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WTF?!??Russian billionaires see wealth rise to three-quarters of a trillion dollars in past year
Russia's richest people added $227 billion to their wealth over the past year, buoyed by high prices for natural resources and rebounding from the huge loss of fortunes they experienced just after the Ukraine war began.www.abc.net.au
I've been a fool.Ah you still think in the realms of valid to do with anything of the global claims of some countries.
I agree with your two assumptions and thoughts. However its interesting that Ukraine seems to have been able to establish holdings on the other side of the river without any real difficulty and make them secure. Crossing a river has always been a very difficult process, much easier to defend against than do. That Russia wasn't able to stop this happening and were unable to collapse the beachhead before it was made secure says a lot about the weakness of the Russian forces.1) I suspect the probing around Kherson is probably deception. I'd think the main prize would be the Russians in the field ... or if you're aiming to seize Crimea, Melitopol would seem to be the better avenue of approach.
2) If Russia insists on staying on the offensive, I think a Ukrainian offensive will catch them wrong-footed. If Putin were smart he'd listen to counsel of assuming the defensive -- or at the very least have MoD develop a spoiling attack. But he's not smart.
I agree with your two assumptions and thoughts. However its interesting that Ukraine seems to have been able to establish holdings on the other side of the river without any real difficulty and make them secure. Crossing a river has always been a very difficult process, much easier to defend against than do. That Russia wasn't able to stop this happening and were unable to collapse the beachhead before it was made secure says a lot about the weakness of the Russian forces.
Again, you certainly could be right. The other point in the paper that I find interesting was the following: -Perhaps. It may also mean that the Ukrainians were in detachments small enough to escape immediate detection.
Again, you certainly could be right. The other point in the paper that I find interesting was the following: -
Russian authorities continue to arrest personnel associated with the Russian defense industrial base (DIB) likely to justify crackdowns and further conceal DIB activities. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on April 22 that it arrested the deputy head of the testing laboratory at the Promtekhnologiya weapons plant in Moscow on suspicion of treason.[28] The FSB did not provide additional details about the alleged treasonous act. The Promtekhnologiya plant participates in the development and modernization of high-tech weapons. The Promtekhnologiya plant claimed that it had not employed the arrested employee since March 2021.[29] ISW has reported on other recent arrests that are part of an ongoing crackdown using the pretext of threats to Russia's DIB
If you are at war, the war isn't going well, the enemy are getting ever more sophisticated weapons and you are finding it ever more difficult to replace your losses and equip new and resting units with modern equipment. The very last thing you do, is start cracking down on your defence industries.
It would seem to indicate that Putin is clearly putting self preservation first, whatever the cost, even if that cost is in the medium term likely to put him more at risk.
For this insubordination, he was fired and sent on holiday - he will later be shifted to a backroom diplomatic role in Moscow.
I am still waiting for a Russian Klaus von Stauffenberg to step forward.Another interesting story that shows Putin scraping the bottom of the barrel and signs that some senior officers are trying to protect their resources.
Vladimir Putin has reportedly fired a top admiral because of his refusal to send his sailors to fight in the war against Ukraine.
- Admiral Sergei Avakyants, 66, sought to protect his men from deployment
- When forced to do so, the admiral allegedly dispatched his most ill-disciplined and unreliable men to the war zone
Admiral Sergei Avakyants, 66, was suddenly stripped of the role of commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet last week during war games involving nuclear bombers ordered by the Kremlin.
Avakyants has been seeking to protect his men from deployment - to prevent them from being cannon fodder - according to Volya and Brief Telegram. The admiral had repeatedly resisted or subverted orders to send his men to fight in Ukraine.
When forced to do so he allegedly dispatched his most ill-disciplined and unreliable men to the war zone. He told Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov [Commander-in-Chief of the Navy] in plain language that he would not let the fleet be ruined - his sailors, trained officers, well-coordinated crews, would not be torn apart,' said a source in the general staff of the Russian armed forces.
He was especially angered at the losses sustained by his elite marines who were forced to go to Ukraine.
Footage in February shows the 155th brigade being defeated at Vuhledar.
'Thirty-one armoured vehicles of the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade from the Russian Pacific Fleet were destroyed during an assault on Vuhledar,' reported Moscow Calling military channel at the time. Earlier 155th brigade marines wrote a letter complaining at the meat grinder tactics of Putin's commanders in Ukraine which saw '300 men killed, wounded and missing' in four days of heavy fighting in Pavlivka.
Recently, Avakyants defied the Kremlin's orders and said he would send no more troops while he was in charge of the Pacific Fleet. He objected to the demand for Ukraine-bound 'infantry formations from among the sailors of warships, submarines and auxiliary vessels', said the report.
For this insubordination, he was fired and sent on holiday - he will later be shifted to a backroom diplomatic role in Moscow.
More like a master of strategeryHe remains a Master Strategist.
Do you believe in the tooth fairy?A bit of optimism and some showmanship but I'm daydreaming that as soon as Bakhmut falls, the AFU is going to launch the counter offensive. The AFU will humiliate the RF forces and make major gains in an area Russia can't ignore. Then strike on the opposite side the map. Russia can't react to either side but will try. Ukraine then blows right through Bakhmut, through the defensive lines right up to Donetsk City.
I was also hoping that the Ukrainian counter attack would have seen the skies darkened by F-16s in AFU markings on 24 February of this year.