"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again."

[SaparotRob]

Kudos to these Generals for fighting alongside their men. But if the Generals are at the front who's at the rear managing strategy?

Sycophants.

 

[wlewisiii]

 

[SaparotRob]

Were those flight suits standard Russian issue as in before the invasion?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Why allow Putin to keep anything? I do agree with The Basket and Der Adler as to what will probably happen but hear me out. Ukraine is winning so bargain from strength. Why even talk about ceding any territory? If Putler knows he's starting off with Crimea, and Donbas, he'll demand more. Meanwhile, his army is being whittled down, displaying its incompetence for all the world to see. Putin may be on the ropes. Don't make it easier for him. Force him to bargain rather than let him think he keeps what he stole. The longer Russia is stuck in there, the more losses while being humiliated. Putler's grip just might be weakening a bit. If you are one of his generals, the future ain't looking too good. Take the rap for him and die or take a bullet and die. The Russian economy ain't to healthy right now. Not good for the guy in charge.
Now we play hard ball. No Western "timidity". Donbas, Luhansk and Crimea? Referendum time. For every Russian troop there, one each from several other nations. De-militarization of Belorussia. No one way disarmament. He don't like? Too bad. We keep talking until his country is broken.
He's going to want an out. If he still wants to keep his phony baloney job he will be forced to bargain. However, make it crystal clear that he is losing something. No win at all. We get all Ferengi on his ass!

I think that Crimea is a lost cause but maybe not. Make Putler sweat. Make him howl! It is very cavalier for me to say we'll fight to the last Ukrainian. I don't want to see a replay of the Sudetenland where Czechoslovakia is distributed among great powers with no say in its fate at all.

I agree with you, and that's what I have been advocating all along. If Ukraine gives anything, Putler will see that as weakness and want a bigger piece of the pie. Ceding land for peace is just kicking the can down the road.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I got go to stop using my phone to post here. I make so many grammar mistakes. lol

Piece instead of peace…lol

 

[SaparotRob]

Same here, bro'.

 

[WARSPITER]

I got go to stop using my phone to post here. I make so many grammar mistakes. lol

Piece instead of peace…lol

It's actually quite apt to me. Peace is not peace if you have been taken to pieces.

 

[GrauGeist]

Kudos to these Generals for fighting alongside their men. But if the Generals are at the front who's at the rear managing strategy?

Several high rankings officers were specifically targeted by Ukrainian forces because of poor commsec.
The frequency of high ranking commanders being caught in forward areas, is because the Kremlin is ordering them up there to get things moving.

They were not supposed to be up there initially - they are not fighting alongside their men, but they are at least dying with them...

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Several high rankings officers were specifically targeted by Ukrainian forces because of poor commsec.

This is another aspect of the institutional memory of the Russian Army which baffles me. They got annihilated at Tannenberg in 1914 in large part due to inadequate comsec, and then in the opening days of Barbarossa the suffered huge defeats in some cases due to poor comsec ... yet here they are again.

I wonder if their equivalent of our Army's Training and Doctrine Command has been starved of funding in order to build weapons? They seem to be repeating so many grievous and yet elementary mistakes.

 

[SaparotRob]

Starved of funding to buy chateaus, dachas and mega yachts?

 

[GrauGeist]

I am also curious as to what they are teaching in officer school.

I know that in their public school system (particularly during Soviet years) a great deal of what actually happened in Imperial Russia was glazed over and so too, details about the "Great Patriotic War".
So with all the historical wrangling and editing, perhaps unfavorable situations, losses and failures have been forgotten?

In the early stages of Putler's invasion, I was convinced that the amateur performance of the mighty Russian Army was a ruse, because there was no way a military supposedly ranked up there in the world's top three could be so inept.

It appears that I was wrong...

 

[GrauGeist]

Were those flight suits standard Russian issue as in before the invasion?

Russian Cosmonaut flight suits are typically blue.

 

[WARSPITER]

Especially considering they are now down at four under the third largest, The Ukrainian Farmers Federation which has undergone a phenomenal armament
increase in a very short space of time. Efficient use of facilities and good logistic plans - maybe Vlad should pay them for some advice.

 

[GrauGeist]

Especially considering they are now down at four under the third largest, The Ukrainian Farmers Federation which has undergone a phenomenal armament
increase in a very short space of time. Efficient use of facilities and good logistic plans - maybe Vlad should pay them for some advice.

