Russia - threadbanned users in OP

We have being hearing about lack of weapons soldiers deserting etc since the first week or so I hope its true but Putin can still keep going for quite a while unfortunately. It clearly hasn't gone as he expected but he certainly not done by a good bit yet .

One day, but not soon. The west and NATO are playing the long game here instead of escalating it iinto WW3. Unfortunately this can and probably will go on for years.

The problem for Putin is that once he launched the invasion and headed straight for Kyiv, there was no way back out of the invasion for him, not without losing a huge amount of face. He gambled that it would be over within a couple of days.

Yes, trying to sift out the fakery from the real thing is hard amidst the fog of war. Let's wait a while before trying another assessment!

If you were in that Russian force, what do you think your motivation would be? Blind obedience to officers higher up the pecking order, money, love of mother Russia, a belief that Ukrainians are Nazis??

The first is really the only thing that can sustain them - blind obedience and a willingness to suffer as ordered.

If Ukraine military continue to harass them with unpredictable missile and other strikes, make life a misery, strike at supply lines - then these Russian units will surely come under serious strain. Their strategy would be to send Russian units back for a few weeks rest & recuperation and replace with fresh units. There seems to be doubt over whether than can do this though, can they raise sufficient volunteer battalions. Can they draw troops from other duties around the borders and will those troops willingly go to a 'special military operation'?

There really are some good Russians

I get your drift but nazism in Ukraine is a response to Russian aggression (it began in WW2). Donbas always had Russian speakers but their number was increased by Stalin in the 50s. You can't seed a place with people who speak your language and then claim it is yours. I realize you are speaking from the Russian perspective, not necessarily your own.

@Wibbs

Many Russians too who see places like Crimea as very much Russian, ditto for the Donbas, where there were quite the number of Russian separatists and that percentage will have gone up since this invasion kicked off and Ukrainian nationalists had to run for their very lives.

No separatists there Russian soldiers and members of the FSB ,

Ukrainans nationalists didn't run for their lives they stood and faught as they did nearly 8 years ago when Russia first invaded

This is nonsense. I can't believe how many times this discredited canard has popped up.

They dropped their elite paratroopers into hostomel airport. What were they, a sacrificial distraction? Then why did Russia try to link them up with their advancing forces, suffering heavy casualties in the process.

It's like saying Operation Market Garden was a distraction.

A feint doesn't send your main attack forces away from the action for weeks, leave them suffer huge casualties and loss of equipment. They came back from Kyiv in disarray. They sent them with rations to last for days, not weeks.

They wanted to capture Kyiv as an intact prize, like they wanted to capture Ukraine and return it into the Russian orbit. They didn't expect any large scale resistance. Zelensky was supposed to flee and the government collapse with him.

Russia's failure to take Kyiv was a defeat for the ages:

Not true at all ,they wanted and needed Kiev intact to put Viktor Yanukovych and he's other Russian colluges in power under another fake referendum,

The fact the Ukrainians faught like lions and the sheer ineptitude of the Russians who failed to get the basics right which left the Russian to take something they already occupied for the previous 8 years,

And now the Ukrainians are increasing their capabilities on a near daily basis while putin has been reduced to filing rockets at civilian locations because they can't target the Ukrainian military directly

Why let them have Donbas,there was no history of separatistism until the FSB and Russian military arrived 8 years ago,

I'd say that lads on his way to the frontline in the Donbas as we write.....