>

I knew this was going to be Kraut before I even clicked on it.  Good choice, kudos.
Hmm, I blame forcefully occupying Ukrainian territory as the root cause of this. >

Also this bit of fake news was hilarious

The ministry also suggested that in return, it launched airstrikes launched at a "hardware concentration" near Druzhkivka railway station in Donetsk, killing up to 200 Ukrainian personnel, and destroying four HIMARS launchers and more than 800 rockets.

Russia - “trust me bro” >

How many times have they blown up the 20 HIMARS systems the US has given to Ukraine now? >

About 35 HIMARS ago. >

On May 2nd 2011, 24 elite navy seals raided a compound in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden.
Since then I’ve had the good fortune of meeting over 200 of them. >

That's a lot of Bin Ladens. >

I believe it’s Bins Laden >

But what are all the bins laden with? >

Coconuts. >

Coconuts? In England? >

The strike killed 68 people.
No more than 89 people. 
At most 110 people. 
((Meanwhile Russia buries 200 bodies) >

And cremates another 150 >

And leaves under rubble another 300. >

The Mariupol theatre approach >

I recently heard a concerning story about compensation for families of deceased soldiers. It appears that families are only given compensation if they can identify the bodies. Though I do not have the exact numbers, I understand that the Russian Army frequently reports bodies as unidentifiable or missing in action (MIA) or declares individuals as absconded, leaving the families without the proper closure or monetary compensation for the service of their loved one. >

How tf is putin still sustaining this war
Edit: alright guys i am reading your replies which basically say shit tons of armament and bodies but what i really meant to say was how are russian soldiers still pushing themselves into literal meat grinders for putin. What drives them? because what im gaining from media is that it is not motivation that is propelling the russian soldiers. Putin looks weak, the war he instigated is unjustified, he isn't remotely close to winning. What does putin say to his generals that convinces them to keep at it and don't complain. Why isn't the russian soldiery defecting to ukrainian side en masse? >

Sadly, for the majority if the last 100+ years, willingly or unwillingly, a culture  was cultivated in Russia where the state does not answer to its citizens. Its more like weather - you can't choose it, you can only live with it. And since the fall of the curtain most of the people who disliked this system, simply elected to emigrate, leaving very few people inside the country willing to enact change. And then the quite extensive repression machine made sure that those willing would be unable to do so. >

I was born the year the Soviet Union fell, so I grew up not understanding why the adults disliked it when no one I talked to seemed to know anything about it or Russia deeper than "they have nuclear weapons and communism". Actually, more than the dislike, Russia stood out as a curiosity BECAUSE of the blindspot of knowledge it represented. 
So I had to teach myself, and started reading about the Soviet Union. And it quickly became obvious why salt-of-the-earth americans couldn't explain it, because even a giant history nerd like myself couldn't get a grip on understanding the Soviet Union without going back farther, to the 1800s. But then that still wasn't enough so I kept putting books down and going earlier, until I picked up a FAT one that started with the Mongol invasion of Kiev. Then I could finally work my way up through Russian history without constantly being confused at the way things were and the systems that the people inexplicably accepted otherwise.
Sorry, that was a long-winded way to agree with your first statement, and offer that as far as I've been able to determine via amateur historical obsession, Russia was doomed after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 and the reactionary proto-fascism that came from the tsar that followed him. When the rest of the world was shrugging off slavery and its forms, Russia clung to it by reinstating serfdom after it had been abolished.
And it's been in a perpetual cycle of destruction since. The joke that Russian history can be summed up as "and then it got worse" is entirely accurate. >

What’s the name of the phat volume?
There’s a very recent Yale Open Course on the history of Ukraine that touches on Russia a lot. >

I'm so glad you asked, it's Land of the Firebird by Suzanne Massie. It still occupies a front and center place in my library. >


it's Land of the Firebird by Suzanne Massie. It still occupies a front and center place in my library.

I've already seen historians trace its kleptocratic tendencies and over-concentration of wealth to their contact with Mongolian raiders, does that cover most of the same material?