Ukraine is over 230,000 square miles, almost as large as Texas. Good luck holding that Putin.

[fightforfreedom]

Even if Putin takes over Ukraine, he will not be able to hold it long term. He could protect, control some parts of it. He would need a massive military force to control a country the size of Texas. A country where the people hate his guts.

He will have to protect hundreds and hundreds of miles of supply lines. Supply trucks would face constant attacks. Supply aircraft would face stinger missile attacks. Putin is facing a nightmare that has just begun.

[relayerbob]

1. Along with 50% more people, in a country forested and riddled with rivers

Control of Ukraine will be utterly impossible

[fightforfreedom]

7. Exactly.

A country where the people are armed and will continued to be armed with Javelin and stinger missiles.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Putin invested in an ocean navy, not a regional navy, and not a land army. . . . nt

[Irish_Dem]

3. Hitler held a huge territory, but it took horrendously brutal tactics.

Entire town populations were machine gunned down and buried in trenches.

In some areas, civilian leaders were hung from lampposts. The educated and middle class citizens were killed and the poor sent to labor camps.

I could go on and on but you get the drift. Basically terrorized or killed all opposition.

[fightforfreedom]

5. After all that, Hitler lost all that territory.

Lets hope Putin does not go scorched earth like Hitler did.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Even Hitler's troops were traumatized by the mass murder of women and children.

That is why Hitler had to start taking people to the camps and kill them there. His ground troops could not stand the senseless killing and were being emotionally affected.

In the past, despite being a ruthless sociopath, Putin has alway known just how far he could go to maintain his power. So he should know that he cannot start the wholesale slaughtering women and children at this point.

That said if indeed he is dying and/or on massive does of steroids, he may have lost his rationality. And a cornered sociopath can be quite dangerous.

Putin should be considered armed and dangerous.

That said, I am assuming Biden has better intel that we do!
He should know by now Putin's mental status and risk assessment.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Putin's whole plan was to depose or assassinate Zelenskyy (Wagner squads), replace w puppets

Russian media accidentaly released onto web site an editorial congratulating Putin on installing a replacement regime and "ending anti-Russia history".

It was dated for the second day of the invasion.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216416188

Link to tweet

[BeyondGeography]

6. In addition to which, how would he pay for it?

Ukraine’s resistance is already blowing a hole in Vlad’s game plan. This combined with almost unqualified world support and the weight of the sanctions make the whole enterprise DOA.

[uponit7771]

9. Sadly China isn't shutting its doors to rubles or buying Russian treasuries

[BeyondGeography]

11. Whatever money they get from China is for propping up the ruble

and keeping his own citizens from panicking.

Russian individuals and companies have deposited $268 billion in foreign denominations in Russian banks.

Yet the central bank has just about $12 billion of cash in hand — an astonishingly small amount, he said. As for the rest of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, roughly $400 billion is invested in assets held outside the country. Another $84 billion is invested in Chinese bonds and $139 billion is in gold.

The central bank could trade in some of those bonds for renminbi, which would enable it to buy goods from China, but not from other countries. It could also sell gold, although Mr. Bernstam argues that there will be few buyers for the massive tons that Russia has on hand.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/business/russia-sanctions-central-bank-ruble.html

[uponit7771]

13. Paywall, did he say anything about China buying Russian treasuries? tia

[BeyondGeography]

14. No, probably because it isn't happening to any great effect

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-so-far-not-helping-russia-evade-western-sanctions-us-official-2022-02-27/

Does China want to be seen as subsidizing Putin’s misadventure?

[uponit7771]

15. I don't think Xi cares, he wants Taiwan. After Putler I'm not giving any of these fuckers the benefi

... benefit of the doubt.

including the Russia humpers here in the US

[uponit7771]

8. K&R, "winning" for Ukrainians should be holding strategic points and let Putler slog in the whole

... nation wasting time and money while his troops work for free

[OnlinePoker]

12. There's one thing I haven't heard mentioned anywhere

Most food production in Ukraine is in the east and south, exactly where the fighting is happening. It is getting close to planting season. If the war drags out and the planting is delayed or doesn't happen at all, there could be a global food security crisis coming. Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat (24 million tonnes last year) and corn (39.6 million tonnes last year) about 12% and 16% of the world supply. Prices of both have already started spiking since the war started.

[crickets]

17. Ouch. That's going to be a problem. nt

[BamaRefugee]

16. Pretty sure Russia controlled Ukraine for at least 2 centuries?

And most of that was in a time of just having horses, swords, and rifles to do so.

No satellites, no computers, no missiles, no tanks, no fighter planes, no bombers, just brute force basically.

Putin already controls an area the size of Texas with no problem at all.

It’s a place called Texas.