I'm not sure what the point of posting a five-week old map is when discussing a four-day old offensive, but exactly what do you imagine your point was? How much territory did Ukraine win back in their summer offensive last year, and how much of that are they likely to keep this year?
I don't think the war is "going well for Russia", but why is that the point? Is it going well for Ukraine either? I'll ask you directly the same question I asked - what do you believe Ukraine's endgame is here?
Putin literally just fired his defense minister and he will likely be going out the next open window soon. But the war is going great for Russia
He didn't fire him (it was a lateral transfer), and it's virtually certain that he's not going out a window anytime soon. If he is killed soon, I'll admit that you had more insight on that note than I did, but I think you already know how that's going to turn out.
Now, did Zelensky already fire his Commander in Chief three months ago or not? And his head of security earlier this week? So by your standards, is the war going well for Ukraine?
Once Biden decided he wasn’t going to give offensive weapons to Ukraine it was always going to devolve into a defensive war. Russia is still battering itself against Ukrainian defenses, still selling its oil for pennies and still dying in droves for almost 0 territory.
Russian oil profits actually doubled this year.
And it seems increasingly likely that they will do better in a war of attrition than Ukraine will. US estimate is that Ukrainian forces have suffered over 200,000 killed and wounded (not even counting civilians), while Russians are at 350,000+. Sure, more Russians have died, but Russia's population is 4x larger than Ukraine's and Putin doesn't give a flying fukk about casualties. So you do the math.
What is the Ukrainian endgame?