The Russians Lost Nearly An Entire Battalion Trying To Cross A River In Eastern Ukraine

Senegal BCG ^ | 12th May 2022

[Roman_War_Criminal]

What happened to air cover, reconnaissance, logistics, and planning?

Are the Russians really this stupid?
Or is this another fake news hit piece?

[Roman_War_Criminal]

It could go either way.
I’ve tried digging into the news a lot regarding this war and it is very difficult to filter out the propaganda from facts

For every true story there are about five fake ones regarding the same topic.

The Slavic Eastern Europeans culturally have no compunctions about lying and feeding disinformation. Just look at their history.

Patton called them Mongols. That might be closer to reality than we realize.

[shotgun]

Welcome to the new Russian Navy

[Widget Jr]

#36. I think that answered the question.

[Widget Jr]

#41. BTG are a western construct - no one in the orc or UA army has a clue about such a thing

Battalion Tactical Groups, Батальонная тактическая группа, or batal'onnaya takticheskaya gruppa, are the main Russian army unit size. BTGs as they are not are part of reforms by Sergei Shoigu implemented in 2009.

[PIF]

Gone now. Back to Division, Brigade and so no BTGs.

Talk to any Russian Mil officer and ask about BTG, and they will look at you funny. Never heard of them they would reply, despite what you imagine.

The putative BTG structure does not exist as found in Mechanized Infantry Brigades.

[PIF]

by Sergei Shoigu implemented in 2009.

—
Is this the same Defense Minister that has never served in the Russian Army, who wears commemorative medals and coins on his uniform?

The same Defense Minister who’s “reform” mentioned was done away with in the following years, 2012-2020, because there was now seen a need for large units again? Those small units were the product of no large scale, intense wars in 80 years (WWII). Small units were not suited to large scale wars, and so the RGF brought back Army, Division, Brigade, and Battalion.

For example, the major RGF forces in play are the 20 Army, the 8th Army, and the 58th Army - with the 1st and 2nd Army Kores, which are not really part of the RGF. They may be from the Russian National Guard, directly under V. Putin command.

This war is a poorer WWII, but still intense and large scale necessitating large unit sizes. That said, when many units are attrited, there is a mix and match military chaos, like the disastrous river crossing a few days ago where from the number of vehicles destroyed there may have been two detached battalions of Mechanized Infantry worth of equipment wiped out.

[bert]

What's interesting to me is the additional armor placed on Russian tanks. The armor is in the form of rather smallish rectangular packages some how fastened to the tanks surface.

It is clearly visible in this photo

It doesn't seem to have been very effective

[jpsb]

The Ukrainians probably did not spot that bridge my guess is that US intelligence did.

[Cronos]

Perhaps. Either way, the Russian army looks less and less like even a regional power.

[jpsb]

The USA is a real super power with Tech other nations can only dream about. With the USA supplying them with everything but boots on the ground Russia is doomed unless it goes nuclear. Every victory we deliver to the Ukraine brings us closer to a tactical nuclear war. Witch could easily go global. Personally I don’t give a damn about a completely corrupt Ukraine’s eastern border. I care about our southern border. But then I’m a MAGA person not a warmongering neocon.

[School of Rational Thought]

“Russian troops are not motivated - I feel sorry for those boys”

Then you don’t know what they do when they are there or are evil.

Perhaps you can raise care packages for them

[Widget Jr]

#66. Pif, sincere request: Do you have any links, even if not in English, to show that the Russians have gone back to divsions over BTGs?

Ever since this conflict began, Russian units have been called BTGs, not divsions. Their reported sizes and command and control matches battalion size, not divsion size.

This is not a semantic differnce. It affects the command, control and logistics. This distinction affects how to interpret how well the Russian army is functioning.

[PIF]

See May 7th:
War in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP2QApi8G2TKc8NZmeDWSUg/videos

[Boogieman]

That’s reactive armor. Those packages are supposed to contained a shaped explosive charge that detonates before the incoming projectile penetrates the armor below, and then the blast redirects the force away from the tank.

The problem is, it seems some of the tank commanders were selling the explosives in those packages, or perhaps they were never delivered. Some after-action photos shows the packages were actually filled with egg cartons instead.