October 26, 2024: One of the many reasons Russia gave for attacking Ukraine was its possible NATO membership. While Ukraine cannot join NATO until the war is over, Ukraine is operating as a member now. The Ukrainian military is adopting NATO standards while NATO is eager to accept Ukraine because Ukraine will be the only member with recent combat experience against a nation with a modern military. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and is still at it despite taking heavy losses

NATO nations have supplied Ukraine with over $100 billion in weapons, equipment, munitions and economic aid. NATO did put restrictions on long range weapons, prohibiting their use against targets inside Russia, and on Ukraine’s recent counterattack into Russia’s Kursk province. All the NATO military aid meant Ukraine could devote more of its own freed Ukrainian military production to build long-range drones for attacks deep inside Russia. Ukraine went after Russian fuel storage depots and oil refineries. As quickly as Russia rebuilt them, Ukraine attacked again. In desperation Russia built new facilities in central Russia. This increased dependence on railroads to move all that fuel, weapons and supplies greater distances to the combat zone. Ukraine also disrupted that plan with missile and sabotage attacks on the railroads. Over the last year the Russian railroads have sustained more damage than Russia could repair or replace in the case of locomotives and railcars. Meanwhile Ukraine continued attacking targets in western Russia using Ukrainian made and designed drones. These weapons were often new and novel designs. NATO nations found themselves receiving an unexpected amount of information on these new Ukrainian weapons and reports on the operation of Russian weapons and troops.

NATO was also amazed at how Ukrainian forces invaded Russia in August, sending several thousand troops and over a hundred combat vehicles into the neighboring Russian Kursk province. They apparently took Russia by surprise and their response was slow. After two months the Ukrainians were still occupying over a thousand square kilometers of captured territory and the Russian counterattacks made little difference. Ukraine told NATO that the Kursk operations demonstrated the exceptional ability of Ukrainian forces to mobilize, plan and carry out an attack into Russia. This attack also revealed how inept the Russians were at dealing with these attacks, the first attack on Russian territory since the 1941 German invasion of Russia.

In 1941 many Ukrainians were willing to be German allies, but the Germans refused to believe it and the Ukrainians retaliated with hostile partisan attacks as well as joining the Russian army. As the war ended, Russian forces treated Ukraine as a hostile area and imposed military occupation. The Ukrainian partisans turned against the Russians and continued doing so into the 1950s.

Seventy years later Ukraine was invaded by Russia again. This time the Ukrainians had NATO allies and tremendous support from NATO enabled Ukraine to stop the Russian offensive. After two years of fighting, Ukrainian resourcefulness and innovation put the Russians on the defensive in many areas. This demoralized the Russian leadership back in Moscow and also put a strain on the Russian war economy. Russia had no allies and was running out of essential resources. By 2024 Russia was having problems borrowing money from China, their only economic partner. China refused to supply weapons, not wanting to be seen as a military ally. Before the war Ukraine and China were trading partners and the Chinese want to restore that relationship.

Ukraine has lots of allies and suppliers while Russia can only depend on North Korea and Iran for weapons, and China for some economic items which they must pay cash for. Same with the North Koreans who have been a major supplier of weapons and recently sent thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside the Russians. A shortage of weapons and troops forced Russia to spend what little cash they still have to obtain assistance from North Korea as well as Iran.