"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (11 Viewers)

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There were draft evaders in every country involved during ww1 and ww2 so what is new?

My hat always goes to those who refuse to fight but volunteer to be medics - probably the most hazardous duty.
 
As to why there are so few members of the Ukraine military - I suspect that like every other smart country at war there are a certain number of reserved professions that are encouraged to stay as civilians. Given that the Ukrainians are building so many drones and other small weapons and recyling so many captured weapons and ramping up production of other weapons I suspect that those would all fall into the reserved category.

Overall I agree that I would have expected a far larger military so that could also mean they have only enlisted the number they can arm and given the drip feed of weapons from other sources I suspect that this is the major reason.

It is no use training a person if you cannot provide him/her with weapons and survival equipment.
 
Two things I'd like to point out:

One of which, is that Ukrainians are training abroad, like in the UK, U.S., Germany and so on. These trainees are in the tens of thousands and don't seem to be factored into the active numbers seen on many websites, which doesn't seem to have changed since 2022.

Unlike their Russian counterparts, they'll have extensive hands-on knowledge led by competent NCOs when they hit the front lines for the first time.

The other thing, is that Ukraine is very good at holding back numbers seen in the media. I suspect that the UAF numbers reported are a bit conservative.
 
Masses of troops dont have the weight they once had. A country can do much much damadge with some savey i.t. kiddies who played il2 or warthunder a lot and now have drones.
Bet you Maxim Artem Aleksande and Maria spruced up with red bull and a nugget bucket will halt more armour then a regular a.t. brigade.

It is a new era. Vlad is finding that out the hard way. Their will be coordinated mass little drone attacks. Like this if you can see the potential.
View: https://youtu.be/apokvH4F9Ws?feature=shared
 
Admiral Beez said:
Hacksaw Ridge comes to mind.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk9R2TCwC4c&pp=ygUNaGFja3NhdyByaWRnZQ%3D%3D
Click to expand...
I agree wholeheartedly with this.

My Grandfather was a medic in WWI and told my Grandmother the worst was going into no mans land to get wounded.
This was because every so often (both sides did this) someone who had just lost a mate would lose it and start firing at
anyone in enemy uniform - people in no mans land with stretchers were the only targets available.

He and his mates spent a lot of their time pulling wounded up out of the mud before they got sucked far enough in and drowned.

The other worry was that enemy artillery would start up at any time. He ended up with steel plates in him from that and severe
headaches for the rest of his life.
 
A good example of being not real clever is the Japanese technicians and designers (radar etc) who were drafted, given a rifle
and sent to sit in holes on Guadalcanal. Why ?. Bushido, Their occupation wasn't seen as warrior like.
 
Euro leaders blame industry for failure to meet Ukraine ammo promise
Tom Kington
Nov 15, 01:03 PM

ROME — Several European nations will fail to meet a commitment to send Ukraine 1 million rounds of ammunition by next spring because manufacturers are prioritizing the export market rather than ramping up production, officials have said. Local defense ministers and European Union officials admitted the bloc would not be able to honor its promise to Ukraine, made this spring, as they arrived for a summit in Brussels on Tuesday. "The 1 million will not be reached — you have to assume that," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters, adding he had never personally offered guarantees and was told early on the EU would struggle to make the deadline. "These warning voices have now been proven right, unfortunately," he said. The EU earmarked €1 billion (U.S. $1.1 billion) earlier this year to compensate members for the shells they donated to Ukraine from their stocks, plus another €1 billion to fund the joint purchase of more munitions from EU states and Norway. A third initiative envisaged EU funding for factories and the acceleration of permits for new facilities to speed up production. The goal was to deliver 1 million shells in 12 months. After the meeting on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell shared Pistorius' view. "So maybe by March we will not have the 1 million shots," he said. Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said the failure would give Russia an edge in Ukraine. "Look at Russia: They are producing today more than ever. They are getting shells from North Korea. Europe cannot say that Russia and North Korea can deliver and we cannot," he said.

