Posted on 09/16/2022 10:03:32 AM PDT by Starman417
I am not making this up. There is a growing conviction in many eminent circles in the United States and Europe, who believe and embrace this article from Business Insider=
Only when you read the article and examine the “experts” consulted do you realize this is more delusional nonsense devoid of evidence. Here is the claim by George Barros:
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic defeat. So far the Kremlin has not been able to achieve its strategic level objectives and it has incurred significant costs. Russia’s military is going to have to be rebuilt,” George Barros, a military analyst with the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told Insider.This dude must have tons of military experience to reach this stunning conclusion. Right? WRONG!!
George Barros is a geospatial analyst on the Russia and Ukraine portfolio at the Institute for the Study of War. His work focuses on Russian information operations, the Kremlin’s campaigns in Ukraine and Belarus, and Ukrainian politics. George received his B.A. with Honors in International Relations and Global Studies with a concentration in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies from the College of William & Mary. Prior to joining ISW, he worked in the U.S. House of Representatives as an advisor on Ukraine and Russia for a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.Barros has zero military experience and apparently learned nothing at William and Mary about Russia during his time there.
So let us consider some actual facts:
A recent intelligence update from the British defense ministry said that the elite 1st Guards Tank Army and other Western Military District units have suffered heavy casualties, indicating that “Russia’s conventional force designed to counter NATO is severely weakened.” The ministry added that “it will likely take years for Russia to rebuild this capability.”Haltiwanger apparently does not know how to use Google. Russia is using its T90 tanks in Donetsk. Not exactly a relic of the Cold War. Haltiwanger also forgot to ask whether or not Russian factories that produce tanks are still operating and turning out replacements every week. Guess what? Russia does not have to wait years to rebuild a force supposedly eliminated.The Russian military has also seen the damage, destruction, and abandonment of astonishing amounts of equipment in Ukraine. It is estimated to have lost thousands of armored vehicles since the war began in late February. These losses have forced the Russian military to resort to pulling obsolete, Soviet-era equipment, such as T-62 tanks, out of storage.
Remember during the first few weeks of the war the exploits of that incredible Ukrainian pilot–aka the Ghost of Kiev–who downed several Russian fighter jets? Yeah, that was a lie but it was eagerly gobbled up by western pundits, media and politicians.
Let me ask this simple question. Who destroyed the “elite 1st Guards Tank Army?” And what weapons did the attackers use to destroy that tank army? Ukraine has no combat air or rotary wing force. Their artillery, even supplemented with HIMARS, is very limited in part because of scant supplies of shells. Did a group of NINJA Ukrainians sneak up on the unsuspecting Russian tank army and take them all out with the spotty Javelin’s? Just asking.
Unlike Ukraine, Russia’s Ministry of Defense provides a daily briefing on the Ukrainian units it is hitting, including their locations and detailing the equipment destroyed. Ukraine has not provided any detailed briefing like this:
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
Putin thought he was building an Army but forgot they were Russians
1/5
Russia Advances in Bakhmut, Defends in North Donetsk; EU Leaders Split on Gas Crisis’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PGkz08hzSg
‘Russia ‘Encircling’ Bakhmut, Putin Sticks with SMO, Rebuffs Scholz, Macron’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RdTnaP5plk&t=5s
‘Russia Encirclement of Bakhmut, Parries Ukrainian Counterattacks; Putin, Modi & Xi Meet in Samarkand’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyqhulOaKQ
An armistice is needed - no rights or claims need be given up, but the killing and destruction would stop.
Gonna leave it at 2/2 instead. There’s more, but this is enough.
Just one of many that reported on these leaked Ukrainian documents put all over the net.
Unconfirmed leaked data from the Armed Forces of Ukraine General Staff:
- The AFU are only 43-48% complete;
- medical workers at the limit of their strength: the seriously wounded are transported to Europe;
- small arms and bulletproof vests are not enough;
https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/status/1555546218608365568
This is backed up by other reports.
And Ukraine reportedly lost up to 12k soldiers in the last week taking an area the size of Rhode Island while Russia has taken more land recently in Southern Ukraine.
Ukraine has lost at least 50% of its regular, trained people (based upon leaked Ukrainian documents from over a month back and reported on extensively, so who knows how hogh the % lost is now), and thus Ukraine had no choice but to go all-in on an offensive attack to get more bigger Zelensky $ thrown their way.
The Guardian, Democracy Now, and others reported that a mere 1,000 square kilometers were retaken by Ukraine, not Zel’s claimed 6000 sq km.
