Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Don't believe me. Try this -

I hope that all this silliness with Prigozhin isn't distracting from what's really important here. The Ukraine counter-offensive needs more help.

Things were never going to be easy but it's clear more needs to be done to crack the Russian lines of defence. People mocked the slow pace of the Wagner offensive at Bakhmut, but in reality Ukraine's is going at about the same speed. We've seen fighting for three and a half weeks with Ukraine advancing about 1km a week. You can't extrapolate that progress (cities may take long to take, resistance may weaken after Ukraine breach the first few lines), but at the current rate, Ukraine will be at Melitopol for Christmas 2024.

Surely it's time for NATO to look at providing something to break the deadlock here. Trading limbs and Bradley's for mines isn't going to cut it.

The Russians have a challenge to retreat and the Ukrainians don’t exactly want to sacrifice any body so without air support movement forward movement is going to be hard won. After D day the feeling was the war was won and people didn’t want to take a bullet it reduced forward momentum making it more difficult to move forward that otherwise may have been the case.

Would it not be the case that the ‘slow start ‘ is explained as follows :-

(1) go slow at the beginning to find out what’s ahead rather than going head first/ headlong into the offensive

(2) maybe it’s strategic - to go in ‘ first gear ‘ at the beginning and suddenly to go inti ‘third/ fourth gear and catch the Russians flatfooted

(3) the pace is bound to be slow at the beginning because that’s where the most difficult ‘stumbling blocks’ are re decagons teeth, trenches, mines, etc, but once these have been ‘ neutralised the pace of advance should significantly increase.

In summary, I expect the UKr army has all this worked out re applying different arnaments , attack strategies at the appropriate times

It's not an action movie, the lines aren't going to suddenly break en masse, it's massive defense in depth. The minefields are a huge problem. The more kit they have the better, but in a best case scenario it's still going to take Ukraine a long time. Could go on for years. Or the Russian military could start to collapse from the pressure, we've already seen plenty of cracks.

Also keep in mind Ukraine has liberated over 250 square km in several weeks with bad weather and not committing the bulk of it's offensive forces, far more than Russia took in 6 months.

Firstly, NATO is looking at more effective weapons to help Ukraine speed up the process of retaking the country. Not as fast as most would like, but training on the F-16s looks to be happening.

Secondly, it appears that NATO strategy is not to chase Russia out of Ukraine in a quick manner but to wear Russia down until the Putin regime falls and Russia withdraws or comes to the table with a much more modest set of proposals. Is this a cynical way to go about things when people are getting blown up by mines and dying in all sorts of other horrible ways? One could make that argument, but we're dealing with a large power in Russia under Putin who is incredibly spiteful and ruthless. I think they would blow that power plant if they found themselves on the end of an imminent rout along the southern front, for example. They may not go with nuclear weapons, but will happily commit every massacre and create every ecological disaster they can if they think they're about to lose the small hold they do have on the territory of Ukraine.

Thirdly, I think we should take a moment to appreciate that the West has given Ukraine a massive amount of military aid so far, such that it's pretty much the main reason (apart from the Ukrainian soldiers' tenacity) why Zelenskyy isn't currently sitting in a Russian jail cell (optimistic, here, to think they wouldn't kill him without trial) and a puppet government hasn't been running the country for the last year.

True, but to be fair you could also phrase it in this way: the amount of territory the Russians captured in their Winter offensive was miniscule in relation to their ambition. The amount of territory which Ukraine has captured in its Summer offensive is similarly miniscule, although less so.

Ukraine need something to breach Russian lines and really put them in disarray.

Hoping Ukraine can do the same kind of thing along this southern front. It begs the question what kind of fortifications the Russians had in place to slow Ukraine's advance in that region. Was it of a similar level to what Ukraine is facing now? If so, what tactics did Ukraine employ to overcome them and could they be used in their current offensive?

Timeline: 06-July 1944

Report: the amount of territory the allies have captured since their amphibious landings on the Normandy coast is miniscule. The German forces have foiled multiple British and Canadian assaults on Caen. The American forces are stuck in the bocage and are taking large casualties. There seems little possibility of a breakout and supply lines are strained.

(6 weeks later they were in Paris. 2 weeks after that they were in Brussels and the end of the war was in sight)

First slow, then quick. 😉

Yes it is.

Perun talks about this exact thing in his latest video. I have it lined up to begin at the relevant section below

Neither you nor I nor anyone else knows what is going on behind the scenes with Putin, lukashenko and Wagner. The whole thing is bizarre and only time will tell what everyone's purpose is.

it’s also actually a Saab model, but I think dolly has the right context here

Of course. Great tune too.

I assume it's for the same or similar reasons Commodus doesn't kill Maximus even when he has him dead to rights: you don't try and make martyrs and you don't try and set the match on a rebellion. Least of all when your martyr is a 'war hero' with the adoration of your military...