they're not getting there in time. they have the city flanked from everywhere but the south, and at that acceleration, they'll carve it out and put it under siege if it doesn't just outright capitulate. this truly is disaster for assad. imagine you have a ceasefire without any major incidents for 5+ years and your entire military just melts away and gives up territory you fought tooth and nail for for countless years. did they not get proper training or resupplied at all? i do wonder how pissed putin is for how assad just fucked up years of goodwill during the russian intervention in 2015-2017 which turned the tides in their favor. the irony here is that if not for syria pleading for help, putin could've focused on ukraine before they got an additional 7 years of build up and training for self defense by the us.
United States