Aggie_2463 said:
I haven't been following the war the last several months - in a short summary, can anyone describe the current state? Is Russia winning? Is Ukraine?
You skipped the second act where Ukraine and Russia were in a stalemate. Russia could only take ground by creating a wasteland with their artillery. Ukraine was struggling with regaining captured ground. Ukraine got the HIMARS up and running and went after strategic targets deep in enemy territory. Ammo dumps, strategic railroad points, barracks. Made it hard for Russia to hold land. Ukraine spent what seemed like two months doing this while holding their lines. Ukraine makes a push for Kherson in the south. Taking Kherson means Ukrainians have a launching point to Crimea in the south and the land bridge up the east, but Kherson is also a key city getting reinforced on rail lines from Crimea and the land bridge. Russia builds up troops in Kherson on the defense. Ukraine starts to go in on Kherson from the north, but pulls the football and goes east, getting past the first level defenders. Surprises the Russians (and the Ukrainians lets be honest), and Ukraine takes a big swath of land to the east, extended by the equipment Russia left behind. Ukraine is in better control (but not full) of supply lines reinforcing Kherson.
Russia sees they are going to lose Kherson over the next six months. Calls up a draft. Will see how Ukraine and the rest of the world respond to a million man call up. Russia looks like they are drawing heavily from minority areas (remember, Russia is empire lording over a bunch of vassals they have a lot of people that would not consider themselves primarily russian living within their borders.)
Russia looks like they are going to try to go WW2 locust swarm with every new conscript getting either a gun or ammo, but not both.
Winter is going to be about how much you prepare versus how much you care. Can europe keep giving a little help as they descend into a recession over heating prices? Will america keep giving aid as they have their own recession? Putin isn't going to cloth, feed and supply a million men. He is going to release them on Ukraine like a locust swarm and tell them to steal to say fed and warm. Can Ukraine overcome those resource demands?
Here's what we do know:
Will the EU ever appreciate the American LNGs headed their way to save their frozen asses? No.
Will Germany actually build a terminal in time? No.
Will France fix their nuclear maintenance problems in time? No.
France, beyond their maintenance woes is limited in energy production due to high heat and low rivers. They can't dump the excess energy into the rivers without killing all the fish. Fall and winter temperatures will help them bring online more capacity. But it won't be enough to make things cheap again.