Sanctions against Russia

[Yenn]

Generals. They are the problem. Look back at history and you will se that generals made the mistakes to lose the war, rather than making the decisions to win it.

Will the Russian generals make the right decisions? Maybe just to safeguard their nearest and dearest, that is they have any.

[willedoo]

The Russian military has a lot of inherent problems, noticeably corruption and incompetence among the senior officers and the Generals in particular. But putting that aside for a minute, their biggest problem is their outdated Soviet legacy command structure which is severely flawed. The Generals may be low quality, but they also have the unenviable job of overseeing a military structure that just doesn't work in the 21st. century.

 

A common complaint from Russian soldiers in the field is that they identify a target, but by the time a request for fire support goes up through multiple levels of command, the target has moved. Added to that, their communications are not up to scratch to enable all that bureaucracy to happen in a timely manner. Since 2014, the Ukrainian military has trained in the NATO way of delegating authority and their troops have the freedom to fight in a more dynamic way than the Russians.

 

I think it will take decades for Russia to have a modern fighting force structure, if they ever do. Their top military planners will have to tear up the old books and start from scratch. I wonder if any of them there now have figured out that their conventional forces just don't cut it in modern warfare. They need a total cultural change in their military if they are ever going to be any good. The existing culture is to plod on with the same old flawed structure and blame scapegoats if it doesn't work out.

[willedoo]

Putler's new expanded Russia is having a few teething problems. Someone said that if you left a carton of milk outside the fridge, it would last longer than Lyman did as part of the Russian Federation. At the moment, the Russian line in the north of Kherson region is collapsing. Ukrainian forces are advancing rapidly down the west bank of the Dniepr River in what looks like a serious push towards Kherson city. It's possible a lot of Russian forces will be encircled as they are under no retreat orders. It would be good if the Ukrainians could capture a lot of the forces there, as most of the more capable Russian units are there. Take them out of the equation and it's just a matter of dealing with a few hillbilly troops after that.

[red750]

I've seen reports where captured Russian fighters have been found to use commercial GPS's, such as you would buy at Supercheap Auto, for navigating.

[willedoo]

This is some intense body cam footage of Ukrainians coming under a Russian ambush while liberating Yampil near Lyman on the weekend. Two Ukrainian troops are hit and fall from the back of the truck, then go on to fight off the attackers. Lucky they fell off near a couple of trees to use as cover.

 

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1576272022610460673

[willedoo]

A Russian State Duma deputy for the Trans-Baikal region has announced that 1.5 million winter uniforms have disappeared from recruit receiving depots. He's wondering where they got to. My suggestion would be to try eBay.

[kgwilson]

3 hours ago, willedoo said:

This is some intense body cam footage of Ukrainians coming under a Russian ambush while liberating Yampil near Lyman on the weekend. Two Ukrainian troops are hit and fall from the back of the truck, then go on to fight off the attackers. Lucky they fell off near a couple of trees to use as cover.

 

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1576272022610460673

It looks more like they dropped off the truck purposely & then went on to take out the ambushers while the rest of the convoy of trucks kept going to the next engagement.

[Jerry_Atrick]

One of them sounded like he was hurt before he came off.. Though it could have been bracing for impact...

[onetrack]

There's a good analysis of Putins desperation in the ABC article below. As with all wars since the early 1900's, it's all about oil, and now gas. Putins desperately needs that oil and gas money to fund his little de-Nazification exercise, which is currently costing him $1.4B a day.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-03/putin-s-epidemic-of-murder-the-russian-millionaires-dying-to-fun/101487158

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by onetrack

[willedoo]

Putler's imaginary Greater Russia continues to shrink. There's been more good news in the last 24 hours with the Ukrainians continuing to advance in the south and north east. The orcs seem to be losing capability to hold defensive lines in several areas and are being forced to retreat (regroup in Russian). Reports are saying that the whole of Kharkiv province is now Ukrainian, and they are making good advances into northern Luhansk. The important town of Svatove is being advanced on from three directions and the Ukrainians now control highway 66 between Svatove and Kreminna. It's not yet clear whether they control it with ground troops or artillery fire.

 

In the south, Ukrainian forces are taking the northern part of Kherson province west of the Dnieper River. Latest reports say they have taken Dudchny, with the Russians blowing up the bridge south of town when they retreated. When the Ukrainians get around that obstacle, the way is open to push the Russians further south to Berislavska. If they can take that area, Ukrainian forces can control the bridge over the Dnieper which is one of two crossings supplying the Russians west of the river. There could be some major developments in the next week depending on how far the Ukrainians can push before pausing to reorganise and reequip.