Defense News contacted the Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe, a trade group representing sectors across the continent, but it did not comment by press time. The slowdown in the delivery of much-needed 155mm shells comes as Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russia's full-scale invasion that started in February 2022 grinds to a halt. Furthermore, some U.S. lawmakers have cast doubt over whether the U.S. will continue to arm Ukraine at the same significant level. Borrell's plan to create a four-year, €20 billion fund for Ukrainian military assistance may also get watered down, according to Jean-Pierre Maulny, the deputy director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs think tank and consultancy. Borrell said the EU has sourced 300,000 shells from members' own stockpiles, but manufacturers have complicated the process of obtaining newly produced munitions because they are continuing to focus on export markets. "About 40% of the production is being exported to third countries," he said. "So maybe what we have to do is to try to shift this production to the priority one, which is the Ukrainians." Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren said Europe's industry must ramp up production. "We have all signed contracts. We've done joint procurement. So industry now has to deliver. It has to step up its game to produce more," Ollongren said. EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton noted the industrial base has the resources to ramp up production for Ukraine. Indeed, Estonia's defense minister said the country on Nov. 10 opened a fast-track procurement process for 155mm ammunition rounds worth €280 million. "Over the next four years, nearly 30% of our defense budget will go towards ammunition. This is a clear signal for the defense industry: Go ahead and shift production into next gear," Pevkur said. And if EU industry is unable to boost production, member states should import more ammunition, he added. "Ukraine does not have time to wait."

https://www.defensenews.com/global/euro ... o-promise/
 
Import records illuminate Ukraine's desperate hunt for arms and ammo
Kyiv is paying exorbitant prices for Soviet-designed materiel, and has even managed to obtain Swiss ammo despite Geneva's ban.
Sam Skove
NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Two purchases of Swiss ammunition for Ukraine appear to violate Geneva's prohibition on such transfers, while other Ukrainian arms deals have been concluded at exorbitant prices. That's according to Ukrainian import records that illustrate Kyiv's desperate hunt for defense materiel for its fight against Russian invaders. In July alone, Ukrainian entities imported at least $346,067,021 worth of ammunition, including Soviet-designed munitions from factories in eastern Europe, according to Ukrainian documents gathered by Import Genius, an aggregator of trade data. These deals are unrelated to the billions of dollars in military aid provided by the U.S. and other supporters. The documents show at least two Ukrainian imports of Swiss-made ammunition. On July 14, Ukrainian Armor, an armored-vehicle-and-munition company, took receipt of 500,000 .308 Winchester rifle cartridges and 145,000 .338 Lapua Magnum rifle cartridges, according to documents for the .308 rounds (Google translation) and the .338 rounds (Google translation). The records designate both rounds as armor-piercing. The .338 round is designed for long-range sniping, according to its manufacturer. The import records show that the ammunition was made by SwissP Defence, a Swiss company whose website says it specializes in the military and law enforcement market.

The rounds were delivered by Polish defense importer UMO to Ukrainian Armor, a privately-held defense manufacturer that is reportedly one of the largest private suppliers of the Ukrainian military. Switzerland has banned shipments of munitions to both Russia and Ukraine. The hotly debated embargo previously prevented Germany from sending Swiss-made 35mm ammunition for Gepard anti-aircraft guns sent to Ukraine. In June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the Swiss parliament to end the ban, calling it "vital" to allow re-export of weapons to Ukraine. The parliament's upper house has supported lifting the ban but its lower house has consistently voted against it, most recently in late September. The Swiss-made rifle ammunition, however, is just a small part of a vast supply of defense goods that Ukraine has purchased from arms companies and third-party arms dealers, the import records show. Other shipments included the sale of 50 M113B AIFV armored personnel carriers in multiple shipments from Belgium, which have since been spotted on the battlefield. The sale is documented across 50 separate import declarations like this one (Google translation). The transfer was managed not by a country, however, but by Global Military Products, a third-party arms dealer. Based in Florida, the company has processed arms and ammo worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Ukraine, working both directly with Kyiv and as a contractor to the U.S. government. The company's founder was previously recorded by the FBI discussing bribery in a since-dropped corruption case.

