This does appear to be a very carefully crafted plan where the Russians appear to be completely caught off guard and cannot work out where the next strikes will come from.
They are completely unbalanced and internal disputes and mistrust between Russian forces has totally played a role.
The Kremlin will need to urgently reinforce all major choke points or risk total collapse across multiple front lines. I wonder if they have the balls for mass mobilisation or if the luxury enjoying people of Moscow would enjoy accept it.
That might be the get-out that Vlad needs. Withdraw his trained forces. Put them in northern Georgia for a "Special Operation". And when Donetsk falls, he can blame the leaders of the newly formed Donetsk Peoples Republic.
As I said 8-10 weeks back the offensive by Ukraine would be slow at first but the Russian collapse would be rapid when it happened. The Ukranian army are creating a salient into the Russian held area. This would normally be a high risk strategy but because of poor moral and training the Russian army is unable to defend where the attack is taking place.
As an American military commentator stated a while back the abandoned Russian positions are a signature of poor training and moral. Materials strewn all over the place.
The Russian were depending on artillery to win this war. They have used up much in the attack. The Ukranian's with precision NATO munitions have nullified what is left.
If they can defend and pin down one side of the salient they can encircle the other and overrun the army there. They may even use an armoured attract to take this area around Kherson.
As the war progresses , surely Ukraine will have to consider occupying actual Russian territory. It's a huge disadvantage that the enemy knows you are constrained to Ukrainian territory, in the end a negotiation could come down to a land swap, "you get yours back , we get ours back"
@Bass Reeves The Russian were depending on artillery to win this war. They have used up much in the attack. The Ukranian's with precision NATO munitions have nullified what is left.
It's seems the russians have always believed this was the way to win wars , large artillery bombardments and airstrikes until there is nothing left to defend then send in armor and infantry,
But it's the the 1950s anymore if you can't control and dominate the skies your artillery and vehicles and logistics cans be observed from drones or other aircraft and then targeted by counter strikes and and armor and infantry movements .
We were talking about how many tanks the Russians have, even if you have 10,000 available to move into ukraine tomorrow the Ukrainans have over 100,000 anti tank missles and launchers,the same applies to artillery systems they need maintenance and a near constant supplies of shells and crews to keep them firing, the Ukrainans are degrading their ability to feed those guns ,they must have lost thousands of tons of shells from HiMars and other strikes, along with other vital supplies,
150,000 russian troops went into ukraine we've seen figures of ,50,000 killed and god knows how many injured or incapacitated alone with 1200 + tanks lost along with a similar number of IFVs and personal carriers , along with a sizeable portion of their entire airforce and helicopters.
It's has to be the biggest military failure in the last 60+years
Remember the Ukrainans had little or no airforce at the start of this ,yet they are carrying carrying out CAS (close Air support) missions during the counter offensive, while the Russians are struggling to get into ukraine,8 years ago this was flipped ukraine lost a good few aircraft after the Russians brought buks and manpads into east Ukraine, pretty much grounding the Ukrainians are they were afraid of losing very valuable aircraft,
Both sides are lobbing unguided rockets in volleys from helicopters at each other,not the most effective use of rockets and helicopters but seems to be working to a degree,
Something needs to done with Hungary
It could also end up with Putin uses his nuclear weapons
They need to be kicked out of the EU. Their disregard for EU rules in general is disgraceful tbh and this whole Russia sympathizers crap just drives it home that they should be gone from the EU.
We always knew what the Hungarians were like. The EU have only been finding out recently.
And while we are on the subject of Georgia, Grozny deserves a mention as well....without Putin's support for Kadyrov, there could well be a heave against the Kadyrov clan in general, and Kadyrov himself in particular. Or it could go to the other extreme, Putin is defeated, and Kadyrov ( and Chechnya ) are left to their own devices, and with Moscow otherwise distracted, Kadyrov decides to take Chechnya down the independence route himself.....????
When you want to send a message ...
For a country that was pulverised mercilessly by the Soviet Union within living memory it makes absolutely no sense. Do they want to go back to that world? The people there are voting for Orban they know what he is at. It is dumbfounding. Anyone here from Hungary or have Hungarian connections?
Are ordinary Hungarians ok with this behaviour? I knew two Hungarians through work. But they left and went back recently.
Pure brinkmanship
I never bought that the Russian tank numbers were so large or so good. Mind you I did not think they would be so easily defeated either. The Russians seem to have given up on trying for air superority. Therefore now it whichever have the best troops and ground equipment. This could be over by Christmas.
I was talking to a Hungarian friend about it today, she said it's mostly years and years of propaganda from Orban. Everything is phrased in a 'the West is bad and morally weak' sort of way, and Hungarians need to be strong and look to other strong countries, typical right wing conservative stuff
Makes no sense. Hungary suffered as much as any Eastern bloc country from 1945-1991. One of their most prominent Bishops or was he a cardinal? was tortured and imprisoned by the Communists. The events of 1956 were utterly brutal. I mean they can see the same Russian brutality in Ukraine today. All those refugees pouring over the border can tell them that.
Despite sharing a border and over a million refugees entering Hungary, very few actually stay in Hungary. Most prefer to move on.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220520-hungary-s-neutral-war-stance-puts-off-ukraine-refugees
lol one switch to turn the system off.. 🤪
A lot of chatter this evening that Russia are being forced to buy weapons from North Korea because China are refusing to sell them any.
20 years of propaganda and media control. Negative portrayal of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the media recently too.
I totally agree regarding '56 and the total lack of consideration for it though, during the last refugee crisis I couldn't understand how callously they treated people considering how many hundreds of thousands fled in '56. But they don't think about it like that.
I would not put it passed some smart guys in Ukraine putting bounties on ammo dumps and paying in Bitcoin Russian Grunt could even claim with evidence.
Ukrainian «dead» soldiers raise from the dead
Russian propaganda at its best
Hahaha, We all kinda expected it was fake clean uniforms no blood no faces. Or is it that black magic 🤪
Who’s “we”?
Serious numbers from yesterday
"The Kyiv Independent"
It's been quoted on here since day one .
News isn't improving for Russia today. It looks like a number of villages in Kharkiv have been overrun and a number of units are supposedly encircled.
Volokiv Yar is supposed to be one of those villages.
Situation in Kherson isn't good. Russians calling for tactical nukes to be used and filtration camps set up for unruly Kherson citizens.
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