Ok, with what tanks Putin?

Russia is no longer a world military super power save for their nuclear weapons, they have demonstrated a complete inability to evolve their armored warfare doctrine to match modern warfare even before the advent of drones.

Putin is interested in sacrificing a massive amount of Russians to win some kind of political victory in the war here, but make no mistake Russia is utterly incapable of expanding this war even with help from others like China.

They may be able to continue to commit mass acts of violence against civilians with flying bombs, but that is not a military operation, it is a pyschological one utilizing mass terrorism that does not take and hold territory but rather attempts to scare and demoralize a civilian population in agreeing to a politically orchestrated end to a war that is divorced from any military reality.

Russia's armored vehicle design is stuck in the 80s, and it wasn't any good in the 80s either... Ukraine has better artillery, better armored vehicle doctrine and design, better UAV operators and wholistically is evolving far faster in battlefield strategy and tactics than Russia is.

How the hell does Russia think it could expand this war? It is UKRAINE not Russia that can produce 155mm artillery and ammunition domestically on the scale that is needed for massive armored pushes. Even worse Russia has thoroughly demonstrated an inability to protect their artillery and SAM assets in forward exposed operations this being just one example of many (and without that there is no armored manuever, period), Ukraine is simply far better at hunting down their valuable artillery pieces.... No this is bloviating by Russia trying to look tough and piss off a bunch of other NATO countries so when they back down it looks like a bunch of countries made them back down rather than simply Ukraine kicking their ass.

What the fuck has Russia brought to the battlefield in the Ukraine war that has changed their ability to penetrate highly entrenched defensive lines in massive armored pushes and sustain that without anywhere near enough armored vehicles? Russia has been incapable of doing so in Ukraine, Russia will be only less capable of doing so to other NATO countries with even more backing from other pissed off NATO countries.

Food for thought, it is widely agreed in modern combined arms warfare that the role of an Armored Personnel Carrier is as a "battlefield taxi", it is like a truck that can move troops around except that it provides protection from small arms fire and just as importantly most forms of indirect artillery fire that chew infantry and trucks up (also drones/fpv attacks of course). Why then do Russians almost always ride ON TOP of their APCs into battle? It is because their armored vehicles like the BTR-80 series of vehicles generally DON'T PROVIDE PROTECTION from small arms fire and artillery, they have shitty armor and thus the entire point of the vehicle is undermined except as an amphibious all-terrain vehicle... A damn M1113 from the 60s is more relevant to the modern battlefield than a BTR80 designed in the 80s, it shows a pathetic lack of care from Russia towards their infantry....

Don't let me even get into the fact the Russian tank design still doesn't understand the basic necessity of a fast reverse gear for a main battle tank to succesfully do basic main battle tank things like reversing after firing from an exposed firing position, pivoting and adopting a new firing position. This is REALLY BASIC stuff for tank design and Russia refuses to understand or prioritize it..