Ukraine is becoming a dangerous proxy war between Russia and the west

This outcome is a disaster for Putin. Russia has the current edge in numbers and mass, but Ukraine has superior morale and soon equipment. As the flow-in of Western weapons picks up, the scales will equalize and then turn against Russia.

Russia also does not have the economic capacity, specifically the defense industrial base, to compete against (almost) the entire West’s defense industrial capacity. Russian GDP is less than two trillion dollars. American and EU GDPs exceed forty trillion. Both produce equipment as good as or better than Russian equipment.

Worse, Russia’s economy will suffer a sharp contraction due to the sanctions against it because of the war. Estimates are floating around of a five to ten percent contraction just this year. That, plus the expense of what has metastasized into a major war for which the Russian population was not prepared, will push Russia into recession, if not depression soon.