Rigggght...that's why they lost so much armor around it.
Russian tanks destroyed by Ukrainian ambush near Kyiv in dramatic footage
And had a 40-mile supply convoy running from Bucha outside Kyiv to the Belarus border...
Posted on 08/24/2022 8:35:04 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
A hail of shrapnel from kamikaze drones ripped through the tent where off-duty Ukrainian border guards were sleeping near a crossing with Belarus, three hours north of Ukraine’s capital.
Viktor Derevyanko woke to scalding pain, his body burning. Blood spilled from his hand as he tried to wipe his face. A piece of metal had traveled through his arm and stomach and into the muscle around his heart.
“I couldn’t get my bearings,” said Derevyanko, the deputy head of the unit. “Only on the third explosion did I manage to fall out of bed and try to find at least someplace to hide, because the explosions weren’t ending.”
It was around 4:15 a.m. on Feb. 24.
(snip)
If the Russians could seize the seat of power in Ukraine, or at least cause the government to flee in panic, the defense of the country would quickly unravel. Moscow could install a puppet government.
That was the Kremlin’s plan.
Instead, what transpired in and around Kyiv in the ensuing 36 days would represent the biggest foreign blunder in the 22-year rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His assault on the city instantly reordered the security architecture of Europe against Moscow and isolated his nation to a degree unseen since the Cold War. To the surprise of the world, the offensive against the Ukrainian capital would end in a humiliating retreat, which would expose deep systemic problems in a Russian military he had spent billions to rebuild.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Less than US doctrine requires
But then this has always been referred to as a Special Military Operation, not requiring full Russian mobilization. Many of the regular forces on the front are DPR and LPR, not Russian regulars still in reserve
Our guys don’t fight this way, never observed an operation like this in modern warfare. Consider how “we” took Belgrade, Baghdad …which are the standards being used to call Russia incompetent,
This study by a senior ( USMC) officer, “ Marinus’ , perhaps the most comprehensive objective analysis …made some waves, because it was actually published by the USMC, and because he makes the reader appreciate the Russian military planning…which “ we” in the West and certainly not in the Pentagon, are “allowed” to do. Goes against the official narrative, of simply “ Russia bad’
Three regular brigades were at Perekop-Kherson in Feb 2022.
These plus those four from Lviv to Chernighiv were all that werent on the Donbas front - Izyum-Mariupol.
You realize the Kherson front is heading west, and is now within 20km of Nikolaev?
Marinus study of Russian campaign in Ukraine
Complete
https://www.imetatronink.com/2022/08/a-former-us-marine-corps-officers.html?m=1
A small advance at Kherson is the least you swine can expect from the large reinforcements Russia has sent there.
The Russians weren’t interested in Kiev. They are winning everywhere else and destroying the Ukraine army.
Sure, sure, Russia sent some of its best troops and equipment to get bogged down on a two lane road surrounded by mud and get destroyed by drones and rockets for a month, just to “fake out” the Ukrainians who weren’t prepared for an attack to begin with.
Pure military genius!
Rigggght...that's why they lost so much armor around it.
Russian tanks destroyed by Ukrainian ambush near Kyiv in dramatic footage
And had a 40-mile supply convoy running from Bucha outside Kyiv to the Belarus border...
There’s propaganda, and then there’s self-evident truth. People can quibble about the details, but the thrust of this story is clearly true. Moscow wanted Kiev, and wanted a puppet government. It was the single most important part of their initial invasion, and failed utterly.
Because anyone who can read a map and look at troop columns could tell what they were trying to do. You don’t waste that kind of troop power for something unless it is very big.
Whatever his other flaws, Zelensky rallied his people and his forces in a way that nobody expected. And those troops fought very well.
Do you seriously think Putin planned to still be fighting in Ukraine 6 months later??
Uh...that would be the Ukrainians.
What map are you looking at? The Russians are in control of most of the Donbast region. And that is even what the Ukranian maps are showing! The Russians are heading to take Odessia.
—> just to “fake out” the Ukrainians who weren’t prepared for an attack to begin with.
Sure got Ukraines eye off other areas
The Ukie war cheerleaders need to face reality, the Ukies have lost the war. Vlad liberated 30 percent of Ukraine, and he is not giving any territory back.
He needs to throttle up and take Odessa, then the corrupted fairy land of Ukraine can be carved up in accordance to its historic ethnic population.
The Russians had tons of ammo on hand because they had crap-tons left over from the Soviet days, not because they made a bunch for this invasion.
On the flip side, they've ended up having far fewer tanks than they needed because, unless ammo, tanks in storage degrade pretty quickly is not given regular preventative maintenance, and of course guarded from theft. There have actually been a few T-62's spotted, and those things were first produced more than sixty years ago.
The other argument against them having expected this kind of war is the manpower shortage. They made no real effort to increase recruitment, consider conscription, etc.. As a result, they are pretty much out of trained reserves.
What they do have are a bunch of tubed artillery, which degrade slower than tanks in storage, and ammo for those guns. So, rather than the rapidly-moving columns of tanks and APC chewing up miles in a rapid advance, they're stuck lumbering behind massive artillery barrages. Which, in addition to being a very slow way to advance, destroys much of what you are trying to annex.
The Russians knew how tough the defenses were in the Donbast region, where the best Ukrainian troops were stationed and they have spent years building up their defenses.
They lost a ton of equipment and a lot of their special/elite forces trying to take Kyiv. Paratroops in particular.
Wars often take longer then we think are going to. but the Russians are gradually wearing down the Ukrainian army, with a war of attrition.
Not this kind of conventional, land-grab war. The closest modern analogy is the Iran-Iraq war, which Iraq started thinking it could quickly grab some disputed territory during the Iranian Revolution, and instead found itself in a quagmire that lasted for years. But all the other modern wars apart from that have seen rapid movement, and ground changing hands quickly because that's what modern weapons enable.
That land that the Russians have taken from the Ukrainians isn't going back.
I don't know how this ends, and Russia likely is going to keep some of what it gained. But I'd definitely take bets that they're not keeping Kherson. One city on the wrong side of a river isn't sustainable. It may take awhile, but they're not keeping it long-term.
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