Great Power contentions

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Realistically, if they were able to cut them off Russia would have no choice but to pull out all the stops to break out since the loss of prestige with such a calamity would be worse than further sanctions. And as a complete amateur I would have thought man portable weaponry are great at ambushes but poor at properly seizing and holding in a battalion or so. If the equipment Russia is fielding continues to be of poor quality, won't constant pressure ensure morale remains rock bottom and heavy material is dumped as soon as there's a glitch, lest there's another missile from some fox hole?

I rather think it does, and the Ukrainians have been using this to good effect so far. I am just lamenting that the Ukrainians do not appear to have the offensive combat power necessary to surround one or two of the penetrations and crush them. As was noted above, such losses would be concentrated among maneuver forces and erode Russian capability even more. But things are as they are, not as we would wish.