If Russia had the troops and was competent there would only be an insurgency no more conventional fightinf
If USA had brains and was competent, Osama Bin Laden wouldn't be the world's hide and seek champion. (2001-2011)
And Iraq wouldn't have been invaded.
Neither would Syria.
Nor Libya.
However, I understand that it's part of your job to shill for the US Military. But please, at least do it intelligently. Not all of us are kool-aid drinkers or RINOs here.
If this was an American operation with 100-200k troops, and military operations started on the 24th, how much progress would the US army have made by this point?
So basically, the forces used against Iraq in 2003? I am also assuming that Ukraine is pro-Russia ITTL.
Kiev, Kharhiv and other major cities would be bombed flat, first of all.
US warships would be colliding with each other in the Black Sea. A US sub would have scraped an underwater mountain.
Whole country would be looted and messed up.
UPA style insurgency would rise up against the Americans.
By today, US forces would be fighting it out with Ukrainian forces being supplied by the Russians. Situation would be much worse due to heavier resistance.
20 years later, a US backed puppet government will be overthrown even before the last US troops leave the country, in a hasty and panicked retreat ordered by a retarded Commiecrat of a President.
No, not really. You do realize it took the US longer to capture Baghdad, much less conquer all of Iraq, than Russia has yet spent in Ukraine?
The same US that had massive superiority to the Russian military in every category, was attacking a nation that had been sanctioned to hell and gone for more than a decade, and that wasn't facing an enemy that was receiving top of the line military equipment from third parties for the entire time.
The Russian are actually doing quite well, all things considered.
But it's the DPR and LPR forces that really impressed me.
Those guys (and gals?) are hardcore, many of them experienced vets from the 2014 conflict.
The only way the war in Ukraine would have been over in a few days was if the Ukrainians just decided not to fight.
As for the broader question of competency, the Russian forces in Ukraine are overwhelmingly the least well trained, least well equipped, most disposable, part of the Russian military. Virtually all of the Russian first line military equipment and truly professional military units have been steadfastly kept out of Ukraine. Oh, and lets not forget that those Russian forces in Ukraine are still operating without substantial air or artillery support.
And despite all of that, Russia is still winning at the moment.
Where is Russia's good stuff though . . .
Stuff like the T-14, more advanced T-90s, Arena APS, MiG 31Ks, etc.
That's the question.
You also need to account for the tiny issue of information sourcing and propaganda. Virtually everything calling Russian competency into question is provided courtesy of the Ukrainian government, who have a vested interest in making Russia look worse and themselves look better. A government that has provable and flagrantly lied about both their own and Russian actions in Ukraine since this was started.
The actual facts on the ground of the war are something that are not public information, regardless of what everyone in the media seems to think.
The propaganda makes anything but the broadest of generalities kinda pointless as anything more specific is inevitably based on information sources that are 1) unreliable and 2) impossible to determine the veracity of.
Ukrop-fascists who have been murdering civilians in the Donbass since 2014.
May the Ukrop-fascists get their rightful due of lead. Or just TOS a few at them. RPO-A "Shmel" rockets are also handy.