The Russian Federation has no resources, except for human resource, to wage a protracted war.
"He [Putin] does not have resources. Apart from human resource, he no longer has any resources: there is no economy, there is also no military industry resource, and the military reserves have already been exhausted. There is a human [resource], those who say that they have many fallen, they do not think that they have a lot of human material. But this is the only thing they have in sufficient quantity," Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with RFE/RL’s Crimea. Realities project.
According to him, if Russia had no problems with military-industrial complex, it would not have tried to purchase ammunition and weapons from North Korea, Iran, Cuba or Africa.
Budanov noted that in recent years the Russian Federation was a leader among arms and ammunition exporters, not to mention illegal exports. Therefore, it is not surprising that it has already exhausted its resources during the full-scale war.
At the same time, the intelligence chief said that the Russians could hold the defense for a long time with the current resources if they did not take active actions.
CaptainRAVE2 on August 27th, 2023 at 10:49 UTC »
Throwing wave after wave and hoping the west runs out of bullets. We won’t. Russia is running out of viable conscripts though.
FM-101 on August 27th, 2023 at 09:28 UTC »
He's not wrong. Last year during the "300k mobilization" I saw a russian leader who asked a group of new arrivals "where the fuck is your armor and helmet" and they said they weren't given any. I guess it's different now that fucking China is giving them stuff but still.
Ehldas on August 27th, 2023 at 08:11 UTC »
He's not talking about money or things Russia can sell.
He's talking about resources that Russia requires to successfully continue the war : modern tanks and IFVs, a steady supply of replacement artillery pieces/tubes/ammunition, replacement aircraft, replacement logistics vehicles, cruise missiles and long range weapons, etc.
While Russia will always be able to produce or buy these at a trickle, their vast reserves of them have been largely expended and they're steadily losing capacity and replacing it with older, less capable equipment.
That is Russia's biggest problem right now, and it's going to lose them the war.