Russia

Secretary of State Lloyd Austin said very clearly that the goal in Ukraine is to weaken Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin insisted Monday that Russia was failing in its Ukraine incursion, with Austin explicitly saying that the US wants to see Russia’s military capabilities weakened. After two years of war, Russians defense industry is stronger than ever and their economy is booming because of the build up the military. Instead of weakening Russia the war has cause a recession in Europe and in particular in Germany which was the forth largest economy in the world behind the US, China and Japan. The cut off of cheap energy (oil and natural gas) by Russia to Europe has caused the cost of energy to rise rapidly and pushed Germany into a recession that is now more than a year old. Germany is on track for its first two-year recession since the early 2000s after its economy shrank in 2023 amid the impact of higher energy costs and weaker industrial demand. Russia overcame the sanctions by selling oil to China and India. When the war started Ukrainian grain exports were blocked by Russia for four months. Starting in July of 2022 an agreement was reached and and by July of 2023 over 1,000 shiploads of grain left Black Sea ports and 65% went to developing countries. 65% of the wheat exported through the Black Sea Grain Initiative reached developing countries. Over 725 000 tonnes of wheat left Ukrainian ports to Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti during the implementation of the initiative. These shipments prevented many people from going hungry and Russia could stop this at any time