The problem is, again, morale. Russia had this problem in the beginning, and now Ukraine will. Bakhmut is pretty much a lost cause and the Ukies are either finally doing a limited withdrawal or still reinforcing, despite the West begging them to pull out way earlier and even leaking it to force pressure on them to do so, but not doing it at all.
The whole thing would be a morale blow to the Ukrainian armed forces because of all the resources and lives committed and it basically falling. It wasn't taken in a blitz, but rather a slow grind. It won't energize anyone, because the losses could have been avoided, but for political reasons, weren't. There have been plenty of conflicts where numbers and even tech superiority was on one side, but they were defeated because morale sank into the toilet. Wars like this aren't easy and again, it isn't like Afghanistan or Iraq or any of these conflicts that all of us have basically grown up with.
Those were largely actions against extremely weak state and non-state entitles. This is a war between a massive regional power and a regional alliance/hegemon, completely different. Its also about how they use what they have. Wars in these sort of theaters are combined arms, meaning that no one thing is going to make a difference. Its the resources and how you utilize them. Its why the US actually lost some simulated wargames against Iran because the opposition used small speed boats loaded with explosives and decimated the US Navy (I remember back then the other team cried this was cheating and had them ban the maneuver lol). Its also why Syria, despite the US tech and resource advantage, is still in Assad's hands: he was an ingenious sociopath and used what little he had.
The problem is Ukraine isn't just waging a regular war, its a political war as well. He has to convince the West and his people that their lives are worth something and they actually can make gains. Putin doesn't give a shit because he's an authoritarian and the West futilely hoped that a color revolution would overthrow him (as if China would fucking tolerate a Western Russia right up their ass. Dream the fuck on. They maintain NK and they fucking hate NK just so SK doesn't touch them. Imagine that on the scale of Russia).
This is why the Western 'overthrow' of Putin was fucking retarded and would have directly lead to a conflict with China and Iran, because they would NOT let the US dictate a territory as large as Russia right up on them. I think the whole 'overthrow Putin' thing was just retard bait for fucktarded supporters who dreamed this would be a reality with no geopolitical implications that wouldn't lead to a major conflict with China.
Which is why the West was begging for them to leave Bakhmut and reinforce another defense line, because it was just a waste of resources. Now its pretty much too late and the cauldron is closing, we'll just have to see how bad this goes for them. Its too late to call off the encirclement, and even if by some magic miracle the Ukies manage to hold it off, near every line out of the city has been destroyed, so they've still only got one way in or out, and it does not look good.
t.me
