Can it possibly be that the supposedly vaunted Russian military machine is, well, not so vaunted after all? Or that the Russian “bear” is a critter without teeth?
We hear reports of the Russian assault on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and how it is stalling, and that Russia is having difficulty resupplying the troops who are caught in the offensive that isn’t making much progress.
CNN.com reports that “thousands of Russian troops” have died in the month-long invasion of Ukraine. The Russians aren’t having the battlefield success we all believed was theirs for the taking.
Then again, few of us foresaw the fight that the Ukrainians would put up even in defense of their homeland against the Russian aggressors.
CNN reports: One such assessment found that approximately 7,000 Russian troops have been killed so far, said one of the sources. But that figure, first reported by The New York Times, is on the higher end of US estimates, which vary because the US and its allies have no precise way of counting casualties. Some estimates place the number of Russian troops killed in Ukraine at about 3,000, whereas others suggest more than 10,000 have been killed.
Are the Russians going to run up the white flag of surrender, flee back to Moscow, lick their wounds and let Ukraine declare victory? I don’t believe that will happen.
Although I do believe Russia is going to pay a grievous price for Vladimir Putin’s desire to expand the nation’s empire.