Keeping abreast with Russian sources as well, I would hazard a guess that it’s a little bit of both.
All of those things seem true, but Ukraine has so few forces and Russia has so many, that it kinda balances out.
And this is not highly trained and motivated Israeli fighting a desperate force a generation or two below their tech. Ukrainians seem to be on par, but russians look to be way more able than the Arab alliances from those past wars.
At the start of the war their tech was comparable, and the new weapons poring out of the west are only now reaching frontlines.
Russians are loosing slowly - the failed Kiev offensive is a proof enough of that, its just they have such a strong media clamp down that their people are not exactly aware of how bad things are for them, well nobody knows _really_ right now but it does keep morale high.
And Putin can’t really afford a “graceful loss” - he needs a win, and I think he’s banking on the west not being able to stay coherent for a long enough time, and to wear down the enemy slowly. It’s not without precedent and authoritarian regimes are considered more stable through war than democracies, let alone abstract things like the EU.
All of those things seem true, but Ukraine has so few forces and Russia has so many, that it kinda balances out.
And this is not highly trained and motivated Israeli fighting a desperate force a generation or two below their tech. Ukrainians seem to be on par, but russians look to be way more able than the Arab alliances from those past wars.
At the start of the war their tech was comparable, and the new weapons poring out of the west are only now reaching frontlines.
Russians are loosing slowly - the failed Kiev offensive is a proof enough of that, its just they have such a strong media clamp down that their people are not exactly aware of how bad things are for them, well nobody knows _really_ right now but it does keep morale high.
And Putin can’t really afford a “graceful loss” - he needs a win, and I think he’s banking on the west not being able to stay coherent for a long enough time, and to wear down the enemy slowly. It’s not without precedent and authoritarian regimes are considered more stable through war than democracies, let alone abstract things like the EU.