I understand that the Ukranian government also stated that any Russian vehicles they happened find (and keep) will be tax exempt.

They have been kindly "donating" working equipment that they've "found" to the Ukraine Army, though.

 

[SaparotRob]

I am also curious as to what they are teaching in officer school.

I know that in their public school system (particularly during Soviet years) a great deal of what actually happened in Imperial Russia was glazed over and so too, details about the "Great Patriotic War".
So with all the historical wrangling and editing, perhaps unfavorable situations, losses and failures have been forgotten?

In the early stages of Putler's invasion, I was convinced that the amateur performance of the mighty Russian Army was a ruse, because there was no way a military supposedly ranked up there in the world's top three could be so inept.

It appears that I was wrong...

Same here. Now he's dipping into his front line units. The only non-nuclear might he could threaten us with would have to be Chinese.

 

[JDCAVE]

Evidently some of these cruise missiles have come from naval vessels off Odessa. I have seen film footage from Odessa showing these vessels lined up off-shore. Does Ukraine have Exocet Missiles or equivalent to take these vessels out? Can they be provided by NATO or is that equipment too difficult to deploy?

Jim

 

[buffnut453]

As a former tanker, let me simply say that what we're seeing in the Ukraine is typical. It happens every time you commit tanks without proper combined arms support. Tanks need infantry and artillery. Artillery needs tanks and infantry. Infantry needs artillery and tanks. Of the three only the infantry can get by without the others for a short time but without support, you can only run an insurgency for the long term.

I have seen in videos from this war, over and over, of tanks operating without infantry support and getting ambushed as a result. And when columns are ambushed they do not know anti-ambush drills (at it's simplest - turn into the ambush and charge firing at anything that moves) and in their panic loose far more as a result.

The FSU (former Soviet Union) tank designs have significant flaws but can provide appropriate support for their branch of the combined arms triad if the logistics, training and maintenance is up to snuff. When any of them, much less all of them, are fails then you have nothing but coffins for three men each.

These deaths lead to fury, fear and panic which leads to the war crimes we see as well because the troops have no discipline or training to fall back on and they take it out on civilians instead since to go up against the highly trained and disciplined Ukrainian army has been shown to be, essentially, suicide. Discipline is not an end in itself but without it, nothing else can be made to happen. The Russian army is even worse than the US Army of 1975 ~ 1980 in this respect. But we got over the debacle that was Vietnam; they still haven't gotten over Afghanistan.

Entirely agree. You should have infantry sweeping the flanks of the tank advance to identify, and preferably neuralize, ambush points.

I was also going to make the same point as WARSPITER . The T-64 and T72 are 1960s vintage designs. Yes, they've had upgrades but they're still considerably more vulnerable than either the M1 Abrams or Challenge 2. Bolting on ERA will improve protection somewhat but, as we're seeing, it's not sufficient against modern AT weapons.

All this brings me back to the point I made a few pages back...I just can't comprehend what sort of war the Russian forces were expecting. Unsupported tank columns smacks of expecting "Kursk v2.0" which was NEVER going to happen in Ukraine...but even at Kursk, the largest tank battle in history with approx 10,000 tanks employed by both sides, there were still significantly more infantry (over 2 million soldiers on both sides).

I wonder if we're seeing the impact of ingrained, decades-long requirement to provide the "appropriate" answer up the chain, instead of the answer that the facts support?

 

[Jerad]

Russian column was ambushed, the video appeared on youtube 18/03/22 Information about place and time not have.



Ukrainian soldier was wounded 18\03\22 near Kiev (Or Chernigiv)



Destroyed column technic RF 14\03\22



One more column technic RF ~18\03\22



Destroyed technic RF near Izyum(Kharkov region) 16\03\22

 

[The Basket]

First rule is to stop the bleeding.

If you're chased by the tiger then it's not time to hang about.it's not about 10 years time but all about 10 seconds time.

Future Putin is future Ukraine's problem. Have to deal with the present.

If it makes ya feel better then at least you can say Ukraine has no other choice.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

First rule is to stop the bleeding.

If you're chased by the tiger then it's not time to hang about.it's not about 10 years time but all about 10 seconds time.

Future Putin is future Ukraine's problem. Have to deal with the present.

If it makes ya feel better then at least you can say Ukraine has no other choice.

And give the Russians a few years to rebuild their forces and come back for seconds? First rule of thumb in training both animals and people is that you never reward bad behavior.