Russia - threadbanned users in OP

No source for yesterday. I have seen sources arguing both cases.

I don't know how many times Russia broke the Budapest agreement.

I have pointed to peer reviewed article by mearsheimer describing 2014 as a coup. There are countless articles describing NATO oral commitment not to expand East of Germany. I'm not here to defend Russia. I have said repeatedly it's the objectively most corrupt country in Europe.

It must be horrendous over there with a crippled energy system as winter sets in, constant blackouts, lack of water and heat and you're basically saying it's no big deal, the snowflakes should just get on with it like people used to do?

The reason why Putin started the war, from one of the smartest Russian politicians.

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They didn't go in with Shock & Awe because they're not remotely capable of an operation of that scale and effectiveness. That is the only reason.

Russia spends about 6% of what the USA does on its military on a generally obsolete and bloated army. The only way they can wage war is by blunt force. They have no high-tech equipment, no effective combined arms, no strong logistics network, nothing remotely comparable to the USA.

The US army is unmatched in the world, no other military comes close, though plenty of countries have strong, well trained and equipped, and well-led armies. Russian army is none of those things, it's just your average ex-Soviet state military with more of all the out-dated equipment.

The war going terrible for them in Ukraine isn't surprising because it's happened before. It happened in Georgia in 2008, obviously Russia won because the Georgian military is minuscule, but the world noticed how badly the RU military performed given the absolutely massive disparity on paper, tenfold bigger between that of Ukraine and Russia.

Interesting point about the tank games. And by interesting, I of course really mean embarrassing barrel-scraping. Things have really hit rock bottom if that's supposed to be a showcase of Russia military prowess given the reality of their fortunes thus far in Ukraine.

Just have a good long hard look at the list of international participants and then try and repeat that flex. Seriously. Comical is probably the best word I would use but I can think of a few others.

I don't suppose you've anything to say on those horrific tank losses in Ukraine and the fact they're resorting to pulling increasingly obsolete models out of storage as a result.

Tanks in modern war are useless with proper leadership and effective combined operations between branches, and especially against a superior enemy. Simply throwing them into the grinder gets you nowhere. Thousands of tanks were lost in the Gulf Wars for that reason.

Ukraine might not be a superior military based on paper strength but it is unquestionably a better trained and led one thanks to major investment in those aspects since 2014.

Russia is still operating on the battlefield like it's 1945, with weaponry from the 1980s.

You should be depressed then. If you're only joining the thread now, you've a bit of catching up to do.

Did you not see the Z rally's outside of Russia? It's not just those within the borders. The Russian's that fled fled more out of fear for being conscripted themselves as opposed to any opposition to the regime. Otherwise, they would have fled sooner. The ones that left before perhaps were of a different attitude. There's no silent majority. There's major indifference for the most part.

It was only when the mobilisation happened that the borders with Russia really had to be firmed up. Divisions are only happening now because they are not winning. Putin is a despot alright, but he could be replaced by worse. I don't hold much optimism for them guiding themselves away from the path they've gone down. But that's their choice. As I said, lets worry about Russia's future once Ukraine's has been secured.

That threat has allowed things to get to this point. Should they be allowed march all the way to France because of that threat?

That's just it. They've threatened escalation umpteen times. China has finally told them to tone it down. They've bluffed big time with Ukraine. Have Ukraine not attacked annexed Russian territories? Where were the nukes?

Did Turkey not shoot down a Russian fighter previously? We're no closer to nuclear Armageddon unless some ridiculous chain of events happens. Russia won't go nuclear over Ukraine.

They need to be turfed out and the lesson they should learn is that having "the bomb" doesn't give you free reign over your neighbours fledgling democracies.