Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Not good narratives for the German public starting to appear in their media.

That's a pro-Kremlin propaganda account. Very good chance that guy just cherry picked some quotes out of context so as to misinterpret the message of the entire article

The considerable cost.....

Let me guess... A dozen Bradley's in a field in Zaporizhzhia, the same failed counterattack that keeps being brought up again and again.

Most of the territory gained has not been on the Zaporizhzhia front. So yes it was a costly failed offensive there, but elsewhere along the line they are making gains.

Everyone saying the counteroffensive is failing etc... Is focusing on one of 4 hot spots on the Frontline. Pretty much exactly how Russia would like the narrative to remain.

None of us know the true cost of the counter offensive and maybe a lot of us were a bit over optimistic about the progress but it's not defeatist or pro Putin to question the likely huge cost to the Ukrainians to push Putin out .We had posters predicting the collapse of the Russians months ago but unfortunately they still will be very hard to break and be pushed out completely. Hope I am well wrong about that .

That's very likely exactly what happened, because that post has almost nothing to do with the content of the Spiegel article. I just read through this twice, and still haven't found the "heavy losses" that twit is talking about. The tidbit I took away from the article is that the vast majority of Ukraine's assets allocated to the offensive haven't even been committed yet

Its all about the air capabilities which unfortunately Ukraine just doesn’t have.

It's air power,fast jets, Helicopters,and a hell of a lot more mobile artillery,they are expected to fight a Nato /US type war missing most the the equipment to do exactly that ,a few months training will only get them so far ,all the while facing unmapped mines fields ,mass artillery and fortifications and attack helicopters,

It's going to be a tough few months

Likely manpads,they have been responsible for the most of the helicopters Been taken down

The UK/US/Denmark & Netherlands announced an AA package 2 days ago.

Surprisingly it's mainly soviet era missiles. I've no clue who they are buying them off. But it could mean with Western AA protecting cities, the old soviet systems could be moved closer to the frontline.

Only thing that could have changed in that period of time is tactics. Maybe the Russians are taking more risks or maybe the Ukrianans are pushing their AA closer to the front line - or potentially behind the front line with small teams with Manpads.

Strela and especially Buk systems would be extremely useful for air cover on the counter offensive. The west really don't have mobile (self propelled) SHORAD systems with a range longer than manpads.

I wouldn't read it as a shortage of western missiles. Both Germany and Canada announced a large package of AA missiles recently. Ukraine is also due to still receive 4x Patriot systems and 2x SAMP/T along with another 2 IRIS and I think 6x NASAAM's. All to be supplied over the next 18 months. But it shows the west's commitment.

Ukraine will keep advancing, momentum, better resources, motivation to fight, Russian forces being woeful in most aspects.

There are still several hundred thousand Red Army, who have been digging and fortifying for most of a year.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian forces to die between now and most of it being liberated and well into next year or 25 before that.

That's more likely than a Russian collapse. The Red behind 2 feet of reinforced concrete is less likely to run to open ground than when he was advancing on Ukrainian forces and meeting hard push back.

Hopefully it will end with a collapse in Russian forces but reality suggests otherwise.

Long past Time for Europe to get serious about arming them.

Extrapolating total Ukrainian armed forces losses over the last nine days of an escalated counteroffensive from material being released from putin's side of the information war doesn't make any sense to me. The fact that one incident of Ukrainian armour being stopped is being shown repeatedly and from different angles may be simply because putin's forces have nothing else they can show off as a positive and statements from Ukraine maintain the losses on the moskovyte side remain higher than their own.

Whatever the losses for Ukraine are now it is the land in front of the prepared moskovyte defenses where the costs for Ukraine are likely to be the highest as this is where putin's forces have decided to try to hold a line to keep the territory they have illegally occupied. Ukraine now has a much better idea of what tactics putin's forces will try to use to stop them and an increased number of moskovyte helicopters being shot down and moskovyte artillery being destroyed points to ways the cat and mouse of battlefield strategy is likely to play out with success from one side seeing countermeasures from the other.

Not sure if anyone honestly believed removing putin's forces from Ukraine would be easy but I'm fairly sure Ukraine's armed forces know well that it was going to be difficult and I get the feeling they have the determination to tackle the problem of the criminal invaders of their country even if it is not going to be easy or smooth sailing the whole way to sending them back over the border or turning them into fertiliser..