Keep in mind what Lloyd Austin laid out at his first Ramstein speech because that's the playbook, and it's exactly as things have unfolded. Once the US decided to go all in with advanced weaponry, Russia's fate was sealed, and the mission was then redefined to "degrade" Russia's military capabilities for the long term. That means keeping the Russians in a quagmire, which is by definition a lengthy process.

"We can sacrifice Ukrainians in order to make Russia bleed."

This has always been our strategy.

Being a US proxy is a real bad move for your country.

ashtar that's utterly presumptuous nonsense and an insult to all Ukrainians. If you'll recall, the US was initially very vocal in their encouragement for Zelensky to flee and for the Ukrainians to negotiate. It was the Ukrainians themselves who demanded to make a stand militarily. Their counter offensive is only working because the Ukrainians have committed their full dedication; without which, all the HIMARS in the US inventory wouldn't have made a lick of difference.

Do you really believe that it’s just plucky Ukrainians, with the help of some weapons, doing all this? A shit ton of Americas and NATOs reconnaissance, espionage and tactical planning resources are being thrown at this. Maybe in 50 years we will find out just how much of this whole mess was fomented by the CIA -again-.

It's nothing new, Solrus. The fledgeling United States had help from France, the Vietcong were assisted by the Soviets, the Afghans were aided by the US. It's the oldest trick in the book, and the Russians are dumb as fuck for falling for it... again!

It's the American's fault for assisting Ukraine, not the Russians for invading in the first place. "DURRRR. I'm Solro, and I wanna Tasty Period burger and a Bucks coffee."

In twenty years we'll learn that the Deep State planted false intel about Ukraine in Trump's daily briefings so he'd pass it on to Putin.

I totally agree SolRo, layers of assets are at play, but none of it is worth spit without dedicated soldiers willing to fight and die for what they believe in. The Ukrainians have well-proven themselves in that regard.

It’s hard to tell how much of the Ukrainian army are all happy willing patriots eager to throw themselves under artillery barrages. So much of what Ukraine puts out is blatant false propaganda that you cannot get a clear picture of what’s happening on the ground.

Also cena can suck my cock with all his jingo cheerleading.

Of course the Ukrainians employ propaganda and disinformation, as all countries at war do, but that's besides the point. One need only point to the vast gains the Ukrainians have made within the last 96 hours to crumble any preposterous conspiratorial fallacies that they've been manipulated by the US to fight this war. It's just not true and there's ample evidence to refute it.

The deeper problem is he probably believes that shit. With the exception of only a few, Russians are largely brainwashed. They funnel all their information and no one ever knows what's really going on. But you can't hide tens of thousands of dead soldiers, so if there's any silver lining here for them long-term, it's that hopefully this stinging defeat opens their eyes a bit.