Ukraine: What have been Russia's military mistakes?

bbc.com ^ | March 19, 2022 | Jonathan Beale

[castlebrew]

“At this time I think the Ukrainians outnumber those Russians actually in-country, maybe by a lot.”

Given that the people themselves are (a) lining up for rifles, and (b) UKR expats are returning and lining up for rifles, that’s a good bet.

During the Cold War, NATO would promote the quality of its equipment. The Soviets would reply: “Quantity has a quality all its own”.

They may indeed find out the truth of that aphorism. Right square in the keister.

[Cronos]

Ukraine is far more rural than western Europe. Your observation is more applicable to the UK

[Moorings]

That chart shows how outnumbered and outgunned the Ukes are. It is impressive that they have held on to now week 4 of the Russian invasion. War is very expensive and when you’re into week 4 of constant war fighting, that is a huge strain on the economy.

[Kevmo]

Just leave Russia alone is all I’m saying.
***Russia INVADED Ukraine. Twice.

[Monterrosa-24]

We are still in communication with most of the family and friends in the Ukraine. The most concerning exception is an area just northeast of Kiev where a friend’s elderly mom was in a damaged apartment building all alone on her floor. We finally got word that she was now at another friend’s apartment. The good thing about modern switching equipment is that is automatically reroutes communications around legs that are out. We have a young nephew who left Kharkov and traveled to L’viv and he is still able to sign-in and do work remotely. We have a cousin who still lives in Alchevsk, near Lugansk, in the Donbas, where the situation with water and electricity was already very bad under the “People’s Republic” administration. They get tap water two afternoons per week on a schedule. It is a chemical plant and steel mill town that is failing because the two giant operations are not producing (it is impressive to view the industrial area on Google Earth). Thank you for the prayers. Many prayers have been answered.

[Cronos]

“They don’t want NATO encroaching on their borders “

NATO has been at Russian borders since 1999 when Poland joined NATO. Poland borders Russia.

[Cronos]

“Ukraine is a totally created country. Like Belgium.”

Belgium fought for its independence in 1830 from the Netherlands.

[doorgunner69]

“Europeans seem to be very city “Centric”. That makes it easy to beat them.”

Much like US democrats. It is all about the inner cities with them

[Zhang Fei]

[Just 6 days into the war, on March 2, the Russian Defense Ministry itself said that 498 Russian troops had been killed, and 1597 killed. Those are Moscow’s own numbers. 16 more days later, 2000 dead total is entirely reasonable. ]

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Not only that - they may have caught the Ukrainians by surprise. Zelensky kept saying, almost to the end, that Russia wouldn’t invade. He delayed the general mobilization order until the invasion started, which obviously limited the amount of manpower he could bring to bear. Now that every man from 18 to 60 is under arms where available, you gotta imagine they are inflicting more casualties on the Russians than at the beginning.

[Zhang Fei]

[Russian forces are facing an epic ass kicking in the coming weeks.

Math (logistics) will have its day. The economic and manufacturing power of the Arsenal of Democracy is behind the Ukrainians.]

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That’s what I’ve heard from other sources. It’s basically WWII with the Ukrainians in the role of the Soviets being supplied hand over fist by the West, and the Russians in the role of the Nazis getting strangled economically and running short of just about everything, while mired in territory way too large for their army to cover. Meanwhile, hostile civilians are hiding and feeding Ukrainian partisans, caching their equipment and ammo, and giving intel on Russian dispositions on a real time basis thanks to smartphone messaging apps, something not available to WWII Soviet formations vis-a-vis the Nazis.