It’s a brain drain. Everyone left in Russia will be either dumb or without any gumption add that to a population that isn’t reproducing and it’s not good long term for Russia.
I’m pretty sure this is far in excess, on a population basis, of what the US spends on defense. Add to this weapons from 30+ countries
You mean you still don’t understand what “air superiority” is, or that Russia does not have it anywhere in the Theater, or that they don’t have the capability to mount a ground offensive that could go all the way to Odessa?
I mean, Russia is in the areas they are now, because they can mount a successful ground offensive. The Russians haven’t tried an offensive for over a year, save for Bakhmut. Instead pulling back and digging in the regions they truly want to keep out of Kyiv’s grip. Seems like a pretty smart move, as Ukrainian troops call it like going into a wall of steel. In terms of air superiority, that all depends on whom you ask, but most reports I’m seeing (including those from the Ukrainian side of things) are reporting Russian air superiority. And to be fair, Russia still has not deployed many of their upper echelon fighters and bombers. I reckon they are holding those back in case things get dicey or simply because they don’t need to risk those assets to achieve their objectives.
I’ve opined before that there is a reason why Russia has held back the larger part of its forces. It’s waiting for NATO to officially enter the fray.
Most likely true, as they have seen from the beginning this as a war with NATO, not just Ukraine. My fear is NATO is going to escalate, because at this stage, they have to know the counteroffensive risks outweigh the reward, if it all hinges on the success of the counteroffensive. Best to call a truce now, lest Russia make more advances of their own while Ukraine fumbles their way through this counteroffensive.
Russian elites dying of drug and alcoholism. Xenon therapy and voodoo dolls, oh my MSN Anumber of prominent members of the Russian elite have died while seeking alternative methods to cure their ailments as the country sees a surge in interest in spirituality and mysticism during President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
That would be idiotic for Putin to withhold troops to fight NATO. Finish the war quickly, and then you would have more than enough troops to fight NATO. Putin is not doing that. He is withholding 320,000 of the best equipped troops he has for his own personal protection (the Praetorian Guard), because he is that paranoid that people are out to get him. Most likely, Russia does not have enough ammunition at this point in the war to send more troops into theater and provide them with enough ammo to keep fighting any length of time. Putin's paranoia extends far beyond NATO, and has him concerned what China and other neighbors might do, because he knows what he would do if the shoe were on the other foot. He also has to be paranoid of the civilian population of Moscow, because with the Russian economy being in the toilet and his cash reserves long gone, he has to start getting people to further tighten their belts and deal with even more economic hardship. He also has to get weapons producers to make weapons and ammo at a discount. That's not going to go well. Putin is too ignorant to understand the hazards of having a fractured military, with various groups competing for ammo and positions within the hierarchy. He's another Hitler in that he doesn't understand the workings of the military, yet he insists on micro-managing the military for a massive military operation. Putin has even less background with the military than Hitler did. Putin thinks he's being clever by playing one military leader against the other, but he's only causing Russia to fail. Putin thinks his background in intelligence makes him intelligent, but, unfortunately for him, it does not.
How would he finish the war quickly without exposing his own troops to horrific casualties ? Gone are the wars like Persian Gulf 1991. ISR way too advanced. Ukraine had hundreds of thousands of troops that were exceedingly well fortified and it’s weaponry has been reproduced three times over by 40+ nations.
At this point, one really has to question the strategy of continuing this "counteroffensive". Ukraine is going to end up losing more than they gain and should have quit while they were ahead.
