Looks like everyone was ordered to give him a wide berth.
Posted on 02/28/2022 10:18:47 AM PST by Meet the New Boss
Many thought once the invasion began, the military of Ukraine would be swept away by the might of the Russian force.
Kyiv would fall and Ukraine would quickly submit to the will of Moscow, but that hasn't happened.
snip
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Glen Grant, now with Baltic Security Foundation, said: "In 2014, they (the Ukraine military) really were terrible.
"Most of the structures that they had simply did not have sufficient people in the structure to actually do fighting and logistics.
"There has been a development since then and people have understood things and there's been a better organisation of logistics across the whole force and, this time, they actually seem to be getting it right."
snip
Lt Col (Retd) Grant added: "So they (Russia) are driving across the border into war, stoked up for 24/48 hours, no more, and not being able to drive very far.
"Which is one of the reasons why, if you actually look at down south when they came out of Crimea, they've actually only gone 50km left and right.
"I'm sitting there thinking 'why is this, why is this?', well I know now, they haven't got enough fuel to go any further."
(Excerpt) Read more at forces.net ...
But the Borscht Fuhrer is surrounded by yes men and believed his own propaganda that Ukrainians would greet Putin as a liberator and embrace his plan to unite the "Great Russians, the Belarussians and the Little Russians" into one big reich ruled by Putin.
Now he has to call in his mini-me Benito Lukashenko.
Since I cannot believe anything I read or see nowadays I have no idea if Ukraine is winning or Russia is winning.
I’ve read that Putin sent his conscripts into Ukraine with older equipment.
70% of his troops and good equipment are held outside the border in reserve.
I’ve not verified this. Makes sense.
[ALSO: Watch for Turkey/Syria/Iran to become inflamed as a result of this conflict...]
Looks like everyone was ordered to give him a wide berth.
That’s dated info.
More than two-thirds of the forces he had deployed on the borders of Ukraine are now in Ukraine.
Given his hope of a lightning victory, I doubt that the ones remaining behind are his best units. More likely, logistical units and conscripts not suitable to be sent into action.
It would make sense. Force the opponent to expend resources on a first wave of “pawns” and then follow up with your better units. I’m no military historian but this kind of strategy has been used before.
The Ukrainians must also be aware of this and know what else is in store for them in the coming days and prepare accordingly.
Hold them off? They’re invading Russia and the destruction is horrible. Refugees running for the border, burning buildings, it’s a mess.
And does the number deployed on the border equal all his forces??
...Given his hope of a lightning victory, I doubt that the ones remaining behind are his best units. More likely, logistical units and conscripts not suitable to be sent into action.
I don't see Putin as trying to win fast, but capture the country, military, apparatus, etc., intact so it has value. So I would disagree on that point.
So far, he appears to be the only one playing chess...
The goal was not to have an unrestricted attack here and looks careful to avoid heavy civilian deaths. So it’s a slow and methodical approach. There has been almost no use of artillery here, certainly no heavy barrages. No heavy bombers, or really any serious tactical air I have seen.
And they seem to be avoiding city fighting and surrounding cities.
The Uke propaganda machine is trying to spin this as a bunch of brave Ghost of Kiev and Grandmas with Javelins stuff. But they pretty much have been unable to stop the Russians.
It took us almost a month to secure Iraq during the ground invasion phase. And Ukraine is 1.4 times the size of Iraq. So this is mostly propaganda IMO.
“Look, the Russians were not able to secure Ukraine in two days flat. It’s a clear defeat!”.
Hell, it took the Nazis 6 weeks to go from the Lviv area to Kiev. Then another 2 months to get to the Eastern border.
Have we considered that the whole thing might not be what the media is telling us?
I don’t believe the Ukrainians know. Time will tell.
Putin has insulated his country against much of the shock of sanctions by allying Russia more closely with China. China has reached some new agreement with North Korea.
Most western democracies are led by useless, non-strategic thinkers.
If china enters this...
We have no media we can believe. Not Russia. Not Western media. Not Chinese media. Certainly not government utterances.
By saying that they're not that kind of girl, and they're saving themselves for marriage.
But there are sources we can trust.
IMHO, after getting their nose wiped in the sandlot, they have not worked onxifferent scenarios, that might work in overtaking real cities, as they might have wben they were soviets.
also, IMHO, the russians thought they were ztill able to instill fear, as they did in WW2.
yet now, they have encountered people shouting at them, “oh no you don’t!”
Most of all, the Ukrainians are not trying to go head-to-head with Russian armored forces. They are allowing distance and mud to run them out of fuel, breakdown or get stuck. Then they let them come into a city and apply hit and run tactics with anti-tank rockets. In an urban environment, Russian armor loses a lot of advantages.
The Russians now seem to be applying Grozny tactics of mass bombardment at least in some cases, but that runs the risk of getting NATO involved if pushed too far.
The clock is running for both sides, but all the Ukrainians have to do is hold on.
... hard-pressed to think of any that are objective.
Comments I have seen in reading Russian social media in the last day are that Putin has started the bureaucratic machinery to bring in more reservists from the civilian population to augment his forces.
But how quickly he can augment his forces and how equipped they will be, I don't know.
Russian space support for the ISS is not being effected by export control measures. Despite the invasion, the two countries are still cooperating in this area and no changes are planned in Russia’s support for orbit and ground station operations.
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