It’s unclear what the purpose of the latest round of “the Ukraine is doomed” articles is, but it’s most likely about trying to send them $60 billion.
As if that is going to change anything.
As the Ukraine war enters its third year, the infantry of 59th Brigade are confronting a bleak reality: they’re running out of soldiers and ammunition to resist their Russian invaders.
Typically, you call that “losing.”
One platoon commander who goes by his call sign “Tygr” estimated that just 60-70% of the several thousand men in the brigade at the start of the conflict were still serving. The rest had been killed, wounded or signed off for reasons such as old age or illness.
This is weasel wording.
Maybe 60-70% of this one guy’s platoon is still serving, but those are not the numbers for the Hohol military generally. Try about 35%.
Heavy casualties at the hands of Russian forces have been compounded by dreadful conditions on the eastern front, with frozen soil turning into thick mud in unseasonably warm temperatures, playing havoc with soldiers’ health.
“The weather is rain, snow, rain, snow. People get ill with simple flu or angina as a result. They’re out of action for some time, and there is nobody to replace them,” said a company commander in the brigade with the call sign “Limuzyn”. “The most immediate problem in every unit is lack of people.”
Yeah, that’s what happens when you lose a war. Too many of your soldiers die, and the enemy has a lot more soldiers than you, so you can’t keep fighting.
This is how most wars end.
On the cusp of the second anniversary of its Feb. 24 invasion, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is in the ascendancy in a conflict that combines attritional trench combat reminiscent of World War One with high-tech drone warfare that’s sending tens of thousands of machines into the skies above.
Moscow now controls almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory including the Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014, even if the frontlines of the war have largely stagnated in the last 14 months.
Ukrainian officials have said their armed forces number around 800,000, while in December Putin ordered Russia’s forces to be increased by 170,000 troops to 1.3 million.
Beyond personnel, Moscow’s defence spending dwarfs that of Ukraine. In 2024 it earmarked $109 billion for the sector, more than twice Ukraine’s equivalent target of $43.8 billion.
A new law aimed at mobilising 450-500,000 more Ukrainians is slowly making its way through parliament, but for some soldiers fighting now, significant reinforcements seem a distant hope.
Conventional warplanes are a relatively rare sight over the frontlines, largely because air defences act as a deterrent. Yet a different battle is raging in the skies, with both sides striving for the upper hand in drone technology.
Drones – or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – are cheap to produce and can surveil enemy movements and drop ordnance with pinpoint accuracy.
As the use from drones grows, both sides are bolstering deployment of electronic warfare systems which can disrupt the frequencies that feed commands from the pilot to the drone, making them drop out of the sky or miss their target.
It’s definitely a new type of war.
It’s a whole different world all over the place. For example, I think Iran could sink a US aircraft carrier, if they needed to. And obviously, the US has no ability to stop the Houthis from drone-attacking ships in the Red Sea. Drones have changed everything.
But in the Ukraine, both sides can have infinity drones, and it’s still going to come down to who has the most soldiers. Russia is a much, much bigger country, so they have a lot more soldiers.
The only way the Ukraine can expand its military at this point is by drafting women.
I hope that happens, because it will be hilarious to see these sluts getting blown up.
One of the most powerful things we could do to stand up to Putin is pass the bipartisan National Security Bill and support Ukraine.
The Senate already passed it. And if the House voted on it, it would pass there too.
The Speaker must call a vote.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 21, 2024
Elvis Dunderhoff contributed to this article.