this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2025
337 points (98.8% liked)

World News

49997 readers
1699 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane ignored requests to make contact, in latest of what are seen as provocative acts by Kremlin

Two German Eurofighter jets were scrambled on Sunday to intercept a Russian military aircraft above the Baltic Sea, as Estonia said it would call an emergency meeting of the UN security council after Russian planes violated its airspace.

Germany’s air force said the Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane had switched off its transponders and ignored requests to make contact. The Eurofighters took off from the Rostock-Laage airbase to head off the aircraft as it flew in international airspace.

Tensions between Nato and Russia have been dramatically rising after a series of what European governments say are deliberate, provocative acts by the Kremlin. On Friday, three Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace in the Gulf of Finland. Moscow denies this.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

so they are already preparing to move further.

They are barely managing the war with ukraine and you want me to believe they are moving further than that? EU countries combined are matching already russia military expenses, they are looking for excuses to boost war industry even more. Check the data and watch out for propaganda.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

EU countries combined are matching already russia military expenses

Check the data

The US plus all partners has sent about $150 billion in total, it looks like, up until the middle of last year: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303432/total-bilateral-aid-to-ukraine/ About half of that is EU, so say $75 billion from the EU.

Russia spends about $500 billion per year: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/02/12/russias-2024-military-spending-surpassed-eu-uk-combined-in-ppp-terms-study-a87974 They have mobilized basically their entire economy to try to win this thing.

What is your source for saying the EU alone is matching Russia? The EU is barely paying attention to the war, because of complacency and a subtle racism. But the idea that the EU is pulling out all the stops like Russia is, or prioritizing making their "defense" contractors rich in this as the US is wont to do, is absurd.

and watch out for propaganda.

Can do! I think I might have found some, I'm not sure.

[–] mgnome@piefed.social 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thank you.

Many folks fail to realize that it absolutely doesn't hurt Putin to send another one or two million of his people to die for his delusions of grandeur. It's not like he's gonna have to start selling his mansions because Russia goes through economic hardships or that his own kids gonna get drafted.

If Russia did things that are logical - they wouldn't invade Ukraine in the first place, not to mention that their invasion and annexations are illegal even by Russian laws and constitution that Putin can rewrite at his whim, but absolutely nobody cares. So expecting a country that breaks its own laws while being an autocracy to follow logic is foolish at best.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah. I'm not exactly a geopolitics-man, but my best guess for what's going on with Putin and Russia's strategy here is:

  1. He'd been doing fine with taking over small countries up until 2022, and it generally gave him opportunities for new goodies to give away to his friends and also it's exciting and makes him look like a winner
  2. He's been surrounded by yes men for so long that he's lost his ability to really tell what are good strategies, what is happening, or what's likely to happen in the future

I think the combination means that he's just kind of telling his military to do whatever, including invading Ukraine thinking it would go about the same way as Georgia, Crimea, Chechnya, and the US elections. I do think he benefits from a certain amount of native cunning in this particular brinksmanship with NATO, and of course it doesn't take too much detailed understanding of facts on the ground to just fly some planes around in their airspace and flip people off, but also I think in general this latest chapter of Russia is just a pretty good demonstration of why authoritarianism doesn't make for effective countries.

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What is your source for saying the EU alone is matching Russia?

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures

They spend about the same in dollars, the article you linked adjust the price to PPP. We could argue all day about this adjustments but there's no need to do it: we are not looking for the country that win the spending race, we are observing that both russia and EU countries are armed to the teeth and already dumping billions of money in war. It sound foolish to believe russia has plans to attack and invade a faction that match their military spending, they would be heading for a war they have no guarantee of winning and that could result in the complete defeat of their country. On the other hand it's quite reasonable to think EU governments are using fear as a leverage to gain power and wealth (the same shit that russia government does to justify their spending)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures

The EU is barely paying attention to the war,

They pay attention to it every second with endless surveillance missions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eastern_Sentry

https://www.itamilradar.com/2025/09/21/e-550-caew-missions-in-the-baltic-10-days-of-tracking/

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)
  1. I was talking about how much they're spending on the Ukraine war, not how much they're spending in general. Obviously the EU's economy dwarfs Russia's so of course they're going to spend more on their military in general, it's only even competitive because of PPP and because Russia has mobilized its entire country more or less into a war economy for the Ukraine war
  2. PPP is the correct way to compare dollar values between countries, most of the time, doing otherwise gives wildly misleading values for a lot of comparisons
  3. "It sound foolish to believe Russia has plans to attack" my guy they are literally "attacking," they are literally moving their units into enemy territory (and then back out) right now
  4. "they would be heading for a war they have no guarantee of winning" I have bad news for you about what it means historically when the massive nation is invading a small country that didn't do anything to it, and the war is still going on with no progress several years in. That's not just "no guarantee of winning" territory at that point...

I actually do see another possibility beyond what I said: I think it's also possible that Russia has decided on war with NATO, and is doing provocations so the other party will have to be the one to "officially start" the war and then they can "retaliate." That's part of why I was saying it would be smart for NATO to establish very clear ahead-of-time guidelines and then stick to them, so there's no escalation by mistake once missiles do start flying around. Anyway that type of behavior is a time-honored tradition especially for democratic countries that have to worry about the public perception (US with Japan before WW2, US with Vietnam at Tonkin Gulf, Israel at all times...). I don't think that's what they are doing for a couple of reasons, but it's the only other explanation besides what I said that makes any sense to me.

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Of course they are moving ahead. A billion in EU buys many times less than the same billion does in russia. Furthermore, russia has never - at least in the last two-three lifetimes - acted logically. A failed/miscalculated/etc attempt at an invasion still brings death and destruction.

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A billion in EU buys many times less than the same billion does in russia.

Think about why it does

Furthermore, russia has never - at least in the last two-three lifetimes - acted logically

Governments and rulers do not follow me and you logic, they act for themself and according to their interests

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

A billion in EU buys many times less than the same billion does in russia.

Think about why it does

Because no one in their right mind wants rubles, so money comparisons that involve rubles have to be corrected back to reality before the values actually match. If you go by the exchange rate alone, you might as well be comparing dollars to lollipops or something.