Russia has lost a staggering 87 percent of the total number of active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN.
Still, despite heavy losses of men and equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to push forward as the war approaches its two-year anniversary early next year and US officials are warning that Ukraine remains deeply vulnerable. A highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive stagnated through the fall, and US officials believe that Kyiv is unlikely to make any major gains over the coming months.
The assessment, sent to Capitol Hill on Monday, comes as some Republicans have balked at the US providing additional funding for Ukraine and the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to try to get supplemental funding through Congress.
To be honest, I didn’t think Russia would make it to two years. I expected riots, revolution, putin getting killed, etc. It’s pretty insane how indifferent the majority of the Russian population is. That makes it even more scary.
They did protest. And everyone was arrested. Then they protested the arrests. And everyone was arrested. Then people just silently stood in groups holding blank signs. And everyone was arrested.
So only another military coup could free Russia from Putin’s firm grasp.
But that’s why he kept his own military led by weak leadership. And the only paramilitary group he allowed to gain strength ended up attempting a coup against him.
And what a whimsical coup it was
Yeah, that was a wild couple of days. Not that Prigozhin and his merry bunch of neo-Nazis would have been that more tempting as leaders of Russia. So the prospects for Russians have usually been “and then it got worse” so it’s hard to blame them for not putting their necks on the line for the next despot.
Only a very small minority did protest, that’s why it didn’t work.
It’s pretty insane how indifferent the majority of the Russian population is.
It’s identical in the US. 4 years of Trump and all we got was a pro Trump attempted coup.
Trump is too narcissistic and up his own ass to deliberately export pure sadistic evil the way Putin does.
They don’t know the war is going badly. They don’t know what Western society knows about the war. They’re fed state approved propaganda and nothing more. They’re also plastered constantly which kills motivation for political upheaval.
Good thing Obama made propaganda legal and protected here in the US.
So you’re back into a corner and can’t answer it.
Did you ask a question?
You done commenting “what about the US”?
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You sound like a well adjusted adult, so go on
I am indeed. So far, the pacifist doormat tactic isnt working.
Protest is met with swift arrest and long prison sentences.
Give it time. It took 3 years of war for the 1917 revolution to start.
I feel like Ukraine needs to take the fight to Russia for that to work, but that runs the risk of galvanizing the population against Ukraine as well
One thing I would add is that the Russian people do want change but any attempt at changing the leadership is met with poisoning and/or long prison sentences. I would highly recommend reading about Alexei Navalny or watching the fascinating documentary
It’s not indifference they are ok about it, it’s called democracy.
They’d have to have a democracy in order for it to be called a democracy
They just don’t have the American democrazy…
You think that’s weird, you should see how Americans ignore their corruption.
Whataboutism is a moron’s contra-argument.
If we could harness the energy of Regan spinning in his grave, we’d have a limitless supply of energy.
Imagine telling any conservative, during the Cold War era, that we could completely fuck Russia’s military power and readiness, for years to come, by sending weapons to a relatively small country. They would be rushing to arm anyone and everyone they could, unintended consequences be damned. And yet, here we are with the GOP blocking exactly that sort of activity. And even better, there is a very real possibility that we aren’t arming future terrorists this time around. Maybe that’s the GOP’s problem, Russia losing in Ukraine won’t create an excuse in 20 years to kill more brown people.If we could harness the energy of Regan spinning in his grave, we’d have a limitless supply of energy.
I had always thought the same thing about Nixon, after he sees what Trump gets away with.
Ya, it’s pretty bad when you can look at Nixon as a “stand up guy” compared to Trump. He at least had the decency to recognize that he had been caught in his bullshit, resign and go away.
Say what you will about the Boomers, but at least they knew when it was time to leave.
Nixon is really interesting as a president it’s kind of a shame how he’s only remembered for Watergate and the drug war now. Most people don’t think “created the EPA” or “desegregation” when they picture Nixon, he also ended the Viet Nam war and draft. Definitely a complex person above a lot of other presidents, poor Quaker upbringing and looked down on by his elite classmates, could have rejected the draft on his Quakerism but became a lieutenant commander, insanely respected as he rose through the ranks and commended by almost everyone he worked with. Did terrible things with Kissinger in South America as a staunch anti-communist. It’s like every stark judgement on him has some extreme counter example. The guy basically was the USA at an insane time in history, definitely a man who fully embodied that period of history.
Ain’t that literally why they supported the Mujahideen?
Religious fanatics.
Not religious fanatics this time.
They don’t want to hurt the feelings of anyone they made friends with on their last 4th of July holiday in Moscow
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In the world of politics you never give something for free. The Republicans are asking for more stringent border security and more border funding. If democrats were truly committed to supporting Ukraine then they would have made those concessions all ready. The problem is democrats love exploiting brown people for their cheap sweat shop labor.
The problem is democrats love exploiting brown people for their cheap sweat shop labor.
You could build an IMAX theater with all that projection.
Border security wouldn’t stop migrant workers. The whole “invasion of the border” thing is never talking about those people, as was proven by farmers lamenting their absence in Florida.
I wasn’t referencing migrant workers with work visas, I was referencing all the people entering illegally. Of course farm owners are upset, their source of cheap labor dried up.
Yes, hence my first sentence.
You know what would actually put a dent in illegal immigration? Fixing their country that we broke. They come here because being undocumented and working under the table with potentially dangerous conditions is better than their home country. Maybe we shouldn’t have destabilized so many democracies in South America.
