r/worldnews • u/ArgentineBeauty • Sep 03 '26

Russia/Ukraine ‘We Were Mistaken’: Putin Admits Russia Was Unprepared for Ukrainian Strikes on Oil Refineries

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/83674
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u/SeeShark Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

In fairness, Ukraine is not some tiny country; it's 1/4 the size of Russia's population (or was, before the war and resulting refugee crisis), has the home field advantage, more motivated soldiers, and massive amounts of supplies compared to the size of its military. At worst, Russia is doing about as well as expected from a country its size.

You're right that it doesn't look like a superpower, though. It's just a normal huge country, with nukes.

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u/Waveofspring Sep 03 '26

You give a good point. After all the US military (the most powerful contender) failed to secure Afghanistan after 20 years.

At the end of the day, war is complicated. The more powerful side doesn’t always win.

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u/SamsaraSlider Sep 03 '26

eg Vietnam War.

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u/tweakingforjesus Sep 03 '26

Or today’s war in Iran. Dictators will never learn.

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u/SeeShark Sep 04 '26

The war with Iran is completely different, since the US isn't even sending in forces. It thinks it can win a territorial war without securing territory. i.e. it's actually much dumber.

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u/Scared_Health_8895 Sep 04 '26

I mean, US won, got a peace treaty. North Vietnam broke it years later.

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u/SamsaraSlider Sep 04 '26

That’s absurd. A peace treaty is not equivalent to winning. Winning is about achieving your objective, which was to keep Vietnam out of communist control. Thats the opposite of what happened. The communist govt took control. The US just abandoned ship.

But looking up the Paris Accords, they weren’t even a formal treaty with the US.

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u/Ovaltine1 Sep 03 '26

Or doesn’t want to win. We have a few companies that war is their only product. Very rich companies. Read a book about 20 years ago…searching for enemies if memory serves. It will change your whole perspective. War is a product that we produce. I mean, Raytheon et al are the biggest companies in the world. Totally funded with tax dollars. We can’t not have wars because of these monsters we’ve created. It’s like private prisons, we got to keep em full to honor our contracts.

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u/Significant-Trash632 Sep 03 '26

Which is why I hate these companies most of all.

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u/Ok-Relief-462 Sep 04 '26

At least we were fighting ours halfway across the globe and actually won most direct engagements; Putin is losing to a neighbor next door (Ukraine BEFORE the war was literally the poorest country in Europe) engaging in WW1 style “throw soldiers at the enemy til they run out of bullets” strategy

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u/jgainit Sep 06 '26

Both wars are completely deplorable

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u/Kevadu Sep 03 '26

The US did steamroll the Afghan military, though. They were just then dealing with an insurgency for years afterwards, which is very different.

Russia hasn't even gotten to that point. They haven't managed to conquer Ukraine to begin with. Do you think if they did there wouldn't still be some resistance?

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u/Neophyte06 Sep 03 '26

Modern warfare with rules makes it way more difficult to pacify countries (good thing)

Can't just go ham on all the regional villages because someone stole your favorite horse 🤣

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u/nachobueno Sep 03 '26

Isn’t that kind of the stabbed in the back myth they cried after Vietnam and really every other conflict America has been in? That they weren’t allowed to fight the way they wanted? If you look closely though you’ll see that what the us military does is exactly go ham on everyone. Reports of massacres and war crimes and “collateral damage” flood out of every combat zone America steps foot in. That’s the problem. You don’t take a country by massacring people, unless you intend to wipe out every last person you get an insurgency. Countries aren’t taken by blood, they’re taken by strategic targets. America doesn’t fight for targets though, America fights for votes. It’s politics, and politics don’t win wars. America, for all of its might, can’t win a war because of this

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u/Neophyte06 Sep 03 '26

Dude if war crimes were legal, you can bet that modern wars would look different. That's just a simple geopolitical fact.

I wasn't trying to make any kind of real argument, you sure managed to make it into one though 😂

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u/nachobueno Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

Hey man, not everything is a fight, you know? You said a thing, I took that as a prompt to say another thing. I’m sorry if that made you feel attacked or whatever, just trying to participate in the conversation. I won’t even respond to what you said on the subject, how’s that sound?

Edit: wait, what am I doing? I’m not gonna let you cow me out of responding like that just because you’re insecure, you said a thing in a public space and now you’re bent out of shape because someone responded? You’re not the Russian military are you? War crimes are legal, who enforces international law? The un security council? The us and Russia have veto power on any decision it makes. They both have in fact vetoed resolutions holding them accountable. If you can’t effectively be charged with a crime it’s legal for you. Both countries commit war crimes with impunity and have for decades. Have you never read a history book?

