• Thanks for stopping by. Logging in to a registered account will remove all generic ads. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.

The War in Ukraine

This war is change the tune on tourniquets, some 75,000 amputations were apparent required because of them.

Don's Weekly, 6 October 2025: Part 3 (Ukraine, Tourniquets, Diplomacy)
"Blame the training not the tool' They have been over used for virtually any bleed not just arterial and unstoppable venous (with appropriate clotting gauze packing and pressure - which CAN be applied by a tourniquet but a lot less tightly. Also some studies have found loosening to get some blood flow to the limb and then tightening every 2 hours can prevent many amputations. With the caveat that IV access and some fluids are available - blood being the first choice obviously. With the prolonged evac times there needs to be more research and likely revised training at the grunt / Stop The Bleed / TCCC level
 
Last edited:
"Blame the training not the tool' They have been over used for virtually any bleed not just arterial and unstoppable (with appropriate clotting gauze packing and pressure - which CAN be applied by a tourniquet but a lot less tightly. Also some studies have found loosening to get some blood flow to the limb and then tightening every 2 hours can prevent many amputations. With the caveat that IV access and some fluids available.

The levels of Med Support are important too, of course.

If you don't have a couple of well trained company medics running the CAP, and the equivalent down the line, you're going to be in the hurt locker in more ways than one....
 
... With the prolonged evac times there needs to be more research and likely revised training at the grunt / Stop The Bleed / TCCC level
FAR from a medical expert (or even amateur for that matter), but I have to wonder how much of the issue is the bit in yellow. If it's significant (and I don't know, one way or another), yeah, more work needs to be done on the rules. I suspect it's already ongoing, but good point.
 
Hopefully they take the advice and add NVG lights and a NVG / IR display screen for the driver. Those lights have been standard on CUCV etc since the early 80's
Shutters of some kind for windows and a DVE are basically essential kitting these days. It should be written right into the contract imo.
 
A leaked document is making it's way through Russian channels. The daily numbers that Ukraine put's out are fairly close to the actual number of losses Russia cares to record.

 

it occurs to me that much of this reduction has been accomplished by wide adoption of technologies that were developed by the US and UK in the wake of the 1973 Six Day War and its suitcase Saggers. Particularly fibre optics and MMW seekers.

i often wondered if NATO (the US), perceiving themselves the world's pre-eminent tank army, and probably justifiably, didn't deliberately slow walk adoption of some of these technologies.
 

it occurs to me that much of this reduction has been accomplished by wide adoption of technologies that were developed by the US and UK in the wake of the 1973 Six Day War and its suitcase Saggers. Particularly fibre optics and MMW seekers.

i often wondered if NATO (the US), perceiving themselves the world's pre-eminent tank army, and probably justifiably, didn't deliberately slow walk adoption of some of these technologies.
We’ve had MMW seekers deployed well over 30 years. Most countries are cheap though and stuck with manually guided systems.

Fiber Optic cable systems have been around for decades as well, however there are some significant issue with FO in certain operating environments, that it still isn’t a viable option for use on global environment weapons system.
 
I hate that shit, toying with the poor soldier. If you're going to kill him, just kill him. But don't terrorize him any further in his last moments.

It's not always toying, but it does happen unfortunately. Rucksacks are a higher value target than the poor SOB wearing them in the current state of the war (good example of this around 0:30, notice the FPV keeps trying to attack from behind and not just slam into the ground at his feet), this is why you see and hear about these small groups of Russians infiltrating Ukrainian lines basically being on the verge of starvation and completely out of ammunition if/when they are finally captured.
 
It's not always toying, but it does happen unfortunately. Rucksacks are a higher value target than the poor SOB wearing them in the current state of the war (good example of this around 0:30, notice the FPV keeps trying to attack from behind and not just slam into the ground at his feet), this is why you see and hear about these small groups of Russians infiltrating Ukrainian lines basically being on the verge of starvation and completely out of ammunition if/when they are finally captured.

That's terrorizing the poor soldier, just kill the bugger. Look I truly believe that violence is a necessary part of humanity. I truly do. But that stuff, and both sides do it; should be a war crime.
 
Are we up for this kind of challenge?

We'd better be...

The Kremlin can Afford the Luxury of a Second Anti-NATO Front​


Russia's grey-zone warfare against Europe comes at a fraction of the cost of the conflict in Ukraine.


