Russia - threadbanned users in OP

roosterman71

If Russia has 1.3m or whatever it is in the army, plus reserves, where the hell are they and why the hell were they sending prisoners, Napalese, Indians, auld lads, etc to Ukraine?

Paddigol

Any decent sources for the latest Russian casualties?

When you compare this 'special operation' to any other war in recent decades, the numbers are off the scale - whether it's 200k/ 300k/ 400k (which I find hard to believe tbh)... the fact that you could have such a wide range - and that the range itself encompasses such massive losses - is unbelievable. Is there any war in living memory that has produced such numbers? Leaving aside that it's 'only' been two years.

A quick look at Wiki suggests the US and its allies 'only' suffered 282k casualties in 10 years in Vietnam.

XsApollo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121897597#Comment_121897597

1.3 million what? Vodka drinking untrained people with an AK47 , the 2 million reserve would probably get their 2 weeks ak47 training before been dumped in a field somewhere.

id say a lot of the older generation would be capable or have experience, not the younger.

the first foreigners I saw come to Ireland was probably back in 2000, about 10 Ukrainian men were brought in the factory.

some of them were in Afghanistan , one was a mig mechanic, and all of them had driven tanks or some sort of vehicle and had been trained/ experience with weapons. I don’t imagine it’s like that nowadays.

Western armies , have lower numbers but are professional, have much better training , equipment and morale.

Baba Yaga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121896653#Comment_121896653

way to go McGyver! no John Wicks though :(

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121897717#Comment_121897717

Worth remembering that it's only a fraction of the armed forces who are actually at the front line at any one time. There's also a huge logistical operation behind that which needs manning. Think of all the things that those on the front line might need and then think that none of that stuff spontaneously happens.

As for the Nepalese, Indians, auld lads etc., it's long appeared to be Putin's strategy to toss 'expendables' at the guns first and foremost, as their loss won't be so bitterly felt by the ordinary Russian people. I don't know precisely what state Russia's professional force is in, but it's got to have taken a battering over the last few years. They'll be looking to preserve whatever's left of that, plus keep the political backlash against the war to a minimum by not sacrificing the young men of the urban centres until no choice is left.

pcardin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121897720#Comment_121897720

any sources that it isn't 400k? Real numbers will be known after war, but probably will never be known, since, again, it will be Ukraine counting dead nazi orcs on their land and ruSSia will be telling that nobody died there. they did the same with Afghanistan, way more people died and got injured than SU reported. Human lives mean absolutely nothing to rotten scum which is today's ruSSian society. Never did, never will.

pcardin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121897882#Comment_121897882

again - in theory. Prigozhin's drive to Moscow indicated it could not be the case. Easy boarder crossings into ruSSia suggest the same. Remember - everything the world knows about 'mighty ruSSian army' is what they showed us in a form of cartoon drawings. 😁

odyssey06

Some of the variation in casualty figures is also down to what is the basis for 'Russian' losses... does it include Wagner group and the like, the Donbas ethnic Russian militia etc.

pcardin

Citizens giving their votes in this sham

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121897987#Comment_121897987

Most of the mighty Russian army is in Ukraine, number one. Number two, are there any significant defensive fortifications in Russia proper? If not, it's much less of a mystery how Prigozhin's merry men were able to make a lightning drive into Russia, busting across the border and zooming towards Moscow. Not that this would have been successful because it got stopped about halfway along by hasty negotiation.

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121897987#Comment_121897987

Pretty much this. I do get the impression that what we see in Ukraine is the bulk of what military the Russians can actually put on the field.

They theoretically can put out a million reservists too, but that won’t do them much good if they can’t arm or equip that many troops. They are still gutting their 70’ era Soviet stockpiles and relying on sub par gear from Iran, China & North Korea.

They likely have token forces on Ukraine’s northern border, making it porous to partisans, and nothing much left in the interior. If Prigohzin hadn’t mysteriously stopped his march onto Moscow I firmly believe that there was really nothing left of the Russian military to actually stop him unless they were willing to pull troops from the front line. He would have rolled onto the Kremlin, and that is an important takeaway. If the Russians lose in Ukraine, that’s it, there’s likely nothing much left of their military and they are finished as a military power. Putin likely knows this and is fatalistically keeping the war going in the hope that time or a friendly GOP government will give him the win he very desperately needs.

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121868744#Comment_121868744

With respect to the last line, I was assigned to the French division headquarters in Warfighter 21-4 a couple of years ago. I assure you, that was exactly the sort of scenario which was being exercised.

That said, I’m in Paris right now, and there was a headline on one of the magazine fronts on the shelf today, asking if the French Army was actually in a condition to fight. Doctrine and HQs obviously don’t automatically imply working troops on ground. It’s a fair question, but I suspect it’s more a matter of excessive commitments than lack of resources like Germany.

