Russia had large reserves of money at the start of the war which allowed them to ride out the initial sanctions. They also massively pivoted their econony to produce military equipment because of the amount of equipment they were losing. Neither of those are sustainable for long and the only cards they have left are (greatly discounted) oil sales to China and India, and conscription (which would be incredibly unpopular) which is why they have been using North Korean soldiers.

All of this is like a hole in Russia's fuel tank, which would be ok if they could finish the war quickly, but their advance has been so slow that the frontlines are mere kilometers from where they were two years ago and if this doesn't change they will run out of steam and be unable to continue.

[–] realitista@lemmus.org 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

That and Ukraine is literally blowing up their fuel tanks and fuel lines at an unprecedented rate, greatly reducing the revenue of the country.

[–] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The people of Ukraine are a bunch of fucking heroes. Putin picked the wrong fight.

[–] realitista@lemmus.org 15 points 1 week ago

They are saving democracy and the rule of law in all of Europe. If anyone should be in the EU and NATO it should be them. I hope to see if in my lifetime.

[–] DeceasedPassenger@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

That does make a lot of sense, I guess I 'knew' those things but didn't quite put it together. Yeah I can't imagine conscription would cause anything except some sort of internal uprising, seen plenty of stories about existing recruits clearly having zero desire to be there/realizing they're the aggressor and not defending their homeland. Hoping their zero-steam day comes sooner rather than later. Thank you for the summary.

[–] DSN9@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

It won't surprise me when the Russian line collapses or Putin is suddenly dead. When, not if.