Russia has pounded Ukraine for four years now, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians, tries to freeze Ukrainians each winter, and drove millions abroad as refugees. But the Russians still think that Ukrainian attitudes about Russia will improve by continuing the beatings.
The war goes on. The major change is a series of successful Ukrainian counter-attacks that have liberated a relatively small amount of territory in one important sector southeast of Pokrovske, taking advantage of Russian communications difficulties due to losing its unauthorized Starlink capabilities. If only Ukraine has a strategic reserve. Sadly, aucune. Still, the Ukrainians are continuing to take ground and inflict casualties ...
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently claimed that any postwar Ukraine must be ”friendly“ and ”benevolent” to Russia, explicitly rejecting any future Ukrainian government that is not pro-Kremlin.
Ease off on the vodka-and-kasha breakfasts, Lavrov, eh?
It is in moments like this that I think our best option is to give Ukraine nuclear-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles with no limits on their use. <sigh> But in the end, I will put business before pleasure.
And the war goes on. Four years ago tonight (in my time zone) Russia invaded Ukraine expecting Ukrainians to welcome their benevolent Russian brothers. Hundreds of thousands of dead, wounded, missing, and captured Russian soldiers later, the Russians still think the Ukrainians must secretly pine for the embrace of a loving--if strict--brotherly bear from Moscow.
In reality, Ukrainians are still willing to fight:
Ukraine recaptured 201 square kilometres (78 square miles) from Russia between Wednesday and Sunday last week, taking advantage of a Starlink shutdown for Russian forces, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
This isn't much. And doesn't mean Ukraine can eject Russia from significant amounts of Ukrainian territory absent a collapse of a good chunk of Russia's frontline ground forces. But it does show Ukrainians are not learning to love the Russians. Yet Putin finds he must turn to some involuntary reservist mobilization to maintain the rate of dying Russian troops to pound the love into the Ukrainians.
Or perhaps "friendly" and "benevolent" translate into something way different in Russian that is well beyond what remains of my college Russian language classes to catch.
Yet Putin persists and Russians follow him into the darkness where they die and suffer, oblivious to the anti-greatness Putin is inflicting on Russia:
As the war enters its fifth year, Russia’s control of eastern Ukraine increasingly resembles a Pyrrhic victory.
And it could get so much worse.
#WhyRussiaCan'tHaveNiceThings
UPDATE (Monday): Ukraine's ability to liberate land on a wholesale scale may be limited, but if Putin persists in this strategy, that could change:
In Ukraine, the war has evolved into a series of Russian infantry attacks that fail, at heavy cost to Russia with the Ukrainians losing one soldier for every ten Russians.
It is hard on Ukraine to just absorb blows. But good grief, Russian forces are are getting hammered.
NOTE: ISW updates continue here.
NOTE: Also, I put war-related links and commentary in the Weekend Data Dump on Substack. You may read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved.
