2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Thread starter bhamv3
- Start date
Just finished reading a possible whistleblower report from someone inside the Russian government. If the report is valid, it's going really bad for Russia right now. A few of the key points is that while Russia is officially saying only around 500 soldiers have been killed in Ukraine, internal numbers see it closer to 10,000 at this point. There is also some bad blood growing between Russia and it's allied countries, with the leader of Chechnya being infuriated that Putin got his "death squad" and a high ranking general killed without much resistance, due to lack of Russian support. The mood seems to be that even if they kill Zelenskyy, by this point, the war has become "unwinnable" unless they throw hundreds of thousands of troops into the grinder.
And we all know Putin puts no value on human life.
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm still mystified that he thought he'd win by trickling in conscripted-that-week untrained conscripts a few hundred at a time with no logistical support, rather than... you know... tens of thousands of the hundreds of thousands of actual career troops he has.
Maybe that's the thing.
Maybe the Russian military is even more smoke and mirrors than we've been led to believe.
If this is how poorly their conventional forces are maintained, could it be that the nukes Putin is so quick to wave threateningly also have not been maintained properly, and now might be unviable?
Maybe that's the thing.
Maybe the Russian military is even more smoke and mirrors than we've been led to believe.
If this is how poorly their conventional forces are maintained, could it be that the nukes Putin is so quick to wave threateningly also have not been maintained properly, and now might be unviable?
Maybe but I don’t wanna take the chance.
Remember that huge convoy that has been stuck for days? Russia blamed the delays on faulty Chinese tires, but based on the damage people have seen in photographs, it's beginning to look more like they just left most of the trucks unused, stored out in the open, and tires just degraded over time, similar to my uncle who parked an old truck near his house and let it sit for a decade until all the wheels were worn and flat.
It's gotten so bad that some people have noticed that the rail lines that were delivering military supplies to the border are no longer carrying military trucks or tanks, but instead loads of civilian cars and trucks. We know they are all for the military too, because they are painted with the "Z" marker that the Russian army is using to designate their own forces from the Ukrainians.
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
Bear in mind that those numbers are all pretty much show.
Officially, the Russian army has about 1 million troops, and almost 2 million reservists.
1 million troops means they can deploy - at best - about 250.000. They had around 180.000 stationed around Ukraine at the beginning of the "peacekeeping mission". About 160.000 are estimated to be active right now.
Obviously, some of those are reservists - maybe even most - but far from all. A large nubmer of actual deployable military troops are still needed elsewhere - neither mannign submarines, nor manning nukes, nor protecting the Kremlin, can be left to reservists, after all.
This certainly wasn't an "all in, win or bust" move - those just don't happen in real life - but you can pretty safely assume Russia deployed half or more of their actual combat strength.
Ukraine, on the other hand, has about 250.000 active personnel, translating to about 50.000 deployable combat troops, and about 900.000 reservists. Which as far as anyone can tell, have actually all answered the call and taken up arms.
Despite calling the Russian troops inexperienced boys and all that, the reality is that the Russians are probably better-trained than the Ukrainian troops, much better armed, and better organized...But outnumbered, and in unknown, hostile territory. Add crappy materiel turning out to be useless and the Ukrainians receiving high amounts of brand new weapons and supplies, and...yeah, long-range bombardments of city centers to push people into submission starts to make sense as the only viable strategy.
Officially, the Russian army has about 1 million troops, and almost 2 million reservists.
1 million troops means they can deploy - at best - about 250.000. They had around 180.000 stationed around Ukraine at the beginning of the "peacekeeping mission". About 160.000 are estimated to be active right now.
Obviously, some of those are reservists - maybe even most - but far from all. A large nubmer of actual deployable military troops are still needed elsewhere - neither mannign submarines, nor manning nukes, nor protecting the Kremlin, can be left to reservists, after all.
This certainly wasn't an "all in, win or bust" move - those just don't happen in real life - but you can pretty safely assume Russia deployed half or more of their actual combat strength.
Ukraine, on the other hand, has about 250.000 active personnel, translating to about 50.000 deployable combat troops, and about 900.000 reservists. Which as far as anyone can tell, have actually all answered the call and taken up arms.
