That was always the plan after day 2....why would you think otherwise?

Civilians attacking fuel/supply trucks have been critical to the success that Ukraine has seen so far. It's not like anyone is forcing them to do it either....they WANT to do it for their country. Wouldn't you do the same if someone invaded America?

Every male 18-60 is not allowed to leave the country, many males across the country are being forced to go to hot zones as well. Also not sure what success you're referring to, what I see happening is something that would of happened fairly fast (Ukraine falling to Russia) is happening much slower with much more destruction and death.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Mar 7 2022 01:29pm

Who in their right mind would want to flee to the side that is destroying your country and actively bombing, during the evacuation ?

Here is our very humane choice: either be blown up, or surrender to where the bombs come from.

This post was edited by Knoppie on Mar 7 2022 01:47pm

you mean like american cops are so trigger happy because every civilian is a potentially lethal threat since everyone could be armed? you're so close to a revelation there...

dont forget the asylum industry that has established itself since 2015

it has literally become a business here to profit from having the country flooded with people

i have heard some politicians talking about integration courses already among other stuff for ukranians

the entire process from arrival to housing (whether actual houses or containers), food deliveries, security services, courses is set up to extract boatloads of taxpayer money

i know from a family member in the local police that they already dont know where to put all these people and deportations have been stopped, because the bureaucrats are needed elsewhere

well, we would have a lot of space, but unfortunately that is already occupied by all kinds of illegal fighting age migrants .....

There are a lot of resources I can point you to regarding Russian logistical failures, how the Russian military excels at some aspects of war and is crappy in others, etc. All of those can be corrected of course if there is will to do it. The question is, do they? It took them over a year to mobilize ~200k troops, supplies, vehicles, etc. to the border. Is Russia going to institute a draft? How is Putin going to sell it? Is Russia going to transition to a war time economy and dedicate resources to the war over everything else? If Russia decides to ignore civilian casualties, what are the odds that countries start sending non-military aircraft to give aid to the cities? Will Russians shoot those planes down too? There are A LOT of variable to consider here.

The fact that Ukraine is still standing, how Russians struggle to hold territory (duh, they don't have enough troops, they need to increase it 5 fold), etc. IS success from Ukraine's perspective. The attacker is almost always at a significant disadvantage and sieges of major cities can often take years.

this comment was pretty good!

I don't doubt this is a thing but I just don't think it's indicative what will happen over the long term. It's focusing on the trees rather than the forest. I think Russia expected (like some of us did) that Ukraine's military forces would fold and start running, and this hasn't happened to the extent to which they thought they would.

I also don't think them taking their time to put those troops into place is indicative of anything really important, rather than they wanted to see if simply by display of force and numbers was enough to get the Ukrainians to agree to recognize the eastern region autonomy and not join NATO. Once that didn't work they actually pulled the trigger on the invasion. Right now, 200k is like what 1/5? of Russia's active military personnel, and i think they have a few million in reservists, so don't think a draft is coming.

Who knows how long this will drag out, I think Russia underestimated the cost but at this point they're too dedicated to the cause to pull back.

I also don't really know what's a good gage to consider something a success vs a failure? Like this is a week old war, and they have the capital surrounded? I think success/failure here is relative and of course we in the west would want it to seem like a complete failure, but objectively speaking, to have your forces basically ready to assault the capital in less than a week is a success story in any war that i've read about.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Mar 7 2022 02:04pm

I don't have a dog in this fight, but its hard to get good information about what is happening. Take vietnam/afganistan for example. The United States reported they were in full control, and the other side would speak to the opposite.

Its hard to quantify if they are, or not slowing them down - we won't know for years until AARs get leaked/declassified. Russia's objectives might just be search and destroy of military targets and the assassination of the UA government instead of an actual conquest of all of eastern Ukraine. Its hard to say what sides goals are, and how to measure them.

This post was edited by Cascadian on Mar 7 2022 02:20pm