Start posting comment about how Russia can't prosecute this war correctly and the mods here will threaten you with a ban.
The level of incompetence is amazing yet many here keep eating Russia MOD lies.
This is not how you fight a major war.
You don't leave the regions bordering the enemy you've been fighting for 3 years exposed. Yet the Russians keep doing it. I've lost count how many times Ukraine has started incursions into Russia.
You don't leave the enemy energy and other vital infrastructure intact. You level everything. That's how the West fights. It works.
It didn't work for the west in Vietnam or in Korea, it doesn't work against any army worth it's salt because AAMs, dispersed units and defenses are a thing. Modern supply lines can apparently be insanely durable, to the point where even a tiny enclave like Gaza cannot be fully blocked.
You seal the borders.
You mobilize the entire nation, not this half-measure mobilization or conscription. Look at Israel against a weak opponent in Hamas.
Many months later, Hamas has rotated out some 10-20% of its forces. At least Russia took Mariupol properly in a few months. This is probably the worst example of how to do things properly.
You allocate a major part of your finance to the military to design and produce vital equipment needed for the war (satellites, aircraft, etc).
You declare NFZ over the entire Ukraine airspace and portions extending to the Black Sea. Even if you can't enforce it, it would give you cover if you down any Ukraine ally that violates it.
You actually declare a war not the "special military operation"
Russia acts like it can have its cake and eat it too. Putin wants to launch a major war, while trying to not bring any suffering or consequences to Russian citizens. All these measures creates hardship for Russian citizens, but the top priority should be victory at the earliest.
At this rate, the war will go on for another 3 years especially if the same administration wins US elections.
The correct doctrine when facing an army that fights as you describe is to disperse your locally firepower inferior forces, make your own mobilisation, outlast the enemy mobilisation and inflict attrition on his constant air warfare. US lost 10 000+ aircraft in Vietnam, in part due to the insistence of trying to fly B52s deep into Vietnam for raids that had almost no military value. After mobilising too early and for too long, they also began to experience unrest. Together, these factors forced a defeat.
Because all great powers today have no experience fighting major wars, they default to trying new tactics and looking back on long ago near peer conflicts. Russia is probably not prosecuting the war optimally but I don't see other parties necessarily doing better, there aren't any concrete examples of such a war being fought "more correctly".
Mobilisation is a huge card they can play, but learning from Vietnam and delaying it has imho proved the more correct choice. What is better, mobilising for a major push today when Ukraine has ~25 000 offensive capable troops, or mobilising 2023 when Ukraine had 400 000+ offensive capable troops?
