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Russian Soldiers Are Freezing To Death In Eastern Ukraine
Forbes ^ | November 27, 2022 | David Axe

Posted on 11/27/2022 6:30:56 AM PST by Timber Rattler

The Ukrainian army has deployed some of its best brigades to eastern Ukraine, including the 92nd and 93rd Mechanized Brigades and the 1st Presidential Brigade.

But these elite Ukrainian formations might not be the biggest killer of Russian troops in the east. Under-trained, under-supplied and ambivalently led, Russians in the region are freezing to death by the dozen.

Shocking videos that have circulated online in recent weeks tell a tragic story. The videos, shot by the Ukrainian brigades’ hovering drones, depict Russians in the late stages of hypothermia, so cold and sick that they barely react when the drones drop lethal improvised bombs on them.

Thomas Theiner, an ex-soldier who currently is a filmmaker in Kyiv, predicted winter “would kill more Russian soldiers than Ukraine ever could.” He may have been right.

Winters in Ukraine start wet and cold then get colder and drier. Eastern Ukraine still is in the wet-cold phase—and it’s brutal. Deep mud mires armored vehicles. Daytime temperatures hover around freezing, while nighttime temperates dip closer to zero degrees Fahrenheit.

With preparation, sound leadership and reliable logistics, the conditions are survivable. Soldiers bundle up, sleep in roofed, heated trenches with floors, frequently change their wet socks and eat twice as much as they would on warm days. When they get sick, they evacuate to the rear for rest.

The problem, for the Russian army, is that more and more of its troops are untrained draftees. Officers aren’t leading from the front. And Russian logistics are strained by nonstop Ukrainian bombardment. Starving draftees with no gloves or good boots are huddling in shallow, unheated trenches while their officers squat in abandoned houses potentially miles away, unaware or uncaring as their soldiers succumb to the elements.

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


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
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To: Nifster

Ask Hitler, ask Napoleon.

They exist in LaLaLand.


21 posted on 11/27/2022 7:01:32 AM PST by MrThistle999
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To: Ingtar

Neither has the US Army. Do you really think they forget? Come on, get real.


22 posted on 11/27/2022 7:02:01 AM PST by hardspunned (Former DC GOP globalist stooge)
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To: ontap

At one point the USSR was described as a third world country with rockets.

I still remember a couple of stories coming out of Russia in the early 1990’s. First, about 1/3 to 1/2 of rural hospitals in Russia did not have running water and second (verified by a noted agricultral economist), poor storage and poor transportation resulted in anywhere from 30% to 50% losses in grain output from the farm to the flour mills.


23 posted on 11/27/2022 7:09:08 AM PST by Maine Mariner
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To: Maine Mariner
At one point the USSR was described as a third world country with rockets.

Now it's Mexico but with nukes.

24 posted on 11/27/2022 7:10:37 AM PST by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: Timber Rattler

Russia should have known better than to leave the tropics and fight a war in a cold climate.


25 posted on 11/27/2022 7:13:14 AM PST by BobL (By the way, low tonight in Estonia: 25 degrees)
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To: Timber Rattler

Another dumb post. Russians are used to cold.


26 posted on 11/27/2022 7:16:08 AM PST by dforest (What are we sittin' around for? )
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To: Wilderness Conservative

“Why dont they just steal some blankets from Ukrainian babies?”

Because the Russian’s eating the Ukrainian babies alive won’t give up the blankets.


27 posted on 11/27/2022 7:22:27 AM PST by redfreedom (You can vote your way into socialism, but you may have to shoot your way out.)
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To: Timber Rattler

28 posted on 11/27/2022 7:23:23 AM PST by cranked
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To: Timber Rattler
Cold and miserable Russian soldiers.

This little video is truly incredible. It says so much about why Russia is losing this war

Tom Warner @warnerta

It shows a Ukrainian drone dropping a small grenade on a group of 11 Russian soldiers huddled sleeping in a (weakly) defensive dug-out pit, on the front line east of Bakhmut. What's amazing to watch is how sluggishly - if at all - the men react.

One man starts to get on his legs, but he merely shoves his way through other groggy men a few feet further from where the grenade hit and settles back to sleep. No one tries to change their overall situation before the next grenade hits. Three of the men don't move at all.

