What Russia’s Losses in Ukraine Are Really Revealing | Ben Hodges

Russia’s losses in Ukraine aren’t just battlefield statistics — they’re signals. What looks like grinding attrition is, in reality, a stress-test of endurance, credibility, and political will. Despite staggering casualties, Moscow has failed to secure decisive gains. And that failure is forcing Russia to lean ever harder on pressure tactics: psychological warfare, escalation threats, and nuclear signalling designed to shake Western resolve rather than win territory. Ukraine, by contrast, is fighting a different kind of war. Precision over spectacle. Pressure over headlines. A strategy built not on rapid advances, but on exhausting Russia’s ability to sustain the fight. But the battlefield is only one front. As the war drags on, the real question shifts westward. Europe is confronting a dilemma it has long postponed: how to guarantee its own security as U.S. priorities drift toward the Western Hemisphere and American commitment becomes entangled in domestic politics. NATO remains formidable on paper — but alliances are tested not by capability alone, but by certainty. Every Russian escalation, every threat, every information operation forces the same choice: respond decisively and risk widening the conflict, or hold back and quietly erode credibility. So in this episode, Ben Hodges and I break down what Russia’s battlefield failures are really exposing, why Ukraine’s strategy is reshaping the conflict, and how Europe’s hesitation may be the war’s most dangerous vulnerability. Is this just another phase of attrition — or the moment Europe is forced to confront a defence reality it can no longer outsource? 👉 Let me do the overthinking for you. Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theglobalgambit ✍️ Get my newsletter: https://pyotrskurzin.substack.com/. Because the world’s a mess, and someone needs to mock it intelligently. ☕ KEEP ME CAFFINATED ☕ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theglobalgambit ✨ LETS CONNECT ✨ https://twitter.com/PKurzin https://www.instagram.com/pyotrsfootprints/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... https://bsky.app/profile/pyotrkurzin.bsky.social 🚨 YOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP 🚨 https://www.youtube.com/@theglobalgambit/membership Chapters 00:00 Current Battlefield Dynamics in Ukraine 03:25 Manpower and Tactical Strategies 07:42 European Involvement and Strategic Objectives 12:13 Psychological Warfare and Nuclear Threats 15:53 U.S. Foreign Policy and Its Implications 20:57 The Future of NATO and European Defense 26:18 Domestic Politics and Global Strategy #ukraine #russia #nato #internationalrelations #geopolitics #putin