I'll be the first one to say I under estimated Russian capabilities. I mean we know that there's always been a training issues with Russian Conscripts, and by the time they're pretty much halfway competant they're on their way out of the army.
But in terms of the technical side, and especially in the air the Russian Military's technology edge should have made a huge difference. But it doesn't seem to have.
From a perspective of the Ukrainian resistance to the attack, yes it does represent a massive failure on the part of the Russian military combined with the Ukraines being highly motivated. However the coloration of forces still vastly favors the Russians. They have more of everything, troops tanks planes, artillery and everything. The longer this goes on the more worn out the Ukraines are going to get and they don't likely have reserves so they can rest men and maintain equipment.
With the Western powers not getting involved beyond shipping in munitions, eventually this war will tip in the Russian's favor. Its just math. Russia can win a high tech war of attrition as long as Putin and the Russian military are willing to trade those casualties and blood for time.
That's a pointless victory though. Sure they can win that way, but then they just end up with Afghanistan 2.0 where they have to stay there forever because the minute they leave, their appointed government gets overthrown and the area goes into chaos.
The US could deal with an Afghanistan because they have more money to spend then anyone knows what to do with. Russia isn't in that position after all these sanctions and half the world trying to cut away from their energy. Much easier to sell an endless war when your country is rich and quite frankly no one really cares about the war. Much more difficult when your country's economy goes into a depression. Add in that the population knows about Ukraine and isn't some faceless enemy like the Taliban that you can sell as terrorists.
Internet photo-confirmed count is 1020 Russian, 284 Ukrainian armour, vehicles, artillery, aviation destroyed, abandoned or captured. For sure the Ukrainian numbers would be low because no one other than Russia is eager to share those photos but the Russian number is probably closer to the truth since everyone wants to share them.
The most curious aspect of these counts are the relatively low aviation losses noted. We are led to believe these would be much higher yet it would hard to wreckage so who knows.
If Putin gets indicted for war crimes, which I think he will, they might make lifting some of the sanctions contingent on turning him over. There are a lot of places to hide in Russia though and he won't have a shortage of people protecting him.
I think a big reason for why Ukraine has been holding strong so far is morale. I know it gets talked about a lot, but it is phenomenal how well Zelenskyy has been able to rally people not just in Ukraine, but in other countries. It's amazing the difference that a strong leader can make for resistance movement.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
'Per Russian state media, Russia is requesting a meeting of the UN Security Council regarding its claims of US military-biological activities in Ukraine.'
'Per Russian state media, Russia is requesting a meeting of the UN Security Council regarding its claims of US military-biological activities in Ukraine.'
'Per Russian state media, Russia is requesting a meeting of the UN Security Council regarding its claims of US military-biological activities in Ukraine.'
Do they just use buzzwords and make this stuff up? Biological weapons accusations from a regime known for poisoning its opponents with radiation?
Maybe we can end this now if the USA sarcastically agrees to sign a document stating they will not use biological weapons on Russian troops in the Ukraine?
Russia simply doesn't have the logistics to effectively wage war the longer this goes.
The reason why you see Russian jets fall out of the sky at unrecoverable rates (they lost 4 in the past 24 hours) is because they are out of guided missiles and using dumb bombs, forcing them to fly closer to targets.
The majority of the recent damage is not being done by planes, but by artillery. Kyiv has been markedly quiet in recent days simply because Russia has lost the ability to inflict significant damage without heavy losses on their side as well.
And...even should Kharkiv and Kyiv fall, Russia has no means to occupy Ukraine. It has 100% of its invasion force in Ukraine right now. The decisive win just isn't happening, especially before Russia goes bankrupt. Time is not on Russia's side.
I have been curious on end game. Does he push to defeat Ukraine and pull back, allowing him to govern by proxy with cloak and dagger over a ruined Ukraine? Thus he can say he succeeded in his goal of de-nazification? Then hope the West moves on like it always does, and re-invests in Russia?
Probably giving way to much credit here. Seems like a primal temper tantrum at this point as scary as it sounds.
People were asking to see the other side stating that everything has been one sided. This is how it looks from the other side (retrieved video recording from russian soldier NSFW).
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Zelensky will be appearing virtually, and he will speak jointly to members of the House of Commons and Senate, inside the House chamber at 11:15 a.m., should the House of Commons Speaker approve it.
'Per Russian state media, Russia is requesting a meeting of the UN Security Council regarding its claims of US military-biological activities in Ukraine.'
March 10 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.
I think some of the things said in this thread could possibly contravene the FB hate speech policy if strictly construed, so I think the changes are just to clarify what is considered allowable discourse.
