Moscow says it will keep pushing its offensive in Ukraine, though NATO doubts Russia has the resources to make a significant breakthrough.

NATO’s top military officer has said Russia’s armed forces are incapable of any major advance.

“The Russians don’t have the numbers necessary to do a strategic breakthrough,” NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe Christopher Cavoli told reporters on Thursday.

“More to the point, they don’t have the skill and the capability to do it; to operate at the scale necessary to exploit any breakthrough to strategic advantage,” the general said.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        It depends on how retaliation goes. If the side that’s attacked uses conventional weaponry, we’re all fine.

        So basically if Russia starts using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, NATO could respond with a conventional invasion of Russia and be done before noon. There’s scenarios where the rest of the world is fine if Russia uses nukes. But there’s no scenario where Russia is fine if they use nukes.

        The only leverage Russia has to prevent all of NATO from joining in militarily is nukes. Using a nuke removes that leverage.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Exactly. Russia is not going to nuke anyone because they are not an ideological state like the USSR. They are a kleptocracy. Generals will not allow their grift to be interrupted, and it makes no money if you nuke something.

        • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          Sure but if Russia is willing to open the nuclear Pandora’s box because they can’t make progress in their war in Ukraine, what do you think they will do if they are about to lose a war to NATO in an afternoon? I don’t see use of nukes here ending a different way even in the case where NATO initially responds with conventional arms only. Who knows though, I’m pretty damn far from an expert here but hopefully we never have to find out.