Well, EU NATO in Europe. Not the USA. Remember, Russia doesn’t do proxy wars, it only starts wars in Europe because it can’t risk attacking its avowed enemy, the USA...
Oh.
Yep, that is Putin’s weakness, at least as viewed in Russia (based on reports, of course) - too damn soft! So, for all you Putin-haters, be careful what you wish for...
But there is actually a reason for Putin’s softness, but I’ll leave it as an exercise to the student to try to figure it out.
LOLOLOL. Sounds like Kadyrov has made the mistake of believing Russian propaganda.
Sure, take the war to NATO. Russia can’t finish off a second string country like Ukraine, but I’m sure they’ll do just fine facing the greatest military alliance in the world.
Slavic gangkstahs.
No good guys in this war. Nazis against commie warlords.
Red meat for the war-mongers
And when Russia falls, Kadyrov will align with the Turks to finish the job.
Lack of uniformity also is a problem because of the variety of weapons issued to Ukrainian troops. Anti-tank weapons illustrates the dilemma. The photos below show a British NLAW and a U.S. Javelin missile. Both are designed to kill a tank, but the procedures a soldier must follow to fire a NLAW differs from a Javelin. The Javelin, for example, is equipped with an optic, the NLAW is not. I am not saying that a soldier cannot be trained to use both. Of course they can. But the reality is that these anti-tank weapons are being delivered to Ukrainian troops who have not had the opportunity to go through a training regimen to make them proficient in either or both.
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It does not matter how brave or committed the Ukrainian troops are who will carry out the attack on Russian positions if the offensive is launched. If it comes, they will start with a deficit because they have been trained in different ways. More troubling is that the 12 brigades have not conducted a joint exercise where they have learned to carry out coordinated operations with the other units. Their task is made even more difficult because the attacking force will not have the close air support from combat jet and rotary wing aircraft. The Ukrainian units also are unlikely to have mobile air defense systems to fend off Russian aerial counter attacks. Ditto for mobile artillery.
The only hope for the Ukrainian troops tasked with this mission is that NATO intelligence has identified a weak point in the Russian defenses that can be exploited by the attacking force. If such a location exists, it is probably in an area with no significant population or urban centers. That means Ukraine will be capturing fields and forests and that will accomplish nothing that changes the tactical or strategic face of the war.
The German Wehrmacht, a much more powerful and well trained force than anything Ukraine can put on the battlefield, learned to their chagrin that lack of logistics and combat air support during the last days of Operation Barbarossa (which was launched in the summer of 1941) deprived them of victory. While the Nazis succeeded in driving to the suburbs of Moscow, they literally ran out of the fuel, supplies and reinforcements needed to maintain the momentum of their offensive.
Instead of executing a viable military strategy, Ukraine’s military is being asked to perform a political charade to satisfy Western expectations. Whatever success Ukraine achieves in the initial phase of its counter offensive, it lacks the depth in terms of reserves and materiel to sustain an attack. This is not a desperate gamble. This is forced suicide.
Never mind, that the Ukrainians employed open neo-Nazis or that they have used civilians as human shields, targeted civilians in Donetsk and shelled a nuclear power plant.
Lack of uniformity also is a problem because of the variety of weapons issued to Ukrainian troops. Anti-tank weapons illustrates the dilemma. The photos below show a British NLAW and a U.S. Javelin missile. Both are designed to kill a tank, but the procedures a soldier must follow to fire a NLAW differs from a Javelin. The Javelin, for example, is equipped with an optic, the NLAW is not. I am not saying that a soldier cannot be trained to use both. Of course they can. But the reality is that these anti-tank weapons are being delivered to Ukrainian troops who have not had the opportunity to go through a training regimen to make them proficient in either or both.
###
It does not matter how brave or committed the Ukrainian troops are who will carry out the attack on Russian positions if the offensive is launched. If it comes, they will start with a deficit because they have been trained in different ways. More troubling is that the 12 brigades have not conducted a joint exercise where they have learned to carry out coordinated operations with the other units. Their task is made even more difficult because the attacking force will not have the close air support from combat jet and rotary wing aircraft. The Ukrainian units also are unlikely to have mobile air defense systems to fend off Russian aerial counter attacks. Ditto for mobile artillery.
The only hope for the Ukrainian troops tasked with this mission is that NATO intelligence has identified a weak point in the Russian defenses that can be exploited by the attacking force. If such a location exists, it is probably in an area with no significant population or urban centers. That means Ukraine will be capturing fields and forests and that will accomplish nothing that changes the tactical or strategic face of the war.
The German Wehrmacht, a much more powerful and well trained force than anything Ukraine can put on the battlefield, learned to their chagrin that lack of logistics and combat air support during the last days of Operation Barbarossa (which was launched in the summer of 1941) deprived them of victory. While the Nazis succeeded in driving to the suburbs of Moscow, they literally ran out of the fuel, supplies and reinforcements needed to maintain the momentum of their offensive.
Instead of executing a viable military strategy, Ukraine’s military is being asked to perform a political charade to satisfy Western expectations. Whatever success Ukraine achieves in the initial phase of its counter offensive, it lacks the depth in terms of reserves and materiel to sustain an attack. This is not a desperate gamble. This is forced suicide.