I've seen various claims of soledar been completely surrounded,and mass surrenders of Ukrainan forces,and the claims come from Russian sources.
Pinch of salt or whenever quoting Russian sources,a whole shipping container of salt
I see a video of a burned out wreck but I see no Russians just a video labeled by Russian soldiers....
Bet your only delighted.
Next ~24 hours could be the most hellish in Soledar - CNN.
A Ukrainian soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Russians are jamming communications and this makes coordination extremely difficult: "It's hard here, but we are more alive than anyone else." There are no signs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces retreating from the city.
Reports of the death of Soledar may be exagerated.
The disinformation effort seems particularly intense.
Starlink??
The disinformation has definitely gone up a notch, especially from pro russian accounts everywhere,
And the fact it's being shared across multiple platforms despite people damn well knowing its utter shite .
But according to their sources Russian is winning as they predicted....
Can I ask, since you know your tanks. Are the Western Tanks that much better than the standard fare offered by the Russians?
For example, if the Ukrainians manage to get their hands on 100 donated Leopard 2 tanks and use them in the Spring/Summer for an offensive, would it be a game changer?
We all saw how HIMARS was a bit of a game changer when it came to disrupting Russian Operations and Supply. Are we getting ahead of ourselves thinking that Western Tanks would cut through Russian lines like butter or is it a lot more complicated than that.
Optics, Guidance, Computing systems, Active armour, Reactive armour. Suspensions, Command and Control linked systems. The list goes on of how far ahead the west is.
For example. And that was just challenger 1.
A car used to transport troops, returning from Bakhmut. The video was posted by people trying to raise funds to buy 10 cars for the troops, for obvious reasons.
Someone should send Scholz that video and ask could Germany spare a few cars.
CNN journalists are now near Soledar, Donetsk region, where the fiercest fighting is taking place.
They report that Ukrainian troops feel confident and are not going to leave the city.
Members of the CNN team also noticed how important the help of the West is in this war - the Ukrainian military in Soledar use many combat and medical vehicles from Poland, France, the United States, Britain and other countries
Even more to cast doubt on supposed pockets full of surrender.
It's classic russia winning when they are loosing. Ukraine loosing when they are wining. We were told Ukraine would be hammered by well defended russian positions to just walk in pretty much. Even If any of this is true its 1 guy not the russian army he's trying to make a name in russia.
I came across this which explains why tanks are so sought after by Ukraine:
Will Ukraine be able to return the occupied territories without tanks and armored vehicles of the allies: what do the West think about it.
Western politicians believe that Ukraine will not be able to de-occupy a significant part of the territory without increased military assistance, which will include the transfer of tanks and armored vehicles.
This was said by an unnamed Western official, writes The Guardian.
"The Ukrainians will not be able to retake a significant part of the territory without changes in their defensive position from last year. The balance of power between Russians and Ukrainians is too finely balanced. We need to break the deadlock, especially if they (Ukrainians - ed.) want to retake the territory and go on the offensive " Main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers (armored personnel carriers - ed.) are part of this mixture.", - he believes.
Politics of Ukraine
No different than when Russia spend months and months and seem close to taking a little town or village. The way it's being portrayed, you swear it's the fall of Kyiv or something.
But on the next level disinformation, remember Russia will be pumping out the propaganda that the Russian army took it and not Wagner, so they may be jumping the gun a little to make sure the home audience know who took it (if/when that happens)
just watched a video of a Russian killing 2 Ukrainians in a foxhole in a wood. Massive firefight it looked like they were outflanked. Ukrainians panicked and didn't surrender quick enough and the Russian with headcam shot them. gruesome and released by Russians obviously. Can't be sure on the date but I reckon it's very recent
It's suspected that video was a regular Russian soldier who shot 2 mobilised Russians posing as Ukrainians. Look at the state of them probably straight from a Russian prison and they say we're with you guys as they look with confusion. Lately these Wagner mobiks have been wearing more Ukrainian outfit's to try and cause confusion.
I hope I'm wrong but Soledar isn't looking good. Too many Russian video's of them walking around casually for it not to have fallen. Ukraine letting on they still hold but I doubt it. It's a bit worrying how it fell so quickly. A real blitz and the first Russian victory in a long time. Whatever their strategy was you can be sure they'll try and repeat it again.
It depends on how good the crews are. HIMARS is pretty damned simple to use, really. Tanking is a tad more complicated.
All things being equal, yes, the Western tanks are a generation ahead of the typical Russian tank, but that's assuming crews who know how to get the best out of them, and a sustainment structure (Bridges, recovery, maintenance) able to properly enable them.