The West took a gamble. It bet that Ukraine could defend itself with a bit of help, but not risk own troops or escalation. If faced with a fallen Ukraine, however, they may end up forced to intervene themselves and do what they in hindsight should have done two years ago except after years more suffering. Either that or have a victorious Russia on their border.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121896481#Comment_121896481

What will happen after the demise / removal of Putin is the same as what happens when rats are locked in a barrel, or other enclosed space without food or water. They will fight each other, until only the strongest rat remains. And that's one of the reasons why there's so many private militias' in Russia.

jmreire

Putin allows the elections because, first, they're no real threat to him, and secondly, it gives a patina of democracy to his presidency, and he cannot be accused of being a dictator internationally.

Dick phelan

https://youtu.be/aRfEqzKx3HY?si=eSODyNizfB8u-I4I

Putin doing a great job of speeding up demographic collapse. A true mastermind sending hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths and causing over a million to leave the country.

zv2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898389#Comment_121898389

Russian opposition are calling for the west not to recognize the election as fair and legal. That would have a lot of ramifications if they denounce the elections.

seenitall

https://twitter.com/Azovsouth/status/1768026635134013489

Ah ah ah ah ah ah (*laughter in French*)

jmreire

Yes, but when you add the differences in "quality" (training and equipment etc. to the equation) that has a levelling up effect. Western armies are professional by and large, and not conscripted.

aidanodr

Dont forget in ye're numbers - the Rosgvardiya or the The National Guard of the Russian Federation ( Putins personal army pretty much ).

Manpower - 340,000 or so

Say my name

There's more people live in Bangladesh than live in Russia.

There's more people live in France and Germany than live in Russia.

European Union has 448 million people. Russia 144 million.

EltonJohn69

russia losses are currently at 983 men a day, that’s the highest since the war began. Seems like russia is going all out, I have heard that they can maintain this pace for another 6 months but who knows. A Biden win and the French marching on moscow would be nice.

zv2

America is getting prickly with Iran

https://twitter.com/NewsMelt/status/1768737543586021705

Wolf359f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898846#Comment_121898846

Very little the US can do about that. Sure they done feic all when North Korea supplied Russia with them.

But of course if the US gave standard ATACMS or JASSM's etc... that would be an escalation 🤷🏻‍♂️

I.am.Putins.raging.bile.duct

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898815#Comment_121898815

Nobody wants to march on Moscow this isn't 1812. Putin and his murderous buddies will be crushed and humiliated just like hitler but without as much bloodshed.

nacho libre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121896406#Comment_121896406

He probably has some sort of insurance policies that if he goes, the families of any would be plotter will suffer too. The only ones that might make a move against him are people within the FSB, but they do well from his rule. The only way this calculation may change is if Ukranian Intelligence were able to get at them, then someone might think that being close to Putin was bad for their health and be tempted to do something. I wonder do people at Langley ever probe for any cracks in his regime? Perhaps they are afraid of civil war breaking out in Russia so are not inclined to do so.

zv2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898879#Comment_121898879

Yes but if they make a threat and then do nothing they will look stupid. They mean it.

Roald Dahl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898389#Comment_121898389

Based on what we know about the DDR, which was a mini-ussr and whose entire security apparatus was exposed to the world as the amateur, ridiculous, incompetent, bungling, overindulged omnishambles pile of dogshite that it was after German reunification, with its economy-annihilating wastefulness and constructed in the mirror image of the cheka/nkvd/kgb, of which Pickpocket Urchin vladimir was a boastful member, the russian federation operates a "National Front" model, where a certain percentage of kgb stooges pretend to represent independent parties in a crude, unsophisticated farce, playacting at democracy.

In the DDR people voted for the list of representatives presented to them, with the allocated percentage of "alternative" voices, such as the "Conservatives" and the "Liberals". Any attempt to alter the presented ballot would most definitely result in very serious problems further down the road, as the ballot box proceedings were closely observed by "undercover" Stasi agents and their vast army of informants.

Exactly how putin operates is available for full scrutiny in the former offices of the DDR regime in Berlin, some of which are open to the public as museums which exemplify the occupation that russian-run Germany was.

Hande hoche!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898846#Comment_121898846

Smart from an Iranian tactical standpoint. Means to test your equipment against a range of contemporary Western air defence systems and older Soviet models. Imagine they already have some data from the Houthis lobbing some of their designed missiles at warships and Southern Israel.

Wolf359f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898945#Comment_121898945

I'm sure they said the same about North Korean missiles and done nothing. There's a UNSC resolution banning NK exporting missiles and artillery.

They breaches that without any blowback, hard to imagine the US doing anything other than condemn Iran.

flutered

remember the bomb attack on odessa while the greek premier was meeting up with the ukrainian president, well there has been blowback

Visegrád 24 on X: "BREAKING: Greece announces massive military aid package for Ukraine - 2,000 5-inch Zuni rockets - 180 2.75-inch anti-tank rockets - 90,000 90mm anti-tank anti-aircraft ammo - 4 million bullets - 70 US-made M114A1 howitzers 🇬🇷🇺🇦 https://t.co/eYBGgWKFiz" / X