And Russia is being propped up big time in both military and economic terms by China and Iran. Where would they be if China didn't help them defang the Western sanctions? Where would they be without the Iranian drones?
Yes, they're very focused on not exposing any flanks or supply lines, after they got burned this way time and time again during the initial 8 months of this war. Nonetheless, the notion that Russia is completely chilled, under no pressure whatsoever and could push a lot harder/faster if they wanted to, isn't plausible if you ask me.
They wouldn't go around begging for troops in freakin' North Korea and Yemen, or offer increasingly huge sums for those who enlist voluntarily, if they had no recruitment issues.
They wouldn't let Ukraine hold parts of their own territory (Kursk) for a whole year if they had huge amounts of reserves up their sleeve.
You wouldn't have had a dispute over insufficient supplies between their official military and their proxy forces turn so bitter that the mercenaries eventually marched on Moscow.
Imho, the current Russian efforts are roughly the maximum they can do without going on a true all-out wartime footing. It looks like it will have been just enough to secure their core objectives, so kudos to them. But nothing I've seen over the past 1-2 years proves those of you right who argued that Russia was a behemoth who could crush Ukaine with ease if only it stopped fooling around and took off the gloves.
This is nonsense. Russia sells oil and gas to China. It's a symbiotic trading relationship, the Russians gets things in exchange for other valuable goods. The Russian's aren't getting a single free thing from China to further Russia's war in Ukraine (outside of diplomatic support). It's the same deal with Iran. Ukraine literally gives nothing to the west and takes in billions of essentially free weapons and funding to continue the war. One country is using its own natural resources and wealth to fund while another is close to 100% dependent on outside aid, that's why you see Zelensky at literally all of these conferences never ceasing drumming up support. Can you show me a single example of where Russia was begging in a similar fashion from anyone?
It's the same deals with NK or whoever you want to throw in, you frankly sound dumb both siding this issue, because they're no where near close in equivalence. Before this war Russia was the second largest global arms exporter and they've always maintained a robust war machine that they've inherited from soviet times. Their war machine is basically able to outproduce the collective west, at the very least match it currently. If they weren't a behemoth Ukraine with this level of outside help would of probably been able to kick them out of the Donbas, but here we are.
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Feb 16 2025 08:38pm