It's now 74,000 ;-)
With any luck this is them bugging out and leaving the city without a fight.
I've little doubt that Ukraine could win a street fight for this city, but it would be drawn out & very bloody. If they are bugging out it also robs Ukraine the chance to remove Russia's "best" troops from the fight. I was hoping for a mass surrender here, which might have set up a precursor to Ukraine's own version of Sherman's March to the Sea....instead you'd swap out Confederate Georgia with Crimea.
Russian ordinance still killing and maiming Afghans on a regular basis Afghanistan, thousands of land and anti-personnel mines still there, still active many years after they left.
Adaptiveness changing from sovet era to western in the middle of a war with a lot of civilians coming I to the fray has been spectacular and including the drone stuff.
Point is a nato force would have demolished the over rated Russian forces with its current levels of unity very quickly and with less destruction.
I still think nato will end up in the conflict boots on the ground eventually.
Something sounds a bit to me fishy there. Are they clearing the place to lure the Ukrainians in and then do something unthinkable?
Whatever the total is, seems clear Russia has lost a lot of troops and equipment from the original force.
There is alot of evidence beyond what Ukraine says or the figures they or their allies/supporters give for this. e.g. fact that Ukraine managed to take any ground back at all, continuous funnelling of additional equipment from other parts of Russian army/stockpiles into Ukraine, rounding up of "volunteers" + recruiting for Wagner pmc etc., that Putin had to do a partial mobilisation/shift to a war economy to keep the slaughter going, that Putin has gone to Iran and North Korea for more weapons/supplies...
Maybe just maybe Ukraine is a bit more erm "democratic" than Russia, & Zelensky would be out on his ear (and Ukraine would be suing for peace) if he ordered military to begin some huge assaults that will result in kind of losses Russia's army is suffering (or worse!) trying to win land for Putin in Ukraine?
It's funny how fact of damage Russia has suffered will not sink in for some or be admitted to. Computer says no! I think if the US had been going about waging such a disgusting war and its military being hammered by same level of casulaties & losses, some of these posters would have been rubbing their little paws together in glee at the unfolding catastrophe.
The Ukrainians aren't that stupid.
I've seen firsthand too what these infernal weapons do, and predominantly to innocent civilians long after the war has ended. I've shared living quarters with de-miners and like your case, one of them lost his life as well, in Libya.
More likely they don’t have the manpower and equipment to hold the city without being surrounded. This loss will give the Ukrainians all sorts of interesting opportunities for future offensives.
all roads lead to Crimea. Get the HIMARS in range and liquidate their bases.
It seems to be the case , unless they are setting a trap hoping the Ukrainans charge only for the Russians to flatten the place,
If they have withdrawn it's a case of next stop svastaspol
More likely that Russians are having a look around and saying to themselves, 'bleep this, I am out of here'
Several times a month, year in, year out.
Conventional (non gas) stuff, from the small grenades to the occasional air-dropped 250/500lb-ers is buffered, periodically taken to a live fire military field, piled up inside a large crater with a R/C mine on top, then walk a (long) away, and click-boom.
The collecting itself…is not for the faint of heart. Laid in wooden crates open-filled with sand, and put in the back of a conventional van or minivan (Kangoo-like), thankfully marked…when the stuff doesn’t look so rusted/unstable, that it can be carried from site by hand safely (-enough, and don’t ever forget the nuclear power station-grade thick rubber gloves, in case it’s a gas shell).
Otherwise, they use a small 4WD/AWD to go pick up and, in/around Verdun where the trenches are still there, that can be an interesting gymkhana at times…closest I ever came to a brown trousers moment.
At least that’s how they were still doing it when I was there. Brave, brave men.
I'd like to think that also. But could be a trap.
Orcs.
After 4 hours of debate, the parliament decided that Bulgaria should provide military aid to Ukraine. The caretaker government must submit a decision within 30 days, as well as enter into talks with NATO countries to acquire, receive or deploy defense-enhancing capabilities
Bulgaria are going from zero to hero
There was a creeping mobilisation long before the official partial mobilisation not to mention the conscription of civilians in the occupied territories. Make no mistake the forces fighting on the Russian side (not all Russian) have sustained substantial losses and that they have already thrown more than the touted 200,000 to the line. So, it's easy to see how plausible numbers are.
The entire force was a lot more sent to Ukraine,and that doesnt even include foreign mercenaries,seperatists from Donbas and Luhansk and chechen militia.
Russian forces grouped 150,000 servicemen into battalion tactical groups (BTGs) and other formations and involved additional 70,000 troops from air and sea elements, with the remaining personnel staffing non-combat support units.
Russian forces committed more than 80,000 servicemen of the mobilized reserve, up to 7,000 reservists of the Russian Combat Army Reserve (BARS-2021), up to 18,000 members of the Russian National Guard (Rosguardia), and up to 8,000 troops from private military companies.
This was in June,and that why Putin needed another round of mobilisation to cover for the losses thats enormous.
https://www.minusrus.com/en
lol!
What they advertise:
What you'd get:
In Soviet Russia, bath drains you!
It's an advert for S7 Airlines.
Germany advising it's citizens to urgently leave Iran.
Incoming?
Probably not a toilet left in the place either. 🤔
Seems to be related to the crackdown on women's rights protestors, and the risk of arrest for dual Iranian/German citizens. I doubt very much that there's going to be western military action against Iran under current circumstances.
More explosions in Melitopol.
In Chechnya, I saw the Russians using tanks with heavy steel rollers mounted on 20' hinged arms used to de-mine. The Roller hit the mine, it exploded, driving the roller up in the air, and then on to the next one. There was also a type which used heavy steel chains, The Chechens developed a strategy to overcome them though.... they laid 2 mines maybe 30' apart, and linked the fuse on the first mine to the 2nd mine, so when the roller hit it, it blew both mines, destroying both tank and roller.
With any luck, yes. But even if they have abandoned the city, I suspect they'll try to set up a new defensive line south of Kherson. There's plenty of large towns in the area and the land-bridge into Crimea itself to contend with. Still plenty of fighting ahead I fear.
If the Russians are being less stupid than usual, they're redeploying their better troops to try and hold Crimea. They may hope that a Ukraine-hostile GOP will get the house in the US next month and be much less generous with military aid. If I were an RU commander, I'd pull back to the best defensive position I could find and play for time. The hope might be that they can "normalise" the border at Crimea.
Best case however is that the Russians have lost control of their own forces and that they have all bugged out independently, leaving no defensive line ahead of Crimea.
Russian flag removed from Kherson?
And checkpoints completely abandoned..
So much for the dirty bomb the Russians were on about,
How much more embarrassment cant they take
Nov 2, 2022 - Press ISW
Iran is signaling its readiness to attack Saudi Arabia and possibly Erbil ostensibly in retaliation for the Shiraz terror attack but primarily for the alleged role of the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia in stoking protests. The regime raised the red flag of Imam Hossein above the Shah Cheragh Mosque—the target of the terror attack—in Shiraz, Fars Province on October 30. The red flag represents revenge for an unjust death in Shia Islamic tradition. The regime takes down the flag once it has taken revenge. The regime raised the red flag last in Qom after the US killed Qassem Soleimani and before the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) conducted a ballistic missile attack on US forces in Iraq in January 2020. IRGC Telegram channels posted videos depicting a hypothetical Iranian drone attack on Saudi energy infrastructure on November 2.
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