@mods, as I see this conversation is continuing, this is a new entry, independent of the last one that was stopped due to personal exchanges. It will be all point-to-point on topic with nothing personal.
Who's laughing and which allies? If the US wants to negotiate and told Ukraine to let its territory go, that is their sign of weakness. If they thought Russia could be defeated, they would do it. Russia's main allies are China and Belarus. There are no changes to thier support. Can you name any country that has changed its stance on Russia?
He's now testing new missiles like Oreshnik in Ukraine. He's basically playing with it and killing people to validate military technology now. He's also increasing the general combat intensity.
Only if you were to compare Russia with Israel, both countries that have gained land in the conflict and inflicted disoproportionate casualities on their enemies.
There is no diplomacy when the whole West fears Russia. The creation of NATO was specifically to keep the Russians out as they are natural enemies. Nobody in the West fears Israel; Israel is an instrument of Western control inthe middle-east.
I'd say angry backseat drivers insulting world leaders feared by all the West is more despicable, especially when they understand nothing compared to those leaders, not the situation within the Russian/Ukrainian militaries and not the long-term plans made.
Of course they have support from the West. How can they not? How can they withdraw support? You talk about Russia's credibility but this is their credibility on the line and it is being used as a tool to trap them to bleed out.
So basically, in this words case scenario where Russia is expanding by NYC-sized land by the month and just decides to stop, it will still have taken a big chunk of Ukraine.
But your assumption that Russia will negotiate to Trump's favor makes no sense. Russia is advancing; whether they negotiate is up to them, not Trump. Actually, in this scenerio, it makes sense for Russia to wait for Trump to enter office before making heavy pushes. Why? Because the exiting Biden team is volatile; they may escalate with Russia and do stupid rash things to make the mess more difficult for the Trump team to clean up. But when Trump comes into office with a clear desire to end the Ukrainian conflict so he can focus on China, Russia can do many things and put all the chess pieces where they want before they allow Trump to negotiate on Russian terms.
That's not true. War efforts are kept up by young men, not the leadership. Leaderships often collapse and new leaderships arise but when the combat population is decimated, the war effort is soundly defeated.
Putin has told China that he wouldn't mind if it goes on for 5 more years at least. Russia stamina is historically known. You cannot expect to go to war and not get hit at all. Israel is hit often by rockets from all sides. Putin answers by continuing his land expansion and the killing of the Ukrainian military population.
This wasn't for me, but the feeling is mutual. I have cited all the reasons. Let's see if you can rebut them point-to-point. Nothing personal to go off on, just points on the conflict.
It's not gaining territory to take your own things back that you lost. Net gain/loss is the key. If you lost your wallet, then found it again, you didn't profit a wallet. Russia profited Ukrainian land; Ukraine lost it.
What about personel loss? That is the purpose of a meat grinder. It is Russia's tactic to lure Ukraine into meat grinders, locations where they lose more and more men without any meaningful territorial exchange. They say in battle that if you trade territory to preserve your men, you can fight and win it back, but if you gave up your men for the territory, you will have no defenders to keep it. This is what is happening to Ukraine, which is increasing desperate in its mandatory draft with women and boys being called up to fight.
Ukraine cannot swallow it but the USA is calling Ukraine to let go of its losses and negotiate. At the beginning, neither side wanted negotiations with Russia, with Zelensky saying negotiations are not possible until every inch of Ukrainian land is returned and Putin is deposed. He's no longer so picky, is he?
These are details compared to big picture that Ukraine is running out of people, regardless of their religion or origin, who can fight for it while Russia is just getting ramped up with more soldiers and new weapons.
"The Russian military is accelerating its gains along the front line.
