"Bully punches kid and steals $50, kid only manages to get back $30, is the kid a fucking loser?" This is what the sentiment usually feels like, even if it's not what the reporting is about, please be aware of this.
Let's leave the rest of your narrative alone for second. Kid fights back and loses use of several fingers, loses several teeth, and is now deaf in one ear but has managed to get back $0.10
Lmao so what would you describe the massive losses Russia has taken in terms of lives, machinery, and munitions, as well as the open revolt Wagner engaged in? If Ukraine is losing fingers, teeth, and hearing, I imagine Russia has full on lost a limb and has bleeding to stabilize.
That rebellion was probably part of Put-daddy's plan tho, right?
The US is sending more aid per year than Russia's entirely military budget and Russia hasn't even gotten through it's old weapon systems yet.
But that's also besides the point. Let's assume you're right and Russia has lost more than Ukraine. How does that jive with Ukraine's inability to make meaningful progress in their offensive? They've reclaimed something like .2% of their lost territory, which is easily within the margins of the ebb and flow of conflict.
So Putin, who is openly saying that the offensive isn't going as planned, is OK sending tens of thousands of soldiers into the grinder agaisnt better equipment, just to go through surplus? He's choosing to have thousands of Russians killed while sitting on equipment that could keep them safe?
What a guy. Noble cause he's after, de-nazi-fying a sovereign nation, while also getting his citizens massacred in tank columns and shoddy equipment while he keeps the good stuff at home.
Unless that isn't what he's doing? But you did just say they were using old stuff on purpose. You wouldn't be wrong, would you?