Free Republic

Russia launched its attack on Ukraine in February 2022 with plans for a quick victory. Those plans depended in part on seizing Ukraine's nuclear power plants and using them for leverage. Russia's ambitions for those plants were foiled when Ukraine fended off the initial attack. ==================== When he launched his invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin had ambitious goals for Ukraine. Within three days to a week of attacking, Putin planned to capture Kyiv, topple Ukraine's government, and demilitarize Ukrainian forces. According to an analysis of the first five months of the war by the Royal United Services Institute, a British...

Russian military, the month of November was the deadliest in the war in Ukraine so far. According to the official Ukrainian numbers, the Russian forces lost more than 15,000 troops killed and hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces, and other weapon systems in the past 30 days or so. Russian Casualties in November in Ukraine The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense assesses that in November alone, its forces killed more than 16,400 troops, which means that the Ukrainians wounded between 32,800 and 49,000 Russians, if we go off from the standard one killed for three wounded formula. Moreover, the Ukrainians claim...

Ukraine presses on while Putin retreats: On the 224 of the war, the Ukrainian forces continue to advance in the east and the south while the Russian military seems to be in full retreat. The Ukrainian Way of War After weeks of successful Ukrainian counteroffensives, a pattern is emerging. The Ukrainian military has been launching a two-prong attack from the north and south, aiming at an enemy-occupied city. Once it is threatening to envelop or has enveloped the city, the Russian forces retreat, often under heavy artillery fire, and the Ukrainian military captures the city and then repeats the process....

Could Russia still fight NATO? The war in Ukraine has proved catastrophic for the Russian military thus far. In almost seven months of war, the Russian forces have suffered one humiliating defeat after another, losing tens of thousands of troops in the process and thousands of pieces of equipment. As a result, the capabilities of the Russian military have been seriously degraded, and Moscow’s ability to fight the U.S. and NATO has been dramatically degraded.