If Russia shows weakness, Europe will stop rearming. Then we could save ourselves all this nonsense.
You are wrong. If Russia shows weakness they will likely rearm even faster.
46 days to take Mariupol after levelling the city
So what? It took the US 1 month and two weeks to capture Fallujah. Which was half the size and had a third the amount of defenders.
doesn't set a very good president for the rest of the cities since Mariupol is so close to Russia and smaller
Kharkov is closer to Russia than Mariupol.
German armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann has offered the Ukrainian government the sale of 100 Panzerhaubitze PzH 2000 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzers. The German government has also offered the sale of Boxer 8x8 armored fighting vehicles to the Ukrainian government.
Oh look here. Someone who wants to get their gas supply cut off this year.
Russia's war only make sense if you can rapidly gain capitulation at minimal economic costs. In contrast, a 'forever war' + 10-15 years of lost economic growth is too costly for the original demands.
Russia is currently training their army which will get to fight WW3 if necessary. They did it in a smaller scale in Syria but this is the big one.
Have you seen Russia invading NATO countries? I haven't. Looking at their military performance it's clear they can't do it even if they wanted. Russians wanted less NATO and it seems they got more of it... clearly Putin isn't as good in this 4D chess as you think he is.
What makes you think NATO countries won't get invaded as well? The more equipment NATO sends into the Ukrainian meatgrinder, close to Russia's supply lines and population core, for Russia to destroy, the less equipment they will have for a Russian counter-offensive into their own territories.
People would have believed this if Ukraine invasion didn't happen but it's been revealed that most Russian units are performing poorly even thought they are near their home country and most of their regularly military is there.
They are doing ok. Not stellar but ok. It would have been nice to have less ground equipment losses, but the fact is Ukraine does have a lot of ground equipment of their own with similar upgrades to the one the Russians have.
Also, Russians cannot open another front... they don't have men nor equipment to do that because they basically emptied all their garrisons near Finland and send all that into Ukraine (many won't return). Hot air coming from Moscow.
Russia already sent Bastion units close to border with Finland. And in case you don't know, those Oniks missiles can have either conventional or nuclear warheads in them. These are "just" tactical nukes. With more explosive power than the bombs the US dropped in Japan on WW2. Thermonuclear.
I suspect it is more pussyfooting by the Russians. They know many Nazis are in the industrial complexes, why aren't they raining down FAB-3000s on them 24/7?
They would like to capture the Azovstal plant as intact as possible. But if not possible they will blow it up yes.
Well, if Russia ceases sending gas/oil to it's largest customer, then there goes 45% of Russian federal budget revenue which comes from oil/gas. Russia will be hurt too, far more than any sanctions to date.
You read too much Western analyst propaganda. Oil/gas is like 15% of Russian government budget or less. And most oil/gas produced in Russia is consumed in Russia, not exported.
By 1944, far higher. During the war the US through lend lease supplied the Soviet Union with several times more motorized military vehicles than Germany and occupied Europe was able to produce all together. German army actually de-mechanized because production of motor vehicles could not keep pace with attrition, so reliance on horses actually went up as the war progressed, while Soviet front line units became almost completely motorized on the backs of american supplied vehicles. A major reason why the German army suffered such huge losses from middle of 1944 to the end of the war is when in the field without nearby rail heads, the bulk of the German army literally could not withdraw faster than the Soviets could advance.
German army de-mechanized not from lack of vehicle production, but from lack of fuel to run said vehicles. Near the end of the war they were running trucks with wood gas.
