>>511401123
>of course it wasnt a victory
>now you have to die en masse again to gain the same piece of irrelevant land
>but it sure was nice to pretend that you like advancing in opposite direction(orderly of course)
Land? You think this is about land? Imagining Russia is thirsty for land is like imagining Saudi Arabia is thirsty for sand. This isn't about land, anon. This is about the ability of Ukraine to ever pose a threat to Russia. As Russia's peace offerings have been spurned, every step the terms have grown harsher and harsher. The cities and towns are merely places where revenue and military potential can coalesce, be built up improved. To that end, Russia will both withdraw from and take land to preserve its own military potential and deny Ukraine the same. Ukraine, like a country led by a PR-obsessed novice and funded by distant warmongers that it is, doesn't withdraw to preserve its own military potential and every day its ability to deny Russia military potential drops.
this is why there are so many bold salients into Ukrainian territory. Gerasimov taunts Syrski. "Here, Sasha, here's my 3km x 7km salient into your territory. You'd like to cut it off, right? Go ahead, see if you can scrounge up more conscripts to take on my battle-hardened spearhead that's buried in you. Go on. Do it if you can"
And he can't. It's as intimate a dance as the knife fight to the death we all saw.