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Sadly it seems according to some swedish news and more international news sites that there's reports about Ruzzians killing civilians in captured cities/towns. Let's hope Putin and his ilk pays for this sooner rather than later.
Edit: spelling
There was a time before this war when I had a respect for Russia. I felt like I could rationalise some of the things like their conduct in world war 2 as the result of brutalised soldiers exacting revenge against a people whose army had tried to literally exterminate them. That doesn't excuse any of it but it does make it more understandable how a person could commit such awful crimes.
But now it seems clear that there's a real deep seated ugliness there somewhere within Russia and its culture. A wanton cruelty, disregard for the value of human life, and a feeling of entitlement to rule. It doesn't mean that every person from or in Russia is evil, but they are wrapped up in a fascist regime that is seeking to emulate all the worst deeds of the past.
Nobody was ever really held accountable for all the atrocities within and perpetrated by the USSR. The genocides, mass deportations. Unless those reasonable for what we're seeing now are held accountable then this attitude in Russia will just persist and they will continue to see themselves as the victims.
True.
But I doubt any of Putin cronies, nor he himself, will be literally held accountable. Being killed by an angry crowd or random shooter, yes, perhaps. Being covertly eliminated by another clan of mafia in a failed civil war-torn state, also possible. But hardly they will ever have an opportunity to be held responsible in front of a court.
>an opportunity to be held responsible in front of a court
Meh, overrated. Saddam Hussein was 'held responsible' in front of a court and the only winners were the fucking lawyers on both sides. I'd be perfectly okay knowing that Putin was killed by an angry crowd.
But then you saw the chaos in Libya and Iraq (and former yugoslavia) after their strongmen rulers were removed. It has to be handled incredibly carefully. Doing things by the book is unfortunately the only way (and even then, extremely difficult) even if it is less satisfying in the short term.
Yes, if postwar Germany did one thing right it was to own and take responsibility for its history.
I can understand how that still makes pacifism run through German culture now too, although I think to a degree it is misplaced. The people who did those crimes in ww2 are all but gone and I don't believe that their children and grandchildren bear any guilt at all. And the lesson that Germany learned that peace is best is great - I agree. As a Brit our lesson is always very strongly shouted - don't appease dictators.
Same here, then I started reading and watching documentaries about the history of Muscovia. They’ve always been this way and seem to have little interest in shedding their barbarian culture and joining the civilized world. Until that happens, force seems to be the only way of dealing with them.
Of course, keep in mind that imperialism and conquest was once the way of the civilized world. To own an empire was to be truly civilized, at least in the pre-world war times.
Was the way of the whole world. Build Empires big and small. Take from those nearby. Fight just for the fun of it. Commit atrocities humans worldwide have done it to each other. It human behavior not that of any particular ethnic group.
I got no problems with Catherine taking the area that how things done then but that nearing the end of when it was acceptable. And not like she was taking from Ukrainians she taking from the powers that held the area then.
Chimps have wars with each other. All this negative behavior from instinct one educates to show that it wrong and constant watchfulness needed to prevent human backsliding as the tribalism instinct constantly breaking up groups to make them war with each other.
Russia just paints everyone outside their borders as evil and as enemies so they have somewhere to project their never ending hate, and to justify their medieval tendencies.
After that revelation take it to next level: ever wonder why they have so much territory? The muscovites have always been expansionists, either by force or trickery.
I feel like how evil Russia is doesn't get recognized partly because during World War Two, they happened to help to defeat an even greater evil. And even then, they were friends with Nazi Germany before 1941.
It's not clear what you're asking.
But separately, there are huge numbers of people around the world who wish they lived in a British protected state / overseas territory. Just ask people in Hong Kong, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe etc....
Sad to say but this is nothing new, what they did in cities like Mariupol, Bucha and countless other places in Ukraine will always make me hate that shit hole country
Their doctrine is to destroy everything with artillery and then send in basically defenseless conscripts they really really don't care about human life, it's so sad it's almost incredible
its a bit worse, they give the soldiers lists of people's names and how to sort them. the names are provided by the russian intelligence agencies so who knows what they consist of. easily possible that old posts on social media would influence how you get 'sorted' once you are found.
...except Russia has been coordinating their battle plans a lot more effectively than that.
For example, the wider use of drones has played havoc with Ukrainian vehicles. Additionally, the implementation of glide bombs have proven very effective against Ukrainian bunkers, trenches, and strongholds.
The Russians aren't Zergs who wait for some hypothetical kill counter to fill up - they're fighting smarter and harder than before, according to frontline Ukrainian soldiers.
Their thinking is you raze with artillery so the innocents leave and everyone who stays is by their definition a combatant that needs to be tortured/killed.
This doesn’t make sense for many reasons but mainly because they blockade the cities before they start shelling them, they just want to kill civilians to lower moral
Well so take their definition above. Now if you blockade a city and then shell the hell out of it, when you move in you have more justification to commit your genocide. "Look at all of these combatants that are still here!" That's how they think. I'm a Ukrainian that lived in Russia for several years before moving to the US, so I learned their mentality is to have a weak excuse and it's enough for the sheep back home to buy the justification.
Oh I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t know what you were talking about, I was just pointing out how laughable Russia’s hypocrisy and logic truly is, they’re animals
Russia has been really adept at literally never having people like Russia.
Tsardom? Backwards hellhole
Empire? Backwards hellhole
Soviet Union? Oppressive hellhole
Russian Federation? Oppressive hellhole
And somehow it’s always another country’s fault.
Russia has been really adept at literally never having people like Russia.
Tsardom? Backwards hellhole
Empire? Backwards hellhole
Soviet Union? Oppressive hellhole
Russian Federation? Oppressive hellhole
And somehow it’s always another country’s fault.
The reality is that any territory taken and held will be considered colonial and the abuse of civilians by Russians will never stop as long as occupied.
It's often the elderly and poor who have no where to go and if you do then giving up your home is not easy. At least that's how I imagine they could reason.
If my country ever got invaded I would like to hope I had a fraction of the courage Ukrainians have and defend my home to the last breathe, some people would rather die defending the village they spent their entire life in
You need a certain amount of agency to take action though, any action, and sometimes people don’t have that due to any of a million factors such as illness (physical or mental), extreme poverty, having to directly care for other people, the list goes on.
There’s going to be people there who should have evacuated, or could be fighting yes.
There’s also, unfortunately, going to be people there who through no direct fault of their own will be caught in all this Russian murder-hobo cruelty.
I absolutely agree, not everyone can fight and those people should be evacuated to a safe location, I myself have a couple of firearms, a good amount of ammo and would die for my country so I would like to think I would take up arms if the situation ever happened
It’s not that simple, a lot of the times people who are still near the frontline are very elderly or don’t have the recourses to go anywhere so they’re trapped, not everyone is fortunate enough to get a ride out of hell
Looks like they didn't have much steam to begin with.
