The media won’t give me great answers to this question and I think this I trust this community more, thus I want to know from you. Also, I have heard reports that Russia was winning the war, if that’s true, did the west miscalculate the situation by allowing diplomacy to take a backseat and allowing Ukraine to a large plethora of military resources?

PS: I realize there are many casualties on both sides and I am not trying to downplay the suffering, but I am curious as to how it is going for Ukraine. Right now I am hearing ever louder calls of Russia winning, those have existed forever, but they seem to have grown louder now, so I was wondering what you thought about it. Also, I am somewhat concerned of allowing a dictatorship to just erase at it’s convenience a free and democratic country.

  • half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Right now I am hearing ever louder calls of Russia winning

    Winning was taking over the county at first. Then it was kherson, and donbass, crimea, and a few others. Now it’s just like 3 areas. If you’re hearing anything about winning it’s because the goal posts are moving.

    Youtuber Perun had some good high level takes on the war. It all boils down to Western support will win. As long as support keeps coming from the rest of the world, eventually Russia will run out of material. WW2 was won (not wholly, but in large part) due to the larger economy being on the allies side.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      Do provide us with sources where Russians stated these were the goals. Seems like it’s western propagandists who’ve been making up goals for Russia and then moving the goal posts.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, I need sources for the fantastical claim that Russia was trying to take Kyiv with 100k troops. It’s a particularly interesting claim given that they allocated 40k troops to take Mariupol which is an order of magnitude smaller city. A far more plausible scenario is that Russia used 100k troops to fix a chunk of Ukrainian army around Kyiv while Russians took large parts of Ukrainian territory in the east which they still hold today.

          • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            The paratroopers in Kyiv’s airport were just taking in the scenery. Really unfortunate that they were shot. And that 50 km tank column headed for Kyiv really was just lost on its way to Mariupol. Yep, exactly, that’s what happened.

            Lmao what a lame-ass trolling attempt, you have mush for brains if you think this is either effective propaganda or… funny?

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              The only one with mush for brains is the guy who thinks Russia would be trying to take Kyiv with 100k troops. The fact that you don’t even understand why that’s absurd makes it all the more hilarious.

    • boreengreen@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      During ww2 the involved parties and their allies were in wartime economy. This is the support that ukraine needs. I feel like today, the west is sending the military version of happy meal aid packages, once in a while, when it’s politically convenient. Should we scale up manufacturing for wartime? Let’s procrastinate.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Nah, the amount of aid and material they’re sending is substantial, including modern tanks and artillery, as well as more mundane things like shells, bullets etc.

        And they will keep doing it for as long as it takes.

      • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        The amount of people fighting back on supporting a sovereign democracy getting attacked by a oligarchical dictatorship is nuts.

        Like we did appeasement in the 40s already, it was a bad strategy.

  • bouh@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s mostly a stalemate for now. The dam destruction helped Russia funnel Ukraine counterattack on its biggest fortifications, so not much progress for Ukraine in the south. Russia resumed its offensive in the Dombass and Aavdiivka is starting to look like the new Bhakmut.

    It’s an attrition war and Russia is losing like 2 or 3 times as much as Ukraine in men or material. But Russia has much more men than Ukraine. Russian morale is very low, but Ukraine support from the west is under big pressure, both from Russian propaganda and conservative/fascist political parties. This last one is the real war happening now.

    Next year will be important because of the elections in the US. What happen on the battlefield is still to be seen.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    Define “winning”.

    Ukraine is, slowly and painfully, gaining ground, so by that measure, they are winning.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Could you point to where Ukraine is actually gaining ground. Last I checked, Russia gained more ground than Ukraine in the past six months.

    • Ganesh Venugopal@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ukraine is, slowly and painfully, gaining ground, so by that measure, they are winning.

      Really? I was hearing the opposite all this while. PS: Slowly and very painfully, fuck, I wish there was an end to this war and we could return to status quo!

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I was hearing the opposite all this while.

        From where? There are multiple, reasonably reputable maps available that show the lines, and regardless of who the map makers support, they have to be accurate because of how easily they can be proven wrong if they make false claims.

        Besides, much like Vietnam, or the many wars in Afghanistan, victory won’t happen on the battlefield, it will happen when the invader finally gets tired of paying the price of war.

          • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            1 year ago

            Interesting. I know they’ve historically been close to Russia, I didn’t realise they still had so much support.

          • Waker@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            India is absolutely leaning (hard) towards Russia. They probably never bought gas/oil and fertiliser so cheap.

      • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        From euronews news bulletins I know Ukraine has crossed the dnipro and cleared a stable bridge head to get more troops to that russian occupied side. Also they said that nuklear reactor the russians occupied, near the front, is in danger again, because it has been cut off from electricity and had to run gasoline generators to cool it.

        This shows ukraine is advancing slowly.

