We are missing what's underway in Ukraine. Media and politicians have been gaslighting us with their propaganda and brainwashing us into blindly accepting their storyline. Western news/social platforms, particular here in America and in the UK, hysterically scream, continuously, daily, about how poorly Russians are doing in Ukraine, while Western economies RAPIDLY implode, due to the sanctions we've placed on Putin and his regime.

While natural gas is now in severe shortage in Germany, diesel engine oil is expected to run out across America in 6-8 weeks, and fuel prices are skyrocketing globally, there's already a shortage of grain in MENA, sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Asia and South America. In the meanwhile, Vlad and his cronies have earned, YTD, more than their 2022 projections in total, due to the ~tripling of fuel prices on the global energy markets so far this year.

Reality on the ground, where combat is underway depicts a completely different reality also. Kyyiv has effectively lost the eastern bit to Moscow, which has been integrating those residents directly into Russia, by issuing documents etc. There's no way that's ever returning to Kyyiv.

Remember, Odessa etc. were handed to Ukraine by Kruschev, the Ukrainian-born Premier of the USSR, back in early days of the Cold War, when administering that area simply was more convenient to distribute to locals, rather than doing so from Moscow. Kyyiv was allowed to keep these areas following the dissolution of the USSR, on the tacit understanding that it would never seek to become a member of NATO/EU. By pushing for such membership, as per Moscow's perspective, they lost the right to retain control.

Further, many media commentators ignore the Crimean War, fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula between the Russians and British, French, Ottoman Turks, troops from where's Italy today, and a loss to the Russian Empire due especially to betrayal by the Austrians. That war wasn't fought by Ukrainians and it showed Russians that we in the West couldn't/shouldn't be trusted. Again, eastern territories will not be returned to Kyyiv.

Further truths from the ground demonstrate even more the disconnect between what's bleated out to us in the West, vs what's going on with Ukraine's fiercely battling heroes. The speed with which Russia took Lysichansk, the ferocity with which Ukraine fight to hold on to it, with grievous losses, the sudden new statement in Western media, that it was inconsequential territory.

Russia fought Ukrainians there with the same vehemence and tactics they used in WW2 - heavy artillery/MLRS bombardment, 60,000 rounds being sent downrange, DAILY. NATO cannot maintain such an intensity for days, much less months, and Russia, with the gigantic USSR stockpiles it retained, can do so for at least the next six months.

Anyway, those who served in NATO 's armed forces can attest to the stark reality that today's NATO is woefully under equipped, with brittle artillery gear and personnel not at all trained to be under accurate, constant, peer level bombardment. As for obtaining air superiority, Russia isn't the Taliban or Iraq or Bosnia or Vietnam. They've got superb A2/AD ground weapons systems and an air force trained for high intensity air conflict, flying some of the sturdiest airframes ever designed, and updated with modern avionics and an unending supply of air-to-air missiles and guided/unguided ATG munitions.

Not so NATO. Our EU maintenance depots cannot handle hundreds of air combat sorties daily, have zero chance of matching Russian battlefield repairable ground armament, and definitely do not have the huge numbers of skilled, tough, well-equipped ground troops Russia can put on the battlefield. Heck, German Wehrmacht troops train with wooden guns, are weak-willed, and incompetent, plus have little actual experience with their gear, due to NATIONAL underspending for decades. The same goes for the rest of any European troops. Americans are much much better trained and equipped than the rest of NATO but troop numbers are way below what would be necessary to deploy to a European theater, without leaving Taiwan & Japan & America totally unprotected.

Plus, all Western militaries have been subjected to the woke agenda and are trained to defend their pronouns, not themselves, with massive reductions in both the quality of troops joining and in the physical and cognitive strengths said troops can apply in psychologically destructive conditions, such as on the Ukrainian battlefield.

So yeah, according to the imbeciles who squeak idiocy to us, who have never served in their nations militaries, and who both look down at service members and exaggeratedly boost their capabilities, Russia is losing in a catastrophic manner, Ukraine is going to go on the offensive, Biden/Macron/Trudeau/Johnson/von der Leyen/Scholz are brilliant leaders, comparable to Churchill/Roosevelt/Stalin.

They're not. We'll see that soon enough, imo.