The Russians just lost a Slava-class cruiser “Moscow” near Odessa. The Russian-controlled media are trying to downplay it and present it as a result of fire on board, but the most likely explanation is that it was hit by rockets from Odessa, because the Russians just sat there and refused to actually kill the enemies, while the Ukrainians have absolutely no compunctions about killing Russians in any way or form – they would kill men, women or children, with conventional, chemical or biological weapons, in as large number as possible, and the more the merrier. The Ukrainians absolutely hate the Russians, while the Russians think that most Ukrainians are good and they are only fighting a minority of “nazis”. I think this is a strategic miscalculation, because the entire concept of Ukrainian state is based on hatred of Russian identity; there’s nothing else there, really. What is Ukraine, anyway? Agricultural fields and hatred of Russia. That’s why they identify with the Nazis, because they had to go there in order to claim any kind of identity separate from Russia.
The Russians also have a problem of trying to play it according to the international law, and the problem consists of them being the only side that adheres to it, while everybody else both routinely breaks/ignores it, and will stand in judgment over Russia based on fabricated evidence in any case, so Russian insistence on playing by the rules on a corrupt playing field leads to a guaranteed loss.
Also, as I initially said, it is impossible to win this in Ukraine. You can lose it there, but not win. In order to win you need to take out America and the UK, and I mean really take them out. Then, all the secondary issues that appear as problems now will suddenly be non-issues. If they don’t take out the primary enemy, and keep fighting proxy wars, the result will be certain strategic loss.
Basically, if Russia isn’t determined to actually win, it will lose with mathematical certainty.
Edit: The cruiser apparently capsized during the attempt of towing; that, at least, is what the Russian news are reporting.
As far as I remember from the times of war in Syria that the greatest weakness of Russia and Putin there was that they tried to tip-toe around every side involved directly there like US, Israel and Turkey so they never resolved situation there completely because they never engaged Israel while their F-16 bombarded Damascus on daily basis, never purged Americans from NE Syria and never been able to squeeze Turkey sponsored terorists from Idlib. I guess situation there is still the same. I’m just wondering what could possibly push Putin to the point where he says “Fuck it! I tried everything possible to reason with those motherfuckers, now they get it!” and push the red button?!
As far as I remember from the times of war in Syria that the greatest weakness of Russia and Putin there was that they tried to tip-toe around every side involved directly there like US, Israel and Turkey so they never resolved situation there completely because they never engaged Israel while their F-16 bombarded Damascus on daily basis, never purged Americans from NE Syria and never been able to squeeze Turkey sponsored terorists from Idlib. I guess situation there is still the same. I’m just wondering what could possibly push Putin to the point where he says “Fuck it! I tried everything possible to reason with those motherfuckers, now they get it!” and push the red button?!
Yeah, they wanto to be a sovereign nation, but they don’t want to kill Americans. I’m afraid that’s not how that works.
The main strength of Russia is in going straight forward like a juggernaut and just destroying everything. This is a huge strength and NATO is worried about it with a good reason, as they cannot stop it. But “playing with their food” strategy that Russia is doing right now in Ukraine is not their strong side, either psychologically or militarily. It is just a totally wrong approach. The moment they’ve decided they will take it easy on Ukrainian *soldiers* (let alone adversarial “civilians”) and not strike them on every opportunity (in their barracks, in the field, when surrounded, on the way to battlefield etc.) is the moment they lost their main strength and are no longer a superpower in this particular war.
I agree. If they can’t stand the heat they should get out of the kitchen. Also, the west is determined to destroy Russia, and the only way for Russia is to destroy the West, and to do it before all those “small” wars sap their strength to the point where they can no longer function as a self-sufficient civilization.