This thread tends to have more realism, it's not full doomer but it's also not full SLAVA UKRAINE UPDOOTS TO THE LEFT. I think it has fairer analysis of both Russian and Ukrainian capabilities, and the western aid Ukraine continues getting.
We call out unrealistic unironic cope and we don't encourage random gore posting. Ol' Puckers is about as Yooknik as we get, vs the utter levels of tankie cope the vatniggers post.
People here have IQs above room temperature and an understanding of the world that wasn't fed to them by a KGB handler at this morning's pep rally.
This is just a hunch on my part, but I think Putin intended to invade Ukraine earlier than he did but after Trump won, he was forced to wait because of uncertainty over how he'd respond to Russia bringing war back to Europe. Hillary and Biden didn't really spook him because of his overall familiarity with both, since they spent so long in DC as swamp rats.
There were also issues with COVID and China asking him to wait till after the Olympics to start some shit. I think Putin started the invasion as soon as he realistically could have, given he didn't really start getting ready till after Biden won.
Putin explicitly chose to fuck around with Biden because he was VP during Barrack "Bitchmade" Obama and Putin was expecting more of the same. No one, I mean literally no one except for the Estonians (somefuckinghow) , was ready for the fact that Ukraine had actually listened to the green berrets and implemented their suggestions.
Though really, this comes back to the question of why Ukraine is pushing hard, what exactly are they hoping to accomplish by holding Kursk? Putin's not going to back down but what is Ukraine's objectives once they get a firm grip in Russian territory? Sweep westward?
They are hitting Russia with a lightning attack in an area that doesn't have built-up fortifications. This forces Russia to shift resources and fight desperately and all out- burning more irreplacable resources, being unable to pick and choose which cold-war era system to send soldiers to sacrifice themselves in, and not being able to leverage defenses their only competent general burned his career to provide.
They may also be hoping to bait out high-value targets: Air assets, armored vehicles designed after stalin died, etc.
It also sends a very clear message: Russia is a bitch. They are a paper
tiger bear, there is no need to fear them, they can't even defend their own border. This plays both to country populations and world leaders: there is nothing to fear from Russia saying they are angry at you. the "World's 2nd Army" shit was always a lie.
To be fair, if China continues feigning neutrality, America has way more guys than Russia. God forbid, if Kyiv falls, we can throw twice as many men at their problem and we can throw them a magnitude of 10 greater, especially with all the combat data we've been gathering on the equipment we've gifted Ukraine.
If the US threw in, it wouldn't even get to boots on the ground. Russia's AAD network wouldn't have stood more than a week before they started this shit, and has been rotted out by two years of fighting Ukraine. I bet F-15s wouldn't even need ECM pods to bomb Moscow today.