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Why the Russian military is bogged down by logistics in Ukraine
The Washington Post ^ | March 30, 2022 | Bonnie Berkowitz and Artur Galocha

Posted on 04/03/2022 1:05:00 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Ambushed convoys and broken tanks. Generals killed close to the front. Expired rations. Frostbite. The Russian military was built for quick and overwhelming firepower, experts say, but its weakness is logistics. And on the roads of Ukraine a month after the first invasion, that weakness is showing.

‘The tyranny of distance’

Many analysts say the Russians assumed they would quickly capture the capital city of Kyiv and force President Volodymyr Zelensky out of power. Whatever the strategy, that outcome did not happen, and Russia has been bedeviled by an inability to keep supplies flowing to troops in a longer ground war.

After weeks of little success except in southeastern Ukraine, despite relentless shelling and thousands of military and civilian casualties, Moscow said during peace negotiations on Tuesday that it would “drastically reduce” military activity in the northern part of the country, near Kyiv and Chernihiv.

After a surprisingly fierce Ukrainian resistance, “we can suspect” that Russians “did not properly organize the logistics necessary for an effective Plan B, which was to have an actual, serious fight in what is the largest country in Europe outside of Russia,” said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, a think tank in Virginia.

The sheer size of Ukraine is a problem.

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


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: biden; logistics; putin; russia; ukraine; war
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To: Zhang Fei

“This isn’t a big forum, and a shell of what it was a decade ago, when it was neck and neck with the National Review website. IMHO, no one’s getting paid here.”

Can you expand on that decline?


81 posted on 04/03/2022 6:48:13 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: SoCal Pubbie

[Can you expand on that decline?]


The Alexa rankings had Free Republic ranked at 1,000 in the US, alongside National Review. NRO is at 1,682. We are now at 3,587.

https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/nationalreview.com
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/freerepublic.com

But you don’t even have to look at the rankings. The level of activity here has gone through the floor. We used to have new threads every minute or so. Today, we can go hours between new threads.

Breitbart, Fox News and some of the right wing opinion sites have siphoned off some traffic. But just as National Review purges have driven off a significant audience, the purges here have done the same thing, for better or worse.


82 posted on 04/03/2022 7:04:19 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Ukraine has enough manpads to overcome the defensive measures of helicopters. They also have other anti-aircraft missiles that make Russian pilots an endangered species.


83 posted on 04/03/2022 7:06:54 PM PDT by meatloaf
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To: Always A Marine

There is a mountain of evidence that it was disorderly retreat from Kyiv. But I guess Russian loving eyes will never see it.


84 posted on 04/03/2022 7:16:22 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: Drew68

Is Russia Losing the War in Ukraine? (Featuring Scott Ritter)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter#Arrests_and_conviction_for_sex_offences

What is it with Putinists and sex crimes? Seems to be a pattern there.


85 posted on 04/03/2022 7:19:25 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: 17th Miss Regt; Levy78
I read it. It is a fair article. It makes clear that the Russians are weak in logistics and support. A study of history teaches us that this is something endemic to the Russian army. Some things don’t change.

The Russian Army couldn't resupply their troops during WWI. To be fair, Russia is so vast and its roads and railroads were underdeveloped back then so logistics was a challenge back then. They are supposed to be much more advanced now but some things never change like 17th Miss Regt pointed out.

The Washington Post wrote this article. No political agenda or anything in this piece.

86 posted on 04/03/2022 7:25:20 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Bayard

Due to sanctions and industrial decline, Russia lacks an adequate supply of many essential spare parts. The result is that even their apparent intention to amplify their efforts in the east and south of Ukraine are likely to fail.


87 posted on 04/03/2022 8:15:53 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: BipolarBob

LOL


88 posted on 04/03/2022 9:06:12 PM PDT by lasereye
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To: lodi90
There is a mountain of evidence that it was disorderly retreat from Kyiv. But I guess Russian loving eyes will never see it.

There are mountains of evidence for multiple suppositions. Neither of us knows for sure what is actually happening, and the truth is not dependent upon whatever either of us thinks is the case. What makes no sense is to impugn the motives of anyone who examines the same limited facts from a different perspective and might see different possibilities. I have been a part of this forum for 24 years and bear no ill well toward anyone here, including you.

89 posted on 04/03/2022 9:27:03 PM PDT by Always A Marine ("When you strike at a king, you must kill him" - Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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To: lodi90
What is it with Putinists and sex crimes? Seems to be a pattern there.

So you disagree with his analysis? Or you can't so ad hominem attacks are all you've got?

90 posted on 04/04/2022 3:06:56 AM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: MinorityRepublican

.


91 posted on 04/04/2022 7:57:07 AM PDT by sauropod (So may we start? It's time to start.)
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To: Zhang Fei; SoCal Pubbie

This decline in forum-based participation is internet-wide, across many interest areas.

I personally think it’s a variation of ‘dumbing down’, where the various client-interfaces are being simplified to the point that ANYONE can ‘participate’ without actually knowing anything.

Where the folks you would connect with and interact with had a certain degree of technical capability and intelligence to learn and use the less ‘user-friendly’ interfaces (usenet, chat groups, forums, etc.) - NOW, you have social media structures that are so simplified and integrated that any idiot (and I do mean ‘idiot’) can jump on and pollute the vast pool of information with their nonsense.

Facebook in particular has been destructive in this area by making participation so easy, and average content so puerile and simplistic - it’s just overwhelmed most of the ‘old school’ sources of personal interaction. People come to expect that level of ease in all areas of online activity.

Then there’s the age-old problem that people rarely learn, and almost never listen - so after years of harping the same of stuff, folks get burnt out and move on with their lives.


92 posted on 04/04/2022 9:13:17 AM PDT by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
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To: Bayard; Travis McGee

Really

Why are lights and water still on in Kiev

Because the Russians are scared

Is that you think

You Zelensky brigade need to look at whole pictures and juxtapose that with Putin stated war goals for years

Take the east and likely Odessa

No nato or Europe centric crap

That’s the goals ....I’d imagine he’d like a new oligarch hierarchy too and Zelensky head on platter

The fighting is in the east

The divisions near Kiev etc are most.y to say we’re here

Sure sappers hit them on occasion

But like I said ....75-80% of Ukraine is functioning

That’s not because Russia can’t flatten it

These are sit rep facts if you stand back impartial and look at it

All this other stuff from western media is just regurgitated nonsense

95% of the war reporting on this war is about human rights not territory

What does that say to you...
It says propaganda to me.

I’m completely guessing here but I thinking the Russians. Underestimated the power of the western globalist tech media cabal to spin this conflict

I sure did


93 posted on 04/04/2022 9:22:24 AM PDT by wardaddy (Free Republic land of the earnest headline readers )
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