Still doing significantly better than the US did in Syria or Afghanistan. Considering that Ukraine is being supported with hundreds of millions in weapons from the West.
There is not gonna be a "free Ukraine". Only a neutral Ukraine with a signed "non-NATO" agreement, you can bet your house on it.
The Russian military has lost more soldiers in a few weeks than the US military has lost in all combat combined since Vietnam. Sad!!!
Good thing Russia doesn't lack people. They lost insane numbers of soldiers in WWII as well, but still won it. The US is still to win a war.
Yeah, the respectable military of the US, which didn't win a single war? I mean, Afghani cavemen are three levels under Ukrainian military, just saying...
One thing you don't get, Russia is leading this as a military operation, not war. They're trying to neutralize targets, not to level cities. Airstriking Helsinki to vanish 100.000 lives would be much easier than picking off Azov nazis, one by one.
This is what happens when you consume your own product.
- I seem to recall the US defeating Sadam's military twice in a decade.
- Russia can't even keep planes in the sky over Ukraine. You think they're going to be able to launch airstikes over NATO defended territory. Silly boy.
There isn't any way to sugar coat it.. it's been a disaster for Putin. He can erase any accounting of missing bodies and military inventory, but the fact is Russia's military hasn't yet gotten close to beating a military 1/20th of its size.
Totally agree - it's not going well for the Russian side. Not a complete disaster, but nothing like a success.
This isn't all thanks to the bravery and pluck of Ukraine defenders.
This is a proxy war with NATO.
In meetings in Kyiv today, Baltic state leaders made that clear when it was stated "We have to win this war".
The 2014 change in government was Western backed.
Since then, the CIA, along with US, Canadian, and nearly every other NATO country continuously provided the UDF with money, training, and weapons to prepare them for war, looking the other way when those trained were the Neo-Nazi Azov battalion.
Now, at wart, the Ukraine is being fed real-time intelligence.
It's being supplied and re-supplied with seemingly-endless arms and money.
Western Mercenaries and boots assist on the ground. In Britain, their special Ops teams were disavowed by shuffling paperwork so they appear as inactive status volunteers funded from undisclosed benefactors.
Even the Starlink systems supposedly donated by Musk were actually paid for by the US government.
Those two-thousand Russian burned out Russian tanks and similar heavy equipment have more to do with the 20,000-odd Javelins and Stingers rained down on the Ukraine than anything.
Prior to the February invasion, the US provided a total of $2.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine over the past 8 years (since Russia's annexation of Crimea). In 2017, the Trump administration inked a $110 billion deal to sell weapons to the Saudis (projected to be up to $350 billion over 10 years). Israel gets about $3.3 billion a year in military aid from the US (plus about 500 mil for missile defense systems). In 2020, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Afghanistan got substantially more military aid from the US than Ukraine did (see link). Ukraine's military budget has been around $5 bil, which places it on par for military spending with countries like Vietnam, Switzerland and Uruguay. And that is the first time Ukraine broke $5 bil. Since 2014, military budgets have gone from $1.4 bil in 2014, rising slowly through $2 and $3 bil over eight years.
If this is what it is like to be a proxy for NATO and the US versus Russia, it is a pretty lousy deal for Ukraine. NATO and US military aid for Ukraine has been just enough to keep Ukraine from being overrun by Russian forces and that is about it. Ukraine could not even get old Migs from Poland because Poland wanted them delivered through Ramstein AFB so they would not get attached by Russia. The US very quickly nixed the deal for the same reason.
Totally agree - it's not going well for the Russian side. Not a complete disaster, but nothing like a success.
This isn't all thanks to the bravery and pluck of Ukraine defenders.
This is a proxy war with NATO.
In meetings in Kyiv today, Baltic state leaders made that clear when it was stated "We have to win this war".
The 2014 change in government was Western backed.
Since then, the CIA, along with US, Canadian, and nearly every other NATO country continuously provided the UDF with money, training, and weapons to prepare them for war, looking the other way when those trained were the Neo-Nazi Azov battalion.
Now, at wart, the Ukraine is being fed real-time intelligence.
It's being supplied and re-supplied with seemingly-endless arms and money.
Western Mercenaries and boots assist on the ground. In Britain, their special Ops teams were disavowed by shuffling paperwork so they appear as inactive status volunteers funded from undisclosed benefactors.
Even the Starlink systems supposedly donated by Musk were actually paid for by the US government.
