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.
And it was actually a “coup” against the Minister of Defense which really cranks up the whimsy.
Only a very small minority did protest, that’s why it didn’t work.
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.
Protest is met with swift arrest and long prison sentences.
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
You think that’s weird, you should see how Americans ignore their corruption.
Whataboutism is a moron’s contra-argument.