Russia is trying to maintain a favorable casualty ratio, and they’re succeeding. The AFU has been so degraded that most of their soldiers are barely trained conscripts. According to Russian observers, the casualty rate was 10 to 1 in favor of Russia and according to Ukrainian soldiers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/07/ukraine-kherson-offensive-casualties-ammunition/), its 5 to 1. Russia is advancing, ADVANCING and suffering less casualties than the defenders. And the point of the SMO isn’t exactly, though this may sound cynical, to liberate Ukraine. It’s to demilitarize and denazify it; in other words, it is a war of extermination against the AFU. The point is not necessarily territorial gains.
Russia is trying to maintain a favorable casualty ratio, and they’re succeeding. The AFU has been so degraded that most of their soldiers are barely trained conscripts. According to Russian observers, the casualty rate was 10 to 1 in favor of Russia and according to Ukrainian soldiers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/07/ukraine-kherson-offensive-casualties-ammunition/), its 5 to 1. Russia is advancing, ADVANCING and suffering less casualties than the defenders. And the point of the SMO isn’t exactly, though this may sound cynical, to liberate Ukraine. It’s to demilitarize and denazify it; in other words, it is a war of extermination against the AFU. The point is not necessarily territorial gains.