There is a commonly held view that Russia cannot sustain a new front against NATO or the rest of Europe because its economy is a mess and it is already being drained by its aggression in Ukraine. And indeed, the Russian economy is a mess – as Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT) assessments show. And BOFIT has been tracking the Russian economy for 30 years.

But neither does BOFIT data show that the Russian economy is collapsing. BOFIT analysis consistently shows that the Russian war economy is cannibalising every economic variable that matters for long term prosperity. Civilian economy productivity, investment, growth and social services and welfare are all sacrificed upon the altar of Putin’s imperial ambitions. Still, that does not mean that Putin cannot pursue his goals for as long as the population puts up with the cost of doing so. Above all, long-run economic decline is a poor predictor of the moment of economic collapse.

The truth is that:

• Economically failing nuclear states are as likely to represent a greater threat as thriving ones on the stage of world affairs.

• Russia today, and the Soviet Union before it, have an extraordinarily high ‘sacrifice ratio’ – defined as its ability to deliver GDP to the battlefield rather than to civilian society. The Russian economy probably delivers about $10-$12 to the Ukrainian battlefield for every $100 of GDP. The US spent less than 20 cents per $100 of GDP per year from January 2022 to December 2024 (for a total of 0.53% of GDP). After that, so great was the electoral pain of sacrifice, it insisted on being paid! Russia’s sacrifice rate also dwarfs that of China.

• The Russian people, in the words of Margaret Thatcher (discussing the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster in Sept 2000), ‘are not like us. They still do not value human life in the same way as we do.’ The government of Russia represents that de-humanising ethos. And the population of Russia puts up with suffering at the hands of its government that few other populations would – irrespective of whether they live under autocracy or democracy.

 

Commentary on the Dobropillia campaign

This statement really stood out for me.

"several Ukrainian forces combined together to stabilize this front. There were more than 100 commanders from our side."

I can't imagine any Canadian commander saying that 100 commanders were involved in any operation. It is suggestive of a fragmented force focusing on company and battalion level action.

....

Q: After a year of largely static front lines, how was Russia able to break through toward Dobropillia?

A: In August of this year, it was one of the hottest points of the whole front line. The enemy broke our first defense line and entered the tactical positions of our army. The enemy used the forces of the 51st Army of the Russian Federation. Navy infantry and the 8th Russian Army joined the 51st Russian Army to help them with that assault mission. There were more or less 100,000 personnel from the Russian Army.

Q: The loss of Dobropillia would have had cascading effects across the frontlines. How did you defend against it?

A: First of all, our reconnaissance worked really well. Because of our reconnaissance, we received the enemy’s plans for the assault. Also, several Ukrainian forces combined together to stabilize this front. There were more than 100 commanders from our side. At the beginning of August, we built a joint command point. All the units that took part in this operation to stop the enemy assault joined that command point.

Q: So this was a command and control location where orders would be given out to various units working together as a joint force?

A: Yes.

Q: How many units were taking part?

A: More than 10 different units. There were different commanders of different military levels who came to the command point.

Q: Who was in charge?

A: We implemented the corps system, and the corps are responsible for a specific zone. But to support us, the commander of assault forces joined our command point. Unmanned Aerial Forces also joined. The Commander in Chief, Mr. Syrskyi, is officially the number one guy who is above all. This command center was built on an Azov base. However, different commanders brought their own unique knowledge. You cannot say that this one brought us the main success. It’s a common success.

Q: You said reconnaissance played a big role in defending against the Russian incursion toward Dobropillia. Can you elaborate on what kind? Was it humans? Drones? Some other method?

A: I cannot answer directly. It was a complex of different methods.
 
Interesting story in USSR 2.0 state media (archived link to non-RUS server here).
Screenshot 2025-10-10 170141.jpg
Here's a screen grab from CBC's longer piece (about 7 minutes) on YT ...
Screenshot 2025-10-10 181352.jpg
... with this transcript between a CBC host and the reporter who did the longer piece, talking about Russia recruiting all sortsa people - including members of The Base (which he says formed a bit of a "Ukraine wing" - to do nasties in Ukraine.

The only place I've seen the swastika tattoo photo is on RUS media outlets or places that typically cut/paste RUS copy & share it.

Why would Russia want to discredit a story like this? ;)
 
Back
Top