Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

drkohler said:

The numbers would suggest they have enough material for at least two to three years of war.
The question is can they replace the men that drive/operate/maintain the equipment. Driving a tank through the wilderness and survive is not something you learn in a few weeks. Replacing artillery pieces that wear down really fast due to low quality north korean shells is also a problem.
Not a poblem for Putin are men. He has emptied the prisons for cannon fodder that actually had a positive effect on his expenses, also giving time to train regular troups. Time is clearly on Putin's side with the US's incoming orange guy.

Russia actually does have a problem with men, especially going forward.

You see, birth rates absolutely tanked after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a result, very few Russians are of reproductive age, which is also the age group used for the soldiers. And with the intellectuals leaving the country early in the conflict (which were mostly young Russians in that age group) and all the losses piling up and little immigration to prop up the numbers (especially now due to the war), Russia is having a severe problem with it's population going forward, to the point that in 50 years, the population of Russia could drop behind Germany or France. 1993 is still the peak year for population of Russia, and while it recovered a bit in the early 2010's (also partially due to the annexation of Crimea, where Russia added 3M people to it's numbers), it was going down again since 2018, and not just due to Covid. The numbers are up for 2022, but that's due to including the Donbass, and they were still only up by 850K, far below the population of the region pre-war.