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To: The Old Hoosier

You know with all due respect I appreciate you posting this. But a lot of us don’t have a whole Lotta time to listen to some YouTube spiel,

couldn’t you just encapsulate what this guy is saying?


2 posted on 05/23/2024 10:38:57 PM PDT by nikos1121
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To: nikos1121

In this case the value in the video isn’t really a summary or a conclusion but in listening to the personal everyday details of this guys personal experience at the front.


5 posted on 05/23/2024 11:12:42 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: nikos1121

Very high casualty rate on his side, he said the new troops are mostly useless, the average time from arrival on the front and killed in combat he estimates to be 8-10 hours.

Also seems to be implying a significant portion of the fighting force are foreign mercenaries like himself, he had in his group, Nepalese, Indian, Cuban, and African soldiers, along with Russian ones. Communication is an issue because of the language barriers.

The fighting is very brutal, particularly afraid of the numerous Drones that the Ukrainian forces are using. Also particularly mentioned the Polish made mortars which are especially deadly because they don’t make a loud noise in the air so you don’t know to duck until it’s too late.

Lots of dead bodies on the ground and in the streets, the urban warfare was not at all how he imagined it would be. Of his small group of 12, 4 are injured, the rest are dead (this is in about 2 weeks), he had a mortar hit near him but saved by his bullet proof vest with only a minor shrapnel wound to his arm.


6 posted on 05/23/2024 11:34:06 PM PDT by Truthsearcher
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To: nikos1121

This is a Chinese mercenary talking about urban warfare, that it wasn’t like he thought it would be. He imagined throwing grenades- kicking in doors. He said he thought it would be like what he saw in the movies.
I would think if he was really PLA like he said he was, he’d know it wasn’t like in the movies.
Likely first encounter with drones though - armed drones.
Others around him die - he’s a mercenary so I get the impression that he’s around foreign mercenaries and Russians, possibly prisoners trying to earn their freedom.

Given the hazard level and sense of abandonment as those around him flee - I get the impression he’s on the ‘expendables’ list as a mercenary. If what he says is true.

He said there’s hi death rate but the Russians keep sending them back in - again, as a merc he’s not on the best assignments IMHO.

He talks about death everywhere, death on both sides in each room of a house - the bodies smell etc.

Some sounds raw and true to me, and some sounds like propaganda to me. Opinions in he comments are in some cases mixed between real and propaganda. But most comments attend to the brutality the man describes. He was told to wear a white armband, which he doesn’t like because in China that’s kind of for a funeral. But he was told the group would kill anyone not wearing a white arm band. SOmeone in the comments took that to mean ‘kill civilians’ and someone else said in the combat zone they are in, the civilians are long gone -so kill any military man no wearing a white arm band?
This troop is being used as a sledge hammer - no strategy or real cohesion - just go in and kill or be killed.
In some respects, I don’t believe some of what he says.

He said the war is not winnable, but he’s in a group of mercenaries and sounds like near the front lines. Elsewhere the Russians are taking over towns.

He talks about the language barrier, which means he can’t collaborate with the Russians he’s fighting with. Again, this seems like a cannon fodder platoon - they can’t even collaborate. Just crawl around under explosions and try to survive.

He is hard to read because of my cultural limitations - I have had Asian friends who smile when they are being grim. This guy is almost light-hearted - maybe PTSD, maybe cultural display of bravery, maybe not. For people dying (on his side, and on the other side) all around him, returning alone from fights, he doesn’t seem to want out. As a merc he could leave-if he’s marveling at his luck at being alive and feels the war isn’t winnable, then why stay? The pay that good? No where else for a merc to fight?

I am not military, but even I knew it would not be like ‘in the movies’. What seems new to me is the level of constant overlapping threats with mortars, bombs, mines, bullets, drones etc. all popping at once. Threat level from drones so high that mines ‘don’t matter’.
When in fact it’s multiple threats all at once. He said you end up ignoring mines as you’re trying to dodge drones dropping explosives.
He says in China soldiers look out for each other (in the comments, there’s doubt that this is true) whereas the Russians will leave you. He says there are soldiers on his side from many nations all over the world (mercenary squad?)
He describes surviving when most don’t - i.e., he was blown onto the roof of a house while others were killed. But the degree it keeps happening, when he seems oddly ‘fortunate’ and although surprised at the level of brutality, not seemingly overburdened or wanting to leave. I dunno.

Some in the comments talk like, “Of course the Ukraine will win...”

The Chinese Merc says he’s former PLA but some say he’s older than PLA, so someone speculated maybe he left the PLA for many many years and returned for this war?


15 posted on 05/24/2024 12:22:23 AM PDT by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
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