Great Power contentions

[Montmorency]

I wonder if the transition to contract/professional soldiers - ~70% of current active military - along with downsizing of combat formations just enabled corruption and misappropriation along the way. The Soviet army was feared for good reason.

Unfortunately, the separatist militaries appear to overmatch their Russian masters, having been exposed to continuous low-grade combat for 8 years (whereas the large majority of Russian soldiers have probably never been shot at by opposition). They are reportedly primarily responsible for the large gains made east/northeast of Mariupol and northwest of Luhansk City. Just today they took out at least 5 Ukrainian tanks. And now multiple heavy cargo planes are transiting between Russia and Syria, according to Putin loading up thousands of Assad's goons. It's dirty, but I wonder if we have any assets remaining whom we can induce to escalate their operations.


EDIT: Mig 29 memes.
https://twitter.com/SubwayCubano/sta...44377872044035 [VIDEO]