Re: Eye-watering
If you expect to be taken seriously don't open by claiming the US is creating refugees in Ukraine next time. You let the propaganda line slip through instead of "asking reasonable questions".
The US created regime change in Ukraine in 2014. See Ass Sec Nuland and Pyatt's 'fsck the EU' comment, and they have. Since then, Ukraine's lost around 1/4 of it's population, some to Russia, some to the EU, a somewhat smaller number to places like the US and Canada. Again this is just politics. During the Soviet times, the Russia bankrolled the other nations. Visit places like Prague's Metro and you can see classic Soviet mosaics as an example of infrastructure. Obviously this was a drain on Russia's economy, along with defence spending to maintain parity between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
Fast-forward to the collapse of the Soviet Union and independence of the former Soviet states. Those were welcomed into the EU and NATO, with Germany mostly replacing Russia. Great for NATO defence industry converting former Warsaw Pact nations to NATO standards. Less great for the EU because it went from a trading bloc and (mostly) a partnership of equals to a more unbalanced mix of nett contributors, and welfare recipients. But also good for business because the EU development funds get spent with German, French, British etc contractors. The EU also morphed from being a trading community to a more Federal EU, issuing Diktats about how formally sovereign states must now behave. See Hungary for more info, and the way the EU's withholding around 15bn for not obeying orders.
This kinda worked, while the EU could afford to be the welfare queen. Snag now is the cracks are showing, Germany's de-industrialising and collapsing. It decided to committ economic hari-kiri via sanctions against former trading partners. So as an example when sanctions were first imposed on Russia post-Crimea, it had a huge impact on Poland's agricultural exports because Russia was a major customer. No problem, the EU will compensate. As long as you make social and political reforms that Brussels demand.
And now there's a bit of an energy crisis.
So sure, Germany used to be able to make tanks. But that takes a lot of energy. Can they now? Or should they now? And don't forget the UK's also planning the Challenger 3, but given the way we've cut defence budgets over the last decades, how many will our politicians buy?