Posted on 08/15/2022 7:58:00 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Kremlin inadvertently put its military forces in an unsustainable position, ordering them to take on more operations than they could bear. It had nearly all its soldiers surge simultaneously and rapidly into Ukraine to fight along multiple fronts. It did so without taking necessary protective measures, such as clearing routes of explosives. It had its forces advance at an unsustainable pace. As a result, Russian troops were vulnerable to ambushes, counterattacks, and severe logistical problems that cost the military enormous numbers of soldiers and equipment.
That initial error was caused by the Kremlin’s prewar delusions. Moscow was overconfident in its intelligence, in the ability of its agents to influence events and politics inside Ukraine, and in its own armed forces. It underestimated Ukraine’s capabilities and will to fight. And it failed to account for a massive expansion of Western support to Kyiv.
But although Russia has had six months to learn from these mistakes, it appears poised to once again commit its depleted forces to an untenable mission: annexing and holding Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia provinces, or oblasts. Holding this territory will require substantial amounts of manpower and armored equipment—particularly given that the regions have contested frontlines and that Russian forces in each experience organized partisan attacks. And Moscow has lost its most advanced equipment, for which it does not have equivalent replacements. The Russian armed forces have also suffered tens of thousands of casualties, including well-trained personnel, and its current strategy for replenishment—recruiting new soldiers from a motley mix of communities and armed groups—will not create a combat effective force. There remains, in short, a mismatch between the Kremlin’s goals for Ukraine and the forces it has to deliver them.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignaffairs.com ...
But but, the Ukrainians lines are collapsing!! I heard it here! Been “collapsing” for 6 months...yet I dunno, Russia still hasnt met it goals....
What strategy? It was a free for all.
For all your globalist warmongering needs, turn to George Soros. (also sponsored by Pfizer)
New Plan
Day 180: try to figure out what went wrong on day 2
No, I heard that the Ukrainian army was surrounded at Mariupol and once they surrendered the war was over. Six months later...
Whatever plan Putin had is not working.
“Holding this territory will require...”
Since the initial thrust towards Kiev, the Ukrainians have retaken just about zero territory. We keep hearing about a big counterattack in the offing but so far... nothing. So I do not see the basis for this claim.
It did so without taking necessary protective measures, such as clearing routes of explosives.
—
It was not protective measures that did the Orcs in - it was their huge intelligence failure, compounded by hubris and overconfidence.
Mistakes 1, 2 and 3:
In the North they landed the cream of their forces on two airfields, both occupied by Ukraine National Guard.
1) The first airfield saw some ~250 elite Russian Airborne troops facing 4,500 Ukraine NG who took out the 2) Commander of the entire invasion before his helicopter could land.
3) They fared no better at the 2nd airport.
In the South, it was different: days before the invasion, Andre Yermak who runs the actual Ukraine government out of the Presidential Administration (which Zelinski is not part of ) ordered all the mine fields on the Crimean border cleared.
Instead -- and of course this revealed his true aims anyway -- he went for the whole thing, and overreached. Both the Russian and Ukrainian armies have been bled dry of offensive maneuver firepower, and are now able only to swing lethargically like two out of shape heavyweights in the 14th round.
Ukraine was never going to "defeat" Russia, but Russia failed to defeat Ukraine, and that is a strategic defeat for Russian even if it keeps some Ukrainian territory. Kherson in particular is unsustainable in the long term, but it will take a lot more blood for that to play all the way out.
Putin will have brought a whole lot of misery to tens of millions of slavic people, but accomplished very little in the end. They all should curse his name for a long time.
ah field corporal, you and your cute Russian disinformation graphics
look, Russia is the only one doing warmongering, doofus
enough with you Russian lies you troll
I mean really the stupid is strong with this one.
Putin CHOOSES to invade Ukraine, and Soros is the warmonger..
So I guess that means Putin takes Soros’s orders?
ZZpeedy you must be damaging your stubby little fingers with propaganda posts today. You are like the Energizer Bunny of disinformation.
“Since the initial thrust towards Kiev, the Ukrainians have retaken just about zero territory.”
They pushed back Russian forces out of Artillery range of Kharkiv (just 25 miles from the Russian border), against continued Russian resistance.
They re-captured Snake Island and its territorial waters.
