My enduring concern is that Russia can be peopled by incompetent venal liars who bungle everything repeatedly and yet... Russia could still achieve a qualified win in the current war. Ukraine is entirely dependent on Western aid and it has always been far too little, far too late. Thanks to Western spinelessness and endless prevarication, Russia has had ample time to lay millions of mines and dig thousands of kilometers of trenches. Even an inept demoralized force can utilize such advantages for a considerable time, especially when Ukraine has essentially zero air assets while (due to the exhaustion of MANPADs) Russia continues to operate with minimal risk in the skies. As a Ukrainian friend said to me recently, "We're in a sh*t situation. Biden is old, feeble, and frightened of doing anything that could be an escalation, and the Republicans want to give us to Putin as a gift. Europe is divided and has nothing much to give us. All Putin must do is cling on until January 2025."