Then why not just use missiles? Sorry but what's a loaded plane supposed to do, flying at deeply subsonic speeds, that an actual cruise missile couldn't?
Further, what do you think the Russian response would be if Ukraine assassinated Putin. Be realistic.
If he is the best the Kremlin can muster, I think we're all okay over here lol.
It’s reassuring to know that Russians are so dumb and stupid lol.
I had a quick gander on the Russian MOD page (/shudders) and they put daily Ukraine losses at between 500-650 daily (was just a quick check, I'd love for someone to be creating a graph daily on those propaganda numbers) so lord knows where that 70k figure comes from. But it's a number Kermit likes and that's what he'll use.
Harrowing read
Remotely of course. Or smaller private planes
If anyone has been following Telegram, Ukrainain volunteers launched a giant Ukarainian flag using ballons over the occupied city of Donetsk. The Russians started to shoot at it which revealed their positions, the UAF then struck those positions simultaneously and where able to gain a foothold of Opytny which is 3.5 KM from Donetsk Airport.
In August in the counter offensive ALONE US officials estimated Ukrainian losses at close to 70,000 troops.
I'm assuming you haven't made the absolutely basic mistake of confusing reports of 70,000 deaths on the Ukrainian side during the entire conflict that was reported in August with 70,000 losses IN August. But some kind of source for this would be good.
So once again it is clear, you have no facts, just your opinions. Thanks
I don't believe a single fighter will ever be delivered to Ukraine.
As I have remarked before Western governments know how this will end already. I have always seen this as a foregone conclusion regardless of Russian incompetence.
That does not mean I in any way shape or form agree with this act of murderous thuggery by Russia. I most certainly do not.
There is a clear problem in that Ukranian propganda has been accepted as truth and it should no more be accepted as truth as Russian. They are more than capable of the exact same thing.
Ukraine steadfastly refuses to publish it's dead in this war. They'd rather put out out mystical and patently absurd figures on Russian dead daily. They have no problem doing that.
Now, you can all choose to live in a dream world but I am adamant Ukraine is in a very serious situation with man power and equipment and this war will soon be over. I have no reason to believe it won't be Ukraine starting those negotiations which I think will involve the partition of the country on current lines.
Maybe I'm totally wrong but I see no evidence to suggest otherwise thus far. If Ukraine had smashed defence lines and their losses were a fraction of what they are it might be different.
Toby please...
Soooo close. Would have been the most famous drone footage had it been able to catch it.
No I'm not forgetting about the US presidential election. Which is in Nov next year. In which the challenger is facing multiple trials. Even if he wins, this gives the current administration in the US until January 2025 to support Ukraine.
I don't believe for one moment there will be any more offensives
Is your personal belief
Also Ukranian forces have been seriously degraded during a counter offensive where the price has not matched the end product.
Is your personal opinion
I don't share those opinions. Ukraine have lost approx. 10% of foreign equipment during the counter-offensive so far. They have plenty of offensive capacity. The mud season will be kicking in, which will impact both sides. The Russians conducted a winter-offensive on Bahkmut, perhaps the Ukrainians are prepping their own winter-offensive. In the near future it looks like they will be getting ATACMS, and next year F16's. Also production of artillery to Ukraine is only really getting going + German defense giant Rheinmetall should be opening it's new tank complex in Ukraine soon. 2024 could be a very serious year for Russia.
Ukraine has long range missiles, 9/11 taught us that. Can't they load of jet with explosives, and fly it into the Kremlin ?
Luckily the EU have stepped up.
It's debatable if a change in the Whitehouse will change the US's position. Their defense industry wouldn't be too happy.
So far Ukraine have visually lost less equipment than the Russians. Most/if not all Bradleys and Strykers have been replaced and in post cases the crew survived.
We've all seen the leopards damaged and destroyed in the field in the early days of the counter offensive and looks like only 7 were destroyed and up to 10 recovered and repaired. So I'm struggling where you come to the conclusion Ukraine forces are degraded.
Seeing as how you believe it has failed, care to point out when it failed and what a successful counteroffensive would have looked like to you?