They have been slowly advancing toward Kherson city, and the whole Western edge of the occupied area in the South (Kherson/Mykolaiv Oblasts).
It seems to be shaping up that Russian forces will pull back across the Dniper River in the South - command elements and Russian occupation authorities have already begun shifting some elements East, across the River. Their main supply routes have been cut across the River, and the rail lines from Crimea and from East (Melitopol) have been cut.
Admittedly, Ukrainian forces have not demonstrated an overwhelming offensive capability, against determined Russian resistance. I doubt that we will see any big waves of tank units, or such. Success will likely be more in the nature of Russian forces withdrawing, collapsing or surrendering in places over time; as it was in the North.
The very long Russian supply lines in the South can be cut or seriously impeded. That is happening pretty quickly now with HIMARS strikes. Another railway bridge, about 37 miles further NorthEast of Melitopol was destroyed last night, as the cuts step further East, across the occupied areas in the South.
Ok well I have no dog in this fight but I am not convinced either way. I have the sense that the Russians are now edging closer to Karkhiv, which may have become one of their primary targets. And I don’t know about the railroad bridge you mention. But it does not appear that the Ukrainian forces have demonstrated an offensive capability. Perhaps that will change. I am sure you have heard it said that hope is not a plan. The war there is very much about the reality of what is actually happening on the ground.
So you are saying that Soros and Putin are buddies?
Soros got Putin to start this war by invading Ukraine first in 2014 and then in 2022?
Your assessment is correct.
“Ukraine was never going to “defeat” Russia, but Russia failed to defeat Ukraine, and that is a strategic defeat for Russian even if it keeps some Ukrainian territory. Kherson in particular is unsustainable in the long term, but it will take a lot more blood for that to play all the way out.
Putin will have brought a whole lot of misery to tens of millions of slavic people, but accomplished very little in the end. They all should curse his name for a long time.”
Kharkiv was a big Russian priority early in the war. It is the second largest city in the Ukraine, and only 25 miles from the Russian border. It was the first place that they started bombarding the civilian neighborhoods, which has since become their main approach. Early in the war, they were sending Armor and Mechanized units to make mad dashes downtown almost every night, attempting to to occupy the central business district and Government center - they got chewed up every night, and had to pull back.
When Russia pulled out from the North of the Ukraine (Kiev, Chernihiv and Sumy Regions), they did not withdraw from around Kharkiv, and kept bombarding the City, until Ukrainian forces attacked and forced them back, reaching the Russian border at one point. The Russians counter attacked and regained some small percentage of their previous ground in the area, but remain too far out to resume shelling the city like before, even though they keep trying to advance there.
Your essential point, that the Ukrainians have not shown strong offensive power, is basically correct. They can’t mass anything like what came against them early in the war. But they have shown that they can punch above their weight class, fight smart, and inflict disproportionate casualties and equipment losses on the Russians. During the first phase of the war, they hit the Russians extended supply lines so effectively, that the Russians had to withdraw from 40% of the territory that they had occupied.
In the next phase (starting in May) in the Eastern Donbas region, the Russians changed tactics, and relied on massive artillery bombardments to flatten mostly everything in front of them, and only move forward when little to no resistance was left. They inflicted more casualties on the Ukrainian forces during that phase, but were still losing significant numbers themselves, through out the whole country (urban warfare in Mariupol down South was particularly costly for them).
HIMARS really changed the dynamic by July, and has really disrupted Russian logistics to their massed Artillery in the Donbas and ushered a third phase of the war, where the focus is significantly shifting down South, and where Russia once again seems to suffering a less favorable kill ratio.
Russia is still prioritizing advancing in the Donbas, but it is much slower, and Artillery fires can only be massed like the old days, on very narrow targets (like the Donetsk City suburb of Pisky, which was hit with thousands of Artillery shells per day for two weeks, but is only about two square kilometers in size).
We’ll have to see how this next phase shapes up. It is supposed to be the much heralded Ukrainian counter attack, but that is not likely to be some earth shaking horde (as you note). It may be a lot of strikes on supply, and gradual attrition, that makes it untenable for Russian units to remain. Like in the North, we may see the Russians retreat, once the numbers get bad enough for them. Big increases in the HIMARS missile supple are reportedly in the pipeline, and about to hit the battlefield.
Go stick to the problems of your own failed country, hoser. Nobody asked you to volunteer America to fight WW3.
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