As we, understandably, talk every day about what is happening in Iran, let’s not forget that there is a hot war going on right now between Russia – those nice folks who started the war – and Ukraine.
So how is it going?
In answer, let me show you selected excerpts from Peter Caddick-Adams’ lengthy, informative article at London’s Telegraph. (It’s title, “Ukraine has neutered Putin’s manpower advantage. Victory is in their grasp”, should give you an idea of where Mr. Caddick-Adams is going):
If we are honest, most in the West expected Ukraine to fall within weeks of the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022. But thick, gloopy mud stalled many of the Kremlin’s early land advances, while their heliborne assaults on airbases around Kyiv were met with determined resistance. Slowly, Ukraine mobilised its resources and fought Vladimir Putin’s warriors to a standstill, but were never strong enough to expel the men from Moscow.
With a population of 40 million against Russia’s 141 million, Moscow’s sheer numbers were bound to crush Kyiv, unless Zaluzhnyi could find another way to fight. According to current estimates from Nato and the UK’s Ministry of Defence, 350,000 Russians have been killed and a further one million injured in the Ukraine war since February 2022. Ukrainian military casualties appear to be half these totals. But they are still numbers they can ill afford. A further 50,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed.
A different strategy, less reliant on the blood of the people of Ukraine was needed, and in 2024 Zelensky sent General Zaluzhnyi to London as ambassador and promoted his deputy, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to supreme command. The new boss immediately ordered his personnel to withdraw to more favourable defensive positions, while he sought ways of taking the fight into Russia.
Today, Ukraine’s sizeable domestic drone manufacturing sector daily devises new combat applications and concepts, which the USF tests, while training operators for combat. So far, they have deployed more than 170 different unmanned systems in battle.
Did you read that first sentence? The one that saYS “If we are honest, most in the West expected Ukraine to fall within weeks of the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022″? I hope so, because it encapsulates the reality of this war.
What Putin expected to be a little blip on the military radar – the taking down of Ukraine – has become a multi-year military disaster that has taken an estimated 350,000 Russian soldiers, drained the country’s resources, demonstrated its military weaknesses to the world…and still has not accomplished anything near its objectives.
Want to compare that with our few months in Iran, during which we eliminated its air force, its navy, most of its missile capabilities, severely damaged its ability to create nuclear weaponry…at a cost, so far, of 13 soldiers?
As we assess our actions in Iran, and criticize what we see as its flaws, it would be well to remember that military actions – even extremely successful ones – virtually always will show flaws that armchair quarterbacks can find and discuss after the fact…
…which is a reality that Russia’s disastrous adventure in Ukraine should remind us of every day.
