You are being pedantic. You know exactly what was meant. You stated it as though it was a forgone conclusion, and that no other outcome is possible, whereas, for the reasons I have given, that's untrue.

It's a very big difference, but it's exactly what Putin wants you to think and seems to be the fundamental reason for your muddled thinking on all of this. Once again we are witnessing the way Russian botnets target the impressionable right, primarily in the USA, which then gets fed into the minds of people who watch their basement video pontifications.

I saw many very reluctantly saying goodbye to their wives and family, but nevertheless accepting that they had to play their part. The whole country has shown resolve, which is something Putin did not expect.

As Putin's aims remain a mystery, who knows when they will be satisfied. If ever. Degrading his forces to the point where he looks for a way out which can be sold as a victory in Russia seems the least worse option to me.

When Putin decides to stop, it will be Ukraine who decides whether the terms are acceptable. Nato will not be involved. Pressure might be applied by some countries, but not by Nato. Escalation will certainly be avoided at any reasonable cost. It won't be sought.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Dnipro seems to be key.

Russian forces are making slow progress in encircling a large part of Donbas, this in turn will cut off supply routes to the majority of Ukraine's professional & battle hardened army.

Since Russian forces decided to move the offensive entirely into the south east, they have made their lives much easier in defending their ground units (particularly tanks) Logistics whilst still poor are infinitely better than what they were & I saw a while back the Russians had built fuel lines that run into Russian occupied Donbas.
There has been a monumental shift in tactics too.

you can see the slow encirclement for yourself here
[Link]

If/once they have secured this, momentum will shift towards Dnipro & finally onto Odesa.
It remains to be seen if they can achieve this & I actually believe the war will be won or lost in this region in the coming months, if the Russians break Ukrainian resistance Russia will expand out rapidly claiming the majority of their goals.

Providing the West continues to equip & train Ukrainian soldiers time is on Ukrainian side & for them to win they simply need to hold the Russians where they are, Russia will simply run out of decent equipment before the Ukrainians will.

Moldova/Transnistria

It comes as absolutely no surprise to me Russia wants to take a chunk of Moldova for itself, I posted over a month ago that Lukashenko had announced plans for Ukraine to be broken into 4 puppet states & for Russia to invade Moldova.
Clearly the bloke was telling the truth.

The unrest were now seeing in Moldova is at the command of Russia to spread to war to different areas making it harder for the west to manage.

For example see this

[Tweet Link]

Always fire your rpg's at government buidings in broad daylight whilst under surveillance and remember to always leave your evidence behind, absolute f***ing noobs but this seems to be Russian operatives in a nutshell during this war.

This leads me onto something quite funny & sadly mostly missed due to the twitter news.

The mountains are calling & I must go.

I heard his grandfather served in the 99 luftballoons division

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

This operation, will make the 'Charge Of The Light Brigade' seem like a simple military exercise.

haha They're not sending their best

The mountains are calling & I must go.

I'm just glad there are limits to what they are capable of, and that the West will continue to deplete their resources and slow the invasion. This will give them second thoughts going forward. Those who essentially blame the West for this and think we should by proxy lay down our arms and let Russia get on with is are shamefully indoctrinated against the West and willing to turn a blind eye to this abhorrent crusade while attacking those on the receiving end of bombings and significant civilian death.