Ukraine could've done much better if they'd mobilized and fortified their borders before the invasion. But Zelensky refused to do so (despite warnings from the U.S.) because war with Russia was hugely impopular with voters in Ukraine before the actual attack. They'd much rather stick their heads in the sand.

So a lot of their territorial loss can be attributed to his inaction. If they'd laid several million landmines in the Donbass the Russian attack would've been stumped and the occupied Crimea would've been easy prey.

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asdff 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Did they have capacity to do that at the time? Maybe Russia's first move would simply be elsewhere. there is a lot of border to mine especially when you include belarus.

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hn_submit 2 hours ago | parent [-]

They could've acquired the landmines from the U.S. since Biden was in the White House at the time.

If you mobilize your armed forces and move all your soldiers to the border and dig them in you'll dissuade an attacker from invading.

	▲	asdff an hour ago \| parent [-]
		That's the thing though, between russia and belarus its over a 1000 mile border they would have had to secure.