Posted on 03/28/2022 10:30:33 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
The killing in action of several Russian generals and senior military figures in Ukraine has revealed the extent of the heavy losses and logistical problems encountered by Moscow's invading army.
According to Kyiv, seven Russian generals have been killed since the invasion was launched on February 24, in what Western officials say would be an unusually high casualty rate among military top brass.
It is not possible to independently verify this figure and official Russian sources have so far confirmed only the death of one general and another senior naval commander.
According to the Ukraine defence ministry on Friday, the seventh Russian general to lose his life was Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev who was killed in fighting in Chornobaivka outside the southern city of Kherson.
"I would treat these numbers with a grain of salt," said Colin Clarke, director of research at the New York-based research thank tank Soufan Centre.
"But whether it's five or 15 generals, the fact that they are losing any generals at all demonstrates that Russian command-and-control is extremely weak and its lines of communication have been severed by Ukrainian military success," he added.
In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's adviser Mykhailo Podoliak described an "extraordinary" death rate among Russian generals and senior military figures.
"This is a sign of total unpreparedness of the army. All this, no doubt, demoralises the Russian army -- they realise that their top leadership is completely incompetent".
The weaknesses shown by the Russian army in Ukraine, in particular in intelligence, logistics and tactical errors, have forced military chiefs to go to the front lines, said a senior French military official, who asked not to be named.
"Orders may not have been well understood or received, units could be disobedient or there is a major problem with morale.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
In recent years, it's hard to think of too many instances of high intensity conventional force-on-force warfare involving fairly well-armed adversaries - including one of the superpowers - that was stalled the way the Russian invasion is. For a few weeks, the Tet Offensive was one of them. It is a bit long in the tooth, but the closest thing I can think off. During a two-month stretch, the US and South Vietnam lost an average of 175 KIA/MIA a day, combined, compared to the NVA/Vietcong's 750 dead a day. Note that the US and South Vietnam were defending, and the NVA/Vietcong were attacking. The US had air supremacy and fire superiority, and the NVA/Vietcong lacked the expensive* man-portable PGM's, effective from a mile away, with which the Ukrainians have been supplied.
The NVA/Vietcong had the benefit of $3.6b in current dollars of equipment per year in Russian aid.
Under the rule of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union initially supported North Vietnam out of “fraternal solidarity”. However, as the war escalated, Khrushchev urged the North Vietnamese leadership to give up the quest of liberating South Vietnam. He continued by rejecting an offer of assistance made by the North Vietnamese government, and instead told them to enter negotiations in the United Nations Security Council.[90] After Khrushchev’s ousting, Brezhnev resumed aiding the communist resistance in Vietnam. In February 1965, Premier Kosygin visited Hanoi with a dozen Soviet air force generals and economic experts.[91] Over the course of the war, Brezhnev’s regime would ultimately ship $450 million worth of arms annually to North Vietnam.[92]
They also received substantial amounts of Chinese weaponry and other equipment:
Military aid given to North Vietnam by China[3]: 379
Year Guns Artillery pieces Bullets Artillery shells Radio transmitters Telephones Tanks Planes Automobiles 1964 80,500 1,205 25,240,000 335,000 426 2,941 16 18 25 1965 220,767 4,439 114,010,000 1,800,000 2,779 9,502 ? 2 114 1966 141,531 3,362 178,120,000 1,066,000 1,568 2,235 ? ? 96 1967 146,600 3,984 147,000,000 1,363,000 2,464 2,289 26 70 435 1968 219,899 7,087 247,920,000 2,082,000 1,854 3,313 18 ? 454 1969 139,900 3,906 119,117,000 1,357,000 2,210 3,453 ? ? 162 1970 101,800 2,212 29,010,000 397,000 950 1,600 ? ? ? 1971 143,100 7,898 57,190,000 1,899,000 2,464 4,424 80 4 4,011 1972 189,000 9,238 40,000,000 2,210,000 4,370 5,905 220 14 8,758 1973 233,500 9,912 40,000,000 2,210,000 4,335 6,447 120 36 1,210 1974 164,500 6,406 30,000,000 1,390,000 5,148 4,663 80 ? 506 1975 141,800 4,880 20,600,000 965,000 2,240 2,150 ? 20 ? Total 1,922,897 64,529 1,048,207,000 17,074,000 30,808 48,922 560 164 15,771
* Note that expense is relative. A Javelin that kills a BMP-3 with its entire crew is relatively cheap, even if it takes 3 Javelins to do the job. A BMP-3 costs about $1m. Valuing the crew of 10's lives at $200K each (typical airline compensation that obviously undervalues those lives), that's another $2m. A Javelin is $175K. Spending roughly 3 Javelins, or $0.5m, to take out $3m of equipment and crew - that's not a bad trade-off.
