They were fighting for a side you liked?

As far as I know, they were fighting a rather well trained army which had better training and weapons than they did.

It's realistically possible that they could just win the war just by sending so many people that Ukraine runs out of people to fight back even if they were killing multiple Russians per Ukrainian that died.

It's like everyone forgot the reason Russia were feared wasn't that they were a super power, had an amazing military. It was the fact, they don't care how many Russians die to win and they are brutal.

There is one marked difference - the waves of russian peasants were armed and supplied by the industrial might of the United States of America. Now, they are armed and supplied by a nation with the industrial output smaller than most European second-tier states.

Just wait for China to start arming them. The industrial powerhouse of today's world. And that is realistically a possibility.

China is patient and calculating, I dont see why they would back a region rival/frienemy that blundered in a stupid war they are currently loosing.

You mean continue to back them. They're currently backing them. I believe they're continued to show their support today. Seems there is something there you don't see.

China is making serious overtures about invading Tawain. It's well known they want to take Tawain "back". Letting them US and other countries waste their weapons on killing Russians is benefical to them. It also creates an overall unstable geopolitical envoirnment which they can take advantage of. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I don't believe China has spent a single penny in 'backing' Russia, none of their people were hurt, no company risked sanctions.

They’ve been buying fossil fuels that they didn’t really need. And China can’t really be sanctioned. The US had a trade war with them and lost because the US needs them more than they need the US.

China gains little from rearming one of their biggest adversaries and angering their European partners.

It is much better off continuing to do what they're doing today: providing token diplomatic support to Russia in exchange for steeply discounted fossil fuels.

Russia in WW I and WW II were before the demographic transition from high fertility, high mortality to low fertility, low mortality, so the Czar or the Party could throw away the lives of millions of farmers' sons. Russia today is after the demographic transition, so there is a shortage of young people and a surplus of elders. Their fertility rate is well under replacement.

> They were fighting for a side you liked?

No, if we're talking about Germans attacking during a world war, it was an existential threat to Russia. The same cannot be said of Ukraine.