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There’s a reason that, despite throwing virtually everything that we had at Russia, that crappy little country, USING ONLY THEIR PINKY, is beating the crap out of a country we spent 8 years arming and training...

That's simply wrong. We did train them and provide limited defensive munitions, which explains why they've managed to hold out against what was supposedly the greatest land power in the world for nearly four months. But we have never provided aircraft, which was their single biggest need. Nor did we ever provided artillery or armor in any real quantity. That means the Russians have held a massive superiority in supporting arms. As a former artillery officer myself, that's an almost handicap to overcome, especially in the steppe areas of southern Ukraine.

Despite that, the attempted Russian mobile/tank advances have all failed. What has succeeded is the slog provided by simple weight of massive ordnance - their massive advantage in artillery and Air support, and grinding infantry asvance. But it is a rather pathetic commentary on their overall military effectiveness that it has taken them this long to accomplish even the limited gains they have.

If you want to go with the entire West being more dependent on Russia's economy than vice-versa...I guess we'll just have to wait this one out and see. But I'm guessing that six months from now, we're going to be hearing an awful lot of calls from those siding with Russia that we.much lift sanctions because it is so "unfair".

[That means the Russians have held a massive superiority in supporting arms. As a former artillery officer myself, that’s an almost handicap to overcome, especially in the steppe areas of southern Ukraine.

My sense is that Russians infantry and armor are all fought out, that morale is at rock bottom. That could change if the Russian advance develops a bit more momentum. But right now, the Russians are psychologically shell-shocked.

The Ukrainian problem is that they started the war with 1500 tubes of 152mm and up howitzers. They are running out of shells, and Ukrainian plants are presumably either not making enough to replace their stocks or not in working order, thanks to Russian missile attacks. In theory, they could rebore the tubes to 155mm. I gotta wonder how much time this takes, and whether the Ukrainians have the tooling and skilled personnel necessary to do this, due to Russian attacks on their industrial base.