Jump to content

Where Do Things End With Vlad? (h/t romad1)


chasfh

Recommended Posts

Quote

Why Russia may have an advantage in a protracted conflict.

Wars of attrition are tests of manpower, industrial capacity, and political will. Despite its heavy losses, Russia has no shortage of men. Following its mobilization in October, Russia boasts more than 300,000 troops in Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of additional reserves. In total, Moscow commands a military force of an estimated 1.3 million. The Ukrainian military’s headcount is closer to 500,000.

The quality of Russia’s conscripted forces may not be high. But after a year of bleeding its best-trained professionals, the Ukrainian military faces similar problems. According to Western estimates, Ukraine has lost 120,000 troops to death or wounds. This has transformed the character of Ukraine’s forces, according to Ukrainian troops who spoke with the Washington Post this week:

After a year of war, Kupol, a lieutenant colonel, said his battalion is unrecognizable. Of about 500 soldiers, roughly 100 were killed in action and another 400 wounded, leading to complete turnover. Kupol said he was the sole military professional in the battalion, and he described the struggle of leading a unit composed entirely of inexperienced troops.

 

“I get 100 new soldiers,” Kupol said. “They don’t give me any time to prepare them. They say, ‘Take them into the battle.’ They just drop everything and run. That’s it. Do you understand why? Because the soldier doesn’t shoot. I ask him why, and he says, ‘I’m afraid of the sound of the shot.’ And for some reason, he has never thrown a grenade.”

The Post’s report also suggests that Ukraine is “suffering from basic shortages of ammunition, including artillery shells and mortar bombs.”

Russia’s stocks of martial hardware are comparatively deep. After much hesitation, Germany approved the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine last month. While those vehicles are more advanced than Russia’s tanks, the quantity being sent is all but “symbolic,” in the words of one Ukrainian government official who spoke with the Post. More than one month after they were approved, only a few dozen Leopard 2s have made it into Ukraine. Russia’s tank fleet numbers in the thousands.

For its part, the U.S. has already expended 13 years’ worth of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and five years’ worth of Javelins on the Ukrainian cause. American military production has not come close to keeping pace with Kyiv’s demand for armaments, which has forced the U.S. to delay arms shipments to Taiwan.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/03/russia-ukraine-war-stalemate-united-states-spring-offensive.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, digitalpigsmuggler said:

Except that a million Russian men have ditched Russia for other countries due to Putin's Infamous Foolhardy Folly.

No one wants to fight for Russia because they know that they will be fighting with broomsticks and shovels against, effectively, a NATO force. The Ukrainians have converted themselves from a ragtag Soviet relic to a NATO mimic using an amalgam/ hodgepodge of donated drones, helmets, artillery, and other mishmashed weaponry donated by countries who didn't want to see the Ukrainians exterminated in a Russian Nazi Genocide against them.

With training in western technology and fighting methods, every Ukrainian man, woman, and child is willing to fight to the death in order to save themselves from extermination from Putin's murderous genocidal thugs. Sort of like Israel's 5+ million Jews protecting themselves from 400 million Muslims surrounding them. Most hostile.

Successfully.

But you don't understand these things... correct?

Go ahead and find an article that says otherwise, and post it here.

I'm certain many will be influenced by all these wonderful articles that you post to change their minds to your way of thinking.

Not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, digitalpigsmuggler said:

the first sentence needs rebalancing - modern wars are almost 100% a test of industrial capacity, the balance being motivation, and Russia fails both by orders of magnitude. A Russia at full industrial mobilization is losing the balance of mechanized capacity on the battlefield daily to a West that is hardly spending its extra pocket change and it's young men have largely fled. Population is immaterial if all you can send bodies out there to do is become cannon fodder. 

The west has so far had Ukraine fighting this war with two hands tied behind its back - no fixed wing  air resources or long range rocketry -- against a 100% resource deployed Russian force and the Russian is still dead in the water ( and the fields, and the trenches......). If Nato changes it mind about either (and it appears to be about to on the 1st) what chance will Russia have but to lose more ground? Russia's singular hope is on the political side, with voices like yours.

But carry on.

Edited by gehringer_2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, digitalpigsmuggler said:

PS: Russia's military stocks that are "comparatively deep"...

Means they are using tanks from the 1950's against Leopard, Abrams, and Challenger tanks, broomsticks and shovels to attack machine guns, and Ladas to carry generals to the front... to be killed (again).

Your cute little article is badly outdated, patently false, and entirely misleading and a misrepresentation of battlefield truths.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I realize we shouldn't incentivize creeps but the key to defeating the sell-Ukraine-to-Russia caucus in congress is to spread around the defense spending so that all these districts get a share of the ca$h.

Would think it would be possible to move more than a few from the make America alone circus.

Edited by romad1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I had thought this politician was on the Trumpie side.  I know a lot of the RWs loved it when she won.   Look at the passion in defense of helping Ukraine.   

This is fire!

OK, but keep your eye on that gift horse from Troy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, chasfh said:

OK, but keep your eye on that gift horse from Troy.

I yearn for politics within the normal band of behaviors.  I want collective security in the face of aggression from dictatorships to be normal for politicians of most stripes.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I yearn for politics within the normal band of behaviors.  I want collective security in the face of aggression from dictatorships to be normal for politicians of most stripes.  

So do I, and I think most of us. I just hope while we are cheering her for this, she doesn’t manage to slip some Trumpy bad governance behavior under our radars.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Russia's MOD and the Wagner Group's fundamental violation of the unity of command was just one part of why this failed for them.   The moral is to the physical as 3 is to 1: the original machine of military aphorisms Napoleon Bonaparte

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...