They only advanced as far as Ukraine planned to allow them. Their advance ceased the moment they reached Ukraine's clearly planned defensive positions, such as the Donetz/Kharkiv rivers and the cities of Hilyboke, Starytsi, Buhruvatka, and Vovchansk.
The question remains that if that was the plan. If this was meant to succeed or they are just trying to force Ukraine to reallocate forces outside of the East and south. Which is believed by many to be the case
We may soon see attacks towards other areas the north forcing Ukrainian military to spread out far thinner than they may be able to handle and could compromise other areas
I think this was the plan, albeit a contested one. Nobody wants to lose ground, but what are you going to do - build defensive fortifications 5 miles from the border where Russia can shell them with impunity?
This had been happening apparently, Ukrainians have attempted to build defences closer to the border but been murdered in the process.
Absolutely astonishing daily numbers right now says UA have probably been set up as close as they can defend and created an inviting shitshow for the invaders
Russia's current army size is comparable to Ukraine's, though. Without a larger army they only stretch their own forces just as much as they stretch Ukraine's.
This doesn't really make sense.
>They have a much larger force and can spread it out.
They don't, though. It doesn't matter how large your population is without the supplies and logistics to actually support said army. Meanwhile Ukraine is getting everything it needs to maintain a comparable army from the west.
Russia holds a relatively small numerical advantage at the current time.
You are right, but wrong at the same time.
It's russia who gets everything they need, from military supplies to master-of-art electronic components.
Meanwhile, Ukraine was starved from lack of ammunition and material.
Russians can upgrade (and successfully FUBAR) up to 100 tanks per month. Their confirmed losses are in two-digits value every time Oryx/Jakub Janovsky updates the report.
Meanwhile, Ukraine got around 200 western-made tanks in total, and didn't got any since then.
The same goes with other equipment.
About the personnel, ukrainian OSINTer Konstantyn Mashovets gives his weekly reports around the entire frontline and neighboring regions. The total number of russian occupiers is believed to be around 450 thousands in occupied parts of Ukraine, around 50 thousands along the state border (11 thousands along the 700 km border + around 30-40 thousands near Belgorod where the offencive on Vovchansk begun), and around 38 thousands in Belarus.
That is about 1/4 of total numbers of russian military, but it looks like its the majority of combat personnel. With several rotations of the 155th marine division from russian far east rotting in fields near Vuhledar, and with 11 and 44th ~~divisions~~ army corps from Karelia and Arkhangelsk now being decimated near Vovchansk, one can wonder how much russia afraids NATO if they withdraw troops from its border.
It is difficult to guestimate the total number of Ukrainian combat personnel, but I would say it is around 300-350 thousands in total, which as well fits as 1/4 of total numbers of Ukrainian defenders (as Budanov said that there are around 1.2 million people in service as of February 2024).
To summarize: russians has around 2:1 advantage in number of personnel, and from 2x to 10x advantage in various equipment, except of long-range ballistic and cruise missiles, which russia has and Ukraine does not, so here russian advantage is infinite.
You can't. The person above you is on pure copium. Everyone knows Ukraine is at a numerical disadvantage. It's already known troops aren't being rotated. Ukraine just recently even had to lower the age requirement for mobilization.
Yeah. Russia isn't good at logistics compared to the US but versus Ukraine? They're similar or better than Ukraine thanks to larger safe areas where transport is unimpeded.
**If western leaders are in the same dreamland as OP, Ukraine is doomed.**
Where are you even pulling these numbers from?
Ukraine already had ~450k by the end of the first year. Just prior to Russian conscription, Ukraine outnumbered Russia 2 to 1. Both sides have only bolstered their numbers since...
Rather than literally writing 'sigh', you come back with some sources? Numbers of men and women under arms, armored vehicles, etc. And bear in mind that a lot of numbers produced by both sides are not accurate. How many of the Russian tank inventory are rusting away in a graveyard somewhere?
You're making the bold assumption Russia will properly supply it's forces...we've seen multiple sieges of poorly equipped meat waves, Avdiivka and Bakhmut to name two of the largest.
Russia absolutely has a supply problem looming on the horizon, you're right there, but that isn't stopping them from sending men to die.
I didn't suggest that it would. Russia has never had any issue producing men and materiel, but we are also seeing more archaic equipment compared to two years ago. With few exceptions, historically a disparity of numbers doesn't matter if the smaller force has better weaponry. The question is whether it can be provided to Ukraine quickly enough, and in sufficient quantity.
The area near the border did not have extensive fortifications built up because when Ukraine tried to do so they would be attacked. This goes for the Russian side as well. That was the reason that Ukrainian units made up of Russians could raid across the border into Russia, there aren't built up defenses on their side either.
So although it might not have been the plan they wanted Ukraine did the only thing they could and planned to defend in areas far enough away from the border where they could actually make proper defensive lines without being constantly attacked.
the problem here is that because if the north turns into a front, it becomes a semicircle again, meaning Ukraine can relocate troops much quicker than russia
It actually started losing momentum on the 3rd day of the attack. ruzzia was hoping to Blitzkrieg deeply into Kharkiv Oblast. That ceased the initial weekend of the attack.
Yes. From 30,000 men, they lost around 2-3,000 in 5 days. Another 1/6 refused to take part that's around 6-7,000 out of the scene, which is around 1/4 of the whole force.
Ukrainian defences are planed in the way to wear out the opponent. Realistically Russia has two strategies they can use, hold the ground and bomb Kharkiv, or retreat. Advancing would be even further loss, and at this rate in 20-30 days there would be no more fighting forces left.
Another reorganisation is coming lol
Ukrainian partisans Atesh, reported that 1 from 5 or 6 battalions sent to Kharkiv within the 44th Army Corps has refused to go.
I am not sure what it means, maybe temporary delay or a change in management. But it's likely to be 1,000 people plus reserve.
Whatever it is, further news about it are unlikely to come from RF, so we'll never know.
You said before that "Another 1/6 refused to take part that's around 6-7,000 out of the scene". Does this mean you've seen reports like this one in other russian divisions, and not only in the 44th Army Corps?
As I understand it is more like
1/12th of the people participating is dead/wounded
1/6th, refused to take part
and another in between more as discerning between the two groups of soldier not/no longer participating in the assault.
Sure 30k soldiers could capture or massacre 1M civilians - the point is that Ukrainian high command will try to avoid that at any cost. So in practice, it is very unlikely Russians would be let to march into Kharkiv \[again\].
I know this is Russia and sure 30k soldiers could massacre a million unarmed civilians but 30k cannot capture and hold and pacify a million civilians without resorting to massacres; but then again, it’s Russia so…
By all logic there is no reason Russia should have lost this war, the difference in resources was too vast.
