“Russia faces two serious military dilemmas. One is its own inability to advance. In some technical sense, momentum is on Russia’s side, as it takes square miles of Ukrainian territory, but this momentum is going nowhere. For months, Russia has tried and failed to take the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk”.
Going nowhere??? While this article conveniently ignores the other, more rapid, advances across the rest of the front they also proclaim Pokrovsk a failure because Russia hasn’t derived material benefits from it (???). Has that ever been the immediate goal? I severely doubt Russia relentlessly bombards towns and cities before advancing with the expectation that they will achieve a material gain out of it.
Russia very obviously has been forming cauldrons by exploiting weaknesses in Ukraine’s lines, caused by their drastic manpower shortages. They proceed to encircle them then bombard them to inflict heavy losses. Ukraine also has recently done them favors with their disastrous incursions after Kursk that have been stopped almost immediately at the border and driven back. Although their advance isn’t as explosive and dramatic as 2022, the war has been far removed from that phase and Russia consolidates their gains far more securely with this approach.
Overall, this article is just blatantly detached from reality. But it tells people what they would like to believe to be true, as was the intended goal.
Ahhhhh we are reaching the point, for me as a Croat, history repeats.
The aggressive, much more powerful neighbor attacks the weaker neighbour(Croatian army at the start consisted of less than 200 men), they waste their energy and power on stupid offensives and infighting just for the weaker army to become stronger(by the end of the war the Croatian army was 200k)… And all of it ends with the weaker nations brutal, fast and surgical strike that ends the war in a few days.(God I hope Ukraine ends it in a 3 day operation too, it would be divine irony)
I CANT WAIT!!!
Russia has been losing since the late spring and early summer of 2022. You can look at the high water mark of their February and March advance, and compare it to now. Russia is fighting hard to reclaim ground they previously held. There losses in doing so are unsustainable in the medium to long term.
Both sides have manpower problems, but only Russia is using forces from another country (North Korea) to mitigate their losses. Now we learn that Russia is actively trying to recruit Africans to serve in their army.
This was a good read and I’d recommend not getting too hung up on the headline.
The message is important; they are describing why at the current point, not only is Russia losing, but Putin has no method to dig himself out from the hole he’s put them in.
Yes, Russia has had a horrendous effort since 2022, but they still had potential in winning a war of attrition or forcing Ukraine to major concessions. but now there’s not a chance for Russia or Putin to exit this war with any sort of actual or symbolic/PR victory.
I’d agree with and actually emphasize even more than this article did that the nail in the coffin to this end was how Putin handled Trump. Trump was a useful idiot who came back at the perfect time. Ukraine losing aid and intelligence was a worrying precedence, but Putin squandered that by wanting more than the reality shows, inevitably due to the fact that he cannot end this war with anything besides total victory for Russia at this point.
Before, maybe Putin could have walked away with annexing some regions and then pushing for ceasefires etc but now he is throwing absolutely everything he can and it does nothing. Needed North Korea to save them in Kursk, and still can’t capitalize on the capture of Avdiivka with no major breakthroughs to major objectives almost a year later, meanwhile the economy is dying. Early in the war, they could prop up the economy and inject a lot of spending into the military, but that reserve is drying up fast.
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No paywall: https://archive.ph/2025.05.19-154721/https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/19/russia-has-started-losing-the-war-in-ukraine/
“Russia faces two serious military dilemmas. One is its own inability to advance. In some technical sense, momentum is on Russia’s side, as it takes square miles of Ukrainian territory, but this momentum is going nowhere. For months, Russia has tried and failed to take the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk”.
Going nowhere??? While this article conveniently ignores the other, more rapid, advances across the rest of the front they also proclaim Pokrovsk a failure because Russia hasn’t derived material benefits from it (???). Has that ever been the immediate goal? I severely doubt Russia relentlessly bombards towns and cities before advancing with the expectation that they will achieve a material gain out of it.
Russia very obviously has been forming cauldrons by exploiting weaknesses in Ukraine’s lines, caused by their drastic manpower shortages. They proceed to encircle them then bombard them to inflict heavy losses. Ukraine also has recently done them favors with their disastrous incursions after Kursk that have been stopped almost immediately at the border and driven back. Although their advance isn’t as explosive and dramatic as 2022, the war has been far removed from that phase and Russia consolidates their gains far more securely with this approach.
Overall, this article is just blatantly detached from reality. But it tells people what they would like to believe to be true, as was the intended goal.
Ahhhhh we are reaching the point, for me as a Croat, history repeats.
The aggressive, much more powerful neighbor attacks the weaker neighbour(Croatian army at the start consisted of less than 200 men), they waste their energy and power on stupid offensives and infighting just for the weaker army to become stronger(by the end of the war the Croatian army was 200k)… And all of it ends with the weaker nations brutal, fast and surgical strike that ends the war in a few days.(God I hope Ukraine ends it in a 3 day operation too, it would be divine irony)
I CANT WAIT!!!
Russia has been losing since the late spring and early summer of 2022. You can look at the high water mark of their February and March advance, and compare it to now. Russia is fighting hard to reclaim ground they previously held. There losses in doing so are unsustainable in the medium to long term.
Both sides have manpower problems, but only Russia is using forces from another country (North Korea) to mitigate their losses. Now we learn that Russia is actively trying to recruit Africans to serve in their army.
This was a good read and I’d recommend not getting too hung up on the headline.
The message is important; they are describing why at the current point, not only is Russia losing, but Putin has no method to dig himself out from the hole he’s put them in.
Yes, Russia has had a horrendous effort since 2022, but they still had potential in winning a war of attrition or forcing Ukraine to major concessions. but now there’s not a chance for Russia or Putin to exit this war with any sort of actual or symbolic/PR victory.
I’d agree with and actually emphasize even more than this article did that the nail in the coffin to this end was how Putin handled Trump. Trump was a useful idiot who came back at the perfect time. Ukraine losing aid and intelligence was a worrying precedence, but Putin squandered that by wanting more than the reality shows, inevitably due to the fact that he cannot end this war with anything besides total victory for Russia at this point.
Before, maybe Putin could have walked away with annexing some regions and then pushing for ceasefires etc but now he is throwing absolutely everything he can and it does nothing. Needed North Korea to save them in Kursk, and still can’t capitalize on the capture of Avdiivka with no major breakthroughs to major objectives almost a year later, meanwhile the economy is dying. Early in the war, they could prop up the economy and inject a lot of spending into the military, but that reserve is drying up fast.
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