If you expect us to take responsibility for our actions, then we’d have to have real solutions, and it’s just easier to complain about things, plus we’d have to arrest a looooooot of war criminals.
Bad news, Sparky: some of us actually lived through all the decades that conservatives imported exploitable brown people to boost profits. The shit you gargle from talk radio shows does not trump our lived experience.
Bullshit. You pass a law because it’s the right thing to help the country not because you got something for it.
That’s cute that you think the world works that way.
The existence of bad people does not invalidate morality.
The existence of morality does not change how politics works.
That’s demonstrably untrue. Otherwise we’d still be operating under monarchies.
Many monarchies were overthrown by people some ceeded power so they wouldn’t get overthrown.
Jesse what the fuck are you talking about
Or the Dems know that letting the GOP get their shitty ideas through just because Dems want something isn’t a good idea and are going to try to do it without the traitors’ party’s help
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I hope you have a wonderful day.
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If democrats were truly committed to supporting Ukraine then they would have made those concessions all ready.
They have been, some substantial compromises actually. The Republicans still wanting more, in a non-compromising sort of way.
Personally I’m hoping the FBI actually does checks on everyone in Congress, to make sure they’re not being compromised to vote in certain ways that certain countries wants.
George W. Bush set the precedent that The US does not negotiate with terrorists. Even when those terrorists are in Congress. They should stop setting precedents they don’t really mean.
Oh yes, more money to fix the perpetual, nebulously defined “border problem”.
Sometimes compromise is not the solution. This is one of those times. I’m tired of Republican fearmongers getting rich off my tax dollars by funneling it into the border security slush fund.
Or is it that the Democrats understand the rhetorical danger of equating an actual war in Europe involving a major nuclear power, with the ego driven pet project of a fascist demagogue?
That’s doesn’t seem sustainable
Depends on how many citizens you can threaten/coerce into replacing them.
It’s certainly biodegradable.
Good, now let’s make them lose the rest. Slava Ukraini!
Heroyam Slava
With amount of human reserves Russia has, it is practically impossible.
This war simply can’t be won by brute force and total extermination.
According to wikipedia they have ~1.2 million people in the military. that includes reserve, and paramilitary etc.
Many of them are spread out garrisoning such a big country and its military facilities. Even if all of them would be engaged, there still would be 50% active military forces, while the other 50% would be the support and officer assets. So we’re looking at a maximum of 5-600.000 soldiers actually fighting on the frontlines
This cannot be true lol. If it is, russians must be feeling this a lot more at home and international news hasnt reported the shock yet
It’s not hard to do body counts. Satellites don’t have to do much for getting counts of troops. And counting the dead isn’t hard either at this point with constant drones and videos recording 24/7. I’m sure you aren’t arguing the numbers just being surprised, and it’s more shocking that russians haven’t overthrown putin at this point.
They can’t or won’t leave. And even if they try, the die.
13% …we can do it guys.
It is incredibly had to believe the news after yesterday they said if we don’t give money to Ukraine, Russia would win.
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What caused the force to become so diminished?
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No, Ukraine had munitions reserves. Which are, y’know, an expendable resource. And they expended them.
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I remember Russia having issues sourcing munitions some time ago, yes. What is your point exactly? That Russia doesn’t have munitions??? They clearly do…
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That sounds like a Kremlin talking point
Really? Because it seems like Russia would be more incentivized to have westerners believe that Ukraine will be just fine without U.S. aid.
There’s a reason they’ve been fighting with shovels and rocks since then.
You know that’s not literally true right? Otherwise Ukrainian casualties would be in the single digits…
Is it possible you could spell out exactly what you think the U.S. and Ukraine should do? I genuinely cannot tell what point you’re trying to make here.
Good. Now we can stop flushing our money down this toilet.
You do realize that the U.S. hasn’t spent an excess dollar on the Ukraine war, right? The budget was $700-some-odd billion whether that goes to shipping or storage costs.
You’re not. Neither is the USA.
But you don’t understand what money is, where it is going, or how this war or its possible results affects the USA.
Another ‘defeat any day now’ propaganda piece?
You see, any normal country would have realized the war became way too costly and capitulated. But Russia is not a normal country.
Saying “Russia is losing” a year ago was not propaganda. It was just a lack of understanding how little Putin cares about the life of his soldiers. We now know he’ll just keep sending more no matter what. He literally can’t lose this war and continue to be president.
Russia wouldn’t even have had to capitulate, a white peace and some empty diplomatic gestures from Ukraine (like signing a piece of paper in which they promise to “denazify”), would have been enough to get a peace that Russia can sell at home. The classic power play of “we’re going home because we accomplished all objectives, we’re definitely not running away with our tail between our legs”. But Putin would rather see hundreds of thousands of Russians die, just so he can pretend one more year to never be wrong about anything.
The worlds largest, most well funded, most highly advanced military in the world cant defeat a military more than half its size that uses old outdated weapons? The US doesnt want to win this war, it wants to prolong it.
you do know that ukraine is fighting against Russia and that the Nato only supports them and has no active troops on the ground against the russian invaders?
just checked your older posts, nevermind! Keep putting your dog in stupid pyjamas and repeat your degenerated commie propaganda…
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Dont like getting pointed out that you are and have been getting lied to by your ‘lesser evil?’
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He’s sounds like a republican.
Could be both. After all, red is both the color of communism and republicans. May be this is enough commonalities to confuse a MAGA hat wearer
