, mainly the extreme corruption and mafia/oligarchs control over the state. The Baltic states manage to mostly solve that (some better than others) and the first thing is to get true government that thinks for the country and their people to fix the police and justice system. Look to Poland, Hungary and how more radical leaders quickly moved to control the justice system, even with opposition and fines of the EU. Probably those countries should have more shield laws to avoid this and a more relaxed rules came to bit us all years after

that is for both sides!

Imagine that Mexico turn to Russia side, just like Venezuela and Cuba! Trying to joint the new Russia and friends defense pact... how would the USA respond?
Cuba is small, Venezuela was far enough and still was attacked... how about Mexico!, right to the USA border! Now Russia wants to place anti-missile system there, just like NATO was doing in eastern Europe and planned to do in Ukraine... The Cuba crisis was nukes, this one is anti-nukes missiles.

NATO was trying to surround Russia, Russia attack end doing worse, as Sweden and Finland join NATO... but Belaruss and Ukraine are totally under Russian influence and trying to change is enough to cause problems. Yes, all central and most South America is also under USA influence.

Not saying that is correct, but it is the reality! Changes on those countries must be done slowly and mostly via democracy and economics (both subject to external influence, sure, but not always, Chaves won in Venezuela in a clean way the first time at least) , not by military positions or pacts