Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Russia is only the "largest country in the world" geographically. The vast majority of the RFE is extremely sparsely populated, and the RU population is less than half that of the US.
The populated part of RU is the western-most 20% ish. Not so impressive in light of actual population and populated area.
Yeah, but geography matters, especially when it comes to resources. And to providing passive protection to those resources complicating the efforts of would-be attackers and stretching the logistics of would-be invaders. And while the RU population of 142 million people is only 42% of that of the US it is still the most populous country in Europe and at this point probably has at least four and a half times the population still living within the areas controlled by Ukraine. And if you look at the traditional metric of “manpower of military age” the RU advantage is even greater.
None of that, of course, has anything to do with who is “right” or has “moral superiority” or who “ought” to be victorious, of course, but it all does have a non-trivial correlation to who tends to emerge victorious.