The object is straightforward, and it is not the mere capture of territory. From William Schryver at imetatronink.substack.com:
For those who have followed my commentary on this war for any length of time, I beg you to excuse me for yet again returning to a topic that has been a recurring theme for me.
I feel compelled to do so both because of my frustration that it encapsulates a concept that still remains poorly understood, and more immediately because earlier today I came across a Twitter post wherein the following was stated:
“The Ukrainian Army has taken more territory since June 6th than Russia has since the start of this year.”
I won’t even bother to link to it, because it doesn’t matter who said it and where. It is an expression that has been almost ubiquitous among Ukraine/NATO supporters in this war — including substantial numbers of supposed “military experts”.
In essence, it is nothing more than what is commonly referred to as a “cope” — a delusion to which one appeals to “cope” with the cognitive dissonance induced by abundant contradictory indications.
“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”
― George Orwell, 1984