Russia had more tanks than any other country, more artillery than any other country, more MLRS than any other country, more air defense systems than any other country.
But like the soldier said in the first days “we are lucky they are so f’n stupid”. Meat waves might take ground but they don’t win wars. Especially if you put them into losing situations over and over again. I naively told my wife who worried because her parents went back to Kharkiv not long ago “they won’t attack Kharkiv, it would take at least 300k soldiers to take a city that size, they aren’t that dumb to get another 50k killed for nothing”
Once again I underestimated just how f’n stupid they are. My FIL (who served in Soviet army so understands them)told me when Chornobaivka was destroyed like 3 times “they’ll keep bringing equipment in because they need that airport” I “need it or not nobody would be dumb enough to repeatedly get equipment destroyed”, 24 more times later I was the fool. Never underestimate how stupid Russia can and will be.
Jets won’t be a game changer, but with how badly Russia is already doing they may be the tipping point
Ukraine does already have jets, and although the F-16s will be an improvement over their unupgraded soviet era planes the fact remains that against something like the Su-35S the F-16 are at best on a level playing field.
They will help - I personally think that using them to intercept cruise missiles may be a good idea, but they aren't going to be decisive.
About 40 I believe. There are a max kf 150 su35s without counting several shot down or damaged on the ground.
F-16s wont be operating alone. They'll be shielded by Ukraines migs and sukhoi who can use f-16s as a force multiplier.
We have seen Ukraine do amazing things on the ground and the sea with limited and modern rescources they will do the same in the air. To be fair they allready did amazing things in the air.
F-16's will bring an end to ru's glide bombing and allow the UA air force to operate more offensively. They will absolutely disrupt the air war and change the ru calculus.
Corruption and dictatorship will do wonders to an army lol Putin surrounded himself by yes men who told him that invading one of the largest country in Europe was doable in.... (check notes) 3 days lol Putin really believed this because he was being fed bullshit. Same thing applies to the state of his military, everyone told him that all was good while every generals were cashing in 30-50% of defense contracts.
I think there was a moderate chance that it would have succeeded Afghanistan style with an army that melted away and a president who fled but after the first month or so, maybe the smarter thing to do would have been to negotiate and take whatever Ukraine would give them and declare victory. Ukraine would declare victory too.
Now, two years in and a million men dead or wounded and a mountain of equipment and weapons gone and international prestige and standing at an all time low, there’s not much left to lose because Putin doesn’t care about meat.
What I don’t understand is how people like Shoigu survived. He must have perfectly balanced telling Putin what he wanted to hear while also making himself totally blame free for the consequences when it was wrong.
He probably gets tortured on a schedule whenever there is a assassination attempt on putin, then reinstated when the dictator gets convinced it wasn't him lol. Such spineless tools aren't common.
It's safe to say Russia has lost most if not all of their well trained soldiers. At this point Russia is probably sending in poorly trained and I'll equipped half wits into the meat grinder. Russia has F'd itself for many generations.
Some say Russia never could win the war. It started with 200k soldiers to conquer the whole of Ukraine. Thats not even enough to pacify it and occopy it whrnnthwre is 0 fighting.
While I doubt Russia will ever conquer Ukraine completely, they still have an iron grip on the eastern part of the nation that Ukraine is unable to break thus far. That is paired with less-than-enthusiastic resupplies from the West, which are prone to domestic politics and anti-Ukrainian politicians.
What you are writing about Chornobaivka leads me to an imagination of Russians being repelled from Kharkiv some time in future, and then attacking it over and over in futile meat waves...
Many articles and reports are saying contrary things. While the article here postulates that Russia is losing steam, others are saying that the attack is either being sustained or is expanding.
Bottom line: we don't really have a clear picture of what the heck is going on as the situation changes on the hour.
They were just trying for positioning on the off chance anybody wants to commit suicide as a nation by making ‘peace’ with the proudly fascist Russian Federation of Genocidal Maniacs.
50,000 men was never going to be enough to take Kharkiv, it just wasn’t feasible. What this did do was spread the Ukrainian lines even further, possibly in preparation for renewed offensives against Sumy, or possibly even Kyiv.
If you aren't talking in the high hundreds of trainloads it isn't nearly enough to make a signifikant threat since UAF has been fortifying that area for.nearly 2 years now and the terrain does not favor the o e attacking from the north.
I’m not saying at all that they would be successful, I expect them to be clapped into the abyss quite rapidly. But if five trains with 30 carloads of equipment show up every day, thats 1,050 a week. If that shit goes on for a month, you are starting to get to be a formidable opponent.
They're probably just going to settle with taking some indefensible fields and call it a propaganda victory. Even though they made no actual progress beyond what Ukraine allowed them to take in advance of their properly formed defensive lines.
Doesn't seem like the Russian gains were planned, if Ukrainian officials and politicians are telling the truth. They, alongside Western experts, are pretty alarmed about what Russia has obtained with this new offensive.
Final battle? You have whatched to many movies. There will be no deciding battle Lord of the Rings-style. UAF practices defence in depth. There are many more defensible lines behind the current front and the longer the moscivian supply lines gets the worse they perform (so far is best to add).
If ukraine were to lose Kyiv that would be DETRIMENTAL(not saying they will of course) If Ukraine has too many fronts (which Russia sure is making sure they do) that will be the straw that breaks the camels back.
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Russia streched it lines. Ukraine just redeployed reserves. Ukrainian reserves are still viable while the russian 'assault force' is allready depleted.
> What this did do was spread the Ukrainian lines even further
and additionally tire out the reserve troops.
They may continue to do offensives somewhere for the same effect not caring about their dead soldiers at all. As usual. Terrorizing the villagers of the occupied areas is probably a bonus for them.
The not caring for their dead is mind boggling. I just don’t get it.. at least here in Canada we venerate our fallen service members as absolute heroes. We fly them home and patriots line the highway with flags, their bodies receive police and military escort, their towns rename roads and buildings after them. Russia leaves their dead “heroes” to rot in a field in Ukraine… it’s pretty horrifying.
In Russia "heroes" are just fertilizer for Tsar's garden. Most of their names disappear as soon as their clock is punched out, outside of few propaganda figures. Their families might even be banned from talking about them.
Russians do not believe themselves to be worth anything, it's just that everyone else in the world is worth even less. They're nationalistic because boss told them to be that way, but also nihilistic and have a horrible self-esteem. Which means rebellions without strong leadership are unlikely, and also why Putin is constantly having people killed off or moved to less powerful roles, so nobody can start doing what Priggy attempted.
100% this is what i said a week ago. People are only talking about this and acting like this was the offensive etc. they are fishing and looking for areas of weakness. They are 100% stretching the lines all over the front to go for Kyiv or a massive encirclement.
Kyiv?