These men are suffering from moderate to severe hypothermia, when the body stops shivering and the mind goes into a stupor or even shuts down. They were probably laying huddled all night without proper clothing or bags. Night temperatures have been in the mid-high 30s F / 0-4 C

They're surely also sleep deprived. But above all, they're hopeless men in a hopeless situation. Whether convicts roped into a paramilitary force or recent conscripts to the regular army, these men have given complete control of their fates to people who treat them like garbage.

Bombed Russians Barely React

29 posted on 11/27/2022 7:24:30 AM PST by tlozo (Better to Die on Your Feet than Live on Your Knees)
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To: tlozo

I am beginning to think that the neocons aligned with George Soros have infiltrated FR to an extent unimaginable.


30 posted on 11/27/2022 7:26:27 AM PST by anton
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
I seem to recall that the Russian invasion of Finland in WWII failed because the Russians didn’t have adequate cold weather gear. Looks like history is repeating itself.

In part, yes. Being Russian doesn't give anyone immunity to the cold, and a poor logistical system can kill troops in bad weather regardless of ethnicity.

That being said, there seem to be an awful lot of conclusions being drawn from one bit of overhead drone footage. I personally think the daily news reports are almost useless. What does tell you something is when actual ground starts changing hands. Regardless of the spin put on that fact, "strategic withdrawal", or "gave up ground they no longer wanted", or "the loss ratio was 10-1 in favor of the defender", the loss of ground tells you who won and who lost. At least in this war.

The pro-Moscow crowd has been telling us for months that Russia will be launching a massive winter offensive any day now that will retake all the lost ground and shatter the Ukrainian army. So I'm watching for that to happen. Or not happen. Until then, I figure it's just propaganda on both sides.

31 posted on 11/27/2022 7:27:56 AM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: anton

32 posted on 11/27/2022 7:28:43 AM PST by tlozo (Better to Die on Your Feet than Live on Your Knees)
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To: tlozo
That is one video, with a specific conclusion being drawn by one blogger, which he then generalizes to tell us something about the entire front. And it appears a whole lot of folks are just lapping it up. It may in fact be true, or not. But we have no way of determining that from this one video.

After all, if this is that common along the entire front, shouldn't we be seeing a lot more videos than just this one?>p? And I'm pretty far from being pro-Russian. But this is just weak.

33 posted on 11/27/2022 7:30:32 AM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: Timber Rattler

But… but… what about the great winter advantage for the Red Army?

Oh… whoops.. that only helps you when you’re defending your own homeland.


34 posted on 11/27/2022 7:31:48 AM PST by ScottinVA (Slava Ukraini!)
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: Wilderness Conservative
Why dont they just steal some blankets from Ukrainian babies?

-----------------------------------------------------

😢In the Zaporizhzhia region, a two-day-old baby was buried, who was killed by the russians with a rocket on the night of November 23.


36 posted on 11/27/2022 7:33:09 AM PST by tlozo (Better to Die on Your Feet than Live on Your Knees)
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To: tlozo

I like Russians. And, Ukrainians.

George Soros, Putin and the KGB and that financier of the Biden crime family, Zalensky, not so much.


37 posted on 11/27/2022 7:33:26 AM PST by anton
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To: Timber Rattler

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are being outfitted with modern cold-weather gear. Sucks to be a Russian invader these days.


38 posted on 11/27/2022 7:35:03 AM PST by ScottinVA (Slava Ukraini!)
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To: Timber Rattler

I guess these Russians are from the Tropic zone in Russia.


39 posted on 11/27/2022 7:40:53 AM PST by TangoLimaSierra (⭐⭐Public hangings will wake 'em up.⭐⭐)
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To: hardspunned
The Ukes definitely have the advantage as the Russians have never fought a winter war. What a braying jackass to post this ridiculous nonsense.

Russians survived WW2 with Western aid providing winter coats, boots, etc.

Plenty of evidence the Russians, apparently, did not learn how to supply these things themselves (or stole all the coats) based on what we're seeing here. It's not like it's JUST an article making accusations. There's video of Russkies near dead in their trenches, barely moving when a grenade drops on them. Most of them might have already been dead already, actually, except for the one that scurries slowly to the other side of the pit.

40 posted on 11/27/2022 7:44:39 AM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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