Media reports said as much as $700 billion could be allocated to Europe's defenses, though it was not clear how much of that amount would go to Kyiv.

Summary

European officials are preparing a multibillion-dollar defense package to bolster regional security and support Ukraine, announced by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the Munich Security Conference.

The package, potentially valued up to 700 billion euros, will fund military training, arms deliveries, and security guarantees amid concerns over Russian aggression and diminishing U.S. contributions to NATO.

The move follows calls for Europe to boost its own defense spending while U.S.-Russian talks, which exclude Ukraine and Europe, on ending the Ukraine conflict continue.

          • BlemboTheThird@lemmy.caEnglish
            6·
            3 days ago

            Some of it is definitely bots, but don’t discount the human factor either. Russia had an entire branch of the military dedicated to trolling the Internet at least as far back as 2015. Something tells me that hasn’t gotten smaller since then. No doubt they work in tandem with bots as well, constantly editing their output, maybe even making posts from the same accounts.

            The fediverse may be small compared to the behemoths, but I don’t think we’re so small as to be ignored.

            • orgrinrt@lemmy.worldEnglish
              5·
              2 days ago

              And there will be a big bunch of people that swallowed all that troll farm shit whole and is now out there, parroting the same shit and inventing their own new shit, completely willfully, without compensation. We see this with the US and MAGA. Some people just… I don’t even know what words to use here. Some people just have such hate and bitterness inside them, and are gullible enough to go with some absolute bonkers shite and run with it.

        • Riddick3001@lemmy.worldEnglish
          12·
          3 days ago

          That dude posts so much so frequently, it’s extremely fishy.

          Totally, and always the same long not engaging statements. I’d even prefer random adverts at this point, which I normally block.

          • M0oP0o@mander.xyzEnglish
            4·
            3 days ago

            Also interesting that they seem to not reply to any thing that might require a real discussion.

    • index@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Anyone downvoting should pack his bags and join the front because ukraine is running out of men

        • index@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          If you think democracy is a good thing you should realize that there’s none anymore and ukraine is under martial law.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
                8·
                3 days ago

                Neither thing has anything to do with democracy. You claimed there are no more democracies. Please explain how Switzerland and Iceland are not democracies.

                • index@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  3·
                  3 days ago

                  Flying squid you are picking up two irrelevant countries as switzerland and iceland because you know all the others to be corrupted as fuck. Democracy is being eroded worldwide in the same way: government are getting unlimited power and control over people and a bunch of rulers own all mass media.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    5·
                    3 days ago

                    Your words:

                    If you think democracy is a good thing you should realize that there’s none anymore

                    Either there is democracy in the world or there is not. Which is it?

      • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Actually, no. Ukraine has quite a couple of brigades ready to go, waiting for materiel to use. Because unlike Russia, Ukraine isn’t hurling donkeys and men with nothing but Kalashnikovs at the front.

      • orgrinrt@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Personally I’d go if they just let me. I’m a reserve sergeant with strong will to actually do something, knowing full well I will perish there, and cry for mommy in a ditch, or something else entirely, as of yet unimaginable to me.

        Defense is something I accept and will always help with if I just can, if the cause is right. Other kinds of war or violence? I’d rather go to jail than participate. In defense of gender minorities, people with mental health issues struggling as it is, when we now have great support networks and financial help guaranteeing housing, food, electricity, everything necessary, I would face the horrifying prospect of unimaginable pain and fear, desperation, so that those that do not wish to, or can’t, do not have to.

        I have strength and vitality some do not have. And if the only thing standing between the peaceful, at least good enough life they (we!) now have, is the sacrifice of those just selfless enough to face horrors, I’d feel bad letting them do it without me, if and when I am capable to help.

        But this is only as long as the thing we’d defend is worth defending. Our current state definitely is. I’m openly pan-sexual enby, and nobody looks at me twice. I get to work, study, participate in society just like most everyone do. If that is in danger, I won’t sit down and wait for them to come for me and my kin.

        But I also don’t think anyone else should be forced to do that, unless they really do want to and understand the horrors of what it will be.

        I have the benefit of military training and familiarity with guns and warfare in general (in theoretical level, though, which is still better than nothing), so I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t put those to use in defense of my fellow minorities often persecuted elsewhere.

          • orgrinrt@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            Definitely not. The orange man and the US in general is equal in my eyes to Russia. A bad, backwards place I would fight if it tried to thrust its diseased member into my current life and surroundings.

            Instead, I’d give a lot for what I have now: The relative safety and social progress, as well as the socialist elements such as our guaranteed welfare for everyone without gotchas or requirements, the general atmosphere of acceptance towards sexual and gender minorities etc.

            A lot of reasons to “throw my life away”. The life wouldn’t be worth much if I couldn’t be myself, if I couldn’t survive and thrive even when unable to work or function. So I’d rather go fighting for those as opposed to bending over to get fucked either way.

      • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        Oh, the irony. You’re here, cheerleading for conscription from the comfort of your keyboard, while accusing others of armchair opinions. If Ukraine’s running out of men, maybe it’s time to question why this proxy war keeps demanding human sacrifices instead of solutions.

        Blind allegiance to this endless cycle of funding and fighting doesn’t make you noble—it makes you complicit. Pack your own bags if you’re so invested, but don’t expect others to march for a game they didn’t sign up to play.