Posted on 08/27/2014 7:47:27 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
Yes, there are a number of interviews with the volunteer units which I have not posted in which the commanders voce their concerns and suspicions the Ukrainian leaders and command are deliberately trying to see they are destroyed in the battles. The motivations are various with some being betrayals to help the Russians-Communists and the other being fears of the volunteers bringing their experienced combat units against the corrupt Ukrainian officers and government. Some of those suspicions are likely to have some degree of true merit.
“Who wants the Crimea back after Russia has touched it”
Wooden stakes, sunshine, copius amounts of garlic, followed by coffee grounds, liberal applications of baking soda, white vinegar, and repeated rinsing will make the Crimea cootie free again in no time.
Kremlin Report: Ukraine has invaded itself, Russia forces on way to establish peace. More than that nobody needs to know.
Nope. You are right on target D1.
Russia is sending Ukrainians in Crimea to Siberia???
Neo-Nazi’s from abroad are Joining Russia’s insurgency!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxQpz-9-zpM
So which side has the better Neo-Nazis?
SO why is Russia capturing and putting a female pilot on trial?
Kremlin’s cover story is a joke
lol
Notice these Russian fighters say they were trained by RUSSIA for 2 weeks
OK, help me out here without agenda driven info. I have read quite a bit about what’s going on there lately from Freepers on both sides of the coin.
Is Kiev supporting their army properly with both weapons and supplies? Reason I ask is because there was a posted video of Ukraine fighters who were pretty beaten down, tired and pissed about lack of support.
Then I read some quotes from the US Ex Mil guy who volunteered to fight for Ukraine and he too was not happy with the support.
Is this logistic? Have bribes or fear caused this?
Is the Ukraine military in trouble now because many here on FR were stating that they were holding their own.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts (or others too).
Sad if true. Should be a lesson for anyone here. It’s so hard to trust with so much at stake.
Ukraine is a much smaller country, maybe they were ill-prepared for the Russian invasion.
I do not recall anyone thinking or saying could “hold its own” against a Russian invasion. Ukraine would have no problem handling “rebels” though.
That makes sense and obviously Russia being a superpower is going to be very hard to defend against - even though it appears they are using their “Minor League” team now.
It is confusing to me that it appeared the Ukraine forces were doing well not too long ago.
Russia was letting the “rebels” be the face for a while, but I guess they got tired of the campaign going nowhere fast. Since then, the front has moved the other way and very quickly.
“Is Kiev supporting their army properly with both weapons and supplies. Reason I ask is because there was a posted video of Ukraine fighters who were pretty beaten down, tired and pissed about lack of support.”
No, the Ukrainian Government is not supporting their army properly with weapons, supplies, maneuver, or fire support.
The Ukrainian Army is subordinate to the Ministry of Defense (MOD), whereas the volunteer battalions are subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. Consequently, the volunteer battalions complain they are being neglected by the MOD whenever it comes to its Soviet style command and control problems and treated as an unwanted stepchild with respect to logistics. All of these troubles are rooted in the Communist Soviet era legacy which the people of the Ukraine are in despair of changing as the corrupt Soviet era power brokers cling to their control of the Ukraine’s institutions. Other former East European states who achieved their independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union have had much better success at quickly discarding the problematic Soviet legacy, because they still had cherished memories of pre-Soviet institutions that could be more quickly resumed. The Ukraine, however, lacked such pre-Soviet and pre-Russian imperial traditions. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Ukrainians have had to contend with a Russian minority population who remained in control of much of the Ukraine’s commerce, wealth, political institutions, police, and military.
The Ukrainian majority of the population has been striving to gain control of their own nation’s economic and political life ever since gaining independence from the Soviet Union. Corrupt ethnic Russian and Ukrainian politicians and those with past membership or associations with the Soviet KGB secret police have worked to defeat the Ukrainian aspirations and maintain and extend their control of the Ukraine to the detriment of the Ukrainian and ethnic Russian Ukrainians. Officials such Yanukovych and the former commanders of the Ukrainian SBU have served as agents for Russia’s secret police since independence, with a view of a future Russian reconquest of the Ukraine.
Some of the Russian agents, ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, in the Ukraine’s government , commercial, military, and economic institutions have recently been exposed and removed from their positions and/or fled to Russia. Many more of these people remain in control of the police units, mayoral offices, and other Ukrainian institutions where they continue to betray the Ukrainian independence. many of these people are in fact making efforts to hamper the Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s aggressions.
The you have just the graft, bribery, corruption, and basic incompetence which has been habitual since the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Something as simple as delivering new combat boots to the infantry of the Ukrainian army units subordinate to the ministry of Defense is subjected to ruinous spoliations and delays, because of the traditional forms of corruption and inefficiencies. Then there is the Soviet style of command and control where a simple close air support request or artillery concentration order must travel up and back down a slow, incompetent, and/or unresponsive chain of command to the most senior command headquarters. By contrast, a Western enlisted man can order such actions in only minutes, not in hours, days, or never.
The already cumbersome problems experienced by the army is far worse for the volunteer battalions. Since the volunteer units are subordinate to the ministry of the Interior, some of the officers in the Ministry of Defense chain of command, especially those who are covertly betraying the Ukrainian cause, welcome any excuse to not fulfill requests for reinforcements, fire support, or logistical support coming from the volunteer units not belonging to the Ministry of Defense. It is also suspected these same corrupt officials in the Ukrainian Government, whether or not they are betraying the Ukraine, seek the destruction and disbandment of the volunteer units so they cannot march on the Ukrainian government officials who betrayed them while they were in combat on the battlefield. Every volunteer who is sacrificed as cannon fodder on the battlefield they view as one less dissident that can confront them and their corrupt acts at some future date. So, this may be why some of the volunteer battalions have been on the forefront of the successful engagements, only to find themselves abandoned on an indefensible position by the army units as the increasingly Russian reinforced armored units are allowed to surround and bombard volunteer units whose supplies of weapons, ammunition, food, and water have been exhausted due to lack of MOD support.
Despite all of these internal enemies of the Ukrainian people who want to rid themselves of this legacy of corrupt Russian and corrupt Ukrainian influences, the remaining Ukrainians, ethnic Ukrainian and ethnic Russian, have struggled successfully to defeat the mercenaries Putin attempted to use in concert with the Russian agents in the Ukrainian government. Now Putin is trying to overcome his failures by committing Russia’s regular army ground forces to the military campaign to force the issue to some form of conclusion or stalemate favorable to Putin’s Russian regime, including the Russian occupation and annexation of the Crimea.
The issue now is whether or not the Ukrainians can overcome all of these internal betrayals and corruption and still avoid defeat when confronted by the full weight of the Russian military forces. That is a very difficult burden to overcome without the Soviet legacy to hamper such an effort. Given the Russian performance to date, it looks as though it wouldn’t take all that much additional military force to defeat the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.
Then why invade Crimea? Crimea is the most soviet region in Ukraine, that’s where old communists came to die.
~Then why invade Crimea? Crimea is the most soviet region in Ukraine, that’s where old communists came to die.~
LOL. You ‘ve hit the nail on the head here. It is probably the most commie-infested place in the whole former East bloc. I have no idea. If I was the government I would never go there.
But on the other hand US had Bay of Pigs, and still holds Guantanamo.
There is probably some logic behind it.
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