A top US general told Congress last week that Russia’s military is 15% bigger today than it was before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, an acknowledgment that the goal of “weakening” Russia has failed.
“The army is actually now larger — by 15% — than it was when it invaded Ukraine,” Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the head of US European Command, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
Cavoli said that over the past year, Russia had increased its “front-line troop strength from 360,000 to 470,000,” which he said was due to Russia raising the maximum age of conscription from 27 to 30.
“In sum, Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent,” he said. “Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia will be larger, more lethal, and angrier with the West than when it invaded.”
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell recently made similar comments, saying the US had “assessed over the course of the last couple of months that Russia has almost completely reconstituted militarily.”
Back in April 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declared one goal of the proxy war was to “weaken” Russia. More recently, hawks in Congress have been claiming that the damage being done to the Russian military is a good enough reason to continue fueling the conflict.
Besides bolstering its military, Russia has also increased its industrial capabilities and is producing nearly three times as many artillery shells than the US and Europe combined, demonstrating that time is on Moscow’s side in the conflict.
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the head of US European Command,has a new name: Captain Obvious!
The Black Sea Fleet is bigger and stronger than ever too.
Lol
Today is the 2 year anniversary of the sinking of the Moskva. I say add more submarines to the Black Sea fleet!
Slava Ukraini!
Good to know.
Big middle finger to the Kremlin and its Putin Lovers.
Glory to the Heroes!
With raised hand, clicking of heels, a “Heil Hitler (or Bandera)” is your orgasmic moment.
Another Nazi supporter calling Ukrainians and Ukraine supporters Nazis.
Dipshit.
Who the F is invading, annexing, occupying and committing genocide? Your Russian dictator little Hitler wannabe is.
Now throw out your notorious BS. 14,000 killed in Donetsk.
Go, repeat that kremlin Nazi propaganda line.
You are either dumb or a poorly managed troll.
So you’re still using that phrase, even though you know it originated under the Nazi-allied Banderites?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slava_Ukraini
Eat a bag of d**ks, s**tbag.
And you are still calling Ukrainians Nazis when the real Nazis are the ones committing genocide, invading, annexing, and occupying their land just like Hitler did.
You are the fcking Nazi supporter here.
Douche.
So the guys with swastika tattoos who say that they’re Nazis and who spent eight years attempting to ethnically cleanse the Donbass (with help from their government), they’re not actually Nazis. They people fighting them are the real Nazis. Got it.
Dude, you need to go back to Remedial Troll School, because you really suck at this.
Rough figuring RF military budget in 2021 approx . $85 billion, now plus 15% = $100 billion.
About 1/10th of the Pentagon Military Budget
About 1/8th of the EU+England Military Budget
America or any of it`s NATO LACKEYS will take on Russia toe to toe the night mare of Vietnam still strikes fear into the Pentagon .
One year RF budget equaled the INCREASE in the U.S. military budget. The Pentagon admitted that Russia was spending its military budget money smarter than we did.
You pock a bear be prepared for the consequences .
The bear has been pocked [sic]. That caused them to invade Ukraine. They’ve performed poorly. (Stumbling into territorial gains while Putin’s allies in the GOP block munitions isn’t what they planned I’m sure.)
If congress votes this week (the vote is supposed to pass easily) we’ll see if the Russians are a juggernaut or if they go right back into f**kery.
Your comment seems to be made without reading this article. Or this one.
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/14/ukraines-top-general-says-situation-on-the-battlefield-has-significantly-worsened/
Or this one.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/ukraine-tightens-rules-on-military-service-angering-soldiers/
That $60 billion isn’t going to change Ukraine’s chances for defeating Russia. Just more death and Ukraine territory being lost or destroyed. But keep repeating “Slava Ukraini”, that will carry them to victory (/s).
C’mon, Wars! The Libertarian institute is loaded with hacks.
As I’ve said to you before: we will see.
There was nothing in that article that wasn’t the truth. It’s what happens when you are at war with a country with 3 times the population. And the other article was another piece loaded with more inconvenient truths. The US’ plan didn’t work, and Ukraine is left to pay the price.
And we are already seeing. You just won’t believe.
You keep saying that but I’m not sure that is really how this ends up. The next batch of American weapons is coming. The Ukes will do what they have to. The Russians will prevail or they won’t. You aren’t any more right than I am right now.
I’m not even talking about right now. You just won’t accept the differences in size. And this isn’t some far off land for Russia, so the motivational factor isn’t going to turn the tide for Ukraine. That has got to be the only thing you are basing your very unreal expectations on. If I thought for a minute that Ukraine was going to prevail, I would encourage them to continue on. That ship sailed. They should have accepted the deal presented to them in 2022. Unfortunately, they won’t come close to being as whole as they were then. And that’s just my take on reality and not me giving “Putin a pass”.
