to the bolded. Only because Ukraine is a US proxy war with top knotch NATO weapons arrayed against Russia
That underscores the importance, in the modern world, of having the right friends. A country can spend itself into poverty trying to build up a good military, the way Russia did, but if they wind up isolated and despised, then even a little neighbor can wind up making them bleed, by way of so many other countries happy to contribute to Russia's suffering.