deddog said:
ABATTBQ11 said:
I don't think they're winning strategically. They're suffering unsustainable equipment and personnel losses. It's one thing to have ground, but it's another to do it continuously and hold it.
I know it seems unlikely now, but the Russians may actually break the will of the Ukrainians.
There is only so much constant bombing and starvation that you can take. it doesn't help that Russia owns the skies - suree not up to Western standards, but they do. There is a reason Zelinsky keeps asking for a no-fly zone.
If (when?) the Russian level Kyiv, and Zelinsky is killed, and the Russians manage to cut off supplies, things may become very different.
The Russians suffered immensely in Chechnya, and yet turned things around. The Russians have a long, long history of taking brutal losses and then turning things around.
And strategically that is catching up. As someone else mentioned. Their population is aging and they have a death rate almost twice their birth rate. The thing about taking brutal losses and throwing men and materials at something until you overwhelm it is that eventually you run out.
This is their Afghanistan 2.0. In a month and a half they'll have lost as many if not more soldiers in Ukraine than they did over 10 years in Afghanistan, all of the Chechen war, and more than we did in Iraq and Afghanistan in 20 years. Drag it on another month and the Russians won't be able to hide the losses from the public. They'll be staring at 20k KIA and probably another 40k-50k wounded. 2 months and they could be north of 100k casualties. Even if the finally move into and start taking cities, they'll deal with an insurgency.
On top of that, the longer they drag on, the more economic damage will be done, which is something they did not face during the Chechen war. They literally got away with murder there, but the sanctions will likely stay until they leave Ukraine. They can lose men and materials in Ukraine, but if they're facing 20-30% unemployment on top of huge military losses, they're going to have a lot of domestic problems to deal with and no one to do it with. Even if they eventually win the battles in the ground, they'll be bled dry economically and the inevitable insurgency will keep them there until they lose the war.