Russia's army could COLLAPSE amid huge losses of more than 30,000 troops - which Putin believes is a 'price worth paying' for victory in Ukraine, confidential UK report says

The Daily Mail ^ | 30 May 2022 | CHRIS JEWERS

[Rockingham]

For a military in offensive operations, the key metric is combat losses in killed and wounded for the forces directly engaged in combat, not losses as measured against total military establishment.

The ill effects of high combat losses show up in declining morale and professionalism, mutinies, and increasing rates of desertion, intentional self-wounding, and shirking of combat. Although Russia's true casualties in deaths and wounds are unclear, the ill effects have been evident in Russia's military forces in combat in Ukraine.

An army's "military collapse" in organizational terms progresses from inability to engage in full scale offensive operations, to troops on defense breaking and retreating from the combat zone. This happened to Russian forces in the effort to take Kiev, which prompted their withdrawal from combat and the abandonment of that entire aspect of the operation.

If the same thing happens in the Russian attack on the Donbas region, the Russian army would then likely lose its ability to engage in sustained combat operations. That is a military collapse. It more or less happened to the US Army after Vietnam, with its ability to defend Europe even coming into doubt. It then took more than half a decade, with major changes in doctrine and training, and lots of cash for new equipment under the Reagan administration before the Army recovered.

Will Russia be able to reform, rebuild, and reequip her army if defeated in the Ukraine war? Probably not, and the result will be that a post-Putin Russia will have to seek a recovery of relations and alliance with the West. Indeed, a Russian victory over Ukraine could have even more dire effects by prolonging Western sanctions and hostile relations. In a strategic sense, Russia has lost the Ukraine War, with much pain and loss of stature yet to come.

Russia's elite of course this better than we do and increasingly hopes for Putin's exit, one way or another -- perhaps more fervently than anyone else.

[MercyFlush]

Even if the Soviets have only lost 10,000 men in Ukraine this year the question is how many more such losses can they sustain? And for what? So Pidor Putin and his gay coterie can buy more superyachts and palaces?