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It’s a Year…
So today, I would like to reflect on this year of the war. We know the big picture. The Russian Federation has been defeated at the strategic level. They have lost just north of 150k troops, according to Ukraine. Both sides are confident about keeping their losses secret. This is common in war.
Russia has lost a lot of its main-line tanks. We have seen T62 tanks in the field. We may still see T55. Rumor has it that the parade fleet of T34 is getting used to training tank drivers. I will not be surprised if the controls are similar.
We may see T34/85 hit the field at some point. Can the farmers take a few for museums?
This is the most important point: Kyiv is still free. This is something other than what the Novorosya crowd likes or can easily accept. That three-day special military operation is very much a failure. Ukraine has made it clear. Get out to the 1991 borders. This year we expect more Ukrainian offensives. The current Russian one has stalled.
So today must be a day of reflection for all of us. I remember what we did right before the war started. We went out for dinner at a local Thai place. It felt odd because I knew we were hours from war, and I was nowhere close to the front lines.
Life has not changed that much for us, well beyond catching up with Russian history. For people in Ukraine (and Russia), life…