Antichrist?

While there are Russian forces within 20km directly north of Kharkiv, in the North East Ukraine now control up to Staryi Saltiv

Ukraine has admitted they took significant casualties in pushing the Russians back in this area, it would appear to be quite a strategically important area, within 30km of the Russian border and closer to Russian supply lines stretching down to Izyum

Russia is only 120million people, with a declining population, so 50mln Ukraine and Moldova are huge assets for them.
Especially since Russia cannot fully use some of their Asian population because they are in a very far away, undeveloped areas.
Ukraine on the other hand has industrial centers.
Also since they take Ukraine, they can focus on next targets and further increasions.
Also Ukraine has a great soil for agricultural, Ukraine itself can feed 600mln people.
Also Russia wants to send a signal to other countries that would like to loosen their relationship with Russia: "if you do so, we will attack you as we did with Ukraine."

There have been alot of wars since the 18th century. Regarding Russia, If you read my previous posts on this you should be able to acknowledge that since the collapse of the USSR russia has not been expansionist (noting that prior to that they were expansionist).

I was not asking when Finland would join Nato, I was asking why you think Russia invaded Ukraine. The narrative that you are painting is, Ukraine first, other countries next, but that is entirely ignoring why Russia invaded Ukraine in the first place.

This post was edited by ferdia on May 3 2022 01:56am

Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Osettia, Crimea and Donetzk/Luhansk oblast, Syria

To add: Russian/Soviet tanks squashed multiple public demonstrations and independence movements in Warsaw Pact countries during the cold war:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_uprising_of_1953
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring

Russia has been an imperialist, expansionist empire for the past 500 or so years. It's part of their DNA.



Russia has caught a bloody nose in Ukraine, even if they end up "winning" this war and seizing control over the eastern half of the country, their forces will still be depleted and their economy in shambles. That's why the "other countries next" argument is overblown - not because Russia lacks the intention, but rather because it lacks the strength to pull off yet another war right after this one.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on May 3 2022 02:31am

Only young countries have no expansionist past. I can't find any 500 years old one which hasn't started a war, on the contrary they participate in many. It's human nature, no country is unique.

its not russias fault when multiculturalism is failing in other countries, they took advantage of the opportunities



the current war is basically russias last play before a massive decline due to a not only declining, but also rapidly aging population

look at their officers, its all guys 50+ years old and the majority of their skilled workers is also from the soviet age and near retirement

this is another reason imo why putin made this move, in a few years it wouldnt have been possible anymore

For Russia the victory now means taking all Ukraine.
Its still possible outcome, even though I bet Ukrainians will defend ourselves.
In fact we dont know exact situation in Russia now, Russia doesnt publish its data any longer.
What we know: resources are record expensive in the world now, that makes Putin a lot of money. We know that western countries have limited their Russia orders, but we dont really know how much.
And really if peace treaty is made, there will be a big pressure in western countries to resume trading and start making Putin rich again.
We know that Ukraine destroyed like 1000tanks, but Russia has a lot of old spare tanks in their garages, from USSR times. We dont know their exact condition. So it depends how quickly can they train soldiers and how many will be willing to join the army.
We also dont know how close they will cooperate with China.
Its all question marks.
I wouldnt rule out anything yet, as we simply dont know.
In a year or so its possible Russia partially rebuilds to be ready for next war.

No, we don't. It's about half of all Russian tanks being in service. Losing half the tanks in 2 months is impossible.