Another No Shit Moment.

 Generally speaking, Larry already summarized it very well:

So here is the billion dollar question — why did the West not encourage, hell, demand that Ukraine use Himars and Storm Shadow missiles to attack those defensive lines while they were being constructed? I believe the answer is simple — Ukraine lacked the offensive tools required for such a mission and, even if such supplies had been available, the odds are high that Russia could have thwarted those efforts. We are witnessing military malpractice by the West on a grand scale. Did the NATO planners really believe the propaganda nonsense that portrayed the Russian military as a decrepit, doddering army of incompetents? If so, the West is now learning a very hard lesson and now must come to grips with the fact that NATO’s delusional calculation that Ukraine could shatter the Russian military is a complete bust.

Read the whole thing at Larry's blog. Those were delusional calculations. Now WaPo serves as Captain Obvious:

Ukraine is running out of options in its counteroffensive against Russian forces, as Kiev’s time-window to gain advances is closing, the Washington Post has reported. In an article on Sunday, the U.S. daily has claimed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which was launched in early June and was initially expected to see Kiev taking back significant territory, currently “shows signs of stalling.” “Kiev’s advances remain isolated to a handful of villages, Russian troops are pushing forward in the north and a plan to train Ukrainian pilots on U.S.-made F-16s is delayed,” wrote the U.S. newspaper. Ukrainian and Western officials might be calling for patience but “the window of time for Ukraine to conduct offensive is limited” because of the “inhospitable weather” in the region in autumn and winter, wrote the article.

And here is the thing--there are neither "options" nor any "windows" left for 404. In fact, they never existed and the only thing which mattered and still matters is how Russia would prosecute the war strategically. That is why Ukie trolls and Western media continued to push this BS about "stunning successes" of VSU around Kharkov in 2022. Read my lips--not on a single occasion did VSU outfought Russian Army and forced it to retreat--each time Russian forces withdrew from any locality (Kharkov and Kherson) it was a strategic decision. Only after that did the VSU move in "liberated" localities. This was presented by illiterate journos and equally militarily illiterate majority of Western military "analysts" as "victories" for VSU, while in reality a completely different strategic  and operational logic guided SMO from the inception. 

We see the results of this logic today. Against massive ramping up of military production by Russia it becomes perfectly clear that from the start it was about conditioning NATO, not 404, for what is coming now and is shaping to be, quoting Clausewitz, compelling the West to do Russia's will. Keep in mind that there is also Syria, there is also Taiwan and other hot spots along the front lines of unprecedented conflict between renegade West and classic civilization spearheaded by Russia. Meanwhile, I remain convinced that Pentagon top brass should start learning REAL operations and REAL military history, not Hollywood BS they study in US military educational institutions and that will help them understand the gravity of their historic miscalculation. Mind you, allowed for historic adjustments modern US military is not even in the same league with Napoleon and Hitler's generals, even if Erich Von Manstein helped in shaping American doctrinal views. But then again, he did lose the war to his Russian peers. 

Gotta love Hollywood output in 1990s.