> Russia was derided as an economy the size of Belgium and the Netherlands at the onset of the war, and experts around the West were certain that such a relatively small economy could not endure a drawn-out conflict. The Russians would run out of missiles, and then they would run out of shells, and then eventually they’d run out of bullets and hand grenades and shovels as well.<p>They nearly had a full fledged armed revolt and clearly lack the soldiers and materiel to hold the land they currently took, yet alone take more. They have underperformed time and time again when it comes to other military objectives, again for lack of materiel.<p>So Russians are not yet all corpses if that is what is meant by "endure" a drawn out war. But a supposed major power struggling to invade a neighbor is not exactly success.<p>> . The recent news that the US would send cluster bombs to Ukraine – a controversial weapon type that has been banned by most Nato countries – was telling. Not so much in moral terms, but for what it told us about the United States: the world’s largest economy was nearly out of conventional ammunition to send to Europe.<p>I suppose one only buys a screwdriver due a shortage of drills?<p>The West has achieved far more than initially hoped for in Ukraine. Supporting a Taliban style insurgency against Russian occupation was the expected result when this started.