Might Russia run out of money and weapons? What options do they have at their disposal?
The following from 100percentfedup.com.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to intensify with Russian troops launching a full-scale invasion of the Ukraine capital of Kyiv last night, Ukrainian citizens have mounted a desperate defense, throwing Molotov cocktails at armored vehicles and physically blocking tanks with their bodies.
Miraculously, this “mounted and desperate defense” is slowing the Russians, greatly increasing the expense of the invasion—monetarily and humanly.
Will this cause the Russians second thoughts? Possibly.
Will they be deterred? Don’t count on it.
The old Soviet Union spent 18B rubles ($115B in 2020 money) on their invasion and subsequent war in Afghanistan and suffered 14,000 fatalities. For nearly a decade they refused to be deterred.
Notedly, the Russian military is becoming increasingly frustrated by an advance that is slower than they initially estimated, with both sides taking heavy casualties.
Some estimates say that hundreds of people were killed just last night in the Russian advance on Kyiv.
While the situation currently looks dire for Ukrainians, defense experts are estimating that Russia only has the money and weapons to sustain an invasion for another 10 days.
The Daily Mail Reports:
The head of Britain’s MI6 Secret Intelligence Service has said he believes Russia’s war in Ukraine will prove ‘unwinnable’ because President Vladimir Putin will never attain political victory over the country’s people.
Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, wrote how a report suggesting Putin’s forces will ultimately fail in Ukraine because it underestimated its neighbour’s military strength and fierce determination ‘makes sense to me’.
The article Moore, 58, was reacting to was penned by Lawrence Freedman, the Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London.
He wrote that victory for Moscow does not come in the form of a successful invasion that overthrows Ukraine’s government, but with winning over the people of Ukraine.
This, the professor writes, is something Russia does not have the strength for.
Estonia’s former defense chief estimated that Russia may only be able to sustain an invasion of Ukraine for a short period of time due to a lack of weapons and money.
Estonia’s former defence chief Riho Terras has now claimed that Putin’s war is not going to plan because Russia is fast running out of money and weapons and will have to enter negotiations with Volodymyr Zelensky’s government if Kyiv holds off the Russians for 10 days.
Ten days may very well be the magical number, but that’s only if Russia chooses to maintain its current level of pressure.
What if Russia chooses to go nuclear or chemical in a drastic attempt to speed up their operation?
Well, all bets on the ten-day “magical number” will be lost, and all of Europe, if not the world, will be embroiled in this ‘European war.’
Final thought, a bit of cynicism: Searching for a small element of positive in all this death and destruction of war, if Russia does escalate their operation and the world combusts, we can safely assume mask and vaccine mandates will quickly become control measures of the past.