A cold winter would probably be much better for an offense than a mild one. Frozen ground is hard, wet ground will be muddy. Also, it would be much easier to spot defensive positions with thermal positions in cold weather - although that will probably be true in any winter conditions.
The expectations for the summer offense always seems like fantasy and seemed to have all hinged on the false narrative that the Ukraine army was an elite force - it's not. I read articles last year stating that the Ukraine army was now the best in the world. Many seem to have bought into this. They expected Ukraine to be able to pull off combined arms maneuvers without drilling them and without the west even proving a key part of it - air power. Even the platforms that were supplied were given in such small numbers that Ukraine probably feels like they cannot risk them in large maneuvers.
The reality is that Ukraine is an amateur force. Yes, it is highly motivated but that alone doesn't make up for a lack of experience and expertise.
Hopefully they are learning enough on the job to gain the expertise to make meaningful gains - but I doubt that will happen until I well into next year. Ramping up the supply of new platforms and systems will also be key to that effort.
Just how have they been degraded? Some facts please to back up you're opinion seeing as that is what you deal in.
FYI - 31 Abrams will soon be in Ukrainian hands, and next Spring they will have F-16 surely that is not evidence of degradation.
For context: it was said way back that in not picking up wounded or the dead specifically, Russia can simply claim a soldier is "missing in action" - thus relatives couldn't claim compensation they'd be owed for an actual, confirmed death. Its morbid, but also a fiendish bit of bureaucracy.
So nothing has changed since Stalingrad.
Actually he was eventually thread banned from Brexit for exactly what he is doing now. But sadly this is CA/IMHO and not politics.
All I have said is the Ukraine counter offensive has failed
Repeatedly. Which is the red flag here.
It's a war, one side is gradually moving forward. You've decided to classify that in black/white terms. Constantly hammering your personal opinion as "fact" for something that is subjective.
Personally I believe the counter-offensive has been relatively successful, I didn't expect it to make much progress if any (considering their circumstances). Maybe the 3rd, 4th, 5th counter offensives will result in more gains with better trade-offs, or maybe not, we'll see.
Everyone has bias. Anyone who claims not to have any is not to be trusted.
That being said “the Ukrainian offense had failed” is not dealing in facts. It is an opinion. And using the opinion of a senior general who didn’t remotely say the same thing and in fact referenced qualified successes to back up that view is an utterly bizarre way of supporting your opinion.
"It's Ukraine that has the man power and equipment issues, not Russia."
Just to point out how far off dealing with facts you have continued to be, here is an update on the equipment putin's forces are having to rely on:
And to show how the equipment being supplied to Ukraine is working out in comparison:
Where do you get your delusion that putin's forces are not suffering serious losses in the war they started in Ukraine?
You continue to reply despite stating you have me blocked. The only thing you're right about is that the mods should wrap your knuckles for consistent and blatant attempts to bully a poster. You've done this consistently and now you're doing it by proxy. It's not right.
I only try to state the truth without bias either way on any topic. Those who are biased can't take it.
Which, to loop back to prior pest behaviour, was precisely the tactic taken with the Brexit thread in the Politics forum.
IE: take a random quite from (say) Varadkar that could, if you really really squint, be read as Ireland as sacrificial lamb for the EU. Then it doesn't happen, user disappears. Then returns months later with another quote myopically interpreted as doom for Ireland.
They disappeared from that thread since the Windsor Framework cos obviously nothing they insisted was gonna happen, happened.
Anyway gonna move on before mods rightly wrap knuckles.
I have no bias either way. All I have said is the Ukraine counter offensive has failed, which it has. If it succeeded I'd be saying so.
As for bias, you can hardly accuse 90+% of this thread of not being biased.
They are biased toward a country, as I said before, most of them couldn't point Ukraine out on a map prior to the war.
What some want here is facts to be ignored and emotion to run riot and of course they don't like it when someone points out inconvenient truths.
You mean, like... a useful idiot?
Your problem is you narrow in to very few facts to feed your confirmation bias.
The upside is that everyone can read your posts to find out what's not actually happening on the ground and find out what the russian millbloggers want everyone else to think, so it's kind of a useful service being provided.
About what? Everything I have said is just fact. Sorry it upsets you.
Bakhmut
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