Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Let me guess - poor Russia was tricked and this is all the fault of the evil Western machinations?
Talking about stuff like this is much more palatable than the daily grind of bad news from Ukraine.
Tactically, Russia really looks to be in a rough spot.
I can totally see how if you're ill equipped and thrown into bad situations while you know the leadership is getting rich and sitting back selling your gear and getting rich that nobody would be remotely willing to put in any real effort or stick their necks out.
Looking at the situation from another point of view, it is in US interests to keep pumping out all sorts of good news in Ukraine whether it be true or false, as it is a showcase for weaponry we can supply and profit from with sales to other nations. It is also in our interests to downplay/denigrate other nations weaponry as they are inexpensive options and competition. Nations such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China may also have interest in showing what their weapons are capable of, and if their pricing is less, outside nations may choose them as their supplier. Seems Ukraine is a test grounds for modern weaponry.
An outside observer looking through this lens might think most of what he/she reads, and some of what he/she sees is an advertisement, and possibly a false advertisement...a blood ridden advertisement. An attempt at self-promotion with the main cost being blood in Ukraine.
I'll grant you that it's wise for all observers to perform due diligence and to not consume only a single news source. Participants in conflicts always have some degree of spin to sell. It's on the consumer to shop around and apply subjective weighting to a variety of sources. I find that European news tends to be more detailed and timely wrt the Ukrainian war. Brit, Polish and other Eastern European outlets are pretty professional. I still look at some Russian feeds as well. Some things that both sides report do corroborate one another and those are probably solid. Body counts from various battles. Territory held, the retreat from Kherson has a lot of overlap.
As to the weaponry the best sources are often the independent (shall I say nerd) analysts who for example dissect Soviet vs Western tanks. Why do turrets on Russian tanks try to achieve orbital escape velocity when a simple grenade drops from a drone through an open hatch? Then there are the obvious macro discrepancies that cannot be manufactured like the performance of air power. Why did the Russian air force thought to be close to parity with the US not sweep the skies of all Ukrainian air power in the first week of the conflict? We know this can be done. We did it to Saddam's much larger and better equipped air force in the opening days of the gulf war. More like three days. So why almost a year into the conflict have the Ukrainian ground forces not been driven from the battlefield by Russian air power? Ukraine's not a jungle or a volcanic atoll riddled with caves, it's a wheat field. Nothing hides from air power in a damn wheat field. The inescapable conclusion is an utter failure on the part of the Russian air force. Systemic failure to manage the combined arms concept. Inferior tech and maintenance that keeps aircraft grounded. Inability to suppress air defenses. Perhaps even poor pilot training and outright cowardice to perform the sketchy and dangerous task of SAM suppression in the first wave of an air campaign. That one is not for the faint hearted but a modern air force will get it done.
We see the big picture of failure. The conclusions are inescapable. Some of you are asking us to discount ALL sources not included in the set of {Russia, China, Iran} as spin and propaganda. It's hard to take that message seriously when we have such a huge historical reservoir of evidence of consistent institutional propaganda from these sources.
Ukraine has been alleged to have executed Russian prisoners. A video has surfaced showing Russian prisoners who were trying to surrender being shot/executed. Now calls for an investigation
ISW is publishing an abbreviated campaign update today, November 20. This report discusses the rising influence of the milblogger (military correspondent or voenkor) community in Russia despite its increasingly critical commentary on the conduct of the war. The milblogger community reportedly consists of over 500 independent authors and has emerged as an authoritative voice on the Russian war. The community maintains a heavily pro-war and Russian nationalist outlook and is intertwined with prominent Russian nationalist ideologists. Milbloggers’ close relationships with armed forces – whether Russian Armed Forces, Chechen special units, Wagner Group mercenaries, or proxy formations – have given this community an authoritative voice arguably louder in the Russian information space than the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD). Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended the milbloggers from MoD attacks and protected their independence even as he increases oppression and censorship throughout Russia.
Some of the most objective reporting of this war has come from angry and upset Russian milbloggers. Wonder what Putin's angle is here.....I'm not seeing him being an altruistic advocate of a free press......I think he probably see's this as a method preventing the military from gaining too much power.
Some of the most objective reporting of this war has come from angry and upset Russian milbloggers. Wonder what Putin's angle is here.....I'm not seeing him being an altruistic advocate of a free press......I think he probably see's this as a method preventing the military from gaining too much power.
Interesting, isn't it? Putin is of course KGB, and part of their raison d'etre was to keep the military from getting ideas. The FSB has taken this task on.
Now, the Kherson retreat was announced by military spokespersons, as a military decision. In other words, the blame game is beginning, and right now the military is holding the hot potato. Let's see if they manage to pass it on. Someone is bound to ask, eventually, where all the FSB's bribe money went. Although probably not while standing near a high-rise window...
From what I've read, the Kherson retreat was a massacre. I rather doubt Crimea will be much different.
"When faced with an enemy who's shown himself to be quite adept at destroying bridges and ships, the wisdom of putting your troops in places that can only be resupplied by bridges and ships is rather questionable." Not Sun Tzu, but it is still true.
Even the Ukrainians disappointedly admit they didn't kill enough of them and most escaped. I believe they did inherit a bunch of Russian hardware though. Tough to get much of that out by civilian ferry boats or over a rickety pontoon bridge that seemed pretty banged up by artillery. Looked like mostly a single-file foot path for infantry.
All those video clips of missiles taking out equipment on barges and in line to barges are likely just business as usual.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
