Ukraine

Some interesting stuff over on Twitter concerning RF losses, including one of their latest stealth corvettes sunk by artillery. They’re also estimating that they RF have lost 30% of their vehicles.

They’re also estimating that they RF have lost 30% of their vehicles.

As much as I’d like it to be the case, Ukrainian propaganda has been excellent in working up their success, I’d take the numbers with a pinch point of salt, even if they have taken out way more than many expected

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/jaguar-kumar-doctor-ukraine-russia-panther-b986986.html

Talking about hearts of lions…how about a couple of other big cats?
Completely hatstand

More “world leading” response details… https://t.co/agytl9zg4J

— Kelvin Owers (@spittingcat) March 9, 2022

Oh, I won’t cross post a load of stuff from social media… but follow John Sweeney Roar on whatever platform you use. Doing a very good job of capturing the “every day” activity of normal people. Be warned, you will cry at the positive underground moments when set against the reality of what is happening outside.

Brilliant

https://twitter.com/GeraldineKell16/status/1501516666282418180

They’re also estimating that they RF have lost 30% of their vehicles.

As much as I’d like it to be the case, Ukrainian propaganda has been excellent in working up their success, I’d take the numbers with a pinch point of salt, even if they have taken out way more than many expected

This site documents the confirmed losses by both sides.

Attack On Europe: Documenting Equipment Losses During The 2022 Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

The real numbers will be higher. Ukrainian losses won’t be as well documented as Russian because Ukraine is pumping out pictures on social media to win support but Russian troops won’t have cell phones with them. From the numbers, it’s obvious that Ukraine have suffered some major losses too. Still, Russia took a beating in the early days and cannot sustain that level of losses very long.

Interesting thing is that Russia had a terrible day with aircraft losses two days ago, but nothing since. Maybe the Stingers have scared the Russian pilots to stay out of the fight. Not having helicopters will be a major blow to the troops on the ground.

The other thing to look at is things like engineering vehicles, fuel tankers, etc. Tanks are the prestige items in ground battles, but they are useless without all the support vehicles. Every fuel tanker lost means multiple tanks or other vehicles waiting for fuel.

In early days, Russian forces charged in and suffered huge losses from ambushes. The last couple of days that seems to have tapered off. Quite likely the Russians have changed their tactics. It’s also possible that they are tired, hungry, and short on fuel and ammo and taking a break to replenish.

Thanks @thols2, I forgot to save that when I posted it, trying to go back through my posts to find it was a nightmare!

Dear God!

Mariupol is not just being besieged. It is being punished for its years of resistance to Russian ethnonationalism. This is the result… https://t.co/K5h9YyhSSg

— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) March 9, 2022

I wonder if Russian artillery are being told what their targets actually are?

Could depend on if they have FOO’s watching the fall of shot, or are simply being given a grid to pound.

I imagine it’s the latter with a made-up target description.

I wonder if Russian artillery are being told what their targets actually are?

It’s a large metropolitan city full of men, women & children – they know they’re not shelling fields of sun flowers.

I wonder if Russian artillery are being told what their targets actually are?

Probably told they need to target baby Nazis. They may not know, but someone above them does

It’s a large metropolitan city full of men, women & children – they know they’re not shelling fields of sun flowers.

No, they probably think they’re shelling bunkers, command posts and barracks.

Are there any numbers on how many POW’s there are?

Is it? Or is it that the civilians have been evacuated and that anyone staying behind is a Nazi and supports the evil regime and that we’re targeting the buildings they’ve turned into military strongholds to further abuse and mistreat the people of Ukraine who want us to help them?

Not hard to swing a line of bullshit to troops who may have limited to no other means of information.

Edit; late to the party, others made the same point.

It’s a large metropolitan city full of men, women & children – they know they’re not shelling fields of sun flowers.

Maybe the Ukrainians could get some scud missiles to lob into Russia.
Totally evil thing to do, Putin is finished as a world statesman.

No, they probably think they’re shelling bunkers, command posts and barracks.

These are the same tactics that the Russians have employed in places like Chechnya and Syria, and these are the same troops doing it. They know exactly what the doctrine is. Deny the civilian population any sense of safety or shelter; along the way causes psychological terror, mass causalities, panic and ultimately refugees that your opposition has to deal with.

Caher
Full Member
Maybe the Ukrainians could get some scud missiles to lob into Russia.

If they are looking to get nuked. I guess that’s a good idea.

Not your usual POW you see paraded. Hope this kinda message is seeping through to Russia.

