A look below at how the rushed exit out of Syria by Putin’s Russian military reflects on his efforts in the Ukraine which have ramped up …
The Russian effort has cost Russia in lives lost and causalities ….
The Ukraine IS tired….
But isn’t giving up….
Biden and Europe ARE still sending money and equipment ,,,,,
Here’s a question….
Trump ‘told’ Putin to end things….
And we ALL thought Trump would push Zelensky to give up…
BUT?
When Trump becomes President?
Could he just ‘walk away’ from the Ukraine?
Maybe?
Maybe NOT?
For Putin?
Hmmmmm?
Try for some ego recovery in Africa?…
The downfall of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has humiliated his main backer, Russia, exposing the limits of the Kremlin’s military power and global influence.
Yet to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the loss of his closest Middle Eastern ally may only be a temporary setback in his quest for a much greater geopolitical prize: triumph in Ukraine.
Military and political analysts said winning the war in Ukraine has become an all-encompassing goal for Mr. Putin. That outcome, they said, would justify to the Russian leader the conflict’s tremendous human and economic losses, safeguard Russia’s statehood and global stature and compensate for strategic failures elsewhere, such as in Syria.
“Putin’s bet on the war in Ukraine is so high that a victory there would bring Russia a payout of historic proportions: It’s all or nothing,” wrote Aleksandr Baunov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, a research group. “If he thinks the fate of the world is being decided in the Donbas, then the future of Syria will be decided there as well.”
In the short term, as Moscow maneuvers to keep its military bases in Syria, Mr. Putin could intensify his costly offensive in Ukraine to recover some prestige. Pro-war Russian commentators have called on Mr. Putin to do just that, while also demanding tougher peace conditions in Ukraine to avoid the kind of inconclusive cease-fire that ultimately led to Mr. al-Assad’s downfall.
Both scenarios would complicate the incoming Trump administration’s promise to swiftly end the fighting in Ukraine.
As Mr. al-Assad’s regime crumbled, President-elect Donald J. Trump taunted Russia for its failure to save its ally and called on Mr. Putin to strike a deal on Ukraine, without explaining what it might look like.
Russia is “in a weakened state right now,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday, “because of Ukraine and a bad economy.”
“I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act,” Mr. Trump added.
Analysts have pointed out that one of the most consistent features of Mr. Putin’s opaque 25-year rule is his aversion to acting from such obvious positions of weakness or submitting to external pressures.
Mr. Putin’s own descriptions of what a Russian victory in Ukraine would look like have always been vague. By last year, the Russian Army had abandoned its failed attempts to mount grand offensives that could topple the Ukrainian state. It has concentrated instead on Ukraine’s east, simultaneously pressuring Kyiv’s forces in multiple parts of the front and bombing Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure…
…
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly said that Mr. Putin’s threats of escalation are a bluff, because the Russian military is already fighting at maximum capacity as its invasion nears its fourth year.
To some Russian analysts, the debate over Mr. Putin’s potential response to Mr. al-Assad’s downfall masks a more consequential lesson of Syria’s 13-year civil war: the difficulty of winning a protracted conflict….
Dec 12, 2024 – ISW Press
Russia has maintained the security of its Syrian bases in the short term but expressed long-term uncertainty about the future of these bases, the loss of which would undermine Russia’s ability to project power into the Mediterranean and support Russian military logistics in Africa.
Daily Kos grunt report for today…
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