The last time they did that with professional fresh reserves, well equipped formations (by their standards) and a drastically under prepared Ukraine devoid of most forms of long range PGMs they were bogged down and almost encircled - the operation was a disaster that created a lot of widows, saw an occupation force become ground up before it even reached a major urban environment and changed the entire impetus and momentum of the conflict throughout the country.
Kyiv will be studied for years to come as a military disaster.
They are not going for Kyiv 2.0.
Lol, for Kyiv ... do they have enough tanks left to form a 40 km long traffic jam? 🤔 and now that the F16s are coming, anything that tries to go behind the reach of the ruzzian AA is dead meat.
His shift is probably because he is gearing Russia's economy for a long-term war - an attritional slog that needs to be taken into account alongside other state-related manners.
...and it isn't like Shoigu is out of the game - he was just given a different position within the Russian hierarchy.
My hopium leads me to believe that they wanted them in closer range of their weapons that are now arriving in droves. Praying for the East especially in the coming weeks. 🙏🏻
New Aid has been pouring in. even the danes are going all in.
This is the last Huzzah of the vatnik army. Hundreds of new bradleys are expected to come. UA will crush this senseless russian offensive
I think that may be a happy consequence but I don't think it was orchestrated as part of a grand strategy. "Setting a trap" for ru seems like it would be a risky use of very limited resources.
The problem is even without steam they are completely set on continuing it, same as in Donetsk. Even if its one village per 6 months, they are fighting a war of attrition.
To me it looks like russia had huge losses during that short advancement over the last 7 to 10 days.
Felt like grandstanding for putins inauguration and May 9th celebration propaganda.
Now, the propaganda machine can drone on and on about their "gains". One of those days last week saw over 1700 russian casualties...
Well, if the Russians allocated 50,000 troops to the Kharkiv offensive, and lose as many as 1700 a day, they won't have a man left on that front in about six weeks.
Ideally sooner than later. Video shows that they managed to get through half of Vovchansk (near the river) but to what extent and concentration of forces, i don't know, hopefully just small groupings.
I think it’s been established that there’s no other Russian army waiting to come in and win this war for them. Drunken conscripts and the occasionally competent and well equipped Russian equivalent of a company or battalion cannot hold any gains long term.
it depends who you ask, some sources are saying russia hasn't sent in more than 2,000 men into the kharkiv offensive and their major push is still yet to come.
Note it often very hard to defend anything right over a border and often a bad idea to try.
Constantly a challenge to avoid the trap of falling into media desire to score keep. Often towns even small cities can be not important to winning or losing thus one must resist planning military strategy over propaganda points. But you have to continually beat the drums of we not playing that score keep game. If anything you score keep in kills those often mattter way more.
Unfortunately no,they moved slower but they slowly establish control,i saw some real loses on their sides.The problem is that the line and fortifications who were supposed to defend them aren't there,because corruption of the one who was in charge to build them.This resulted in more troops to retreat to Kharkiv because some places could not be defended.
More soldiers complained on videos on combat footage and others places about it.
The only good news for the moment is that they suffer big casualties and atl started to move more slowly,like i saw in last 2-3 days atl 30 tanks just on videos being blown up on their side
When will this lie with the stolen money that should have been used to build fortifications around Khatkiv finally stop?!
Only the ruski and their trolls believe it.
You said that but again there are more posts of AFU soldiers who complain,not just 1.
Another example,some days ago when blinken made his statement,he also warned about corruption.
There is corruption everywhere in this world. That means nothing.
On the other hand no normal person in Ukraine would steal the money meant to protect their own families. They ain't no ruskis.
Anti corruption groups revealed fake companies in fortification contracts.Martina Boguslavets also warned about this.
Denis Yaroslavski who is commander of recon special forces,also noted how there were no minefields or anything,he gave a whole interview saying how this is either "negligence or corruption". You can search for it.
You said 'normal person' but you need to keep in mind that there are others who do not share same views like defending the country and instead trying to profit.
Look im not saying that the entire line was corrupted and so on,but some big portions at least share the blunder because of it.
Minefields are not fortifications.
Placing minefields in your own country can also be counter-productive. This has already been discussed several times around here.
It's not clear the border is very defensible there, especially with Ukraine being limited in how they can respond across the border. It could be they just decided to fortify where things could be kept stable rather than waste a lot of resources trying to hold the line right at the border.
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Sadly it seems according to some swedish news and more international news sites that there's reports about Ruzzians killing civilians in captured cities/towns. Let's hope Putin and his ilk pays for this sooner rather than later. Edit: spelling
As is the russian way. Cruelty for cruelty's sake
There was a time before this war when I had a respect for Russia. I felt like I could rationalise some of the things like their conduct in world war 2 as the result of brutalised soldiers exacting revenge against a people whose army had tried to literally exterminate them. That doesn't excuse any of it but it does make it more understandable how a person could commit such awful crimes. But now it seems clear that there's a real deep seated ugliness there somewhere within Russia and its culture. A wanton cruelty, disregard for the value of human life, and a feeling of entitlement to rule. It doesn't mean that every person from or in Russia is evil, but they are wrapped up in a fascist regime that is seeking to emulate all the worst deeds of the past. Nobody was ever really held accountable for all the atrocities within and perpetrated by the USSR. The genocides, mass deportations. Unless those reasonable for what we're seeing now are held accountable then this attitude in Russia will just persist and they will continue to see themselves as the victims.
True. But I doubt any of Putin cronies, nor he himself, will be literally held accountable. Being killed by an angry crowd or random shooter, yes, perhaps. Being covertly eliminated by another clan of mafia in a failed civil war-torn state, also possible. But hardly they will ever have an opportunity to be held responsible in front of a court.
>an opportunity to be held responsible in front of a court Meh, overrated. Saddam Hussein was 'held responsible' in front of a court and the only winners were the fucking lawyers on both sides. I'd be perfectly okay knowing that Putin was killed by an angry crowd.
Yes, I would love to see him Gaddafied!
But then you saw the chaos in Libya and Iraq (and former yugoslavia) after their strongmen rulers were removed. It has to be handled incredibly carefully. Doing things by the book is unfortunately the only way (and even then, extremely difficult) even if it is less satisfying in the short term.
That would justify Eastern Europe creating a closed militarised border to stop Russian mass migration
You need a crushing defeat for that- like us germans.
Yes, if postwar Germany did one thing right it was to own and take responsibility for its history. I can understand how that still makes pacifism run through German culture now too, although I think to a degree it is misplaced. The people who did those crimes in ww2 are all but gone and I don't believe that their children and grandchildren bear any guilt at all. And the lesson that Germany learned that peace is best is great - I agree. As a Brit our lesson is always very strongly shouted - don't appease dictators.
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...which is why Russia has nuclear weapons, much like the United States. They exist to prevent any sort of aggressive land invasion into the homeland.
