The Russians are clearly prepared for a strike south towards the Sea of Azov and have picked seemingly logical locations to build defences. However, you'd wonder about the quality of those defences. Decaying Dragons Teeth and pillboxes made of likely the same quality of concrete? The mines themselves might not even be viable anymore after rotting in Soviet storage (although mines are unfortunatly bastards for longegity)
A lack of managment or intelligence on the Russian side might also ensure that they efforts won't work as intended. I'm hopeful that the AFU will have good intelligence about the Russian defences ahead of an offensive.
That's a shame :-)
What were they thinking in the first place?
Looking at the map circling the city's and towns is not bringing any tactical insight,of course they are going to have defense lines around the cities and towns, Mariupol is going to be one of the primary targets in any counter,
Hope so; good riddance.
Long before the Russians were forced to withdraw, I said the supply situation was untenable for them.
This has to be the most intelligent comment I have seen concerning a potential peace process. The Chinese need to take note; it's positively Confucian in it's inherent pertinence:
To put forward peace proposals, one must first visit Ukraine - Borrell
24.04.2023
General Mud has control of the battlefield, the Ukrainians don't want to get their shiny new tanks all dirty for no reason so will wait until Mud makes a retreat. Spare a thought for the infantry who are supposed to accompany the tanks. They don't work best when up to their knees in thick glue. The previous territory regaining offensives were characterized by speed.
I also fear we'll still be here in a year, while the same people will be predicting a huge and devastating counter offensive always 2-3 months down the line and Crimea definitely definitely definitely taken back in 2024.
The war has been a disaster für Russia but I still don't see how Ukraine is getting get back all it's pre 2022 territory let alone 2014.
And the Russians have a close eye on 2024. If Trump or probably any republican were to win the US election support for Ukraine could suddenly look very different. This year is really key, Ukraine needs to make the most of it and soon. Best of luck to them
The Ukrainian ministry of defence estimates 369,000, which means the Ukrainians have them handily outnumbered at least 2:1 with far higher quality troops.
https://ukranews.com/en/news/929323-a-total-of-369-000-russian-occupiers-fighting-against-ukraine-defense-ministry
A heroic sacrifice, there's a big difference between cheering on the fight from boards every morning noon and night and actually going over there and doing something. His family can be proud of him.
The missile strikes are a much rarer occurrence I’ve the last few months. Where did you get the 400k Russian troop figure from? RT? Tass?
Also, where exactly are these gains? A couple of streets in Bakhmut every 3-4 weeks doesn’t really count.
I think you’ve been eating the Kremlins propaganda soup. Careful there. It’s often poisoned.
lets do it now, while tanks and APC's are still getting stuck in the mud, sounds like a fantastic idea and will deffo stroke the ego
When the Ukrainans are ready then they will make their move,and not on the demands of anyone,
There hasn't been widespread missle strikes, once a week or Fortnite if we're lucky,
I've been reading about this counter offensive for months now, they've talked themselves into a bit of a corner if it doesn't push Russia out. Some good posts above explaining the lengths the Russian's have gone to build defensive positions that are going to expend an awful lot of Ukrainian lives to take. Going to be a bloody gore fest unfortunately.
All the talk is of Ukraine counter offensive but as of now Russia is the one making gains, upping the ante on widespread missile strikes and has now amassed nearly 400,000 troops in the occupied territories.
I think it's time to start seeing something from Ukraine on the battlefield soon tbh.
Another mass missle attack last night over 20 cruise missiles launched at targets in Ukraine with civilians in Unman being the main target
I wrote many unpopular posts here last year about this.
Along with this description, I drew this very silly map nearly 6 months ago about positions I thought Russia would fortify. I was derided as a Kremlin-bot and Orc-propagandist for suggesting that such a thing could prove troublesome for Ukraine.
The link you've quoted from Reuters has the following image of Russian defences, six months later.
I don't understand how NATO can possibly expect Ukraine to end this war.
They forbade "modern" 50 year old F16 fighters because they might escalate the conflict.
They had to be dragged kicking and screaming until they provided a tiny number of 40 year old Leopard 2's to Ukraine.
They deny the necessary ammunition to keep Ukrainian artillery guns firing to defend positions.
Well, that rumour came from a twitter account with "news" in their name and they had a blue tick so you can't get more reliable than that.There's no way that they could have a blue tick if they weren't legit.
I've heard from a lot of people who's ability to tie their own shoes is questionable at best that this incompetence was all part of a Putin master plan and that any day now, he'll send in the elite troops that he's been saving and they'll take over Ukraine in an instant. It's one thing to hear such ideas on the internet but I've heard them from people in real life too, even from acquaintances and it's a bit jarring. I get that people can pick up bits of info from the internet and repeat it but to not think about a piece of info and compare it to stuff that you know to see if it makes sense just seems lazy. Like this idea that Putin is perfectly happy to spend so much money, people and reputation for a year just so that he can pull off some magic trick at the end... it's just bonkers.
Although, pretending not to know why there was a column of tanks on its way to kyiv is a new one.
How many day's or week's of warm weather would it typically take the ground to harden? 10 days? Ukraine will wait another month if it takes it. I'd imagine they'll have to take some backward routes to avoid minefields and the like.
A second Patriot battery is now inservice.
With Putin, I'd say that you are only as good as your last victory......out of 10 successes, if the last one was a failure, thats it!!! Bye Bye......
Nah, I disagree. How do you claim that mismanagement/unprofessionalism is a fact?
Take a look at the terrain in the north of Ukraine along the axis of Russia's advance. Easy to ambush with heavy forests and a huge marsh area with limited road access, so difficult for armour to advance through without being bottled up. There wasn't enough gives and they got hit hard as a result.
These two statements seem to wildly contradict each other.
The advance to Kyiv was a) clearly not a feint and b) clearly stupid. The only way it makes sense is if they expected minimal or no resistance. Seems like a pretty colossal failure of Russian intelligence and indeed terrible mismanagement.
Sounds like somebody is making excuses for Russian total failures and repeated retreats,
What staff schools are you referring to exactly
Take a look at the terrain in the north of Ukraine along the axis of Russia's advance. Easy to ambush with heavy forests and a huge marsh area with limited road access, so difficult for armour to advance through without being bottled up. There wasn't enough guys and they got hit hard as a result.
The areas that they moved (with very few forces) and took over in South rapidly are very very different, much flater and easier to advance through.
This is basic basic operational level military stuff. Not opinion but internationally taught theory at staff school level all over the world.
He's been sick for a while now. We'd a poster on here last night claiming he was poisoned by a Russia agent or something because they read it on twitter 🤣
RIP Finbar. What a hero, he has literally died doing what we all know is the right thing to do. It might not be much of a consolation to his family right now, but he lived a life that they can be very proud of.
Thought I seen a shot of him earlier,he looks awfully grey more so than normal, definitely looks like he's rapidly aged wouldn't be at all surprised to hear he has cardiac issues again
Latest on Erdogan Turkey's Erdogan has reappeared, looking frail, after a mysterious illness. - PiPa News
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