OK. I disagree.
Poke a The bear? Haha.
Please don’t insult that amazing species.
More like we poked a paper tiger.
“In sum, Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent,” he said. “Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia will be larger, more lethal, and angrier with the West than when it invaded.” Can Nuland borrow that “Mission Accomplished” banner from W’s closet?
Emperor Nuland can do whatever she wants. She controls the world.
And you better bow your head when you see her.
Recently, I think I saw her in front of a supermarket selling Girl Scout Cookies………….
Good for her. More reason to support she was never a decision maker.
Im just trying to give you a hint But you idiots wont let that go.
She used to, but as of now she’s unemployed.
Well, tell that to the pro kremlin idiots here that continue bringing her name up as if she was ever a national security advisor to the President.
DRINK!
Maybe that’s the “nice surprises” for Russia she mentioned.
That was an odd statement, considering that before the war Russia already had the largest military in Europe. Maybe because a big chunk of their forces that were stationed along the Chinese border have been moved west?
Edit: Ukraine had the second largest, btw.
“Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent” But don’t forget the Russians are also stupid. …Why am I calling them stupid? …Obvious! …THEY FORGOT TO PRODUCE MORE NUCLEAR MISSILES!
Yes, they are stupid but for many other reasons.
You obviously have never met any Russians.
I spent a good chunk of my life between Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
I think i know those three very well. Never dominated the language but i can get by.
BTW, my favorite city in the world is Moscow. Too bad it’s run by idiots.
Produce more nukes for what exactly? Have they been using the ones they have? (If they even work.)
I hate to be smug, but this is entirely appropriate: “derp”.
Angrier? Why in the world would they be mad at us? /s
Somehow I think his numbers are off. Russia recruited at least half a million men last year and are recruiting 1,500 per day or 45,000 a month currently. These are not “conscripts”, these are Russian men voluntarily entering service. That is in ADDITION to their twice-yearly conscription which raises several hundred thousand men to replace those leaving the services and in ADDITION to the 300,000 they raised in fall, 2022.
They started out in February, 2022 with 1.15 million. So they are currently probably at least 1.5 million which was the stated goal last year. A 15% increase would only be 1.3 million.
Russia is on track to have a two-million man army within the next year or two. I don’t think they’re going to stop until they get there. They need that many to insure its borders with the West – which includes the Ukraine borders with Poland and Romania, as well as building up its new Military Districts north of Belarus.
As for 470,000 in Ukraine, Putin stated at one point that he had 600,000 available, although not all were actively on the front line. As far as I know, they still aren’t, even during this current slow Russian advance. Predictions by some analysts suggest they will fully enter combat possibly in May.
I just looked at a Congressional Research Service PDF on Russian “military performance” and it’s full of crap. If this is the information the CIA and others are providing the US government, they are truly pathetically uninformed.
None of it is still anything that is going to help them”invade Europe.”
Angrier with the West? You betcha. Like a bunch of jackasses who keep trying to raid a hornet’s nest for the “honey,” NATO keeps grinding its way east. But militarily and tactically, Russia has shot its whole wad on Ukraine, and to that degree, supposedly, our leaders have been “effective.”
Too simplistic. The wad is far more extensive, a fact that will become apparent if and when the Russians decide to use nuclear weapons.
Military “experts” of many stripes consider the Russian military machinery and personnel to be the most combat-ready in the world at present – this as a direct result of Biden’s little proxy gambit.
Presumably one POINT of the war on Ukraine was to justify re-expanding the Russian military-industrial complex. That seems to have been the main point of the US wars in Vietnam, etc. (and its fuckery in Ukraine 2014-2022). When you want to transfer your population’s wealth to the war industry, you need a war.
Except that Russia began the expansion AFTER the west began pouring aid into Ukraine, not before. So this was reactive, not proactive. Ramp up of the Russian military started in fall of 2022. They always had the latent capability, but it took the actions of the west to fire it up.
Correct. They got an excuse to hang the ramp-up on, and they used that excuse.
Zzzzzz
What does that even mean? You claim the Russians invaded as an excuse to “revitalize their military industrial production”; then when it’s pointed out that they DIDN’T” revitalize their production” until AFTER NATO escalated the war, you claim that was used as an excuse?? That’s absurd. You’re as foolish as the talking heads in Biden’s cabinet. “Always right, even when you’re wrong”.
