I mean it’s important to have a realistic discussion is it not?
As said many times, Russia’s only tactic at this point is to hold out until the next US Elections and hope Trump wins. During the 9+ month campaign trail, it will be politically very difficult for Biden to send more large packages, but so long as the ‘alliance’ of other countries keeps up the funding and Biden wins again, then we will all get what we want which is a full Ukrainian victory, but clearly it won’t happen in 2023.
Equally the golden ticket in this thread is F16s, which it may well be, yet Ukraine has only been able to put forward 8 pilots as suitable for training…..a further 20 will likely spend the winter in the Uk learning English before starting training next year, but still…..28 pilots isn’t going to touch the sides, especially with Russia still having air capabilities.
The other common suggestion in this thread is that Russia is out of weapons and men and a complete collapse is only a matter of days now. Yet Lithuanian media, quoting their intelligence services, say 80+ of Putins closest oligarchs have turned their business empires to equipping the Russian army, and almost all are not under any western sanctions……alongside this Ukraine have been shouting about the drones and missiles they’ve been taking apart that are stuffed full of Western tech with 2022/23 serial numbers….
As at the start, we all desperately hope Ukraine are able to finish the job next year and Putin gets Mussolini’d in Red Square, but it shouldn’t be an issue to post the realistic situation alongside what we want to happen.