I was going to add that to my explanation of western Tanking. You need a good crew and they need to know the kit inside and out. Same with the maintenance. Challengers were to bait in other I pretty sure of that. There a great tank but 10 will make very little difference in the grand scheme. russia normally uses what 40 tanks for a brigade. Shure challengers will kill stuff very effectively but limited numbers and resupply and maintenance means what 6 available at a time if its 10. They could introduce a fear factor but drunk russian probably fear nothing.
Germany blocking the tanks untill the Americans commit to sending Abrams to Ukraine,
Poland and the other countries should tell the Germans FU and send the tanks .
Senior kadirov commander captured alive by Ukrainian forces in bakhmut over the last 48 hours ..
Wum
No surprise there.
The Germans can't be trusted as allies, wonder how they would feel if the Americans pulled their Patriots and other systems out of Germany
Private armies being built up (youtube) with a view to a property grab within Russia from Putins cronies.
Russians develop Spider as a detection method (youtube) for soldiers against drones.
Opinion on Ukrainian Defense Lines And What Happens When They Are Breached
Today's Wall Street Journal finally noted that this Ukrainian battle tactic is not a winning one:
Western—and some Ukrainian—officials, soldiers and analysts increasingly worry that Kyiv has allowed itself to be sucked into the battle for Bakhmut on Russian terms, losing the forces it needs for a planned spring offensive as it stubbornly clings to a town of limited strategic relevance. Some of them say that it would make sense to retreat to a new defensive line on the heights west of Bakhmut while such a pullback can still be organized in a coordinated fashion, preserving the Ukrainian military’s combat strength.
“It’s not me, it’s King Leonidas who figured out that you should fight the enemy on the terrain that is advantageous to you,” said one Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut, referring to the ruler of Sparta who battled the Persian Empire at Thermopylae. “So far, the exchange rate of trading our lives for theirs favors the Russians. If this goes on like this, we could run out.”
Ukraine has a presence in the forest just outside of Kreminna. They've been making movements in this area before Christmas. A few days ago a small scale tank battle took place. Looks like things are scaling up there.
The British have said today that Russia are reinforcing the area with paratroopers.
Why would the mods on here boot me for? The topic is Russia. I am discussing Russia. I don't understand...The topic is not "only anti-Russia discussion and nothing else"...You are threatening to try and get mods to ban me because I wrote some things you don't agree with or that you don't want to hear about the Russia - Ukraine - USA/West/NATO situation? I'm very confused.
There is so much unveiled, unbridled pro-Ukrainian, and atrocious, sometimes even outright racist, anti-Russian bile. So that's all allowed and OK? But as soon as some one tries to explain things from the other side there are calls to try and have that person banned, not to mention all sorts of slander and name-calling and intimidation and scare-mongering towards them? How is that OK or just?
My initial post was not utter non-sense. That's you just making up stuff and projecting your incorrect opinions onto me as if they're the truth just because you said so. I indeed just happened to come across this site and I didn't even know it was Irish (I never even knew what the Irish website domain was, if anything, I would have maybe guessed .ir, not .ie.). Also, what's that have to do with anything? Because the website has an Irish domain, does that mean only people from Ireland are allowed to access this site? Of course not. Furthermore, what does it matter how I came across this website? None of that is relevant. You and some others unfortunately seem to want to just try to find anything to attack me on.
Rather than just stick to the thread's topic, "Russia", you and many others here want to personally attack me, make up lies and false accusations about me, use all sorts of slander against me, and on top of all that, use all sorts of attempts of intimidation and scare-tactics against me. Is that how another human being should be treated just because they are stating things that others may not agree with or that doesn't suit another's viewpoint and/or agenda? Of course not.
We should all be civil here with one-another and discuss the actual topic of the thread which is "Russia".
The Russian republic of Ingushetia , declares it's independence from Russia hopefully others follow
Just a small part of Russia, but hopefully the trickle becomes a flood
I personally don't think the Soledar situation is misinfo. Yes, there's been misinfo from all sides, and unfortunately that will always happen in wars and in the media in general, so maybe the numbers were over-reported and/or under-reported but there are tons of videos showing Russian forces all over Soledar including in the salt mines were many Ukrainian forces who apparently weren't able to retreat had to flee into. Soledar has extensive salt mines / tunnels. 10s of km full, possibly into the 100s of kms if I remember correctly.
according to unnamed sources Ukraine shouldn't defend themselves against Russian advances , instead save troops for the next counter offensive.
If that was the case why not just surrender the country....
Unnamed sources
Ive been seeing various items that the Ukrainian army is severely depleted.
Really time for big decisions to be made.
Is this war sustainable with the weapons it’s receiving?
Either give them what they need or the tide could quickly turn in Russias favour.
That’s not the government of Ingushetia declaring independence. It’s an opposition group in exile who held a press conference: “Congress of Supporters of the Independence of Ingushetia” in Istanbul. It means nothing.
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