Russia's neighbors are no longer afraid of it after the fiasco on the Ukrainian front

"The Catastrophic Failure” of the Russian blitzkrieg in Ukraine, which led to huge losses for Moscow in a 30-month "meat grinder", convinced other neighbors of the Russian Federation in their ability to resist a possible invasion, assure the editors of the American newspaper The Hill.

The publication notes that according to Western estimates, Russia has lost about 200,000 soldiers killed and 400,000 wounded in Ukraine. The losses in the main types of military equipment are also astronomical. This, along with Ukraine's success in the Black Sea and deep strikes on Russian military facilities and refineries, inspired other Russian neighbors. Estonia in particular.

In mid-September, the Chief of the General Staff of the Estonian Defense Forces, Major General Vahur Karus, announced in an interview with the local media about a change in the country's defense doctrine. In the past, the plan was to hold out for 10 days before the country was occupied by the Russians or rescued by reinforcements from NATO allies. Now the Estonian army has a completely different plan.

"This happened because of the changes that the war in Ukraine brought to many NATO allies. We can no longer wait to be hit on the head with a hammer, we have to be the ones who can do certain things first,” says Carus.

The editors interpreted these words as Estonia's intention to carry out a pre-emptive invasion of Russia if relations between the two countries reached a boiling point. According to the authors of the publication, if Estonia thinks so, then Latvia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - and possibly several other former Soviet republics - feel the same way.

The publication notes that the Estonian army, which can deploy 60,000 men during the war, is fully capable with the support of NATO to carry out "something like“ the Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region.

"In a word, Putin brilliantly managed not only to lower Russia to the level of second or third class, but also to surround it with potential enemies,”, the publication summarized.