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In Hostomel losses, a microcosm of Russia's growing Ukraine crisis
Washington Examiner ^ | 3/4/2022 | Tom Rogan

Posted on 03/05/2022 5:19:42 AM PST by marcusmaximus

Desperate to secure the Hostomel airport less than 20 miles northwest of Kyiv's center, Russian forces are launching attacks into Hostomel and surrounding settlements. The Russians need the airport to serve as a logistics hub for follow-on operations against Kyiv.

The attacks aren't going well.

Video posted online on Friday, supported by Ukrainian reporting, indicates that Russian mechanized infantry formations are being destroyed as they move against Hostomel objectives. Graphic video shows a Hostomel road littered with Russian armored troop transport and infantry fighting vehicles. Dead soldiers lie around them. The damage to the vehicles and the injuries to the soldiers suggest they were ambushed under heavy fire, including from antitank weapons. The video shows that some Russian soldiers were unable even to dismount their personnel carriers before being killed.

The video is just one testament to a tragic war. For the Russian military and Vladimir Putin, however, this situation encapsulates an escalating crisis.

It is now clear that the Russian military lacks the troop capacity, combined arms coordination, logistics trains, and morale to sustain a high-tempo war throughout Ukraine. But the more Russian units that are taken off the battlefield, the more limited the means of Russian commanders to pursue their objectives. This will exacerbate tension with higher commanders back in Belarus and Russia who are under pressure from Putin to deliver results. This is to say nothing of the impact on morale for those soldiers who will now be ordered to follow their fallen comrades into what they will assume are prospectively doomed battles. In contrast, the Ukrainian military morale is soaring.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hostomel; russia; ukraine; war
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It is now clear that the Russian military lacks the troop capacity, combined arms coordination, logistics trains, and morale to sustain a high-tempo war throughout Ukraine.
1 posted on 03/05/2022 5:19:42 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: All

Hostomel video (graphic)

https://twitter.com/_TeoCJ/status/1499701198730977281


2 posted on 03/05/2022 5:20:18 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus

But Putin wants the men, resources and gas lines of Ukraine, plus its strategic position, to strengthen his weak “empire”.

His army is sitting there waiting to be destroyed by the West, and it isn’t going to happen.


3 posted on 03/05/2022 5:31:37 AM PST by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant)
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To: marcusmaximus

That video is horrible but encouraging. It certainly went badly for the Russians, lots of dead bodies but as usual not that many destroyed vehicles shown.

Damn we need to give those people support. They’re doing our fighting for us.


4 posted on 03/05/2022 5:34:43 AM PST by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant)
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To: Williams

“A long POW camp the Ukrainians don’t have to feed.” The logistics of unsticking the stuck convoy north of Kyiv are daunting, at best. They need fuel, batteries, food, water, tires, & solid ground. What a humiliation if they have to abandon every vehicle & walk north just to eat.

https://twitter.com/justapedn_cob/status/1500092047092596736


5 posted on 03/05/2022 5:36:37 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: Williams

The Ukrainians are fighting for their homes. That’s what Putin and the Putinistas don’t understand.


6 posted on 03/05/2022 5:37:34 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus

I heard some commentary that Putin has to deal with muddy ground because he delayed the invasion for China.


7 posted on 03/05/2022 5:39:41 AM PST by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant)
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To: Williams

History shows that Russia doesn’t care how many of its own it kills, so long as it wins. Throwing bodies at the meat grinder is par for the course.


8 posted on 03/05/2022 5:45:49 AM PST by FlipWilson
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To: Williams

“ Damn we need to give those people support. They’re doing our fighting for us.”

Speak for yourself. Better yet, the Swift system still works in Ukraine. Send them a boatload of YOUR money.


9 posted on 03/05/2022 5:47:34 AM PST by icclearly
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To: Williams

The 65 km Russian column is out of fuel, batteries dead and out of food for 8 days.

They all have basically turned into defeated starving prisoners of war stuck in mud, even without getting bombed once.

https://twitter.com/habibur/status/1499979547097595911


10 posted on 03/05/2022 5:47:38 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: Williams

1st rule of the Cold War still applies:
never let 2 countries with nukes shoot at each other
because one of them is going to wind up losing
and what happens if they’re sore losers

At least one side always has to be a proxy. We can “sell” Ukraine material but we CAN’T get involved, cause there’s already one country with nukes there. And that’s the max.


11 posted on 03/05/2022 5:52:42 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: marcusmaximus

Those crappy Chinese tires!


12 posted on 03/05/2022 5:52:58 AM PST by TigerClaws
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To: marcusmaximus

“ The Ukrainians are fighting for their homes”

100% correct. Kinda like our civil war where the south was invaded, they were outnumbered 3 to 1 and it took 4 years to lose that war with a devastating loss of life on both sides. The south was defending their homeland but in the end THEY LOST.

Get that Ukraine?


13 posted on 03/05/2022 5:58:41 AM PST by icclearly
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To: TigerClaws

@TrentTelenko

another Mud & truck maintenance post. Look at the tires in the video immediately under the wheel hubs.

That is oil from the wheel hubs leaking onto those tires from the hub to the ground.

The seals on those wheel hubs have failed due to dry rot.

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1499763286392385541


14 posted on 03/05/2022 5:59:32 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: TigerClaws

More:

@TrentTelenko

One or more of those Pantsir-S1 wheel assemblies have seized from a lack of lubrication because of leaks through the dry rotted seals.

It takes about a year of not moving a vehicle for that to happen.

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1499763288061759492


15 posted on 03/05/2022 6:01:37 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus

Its Ukrainian honey badgers vs Russian cannon fodder. You dont have to be Alexander The Great to figure out who prevails.


16 posted on 03/05/2022 6:16:14 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: BiglyCommentary

Also, amazing video today from Russian occupied Kherson:

One more video from #Kherson, south #Ukraine, where local residents are holding a protest rally against the #Russia|n invaders who occupied the city several days ago.

https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1500067828245880833

https://twitter.com/BarronGhost/status/1500113201740095488


17 posted on 03/05/2022 6:19:13 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: BiglyCommentary

More video from Kherson today:

Massive crowds in Kherson. This is not an occupied city. Aggressor Russia doesn’t control the will of the Ukrainian people and will never conquer Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1500112744481177605


18 posted on 03/05/2022 6:20:14 AM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus

Just a small fraction of those residents with weapons can make it total hell for the Russian occupiers, who are nothing but big, fat targets.


19 posted on 03/05/2022 6:24:00 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: icclearly
Speak for yourself. Better yet, the Swift system still works in Ukraine. Send them a boatload of YOUR money.

Lots of people are happily doing that right now. I've given money in the past. Does that bother you>

20 posted on 03/05/2022 6:26:57 AM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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