Yes, Putin squandered away a lot of his power with this war and the inability to adjust the plan after it failed (the historic traffic jam north of Kiev). But the issue always was, is, and will be: the wildcards. They got nukes. They might not work well, but who knows. It makes it technically impossible for any nation to ever "break the entire russian offensive" without some serious gambling.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Xi gets pissed whenever Putin threatens with nuke and tells Putin to stop with the bluff. That being said, it is a sign that Russia's actual influence is eroding because of the war, and that Russia's sovereignty is slowly being captured by China.