Those two-thousand Russian burned out Russian tanks and similar heavy equipment have more to do with the 20,000-odd Javelins and Stingers rained down on the Ukraine than anything.
I don't think we every day Americans have a clue as to how its going for Russia.
“We” every day Americans are under the impression that we are witnessing the greatest blunder in modern warfare. I am actually shocked how badly “your” military is performing.
I am shocked how there is still no plausible explanation why the Russians are even invading.
I am shocked how dumb Putin really is. I thought he was evil but it turns out he is the king of the dumbest nation on earth. He has people like yourself backing him up for worthless Rubles.
I am not shocked that his frustration is being taken out on the innocent. He has always been evil. No turning back now. How could he?
Attribute something never said, then refute that by a moral appeal. Same-O, Same-O.
I've stated being a pacifist and decry bigotry.
I note and take issue with failings on both sides in this conflict.
Others here state the situation is "black and white".
They defend graphic videos of Russian prisoners being executed bound and helpless.
On seeing Russian prisoners tortured and kneecapped, it was lamented they were not all shot in the head.
One poster noted "The only good Russian is a dead Russian".
The usual suspects up-voted these and back-slapped each other with supportive comments - while calling down those who took issue with it.
For them, moral expectation, and the Hague and Geneva conventions, apply for some - but not others.
How many Russian civilians have the Ukrainian army killed so far? How many Russian houses have been destroyed? How many Russian civilians have been raped? How many Russian towns have been reduced to rubble?
But keep it up with the endless sophistry and fake altruism.
WE do know that @ 18,000 Russians have been killed in Donetsk and Donbas since 2014.
The Russian military has lost more soldiers in a few weeks than the US military has lost in all combat combined since Vietnam. Sad!!!
Good thing Russia doesn't lack people. They lost insane numbers of soldiers in WWII as well, but still won it. The US is still to win a war.
They US and Britain gave Russia over $200 billion in supplies (in today's dollars) during WW2, including over 15,000 tanks, 18,000 aircraft, and similar numbers in every type of military supply you can think of. You people were completely bailed out in WW2, and saved from your own cowardice and ineptitude.
In retrospect, perhaps we should have let you awful people got steamrolled by the Germans. But at the time, it seems like a good idea to bail you out.
Good thing Russia doesn't lack people. They lost insane numbers of soldiers in WWII as well, but still won it. The US is still to win a war.
They US and Britain gave Russia over $200 billion in supplies (in today's dollars) during WW2, including over 15,000 tanks, 18,000 aircraft, and similar numbers in every type of military supply you can think of. You people were completely bailed out in WW2, and saved from your own cowardice and ineptitude.
In retrospect, perhaps we should have let you awful people got steamrolled by the Germans. But at the time, it seems like a good idea to bail you out.
You got it backwards.
W/O the Soviet Union, Germany would have seized all of Europe including England and USA would have had no base of operations.
Put simply - Russia invaded a sovereign nation and will get no sympathy for anything bad that happens to them. The asymmetry in aggressive maneuvers and power is glaring - totally black and white.
There are no excuses for war crimes. It's not OK for one side to execute or torture prisoners. No one should.
It's no less a tragedy when a child is carried out of rubble in Dontesk as in Kiev. It makes no difference if it was a Ukraine mortar round or Russian.
Morally, it is not totally black and white. One crime does not justify any number and type of successive responses. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
Defending your nation from ruthless invaders with ruthlessness is indeed just, and much of the world agrees.
They US and Britain gave Russia over $200 billion in supplies (in today's dollars) during WW2, including over 15,000 tanks, 18,000 aircraft, and similar numbers in every type of military supply you can think of. You people were completely bailed out in WW2, and saved from your own cowardice and ineptitude.
In retrospect, perhaps we should have let you awful people got steamrolled by the Germans. But at the time, it seems like a good idea to bail you out.
You got it backwards.
W/O the Soviet Union, Germany would have seized all of Europe including England and USA would have had no base of operations.
US is part of Europe? Thank you, I didn’t know that.
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So many many names can belong to a registered account
Sure you are. Why else would you try to normalize what is happening by saying it happens everywhere else? “To a lesser extent”… You truly are a morally bankrupt individual. But I have said that before to your registered name.
You are ridiculous. I am not normalizing anything. Yes it happens everywhere and everywhere it is equally bad. It is not an excuse. Are you ready to say Americans, British, Germans, French ... invaded -...pick one...-, they are subhuman barbaric murderers, all many millions of them should be wiped from the face of earth? If you are not, then shut up about Russians, too.