“Killing off the young men of Ukraine is the only real leverage Putin can exert on Ukraine.”
There is other damage but you definitely have a point, it’s the real leverage Putin wants. Soon he’ll be able to kill 60 year-olds, he is making progress:
In 2022 The Russian Army was listed at 1,346,221, Ukraine: 969,950.
2024: Russia: 1,320,000, Ukraine: [Too many to count, no number given.] Estimate from CoPilot is 900,000. Kind of hard to defend 600 miles of front with almost half a million less soldiers than the other side.
In 2022 The Russian Army was listed at 1,346,221, Ukraine: 969,950.
So how exactly was Ukraine's military "an existential threat to Russia" especially when Ukraine in 2022 also had no navy and basically no air force?