Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Yeah, the "Russia is spending [figure pulled out of arse} a day on this war" stuff had as much credibility as the Ghost of Kiev. Russia is not like other European states. It's relatively poor, democracy is only a word in the dictionary, they've been revved up on propaganda since putin took office, propaganda about the glories of war and fighting facists as the mainstay and faith of national Russian pride. Since putin took over after the utter shambles of the 90's where the country was openly raped of resources and power, he continued on, but took it behind closed doors for his cronies and more scraps from the master's table got to the little Russian in the street, the same Russian whose culture elevates suffering to a virtue. He has a lot of support for this. That their czar looks kindly on them. In short they can and will take a lot more hardship than Western Europeans and keep fighting.

Never mind that Russia's fighting force for the most part is dirt cheap. Compare the pay of a Russian soldier to one in Germany or the US. Compare the cost of an Abrams tank to a T-72. Compare the cost of their most expensive kit their Sukhois etc to Lockheed F22s and the like. And most of all they have the sheer force of numbers and aren't afraid to throw them into the meat grinder of war. They celebrate that meat grinder as a positive every victory day. They've already sustained casualties even by "official Russian" numbers that would likely cause an uproar in the US, or any other civilised nation.

IMHO - and I said this from very early on; Donbas, or the guts of it is lost to Ukraine. The land bridge to Crimea ditto for the most part. Russiia will have to deal with the rebuilding and control of the inevitable insurgency for years. And again I've said this too; if I were Ukraine, bitter pill that it is, I'd essentially leave them to it. Leave them to that already existing clusterfcuk that's been brewing for decades. I'd concentrate on fighting them to a stalemate at the existing "borders", throw hell at them if they try to take Odessa(which I suspect they won't). Leave them to their North Korea status in the aftermath. Clean Ukraine up, keep the Americans at a friendly distance and get on board with the EU. The current German government are on borrowed time. And the EU should go in and do a "marshall plan" for Ukraine. It will be to huge social, political and yes financial benefit to the EU and Ukraine. And let ever more impoverished Russia look on.