An army marches on its stomach. Unless a fighting force is supported by excellent logistics to supply food, ammunition, fuel and replacements, that fighting force withers quickly. One thing if nothing else has been learned about the once feared, once perceived as a juggernaut Russian army, they have less than adequate logistics.
This might be helpful to a Putin pogrom plan.
I recall a conversation at a July 4th picnic a few decades ago (1975-1976) between my cousin (a midshipman at Annapolis at the time) and a particular nasty uner liberal relative. The conversation revolved around the disciplines taught and degrees offered at the academy. My liberal cousin could not fathom why the military needs officers educated in accounting, business or other non-military disciplines, to which my cousin patiently explained that waris more than shooting guns and dropping bombs.
Your post is an excellent example of that.
Would appear the Russians are still wrapped up in Stalin’s WW2 doctrine and need to move beyond that into the 21st century by revamping their military doctrine and education.
Makes no sense why Putin doesn’t just sit back and bomb the crap out of them and then send in troops. There is a reason. If he is such a butcher he wouldn’t care who he kills. He is looking for something.
Ping
Putin’s a smart guy. He sending his generals to the front and they’re getting bumped off. Probably the guys he thinks are out to get him.
He’s letting the Ukes do it so he doesn’t have to.
It’s true. Russia is busy. He’s got Nato training camps, Bio Labs, neo nazis surrounded.
Once the south is secured...the talks begins.
[Makes no sense why Putin doesn’t just sit back and bomb the crap out of them and then send in troops. There is a reason. If he is such a butcher he wouldn’t care who he kills. He is looking for something.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2S19_Msta
One MRE ration weighs ~1-1/2 lbs. One day’s supply is 3 rations, or 4-1/2 lbs. If Russians are going hungry, do they prioritize 100 lb artillery shells, or do they feed their soldiers?
[An army marches on its stomach. Unless a fighting force is supported by excellent logistics to supply food, ammunition, fuel and replacements, that fighting force withers quickly. One thing if nothing else has been learned about the once feared, once perceived as a juggernaut Russian army, they have less than adequate logistics.]
And then there is this...
Wife was ‘raped in front of child after husband shot dead by Russians’ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10656829/Ukraine-not-silent-horror-rapes-against-women-invasion.html?ito=native_share_article-top
Hi.
I got an idea for Ivan.
Take off the medals, blacken the hat and lapels, and don’t look conspicuous.
Yo Vlad, that information will cost you a $100 donation to FReeRepublic.com next quarter.
Oh, and Jim Robinson doesn’t take rubles.
5.56mm
Two things:
Credit goes to the Russian generals for leading at the pointy tip instead of cowering in a bunker like Pidor Putin. It’s also sad that such good men are squandered on a needless and vainglorious war.
The Russians need to school their adjutants that there’s times to stop taking orders and instead make the safety of their principal a priority. There are times for a general to get danger close to an enemy but it’s not all the time.
[There are times for a general to get danger close to an enemy but it’s not all the time.]
One human life. $200k. Wow.
I am not certain the troops in the Ukraine are Russia’s best and brightest.
Just not sure exactly what his overall plan might have been?
Was he waiting to see if foreign intervention occurred?
Is my thought even correct? Is this the actual level of his military’s skills these
days?
The Russians don’t have a strong corps of NCOs.
He’s letting the Ukes do it so he doesn’t have to.
————-
And Senile Joe will support the Ukies to their last man. Something stinks since the 2014 Maidan revolution…..hint, Vlad is winning.
It is widely reported that the various Russian units making the assault use ordinary radios. Radio traffic at all levels is closely monitored. Traffic to and from a headquarters can pinpoint not only a location but an individual as well
Qasem Soleimani was carefully monitored and then at a chosen location, eliminated by an American drone. There is note of a NATO plane choc full of all kinds of electronics monitoring Russian traffic. Time is not really important and can be used to ascertain precisely where a high ranking Russian officer is working
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