Lol. Putin is so Dumb. Russia is Screwed.

probably because he feels its more important to defend the capitol against traitors like you who act as willing agents for Putin on US soil.

Yup. Perhaps they'll redouble the efforts at the expense of civilian lives, but for now the invasion has failed.

Wow russia already out of smart munitions? This is not the 1970s, someone should let them know.

Silence, brainwashed wokester!

Many intelligence experts believe it was intentional, knowing China would share it with Russia. The US played Russia leading up to the invasion, sharing intelligence reports of Russia's plans with the world, completely changing the narrative. Putin was hoping he could use the 'false flag' narrative as an excuse for his invasion, but Putin has underestimated the response from the West.

Russia's economy has completely stagnated for 15 years now. Last year GDP was lower than in 2008. They had a brief recovery after the financial crisis, but paid an enormous price for Crimea. GDP dropped by nearly a TRILLION USD after Crimea. Putin paid at least $5 trillion for Crimea.

But Russia will not crumble. It's suffered through far harder times. Their economy completely crumbled in the late 90s. I lived there just after their financial collapse. It was a depressing place, but the Russians are incredibly tough. Centuries of living in the frozen tundra ruled by authoritarian despots has fostered a resilient culture.

What will the ultimate price be for invading Ukraine? Nobody knows. It will be heavy. And it could easily cost Putin his crown. Incredibly risky move. Likely far more than the $5 trillion Crimea cost.

True but the Fed will lift interest rates higher than everyone expects and it will crash the oil price. Mean while Putin has to govern 30 million people who hate him with no oil exports. Long run, bad move by Russia.

I read more than 15,000 people have died in Ukraine fighting since Russia took over Crimea. I thought I read less than 200 had died in this big invasion.

Can someone explain how that is possible? Since the attacks came from all sides were the Ukrainians forced to default to more guerrilla style fighting?

Are their any good military strategy websites on thei conflict?

The fog of war. Nobody actually knows what's going on. Both sides are motivated to site inaccurate numbers.

The 15,000 deaths you noted all occurred in the Donbas where Ukraine and Russian rebels have been dug in fighting sporadically for 8 years. Nobody actually died when Russia took Crimea. Ukraine just gave up.

A lot of reports indicate that Russia is suffering far more casualties than expected and Ukrainian resistance is far stronger than predicted. Russia is moving into Kyiv right now but, that will also change the complexion of the fighting. Kyiv is the size of Chicago and word is that the Russians don’t have enough infantry to lock down a city of 3.3 million. I wouldn’t want to be a tank crewman in that environment considering that Ukraine has very good shoulder fired anti-tank weapons.

Putin may be willing to commit war crimes and launch a full scale assault on civilians but I don’t think that will play well in Russia. Sanctions will hurt his oligarch friends and he won’t be able to silence thousands of crying mothers demanding to know why their sons died and for what? Rumors are that China is starting to back away and Xi thinks that Putin should seek a face saving diplomatic solution.

I have a hard time believing many reports right now. Casualty information might be known to Russian and Ukrainian generals. But it's unverifiable at this point. We only know vaguely what's happening. Russia is moving hard to seige Kiev(a city I know well, spent a lot of time there).

This is all still unbelievable to me. For generations Russia and Ukraine were closer culturally, politically, economically than the US and Canada. I never would have pictured this, even after Crimea and the endless quagmire in Donetsk and Luhansk.

A 70 year old man knows that his time is short and that there may be people that want to replace him. His economy is stagnant, his popularity slipping, and he feels that he isn't getting enough attention and respect on the world stage. In a fit of madness and ego, he decides to start a conflict to appear strong, in command, and a force to be reckoned with.

It may be as simple as that.

US and NATO are definitely hatching a plan to take out Putin. It won’t be reported in the media, but better believe it’s happening. Once he’s gone, the Russian people, who are also suffering greatly because of him, will be able to express their hate of his regime. Putin wil be killed or jailed, no question about it.

I don't have any special knowledge of what happened, but in modern warfare doctrine the first step is to remove counter air defenses (radar & missile sites) with cruise missiles. This is consistent with the maps of strikes that opened the invasion being widespread and largely around the country's borders. Casualties would be low from this action.

I don't know that there has been much direct force on force action. From a PR perspective, Russia doesn't want to be rolling up big casualty numbers and the Ukrainians, having limited forces, probably aren't going to be aggressive while they're better served by delaying/de-escalating.

Hard to tell if the complete story is real or fake at the moment, but there some alleged footage of one in this:

Kyiv Ghost's exploits are likely exaggerated, but they have been taking down some Russian aircraft.

theaviationgeekclub.com

Here’s why the 'Ghost of Kyiv,' the Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot credited for having shot down 6 Russian jets (2x Su-35s, 1x Su-27, 1x MiG-29M, and 2x Su-25s) is just an Urban Legend - The Aviation Geek Club

Tom Cooper

Here’s why the 'Ghost of Kyiv,' the Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot credited for having shot down 6 Russian jets is just a Urban Legend

Open link

Ukraine should have sung "Don't invade my no-no square."

So, you can't grasp the difference between 8 *years* of war and 2 *days* of war, Wej? Really?

It's most likely a lot more than 200 by now, and it's certain to go a hell of a lot higher.
The Ukies are telling us they've killed nearly *3,000* Russians --and that was as of this afternoon.
Lots of bozos like the Putin-whores on this thread are claiming that's a lie, but most of what the Ukes have told us so far has seemed to bear out. (They told us they shot down TWO IL-76 troop transports tonight, and all the trolls told us *that* was a lie, but it's now been confirmed by US intel, according to the AP.)
If it *was* true, it's undoubtedly a lot higher by now.

The US military lost something like 4,000 guys in the *entire* first Gulf War.
If the R's have lost that many in the first TWO DAYS, that gives you a pretty good idea how this is going.
Putin's made the blunder of the century here, and God is he gonna deserve the price he pays for it.
If there are still history books in 300 years (there won't be, but let's pretend), they're gonna have entire chapters on the incredible stupidity and insanity of Putin's Folly in Ukraine.

Putin keeps calling the Ukraine government "Nazis", proving he is woke AF and would join Antifa if it wasn't just an "idea" and not an actual organization.