Other Than Inviting Vladimir Putin to Alaska, Trump Is Killing Tourism to the United States.

@calicuz

If Russia continues prosecuting the war, without U.S. military assistance (or a huge increase from other NATO countries) Ukraine is at a big disadvantage. The don't have the manpower and Putin is willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Russians.

Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rightfully says that Ukraine should not be forced to give up land.

So the question becomes at what cost is a continued war to Russia?

You would think Trump, after all the decades he's been in the real estate business, would at least offer this as a solution: have Russia offer to BUY the Donbass region and possibly other contested regions in the east.

Putin isn't going to pay war reparations. But in this way, Ukraine could get a large sum of money to help rebuild what Russia has destroyed. (And make Russia may for Crimea, too).

According to a Pentagon study, military operations in Ukraine have cost Russia up to $211 billion and the country has lost $10 billion in canceled or paused arms sales. At least 20 medium to large Russian naval vessels have been sunk in the Black Sea and 315,000 Russian soldiers have either been killed or wounded.

And that was as of February 2024.

Considering what several more years of war will cost Russia, the costof military operations alone will be between a $500 billion and $1 trillion dollars. And that doesn't include the devastating toll on the Russian economy.

Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine, roughly around 43,000 square miles. Or about 27,520,000 acres.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the price of agricultural land in January 2025 was 48,622 hryvnias ($1,150 US) per hectare. A hectare is 2.47105 acres. So the going cost per acre at the beginning of the year was around $465 US per acre.

Paying Ukraine a trillion dollars, about $40 an acre, for that land would be a bargain! Not quite as good as the Louisiana Purchase but a far better deal that Poland got during its first two partitons of the country by other powers. And Ukraine could spend a sizeable chunk of that money on defense.

Now, let me be clear, I am NOT in favor of this. If I were sitting behind the Resolute desk, I might want to go to Alaska this summer. But it would be to see the Northern Lights and to inspect our missile defense sites, not to meet the Ruskies. And I would ask Congress to provide far money in weaponry to Ukraine and lobby our NATO allies to do the same, while almost boosting our own defense budget to $1 trillion per year.

But Trump is going to be in the White House for another 3 1/2 years. And before anyone says anything about Trump's health, JD Vance would be far worse for Ukraine than Trump!

@Bumbles
We can always hope.