Most of them have enlisted out of their own free will. There are plenty of prisoners as well, but – at least to my understanding – they amount less than the people who enlisted for the money. Also, many of the enlisted prisoners are in it voluntarily because of money and amnesty. And many are simply forced to sign the "voluntary" contract by torturing them until they do.

What I've been surprised with is that as long as you are alive, you almost always do receive your salary as a Russian soldier. And your relatives will indeed receive their compensation – assuming there's evidence of you dying. There almost never is, and then you're marked as AWOL, not as dead. And if you're AWOL, your family receives no compensation. Ukraine has huge refrigerated warehouses full of Russian soldiers waiting to be sent home, because when they eventually reach the Russia, that country will either go bankrupt or has to say "we changed our mind. Although you sent your son to our war for money, we're not actually going to pay", which will seriously destabilise the Russia.

This is indeed also why the Russia's economy is such a very important factor here. There's no way they'll be able to fill the required 30 000 new soldiers per month with prisoners alone. They don't have that many hundred thousands of prisoners available for that. Send too many and you will have prison revolts.

This isn't a war of lines on the map, really. The Russia's goal is the end of Ukrainians as a nation. And breaking NATO's article 5.

They're using money in lieu of skill. Eventually they'll run out if it.

Then no more high salary for the Russian soldier – and consequently, no more soldiers.

What do you mean with this "As Russia keeps advancing"? It has not advanced since February 2022. The conversation is a bit difficult when the foundations of the conversation are so uneven. You talk about "Russia advancing", and to my knowledge, that has not happened. Could you please elaborate?

~300000 vs. ~70000. 140 million vs 40 million.

=

0,0021 deaths per inhabitant vs 0,0018 deaths per inhabitant.

In military losses including wounded the Russia's situation is better in comparison to population, if.you look at raw numbers: about twice as many losses, but 3½ times the population. But it is always much easier for the defender to recruit soldiers than it is for the aggressor, so you'd need to add a coefficient for that. All in all, these numbers are in the same ballpark. They should not be able to make a huge difference, because both are decreasing at roughly comparable rates.

And I repeat: because of the Russia's exceptionally cruel behaviour in the temporarily occupied regions, the Ukrainians are likely to find much more manpower if manpower shortage becomes acute enough for the Russia to start advancing.

I don't think either side is going to win or lose the war because of manpower shortages.

Not necessarily. But it does habe about the same amount if trouble. Remember that the Russia's manpower consumption is extremely high, so they need to recruit a lot more than Ukraine in order to.keep their army from shrinking in manpower.

The Russia has those same problems as well, not only Ukraine. And Ukraine has the good thing that if it starts really seriously losing ground because of lack of soldiers, they will get more soldiers. People are scared shitless of what would happen if the Russia took over their homes. Ukraine's problem with the number of soldiers is a self-correcting one.

Also, the Russia needs to pay an increasing amount of money to hire soldiers. They get 200 000 Rubles per month for the service, while in the rural areas 8 000 Rubles per month is a realistic salary for a factory worker. It's a big difference, but anything smaller would not get people to risk their lives. And now that everything is getting more expensive with inflation around 20 %, you can buy all the time less and less bread for those 200 000 Rubles per month. And it's not really Rubles that they are after, but bread and heating. When prices of bread and heating rise, then also the soldiers' requirements for the salary level rise the same amount. There are reports of Russian troops' numbers dwindling.

It is true that Ukraine does have troubles recruiting soldiers, but it is a problem only if those troubles are bigger than how the enemy is faring regarding the same. If the Russia has more troubles recruiting soldiers than Ukraine does, then it's a net positive for Ukraine in the end.

It will not necessarily continue receiving the same level of support. But it will receive support from all EU countries neighbouring the Russia, because that is a lot cheaper than what happens if the Russia gets a result that Putin can advertise as a Russian victory. Because then we are next.

These countries will not end their support anyway. With only our help, the Russia will increase its territorial gains to possibly almost two percent of Ukraine's total territory per year, but those gains will still be far from enough for the Russia to win before its economy goes down. The war will last longer that way, and more Ukrainians will die, but of course Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden don't want to have a war in their own countries. And the Danes are just awesome for reasons I cannot completely understand. We are only a fraction of the size of the whole EU, but we are not in a position to stop supporting Ukraine, and we are enough to slow the Russia enough to keep from winning.

Kharkiv? That was in 2022, wasn't it? And the incursion into the Kursk province has been a better success than expected. What had you thought it would result with? It became the most important part of the front.for Ukraine. I'd say it is a great success, but how is it a counterattack? And how does that show that something big was promised but failed? What had been promised, to your knowledge?

You are calling this a proxy war between North Korea and USA. North Korea is more in USA's area of interest than that of Europe's.

...what? Nobody you know IRL uses Facebook, Linkedin, Insragram, Bluesky, Twitter, or That Google Thing?

How is that possible? I don't think I could find anyone here in Finland who could say what you're saying. Need more data about this case of yours!

Less convenient to use does not equal impossible to use.