Posted on 03/24/2015 3:27:24 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
When Alexander Zhitinev left in November to fight with the pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, winter had just begun unleashing its fury on the wind-lashed steppe of this impoverished 18th century frontier town.
Zhitinev's work as a mechanic had dried up because laid-off metalworkers could no longer afford their cars. His family was surviving on about $250 a month from his wife's job as a hospital cook.
Zhitinev, 39, and a friend, Ilya Borisov, left their families behind, lured more by the promise of $2,600 a month than by the vision of their recruiters for a return of Russia's czarist imperial glory.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Good article.
It was interesting that the Russian who returned from Ukraine blamed the “Germans, Poles, and Negroes” he said were fighting on Ukraine’s side and that he alluded to a Jewish conspiracy behind it all.
With the exception of those who have family members that died in Ukraine, Putin’s propaganda machine still has most Russians fooled.
Russia seems to be getting bogged down in Ukraine. Nothing but grief has come to Russia for this adventure and it will continue to hurt them a lot more than it has the West.
When Alexander Zhitinev left in November to fight with the pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, winter had just begun unleashing its fury on the wind-lashed steppe of this impoverished 18th century frontier town. Zhitinev's work as a mechanic had dried up because laid-off metalworkers could no longer afford their cars. His family was surviving on about $250 a month from his wife's job as a hospital cook. Zhitinev, 39, and a friend, Ilya Borisov, left their families behind, lured more by the promise of $2,600 a month than by the vision of their recruiters for a return of Russia's czarist imperial glory.
Muslims.
When will the Russian serfs turn on their masters who are sending them off to die?
Without a draft, angst will be limited. That is why Putin doesn't want an all-out war with Ukraine, and his goals there are limited. An all-out war would require a sizable troop commitment, perhaps of hundreds of thousands of troops. Can't get there, while keeping his best troops on the Chinese border, without a draft.
The US was able to gradually pacify Iraq with a relatively small force (~100K men) because Iraq is mostly a no-man’s-land of vast stretches of desert. Ukraine is mostly forest or arable land, with no shortage of places for guerrillas to hide. The US also had a massive technology advantage because of a much larger procurement budget. The Russians will need a much bigger force to pacify all of Ukraine than the US used in Iraq.
If and only if the Ukrainians have adequate food and ammunition.
They're fungible. Ukraine only has to worry about ammo. Food they will always get from the West. A few pictures of dead babies is all it takes. In fact that might even take care of the ammo problem.
Good points.
Also, Ukrainian soldiers are very close in capability to Russian soldiers, whereas there was a wider advantage for American soldiers and marines over the Iraqi irregulars.
And the US had the advantage of the Iraqi government participating with them on most objectives, with lots of resources and incentives.
The Russian way of way inflicts a lot more collateral damage - artilery duels in the cities and such.
I wonder if the Ukrainians will adopt guerrilla tactics in occupied areas to bleed the Russians, like IEDs and snipers?
“I wonder if the Ukrainians will adopt guerrilla tactics in occupied areas to bleed the Russians, like IEDs and snipers?”
Been happening since the beginning, though without much success.
Just last week “infiltrators” tried to assassinate the head of the Luhansk Republic, and others tried to kill the high-profile Donetsk armor commander “Givi” on a Donetsk street.
Over the months, they’ve gotten close to killing several of the Donetsk/Luhansk leaders.
Also, despite the propaganda, Kiev’s “infiltration teams” don’t seem to last very long, especially in the cities, because the civilians turn them in to the rebels, and they get eliminated.
That has happened many times, especially with infiltration teams siting for Artillery or ballistic missile attacks.
It is a bloody mess there for sure - a tragedy.
I think that Ukraine is bankrupt now. That could be a factor driving a settlement.
Domestic politics in both countries might also shift in a big way from the costs of the war.
“The Russians will need a much bigger force to pacify all of Ukraine than the US used in Iraq.”
As I have noted many times since this began, I don’t believe Russia has any interest in taking over all of Ukraine. It’s a wildly corrupt economic basketcase, even by Russian standards, and almost all of the valuable assets are in the Southeast anyway.
Anybody paying attention when this began should have known that Luhansk and Donetsk would rebel, but I thought they’d be on the Dnepr long before now, down to Meltipol, opening the road network to Crimea.
“Kiev’s “infiltration teams” don’t seem to last very long, especially in the cities, because the civilians turn them in”
If the population is with the Russians, it will be a steep uphill climb to retake those areas militarily.
That is the same analysis that I have heard - the Russians only want the heavy industrial areas in the southeast, linking them to the Black Sea and Crimea, where they have lots of ethnic Russians - Luhansk and Donetsk.
The poorer agricultural areas in the West with a higher percentage of Ukrainian speakers, are more of a charity case whose bills they would rather foist onto the West.
What you are seeing is that the rebels are getting “froggier”, when it comes to “Special Missions”.
A few rebel “Spetznaz” did a nighttime motorcycle ride 40 miles through Kiev’s lines last week, the night of the Konstaninovka revolt, and engaged a Right Sector group sent in to restore order, killing some of them. The rebels claim they all got back to rebels lines safely the next day.
Last night, someone attacked and destroyed a Kiev Mobile Radar installation about 100 miles north of Luhansk.
And there have been a couple of claims by Kiev of rebel infiltrators captured in and around Kharkov, where there have been some bombings and attacks in the last few months.
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