Why Putin’s invasion failed

Unherd ^ | Edward Luttwak

[DouglasKC]

I didn’t believe anything the leftist media tells me. And the fact that rinos and leftists are United means that putin is a threat to their plans. They don’t care about Ukraine or the US.

[Monterrosa-24]

I don’t believe the Leftist media either. But I do believe my family and friends in the Ukraine. And I don’t appreciate you supporting Putin killing them. You love Obama-backed Putin invading and slaughtering innocent people.

[SunkenCiv]

Same here. Wikiwacky:

> Edward Nicolae Luttwak (born 4 November 1942) is an American military strategist and author

[SunkenCiv]

Oh, okay, looks like I’ve got at least one of his titles around here. [blush] Okay, so, I’m not a great housekeeper. Looks like he’s got a book about the Byzantine Empire...

[SunkenCiv]

https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4055404/posts?page=41#41

[FreedomPoster]

Actually the Russians pushed the Germans out of Russia using apparently similar tactics 1943-1945.

Of course, they did it with massive, and I mean MASSIVE, US logistical support, a fact not well known. If you’ve never read From Major Jordan’s Diaries, and especially looked at the tables therein, you really should.

https://archive.org/details/george-racey-jordan-from-major-jordans-diaries/page/184/mode/2up

[DouglasKC]

I don’t believe the Leftist media either. But I do believe my family and friends in the Ukraine. And I don’t appreciate you supporting Putin killing them. You love Obama-backed Putin invading and slaughtering innocent people.

Sorry to hear about this. Out of your family and friends how many have been killed?

[Cronos]

As of today, 19th April, after nearly 2 months of Putin’s invasion, Putin’s military machine has

1. Retreated completely from north of Kyiv
2. Failed at replacing the President of Ukraine with a compliant entity - losing thousands of soldiers, including their elite paratroopers
3. Lost their Black sea fleet flagship the Moskva
4. Lost thousands of soldiers and 8 generals and countless lower officers
5. Lost billions of dollars of equipment - the number of smashed tanks, troop carriers, trucks is incredible
6. Still not got aerial superiority - Ukraine airforce and anti-aircraft system is still up and running
7. Failed in capturing any city besides Kherson, which is 130 km from the border with Crimea
8. Failed in capturing Mariupol - a majority Russian speaking city
9. Failed in even taking the Donetsk or Luhansk oblasts.

The war is not over, but Putin’s invasion has failed to meet its objectives. On the contrary

1. Ukraine’s leadership is still independent of Putin’s control
2. Ukraine’s membership of the EU is fast-tracked
3. Ukraine’s partnership with NATO is going to be stronger and if they resolve the border issues, they will join
4. NATO is far more unified than before Putin’s invasion
5. Finland and Sweden are due to join NATO
6. Russia’s economy is heading towards being China’s b*tch
7. Russia’s position in the world has gone from being the 3rd most powerful to being a joke.

Ukraine has not “won” - it has held off Putin’s forces
Russia has lost - due to the above reasons
But the war is not over.

[Cronos]

DouglasKC Frq9 the millionth time putins goal was to take one etnically Russian area,,,,not all Ukraine e. He just succeeding.

Douglas - that's Putin's propaganda and it is false for the following reasons (please cross-verify if you wish, you don't have to take my word for it)

1. There is little difference between "ethnic Russian" and "ethnic Ukrainian" - both are Eastern Slavs, both are Eastern Orthodox by culture and religion (the Byzantine Catholics are similar in both culture and religion), both have a common history up until the 13th century

The difference is whether you see Moscow as the light of your life (Muscowite/Russian) or you don't (other folks)

LANGUAGE

Language is not an indicator of ethnicity or political affiliation - under the Tsars in the 1800s there was forced Russification where other languages were banned - they tried this in Russian controlled Poland and Finland as well. And in the Soviet union Russian was widely spoken and the common language

Language is NOT an indicator of ethnicity - otherwise the Irish (80% or more who only speak English and no Irish) would be English (as would the Scots, the Welsh, Americans, Canadians etc.) - but they aren't.

As an aside - the 1800s Russification is similar to what the French did in France (in 1780 only 10% spoke "French" - Occitan, Breton, Gascon, etc. had large native (and only) speakers), the English did that in England and in the rest of the United Kingdom, the Germans came up with Standard German - which is not mutually comprehensible with Swabian or Bavarian)

Russia hamfistedly imposed Russian as the state language from 1870s onwards - probably prompted by Bismarck's attempts to force Standard German in Kulturkampf.

Ukraine had its own language spectrum of Ukrainian - which is also in the language spectrum from Russian (Muscowy dialect) with heavy Polish influences (As an aside, about 60% of Ukrainian is somewhat comprehensible with Polski) - but the Ukrainians were dominated first by Poland and then by Moscow, so had little chance to develop higher "culture" i.e. literature and poetry before the late 1800s

This is not unusual - until the French revolution, there was little standardization of languages - only "prestige dialects" became the standard language - the dialect of Turin became "Italian" i.e. the prose of Dante, ditto for Goethe and German etc. etc.

Putin didn't care for Russians when he invaded - not in 2014 and not in 2022 when he has been bombing Russian speaking areas

sentiment - until 2014 there wasn't much sentiment for ANY nation in the east. They were 'from here' -- again, not unusual as this "national sentiment" only arose first in England under the Tudors and then continent wide after the French revolution. But Putin's invasions have boosted up the self-identification of people as "Ukrainian"

Another aside - this is similar to the sentiment of "Indian" - India is technically a continent with 28+ nations in it, multiple languages (with their own individual scripts and 1000+ years of history), religions etc. but they unified in opposition to "the other" i.e. the British

ditto for the USA, ditto for Germany (opposition to Napoleon and the French), the Greeks (against the Ottomans) etc. etc.

Putin is using hitler's old plan of "I'm trying to save the Germans in Gdansk" - only with far, far fewer basis in reality

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He is only making more countries drop Russian as a second language because it is becoming an excuse for Russia to invade.

[Kevmo]

3. Ukraine’s partnership with NATO is going to be stronger and if they resolve the border issues, they will join
***That one sounds doubtful. Ukraine coulda joined NATO long ago, they dragged their heels. All along they have sought to be neutral.

[Cronos]

in my opinion, they could not have joined after 2014 as I understand it - because they had border disputes - that being the plan for putin to keep his “frozen conflict”

[Prince of Space]

Well you’ve definitely drunk the koolaid. 🤣

[Cronos]

Not really.

If you see anything you disagree with in the post above, then write which facts you disagree with