The BBC reported that about 1/5 of Ukraine has been conquered by Russia. So Ukrainians retaking 1k to 6k square kilometers of 1/5 of Ukraine turns out to be a paltry percentage (less than 1% to around 5% of what Russia has conquered) and especially paltry given that Russia has made recent advancements into areas of southern Ukraine.
Ukraine took back land the size of Rhode Island (as Russia took more land in the south) and Ukrainian leaders have said publicly they are “worried” if they can even keep it.
Zelensky Says Ukraine Has Retaken 6,000 Square KM, But Army “Worried” About Defending It
What Ukraine did was throw it’s most capable and well armed troops, that NATO had been preparing for months, into a small area of the front.
As another person said: ‘The Ukrainian offensive failed miserably everywhere the Russians had choosen to defend. The only success was the area where the Ukrainians managed to put ten to one numerical advantage against the Russian rear troops and rebels. The idea was to encircle and take them prisoners which didn’t work. Not a lot of the defeat and victory respectively.’
*beggar Zelensky $.
Putin tried to do a “100 hour push to Baghdad” on Kiev like the US army did in Iraq. Unfortunately for him he Soviet/Russian military isn’t on the same level as the US. Russia and its supporters tried to pass off attacking Kiev as a feint but it was a decapitation move that failed.
This looks like it is turning into a repeat of Afghanistan in the 1980s for Russia. A much smaller country and military supplied by the US is holding its own.
I am not a general, nor do I play one on TV. So take any of the above with a grain of salt.
Dear Larry,
We can see you swallow ... all the Russian propaganda your tiny mind can hold.
Those vehicles look like they were too close together, allowing many to get trapped.
They also seem to have got stuck in mud.
Many of the tank turrets got blown off.
Russia can afford to lose many dozens of vehicles.
Russia has at least one tank factory.
The moral of this steady stream of trolling that’s going on now is if you can’t win a war with bullets and bombs, resort to delusionary diversions. Perhaps wishing a win will make it so.
If true, then why are the Russians pulling 50-year old T-62s out of mothballs and sending them straight into combat to be destroyed or captured, liked this one, ironically named "Fury"?
I don’t believe Russian battle estimates nor do I believe the Western spin of Ukrainian successes.
Here’s what I know: there’s fighting, killing, and it’s ongoing. Ukraine still has a government. Russia hasn’t declared victory and are surprised at the resistance/ their own incompetence.
My eyes tell me that current tanks are obsolete.
Russia probably has new designs on the way.
New designs should:
1. protect crewmen individually
2. have a redundant frame rather than a cast hull
3. store main gun ammo in a crewman-safe manner such a trailing tube
4. allow sod and snow to be placed to hide the tank in both the visible and infrared regions
5. have a variable length trailing exhaust system so its heat signature is physically displaced from the crewmen
Flopping Aces
by Larry Johnson August 21, 2022
Say what? The Donetsk and Luhansk Republics, with Russian support, are moving inexorably forward. Russia controls the air and has not been push out of a single major defensive position. All of this while stacking Ukrainian casualties like piles of firewood that Europe will need, come winter, to heat their bath houses. It appears the only “notable victory” of Ukrainian security services is successfully bullshitting credulous folks in the United States and Europe. That success apparently gets them more weapons that they can in turn sell on the black market and build up their illicit retirement funds. Just a guess.
https://www.floppingaces.net/most-wanted/the-lies-of-august-not-the-ides-of-march/
OR
Larry C. Johnson: “the Ukrainian Army Has Been Defeated. What’s Left Is Mop-up”
March 21, 2022
“””These losses have forced the Russian military to resort to pulling obsolete, Soviet-era equipment, such as T-62 tanks, out of storage.”””
“””Haltiwanger apparently does not know how to use Google. Russia is using its T90 tanks in Donetsk. Not exactly a relic of the Cold War.”””
Why would he say this when T-62 tanks are being filmed in and even captured and destroyed in Ukraine?
T90s have been destroyed also, but it is clear that T-62s are there as well.
Well those aren't working out so well either...
Russia says its T-90 is one of the best tanks in the world, but it's having trouble in Ukraine
“why are the Russians pulling 50-year old T-62s out of mothballs and sending them straight into combat to be destroyed or captured”
All current model tanks are obsolete, even those of the US and Germany.
At the end of the conflict, Russian scrap metal dealers will be bidding on T-90s.
If you were in a group of a few soldiers, would you rather face enemy troops with AK-47s in a T-62 or in your body armor?
Zelensky met with Biden in the White House. They talked, the actor Zelensky remarked how he loved the old Star Track…he noted the crew was Scottish, black woman, Russians, even aliens.
He asked Biden “ why no Ukrainians?”
Biden stated it was written in the future.
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