  • Blue and Orange@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    1 year ago

    As others have said, it’s a war of attrition. There’s no end in sight. As it stands, we can only speculate on who is winning. Russia have so far failed to make any significant gains, and Ukraine have so far failed to push the Russians out.

    It’s a bit like the stalemates of trench warfare in WW1. Something will have to give eventually.

  • Candelestine@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Tbf the guy that said arms dealers is 100% correct.

    My opinion is that Ukraine has a light-moderate advantage right now.

    It mainly comes down to American and EU politics. If both aid packages pass, then Ukraine is in a good position to build up over the winter and continue slowly pushing to cut off Crimea, which is the biggest prize. Steadily growing air power is going to make a significant difference, we already saw recently how helpful Russia’s re-emerging air power was in grinding down the push across the Dnieper.

    As an American I’m fairly confident our aid package will eventually pass. Tying it to Israeli aid is a punch below-the-belt, the repubs can’t back away from that. They’re in negotiations currently, probably stalling. Israel could really use that aid though…

    My understanding of the EU aid is Hungary is being a pain, but there’s other tricks available in a big bureaucracy, so we’ll see. Maybe a European can fill that part in better.

    Militarily the Russians are slowly and steadily pushing in the east. There’s nothing terribly important over there, but land is land, towns are towns. Their troop losses are high but they also have a high intake supposedly, so it’s possible they can keep this up for awhile. War materiel is continuously exhausting though, people may have noticed they are not shooting nearly as much artillery as they were in the initial parts of the war. But, you don’t actually need tanks and heavy equipment and shit per se, so, it’s a grinder. Their war support is starting to crack, but is still strong. They might have more mines than Ukraine does Ukrainians, so that’s annoying too.

    The Ukrainians are digging in. Or at least that’s how it seems, they can be a little tricksey sometimes. They’re still ramping up though, building more forces. They have plenty of will and soldiers and grain, but need more money and materiel. The capture of the Russian side of the Dnieper was impressive though, that probably shouldn’t have happened. If they get the resources, they can probably win.

    Oh, and the railroad between China and Russia blew up. No idea how that might’ve happened… Was the only one though.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Seems like a stalemate at the moment but it could really go either way from what I can tell. It depends upon if the west will lose interest and cut back on support or if public opinion in Russia wanes towards wanting an end to the war. At the moment it seems neither side is willing to accept the current status quo.

  • rtxn@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    From what I’ve heard, Ukraine is very slowly taking back strategic locations. At the moment, they’re better equipped than the invaders, but that could change if Russia secures a weapons deal with China or NK. Ukraine also has a wide support (monetary, humanitarian, and military) from western nations. Ukraine has the advantage in the quality of their warfare, Russia in the quantity of meat sacks they can throw at the front.

    In my opinion, even if Russia somehow occupies all of Ukraine (which I find unlikely), they will be a pariah nation for many decades. A significant part of their economy is energy export (fossil and nuclear) and the EU is already trying to separate itself from that energy dependence.

  • ZephrC@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t think either side will be able to decisively beat the other, but that’s not how these things usually end anyway.

    Actually, I think it’s pretty funny in a sad sort of way that Americans don’t get how this is going to go. It’s really obvious that Ukraine doesn’t need to win, they just need to keep fighting until Russia goes home. Western aid isn’t even really making much of a difference in the eventual outcome of the war, it’s just reducing the damage that Russia is doing to Ukraine and bring that inevitable end closer faster. We’ve seen over, and over, and over again that once a group of people actually make up their minds to resist, there is nothing that can stop them. Even if the aggressor can bring overwhelming military superiority they will eventually give up and go home, and Russia can’t even do that.

    The question isn’t who will win. The question is how many war crimes will Putin commit before admitting he lost this war in the second week.

  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Right now I am hearing ever louder calls of Russia winning, those have existed forever, but they seem to have grown louder now, so I was wondering what you thought about it.

    Where are you hearing that? I have not heard that Russia is taking a pounding and so is Ukraine.

    Right now, it’s a stalemate.

    It is a war of attrition at this point and if it drags out long enough, Russia wins because they have more people to throw at the war.

    I do not think the F-16 is going to make a large difference in the war. People who never served are the ones thinking it’ll change the war.

    The question is how long can the Russian soldiers hold out? I do believe once Ukraine breaks through the lines will collapse quickly but they’ve yet to break through.

    I do think NATO has done a disservice in training the Ukrainian military to fight a combined arms fight but then not supplying them with the weapons to fight a combined arms fight.

    I personally think Ukraine will win but it is going to be a long fight.

  • PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    The war is largely in a stalemate at the moment. Odds are, if this continues for years longer, Russia will eventually win just by virtue of having more people to send to die for the country, but if it comes to that, Russia will suffer far moreso than they already are, both due to increased strikes within Russia and just loosing the majority of their working population.