Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country

[Labster]

--Russia admits to ~500 casualties. With the collapse of their currency, it is likely they cannot afford to admit much more
--Listening to the Russian army from Ireland on the radio. They do not sound happy.

Given how they're performing, that is not surprising. On both items. Note that a Russian military victory is still not in doubt, at least for the attempt at conquering Ukraine, the force disparity is too great. But they're definitely going to be a lot harder to take serious as a conventional military threat and a source of weapons with how things are going. One of their biggest income sources is the international arms trade, they might be about to see a lot of markets rejecting Russian equipment.

I mean, how is it not in doubt?  Numerical superiority means fuck-all if your forces have the morale of anti-government conscripts, which Russian forces kind of do.  Ukraine has sky-high morale at this point, while Russia seems to be failing to get supplies to its soldiers under a week in.  I get that no plan survives contact with the enemy, but if the plan was "Ukraine folds like Kevin Spacey's career", then it was never going to survive the first day, and it really shows.

Ukraine still has an air force.  They still have air defense, despite the supposed superiority of the Russian air force.  The Ghost of Kyiv has shot down like ten Russian fighters, making him the first flying ace of the 21st century.

I get that some of this is wishful thinking, but not all of it is.  War is so inherently unpredictable that we continue to have wars.