re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Wait do you seriously think Ukraine has 500k KIA (meaning roughly 1M+ WIA) but Russia has only 50k KIA and can barely get the front line to move?

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The Russians realized in the late summer of 22 that fighting a war of attrition was their best option, victory wouldn’t be achieved by maneuver but by the physical destruction of the Ukrainian Army, and in way that resembled the Western Front in WW1.

Territorial gains would come when the Ukrainian Army broke down, and was no longer able to defend the length of the front. It didn’t matter if the lined moved, or it didn’t, what mattered was Russias ability to inflict casualties at a favorable rate, which they could do, because of their advantage in artillery and increasingly air power.

The price for the Russian here was time, victory wouldn’t come quickly, but one of the virtues of this strategy, was that it was thrifty, and they wouldn’t suffer large losses.

*the BBC Mediazona estimate is between 55k and 80k Russian deaths, last I looked.