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

[buffnut453]

Uh oh...is there dissention in Putin land?

Looks like three parliaments members are about to have unfortunate accidents...

I may have my first 3 guests at my Siberian forest hideaway.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

I actually worked with Russian soldiers in Kosovo back in 2002-2003. There equipment was atrocious. They did not even have winter boots. I had one soldier offer to trade me his bayonet if I bought him a pair of US Army winter boots from the camp PX.

Their aviation unit had Mi-24 Hinds. They were constantly grounded for maintenance largely due to lack of parts, and aircraft looked like they were maintained by a kindergarten class. I remember sitting in the aircraft and thinking it would come apart.

How can you run a modern, highly technical armed force with conscripts that you only have for two years? Especially when most of them don't bring much technical experience or training with them coming in the door.
In the Navy in the 1970s, 1/4 of my obligated service was consumed in training, and I was fast-tracked because I was a "sort of" techie. Eventually my rate was abolished and replaced by civilian contractors, as the training/service ratio had reached one third or more.
Add to that a force composition that is weighted heavily to firepower over support and supply, and you see the result on your screens.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

This is beyond craziness.

Is truly all this equipment been abandoned by russian troops?

Really some soldiers just left their vehicles and march back to the border?

Ukrainians Citizens Are Taking It Upon Themselves To Capture Russian Military Vehicles (Updated)

These actions are symbolic of the problems that have slowed the Russian advance and the will of average Ukrainians to resist the invasion.

www.thedrive.com

 

[Dimlee]

Kherson yesterday.
Civilian volunteers tried to organise the defence in the park and came under fire. No survivors, probably.

 

[The Basket]

I think.

What is the goal? What is the end game? How do you win?

None of this makes sense.

Conquer Ukraine. But the population don't want to be conquered. What happens then?

Destroy Ukraine? Why? What is that saying?

None of this makes a lick of sense. Economically or Socially or Military.

It's just evil for the sake of evil? This is what is beyond me. It doesn't make sense.

And Putin threatening nuclear war. Other countries have nuclear weapons too. And Russia is not going to come out lightly.

It just crazy.

 

[J_P_C]

I can almost make out what looks like armor in the row to the right.

Above that, is the insignia perhaps a Polish armor unit insignia and related armor in

confirm 18 mechanized division - early in forming stage - for sure long time untill it will be combat capable

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Worries grow over Putin’s stability, mindset

The White House and other observers are increasingly sounding the alarm about the mindset of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who seems poised to escalate his country’s war with Ukraine.Experts, a…

thehill.com

Also, the Ukrainian government is telling its citizens to not worry about declaring Russian vehicles they've captured on their taxes.

 

[wlewisiii]

I work nights, too much time to think sometimes.

I was a tanker in the active army & infantry in the Guard. Then they sent me to battalion level intel analysist school that concentrated on Soviet tactics so we could recognize what they were doing. This is _not_ the Red Army we were supposed to be in fear and awe of.

I look at the maps and none of this makes any military sense.

Hell by now the two columns - one to Kyiv & one to Kharkov, should have united south of Kyiv and be moving south to cut off the UKA fighting the separatists. The big cities bypassed or flattened by artillery or both.

This... mess... makes no sense at all.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I work nights, too much time to think sometimes.

I was a tanker in the active army & infantry in the Guard. Then they sent me to battalion level intel analysist school that concentrated on Soviet tactics so we could recognize what they were doing. This is _not_ the Red Army we were supposed to be in fear and awe of.

I look at the maps and none of this makes any military sense.

Hell by now the two columns - one to Kyiv & one to Kharkov, should have united south of Kyiv and be moving south to cut off the UKA fighting the separatists. The big cities bypassed or flattened by artillery or both.

This... mess... makes no sense at all.

Agreed it makes no sense

 

[Denniss]

There are rumors that Putin wants to install former president Janukovitch as head of a new puppet regime in Ukraine. Remember that's the the money-grabbing bastard the ukrainian people revolted against in 2014 causing him to flee into the arms of the big brother Putin.

 

[Peter Gunn]

RE: the Russians, it comes as no surprise to me that they're apparently in over their heads, for starters I've never been overly impressed with much of their equipment or tactics. I still maintain that they were in for a RUDE awakening if they had tried anything in 1945 (yes, I believe they were in for a b!tch slapping of major proportions). They've been nothing but blustering bullying bullshitters for 80 years who've done fuc# all since WWII. This is just exposing the chimera of russian "power".

