> They are doing so well in part because of the propaganda Propaganda doesn't kill tanks, planes, helicopters, and soldiers. Weapons do these things. > The av

> They are doing so well in part because of the propaganda Propaganda doesn't kill tanks, planes, helicopters, and soldiers. Weapons do these things. > The average Westerner and Ukrainian has an unrealistic idea of their prospect of victory, and an inflated sense of Russia's desires to commit cruel atrocities for the sake of it. Putin has been arresting generals and intelligence personnel who had an unrealistic idea of their prospect for victory. Russian citizens have such an unrealistic idea of how the war is going that they can't even state how many have died or that there is even a war at all. > There's a small chance this unrealistic expectation of victory becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I doubt it. It isn't unrealistic. Russia doesn't have a much larger economy than Ukraine and though it has a much larger military its spending was dedicated to fighting a very different type of war than the type it is waging against Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been preparing for this attack and has the support of larger economies than Russia. > That is, they are dying for Poland, the Baltic states, and American hegemony, and perhaps for a romantic idea of going down fighting, but not for the best outcome for their people. Your comment calls this conflict a war. That is illegal in Russia. What you said, under Russian rule, isn't allowed. You are a criminal according to Russia. You deserve, according to Russia, time in jail and/or fines. You yourself have shown through your own use of liberty to be an enemy of Russia. You use a freedom without thought to its value. You walk free, rather than in jail. Yet you imply that Ukraine fights for nothing. That there is no value to itself in preserving the freedom that you yourself enjoy. In my eyes this is cowardly hypocrisy: shouldn't you despise your own freedom before you criticize others for fighting for those freedoms?