Russia - threadbanned users in OP

May Perun / Taranis protect these brave warriors, Glori Don Ucrain! Slava Ukraine!

Crazy splice of info from the watch dogs that should be providing info to the wider public

From this clip, you would think we need to go war until the last person is asking a question.

It still happens in Russia.

The big question is whether the messed up Russian supply network will be able to keep up with such a scorched Earth campaign. The increase in firepower required by this requires insane amounts of ammunition to be readily available to the troops at the front. Given how thinly stretched Russian manpower is at the moment, how poorly "recruitment" efforts are going, I just don't see how they'd be able to effectively protect their supply lines. They can't really bring in many more Army units from other military districts without reducing them to a level that leaves them vulnerable there, particularly in the Caucasus and the Far East. Now granted, Russia could begin calling up reservists, but that could very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back for the population in Russia. I mentioned in an earlier post that they won't rise up until their backs are against the wall. Having men drafted just for the war in Ukraine might be such a moment.

Time isn't really on Russia's side, here, because every day they continue this war, they are deepening bad blood with the West, making China increasingly nervous, and giving Russia's public and politicians a reason to overthrow Putin. Every day that this war continues beyond the initially speculated time frame gives a chance for tensions somewhere to erupt into a situation that Putin did not bargain for at all.

And it wouldn't just be Russia changing tactics. The Ukrainian side would be adapting as well. For example, the attrition shelling approach the Russians appear to be adopting could be sorely impaired by the switchblade drones that's the Americans are supposed to be supplying to Ukraine. Speaking of supply, I wouldn't be at all surprised if NATO was supplying real time strategic guidance to the Ukrainian military by looking at satellite feeds and telling Ukrainian soldiers what to hit, where to hit and when to hit it.

In a war of conquest it's worth remembering that when you take a city, you usually have to leave forces behind to hold it. While 180,000 troops sounds like a lot, when you factor in the above, the march to Kyiv suddenly sounds tougher. To add to that, Ukrainians are digging in and they are preparing in those cities which have not yet undergone sustained assault, and this is against a Russian force that is under supplied or inept or demoralised to the extent that they're still struggling to take cities on the edge of Ukraine.

Typical response?

There was plenty of details in that article if you read between the lines. The Garda head of counter terrorism basically told 30 terrorist ISIS fighters who are living in Ireland that they are being surveilled, their phones and internet traffic are being tapped. Now why would the Gardai be telling known terrorists that kind of information? All it does is give them an advantage to make sure their communications are secure. Why spend all that money on phone hacking equipment and then tell the targets you're hacking their phones, it is complete amateur hour from these blabber mouths who are always leaking to the media.

Pius the poster you were replying to @cnocbui was right- senior Gardai management in the Phoenix Park do not have a handle on counter terrorism in this country. If you think that they do then youre being really naive. London, Paris, Madrid all thought the same thing yet they still got hit. ,Gardai in the counter intelligence and terrorism branch being blabber mouths to the media is going to make an attack in Ireland more likely, not less likely.

Can Russia afford 'slower and more methodical' at this point? At this rate the extreme economic cost and the stream of bodybags coming back could cause Russia to collapse before Ukraine. Would like to see a peace deal but what are Russia going to accept as a reasonable reward for the huge cost they have faced?

I completely agree with this. The country is too large. The Russians have not taken the other big cities they thought they would. I was watching this unfold at the start on the livestream cameras in Kyiv the second or third night. I expected to see Russian tanks rolling in to the centre of Kyiv after two or three days.

THey don't kill people in the Hague.

no apparently its not ready ..unusually russia makes all its own military equipment and they don't have enough nor is it ..field ready i think ..or at least this is what we are told??

Are you a fan of military vehicles?

Tomorrow's London Times estimates that Russia has lost 7000 troops, has seen 200 tanks destroyed and lost 10% of all its equipment - seems plausible from all the reports we're hearing.

No, and it's not reasonable to expect there would be. They have a small handful of them, none ready for combat, basically their most modern tank in numbers is T90, which in itself is not much of a match against Javelins and other AT weapons.

People talk about how Russia has thousands of tanks and how a few hundred lost is no big deal, but it's actually a huge deal.

The vast majority of their paper inventory is rusted units lying in storage that are nowhere near ready for battle, nor even capable of it on the roughest terms.

Their main tank force right now is tanks from the 1970's with token upgrades. They might have 10,000 tanks on paper but actual battle ready tanks are a fraction of that.

As it is,the forces they committed to battle are massively lacking in upkeep. What remains on paper is pretty much close to worthless.

The force committed to Ukraine might represent a token of their paper strength but it represents about the cream of what's ready for war. And it's not faring well, at all.

How on earth can Putin live with himself for causing this. No mind the deaths he's caused in Ukraine.