I do believe that ratio of losses was almost even, but since the failed UA offensive, overwhelming Russian artillery, surprising effects and number of Russian glide bombs, number of Russian drones, and the fact that Ukraine's army is mostly conscripts where majority on Russia's side is contractors I do believe that now the ratio of losses is to Russia's advantage. You can extrapolate the rest, using your own numbers of Russian looses if you wish
Even a 2:1 ratio would yield 1 million Ukrainian soldiers out of action. do you think Ukraine mobilised 1 million soldiers? I don't. Probably more like half of that and the front in manned. See why those numbers are unbelievable?
No i do not, but all that means is that your initial assessment of 500k Russian losses is invalid. Believe both sides acknowledged that most of their losses are not from firearms but from shrapnel. And when one side has overwhelming advantage by thousands/month in almost everything exploding with shrapnel such as artillery shells, glide bombs, long range exploding drones, there just isn't close to enough precision weapons ATACMs/HIMARS/Storm Shadows/Scalp to even make a dent in that. Russia is just pushing one tree line at a time now (i'm sure you've seen those fields littered with shell craters) and with China's backing Russia has proven that they can maintain this, there's really no stopping this. All you can do is keep sending reinforcements to that tree line to slow Russia down, thus lowering age for mobilized conscripts.
Sad part is, after all of the escalations now current US administration cannot back out of this, thus the Irony that Trump is really Ukrainian's only option. After the elections. prior government would claim how Ukraine was totally almost winning before Trump, and Trump will blame Biden for starting a useless war which he ended. No loosers, everyone wins (well, except for all of the lost Ukrainians played as pawns by their government). (Russia wins by reasserting itself as regional power, like we're already seeing in
Georgia/Armenia.)
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Let's be honest, if Ruzzia cannot "win" this year, it is going to get veeery ugly for them. The only strategy is always doubling the bet, and Martingales always end with a zero.
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Good words, brother. Indeed, as a gambler I can confirm, martingale is a desperate strategy that you are using being not far from losing everything.
There'll be no "wins" for either side this year.
A very good indicator how well Russia is performing is a watching the inverse correlation of the amount nuclear threats spewing out of them.
When things are looking good, the nuclear threats drop.
When things are looking bad, the nuclear threats ramp up.
Last week the threats went into overdrive. Therefore things are very very bad for Russia.
Typically I'd agree, but in this case you're confusing the cause and effect. So in this case, a very good indicator of how well Ukraine is performing is watching inverse correlation to the promises of NATO troops in Ukraine. Ukraine is doing so well on it's own even about to take Crimea/Moscow, think it's time we send NATO troops there
In other news, to no one's surprise EU is shifting far right.
It has been a sorry sight for Germany's three-party coalition government, but unlike Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he will not call for an election.
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Step in the populist far-right and far-left, who promise a quick return to peace and prosperity: "Just negotiate with Putin, and buy Russian gas again," says the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
AfD came second with 15.9% and Scholz's social democratic SPD came third with 13.9%. Coming up top was the conservative CDU party with an impressive 30% of the vote.
"We want to end the war so just stop sending arms to Ukraine and stop migrants coming," says the new populist far-left party BSW led by ex-communist firebrand Sahra Wagenknecht.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cemented her grip on Italian politics.
She used the European elections to boost her own popularity by putting her name at the top of her party's ballot, and it proved a successful gamble: with 29%, she has increased the vote gained by her party in the 2022 general election.
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While Geert Wilders - who until recently promised a referendum on Nexit (i.e. Netherlands' exit from the EU) - posted five red love heart emojis on X. "Still the biggest winner with five more seats.”
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In Hungary, Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party won both the European and municipal elections.
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Far-right party claims 'new era' in Austria
I'm wondering if that's what the cookie monster Nuland meant when she said
Fuck the EU? They should try to pivot and somehow try to blame Putin for this too.
[moderator's note: multiple posts have been merged]