How often have we seen our foreign policies, particularly pro-war policies, ended up with blowback? Afghanistan and Iraq are the more obvious examples. Ukraine will be the next.

Weapons sent to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February will end up in the global hidden economy and in the hands of criminals, the head of Interpol has said.

Jürgen Stock says once the conflict ends, a wave of guns and heavy arms will flood the international market and he urged Interpol’s member states, especially those supplying weapons, to cooperate on arms tracing.

“Once the guns fall silent [in Ukraine], the illegal weapons will come. We know this from many other theatres of conflict. The criminals are even now, as we speak, focusing on them,” Stock said.

“Criminal groups try to exploit these chaotic situations and the availability of weapons, even those used by the military and including heavy weapons. These will be available on the criminal market and will create a challenge. No country or region can deal with it in isolation because these groups operate at a global level.”

Ukraine is and remains the second most corrupt nation in Europe. That corruption led to the 2014 revolution/coup and it remains true today.

Since Russia’s first invasion in 2014, a large illicit arms market has emerged in Ukraine. The enormous surge in American money and military equipment has opened new avenues for graft and self-dealing in the Ukraine army.

Even despite all of this aid, the Ukrainian economy is in full collapse mode, and its only going to get worse.

Ukraine more than doubled interest rates to 25% on Thursday in a move to try to stem double-digit inflation and protect its currency, which has collapsed since Russia’s invasion.

In the first interest rates intervention since Vladimir Putin’s troops attacked on 24 February, the Ukrainian central bank’s governor, Kyrylo Shevchenko, increased the benchmark interest rate from 10% to 25%.
The Russian invasion has devastated Ukraine’s economy, which the World Bank has forecast could shrink by at least a third this year. The war has forced businesses to close, destroyed infrastructure, blocked shipping routes and reduced whole towns to rubble.

Because the West is desperate to keep Ukraine in the fight regardless of the cost to the people of Ukraine, the U.S. is considering underhanded measures that will enormous long-term consequences.

The devastation in Ukraine brought on by Russia’s war has leaders around the world calling for seizing more than $300 billion of Russian central bank assets and handing the funds to Ukraine to help rebuild the country.

But the movement, which has gained momentum in parts of Europe, has run into resistance in the United States. Top Biden administration officials warned that diverting those funds could be illegal and discourage other countries from relying on the United States as a haven for investment.

To just steal $300 Billion from a nation that WILL win this war is a risky move. Wars have been fought over a lot less than $300 Billion.

Internally, the Biden administration has been debating whether to join an effort to seize the assets, which include dollars and euros that Moscow deposited before its invasion of Ukraine. Only a fraction of the funds are kept in the United States; much of it was deposited in Europe, including at the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland.

It's interesting that Europe is leading this charge. Europe is already forcing a huge economic cost upon their citizens through dramatically higher energy prices.
Of course, the U.S. has already done something similar with Venezuela, but that's another story.

One official said that while seizing the funds to pay for reconstruction would be satisfying and warranted, the precedent it would set — and its potential effect on the United States’ status as the world’s safest place to leave assets — was a deep concern.

That deep concern would be an acceleration of a trend that ends with the U.S. dollar losing its reserve currency status.(note: Yuan-Ruble trading jumped 1,067% higher since start of war)

Russia is going to win this war. Everyone knows it. Yet all of the experts are committed to staying the course.
We've even admitted to conducting offensive cyber operations against Russia. Remember when a few Russian-bought Facebook ads were a scandal?