This isn’t the old Red Army.
Most of Russias troops are 18 year old draftees who have zero motivation to fight.
the Ukrainians on the other hand are highly motivated to defend their homes and country. Also thanks to Putins proxy war in Donbas and Luhansk lots of Ukrainians are combat veterans at this point.
Given enough anti tank and anti air weapons they can make the Russians pay very high price for this invasion.
I’ve also heard the Russian troops were told by their leadership that this will be a liberation effort and that the Ukrainians want to be saved from their president. Now going in, the Russian soldiers are being taken off guard by the response of the Ukrainiane defense and the people telling the Russians they dont want them. If true, morale is not looking good.
It's always been my understanding that the Russians have a lot of weapons, but not so much in the way of money for maintenance and training. Most of what they bring in through petroleum revenue probably goes toward paying off Putin's retainers.
Putin really blew it on this.
“Most of Russias troops are 18 year old draftees who have zero motivation to fight.”
Not true.
The Russian military is 30% draftees and 70% professional. And like the US they may extensive use of Contractors. Their Specops are first rate.
They are better, man for man, than the old Red Army.
The conscript battalions are what you have been seeing in Ukraine so far. For whatever reason.
Boy scouts with old equipment and the simplest of tactics.
Behind these guys is a professional army with modern equipment.
Are they as good as the battle hardened US military? No. But they are among the best in Europe.
And they have not yet been committed to the fight.
Amazingly.
I’d caution against dismissing the war making abilities of 18 year old draftees. Who defeated the Japanese on Iwo Jima and Okinawa? Who fought the Vietnam War for the United States? 18 year old draftees have done a lot of killing in the last 100 years.