Russia's army: An overestimated power in the war against Ukraine

Deutsche Welle ^

[FarCenter]

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow did everything it could to maintain its status as a superpower — including as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. When it became clear that Russia could not claim a right to the spot as an economic power, it instead defined its greatness in military terms.

Over the decades, Russia's army has been touted as one of the strongest in the world. Indeed, a nuclear-armed military. As if to remind the world of this fact, President Vladimir Putin has regularly treated both Russians and the world to perfectly choreographed parades and military exercises.

How powerful an army really is, however, cannot be demonstrated by goose-stepping on the Red Square, but on the battlefield. Now, the Russians are being shown up by a much smaller army in Ukraine. How can that be?

How big is Putin's army?

On paper, the Russian armed forces claim to have 1 million soldiers, and in the near future 1.1 million, according to Margarete Klein of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. But the real size is much smaller, she told DW.

A large number of the deployable Russian units have already been used in Ukraine, she said. "They have suffered major losses in terms of soldiers killed or injured."

Exact casualty numbers are difficult to determine, but US intelligence believes Russia has suffered at least tens of thousands of dead and wounded.

The idea that Russia has infinite reserves of deployable soldiers is a far cry from reality, said George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank. He added that the course the war has taken so far proves that the world has long overestimated the strength of the Russian army. The goal, he said, of Putin's recent partial mobilization push is only to maintain the current front line after all the losses.

[FarCenter]

At the beginning of WW I, barbed wire, machine guns, and artillery made offensive warfare very difficult.

We seem to be back to that situation as a result of drones, antiarmor, antiaircraft, and short range artillery missiles.

Tanks and helicopeters seem to be no longer useful against a well armed defense.

[NorseViking]

lol. What army is not overestimated then?

[BusterDog]

“The goal, he said, of Putin’s recent partial mobilization push is only to maintain the current front line after all the losses.”

*****

They had 200,000 men in the theater, call up is 1.2MM. Reserves are 25MM.

[HighSierra5]

As much as I don’t like krauts, they would have rolled over the Ruskies in WW2 if we weren’t fighting them and supporting the commies.

[DEPcom]

Is this why Nato is threating to retaliate against Russia for the Nord Stream Sabotage?

Nato sees Russia as weak now and willing to attack it. Who is the puppet master pulling strings to start a major war?

[tlozo]

Russia's army: An overestimated power in the war against Ukraine

Massive corruption destroys Russian army.

Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu is a Russian politician who has served as the minister of defence of Russia since 2012.

Aleksei Navalny, whose team of muckrakers have accused Shoigu of hiding an $18 million mansion that he purportedly controls by registering it in the name of family members

According to real estate records published by Navalny’s chief real estate investigator, Georgy Alburov, Shoigu’s daughter, Ksenia, became the owner of the property in November 2009 when she was 18.

[cranked]

Yeah, ‘overestimated’....

“Ukraine war veterans on how Kiev plundered US aid, wasted soldiers, endangered civilians, and lost the war”
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/08/18/ukraine-veterans-us-aid-soldiers-war/

“A Ukrainian’s Letter from the Front
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94RYVNg9bfA

‘Ukrainian general estimates Kiev’s losses at hundreds of thousands since Feb’
https://tass.com/politics/1501881

‘Wounded Ukrainian soldiers reveal steep toll of Kherson offensive’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/07/ukraine-kherson-offensive-casualties-ammunition/

‘In Ukraine’s South, Fierce Fighting and Deadly Costs’
https://archive.ph/MtHyd#selection-383.0-383.52

You know who is really ‘overestimated’?

If Russia is ‘overestimated, you know who is truly ‘overestimated’ - The US/EU/UK/Germany/NATO/Ukraine.

[Chewbarkah]

Unfortunately, Putin stays in power by demonstrating Russia strength. If conventional forces are shown to be lacking, he will eventually resort to unconventional weapons including nukes (as Putin just said he would). The weaker he is made to look, the more likely.

[VAFreedom]

i assumed russia would overrun Ukraine and expected the cross dressing fag leader of ukraine would run at the first chance.

now, i’m suprised putin actually made the comedian a household name and seemingly recruited two more members into NATO. (i believe the last two countries left to approve is hungary and turkey, i’m doubting it, but who knows)

[ansel12]

What we are seeing in Ukraine was a shock to the entire world and to Putin himself, Putin and the world believed that the Russian army had been modernizing, solving its problems, and becoming more sophisticated, and westernized for the last 20 years or so.