The problem is as already stated in this thread, with options running out and Putski-boy being forced more and more into a corner, the atomic option starts looking more attractive to a madman like him.

Like the anonymous spy in "Law Abiding Citizen" said, if you want Clyde dead, walk into his cell and put a bullet in his head, and while I find murder abhorrent, methinks that might be the best solution for putin.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Well, that puts the Chechens at 0 for 2, since the Ukranians wiped out a Chechen convoy near Kiev Saturday, killing it's commander General Tushayev in the process.

I'm not taking claims from either side at face value. There's a lot of overly positive news mixed with wishful thinking on the good side.

Meanwhile the Britain's Royal Navy and Marines are heading into the Arctic. I expect all their available SSNs are also at sea.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Russian state news accidentally publishes article saying Russia has defeated Ukraine and restored its 'historical borders'

"Ukraine has returned to Russia," the article, which ran on RIA Novosti and has since been taken down, said.

www.yahoo.com

 

[J_P_C]

Ukrainian troops fighting for Garlovka - town located on land taken by russians in 2014 - this is first offensive action of Ukrainian army in this campaign

 

[wlewisiii]

Twitter thread on the end of the Russian Airline Industry ...

 

[Admiral Beez]

One nation that cannot be pleased by the West's new interest in rearmament and protection of breakaway territories is China. Britain's budget for the Royal Navy, for instance has just jumped by 25%. UK Unveils 10-Year, $270 Billion Defense Spending If China doesn't act to take Taiwan within this decade the world's democracies will have much larger naval, air and ground forces. China was counting on global complacency and neglect of defence spending.

 

[Greg Boeser]

And all because a comedian refused to take a free flight to safety.

 

[buffnut453]

Agreed it makes no sense

Chris, your statement got me thinking. I'm starting to wonder if, in Putin-world, there's a binary divide between "loyal, friendly, right-thinking (pro-Russian) Slavs" and nazis? Think about it. I'm Putin, sitting in Moscow seeing "loyal Slavs" in Donbas wanting to secede. I try to help them but Ukraine attacks me. Clearly, Ukraine is led by "non-loyal Slavs" and, looking back, the most non-loyal Slavs were those who sided with Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War.

I, Putin, decide to surround Ukraine and make it clear that I want to de-nazify the country. Clearly, any "loyal Slavs" would welcome this move. As the tanks roll forward, "loyal Slavs" would strew their path with flowers and welcome the liberators with open arms, just as the "loyal Slavs" in Donbas did (and just as people welcomed the advancing Soviet army in 1944). Therefore, anyone who opposes the liberation effort cannot possibly be a "loyal Slav" and must, by default, be a nazi. This includes anyone who remains in a besieged city because, clearly, they have something to hide...and the defenders of that city, also, must be nazis.

It's a really twisted piece of ideological genocide, and it undoubtedly originates from the darkest recesses of an evil mind. However, it might account for what we're seeing on the ground with indiscriminate shelling of cities.

The problem, of course, remains the lack of an exit strategy. The last time such an ideological war was fought, it was Nazi Germany attacking the USSR. German forces bombarded cities but that just made them harder to overwhelm (Stalingrad, anyone?). Even if Putin succeeds in replacing Zelensky with a puppet, Russian forces will still have to occupy the country because it will be impossible to rebuild the Ukrainian military. They won't be able to trust the police forces either because they're likely infested with nazi sleeper agents.

Thus Putin has frog-marched into a never-ending insurgency against what he perceives as lingering nazi elements but which, in reality, are mostly ordinary Ukrainian citizens simply resisting an oppressive invader.

If this is even remotely the case, then we're heading for a long and really ugly period in European history.

 

[buffnut453]

Another BBC update...primary school children in Moscow arrested for an anti-war protest. You really can't make up this stuff:

When I saw reports and photographs on Tuesday suggesting that primary school children had been arrested by police in Moscow for laying flowers at the Ukrainian embassy and holding signs saying "No to war" I refused to believe it was real.

But now it has been confirmed by the Nobel prize-winning newspaper Novaya Gazeta. In an update the newspaper says the children have since been released.

The images show the children with officers behind metal bars, perhaps in a police vehicle, and then in a police station, holding their flowers and placards.

The Kremlin appears to be taking increasingly draconian measures to try to keep a grip on its war narrative.

 

[wlewisiii]

Link to that story about the school kids? I'm not finding it.