No. Ukraine is a core Russian interest and as such It would be perfectly reasonable (and expected) to tactically nuke NATO assets and their bases if they attacked.
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
I don't know why all the restraint then. It just adds fuel to the fires of propaganda. Look at our friend here named after some sort of Italian STD. They are able to push this sort of propaganda because of not utilizing full power plus the loss of live for both nations.
There maybe constraints that prevented a larger force. While the Russians have the military, they may not have the logistics to support such a large ground forces. Once they decided that there were no quick victory, the decision between a slow offense with many more casualties and a slower offense with fewer casualties with the side benefit of changing the political landscape in Western Europe may swing the decision to the latter.
What restraint, its quite simple actually. Putin is a dumbass. That's it. Only a strategic "genious" as him would make such idiotic decisions
If not for being the only leader to ensure Russia being anti-West and pro-China, I would be already calling for his head. Russians don't deserve such stupidity from their leaders
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The war was already "doomed" on their force structure plans however many years ago these were made.
For example after 2012-2014, the Russian leaders should had taken into account that there was a very real possibility that a big land war would happen witn Ukraine and act appropriately to reorient their military focus, increase/decrease army troops, increase/decrease focus on various fronts, adjust army/navy/air budgets, adjust army/navy/air R&D and procurement
So yeah, although the way the war started was (and is) stupid, the even bigger problem was Russia's strategic failures to plan for this possible scenario in the previous years
What enabled this war was Covid19. Before Covid19, the West collectively still hold sway to a large economic block that we can wield as weapon against Russia and the Chinese may not be in a position to help. Covid accelerated the decline of the West and put the economies of the West in the backfoot. Contrast the strong response from China which enabled them to sprint ahead, it presented an opportunity for Putin to start this war. Putin could not have foreseen Covid in 2019 back in 2014. Military structure and expenditures is a balance of many things which at the root of it all reflects how strong your economy is. The reason Putin did not start the war in 2014 was due to the strength of the Western economies and the Russian dependence on them. You might say that Putin did not really want to start this war until his hand was forced by Ukraine as well as the opportunity was presented due to Covid19.
I believe it could be an assignment to hold reserves in the event of an unexpected major clash in Europe.
It may be a case of keeping military spending at lower levels than the initial period of the invasion, thus keeping it within the acceptable cost of budgetary spending, not least because there are other priorities of the Russian state.
It may be a case of keeping regular force casualties strictly low, most Russian and allied losses are from fully mobilized LDNR forces, Chechens and Cossacks (these are historical being used as irregular forces since the Russian Empire ).
It may be a case of keeping things that way now because the Russians want some sensitive NATO equipment to reach the front lines in Ukraine and be captured or bought on the black market, as corruption in Ukraine across the governmental and military sphere is endemic. . This claim I read today from a Romanian analyst and it makes perfect sense.
It might be a case of keeping things as they are because it might benefit Russia in some way. One of them is the long-awaited and long-awaited winter coming, where Russian geoenergetic power will give greater weight to Russia's claims while decreasing the political and diplomatic weight of the EU/NATO.
There are so many other reasons here.
Regarding the mobilization and increase of Russian troops in Ukraine, I agree with the previous comments, logistically speaking, Russia does not have this type of organization and competence to carry out this type of large-scale operation at a predetermined time.
But there was an expansion after 2014. Russia had a force of 200,000 and since at least 2021 it has configured a force of 300,000 troops active in the ground force, we can clearly see this when the number of BTGs was expanded from something approximate in a dozen units to more than 160 BTG units in 2021. One of the failures in the modernization of the ground force was the organization which is a separate matter, among other reasons.
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You are telling me that Russians lose more tanks than BMPs and BTRs?
Pretty preposterous!
I don't get it. It's a war, does he really think all the talking will cause Russia to give up the power plant?
Unless he's hoping for direct NATO involvement which seems unlikely, as that could indeed lead to use of nuclear weapon, and I'm talking about the Teller-Ulam kind not reactor turned into dirty bomb.