So Ukraine gifted Russia the 20% of the country they currently hold? Bakhmut wasn't a meat-grinder for half a year that Russia now holds? The Azovstahl steel-works in Mariupol were not encircled by the Russians after taking the rest of the city and eventually taken? Really, Max? I could go on with a list of Russian advances (mostly small) for about another page.
China, India, North Korea, Iran, Japan and parts of the EU are already helping Russia. Either through weapons, by ignoring the West's sanctions on Russian goods, and/or ignoring price caps.
If you think Russia is not increasing the rate of their pressure, look at the changing tactics. Up until a few months ago, Ukraine's air defense system (ADS) was mostly intact and armed. Now it is mostly neither. The is a inverse correlation to the number and depth of Russian air sorties with the status of Ukraine's ADS.
Look at how long it took Russia to grind down and take Bakhmut compared to Avdiivka. The pace of Russian advance is still slow, but the pace is increasing.
The advantage that more authoritarian systems like Russia and China have over the West is that - as the US did during WWII - the profit motive is removed/greatly dampened in producing weapons. Numbers vary, but Russia produces shells at a fraction of the cost of the US, and far more of them. The same is now happening with drones.
Russia and its allies produce more and faster missiles than the West. The combined West.
That is why Russia is moving at a glacial pace. Most of the casualties in Ukraine (on both sides) are from artillery. The West has nearly run out of 155mm shells. Russia as between 5-10 times the firing rate of artillery as Ukraine now. So they just grind down the poor Ukrainians and then move in.
Those are the facts on the ground. If "Russia is fighting against a group 10x stronger than it is" then it would be losing, and losing big. They would not be holding and slowly expanding the 20% of Ukraine that they've held for the last year.
I don't like this reality, but it is reality. Denying the lines on the map or the age of the average Ukrainian soldier, or the number of Russian missiles that now get through Ukraine's ADS doesn't make those things false. Denying them does however lead to more senseless death and destruction of Ukraine. That is the true horror here. Continuing on in denial rather than suing for peace through negotiations.