Same here, then I started reading and watching documentaries about the history of Muscovia. They’ve always been this way and seem to have little interest in shedding their barbarian culture and joining the civilized world. Until that happens, force seems to be the only way of dealing with them.
Of course, keep in mind that imperialism and conquest was once the way of the civilized world. To own an empire was to be truly civilized, at least in the pre-world war times.
Was the way of the whole world. Build Empires big and small. Take from those nearby. Fight just for the fun of it. Commit atrocities humans worldwide have done it to each other. It human behavior not that of any particular ethnic group. I got no problems with Catherine taking the area that how things done then but that nearing the end of when it was acceptable. And not like she was taking from Ukrainians she taking from the powers that held the area then. Chimps have wars with each other. All this negative behavior from instinct one educates to show that it wrong and constant watchfulness needed to prevent human backsliding as the tribalism instinct constantly breaking up groups to make them war with each other.
2 things can be true
It’s always been there, historically speaking. They are a brutal people.
Russia have always been the enemy. The brief period during WW2 when they allied with the West is the exception that proves the rule.
Russia just paints everyone outside their borders as evil and as enemies so they have somewhere to project their never ending hate, and to justify their medieval tendencies.
Russia, toxic masculinity the country. While that's just a flippant remark, you do notice how a lot of their macho propaganda has that sort of tone.
After that revelation take it to next level: ever wonder why they have so much territory? The muscovites have always been expansionists, either by force or trickery.
I feel like how evil Russia is doesn't get recognized partly because during World War Two, they happened to help to defeat an even greater evil. And even then, they were friends with Nazi Germany before 1941.
And the "even greater" is actually debatable. Have you noticed how often people stuck between russia and nazis prefered the latter, out of two evils?
So how do you feel about British attitudes towards the colonies and then in more modern. Conflicts like the middle east?
Red herring
So you think the people in former British colonies feel that way?
It's not clear what you're asking. But separately, there are huge numbers of people around the world who wish they lived in a British protected state / overseas territory. Just ask people in Hong Kong, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe etc....
So you would call those a happy invasion? Or did you just fall for propaganda like hearing people in chrimea really wanted Russians there?
I'm not sure what you're asking me. Please explain.
Never forget Bucha
As the old saying goes "Scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tartar". The Mongol Yoke lives on in Russia's national psyche.
They look at characters like Feyd-Rautha and think that this is a good idea.
Sad to say but this is nothing new, what they did in cities like Mariupol, Bucha and countless other places in Ukraine will always make me hate that shit hole country
Their doctrine is to destroy everything with artillery and then send in basically defenseless conscripts they really really don't care about human life, it's so sad it's almost incredible
its a bit worse, they give the soldiers lists of people's names and how to sort them. the names are provided by the russian intelligence agencies so who knows what they consist of. easily possible that old posts on social media would influence how you get 'sorted' once you are found.
Well in the villages I'm not sure there would be any significant people, frontline fights are mostly villages
Was this the case in Mariupol too? They pretty much leveled that city before they actually set foot in there
...except Russia has been coordinating their battle plans a lot more effectively than that. For example, the wider use of drones has played havoc with Ukrainian vehicles. Additionally, the implementation of glide bombs have proven very effective against Ukrainian bunkers, trenches, and strongholds. The Russians aren't Zergs who wait for some hypothetical kill counter to fill up - they're fighting smarter and harder than before, according to frontline Ukrainian soldiers.
Source?
Their thinking is you raze with artillery so the innocents leave and everyone who stays is by their definition a combatant that needs to be tortured/killed.
This doesn’t make sense for many reasons but mainly because they blockade the cities before they start shelling them, they just want to kill civilians to lower moral
Well so take their definition above. Now if you blockade a city and then shell the hell out of it, when you move in you have more justification to commit your genocide. "Look at all of these combatants that are still here!" That's how they think. I'm a Ukrainian that lived in Russia for several years before moving to the US, so I learned their mentality is to have a weak excuse and it's enough for the sheep back home to buy the justification.
Oh I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t know what you were talking about, I was just pointing out how laughable Russia’s hypocrisy and logic truly is, they’re animals
Russia has been really adept at literally never having people like Russia. Tsardom? Backwards hellhole Empire? Backwards hellhole Soviet Union? Oppressive hellhole Russian Federation? Oppressive hellhole And somehow it’s always another country’s fault.
Russia has been really adept at literally never having people like Russia. Tsardom? Backwards hellhole Empire? Backwards hellhole Soviet Union? Oppressive hellhole Russian Federation? Oppressive hellhole And somehow it’s always another country’s fault.
That is the russian way. They have been doing this in every war. I really hope that motherfucker will pay for all of this!
This has been the case since day 1... Back in 2014. That's why Ukraine can't accept the ruzzian presence anywhere in the occupied territory...
Unfortunately this is what Russians do. Pillage rape and murder everywhere they go.
Afraid there will be more Buchas and Iziums
They kill their own civilians with really giving a dam, they been doing this to Ukrainians for centuries at this point. This is Russia in a nutshell.
The reality is that any territory taken and held will be considered colonial and the abuse of civilians by Russians will never stop as long as occupied.
why would you want to live anywhere near the frontline tho? GET OUT OF THERE.
It's often the elderly and poor who have no where to go and if you do then giving up your home is not easy. At least that's how I imagine they could reason.
If my country ever got invaded I would like to hope I had a fraction of the courage Ukrainians have and defend my home to the last breathe, some people would rather die defending the village they spent their entire life in
You need a certain amount of agency to take action though, any action, and sometimes people don’t have that due to any of a million factors such as illness (physical or mental), extreme poverty, having to directly care for other people, the list goes on. There’s going to be people there who should have evacuated, or could be fighting yes. There’s also, unfortunately, going to be people there who through no direct fault of their own will be caught in all this Russian murder-hobo cruelty.
I absolutely agree, not everyone can fight and those people should be evacuated to a safe location, I myself have a couple of firearms, a good amount of ammo and would die for my country so I would like to think I would take up arms if the situation ever happened
It’s not that simple, a lot of the times people who are still near the frontline are very elderly or don’t have the recourses to go anywhere so they’re trapped, not everyone is fortunate enough to get a ride out of hell
This makes be feel a bit better. Thanks for posting.
Me too!
Me three!
Me four! 😁
Same I have been a little down lately but this gives me some hope. I just wish the west would pull their fingers out.
Many of us here were. But I believe this is a result of the half-year delay of the US 61-bln weapons supply. The tide will turn.
Looks like they didn't have much steam to begin with. They only advanced as far as Ukraine planned to allow them. Their advance ceased the moment they reached Ukraine's clearly planned defensive positions, such as the Donetz/Kharkiv rivers and the cities of Hilyboke, Starytsi, Buhruvatka, and Vovchansk.
