Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The usual bollocks from their rabble rousers. Note how they go on about the New World Order too. I'm surprised they didn't chuck in the WEF and the Soros/Rothschilds/Jews on top. Russian propaganda and the more simple minded Russians on the ground are big into this kinda conspiracy stuff. As I've noticed so are many of their western supporters.

This "we're fighting NATO on the ground" is their latest coping mechanism. "If we were just fighting Ukrainian nazis this would be all be over and the mighty forces of Mother Russia would have already prevailed". The joke is if they believe that a couple of thousand actual NATO combatants are on the ground in Ukraine and this not the many many thousands of Ukrainians is what's fúcking them up, that makes them look even more lacklustre.

Now clearly NATO forces are helping them with intel, or I'd be gobsmacked if they weren't and they've gotten dribs and drabs of weapons and out of country training(which has yet to really be in play AFAIK) but it's down to Ukrainians and the foreign types going under their own steam. Tha said I would not be too shocked to find out later that there aren't small and deniable groups of US/UK/etc special forces in country. Older "officially retired" Seals, SAS and so on.

meaning that they'll likely have better tactical and technical training when they hit the field.

That'll be the biggie. Russia is still running the old Soviet style military, where orders are top down and the men at the pointy end just follow them for the most part. Individual action when opportunities arise is frowned upon, or not promoted. Unlike in Western militaries.

I was watching a vid recently about an airliner crash in the Black sea and one thing jumped out at me: in Western airline culture and law the captain of the flight is most in charge, the guy who makes the ultimate call for the most part, in Russian/Soviet airline culture, the ground controller has far more say and can order the captain in a different direction. That's a very different mindset. Remember the time when the Soviets shot down the Korean 007 747. Well the Soviet fighter pilot who shot them down was almost entirely controlled from the ground. In interviews he was asked did he not see it was an airliner. He replied he had doubts, bu when asked did he relay those doubts to the ground his answer was along the lines of no, they didn't need to know. He was following orders in essence. A meat robot in the cockpit being controlled remotely.

I suppose part of that culture was they didn't want independent thinkers in charge in the military. All autocrats fear the miliary, because they're the guys who can take them out. All revolutions require the backing, or at least the neutrality of the military or they'll fail. When Stalin got in his biggest purges were among the officer class. To the degree that when Hitler invaded he had few good men left. One, Zhukov made a huge difference and won many battles for them. A hero of the Soviet Union. And popular. So when it was all over and medals were handed out what does Stalin do? Well he could't kill him as he was way too popular, but he was also way too dangerous to keep around, so he invents some trumped up charges and sidelines him to the provinces behind a desk. And we wonder why the Russians have lacklustre generals today? They're either loyal mates of Vlad or too useless to worry about.