Again, going back to 6 months ago, I told you that what the Ukrainian is doing is to divert the war into another direction, that's what Russia did, and that's why today, 6+ months later, they still can't capture Pokrovsk. That is a strategic mistake Russian made, now with 6 months gap, even if they now captured Pokrovsk, they would already have plenty of time to reinforce the rear and move the base out, it mean the city itself mean nothing to the Russian if they cannot capture it in a timely manner.
There are no Russian gain along the big battle line, not in a way that it can dictate the war in any sense strategically
This was 6 months ago
View attachment 102270
This iis what the map looks like now
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The line is virtually unchanged. And they still need to deal with Kursk like they were back in August last year. You are looking at decades for Russia to just conquer the entire Donbass. The war won't be settle in term of 15 or 20km gain per months, you are looking at 10,000 + square kilometers to be had just in Donbas alone.
And Russian economy is not at all good. 21.5% interest rate with 9.5% inflation, that's more than you borrow from your credit card, and 0.5% more inflation and they are into what economist coined as "Death Spiral" which NO COUNTRIES in the course of history recovered from a double-digit interest rate with double digit inflation. Can Russia maintain this war in the next 15 years in order for them to capture the entire Donbas? And then what? There are going to be numerous reconstruction project that Russia is not going to be able to finance, which mean either they would need to turn those profit to the Chinese or Trump (If they can do it in the next 4 years, which I doubt) or they are going to slum it out, then what exactly that Russian soldier is dying for?
setting aside NATO in fact expanded, not rolled back on 1997 line and Kyiv was neither denazified nor demilitarized, just tell me what did Russian gain strategic to have "Win" this war?