You say that as if it’s supposed to explain everything. Up until recently, the claim Russia was making was it was stepping in to defend the two republics that were claiming they broke away and wanted autonomous status. So I had been wondering what Russians were doing in Kharkiv. That’s way outside of the two republics mentioned.
Anyway, the vote seems to be across 4 areas.
I am trying to find the current location of Russian troops, I found this from Aug 26
No, they had an aim to capture Kiev in February.
How did Putin get on this site, wow. So lucky to have you here.
Putin must have been planning his current regroup. The man thinks six months ahead. Chess grandmaster.
I wonder if Finland and Sweden joining NATO was something they were hoping to achieve with all the careful planning 
There is a meme in Russia, called Putin’s mnogohodovochka (многоходовочка Путина), can google it, the term related to chess 
This war has basically been one of Russian artillery shelling ukrainian troops hiding in trenches or strong buildings like schools. Does not matter how tough or fanatical you are, no army can stand up to sustained artillery bombardment.
That’s why ukrainian losses are at a far higher ratio than Russian losses.
Anyone who thinks Russia has had their entire army “decimated” by having guys sitting back and shelling ukrop positions all day is in lala land.
Why were they routed then? I’m using the correct form of decimated conservatively, by the way
Routed? Where? I presume you mean Kharkov evacuation last week?
While I tend to agree that Russian forces overall* haven’t been decimated (embarassed is a better word, look at all the videos of destroyed and captured tanks for example), two things
First, they aren’t mobilizing conscripts because they don’t need more cannon fodder
Second, anyone who thinks they can see through the fog of war to know casualties on both sides with certainty is also living in lala land
*edit: one wonders why more forces weren’t used from the start. Perhaps hubris, perhaps the need to keep the Russian population afraid, maybe fear of Japanese or Chinese action to their rear. Who knows?
Izyum operation. You already got kicked f…king out from Kharkiv oblast.
Not to mention the failed attempt to take Kiev that we all saw happen
Routed. They were re-routed backwards very fast. My mistake
Simple fact is Russia only had around 1000 guys manning the entire sector most of them got away in a hurry leaving a moderate amount of equipment.
If the Russian were routed there CNN would still be loading up big on film of captured columns of Russian infantry.
Ten percent of casualties would have been a much better result for Russia. However, casualties were probably close to a third or 40 percent. I think any military commander would secretly admit that to be decimation.
Haha! You really like CNN… Seems like Russcist propaganda and Konasheno TV box head learned a new word: “regrouping”. Before they termed their fuckups "good will gestures
Could have been lack of money? The weird one was the unwillingness to commit their air power.
Yeah, there must be more possible explanations for this than Putin is a 3d chess grandmaster. Some that I have considered:
The Russians know their aircraft aren’t great, and don’t want to tip off NATO or potential buyers
The Russians have been waiting for NATO to enter the war and have kept their aircraft in reserve
Putin is really paranoid about a NATO invasion and has kept enough forces in reserve to defend against an armed incursion across Russian borders
Definitely a head scratcher, but so far there’s not really anything to indicate it is part of a successful and deliberate strategy to drag out the war and give all appearances of Russia having no choice but to use nukes
Yep. A lot of real strange actions by the Russians on this war that cannot be understood.
Committing 200k men to invade a country of 40 million that has been building up its armed forces with heavy NATO backing for previous 8 years…
Hubris. Underestimation of enemy. There is an opinion that Russian invasion strategy is based on quick operations by spetsnaz, paratroopers aimed to behead the government, key points of administration and logistics. Then come the infantry, police, etc. Good to remember 1979, when Soviet spetsnaz stormed the palace of the Hafizullah Amin in Kabul and assassinated him, then came the invasion troops to Afghanistan. Same shit was planned for Zelensky. And airdrop in Hostomel, as I mentioned earlier, the strategic point.
