Londonrake wrote:Let's rewind.
A bit of reality? Depends upon your religious beliefs I suppose.
Putin had a great - much applauded by his countrymen - and almost bloodless victory - annexing Crimea (let's not split hairs but actually it was a part of Ukraine at the time).
The West's reaction was slow and muted. The subsequent sanctions minimal. Brilliant! There's a template - if ever.
Subsequently, Russia poured arms and, covertly, it's "green men" forces into eastern Ukraine in order to support a "liberation" of the Russian speaking population. Who were of course being slaughtered by Ukrainian Nazis.
In Feb 2022, despite public denials by both Putin and Lavarov, regarding any intention of invading the country (that's sometimes referred to as "lying") 190,000 Russian troops crossed the Russia/Ukraine border.
A 42 mile convoy of Russian armour and troops, famously and publicly, went headlong towards Kyiv.
The plan - although the usual military/political experts on here will probably contemptuously accuse me of having no actual idea, having repeatedly given us the benefit of their expert views - was to take Kyiv, eliminate the government, replace it with a "Lukashenko" regime and claim victory. That, before the sloth-like West had an opportunity to put on it's socks.
Must be one of the biggest cock ups in military history. No?
Russia lost the battle of Kyiv.
Russia lost the battle of Kharkiv.
Russia lost the battle of Kherson
Russia lost the battle of Snake Island - losing their flagship whilst doing so. Sorry - it was a "smoking accident".
Russia lost the European energy war.
Russia lost their aim (big time) of preventing NATO expanding.
Russia lost the infrastructure war to make the Ukrainians lose heart.
But, after a full 12 months of effort they managed, at enormous cost in blood and treasure, to capture the rubble that used to be Bakhmut - though they needed prison mercenaries to do it and the claim seems to be contentious.
Whatever.
All's going splendidly then, for Putin's two-week War.
The home team have never lost heart though. Apparently, after 400 or so days all is going in accordance with Vladimir Putin's cunning plan.
Another one of your “Black & White” sound bites, LR, which doesn’t explain anything in substance of all the Grey/Gray areas of the conflict in Ukraine. Unfortunately, with such sound bites as you have presented above, it cannot lead into any meaningful discussion with you, therefore, I too “fold my hand” than try to give you “50 shades of Grey” (not the movie
) explanations which would fall on deaf ears!
