Russia - threadbanned users in OP

There's already been claims of Ukrainans crossing into Belgorod and stealing military vehicles to take back to Ukraine

Seems strikes were launched from submarines in the black sea,

They will need to deal more damage to the russian Navy going forward,that or level Sevastopol naval base when they are being resupplied

That'a bit presumptuous ...

I'm kinda shocked that he's still allowed on that show. He's the only one of them that ever seemed to see things as they were but it always went against the grain. The rest of them were living in some parallel universe - which is crashing down around them now.

Ebb and flow of battlefields. Aside from current activity, Ukrainian economy is in taters. Russia holds territory that is 70%+ of their GDP, not to mention the interlocking between the Russian and Ukrainian companies pre-war. They are dependent on Western Europe and the United States and the political ground will change over the course of the year. Russia can drag this out and the longer it does the more countries from the EU get directly involved. It's obvious the Russian administration have achieved none of the objectives they intended (yet). Western Europe needs energy and raw materials from Russia and Belarus, otherwise heavy industry shuts down, there is an incentive for both sides to find a face saving way out of this situation.

Putin will be gone in 2024, who replaces him then? If he loses face sooner are the hard liners going to come to a deal? To my mind it makes sense to look for a deal.

The US won’t let them make that move. Question is, will the Americans let them take Crimea or even all of the Donbas.

They are completely justified in crossing a border to assail a region that is supplying an invasion against them and firing ballistics at them. They wont lose support for that. Furthermore, the influence of europe is being overstated, it's great to have them onside but sure if Germany or France or Hungary or the faroe islands have a problem they can end their support, as long as the americans are supporting(which appears to be one of the few projects with bi-partisan support) and the Ukrainians still have the heart and man power to continue fighting, they will not stop. This is nothing to america, they spend the guts of a trillion a year on defense, this is value for money from their perspective.

Do they really need to go there if they can bring it under sustained accurate artillery fire ,without getting shot up themselves, I don't know the ground though .. Belgerod was originally a defensive fortress that controlled the land around it from tartar attacks ( hundreds of years ago ) ,so it may be a very defensible position ,

I think he means "a few people here might find it interesting"

But aren't these conditions purely hypothetical? We have no idea where america would draw red line regarding support. I certainly would support it, you cant hamstring your ally in this way and let them take constant bombardment from russian positions that they can only threathen with counter artillery/rockets. Its a completely unfair condition, the russians have no such constraint.

One of their primary functions was to ensure that the ordinary front line Russian soldiers did not decide to retreat, or even worse, surrender. They had a choice, face the enemy and take your chances, or retreat and face certain death. So it would appear that the Russian Soldiers who had been bearing the brunt of the fighting got a little tired of the Kadyrov's bullying.