> And then the Europeans suddenly discover that they cannot manufacture enough artillery shells and tanks to out-number the Russians.

Germany (by itself) is apparently out-producing the US artillery shell production.

* https://www.newsweek.com/germany-overtakes-us-in-ammunition-...

Russia's GDP is below that of Italy (and barely above Canada, who is in NATO):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...

If the Europeans really want to, they could produce a lot more by converting over to 'war mode'. Certainly they need to do more with current geopolitics, but there is no need to crank it to 11.

You are not very informed on the EU's artillery shell production capabilities.

If anything, the major gap is the EU's lack of cheap drone manufacturing, but even that is starting to make progress with help and integration from Ukraine.

Idk, I think the europeans can do better than paying over 500 million dollars to manufacture none [0].

[0] https://www.propublica.org/article/general-dynamics-artiller...

Uhhh, we're not doing so hot there either. https://www.propublica.org/article/general-dynamics-artiller...

You are deluded, the EU is an industrial powerhouse compared to Russia, what's missing is just the political will

Please. Russia had an economy of the size of Italy.

And I said "had", because this was before Ukraine destroyed most of their oil plants, and refineries, and their navy, and their petrol fleet, and the online stores, and before they killed a big chunk of their male workforce. And before they have an increasing debt with China and NK that they will need to repay somehow.

At this point everybody knows that the Russian economy will not survive after the war is over and that the country most probably will split.

Europe can deal with a ruined post-Ukraine war Russia.

They would just stand some suffering, but for sure 500 millions of motivated people can build more and faster than 100 millions of a Russia tied by deliberate anti-efficiency rules build to please oligarchs. The only question is how much damage could Russia do, before Moscow and St Petersburg are reduced to ashes as retaliation if they dare to try the final solution.

The hybrid war is the real problem. Russia can sponsor still many street "Syrian" terrorist attacks in Sweden, or cause a train wreck here and there, or burn Malibu for basically peanuts. They can do this for years and years.