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The War in Ukraine

That take doesn't match history. Considering Russia didn't move on Ukraine while Trump was in office, but did so while Obama and Biden were... it would be more logical to suspect a more desperate Russia trying to solidify gains ahead of a Trump POTUS fearful that a change in administration would change the game for them. They know where Biden is at and Ukraine will lose without a change in the west.
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Liberal West deluding itself.

Ukraine will win if all hold hands and chant kumbaya together!

Not so.

Sadly, history proved @Humphrey Bogart right. Mostly, in my estimation, because the West proved frustratingly unwilling - or worst, unable - to do what was necessary.
Unable through underestimation and hubris.

The great charade played since the beginning of this war was that Ukraine was weak. Ukraine was not a weak Country.

It had the second largest Army in Europe next to the Russians and had undergone a significant buildup since the 2014. The Ukrainians started the wat with numerical supremacy and more troops committed to battle than the Russians.

The Russians tried a lightning strategy which nearly succeeded. It failed and we have now settled in to a prolonged seige on an industrial scale which the West hasn't shown a willingness or ability to match yet.

America could potentially do something about it but overcommitting leaves them vulnerable elsewhere: Middle East, Asia, etc.

The Russia, China, Iran, NK Axis is far more powerful than was anticipated.

Large scale industrial buildup is what is required. It means undoing decades of globalization.

The current Russian Strategy is attacking at multiple points across a broad front to force Ukraine to commit Reserves so they can be destroyed.

The Russians have large Reserves which are continuously rotated in and out of the line of contact.

The trend that has developed over the last two years is clear. Form Cauldrons: Sieverodonetsk, Lysychansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Rabotyne, etc and force the Ukrainians to expend manpower and equipment trying to hold them. Ukraine cannot afford to continuously recapitalize its Army, Russia can.

Ukraine itself is in a gigantic cauldron that is surrounded on 3 sides. The defensive fortifications built by Russia around Ukraine exist so that they can lay seige with impunity to the Country and slowly bleed Ukraine dry. The fortifications are impregnable and the current occupied territories are not going to be recaptured.

Casualties Russia takes are baked in to the plan. They can afford them, Ukraine cannot. Russia can pick and choose exactly where they will strike when the time is right.
 
Russia can afford the causalities for now, but their demographics says they are borrowing against their future. They are bleeding their future population dry. Even if they hold the regions after the war, they will have minimal economic value outside of Crimea proper.
 
Russia can afford the causalities for now, but their demographics says they are borrowing against their future. They are bleeding their future population dry. Even if they hold the regions after the war, they will have minimal economic value outside of Crimea proper.
If Russia is bleeding their demographics, what does that tell you about Ukraine?

Disagree, the farmland alone is worth something.
As for what will happen to the conquered areas, Grozny offers a clue:

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Russia can afford the causalities for now, but their demographics says they are borrowing against their future. They are bleeding their future population dry. Even if they hold the regions after the war, they will have minimal economic value outside of Crimea proper.
The russian economy is short 5 million people to work in all sectors of the economy. This is growing by the day as they recruit more and more people to sustain casualty rates. This is why most intelligence is saying russian production will peak this year, and not likely increase without and increase in the labour pool AND additional raw materials/refining capacity.
 
If Russia is bleeding their demographics, what does that tell you about Ukraine?

Disagree, the farmland alone is worth something.
As for what will happen to the conquered areas, Grozny offers a clue:

View attachment 83614
That took some 30 years to rebuild and the population has still not reached pre-war levels. You need people to clear the fields of UXO's first. So even when the war ends, it will take 15 years to see a significant harvest. Almost all of the heavy industry that Eastern Ukraine was known for is destroyed and the workers gone or dead. As I mentioned the Crimea itself is the only bit that will benefit Russia and they had that since 2014. Russia does not need land, they need competent leadership at the municipal and State level, but they don't have it.
 
The russian economy is short 5 million people to work in all sectors of the economy. This is growing by the day as they recruit more and more people to sustain casualty rates. This is why most intelligence is saying russian production will peak this year, and not likely increase without and increase in the labour pool AND additional raw materials/refining capacity.
Think Albert Speer and Fritz Todt in 1943/44 and then again in early 1945.
 
Russian drone with 10Km long fibre optic comms line.

Cool. It also delivers an EW proof comms line between point of origin and target. Saves the cost of a signaler and a cable layer.

Quiet links between vehicles in listening mode and the trenches 10 km away.

If you can afford to drop a TOW link then you can afford to drop a tank to trench, or even a howitzer to howitzer link.
 
The russian economy is short 5 million people to work in all sectors of the economy. This is growing by the day as they recruit more and more people to sustain casualty rates. This is why most intelligence is saying russian production will peak this year, and not likely increase without and increase in the labour pool AND additional raw materials/refining capacity.

Russia's GDP (1.8 Tn) is on the upswing and is equivalent to Canada's, thanks largely to natural resources like gas and oil.

Paying for a small war is costing them a tiny fraction of that amount and, depending on who rules the autocracy, could conceivably continue forever.

 
Russia's GDP (1.8 Tn) is on the upswing and is equivalent to Canada's, thanks largely to natural resources like gas and oil.

Paying for a small war is costing them a tiny fraction of that amount and, depending on who rules the autocracy, could conceivably continue forever.

Devil is in the details, if you look their GDP growth is fueled by the defense industry. If the war ends and that dries up. It would be economic doom
 
Russia's GDP (1.8 Tn) is on the upswing and is equivalent to Canada's, thanks largely to natural resources like gas and oil.

Paying for a small war is costing them a tiny fraction of that amount and, depending on who rules the autocracy, could conceivably continue forever.

Challenge is: "How much of the GDP goes into personal coffers to ensure they remain loyal"? KSA has a production cost of $5-10 a barrel and a "Social cost" of $60 to maintain the current power structure As an example of the issue.
 
Time for Raytheon to update TOW with an FPV camera and fibre optic 'wire' so the operator can be moving and unexposed/hidden as soon as the shot is out

EFOGM - Circa 1985, same era as Javelin, the Merlin 81mm and the Strix 120mm rounds as well as the original Brimstone and the LAM/PAM N-LOS systems.

Armoured vehicles given a 40 year grace period courtesy of The Fall Of The Wall.

Assault Breakers were all the rage back then.


 
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