Usually when someone proves incapable of understanding what I write, I assume that means I’m writing poorly. When and if I have time I’ll see if I can find a way to state the facts more clearly.
Exactly. Much like the Cold War, increasing “threats” from the “bad guys” precipitate increased military spending and justify expansion. This is financially beneficial to certain groups of both American and Russian elites. It also justifies expansion of government censorship and suppression of dissent.
Both the American and Russian leadership (protestations to the contrary notwithstanding) are satisfied with the current state of affairs. Russia gets to take territory, rebuild it’s military, and gain combat experience; while the Americans get to replace Afghanistan with Ukraine as the locus of their money laundering activities, continue and expand the MIC/pentagon contractor gravy train, and expand NATO in Europe.
All under the threat of a nuclear holocaust. America has squandered the advantage it had at the end of the cold war and failed to build upon Reagan and Gorbachev’s achievements towards ending the nuclear standoff and reducing nuclear armaments. It now finds itself in a much weaker position than if it had pursued a policy of cooperation and mutual development for all. The neocon project has utterly failed and given the track record in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia I find it’s failure here not surprising in the least.
Failure to allow Russia to become a member of the Western Alliance.
Bill Clinton signaling the beginning of the mad rush to increase members of NATO, particularly those close to the Russian borders. Massive move East.
Waste, money laundering through the MIC, to the expense of the common good.
People forget that when he was first elected Putin tried to get Russia into NATO. Unfortunately with the fall of the Soviet Union they needed a new enemy to justify NATO’s continued existence, so three decades of provocations followed.
I think that’s a stretch. 30 years of provocations were real.
Who said the provocations weren’t real?
I know you covered your butt with the inclusion of “one point” to justify expanding their military. I just think it was done to use the Vietnam comparison which I thought was weak.
If the US didn’t interfere in disallowing Ukraine to trade with both Russia and the EU, or pushing NATO there, with threats to their security of the Black Sea via Crimea, I don’t think there would have been any designs for expansion.
As it is, they now will expand. Having influence of Ukraine and further entry into the EU market would have sufficed, in my opinion.
The US despised the cozy relationship with Germany and the pipelines too.
Yes. I lay the entire blame for this mess on the heads of US presidents past and present. Without our constant fucking with the affairs of and between other countries, much of this crap would not have occurred.
I don’t see any large designs for Russian imperial expansion even NOW.
Putin’s project has always seemed to be aimed at slowing the decline of the Russian Empire, not at trying to re-expand it.
Even after Ukraine stopped being a Russian imperial satrapy and became a US/EU/NATO imperial satrapy, he didn’t initially try to take it back. He took Crimea, and waged eight years of proxy war in the Donbas. If the Donbas had fallen to him that way, he presumably wouldn’t have invaded, and now he knows what a f*ck-up THAT idea was.
Why would he think it was a fucked up idea? There was no possibility of diplomacy.
Russia moved across a border. Therefore everything that preceded that move doesn’t count.
Alternative: cause and effect only work if we don’t ignore the cause part.
Russia crossed a border… therefore everything that preceded the act doesn’t count. QED… NOT.
This comment seems to contradict your other one.
What other one?
Lots of meat puppets but far fewer tanks, ships, planes and armored vehicles. A weaker military.
“In sum, Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent,” he said. “Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia will be larger, more lethal, and angrier with the West than when it invaded.”
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell recently made similar comments, saying the US had “assessed over the course of the last couple of months that Russia has almost completely reconstituted militarily.”
They don’t seem to be talking solely about number of troops. So. maybe, the plan didn’t work.
“the US goal to ‘weaken Russia’ has failed”
Exactly the opposite. Bigger does not necessarily mean stronger. Russia has been exposed as a paper tiger. OK, it has increased its number of untrained and unmotivated troops being sent into meat waves. So what? And if it’s so good at making aertillery shells, why does it have to import millions of them from North Korea? Russia would have been defeated by now if not for Scholz and Biden’s fear of sending long-range weapons, not to mention the treasonous behavior of Trump, Johnson, and the rest of the MAGA mob. If DeCamp is implying that the US has the wrong goal, I agree. The goal should be Russia’s absolute defeat. Moscow should be leveled and sown with salt.
The difference between Russia and the West is demonstrated well by you. This is a battle between magical thinking and reality. And as it turns out reality wins, the answer is probably not to think more magically. But what do I know? Maybe there does exist a spell, some combination of words, when put in just the right order turns nonsense into reality and then Russia will disappear in a cloud of pixie dust so that everybody learns to fly.
Newly leaked classified documents reveal the Russian timeline for winning the war!