Moldova has had a Russian backed separatist region called Transnistria since 1990. Moldova has had a hard time, they do not have huge resources they can use, and their military is not well- equipped or funded.

During the Soviet era the country was producing huge amounts of agricultural products. After dissolution, Moldova still relied heavily on export to Russia. It was mostly in their best interest to keep their heads down and carry on, as they do not have the means to fight a serious conflict.

They’ve also had massive brain drain. Large volumes of young people have been leaving the country for decades. Many young people with Romanian heritage applied to become Romanian-EU citizens when Romania joined the EU.

They have slowly been pivoting towards a pro-EU policy. Whenever they make an obvious plan to head more towards becoming European, Russia will often apply some kind of sanctions. It’s been a common tactic over the last few decades for shipments of wine, cognac or other Moldovan products to be seized and ‘destroyed’ by Russian customs officials in retaliation for Pro-EU policy shifts by Moldova.

When the Preisdent of Belarus, Lukashenko, leaked Russia’s Ukrainian invasion plans, Moldova was shown as being a point of troop movement. So Russias invasion plan definitely originally included Moldovan territory as well.

Don’t worry, they have options. They can also take out shitty loans laden with fine print from China

It’s always a baguette and some celery

I agree. Ukraine did a great job in preparing for an inevitable invasion. Zelensky is the reason the preparations succeeded.

There has been some good answers, but I’m not entirely satisfied with the details, so I will add my own response.

Culturally Russia sees itself as outside the rest of the world. At the very minimum, an equal to historical empires of Europe or Asia, but part of neither. It sees the USA as an ethnic mongrel with no culture or history, and hates the US power it projects globally.

Russia sees the former Soviet Union countries as property of the Rus people, and NATO involvement as outsider influence in affairs that do not concern them.

Globally, the world values stability more than they value justice or peace. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, it came after several other invasions of other former Soviet countries. There was little global response on any occasion.

Putin did expect the invasion to be fast and achieve their goals quickly. It was a mistake on his behalf.

This invasion was taken differently than any previous invasion because it upset global stability. Gas, oil and grain were traded openly with Russia and Ukraine and a war upset the market right when the world was trying to stabilise markets rocked by inflation, pandemic recovery and suppy chain problems.

The result was many countries around the world pledging military support. This was always older generation materiel which essentially costs those countries to maintain. It was the global equivalent of giving a homeless man the doggy bag you didn’t want anyway.

Why did they do this? They wanted Russia to pull back, return to its 2014 lines and go back to stability so that global markets could resume. So they gave Ukraine just enough to defend itself, but not enough to win.

Why did they do this? Because the world wants stability more than peace. Of the pledges of materiel, almost none has actually come to fruition. About 1/4 of the armor promised has arrived that was promised. Ukraine continues to beg for alms (or in this case arms), and they do amazing things with the little they are given.

Western powers could arm Ukraine and it would win. They have had no problem spending trillions of dollars over decades to protect their influence. It does not in this case as the World is only just coming to terms that Russia will not stop just for stability.

Putin will cease to be leader if he pulls back. The Russian leader would be seen as weak, and the Russian culture loves a Tsar. Putin believes in luck and will continue the sunk cost in the hope that some outside factor or random event will go in his favor.

The West is already getting bored and tired of a war they aren’t even fighting. There is a possibility that pro-Russian Republicans could regain office or power in the US. All Putin has to do is hold and eventually the West will even start telling Ukraine to capitulate to them.

Putin does not care how many troops he loses. Russia doesn’t really care how many people it loses unless those people are from the cities. Russian culture dehumanises the poor and mixed ethnicities.

This current grinding stalemate is a direct result of world policy. The world supplies Ukraine with just enough so they don’t lose, but not enough that they can win. In the meantime, the arms dealers are circling like sharks. India and China are cashing in on filling global supply gaps and taking advantage of Russias need for materiel frozen by sanctions. The hope would be that world leaders realise before it’s too late that the only way Ukraine can win, is that if Russia loses.

Country defense is oriented around the most likely attack in the near future. Once Russia is defeated and this war is over, the most likely invader is still Russia. So they are planning on what will defend against what Russia has now.

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That’s exactly the point of this. To hold the position Russia has to have safe logistics and fortified positions. Ukraine only needs to increase the grey zone to disrupt Russia’s logistics into Tokmak to collapse the front on the South.

Certain weapons have stopped being produced. As you can see from the missile types that are fired by Russia now compared to early in the invasion, the varieties have gone down to only a few types.

This is because stored supplies are being depleted, components are hard to come by, and Russia is focusing on only producing missile types with the greatest success rate of reaching their targets.

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Many Russian conscript POWs have said they never handled a weapon. They were told they were going to be drivers, then trucked somewhere to then be given a shovel and told to dug trenches. Then a few weeks later trucked to the front-line and told to sit in a hole and observe.

I’m just some guy who can maybe read minds?

I don’t know about the microwave. Heat actually breaks the bond for these kinds of adhesives, so if it isn’t poisonous, it probably wouldn’t work well for that anyway.

Super glue.

Cyanocrylate adhesives were accidently discovered in WW2 while trying to develop a clear plastic. Later Eastman-Kodak held the patent and then sold it to Loctite on the 1960s.

Loctite 404 is so much better than anything else available on the market. It bonds better, it’s stronger, it lasts longer and the bottle applicator is more controlled and easier to use. If you want it to last years, you can actually store in in the refrigerator when not being used.

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This war was lost over a year ago. None of their aims were achievable after that point.

To understand why it continues you have to understand two things:

Putin will cease to be leader if he ends this.

Putin believes in luck. The longer this continues the more likely of some random event going in his favour or of the West getting bored and withdrawing their support.

He’s intentionally dragging out the conflict. The tactics they use are designed to do nothing more than slow down how much territory is lost over time.

Every so often they attack to achieve a little ‘victory’. This is then twisted into a massive victory on every tv across Russia. This plus huge pay offerings, gives them endless volunteers. Particularly from rural regions where education is lacking.

Putin does not care how many of his own people he kills. They are nothing to him. The tactic putin is using is based on throwing 10, 20, 100 or whatever number to kill one Ukrainian. That is one less Ukrainian. That is what matters to him.

The operator accounted for both the movement of the target and the fall time. These guys have been doing this every day for nearly two years now.

Smart enough to nearly figure out a way to avoid a drone, not smart enough to stay home in his own country.

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It’s the traditional Soviet arty command for fire. A song featuring it has become a hit and the term has begun to be used by pro-invasion Russians to comment on propaganda videos.

The Ukrainians are probably using it as a form of ironic comedy. Because Russians are the ones being fired upon.

He wasn’t a prisoner until he was disarmed and captured. Until then, he was an active combatant.

The fact he just used perfidy and then failed means the Ukrainians had valid excuse to make him and anyone else in that contact into cat meat. The fact they didn’t, speaks volumes to their high character and professionalism.