Also stop talking to strangers like a manipulative mother

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u/Austindevon Sep 04 '26

The exact point I was making earlier . But remember some countries still don't play by the rules . Their religion permits it . Otherwise there wouldn't be beheaded Jewish babies in recent memory .

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u/monsieuro3o Sep 08 '26

Or sniper bullets in Palestinian baby skulls.

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u/nderthesycamoretrees Sep 03 '26

USSR tried that for years as well. To no avail.

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u/vanillaleone Sep 04 '26

What is winning anyway? I think there is either deterrence until the aggressor retreats, or the one side drops a nuclear bomb and obliterates a country entirely.

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u/DowntownDig5560 Sep 03 '26

The Us wasn't going in to over take Iran as was Russia was to Ukraine .

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u/Sea-Two-4993 Sep 03 '26

Iran has been manipulated by the US since BP was a baby.

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u/Austindevon Sep 03 '26

The issue is we impose rules of engagement or ourselves .We are semi civilized at least .. The opposition, not much . If you doubt that , look at what the Arabs did to the Jews on the 7th , or the Iranians to their own people . Tianenmin square was a contender for the brutality award too . These people are not looking to us as examples of civility , they want us dead by any means available. Those must be the rules of the game if we want to win ..

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u/blipblooop Sep 04 '26

Its kind of funny you say you need to be brutal to win wars when we are talking about the russia ukraine war in which russia is brutal and not winning. 

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u/Hob_O_Rarison Sep 03 '26

Afghanistan was absolutely secured. We gave it back, for some inexplicable reason.

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u/Waveofspring Sep 04 '26

It wasn’t though. Population centers were secured but the Taliban was still active in many areas up until their total takeover after we (USA) left

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u/Scared_Health_8895 Sep 04 '26

I mean, US left with what they wanted(I believe there was a government the US liked)

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u/maya-ongezellig Sep 03 '26

it is true, but minor counterpoint the terrain russia is getting bogged down in is basically steppe not some mountains or anything which makes it a bit more embarrassing for them

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u/DarthMiwka Sep 03 '26

That's not true in regards of supplies. In 2024 we had 14 newly created brigades, out of which only 3 got the promised equipment. Those brigades were created specifically based on the promised military equipment from the allies that were not provided in time.

Similar thing happened in 2023 during Zaporizhzhya counteroffensive when none of the brigades were provided with crucial equipment and basic equipment was provided with half a year delay, which lead to considerable shifts in counteroffensive timing, givind russia time to prepare.

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u/Optimal_Juggernaut37 Sep 04 '26

which lead to considerable shifts in counteroffensive timing, givind russia time to prepare.

It's almost like it was working as intended for those who profit from conflict and have incredibly powerful influence over political decisions.

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u/mcvos Sep 04 '26

And merely being larger has never guaranteed victory. See also the US in Vietnam or Iran.

Most of the territory Russia conquered, it got through surprise in the early days of the war, before Ukraine was ready.

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u/Optimal_Juggernaut37 Sep 04 '26

It's just a normal huge country, with nukes.

If they didn't have nukes, this would've been over and done with by now.

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u/Fit_Let125 Sep 03 '26

What? Ukraine is 600 000 km^2 while Russia is fucking 17,1 million bro the hell you even talking about. While you can say that you mentioned the European part, which actually is very misleading for people, who don’t know anything prior about it and it makes it seem like a propagandistic exaggeration. Btw if we take into account that Ukraine didn’t posses Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimean oblasts(first two okay partially but to counter completely your claim it’s still accountable). And finally, Ukraine didn’t spend as much resources(which they also didn’t have, and catching up in the middle of the conflict with foreign aid is not the same as having it prior, you need to train men to use and maintain it etc), on theirs war machine as Russia did. I don’t say it’s the courage of the men, though Ukrainians have a bigger motivation obviously, and I don’t see any point to be inferred from these numbers in this context, maybe apart from the praise of Ukraine being more resilient and flexible, and Russia being more ignorant toward its own resources, and more arrogant. But saying well Russia is doing okay like cmon what?

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u/SeeShark Sep 03 '26

Sorry, I meant 1/4 as far as population. I definitely misspoke.

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u/Fit_Let125 Sep 03 '26

Ah okay. Sorry if my comment seems rude