I meant that Waterford is a comparable size in sq. km. It's a town that you could probably walk from one side to the other in 90 minutes.
Scholz on the F16 pilot training at the G7 ,
Suggests it's a long term protect training pilots
If we go with the "56th largest city in Ukraine", then they've taken (or may take soon) a town on par with Tuam.
World's 2nd best military indeed.
Not sure who this guy is but he seems to have specific information about f-16's
Its not on a par with Waterford, no-where near it. It is(was) the 58th largest town in Ukraine. The 58th largest town in Ireland is Portarlington.
So 100k casualties (dead, wounded, captured, missing) to take an irrelevant town that may very well become encircled by UAF in the next few weeks. I suspect the word given to the English language by the Greeks "Pyrrhic" now needs to be replaced by "Bakhmut".
The self styled 2nd best army in the world has bleed its manpower and armoured force dry to capture a destroyed Portarlington.
I've read that only lightly injured Russian soldiers survive. The seriously wounded are left to die.
It's not really a surprise but the various analyses of the defensive structures Russia have put in place highlight that it won't be a simple task for Ukraine to retake much of their territory (BBC article on it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65615184). Presumably it will also become progressively more difficult the closer to the (real) Russian border that Ukraine get.
It feels like for political reasons Ukraine need to make some strong progress in at least one area. The main and probably only hope for Russia is that it becomes a drawn out war of attrition and that the allies of Ukraine gradually reduce or drop their support.
Slightly off topic but the latest story regarding the somewhat short-sighted policy of pardoning prisoners after six months of front-line service. I thought this was just the preserve of Wagner but it seems like this 'person' was pardoned after serving in the regular Russian army. He effectively served around one year of a 16 year sentence.
"I say that Poland and Czechoslovakia aren't worth going to war over. Besides, Hitler wouldn't dare go further than that!"
Well I'd say that little if any of the original invaders are still alive or if alive , far from healthy, and batch Nr 2 ( or is it 3 now? ) as they say "Its a work in progress"
It was a year, started in May 2022. There was an article about it earlier on the anniversary, so that makes it even worse from the Russian viewpoint.
They're stopping invaders from advancing further into their country and taking more land, killing more people, destroying more cites, stealing more children, raping more people.
Yet by Ukraine continually saying it's not fully taken, russia will continue to expend soldiers on a hole in the ground. Rope-a-dope.
...
8 months and 100,000 soldiers to take a city on par with Waterford.
Only a pity their whole military didn't die at it.
I've read different reports saying 30, 40, and 70 thousand Russians died taking Bakhmut. Take you pick.
Also-
That guy on Twitter only recently posted this.
He doesn't appear to be taking the stance you mention but in his recent post on the loss of Bakhmut there are many people jumping on him, with one going as far to say he's on the Kremlin payroll.
So I guess you're both correct.
Let's hope they don't withdraw but get surrounded soon.
See the power plant is on generators once again for cooling etc. I'm sure they'll get it back on the grid soon but you'd wonder how such an event might be managed if fighting were to ever intensify around the plant or the city. Something as simple as the supply of diesel being impacted could be disasterous?
Interesting article on Russian defenses.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65615184
Mention of neither of those things will earn you that label. What may earn that label is mention of those things with the conclusion that Russia's overall victory is really only a matter of time and the West is backing the wrong horse blah, blah, blah.
Seems to be the way of things strangely enough. Any mention of Ukraine weakness or the mere mention of Ukraine losing soldiers/territory labels you as a Russian asset or some such nonsense. It's tiresome rubbish.
Yeah every month I'd ask would it survive another never really expecting it too. Crazy how consistently slow Ukraine managed the retreat maximising Russian losses making them fight for every inch.
Nope. All the back and forth and drama on the thread relating to F16's was down to pilot training.
Actual delivery of the planes is up in the air. Some countries would have different bloc versions than others, so they may want to standardize the spec. US versions may need to be downgraded for export (like the Abrams with depleted uranium armor etc...)
The big question is when Ukraine gets these F-16's from former Soviet bloc countries will it include pilots
Who exactly?
Posts like this are getting tiresome. Thread is getting ruined by childish, trying to have the last say, posts.
Was it you who asked would it last until June??
Ukrainian sources saying Bakhmut is still being contested by their forces.
So Bakhmut has finally fallen. Took 3 and a half months longer than I expected. And it didn't result in Ukraine collapsing as seen by the recent gains on the flanks.
What's that to take the rest of Ukraine based on those stats....
8,000 years and 240 million dead Russians?
Kyiv in 3 days.... that quote certainly will go down in history.
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