It looks like Pooty has lost another A-50, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPcJT_EK9xo
Military is one thing, I hope no villagers were hit by debris falling to the ground.
But now a new era is beginning. The real unconventional fight which mauled us in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The advantage Russia has going into this fight, is that they were smart enough to go for the ethnic Russian areas of Ukraine, that means they have some degree of support by the local populace.
Also, Russia knows the area (at the political, military and even individual soldiers level) far better than we did Iraq and Afghanistan going in.
All things considered. Russia met their political objectives in blocking NATO from expanding into Ukraine. Furthermore, if the US/West is going to purge Ukraine of all Russian influence and make it theirs (what Maiden was about), then Russia will take what they see as theirs in a military campaign which has succeeded in taking those areas they wanted.
What did not succeed and isn't talked about, is Ukraine's glorious counter offensive, the last of its kind, where 2/3rds of all equipment was from the US and other NATO allies.
Imagine this scenario. The West fields the largest mercenary and foreign army ever fielded since WWII in Ukraine (supported and paid for by us), the US alone blew over a 150 billion USD plus what our allies pitched in, we threw in some of our premiere weapon systems like Patriot, ATACMS, HIMARS, Javelin... We were preparing Ukraine for 7 years with military advisors training them, equipping them, feeding them intel. We went as far as using our logistic hubs in Poland (to repair arty) and Command and Control in Germany (actually creating targeting lists for them) to help Ukraine out. Poland flat out sent in troops (mine clearance etc) and in fact NATO probably under guise of being mercenaries sent in troops filling key positions Ukraine was in dire need of... And yet Russia took 1/5 of Ukraine, the parts they wanted. Who failed?