The more people on a front the harder it is to push. Currently ukraine is covering the entire front on their own. Having NATO troops to reinforce their lines would allow them to rotate more often and would change the calculation for russia. Currently russia knows that there isnt many people on a front and it can be broken. If they knew that NATO was there adding another 500k active troops the calculation of attrition would be in ukraines favor.
If Ukraine and russia can bare the losses there is no reason why NATO cant.
There's no way western militaries would just add troops to the front. If we're fighting a war with Russia - regardless of where it is - it would be no holds barred. And just adding more troops to the front is not the way an advanced tech-heavy loss-averse western military would do it.
The only way western troops are deployed en-mass inside Ukraine is as a peace guarantee with some level of Russian agreement. The moment there's footage of British/French/German troops getting hunted down by drones, the public will be crying for direct strikes into Russia and it'll be WW3.
You'd need the US and Turkey to send troops to get anywhere close to 500k. EU and UK might get 200k if they sent everyone capable.
> the calculation of attrition would be in ukraines favor.
I thought it already is, has not Zelensky recently said that Russia lost 1.6M vs Ukraine's 450k (and 700k vs 50k dead)?
>If Ukraine and russia can bare the losses there is no reason why NATO cant.
Very profound. I wonder if you can find not 500k but 5k NATO troops who could draw the borders of Ukraine or Russia on a map. Yet they will find no reason not to die over it? Okay.
France, Germany, UK alone have 500k + another 200k from poland. 500k doesnt mean you have to deploy 500k to ukraine. Just make it known that ukraine has that pool available to draw from. Even a deployment of 50k and equipment would change the tides significantly.
On the matter of attrition its not in ukraines favor at all. I follow it very closely and its closer to 1m to 1.5m. Russia can sustain far greater losses. They have a much deeper pool to draw from where as ukraine has already called up and drafted a lot of their able bodied men.
The propaganda makes it look closer than it is because we want to see ukraine winning but dont take that as thinking they dont need help.
That is a count of active military for 3 nations. A deployment would never consist of only "combat troops" so you are nitpicking to try and save your point.
Oh, I see. Hundreds of thousands of various bureaucrats, secretaries, and other kinds of "active troops", who "serve" 9 to 5 in an air conditioned office is what going to change the balance on the front. Go for it, I hope you succeed in persuading your government to send those.
If Ukraine and russia can bare the losses there is no reason why NATO cant.