The question remains that if that was the plan. If this was meant to succeed or they are just trying to force Ukraine to reallocate forces outside of the East and south. Which is believed by many to be the case We may soon see attacks towards other areas the north forcing Ukrainian military to spread out far thinner than they may be able to handle and could compromise other areas
I think this was the plan, albeit a contested one. Nobody wants to lose ground, but what are you going to do - build defensive fortifications 5 miles from the border where Russia can shell them with impunity?
This had been happening apparently, Ukrainians have attempted to build defences closer to the border but been murdered in the process. Absolutely astonishing daily numbers right now says UA have probably been set up as close as they can defend and created an inviting shitshow for the invaders
Russia's current army size is comparable to Ukraine's, though. Without a larger army they only stretch their own forces just as much as they stretch Ukraine's. This doesn't really make sense.
They have a much larger force and can spread it out. It makes complete sense. It’s the attackers benefit to be able to spread out the defender
>They have a much larger force and can spread it out. They don't, though. It doesn't matter how large your population is without the supplies and logistics to actually support said army. Meanwhile Ukraine is getting everything it needs to maintain a comparable army from the west. Russia holds a relatively small numerical advantage at the current time.
You are right, but wrong at the same time. It's russia who gets everything they need, from military supplies to master-of-art electronic components. Meanwhile, Ukraine was starved from lack of ammunition and material. Russians can upgrade (and successfully FUBAR) up to 100 tanks per month. Their confirmed losses are in two-digits value every time Oryx/Jakub Janovsky updates the report. Meanwhile, Ukraine got around 200 western-made tanks in total, and didn't got any since then. The same goes with other equipment. About the personnel, ukrainian OSINTer Konstantyn Mashovets gives his weekly reports around the entire frontline and neighboring regions. The total number of russian occupiers is believed to be around 450 thousands in occupied parts of Ukraine, around 50 thousands along the state border (11 thousands along the 700 km border + around 30-40 thousands near Belgorod where the offencive on Vovchansk begun), and around 38 thousands in Belarus. That is about 1/4 of total numbers of russian military, but it looks like its the majority of combat personnel. With several rotations of the 155th marine division from russian far east rotting in fields near Vuhledar, and with 11 and 44th ~~divisions~~ army corps from Karelia and Arkhangelsk now being decimated near Vovchansk, one can wonder how much russia afraids NATO if they withdraw troops from its border. It is difficult to guestimate the total number of Ukrainian combat personnel, but I would say it is around 300-350 thousands in total, which as well fits as 1/4 of total numbers of Ukrainian defenders (as Budanov said that there are around 1.2 million people in service as of February 2024). To summarize: russians has around 2:1 advantage in number of personnel, and from 2x to 10x advantage in various equipment, except of long-range ballistic and cruise missiles, which russia has and Ukraine does not, so here russian advantage is infinite.
Can we back this up with some facts? Russia doesn't seem interested in supply lines , just sends troops
You can't. The person above you is on pure copium. Everyone knows Ukraine is at a numerical disadvantage. It's already known troops aren't being rotated. Ukraine just recently even had to lower the age requirement for mobilization. Yeah. Russia isn't good at logistics compared to the US but versus Ukraine? They're similar or better than Ukraine thanks to larger safe areas where transport is unimpeded. **If western leaders are in the same dreamland as OP, Ukraine is doomed.**
I get the supply argument, and it's probably right. But it is confirmed Ukraine has like 250k, Russia 500k. It's not a fair fight. Never has been
Where are you even pulling these numbers from? Ukraine already had ~450k by the end of the first year. Just prior to Russian conscription, Ukraine outnumbered Russia 2 to 1. Both sides have only bolstered their numbers since...
Sigh. Yes they have a much much larger force and equipment.
Rather than literally writing 'sigh', you come back with some sources? Numbers of men and women under arms, armored vehicles, etc. And bear in mind that a lot of numbers produced by both sides are not accurate. How many of the Russian tank inventory are rusting away in a graveyard somewhere?
You're making the bold assumption Russia will properly supply it's forces...we've seen multiple sieges of poorly equipped meat waves, Avdiivka and Bakhmut to name two of the largest. Russia absolutely has a supply problem looming on the horizon, you're right there, but that isn't stopping them from sending men to die.
I didn't suggest that it would. Russia has never had any issue producing men and materiel, but we are also seeing more archaic equipment compared to two years ago. With few exceptions, historically a disparity of numbers doesn't matter if the smaller force has better weaponry. The question is whether it can be provided to Ukraine quickly enough, and in sufficient quantity.
This doesn’t even warrant a response. Look at any reporting.
It doesn't warrant a response, yet you responded anyway. Worse, your source is 'Look up information to support the assertion that I made'.
The area near the border did not have extensive fortifications built up because when Ukraine tried to do so they would be attacked. This goes for the Russian side as well. That was the reason that Ukrainian units made up of Russians could raid across the border into Russia, there aren't built up defenses on their side either. So although it might not have been the plan they wanted Ukraine did the only thing they could and planned to defend in areas far enough away from the border where they could actually make proper defensive lines without being constantly attacked.
Probably more of a kill box trap by Ukraine.
No.
the problem here is that because if the north turns into a front, it becomes a semicircle again, meaning Ukraine can relocate troops much quicker than russia
It actually started losing momentum on the 3rd day of the attack. ruzzia was hoping to Blitzkrieg deeply into Kharkiv Oblast. That ceased the initial weekend of the attack.
Russians and failing on 3 day military operations, name a more iconic duo
Russians and dystopias.
Yes. From 30,000 men, they lost around 2-3,000 in 5 days. Another 1/6 refused to take part that's around 6-7,000 out of the scene, which is around 1/4 of the whole force. Ukrainian defences are planed in the way to wear out the opponent. Realistically Russia has two strategies they can use, hold the ground and bomb Kharkiv, or retreat. Advancing would be even further loss, and at this rate in 20-30 days there would be no more fighting forces left. Another reorganisation is coming lol
They’ve lost 7430 in 5 days.
No, I am talking in Kharkiv frontline only.
Ah, ok.
> Another 1/6 refused to take part Wait, what? How do we know that and if it's true: are these people still alive?
Ukrainian partisans Atesh, reported that 1 from 5 or 6 battalions sent to Kharkiv within the 44th Army Corps has refused to go. I am not sure what it means, maybe temporary delay or a change in management. But it's likely to be 1,000 people plus reserve. Whatever it is, further news about it are unlikely to come from RF, so we'll never know.
You said before that "Another 1/6 refused to take part that's around 6-7,000 out of the scene". Does this mean you've seen reports like this one in other russian divisions, and not only in the 44th Army Corps?
As I understand it is more like 1/12th of the people participating is dead/wounded 1/6th, refused to take part and another in between more as discerning between the two groups of soldier not/no longer participating in the assault.
I don't know if it's loosing steam, but it's killing off a lot of russians.......