People who watch military matters and try and keep up with them are still stunned and puzzled by what we are witnessing.

[bert]

Mother Russia’s problem is that she has already lost the war.

She can’t control the remaining battle spaces.

Her economy at home is in irreversible shambles

[cranked]

You have absolutely no proof whatsoever that Russia is losing the war. None.

On the other hand.....

“Ukraine war veterans on how Kiev plundered US aid, wasted soldiers, endangered civilians, and lost the war”
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/08/18/ukraine-veterans-us-aid-soldiers-war/

“A Ukrainian’s Letter from the Front
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94RYVNg9bfA

‘Ukrainian general estimates Kiev’s losses at hundreds of thousands since Feb’
https://tass.com/politics/1501881

‘Wounded Ukrainian soldiers reveal steep toll of Kherson offensive’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/07/ukraine-kherson-offensive-casualties-ammunition/

‘In Ukraine’s South, Fierce Fighting and Deadly Costs’
https://archive.ph/MtHyd#selection-383.0-383.52

[tired&retired]

Remember, in WWI they started on our side and we ended up fighting them. We even had our troops on Russian soil fighting them under Wilson. Of course the Revolution changed who was in control during that time.

[dfwgator]

Remember, in WWI they started on our side and we ended up fighting them.

We declared War on Germany after the Revolution.

It was France's ridiculous Treaty with Russia that started that whole damn mess in the first place.

[tired&retired]

Per Wiki

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s claimed objectives for sending troops to Siberia were as much diplomatic as they were military. One major reason was to rescue the 40,000 men of the Czechoslovak Legion, who were being held up by Bolshevik forces as they attempted to make their way along the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Vladivostok, and it was hoped, eventually to the Western Front. Another major reason was to protect the large quantities of military supplies and railroad rolling stock that the United States had sent to the Russian Far East in support of the Russian Empire’s war efforts on the Eastern Front of World War I. Equally stressed by Wilson was the need to “steady any efforts at self-government or self defense in which the Russians themselves may be willing to accept assistance.” At the time, Bolshevik forces in Siberia controlled only small pockets, and President Wilson wanted to make sure that neither Cossack marauders nor the Japanese military would take advantage of the unstable political environment along the strategic railroad line and in the resource-rich Siberian regions that straddled it.[1] Anticommunism was also a strong factor.

Concurrently and for similar reasons, about 5,000 American soldiers were sent to Arkhangelsk (Archangel), Russia by Wilson as part of the separate Polar Bear Expedition.

[dfwgator]

and President Wilson wanted to make sure that neither Cossack marauders nor the Japanese military would take advantage of the unstable political environment along the strategic railroad line and in the resource-rich Siberian regions that straddled it.[

The Japs, who were our Allies in WWI, never forgave the US for that.

[Travis McGee]

[tired&retired]

The two were happening at the same time.

In early April 1917, with the toll in sunken U.S. merchant ships and civilian casualties rising, Wilson asked Congress for “a war to end all wars” that would “make the world safe for democracy.” A hundred years ago, on April 6, 1917, Congress thus voted to declare war on Germany.

The Russian Revolution was inaugurated with the February Revolution in 1917. This first revolt focused in and around the then-capital Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg). After major military losses during the war, the Russian Army had begun to mutiny. Army leaders and high ranking officials were convinced that if Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, the domestic unrest would subside. Nicholas agreed and stepped down, ushering in a new government led by the Russian Duma (parliament) which became the Russian Provisional Government. This government was dominated by the interests of prominent capitalists, as well as the Russian nobility and aristocracy.

The volatile situation in Russia reached its climax with the October Revolution, which was a Bolshevik armed insurrection by workers and soldiers in Petrograd that successfully overthrew the Provisional Government, transferring all its authority to the Bolsheviks. Under pressure from German military offensives, the Bolsheviks soon relocated the national capital to Moscow. The Bolsheviks which by now had secured a strong base of support within the Soviets and, as the supreme governing party, established their own government, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The RSFSR began the process of reorganizing the former empire into the world’s first socialist state, to practice soviet democracy on a national and international scale. Their promise to end Russia’s participation in the First World War was fulfilled when the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918.

[Lurker]

“ You have absolutely no proof whatsoever that Russia is losing the war.”

The whole thing was supposed to be over in a week. That means they’re losing.

Period.

L

[Alter Kaker]

It was France's ridiculous Treaty with Russia that started that whole damn mess in the first place.

The Germans started the war.