Ukraine's hunger for combat vehicles, particularly amid preparations for its mid-2023 counter-offensive, also led it to buy 30 M113A3 infantry fighting vehicles in multiple shipments in July from private U.S. dealer International Parts Supply Corporation. This sale is also documented in multiple import declarations, like this one (Google translation). Bulgaria, whose vast arms industry is still churning out Soviet-designed munitions, is among the largest suppliers of arms to Ukraine listed in Import Genius records. In July, Ukraine took receipt of 131 shipments of Bulgarian munitions, for a total value of over $90 million. Many of these were delivered by Polish arms-export companies, confirming previous reporting that Russian-leaning Bulgaria was sending weapons through Poland rather than shipping directly. Other top sources include Romania, for a total of $22 million; the Czech Republic ($20 million); and Turkey ($22 million). Such purchases often come at exorbitant cost, unlike the weapons delivered free of charge as military aid from the U.S. and its allies. On July 5, Ukraine received 1,000 152mm shells for its aging Soviet-designed weapons from a Bulgarian arms manufacturer via Poland's Government Strategic Reserves Agency. The invoice price is listed (Google translation)as 110,667,265 hryvnia, or about $3,000 a shell. That appears to be roughly triple what Russia is paying per shell, experts said. Pavel Luzin, a specialist on Russia's military at the Jamestown Foundation, estimated that Russia pays around $1,000 or more for the typical 152mm shell. That's a good estimate, agreed Dean Lockwood, an analyst at Forecast International, a sister brand of Defense One.

Russia paid Iran at most $1,190 for 152mm rounds in a September 2022 deal, according to documents viewed by Sky News obtained from an unidentified security source. Ukraine paid a lower rate for less-powerful 122mm artillery rounds, but still about one-third more than equivalent Russian rounds, documents note. On July 3, Ukraine received 6,144 122mm rounds manufactured by Bulgarian arms giant VMZ for $1,196 each in multiple shipments. The rounds were delivered to Ukrainian state arms importer Progress by Polish arms trader Alfa, according to import records (Google translation). On July 13, Ukraine's Defense Procurement Agency received 2,472 rounds of Czech-made 122mm in multiple shipments for $1,140 apiece from Czech firm STV Group. This deal is documented in import declarations like this one (Google translation). Russia, by contrast, bought 122mm shells at a maximum price of $726 from Iran, according to the Sky News documents. One Russian news outlet put the price of a 122mm shell at $500 or more. Pavel Beran, director of Special Projects at STV Group, said his company seeks to sell its wares at "fair and competitive prices that correspond to the current market situation." Beran said a shortage of components has made supplying munitions "very challenging over the last almost two years" and said the company is working to increase ammunition production. Among the priciest rounds listed in the documents were unguided 122mm rockets, which Ukraine fires in volleys of up to 40 from Grad launchers.

One July 18 shipment from Polish company Alfa to Ukrainian state arms importer Progress lists an invoice price equivalent to $5,434 for each round, which were made by Bulgarian arms firm VMZ, per import records (Google translation). Iranian prices for similar rounds were $1,860 a round. The price discrepancy is in keeping with reporting by Ukrainska Pravda that Ukraine was buying munitions from Bulgaria, with Alfa and Progress acting as intermediaries. Ukrainska Pravda found that many of the goods sold by Alfa to Ukraine were never delivered or were defective. The newspaper further found that 122mm shells sold to Ukraine by Alfa via Progress were 57 percent more expensive than direct sales between Alfa and the Ukrainian government. The newspaper reported that the price from Alfa was 760 euros, while the price via Progress was 1,195 euros, with the contract signed in late April. The deal between Progress and Alfa was overseen by Oleksandr Myronyuk, a Ukrainian official who was found to have $1 million hidden in a sofa during a search. While Ukrainska Pravda did not publish the source of their information, Defense One's data from Import Genius shows the same companies, Alfa and Progress, processing deliveries of the same munitions for the same price as listed as Ukrainska Pravda. Defense One has requested comment from the embassy of Switzerland in the United States and from company officials at SwissP, UMO, and Alfa. None had responded by publication time.

https://www.defenseone.com/business/202 ... mo/391686/
 
Not sure where this bit:
Admiral Beez said:
Russian-leaning Bulgaria
Click to expand...
comes from.

Bulgaria has supported Ukraine from the start and was shipping supplies through through a broker until Russian sabatours tried to blow up an ammunition factory this past June, as well as attempted attacks at ammunition depots.

In the wake of that, Bulgaria joined the European Defense Agency's ammunition collaboration and is shipping munitions directly to Ukraine.

They have also seized Russian assets, expelled Russian citizens and diplomats as well as seizing the Russian owned oil terminal in the port of Burgas.

And, as of 2022, Bulgaria was placed on Russia's list of "unfriendly nations"...
 
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