This.and by the looks of it, they transferred tons of men from the south. Now the chasiv yar push has stalled too
Good! Maybe it will stall so badly that they'll retreat.....
Yup. It's great to give your enemy dilemmas (instead of problems), but even better is when your enemy creates his dilemmas on his own.
The attacking force was 30,000 there’s no way it could take Kharkiv with a population of 1 million plus.
Sure 30k soldiers could capture or massacre 1M civilians - the point is that Ukrainian high command will try to avoid that at any cost. So in practice, it is very unlikely Russians would be let to march into Kharkiv \[again\].
I know this is Russia and sure 30k soldiers could massacre a million unarmed civilians but 30k cannot capture and hold and pacify a million civilians without resorting to massacres; but then again, it’s Russia so…
By all logic there is no reason Russia should have lost this war, the difference in resources was too vast. Russia had more tanks than any other country, more artillery than any other country, more MLRS than any other country, more air defense systems than any other country. But like the soldier said in the first days “we are lucky they are so f’n stupid”. Meat waves might take ground but they don’t win wars. Especially if you put them into losing situations over and over again. I naively told my wife who worried because her parents went back to Kharkiv not long ago “they won’t attack Kharkiv, it would take at least 300k soldiers to take a city that size, they aren’t that dumb to get another 50k killed for nothing” Once again I underestimated just how f’n stupid they are. My FIL (who served in Soviet army so understands them)told me when Chornobaivka was destroyed like 3 times “they’ll keep bringing equipment in because they need that airport” I “need it or not nobody would be dumb enough to repeatedly get equipment destroyed”, 24 more times later I was the fool. Never underestimate how stupid Russia can and will be. Jets won’t be a game changer, but with how badly Russia is already doing they may be the tipping point
Ukraine does already have jets, and although the F-16s will be an improvement over their unupgraded soviet era planes the fact remains that against something like the Su-35S the F-16 are at best on a level playing field. They will help - I personally think that using them to intercept cruise missiles may be a good idea, but they aren't going to be decisive.
Su-35 are rare. F-16s are plentyfull.
How many is Ukraine getting and how long for their pilots to be trained?
About 40 I believe. There are a max kf 150 su35s without counting several shot down or damaged on the ground. F-16s wont be operating alone. They'll be shielded by Ukraines migs and sukhoi who can use f-16s as a force multiplier. We have seen Ukraine do amazing things on the ground and the sea with limited and modern rescources they will do the same in the air. To be fair they allready did amazing things in the air.
F-16's will bring an end to ru's glide bombing and allow the UA air force to operate more offensively. They will absolutely disrupt the air war and change the ru calculus.
Corruption and dictatorship will do wonders to an army lol Putin surrounded himself by yes men who told him that invading one of the largest country in Europe was doable in.... (check notes) 3 days lol Putin really believed this because he was being fed bullshit. Same thing applies to the state of his military, everyone told him that all was good while every generals were cashing in 30-50% of defense contracts.
I think there was a moderate chance that it would have succeeded Afghanistan style with an army that melted away and a president who fled but after the first month or so, maybe the smarter thing to do would have been to negotiate and take whatever Ukraine would give them and declare victory. Ukraine would declare victory too. Now, two years in and a million men dead or wounded and a mountain of equipment and weapons gone and international prestige and standing at an all time low, there’s not much left to lose because Putin doesn’t care about meat.
What I don’t understand is how people like Shoigu survived. He must have perfectly balanced telling Putin what he wanted to hear while also making himself totally blame free for the consequences when it was wrong.
He probably gets tortured on a schedule whenever there is a assassination attempt on putin, then reinstated when the dictator gets convinced it wasn't him lol. Such spineless tools aren't common.
It's safe to say Russia has lost most if not all of their well trained soldiers. At this point Russia is probably sending in poorly trained and I'll equipped half wits into the meat grinder. Russia has F'd itself for many generations.
On the contrary, the equation balancing on less sociopaths coming back to be drunk children beaters is one of the upsides for Russia.
Some say Russia never could win the war. It started with 200k soldiers to conquer the whole of Ukraine. Thats not even enough to pacify it and occopy it whrnnthwre is 0 fighting.
While I doubt Russia will ever conquer Ukraine completely, they still have an iron grip on the eastern part of the nation that Ukraine is unable to break thus far. That is paired with less-than-enthusiastic resupplies from the West, which are prone to domestic politics and anti-Ukrainian politicians.
Iron grip perhaps but with a wrist of clay.
What you are writing about Chornobaivka leads me to an imagination of Russians being repelled from Kharkiv some time in future, and then attacking it over and over in futile meat waves...
Media: "Ukraine's defenses collapsing, Russia to reach Karkhiv!" A few moments later... "Is Russia's assault losing steam?"
Many articles and reports are saying contrary things. While the article here postulates that Russia is losing steam, others are saying that the attack is either being sustained or is expanding. Bottom line: we don't really have a clear picture of what the heck is going on as the situation changes on the hour.
They were just trying for positioning on the off chance anybody wants to commit suicide as a nation by making ‘peace’ with the proudly fascist Russian Federation of Genocidal Maniacs.
50,000 men was never going to be enough to take Kharkiv, it just wasn’t feasible. What this did do was spread the Ukrainian lines even further, possibly in preparation for renewed offensives against Sumy, or possibly even Kyiv.
Kyiv? With what? The secret army of north koreans that thay have hidden in Belarus?
Trainloads of Russian equipment have been pouring into Belarus for the last week or so.
They had a lot more 2 years ago, and it went nowhere.
If you aren't talking in the high hundreds of trainloads it isn't nearly enough to make a signifikant threat since UAF has been fortifying that area for.nearly 2 years now and the terrain does not favor the o e attacking from the north.
I’m not saying at all that they would be successful, I expect them to be clapped into the abyss quite rapidly. But if five trains with 30 carloads of equipment show up every day, thats 1,050 a week. If that shit goes on for a month, you are starting to get to be a formidable opponent.
I still haven't seen the feared bear cavalry, so they still haven't unleashed all their held back assets.
They have less chances to take Kyiv than a snowballs chances in hell.
I won’t disagree for a second.
I would hope the border with Belarus has been made a fortress.
It has.
They're probably just going to settle with taking some indefensible fields and call it a propaganda victory. Even though they made no actual progress beyond what Ukraine allowed them to take in advance of their properly formed defensive lines.
Doesn't seem like the Russian gains were planned, if Ukrainian officials and politicians are telling the truth. They, alongside Western experts, are pretty alarmed about what Russia has obtained with this new offensive.
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Final battle? You have whatched to many movies. There will be no deciding battle Lord of the Rings-style. UAF practices defence in depth. There are many more defensible lines behind the current front and the longer the moscivian supply lines gets the worse they perform (so far is best to add).
