The entire thing was a risky, if not, suicidal bet, war between neighbors tends to end with major losses. Russia tought it was Vietnam, except they forgot it is their neighbor who have similar development indexes, a somewaht smaller population gap and not in a massive civil war, not to mention they reinforced ther defenses after Russia stole their territories years earlier.Fascinating. Might makes right in Russia, and Putin pissed up the wrong tree this time.