 

I think Putler would have preferred the front to be quiet for a while so his recent political grandstanding would have time to wash over the sheep and boost their patriotism and support for his expanded Russia. Unfortunately for him, Ukraine has spoiled his party. Most of the Russian press is concentrating on the recent military failures on the battlefield, with the blame game and finger pointing dominating the media space. It's a bit like watching the movie Downfall play out in real life. At this stage, the blame has been directed at the Generals and the Ministry of Defence, but one day it will shift toward the bunker runt who started it all.

 

 

[facthunter]

It's pretty easy to see who the real coward is in all this. When it is a total failure and obvious to all, He will blame everyone but himself.. The MAN you cannot remove, who has murdered anyone who opposes him that he can get  away with. He must LOVE smashing and killing, because Syria was the same LOOK.  Nev

[Yenn]

What is the difference between Putin and all the other Presidents in the World.

He is very much like Trump and also Boris Johnson is not a president and never was, so they could get rid of him when he showed his real colours.

Emil Macron is one president who is not like Putin but African and American presidents seem to lack honour and competence.

[kgwilson]

Only Trump is a stupid as Putin. Boris was a buffoon but not an absolute fool.

[Marty_d]

2 hours ago, willedoo said:

...bunker runt...

 

 

I think the first letter of the last word is changeable in his case.

Edited October 4, 2022 by Marty_d

[willedoo]

Putler's mobilisation has been complete chaos so far. What he said about calling up reservists with prior military experience was a crock of shite. The regions have been handed quota numbers and to meet those quotas, have been calling up people with no prior experience, medical problems and age unsuitability. In Khabarovsk in the far east, half of the conscripts were sent home as unsuitable and the governor has sacked the local military commissar. Very few conscripts are coming from Moscow or St. Petersburg, most likely to prevent public unrest in the two big cities.

 

Ethnic minorities from the regions are making up a big percentage of the recruits. The photos below are from the Tuva Republic which borders Mongolia, and show locals receiving sheep as payment. Every family of a conscript is offered one sheep and some potatoes by the regional authorities. An NGO involved with helping Ukrainians leave the occupied territories has claimed data shows that Tatars make up 90% of the conscripts in Crimea, while they only make up 10-15% of the Crimean population. If true, it would amount to genocide of a minority that has long been a thorn in Moscow's side.

 

The latest is that Moscow is asking the regions to supply equipment, food and arms for the recruits in their regions. It's easy to see how that would pan out. With the level of corruption in regional governments, it would be a license to print money. I can see a lot of creative accounting of the public books happening, with a lot of officials about to become quite wealthy.

 

 

[Marty_d]

For anyone who's seen the South Park Movie, that sounds exactly like Operation Human Shield.  (Where all the Black soldiers are sent to the front line to die first).

[willedoo]

Ukraine has offered the U.S. full transparency and targeting information if the U.S. will give them the ATACMS. After Putin's escalation and threats, and with this offered guarantee, the Americans are running out of excuses to not provide the systems.

[willedoo]

The big number of foreign donors to Ukraine's war effort has certainly put the spotlight on a variety of military equipment. This one is a Slovakian made Zuzana-2 self propelled howitzer which can hold up to forty 155mm artillery projectiles with a firing range of 40 kilometres. Shoot and scoot seems to be the future of battlefield equipment. Norway, Denmark and Germany are buying sixteen of them for Ukraine at a cost of 90 million USD.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Even private citizens are getting in on the game: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-tomas-the-tank-t72-avenger-czech-republic-b2194393.html

 

[onetrack]

Highly mobile, long range, laser-guided artillery and rocketry, is a far better investment than a tank, in todays wars. I'd be crowd-funding drones for the Ukrainians, too.

[willedoo]

The latest American aid package includes the GPS guided 'Excalibur' 155mm artillery shell. Another good tool for the Ukrainians.

[willedoo]

As the Ukrainians are advancing in the southern Kherson region, they are destroying and capturing vintage T-62 tanks. Ukraine might be able to use them for village monuments when the war is over.

 

The Russians sure are scraping the barrel with men and equipment. They don't have enough troops to hold and defend continuous front lines, so are concentrating at strongpoints in towns and villages. The Ukrainians are going between them at weaker points, outflanking them, and forcing them to retreat or risk encirclement. I wonder if Putin has realised that he can't win this war. He's lucky that winter is approaching as it might give him breathing space to hold some ground. I recon if the current Ukrainian advances and shipments of foreign weapons were happening in early spring, the Russians would be pushed out by the time winter set in. Unfortunately that's not the case, but Ukraine has said they'll keep pressing the Russians as much as they can during the cold months.

[nomadpete]

[willedoo]

[willedoo]

Russia has topped the West as the largest arms supplier to Ukraine. Apart from small arms, munitions and artillery pieices, Russia has so far supplied Ukraine with 421 tanks, 445 infantry fighting vehicles and 192 other armoured vehicles.