boognish_bear said:
""Countries go to war to secure a better peace....."
-Captain Sir Basil Liddell-Hart
By invading Ukraine, Russia has seen the following:
-Renewed European commitment to Nato
-Nato mobilization of industry
-Sweden joins Nato
-Finland joins Nato
-First Nato permanent deployment of combat units to former WP Nato members (Germany to Lithuania)
-loss of European energy markets (destruction of Nordstream + embargoes)
-increased reliance on inherent hostile adversaries - China, Iran (for markets and military support)
-increased Chinese and Iranian influence in Central Asia and Caucasus
-diminished power in the Black Sea (loss of basing, loss of capitol ships, etc.....)
-diminished value of energy exports (discounted to avoid sanctions, to facilitate barter, etc....)
-diminished value of military exports (demonstrated poor performance on the battlefield)
-diminished value of CIS (which Russia is unable to support economically or militarily)
-numerous economic dislocations related to mobilization of industry (inflation running in the teens)
-500k casualties while facing ongoing demographic decline
To that list we must add the likelihood that Russia will, by the end of the war, exhaust over a century of stockpiled military ordnance and hardware, leaving it to fight future wars with only what it can manufacture in real-time.....with an economy smaller than Texas....smaller than New York City.
and now, they face the prospect of the return of long-range nuclear capable missiles to Europe.
The only scenario where Russia could credibly assess it has secured a better peace is one where they totally defeat and subsume Ukraine back into the Russian state. That is not a likely outcome.