The West has always underrepresented the true strength of the Russian military, especially under Putin. In terms of true military strength and capabilities, it's U.S. #1, Russia #2, UK #3, AUS/Canada tied for 4th (even though they technically are a part of the UK, their military's strengths have always been separate), CCP #5 (even though they have everyone beat by sheer numbers, their arms and equipment are cheap Chinese knockoffs and they lack the industrial/supply chain capabilities to sustain a protracted engagement, which is why they haven't openly gone to war with anyome since WWII), Germany is #6, India/Pakistan #7, and eveeyone else basically tied for last place. I don't even consider Israel on this list because they have no industrial or supply chain capacity outside buying what they need from the U.S.

Anyone claiming Russia is struggling in Ukraine is a fool. You can possibly win a protracted engagement in a foreign land when your armed "invasion" force doesn't even account for 1% of the foreign land's population. Russia initially "invaded" Ukraine with less than 45,000 troops and Ukraine had a population estimate at 45 MILLION. Even then, it only took Russia about 3 months to totally decimate and practically outright destroy the whole Ukraine Army. What were seeing now in Ukraine amounts to basically a mop up op and to ensure the Ukro-Nazis can't rise up again.

And using prison inmates to fight in a foreign land in order to regain their freedom is a genius move on Putin's part, IMHO. It saves your regular forces from a possible war of attrition while giving you the beachhead you need to continue foreign ops. (I wish we did something similar, actually.)

The West has always underrepresented the true strength of the Russian military, especially under Putin. In terms of true military strength and capabilities, it's U.S. #1, Russia #2, UK #3, AUS/Canada tied for 4th (even though they technically are a part of the UK, their military's strengths have always been separate), CCP #5 (even though they have everyone beat by sheer numbers, their arms and equipment are cheap Chinese knockoffs and they lack the industrial/supply chain capabilities to sustain a protracted engagement, which is why they haven't openly gone to war with anyome since WWII), Germany is #6, India/Pakistan #7, and eveeyone else basically tied for last place. I don't even consider Israel on this list because they have no industrial or supply chain capacity outside buying what they need from the U.S.

Anyone claiming Russia is struggling in Ukraine is a fool. You can possibly win a protracted engagement in a foreign land when your armed "invasion" force doesn't even account for 1% of the foreign land's population. Russia initially "invaded" Ukraine with less than 45,000 troops and Ukraine had a population estimate at 45 MILLION. Even then, it only took Russia about 3 months to totally decimate and practically outright destroy the whole Ukraine Army. What were seeing now in Ukraine amounts to basically a mop up op and to ensure the Ukro-Nazis can't rise up again.

The West has always underrepresented the true strength of the Russian military, especially under Putin. In terms of true military strength and capabilities, it's U.S. #1, Russia #2, UK #3, AUS/Canada tied for 4th (even though they technically are a part of the UK, their military's strengths have always been separate), CCP #5 (even though they have everyone beat by sheer numbers, their arms and equipment are cheap Chinese knockoffs and they lack the industrial/supply chain capabilities to sustain a protracted engagement, which is why they haven't openly gone to war with anyome since WWII), Germany is #6, India/Pakistan #7, and eveeyone else basically tied for last place. I don't even consider Israel on this list because they have no industrial or supply chain capacity outside buying what they need from the U.S.