Kherson falling would be a catastrophic setback for the regime. It would be their equivalent of the German defeat at Stalingrad in terms of psychological impact.
Ukraine's first Ada class Corvette anti-submarine ship was launched today.
Still lots of fitting out on her, but unfortunately I can't see them actually taking delivery any time soon.
I can't even trust the maps now. I remember at the start of the war a Ukrainian was complaining and saying he would never speak Russian again.
Whatever about Kherson, I think we're going to wake up tomorrow to news of further routs in the north-east as the UAF approach Kreminna and Svatove. Lots of reports this evening of liberated villages and retreating/encircled Russian troops.
"Voted to remain ethnically Russian" - what does this mean? You can vote on your political preferences, but not on your ethnicity.
Why not?
Not to be confused with race, ethnicity recognizes differences between people mostly on the basis of language and shared culture.
It would.
But as every detailed tactical analysis I've watched recently is saying, Ukraine need to be very careful about overextending their forces in these advances.
What is happening is that Ukraine have had the cream of NATO tacticians and instructors briefing them on the 'light strike' philosophy, of a super light, fast and mobile mounted infantry in light trucks and cars, with a horizontal command structure and excellent intelligence, breaking through the many weak points in the Russian lines, supported by satellite and drone visibility and HIMARS.
Thats all fine and well, but presumably its hugely manpower and supply intensive and vulnerable to a change in Russian tactics, if they should finally find their balls at some point.
fyi
You'll have to back that up with data.
I would trust in nothing coming out of a war zone.
But to defeat it you need a mobile nimble army. The Russians do not have that. There army decision making is top down with no cadre of professional NCO's who can make decisions on the battlefield.
Basically they are a blunt instrument. They do not have the technology or battlefield intelligence to halt a sustained Ukrainian advance.
There troops are poorly trained, supplied and lead. They now have no armoured reserves, there artillery is not effective and they never achieved air superiority. Ukraine can keep chipping away.
I actually think it will get worse for the Russians as we enter winter l. I do not think they will have the ability to supply the army with winter equipment. I think the UA will continue to advance and as the elements deteriorate the Russian army will struggle even further
I'm awaiting the winter drone footage of a grenade being dropped into a flaming barrel with Russian soldiers nestled around it for heat!
The people of the Crimea, in 1994, were put three things before them in the referendum.
On the matter of number 2, had the people of the Crimea wished to basically become "Ukrainian", they could have done so. They didn't, because at that point about 67% of them identified as ethnically Russian, with about 25% identifying as Ukrainian. The majority of the Crimea identify as ethnically Russian. They didn't want to identify as "Crimean" and they didn't want to identify as "Ukrainian".
This is a fact that is borne out by all of the census reports going back to the 19th Century.
I wonder are we likely to see Russia deploy the air force in any meaningful way?
Up to now they have been reluctant to which seems to have puzzled everyone, but, with the way things are going will that change I wonder? Any thoughts?
Why wouldn't they deploy their air force to its fullest extent, assuming it would be effective and that they hadn't tried to do so already? The idea that they would skip that option, going straight to an unpopular mobilisation and apocalyptic nuke talk makes zero sense. Putin's commanders may not be the best, but for them to leave that out would be pants on head retarded.
I propose that their airforce is a paper tiger like the rest of their military and if there was a window for its effective use, it has massively shrunk due to there being massively more surface to air defence at Ukraine's disposal since February.
I see Pope Frank wants peace talks now.
You have to wonder what the Kremlin have on him.
To be fair we've heard very little bullshít come from the Ukrainians. In 99% of cases, where they've said something they've backed it up.
Russia could lose 25,000 men in a couple of days here, (either they surrender or die). If that happens I'd expect a total morale collapse. Kherson is supposed to hold some of the best troops they have left.
Add in the fact that Ukrainians can continue to take territory at night with reconnaissance being carried out by night vision drones and teams equipped with night vision and I'd expect this to terrify the Russians. They're on the east of a time zone and further south than us here so nightfall is earlier. Limited day time and each night must feel like a week.
You could offcourse also have alot of people speaking both languages,many speaks both Ukrainian and Russian
Well remember Ukraine have had alot Russian influence since 2014
Their own pope.
(And the Catholic pope will always push for peace talks in all situations)
I have this terrible feeling some serious dirty counter attack is coming from the reds
The last time Frank had soemthing to say about Ukraine, was when he was crying about miss genocide being blown up...in Moscow
Frank has had very little to say about war crimes or kids being ripped apart. Funny approach
It’s an actual policy they have. The military does not announce something unless they are sure about it.
They may not announce everything, but what they do put out is pretty solid.
tatars in crimea where did they go ?
Easy answer to this Airforce personal are smart not stupid like grunts. They can have terrible equipment and say yeah I'm not flying in that. Not saying their air force is huge but most would just say nope. why I think were seeing terrible accidents and alike with the planes maybe raw recruits with few hours flight time.
sure like this.
............
there was supposed to be about 15% that all got bussed out.
Was there?
I don't know why some people keep trying to invoke the the Tartar card, as if that's some sort of win. I've never seen anything to suggest that either the Russian or Ukrainian contingent really give a crap about the Tartar ethnicity on the peninsula.
And the large russian bases in the area with tones of green men ?
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