All POW’s in this will say whatever it takes so as not to get gutted by some angry Ukrainians with a rusty bayonet. And i doubt ordinary Russians can get outside news.

Shits getting real now!

Did a job a few years back at Davos World Economic Forum *in the middle of the main street through town for one of the richest people in the world (guy behind amazon’s algorithms) jazzing up some shitty bar to make it look half decent. Lots of fake grass, because, you know…. green is good, right?
Anyway, Sting was the main act. We’re outside outside cutting down the bar because despite months of planning the big fish decided the bar was way too big. Strings PA comes along telling us that Sting was about to arrive and that we should keep quiet and not look at him… WTF? Anyway, as he stepped out of his Vivano I started up the saw and sprayed the yard with saw dust.

William turned up. He’s a prick of the highest order.

*Yes, I’m a whore to money.

All POW’s in this will say whatever it takes so as not to get gutted by some angry Ukrainians with a rusty bayonet. And i doubt ordinary Russians can get outside news.

Completely disagree. The guy in that vid was eloquent, didn’t appear under duress (even if he was coerced), he was thoughtful, respectful and was providing what appears to be a realistic appraisal of the situation. I would say it was genuine as he was at it for well over 5mins without any obvious prompting.

Christ, I work with people who can’t even explain the thing they’ve been working on for 2 years. That guy appeared to be talking from the heart, asking for clemency but understanding that  it might not arrive.

I’d really like you to avail us of your in depth knowledge of (Russian or other) resistance to interrogation and SERE doctrine to back that utterly gash throwaway statement up.

All POW’s in this will say whatever it takes so as not to get gutted by some angry Ukrainians with a rusty bayonet. And i doubt ordinary Russians can get outside news.

Stolen from twitter:

“No Fry Zone” imposed across Russia as McDonalds close 820 restaurants (sic)

Going forward I’ll take an uninformed guess at whats next.

Everything thrown at Kiev, the aircraft that haven’t really been flying, artillery, rockets, missiles… the whole deal to reduce it to rubble as fast as possible. I really really hope I’m wrong and Team Blue/Yellow reduce them to scrap but what a price to pay.

All my venom is reserved for Putin, Laverov, Lebdevev and their henchmen. Utter scumbags. The Russian masses are in the main ill informed passengers in this and I do hope they have the strength to change this at source.

I’d really like you to avail us of your in depth knowledge of resistance to interrogation and SERE doctrine to back that utterly gash throwaway statement up.

Gash throwaway comment ?.

I dont think so. But you being ex military, how many operations were you involved in killing civilians and then captured. ??, I’ll hazard a guess that its the same as me ZERO.

But the idea still stands. How do you avoid summary execution by the locals/ police/military after you’ve illegally invaded a country and ergo murdered civilians.

Say even for example youre on the group who have just captures some enemy troops who might well have killed members of your family. Would you be standing to with ‘lets hand them over to the government’, or would you be saying get a rope, wheres my gun’.

As to SERE doctrine, till you mentioned it I’d never heard of it, and probably 90% of the posters here did neither. But a quick look at thats NATO, so are you sure that really applies to Russian conscripts ?. Not exactly highly trained.

Absolutely! The gas supply to Europe from Russia being the case in point. Turning that off would be the financial equivalent of Mutually Assured Destruction. It would have absolutely instant and completely devastating consequences for both parties.

Its a double edged sword though – if much of Europe wasn’t so dependant on the gas they might well have had a more robust response to Crimea (or indeed he might have felt less confident about Crimea and then the current invasions in the first place)

While many, if not most Russians believe everything the Kremlin puts out on state media, there are significant numbers who are doing everything they can to get out of Dodge!

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgqq5/russians-flee-russia-vladimir-putin-ukraine-war

Regarding International response to Russian threats to neighbouring countries, it’s just a pity they didn’t ask those neighbours for an opinion and then act on it…

https://www.politico.eu/article/western-europe-listen-to-the-baltic-countries-that-know-russia-best-ukraine-poland/

Going back a bit, I believe there were suggestions that ground attacks by aircraft such as A-10’s would have been effective, A-10 pilots would beg to differ…

https://www.businessinsider.com/a10-pilots-stopping-russian-convoy-in-ukraine-would-be-dangerous-2022-3?r=US&IR=T

Dear God!

Inside that hospital Binners…

Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity. pic.twitter.com/FoaNdbKH5k

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 9, 2022

Far worse will happen before this is over. This only a taster of what military offensives on cities by Russia look like. Stop the war. Putin must stop this war.