Despite calling the Russian troops inexperienced boys and all that, the reality is that the Russians are probably better-trained than the Ukrainian troops, much better armed, and better organized...But outnumbered, and in unknown, hostile territory. Add crappy materiel turning out to be useless and the Ukrainians receiving high amounts of brand new weapons and supplies, and...yeah, long-range bombardments of city centers to push people into submission starts to make sense as the only viable strategy.
GasBandit
Staff member
Putin’s World War Z Has Created a New Swastika
In the days before Russia’s all-out invasion, white Zs started showing up on Russian military hardware. Now they’re everywhere.
www.thedailybeast.com
GasBandit
Staff member
Putin: "Innocent Civilians of Ukraine, we propose you take the following route to evacuate your city, for your safety."
Ukrainians: "You didn't mine it, did you?"
Putin: "..."
Ukrainians: "YOU DIDN'T PUT LAND MINES ALL OVER IT, DID YOU?"
Putin: "... resume shelling residential targets."
www.businessinsider.com
Ukrainians: "You didn't mine it, did you?"
Putin: "..."
Ukrainians: "YOU DIDN'T PUT LAND MINES ALL OVER IT, DID YOU?"
Putin: "... resume shelling residential targets."
Land mines littered a proposed route for Ukrainians to flee, Red Cross official says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized Russian efforts to thwart civilians trying to evacuate.
www.businessinsider.com
Putin's still upset his "let us evacuate injured soldiers along this route" plan didn't work, because the defenders immediately seized one of the ambulances and found it was full of ammo. This is just him trying to get a body count.
Yes, because I am sure the families of the people fighting you are more then happy to enjoy old Russian hospitality. More then likely he just wants enough people he can hold hostage to get many of the fighters to stop fighting.
I feel bad that when I saw this news, the first thing I thought of was something Sovietwomble did.Putin: "Innocent Civilians of Ukraine, we propose you take the following route to evacuate your city, for your safety."
Ukrainians: "You didn't mine it, did you?"
Putin: "..."
Ukrainians: "YOU DIDN'T PUT LAND MINES ALL OVER IT, DID YOU?"
Putin: "... resume shelling residential targets."
Land mines littered a proposed route for Ukrainians to flee, Red Cross official says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized Russian efforts to thwart civilians trying to evacuate.
Welp, here we go.
Putin’s 5 Step Plan For Beating Accusations of War Crimes:
Step 1: Claim you want to give civilians a “corridor of safety” to escape
Step 2: Make sure that corridor is as deadly and/or unusable as possible
Step 3: Give a small time frame, and do not make effort to be flexible or help civilians out
Step 4: Now that you’ve “made an effort” to help civilians, you can claim anyone who dies from this point on is a willing combatant.
Step 5: Ignore international criticisms or accusations of war crimes.
It’s what he did in Syria, and it’s what he is doing now.
Step 1: Claim you want to give civilians a “corridor of safety” to escape
Step 2: Make sure that corridor is as deadly and/or unusable as possible
Step 3: Give a small time frame, and do not make effort to be flexible or help civilians out
Step 4: Now that you’ve “made an effort” to help civilians, you can claim anyone who dies from this point on is a willing combatant.
Step 5: Ignore international criticisms or accusations of war crimes.
It’s what he did in Syria, and it’s what he is doing now.
Being mad at Ukrain for Putin invading and committing war crimes because gas prices go up is the most white America thing I can think of.
Nah...a republican friend of mine is blaming Biden for the gas prices, which is the most America thing I can think of. I'm like "we didn't even have anything to do with this one!"
Of course it wouldn't, because Trump would have just tried to get Zelenskyy to hand over Ukraine claiming Hunter Biden corruption and worked extra hard to pull the US from NATO so that Russia could feel all nice and in control of Europe. Putin attacked Ukraine now because he realized this might be his last chance to get what he wants from that region since his puppet was removed and Biden may start sending more munitions to Ukraine, or even attempting to get them into NATO.
Ftfy
No, that would be OVERWHELMING.
The only thing stupider than Biden pushing the big red button labeled "raise gas prices" was installing it in the first place.
He had to do something with the "fetch me Diet Coke" button.
Seems that way.
This suggests that the fastest way to end the war would be for Zelenskyy to step down.
I think the absolute fastest way to end this war would be for Putin to step down.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut...
--Patrick
Russian army right now.