Russia and its “Special Operation” in Ukraine

[bickster]

1 minute ago, magnkarl said:

Here’s what was spotted in the rail yard that Ukraine hit today

I didn't know they'd hit it today, I only saw the report this morning

This has to be the first war where the internet picks targets

[Genie]

What’s the vibe of the last few weeks? Is it stalemate? or is either side making gains?

[bickster]

11 minutes ago, Genie said:

What’s the vibe of the last few weeks? Is it stalemate? or is either side making gains?

Russia isn't making gains and is still taking heavy losses when they do attack.

The latest rumour in Kherson Oblast is that all the senior officers have left to the other side of the Dnieper but little progress seems to have been made either, except for the bridges across the Dnieper are now completely out of action so if Russia does get pushed back and Kherson is liberated a lot of hardware is going to be left behind and soldiers are going to have to swim

[LondonLax]

Russia has a lack of troops to take any more ground and Ukraine has a lack of firepower to take back ground it lost so there’s a bit of an impasse at the moment until something changes. 

[magnkarl]

11 hours ago, bickster said:

Russia isn't making gains and is still taking heavy losses when they do attack.

The latest rumour in Kherson Oblast is that all the senior officers have left to the other side of the Dnieper but little progress seems to have been made either, except for the bridges across the Dnieper are now completely out of action so if Russia does get pushed back and Kherson is liberated a lot of hardware is going to be left behind and soldiers are going to have to swim

There's also probably another reason why Ukraine are taking their time. They don't want to wipe Kherson off the map. They've gone for the only way to keep the city at least partially standing by cutting Russia's supply lines and waiting for the Russians to attack them, on top of waiting for the starvation\evacuation of Russia's soldiers.

It's a sound strategy which will take time, but it'll save countless of their own personell and civilian lives. They're essentially operating as a NATO-force would.

In the meantime they'll hit Russia hard in the rear, air bases, train yards, ammo dumps and command posts have all been hit within Crimea in the last week.

[Mandy Lifeboats]

At the start of the war the Ukrainians were armed with Russia weapons and their officers were trained in the Russian way of fighting. 

But the tactics they are using now are the tactics NATO developed to stop a Russian advance into Europe as far back as the 1980s.  Let them advance, wipe out their logistics and wait until demoralised Russians face a choice of surrender or death.  The only difference is that NATO would achieve that by clearing the skies above the advance and then using airpower to destroy logistics.  

Ukraine held against the initial onslaught.  That was amazing.  They are now re-armed and succeeding with the NATO tactics without the air power.  That's amazing.  

My only concern is that NATO has been building its forces to use those tactics for decades.  NATO combines stealth, mobility and precise long range strikes with devastating defensive weapons that allow NATO to slow the initial advance.  Have we armed Ukraine with enough of these weapons to allow them to push the Russians back over such a wide front.  I don't think so. 

 

[Anthony]

42 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

At the start of the war the Ukrainians were armed with Russia weapons and their officers were trained in the Russian way of fighting. 

But the tactics they are using now are the tactics NATO developed to stop a Russian advance into Europe as far back as the 1980s.  Let them advance, wipe out their logistics and wait until demoralised Russians face a choice of surrender or death.  The only difference is that NATO would achieve that by clearing the skies above the advance and then using airpower to destroy logistics.  

Ukraine held against the initial onslaught.  That was amazing.  They are now re-armed and succeeding with the NATO tactics without the air power.  That's amazing.  

My only concern is that NATO has been building its forces to use those tactics for decades.  NATO combines stealth, mobility and precise long range strikes with devastating defensive weapons that allow NATO to slow the initial advance.  Have we armed Ukraine with enough of these weapons to allow them to push the Russians back over such a wide front.  I don't think so. 

 

NATO have been training Ukraine forces since 2014; one of the reasons they're succeeding generally is that they've completely changed their doctrine over the past 8 years.

[Mandy Lifeboats]

2 hours ago, Anthony said:

NATO have been training Ukraine forces since 2014; one of the reasons they're succeeding generally is that they've completely changed their doctrine over the past 8 years.

Yes and no. 

I have read several reports that have quoted reluctance of some Ukrainian commanders to abandon their Russian taught tactics.  

But as I said in my post, they are adopting NATO tactics without the equipment that NATO has at its disposal. 

Ukraine needs to achieve the same results as NATO gets but without stealth aircraft,  cruise missiles and air superiority fighters. 

 

 

 

 

[bickster]

More Russian stupidity. The Military HQ in Lysychansk went boom yesterday. Here's why...

And here is the result

 

[choffer]

 

[LondonLax]

4 hours ago, bickster said:

More Russian stupidity. The Military HQ in Lysychansk went boom yesterday. Here's why...

And here is the result

 

When I go to Google Street View of the coordinates in the first post the neighbourhood looks very different to the video in the second post. I think someone might have mixed up something there. 

[sidcow]

8 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

When I go to Google Street View of the coordinates in the first post the neighbourhood looks very different to the video in the second post. I think someone might have mixed up something there. 

 

[magnkarl]

There's some fairly awful videos going around showing how Ukraine's artillery teams around Bakhmut killed several squads of Nazi-mercenaries from Wagner yesterday. I know one shouldn't be happy about death, but I do find it quite cathartic when mercenaries from a SS-like group is sent to their maker. Seems like the proximity fuse systems given with the M777's are doing extremely well against especially Russian personell carriers.

Edited August 19, 2022 by magnkarl

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

More ammo dumps inside Ruzzian territory going up in flames this morning.

[magnkarl]

Another great example of Russian military IQ.

 

[Genie]

As I read more and more about this conflict and stories like the Russians potentially planning to blow up Europes largest nuclear plant and blame Ukraine I’d really like to see a couple of weeks of absolutely everything thrown at Russia military wise.

The US, The UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, absolutely everyone all assemble on the fringes like the D day landings and give them 2 weeks of “shock and awe” and blow them back into the dark ages.

 

[sidcow]

49 minutes ago, Genie said:

As I read more and more about this conflict and stories like the Russians potentially planning to blow up Europes largest nuclear plant and blame Ukraine I’d really like to see a couple of weeks of absolutely everything thrown at Russia military wise.

The US, The UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, absolutely everyone all assemble on the fringes like the D day landings and give them 2 weeks of “shock and awe” and blow them back into the dark ages.

 

Problem is they'd blow us all into the dark ages. 

[Genie]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

Problem is they'd blow us all into the dark ages. 

Yeah, there is a flaw in the plan hence why we’ve not seen it. 

This whole situation, especially around the nuclear power plant looks like something world leaders will be saying for decade “we should have acted sooner”.

Same as Hitler and the Nazi’s.

[tinker]

Shows what a nutter Putin is to risk contaminating the very country hes claiming to be liberating as well as his own, depending on which way the winds blowing. 

Unsuitable people in power is a common theme in our world , it makes me wonder how it's happening or how it happened. I do begin to think Corbyn would have been the change we all needed , at least in the UK 

[magnkarl]

2 minutes ago, tinker said:

Shows what a nutter Putin is to risk contaminating the very country hes claiming to be liberating as well as his own, depending on which way the winds blowing. 

Unsuitable people in power is a common theme in our world , it makes me wonder how it's happening or how it happened. I do begin to think Corbyn would have been the change we all needed , at least in the UK 

Yes, I’m sure the Ukrainians would love to fight that armoured column going to Kyiv with a strongly worded petition from JC.