Putin must stop this war.

Unlikely Putin will stop it, he’s on a path and I doubt anyone will dissuade him. Only perhaps the Russian people if they get the support of the military and police can force it to stop, and likely by arresting Putin for crimes against humanity.

I watched the vid of the captured soldier(didnt give his rank) and he was imploring the Ukrainian people to show mercy to captured or wounded Russian soldiers so they could return home and tell exactly what has been happening and it is not the state sponsored information being put out on their news.

Say even for example youre on the group who have just captures some enemy troops who might well have killed members of your family. Would you be standing to with ‘lets hand them over to the government’

They’re soldiers and they have orders.

Yeah my bad, I jumped the gun a little. The conscripts get a pass, they have minimal training anyway and didn’t have a clue what was going on, they’re probably don’t want to be in uniform let alone Ukraine.

The regular troops will have had some training no doubt, probably akin to the old big 6 concept (name/rank/number/unit) there’s no doubt any troops caught saying whatever they like will face repercussions back home, I can’t imagine their military doctrine has leeway for coercion or duress under capture.

As a sidebar, the Russians do have a SERE equivalent of sorts, run by those mythological combat axe throwing lunatics.

Gash throwaway comment ?.

False flag chemical weapon “attack” anyone? Or worse.

West fears Russia could use non-conventional weapons

The ANG pilot doesn’t say they’d be ineffective, just risky. Same risk for high end aircraft too…

Going back a bit, I believe there were suggestions that ground attacks by aircraft such as A-10’s would have been effective, A-10 pilots would beg to differ…

At a guess, if Putin is still in charge when and if he ever gets back to Russia, he’s probably ****.

I watched the vid of the captured soldier(didnt give his rank) and he was imploring the Ukrainian people to show mercy to captured or wounded Russian soldiers so they could return home and tell exactly what has been happening and it is not the state sponsored information being put out on their news.

Yeah my bad, I jumped the gun a little. The conscripts get a pass, they have minimal training anyway and didn’t have a clue what was going on, they’re probably don’t want to be in uniform let alone Ukraine.

I watched the vid of the captured soldier and what struck me from that was he was not only addressing Russian troops, but also the Ukrainian people. He was telling them that it was better to not kill captured and wounded troops because they could then return home and spread the information about the truth of the conflict. From that I would gather that the Ukrainian government is asking its people not to take the law into their own hands and to hand captured troops over to the military/authorities,.

From watching other vids of captured soldiers, it is clear many dont know what is going on, but also most are are young and utterly terrified and it is in the hands of women that appears to be the thing preventing them from being murdered. Even though they are the enemy, it is heartbreaking to watch the fear they exhibit.

I watched the vid of the captured soldier(didnt give his rank) and he was imploring the Ukrainian people to show mercy to captured or wounded Russian soldiers so they could return home and tell exactly what has been happening and it is not the state sponsored information being put out on their news.

I’ve been wondering if this is one of the reasons the ‘traffic jam’ hasn’t been targeted.  The first reason is it is probably more effective to use your troops elsewhere if the enemy have disabled themselves for a while but also if there is a possibility it is going to collapse and they return home then you want the real story out there rather than people mourning unecessary deaths

But I suspect the first reason is more important

These are the same tactics that the Russians have employed in places like Chechnya and Syria, and these are the same troops doing it.

Are they?

I mean high up regulars that actually know what they are targeting, sure, but the actual folk firing the guns? Maybe, maybe not.

Conscription is an abhorrence, something Putin changed the rules on so he can bolster his numbers on the cheap.

They’re mostly kids just hoping to serve their time and then get on with life. Now they’ll have being part of this on their conscience as well as having to deal with whatever reputations the state brings against them or their families.

From watching other vids of captured soldiers, it is clear many dont know what is going on, but also most are are young and utterly terrified and it is in the hands of women that appears to be the thing preventing them from being murdered. Even though they are the enemy, it is heartbreaking to watch the fear they exhibit.

Inside Russia

Nothing new but an honest view of what’s happening inside Russia from a “ normal” Russian that’s appalled

I think many kids across the world will struggle to atone for the “sins of their fathers”. Hearteningly I reckon most of them understand, empathise and have generous enough hearts to forgive and rebuild. Pity we can’t have an upper age limit on autocrats directly involved in humanitarian decisions including declarations of hostilities ( looking at you as well UK) and keep the oldies for the technical stuff.
Looking at the world through rose tints having just spent a few wonderful hours with my lovely 19yr old grand daughter.