semjazy wrote:BlazersBroncos wrote:There are numerous reports that the Russian ground forces have low morale. The leader may have Hitler'esque tendencies, but Putin isnt throwing the same type of men into battle. Hitler had men that were fully convinced they were going against sub humans and cowards. These Russian troops are going against fellow Slavs with shared culture.
End of the day it will come down to who is willing to die for their country, even above weapon supremacy this is what wins and loses wars. Russians wont be, Ukrainians will.
Likely becomes unconventional but when guerilla fighting starts the Russians are absolutely screwed. The fog of war in this type of quick strike is high, but when it slows down and the guerilla fighting starts, with likely indiscriminate Russian response and civilian death, the world will turn even harsher against Russia. Its alot easier to send pictures of carnage against Ukranians when the situation bogs down vs right now. Its going to get very ugly, but I think in the end Putin has finally overplayed his hand.
Also, the more Javelins the Ukranians can get the quicker this ends.
Also also, as this goes worse for Russia, and it will, expect Navalny to end up dead in jail.
Exactly. Putin must win within 5 days. Otherwise, there will be "night funerals"* again, and this will not appeal to the Russian population
* soldiers' funerals held at night at which the family is informed at the last minute to limit the number of participants in the ceremony in order to cover up losses
They will never break the will of Ukraine in 5 days. There isnt an end game where Russia wins outright and installs a stable puppet within the next decade. It would take a quarter million plus Russian boots in Ukraine to even maintain a false sense of stability, and not only can the Russians not afford that monetarily but constant media portrayals of Russians clearly occoupying the country will cause even worse blowback.
There will be Russian columns ambushed with IED's, soldiers in the cities killed by faceless partisans in the alleyways, etc, etc. And all this with the underbelly of the 1st world powers (IE CIA, MI6) providing tremendously lethal military hardware. Iraq and Afghanistan barely if at all had a unifying national identity and they pushed us out while getting Soviet era arms. Ukrainians have a well entrenched national identity and will be getting 2022 tech from the democratic powers. Its not winnable for Putin, I simply dont see any way it is in the long run.
Putin overplayed and he simply cant win. The real question is how many die needlessly before this end goal is realized.
) which indicated the PRC going after Taiwan is not the slam dunk you'd initially think. Unless they elect Thibs!