"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (2 Viewers)

[SplitRz]

You could equally have said

The testing of the waters by Hitler Putin in 2014 gave two-fold results.
The first was to see how the European NATO powers would respond, which was essentially strongly worded condemnation and finger waging.
The other, was buying time to build up and modernize his military.

And NATO powers waffling about expanding military spending, whilst only a few are doing it (and whingeing that the USA is likely to become far more isolationist as a result of the populations recent political choices) underlines it.

The uncommitted low-spending NATO members put all the others at risk, as governments Europe wide struggle against internal populist movements who seem to treat Putin as someone to be either bargained with or admired for his 'strong and unifying leadership.

History repeats.

 

[SplitRz]

The other, was buying time to build up and modernize his military.

And thats another prescient observation and comparison.

This long running thread continues to be full of back-slapping reports on how crap and obsolete Russian tactics and equipment has proven, and how they've been destroyed in droves - and how this seems reassuring.

Similarly, in 1941 when Barbarossa kicked off, the Germans carved through and destroyed thousands of tonnes of obsolete Soviet tanks, guns and aircraft.

What the Ukraine war is doing is purging the Russian military of all that second rate material. That country is now on a war footing (and will become economically addicted to the need to keep factories and workers employed) and they will be building replacement tanks, missiles and aircraft that will be based on proper battlefield lessons and be manned by many survivors with real battlefield experience.

If the POTUS imposes a temporary truce, what happens to a military industrial complex in Russia that is in full swing? Politically and economically, its going to be impossible for Putin to switch it off overnight. New material is going to quickly stockpile - and all the whilst his openly stated expansionist desires and fear of NATO encroachment remain unchanged. He may also need new nationalistic objectives to hide from the hideous cost in treasure and lives.

I suspect he's stuck in a direction and trap of his own making. The ONLY thing I think that might mitigate against it is for Europe to comprehensively and collectively out produce and out advance his output and make any future 'special operation' militarily and economically untenable.

And aside from outliers like Poland and Finland, I see very little pan-NATO commitment, Even as I type, the UK continues to lose key capabilities an shrinks its armed forces year on year, review by review - spending more and more on Gucci kit, but at such vast expense that it can only afford penny packets with next to no reserve capacity...

 

[GrauGeist]

You could equally have said

The testing of the waters by Hitler Putin in 2014 gave two-fold results.
The first was to see how the European NATO powers would respond, which was essentially strongly worded condemnation and finger waging.
The other, was buying time to build up and modernize his military.

Exactly and my referring to Putin as "Vladolph Putler" was not a joke.

Barbarossa was supposed to be an Ost version of "Blitzkreig", decimating the Red Army with the history's largest massed assault in a matter of weeks.

Well, that sure went according to plan, didn't?

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

Russia is executing more and more Ukrainian prisoners of war

Ukrainian prosecutors say Russians have executed at least 147 PoWs, 127 of them this year alone.

www.bbc.com