Russia’s war in Ukraine is already in its 17th month. In that time, President Vladimir Putin has clearly demonstrated that he is not bothered by losses — whether they be financial, material, or human. His war will go on as long as he needs. And, judging by how the authorities have woven the so-called “special military operation” into Russian life, that will be a long time.

    • SuspiciousUser@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      He can wait to see if Trump becomes president, because we all know how it will end with his BFF in charge.

      • kingthrillgore@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This is the long game, because if Trump wins, he can get the US out of NATO and that’s a constitutional crisis at home, and a serious flashpoint to drive Europe back into squabbling.

          • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            There’s a vast difference between America ceasing to support Ukraine and America supporting Russia. Simply never going to happen, that’s a loonie scenario.

            NATO is not officially supporting Ukraine. It just so happens that all the various NATO member countries are all individually deciding that it’s in their interests to support Ukraine. If America drops out that’s not going to change whether it’s in the interests of those countries to continue supporting Ukraine. Indeed, it becomes all the more important for many of them to make sure Russia’s strength is broken if they don’t feel they can rely on America to support them.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        Russia’s committing way more resources into this conflict than they ever did for previous similar operations though. Ukraine is claiming they killed/wounded over 200000 Russian soldiers. That’s not anywhere near comparable to previous post WWII conflicts.

        • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Human resources yeah, but financial? I’m not sure. The Iraq war cost 3 trillion dollars.

          And mind you, you’re talking about the victors (mostly) the Korean war cost the lives of 2 million people. As did the Vietnam war.

            • Noughmad@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              The thing about corruption is that it’s very inefficient. Spending a trillion dollars on weapons translates to only a couple of billions in the pockets of profiteers, the rest is used to actually make the weapons, move them in place, and to pay the people using them.

              So with a useless war, you waste far more than you would if you just have the money to the profiteers.

              • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                The money would be wasted on things like super yachts anyways. At least a good chunk of this waste goes to things like feeding and housing soldiers and contractors and paying those people and all the people who make the food, supplies, etc. Seems less wasteful than just giving it to billionaires. Granted, the weapons, when they actually function at all, can be used to cause harm to many people…

        • nitrolife@rekabu.ru
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          1 year ago

          that is, 0.6% of the total number of people who can be drafted into the army.

          The current political regime is not particularly concerned about military losses. even if we take into account the 2 million Russians who left, 200,000 people still make up about 1% of the number of conscripts. Even if we assume that half of them will somehow manage to escape from the Ministry of Defense, 15 million people can still be called up into the army.

          • BitPirate@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            You can call a lot of people, but the reality is that the Russian army gradually shifts from trained soldiers with tanks and artillery to Igor with a gun.

            Their losses will skyrocket the moment they can’t provide sufficient counter-battery fire and air defence for their troops anymore.

            • nitrolife@rekabu.ru
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              1 year ago

              the Russian army has never been well trained. Almost the entire composition of the army below the officers are forcibly conscripted civilians. the number of contractors is ridiculously small.

              the Russian army has never been contracted. And a year of training of a forcibly conscripted person always gives approximately the same result.

              UPD: if we lived in the world of starcraft, Russia would undoubtedly be Zerg. In general, the command and tactics are applied accordingly - a swarm of Zerg. I am generally surprised that conscripts are at least given weapons.

              when I served in the army on universal conscription for 2.5 years of compulsory conscription many, years ago, I fired from a machine gun about 2 times. This is the average level of training of a Russian soldier.

          • Rinox@feddit.it
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            1 year ago

            You can’t really send every man able to hold a gun directly to the front without your economy completely collapsing. Even 1% of your abled men being suddenly dead is very serious in terms of the economy. Plus all the injured coming home from the war now suddenly being a burden rather than a productive asset to your economy.

            Definitely not good for either country

            • nitrolife@rekabu.ru
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              1 year ago

              Well, that’s right. But already now the business is starting to hire women more willingly than men who can conscripted. And just recently, a law was passed that those who could refuse the draft after entering the institute would still serve after the institute. Government introduced new much stricter laws against draft evasion. Look like preparation for the beginning of mobilization.

              • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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                1 year ago

                True, technically the Russian government proclaims that everyone who can stand straight for a moment is a potential recruit. But if the previous mogilisation attempts showed us something, that even the most loyal putin’s dogs would prefer making war efforts from the comfort of their own homes.
                I don’t have anything other than gut feelings after extensive reading of telegram channels to base this on, but my personal estimation that they could probably get another half of a million of meatbags or so, but after that the whole shit will just collapse in on itself.

                • nitrolife@rekabu.ru
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                  1 year ago

                  I think not. the regime is very slow to advance its interests, and you don’t have time to look back, because 7 years have passed, and everyone has served at least a year in a hot spot.

                  For example. Mobilization has begun. People were outraged. Everyone was shown on TV how Putin promises that they will not demand more. What we really have: no one has canceled the mobilization on paper. Mobilization orders are coming in, only slowly, so as not to cause unrest. Contractors cannot quit after the contract expires, as mobilization and military operations seem to be continuing. For greater security, they began to send out mobilization orders through state websites, so as not to run after those who are runs away from the military commissariat. And if he did not show up, then he is deprived of his driver’s license and credit rating. But I don’t see any dissatisfaction.

                  And so it is everywhere.

                  • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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                    1 year ago

                    Yeah, but that’s not how you conscript all the people in one go, that’s how you slowly suck the life out of your country by methodically killing small amount of people with relentless consistency. You can’t use this slow boiling method to conscript hundreds of thousands of people, let alone millions, and the moment you try, the system shits itself.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The plan is to profit from war, and that’s the thing, it never ends.