The West finally allowed Ukraine to strike back at Russia — and it seems to be working | CNN
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Bankir and his men have been trying to fight off Russian attacks along the Ukrainian front lines for more than two years. But it’s only now that they are finally able to strike where it hurts: Inside Russia’s own territory.

Bankir and his men have been trying to fight off Russian attacks along the Ukrainian front lines for more than two years. But it’s only now that they are finally able to strike where it hurts: Inside Russia’s own territory.

The newly granted permission by the United States and other allies to use Western weapons to strike inside Russia has had a huge impact, Bankir said. “We have destroyed targets inside Russia, which allowed for several successful counteroffensives. The Russian military can no longer feel impunity and security,” the senior officer in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) told CNN. For security reasons, he asked to be identified by his call sign only.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    Actually their invasion made a lot of sense in light of the reaction of the West to their invasion and anexation of Crimea - they did the deed, then Europe and American bitched and moaned for a bit and after a few years things were back to normal and Russia was selling their natural gas and oil to them in greater quantities than ever before (remember how well things were with Nord Stream after Russia invaded and anexed Crimea that they were building a second one and how dependent Germany had made itself of Russia gas).

    To me it seems that the whole plan was for a quick decapitation attack on Ukraine (using their armored convoy targetting Kijv from Belarus), then endure a year or two of bitching and moaning by the West, then back to normal just like last time.

    The very different results were product of 3 big surprises:

    • The Russian Army turned out to be much worse than everybody thought, including it seems the Russian leadership.
    • The Ukrainians stopped the armoured convoy at Irpin. This was in part due to #1, due to the merit of the Ukranians themselves and also due to how effective the modern handheld anti-tank weapons provided to Ukraine by the West turned out to be against an armored fast advancing into enemy territory as a very long column.
    • The West reacted far more strongly and assertivelly than last time around. This was because due to #1 and #2 the beheading attack failed and Ukraine became seen as capable of holding off Russia.

    Before those 3 things were actually known, it absolutelly made sense for the Russian leadership to think that a military invasion of Ukraine to take it over had a high likelihood of success.