eric idebro

In reality, Russia's so-called 'special military operation' effectively ended a long time ago. Yep, it's history now. To be precise, it was over by March 29, 2022, with the ultimate failure of Russia's blitz at Kyiv and the subsequent decision to withdraw from North Ukraine. What followed was a full-scale, all-out war for which Russia never prepared, re-launched in Donbas by mid-April 2022 with the following goals -- to even the score after the humiliating failure of the 'SMO,' to appease Vladimir Putin's badly wounded ego and to prevent him from ever admitting his defeat (and therefore taking a step into the fire) -- at absolutely any price. As time goes by, the price is soaring. So is Putin's dependence on a never-ending, senseless war -- because stopping it where it is now means Putin admitting his humiliating failure to Ukraine, given the gargantuan goals of his gorgeous 'SMO' that was meant to build him a triumphal arc in the Maidan Square. This is what essentially happening to the Russian-Ukrainian war in the last 19 months. From the Russian side, it is one of the most senseless and idiotic bloodbaths in human history for the sake of just one man's ego and for the sake of many others' chance to steal a lot and skyrocket their careers amid the mass killing spree. From the Ukrainian side, it's a horrific catastrophe in which our country loses endless thousands of the very best men and women we have, in which we see entire cities and regions leveled and degrading by centuries back in time -- and in which hundreds of thousands fight and kill in the mud of trenches to save this country from the insanity of today's revanchist Russia.