That is a good point and I hope you're right. Though I question how well trained any of these forces are for either side. The initial brigade of Russian troops seemed horribly trained. I think most analysts assumed Russia would march into Kyiv based on Ukraine's lack of ability in 2014 to do anything to stop Crimea from falling within a matter of days.
Yep, Vlad's plan was to decapitate the gov't in Kyiv quickly, install a leader of his choice and extend his empire to the western borders of Ukraine in short order. Obviously that didn't happen, so here we are.
My recollection was that the first set of troops into Ukraine were not the elite units. They appeared to be there to push forward until they met resistance, and try to draw out a coordinated counter-attack from Ukraine's best troops. Then Russia's elite troops would respond and destroy them. Ukraine never got the memo, and never sent out their army en masse to attack the Russian units. They were having too much success with guerilla-style fighting (and tractors hauling off equipment). Somewhere along the way, the Russians realized that their supply lines were vulnerable and getting attacked, and things fell apart from there. By the time Russia's elite troops got involved, there was too much disruption in the Russian army plans, and the regular troops responded to that by losing focus and initiative and finding reasons to retreat and avoid combat.
The Mother of All Surrenders(TM) has begun. Ukraine is saying that they are being inundated with Russian troops calling in to ask how to surrender. About 2,000 have tried to surrender in recent weeks. Russian soldiers are surrendering en masse New recruits seem to be putting Ukrainian "Surrenders Are Us" on their speed dial. Not a good look for a heroic, macho country like Russia.
Not sure if this is a trap or not, but the Russian army seems to be generally falling back across every front. Ukraine update: Russia's unraveling accelerates as Ukraine makes gains on every front Russian army maps show major retreats in Ukraine’s Kherson region At some point you have to imagine they will solidify their lines but it isn't today it seems.
“In my estimation, there is good reason to lend credence to these reports. And although the timing and location of a Russian counter-attack cannot yet be confidently predicted, I continue to be persuaded that “something big” is afoot, and that the Ukrainian army and its large numbers of NATO-affiliated “volunteers” are going to suffer the biggest catastrophe so far in this war as a result of their militarily imprudent last-gasp September “counter-offensives”.” Maneuver Warfare
I could maybe, maybe buy the idea of that blog post in the south. But it’s just totally out of touch with reality in the north where it has been confirmed by multiple sources the Russians left so fast they left significant amounts of equipment behind in their hasty withdrawal. Russia could easily still counter attack in the north but the disjointed maneuvers of this army to date don’t really suggest to me some grand beautiful strategy. And at the rate they’ve replaced commanders on the ground how can their be any large coherent plan stretching over weeks? Add in the fact that many of their units are being forced to communicate on open channels how could they pull that off with the whole world watching? So yeah, counter offensive I buy 100% but feigned withdrawal? I’m not buying what that guys selling. At least not up north.
mtracey “Sorry to harp on this, but I can't get over how all the top nuclear experts have announced we're in something like red-alert Cuban Missile Crisis territory -- yet nobody seems troubled enough to do anything about it, except double-down on the policy that brought us to this point.” Push! Push! Push!
War comes to Moscow! Finally. Newly mobilized Russian army recruits go to war with Russian contract soldiers after the contractors attempted to take away their cell phones, also known as "Surrender Devices". About 20 contract soldiers were injured in the massive brawl. Mobilized and contract soldiers involved in mass brawl in Moscow region NOTHING TO SEE HERE! NOTHING TO SEE!
Push! Push! Push! Anders Åslund @anders_aslund · Oct 3 Russia (Putin) needs to be forced to end its war of aggression against Ukraine. This is unacceptable from any point of view of international law. What can be done? 1. Somebody can bomb Moscow, Sochi & Valdai (Putin's residences). Who should do it? Why not? Why only Kyiv?
I gotta say, I'm skeptical. Troops still located inside Russia calling Ukraine to surrender, before they've even crossed over into Ukraine? That sounds a little unbelievable to me. While I support Ukraine's sovereignty and their fight, I fully realize that Ukraine has a long history of corruption and they're perfectly capable of good ole fashion lying and war propaganda.
Totally agree. Go with the number of prisoners that Ukraine can actually show you. Of course, their Ministry of Truth is going to engage in information warfare that distorts and exagerrates. They learned IO from the Russians, and that's exactly the kind of thing the Russians have always done.
The Ukrainians are very good at social media. I will know I'm being manipulated and I can't resist falling for it anyway. The pet photos get me every time
300,000 trained troops and 70,000 erases and reverses the only advantage the US has had to date - manpower. While I do grant the possibility that Russia could lose the war, with 370,000 new troops, I now consider it more likely that that Russia will take the whole of US East than lose the war.
They need to be careful. That one is so far-fetched, it no doubt is going to make some Western eyes roll. Perhaps NATO powers give Ukraine a pass on stuff like this if it rallies the Ukrainian spirits in the battlefield. I guess that could make sense.
Former US Marine explains that Ukraine is losing weapons faster than the US can possibly replace them ...
I doubt anyone is watching a 35 min YouTube video of some guy from his basement. What are key points.
