UNI88 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 8:59 am
SeattleGriz wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 12:47 am
Who fucking cares about controlling an oblast? The parents of the soldiers who didn't die defending shit they didn't need to defend, or pound their head against an obvious death sentence are the ones that care.
You think the Russians are stupid?
The Russians are sitting back, letting the Ukrainians throw themselves into the meat grinder at the command of the neocons.
You serve in our military?
I think putin doesn't give 2 shits about your average russian. He's willing to send them to death to fight in a stalemate where russia's best chance to salvage something from their humiliation is if the US pulls their support. And lo and behold, we have a bunch of anti-American tankies calling for just that.
How do you lose 87% of your troops when you're "sitting back, letting the Ukrainians throw themselves into the meat grinder"?
Indeed. Putin's desire for glory and re-enlargement of Russia to something closer to Soviet times, has little care for his own soldiers as well. I'd question any figures from either side in this, but there's no doubt that Russia has lost a tremendous amount of both soldiers and equipment in trying and failing to annex Ukraine. They wouldn't have gone to forced conscription to re-fill the ranks if the ranks didn't get gutted in the first place.
No one's going to win here - Russia isn't going to annex Ukraine or have significant political sway in Ukraine as they failed to move the Ukrainians enough militarily and because the Ukraine government is still in power. And they've likely lost the chance long term to do that as now they've pushed Ukraine solidly into Europe and brough Finland and Sweden into NATO and firmly created a western boundary. And Ukraine will likely not get back the portion of land the Russians have stolen and Ukraine, to a lesser extent than Russia, has lost a lot of people. In the end, it's a large loss of life on both sides just to satisfy Putin's desire for some lasting legacy. No one wins that.