this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 160 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Russian officials publicly assure the world that their invasion will only last 1 week due to their overwhelming military superiority.

109 weeks later without a victory, losing twice as many soldiers and equipment, Russian officials swear that the US, not an active combatant, is going to be so embarrassed.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I was watching an analysis on the 2023 progress of the war. The author said that while he acknowledges that Russia seems to have the favour making the war a stalemate and took more strategic, albeit small, locations than Ukraine did; this leads to Catch-22 for Kremlin that the more Ukraine struggles, the more money Ukraine will receive which is not on Russia's favour.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There's also the fact that Russia never really seemed to account for most of its monetary and material taps getting turned off. When you're (ALLEGEDLY) throwing conscripts out there without even a single full magazine of ammo, you're burning through old post-WWII ammo stocks, and constantly having to beg old SSR states "hey can we buy/borrow some of your tanks and APCs please," it doesn't look great.

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[–] [email protected] 118 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The Kremlin warned that American support for Ukraine could turn into a decade-long folly, urging the U.S. to not oppose its invasion of the country as Congress appears set to pass a $60 billion aid package.

Buried lede: Russia thinks its "three-day special military operation to ~~de-nazify~~ ~~remove US biolabs~~ ~~de-NATO Ukraine~~ resurrect the Soviet Union" could take a decade. 😂

[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also, they think they might need a decade to defeat a power that has a fifth of its military size, and which has, so far, roundly managed to make a laughingstock out of much of the Russian military.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Let's assume Ukraine and all the funding it receives does delay it a decade and Russia eventually wins.

Isn't that still a resounding success delaying Russia by 10 years and crippling them from the extended war?

It might suck for Ukraine, but from a foreign policy perspective that's a success

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[–] [email protected] 109 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Really?

Last I checked, we haven't had almost 500k casualties and lost billions in military craft to old mothballed weapons we since moved on from.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 4 months ago (3 children)

It's actually kinda incredible for Russia to have not realized that the US is literally just letting Ukraine integrate itself into NATO standards by training on and building up NATO standard equipment as it runs out of the shitty Soviet era alternatives

Meanwhile Moscow is instead developing a dependency on Iranian and Chinese made military hardware, stuff that neither is especially willing to part with given their own war plans.

The US could 1000% just barely provide enough aid to tactically let Russia chew its teeth out trying to break Ukraine, but it's sending what Ukraine needs to win whenever it can because the US sees Ukraine winning as more important than Russia losing at this point.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

US is literally just letting Ukraine integrate itself into NATO standards by training on and building up NATO standard equipment as it runs out of the shitty Soviet era alternatives

Not just Ukraine, either! All the NATO Eastern Bloc countries donated their Soviet equipment (and much more) and are actively rearming and retraining their own militaries on NATO standard equipment.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

Unfortunately "barely enough" is closer to the mark. Ukraine should've had this funding last year and we should've been close to the next round at this point. If this is actually all America can muster when it is committed to "winning" then then thats a bit sad and scary considering the incompetent broke ass country we are trying to beat while having homecourt advantage.

The only thing that gives me solace is the thought that this is carefully architected to bleed out Russia and not actually a show of real force.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago

You have to remember that half of the political parties in the US are owned by and promote Russian interests. That's the only reason it took 8 months to get this funding approved, and it was approved in spite of the former fuckwit president.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago (4 children)

exactly the fuckers say like usa is fighting there lol

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Seems a little high. Russian casualties are probably closer to 350k according to Western estimates.

I wonder how many died though (edit: Ukraine claims 180k but their casualty estimates are reportedly high, so probably less than 180k dead)

[–] [email protected] 90 points 4 months ago (1 children)

funny that the Russkis mention Afghanistan 😅

And as always, as long as the cunts in Russia are complaining and riding their propaganda train at full speed, we are doing something right.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (1 children)

These brainiacs had concerts singing Gruppa Krovi from Kino to recruits early in the war. A literal Afghanistan-era Soviet anti-war anthem. They have no sense of irony.

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hey Putin, remind me again how many days into your 3-day special military operation you are?

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 4 months ago (14 children)

Yeah, Afghanistan was pretty embarrasing for the USSR

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Here's what stories I remember from USSR-Afghanistan war, told by actual veterans:

They would punish extremist acts by throwing women and children out of a helicopter, Pinochet style. The person who told me that drank ever since he got back from the war and never stopped.

There was one man who left his tent for a midnight leak and came back to his entire tent with their throats slit. Had insane PTSD.

My father-in-law got his legs messed up by machine gun fire, got airlifted to East Germany to get put back together, doesn't talk much, but still drinks a lot.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Russian government spokespeople say lots of things.

Very few of them are true, or accurate.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Oh it's a bit dumber than that. Russia tried to occupy Afghanistan in the 1980s and got fuckin romped worse than the US did and that was with peak Russian power and no near endless supply of Russia surplus for insurgents to use.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ruzzia knows all about humiliating fiascoes.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Especially in Afghanistan.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Ukraine wants the help. Afghanistan didn't. Also, the Soviet Union did a similar thing in Afghanistan.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The question is, which time Afganistan, when Russia had to get out or the US?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Was about to say, at least the US withdrawing from Afghanistan isn't literally a cause of the entire country collapsing into 14 smaller new states and also the entire western bloc

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago

He knows all about fiascos in afghanistan

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The difference is that Vietnam and Afghanistan were civil wars. It's very difficult to win a war when a sizable portion of the citizens are fighting against you. Ukraine seems to be very united against a common enemy: Russia.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Because Russia had so much success against Afghanistan themselves. Pretty sure they've had their asses handed to them in the far east as well.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago

Russia says US support for Ukraine will end as ‘humiliating fiasco’ like ‘Vietnam and Afghanistan’

Of course that Is what Russia says. They were hardly likely to say 'That''s it, game over for us, we're withdrawing all our troops now.'

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago

I mean he’s kinda right if we don’t just commit to fully helping Ukraine instead of waffling with every budget, bill, and election.

But him saying that is a good way to motivate stubborn Americans, so he can keep on saying it. It’ll get us going.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (16 children)

The Kremlin warned that American support for Ukraine could turn into a decade-long folly

If I were to bet, it would be that the US can keep this up for a decade more-readily than you can.

I don't think that this is going to keep going for a decade, though.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/04/11/the-clock-is-ticking-russia-has-a-one-year-reserve-of-weapons/?sh=1e6a63f915e0

Russian industry produces 500 or 600 new tanks and maybe a little more than a thousand new fighting vehicles every year. The Russian military loses more than a thousand tanks and close to 2,000 fighting vehicles every year—and the loss rate is increasing.

There’s a gap—one the Kremlin fills by pulling out of long-term storage tanks and fighting vehicles dating back to the 1970s, or even the ’60s or ’50s in some cases. But these old vehicles are a finite resource. Built during the Soviet Union’s industrial heyday, they cannot be replaced with new production.

Ominously for the Russians, the most recent projections anticipate that, as early as mid-2025, there won’t be any more old tanks and fighting vehicles left in storage. “Time is running out for Russia,” wrote Artur Rehi, an Estonian soldier and analyst.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Vietnam is a pretty darn poor example for them to be bringing up. A much poorer country fights for its independence against bigger countries with seemingly insurmountable advantages (first France, and then the USA). And by dint of sheer national sacrifice, sustained over 20+ years of fighting, manages to outlast the enemy. Don't forget also that the Vietnamese started from a vastly poorer and more backward position compared to the Ukrainians.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Russia lost in Afghanistan so, cool!

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