Hacker News Reader

Comment by drt5b7j | Hacker News Reader

It's cartoonist how incompetent the Russian military is. If you'd told me 2 years ago never would I have believed.

And yet, a significant chunk of Ukraine is under their control. So, send more billions maybe? :^)

That portion of land wasn’t won for free they lost a lot of troops, vehicles and aircraft and even a handful of boats to do that.

They are also losing it slowly piece by piece.

>That portion of land wasn’t won for free

Sure, but it's war, right? Why would someone assume it was going to be easy/free?

That is precisely the assumption Putin made when he launched his invasion of Ukraine.

He was wrong.

I don't really think he assumed that, only somebody without gray matter would think that war comes without cost.

>He was wrong.

And yet, he got 18% of Ukraine's land. Doesn't sound like a loss ...

> I don't really think he assumed that

Sure. And is that why they expected a quick victory, only to find their convoy going nowhere and no victory in sight:

And is that why Russian soldiers turned up with parade uniforms they never got to wear: https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-said-found-russian-p...

And is that why Russia turned to recruiting prisoners to use as cannon fodder: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/ukraine-russ...

And is that why Russian soldiers are still having a nice time a year and a half in, stuck in a pointless war of choice which has achieved nothing good for anyone: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-...

> Doesn't sound like a loss

You don't seem to be across any of this.

Exactly, if you'd told me 2 years ago that after 2 years the best they did is "a significant chunk of Ukraine" I wouldve thought you're crazy.