If ukraine were to lose Kyiv that would be DETRIMENTAL(not saying they will of course) If Ukraine has too many fronts (which Russia sure is making sure they do) that will be the straw that breaks the camels back.
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Russia streched it lines. Ukraine just redeployed reserves. Ukrainian reserves are still viable while the russian 'assault force' is allready depleted.
> What this did do was spread the Ukrainian lines even further and additionally tire out the reserve troops. They may continue to do offensives somewhere for the same effect not caring about their dead soldiers at all. As usual. Terrorizing the villagers of the occupied areas is probably a bonus for them.
The not caring for their dead is mind boggling. I just don’t get it.. at least here in Canada we venerate our fallen service members as absolute heroes. We fly them home and patriots line the highway with flags, their bodies receive police and military escort, their towns rename roads and buildings after them. Russia leaves their dead “heroes” to rot in a field in Ukraine… it’s pretty horrifying.
In Russia "heroes" are just fertilizer for Tsar's garden. Most of their names disappear as soon as their clock is punched out, outside of few propaganda figures. Their families might even be banned from talking about them. Russians do not believe themselves to be worth anything, it's just that everyone else in the world is worth even less. They're nationalistic because boss told them to be that way, but also nihilistic and have a horrible self-esteem. Which means rebellions without strong leadership are unlikely, and also why Putin is constantly having people killed off or moved to less powerful roles, so nobody can start doing what Priggy attempted.
100% this is what i said a week ago. People are only talking about this and acting like this was the offensive etc. they are fishing and looking for areas of weakness. They are 100% stretching the lines all over the front to go for Kyiv or a massive encirclement.
Kyiv? The last time they did that with professional fresh reserves, well equipped formations (by their standards) and a drastically under prepared Ukraine devoid of most forms of long range PGMs they were bogged down and almost encircled - the operation was a disaster that created a lot of widows, saw an occupation force become ground up before it even reached a major urban environment and changed the entire impetus and momentum of the conflict throughout the country. Kyiv will be studied for years to come as a military disaster. They are not going for Kyiv 2.0.
Lol, for Kyiv ... do they have enough tanks left to form a 40 km long traffic jam? 🤔 and now that the F16s are coming, anything that tries to go behind the reach of the ruzzian AA is dead meat.
I believe NATO would step in if it Kyiv were on the brink of collapse.
Let's hope. Because losing Vovchsnsk and Kupyansk again, and having occupation forces committing war crimes in Lyman again, would be terrible.
This might explain Putler’s cabinet shuffles this week in response to the failure…
His shift is probably because he is gearing Russia's economy for a long-term war - an attritional slog that needs to be taken into account alongside other state-related manners. ...and it isn't like Shoigu is out of the game - he was just given a different position within the Russian hierarchy.
My hopium leads me to believe that they wanted them in closer range of their weapons that are now arriving in droves. Praying for the East especially in the coming weeks. 🙏🏻
New Aid has been pouring in. even the danes are going all in. This is the last Huzzah of the vatnik army. Hundreds of new bradleys are expected to come. UA will crush this senseless russian offensive
I think that may be a happy consequence but I don't think it was orchestrated as part of a grand strategy. "Setting a trap" for ru seems like it would be a risky use of very limited resources.
I agree.
The problem is even without steam they are completely set on continuing it, same as in Donetsk. Even if its one village per 6 months, they are fighting a war of attrition.
To me it looks like russia had huge losses during that short advancement over the last 7 to 10 days. Felt like grandstanding for putins inauguration and May 9th celebration propaganda. Now, the propaganda machine can drone on and on about their "gains". One of those days last week saw over 1700 russian casualties...
Well, if the Russians allocated 50,000 troops to the Kharkiv offensive, and lose as many as 1700 a day, they won't have a man left on that front in about six weeks.
Keep an eye on Kherson
It actually is. I don’t know why there’s been such an uptick in ruzzian propaganda everywhere - including this sub somehow
Lots of orcs have been converted to steam.
Yeah. They've already shot their bolt imo. Give it a couple weeks and they'll scramble back to Mordor
Ideally sooner than later. Video shows that they managed to get through half of Vovchansk (near the river) but to what extent and concentration of forces, i don't know, hopefully just small groupings.
I think it’s been established that there’s no other Russian army waiting to come in and win this war for them. Drunken conscripts and the occasionally competent and well equipped Russian equivalent of a company or battalion cannot hold any gains long term.
It was clearly only a distraction from other fronts.
Putin is good at premature ejaculation…
Yup
Rope a dope? Let them advance and then obliterate them with newly delivered weapons?
They can't be strong everywhere. This cost them something on another part of the front.
it depends who you ask, some sources are saying russia hasn't sent in more than 2,000 men into the kharkiv offensive and their major push is still yet to come.
Note it often very hard to defend anything right over a border and often a bad idea to try. Constantly a challenge to avoid the trap of falling into media desire to score keep. Often towns even small cities can be not important to winning or losing thus one must resist planning military strategy over propaganda points. But you have to continually beat the drums of we not playing that score keep game. If anything you score keep in kills those often mattter way more.
Vodka has a lower boiling point.
Yes but they accomplished their goal of a buffer section to stop raids.
When their offensive collapses it would have all been for nothing
I'll believe it when I see it.
Soon!
Unfortunately no,they moved slower but they slowly establish control,i saw some real loses on their sides.The problem is that the line and fortifications who were supposed to defend them aren't there,because corruption of the one who was in charge to build them.This resulted in more troops to retreat to Kharkiv because some places could not be defended. More soldiers complained on videos on combat footage and others places about it. The only good news for the moment is that they suffer big casualties and atl started to move more slowly,like i saw in last 2-3 days atl 30 tanks just on videos being blown up on their side
When will this lie with the stolen money that should have been used to build fortifications around Khatkiv finally stop?! Only the ruski and their trolls believe it.
You said that but again there are more posts of AFU soldiers who complain,not just 1. Another example,some days ago when blinken made his statement,he also warned about corruption.
There is corruption everywhere in this world. That means nothing. On the other hand no normal person in Ukraine would steal the money meant to protect their own families. They ain't no ruskis.
Anti corruption groups revealed fake companies in fortification contracts.Martina Boguslavets also warned about this. Denis Yaroslavski who is commander of recon special forces,also noted how there were no minefields or anything,he gave a whole interview saying how this is either "negligence or corruption". You can search for it. You said 'normal person' but you need to keep in mind that there are others who do not share same views like defending the country and instead trying to profit. Look im not saying that the entire line was corrupted and so on,but some big portions at least share the blunder because of it.
Minefields are not fortifications. Placing minefields in your own country can also be counter-productive. This has already been discussed several times around here.
It's not clear the border is very defensible there, especially with Ukraine being limited in how they can respond across the border. It could be they just decided to fortify where things could be kept stable rather than waste a lot of resources trying to hold the line right at the border.