The Russians have suffered 6000 dead in a week. In 9+ years in Afghanistan they lost a little under 15000. And that helped bring down the Soviet Union.
The Russian military needs to consider how to defend the country with 1/5 the army they had at the beginning of the war. Large parts of their ground forces will either be gone or decimated. They will probably get most of the troops back when the peace treaty is finalized, but virtually all the equipment they sent into the war zone will be lost. And they will pretty much have no ammunition between small arms ammunition and nuclear weapons. They are unable to manufacture anything else.
The Ukrainians are giving POWs a call to their mothers upon capture. Then the Ukrainian officer on the call tells the mother that her son will not be harmed and will be fed and cared for, and that she should tell all her friends. Almost all the mothers were unaware their kid was in Ukraine or the extent of the war.
The Russians are so paranoid about the word getting out they are arresting children for protesting the war:
Moscow police arrest five children for protesting war in Ukraine
All while claiming there is no censorship in Russia.
Word of the war is percolating around the controlled media. It's slow and some people are not going to believe it, but word is spreading. If the Russian army starts surrendering en masse, there are going to be a lot of phone calls to a lot of Russian mothers which will lead to a lot of anger against Putin. At the same time the entire economy will be melting down, which will further anger the public.
The Russian army is like someone who was recently exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. It's sick, but it's going to die from this.
Alexander Lukashenko is probably going to fall too. He barely held on a few months back when the country was wracked with protests and he's now sent troops into the war.
The Russian military needs to consider how to defend the country with 1/5 the army they had at the beginning of the war. Large parts of their ground forces will either be gone or decimated. They will probably get most of the troops back when the peace treaty is finalized, but virtually all the equipment they sent into the war zone will be lost. And they will pretty much have no ammunition between small arms ammunition and nuclear weapons. They are unable to manufacture anything else.
The Ukrainians are giving POWs a call to their mothers upon capture. Then the Ukrainian officer on the call tells the mother that her son will not be harmed and will be fed and cared for, and that she should tell all her friends. Almost all the mothers were unaware their kid was in Ukraine or the extent of the war.
The Russians are so paranoid about the word getting out they are arresting children for protesting the war:
Moscow police arrest five children for protesting war in Ukraine
All while claiming there is no censorship in Russia.
Word of the war is percolating around the controlled media. It's slow and some people are not going to believe it, but word is spreading. If the Russian army starts surrendering en masse, there are going to be a lot of phone calls to a lot of Russian mothers which will lead to a lot of anger against Putin. At the same time the entire economy will be melting down, which will further anger the public.
The Russian army is like someone who was recently exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. It's sick, but it's going to die from this.
Alexander Lukashenko is probably going to fall too. He barely held on a few months back when the country was wracked with protests and he's now sent troops into the war.
