The War in Ukraine
- Thread starter Bruce Monkhouse
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Blackadder1916
Army.ca Fixture
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Some bedtime reading
Beyond the burn: Studies on the physiological effects of flamethrowers during World War II - Military Medical Research
Flamethrowers are widely considered one of warfare’s most controversial weapons and are capable of inflicting gruesome physical injuries and intense psychological trauma. Despite being the last of the major combatants in World War II (WWII) to develop them, the United States military quickly...
mmrjournal.biomedcentral.com
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Russians getting worse at war (or Ukrainians getting better?). Impact of equipment losses, leadership losses, tribal knowledge, training
My guess is that is the result of a conscious decision by the Russians. They are continuing offensives that seem to have no purpose other than to increase the body count. The Russian General Staff can do the math, and they know that they have four times the population of Ukraine, which gives them an advantage in a raw attritional struggle.
Shades of 1916.
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thats insane, especially since Russia doesnt actually have an excess of working/military age males. I hope they continue
daftandbarmy
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Except in 1916 the troops were drawn from a broad cross section of society. This time? Mainly poor people from remote parts of the country, apparently:
Volunteers dying as Russia’s war dead tops 70,000
More than 70,000 people fighting in Russia’s military have now died in Ukraine, according to data analysed by the BBC.
And for the first time, volunteers - civilians who joined the armed forces after the start of the war - now make up the highest number of people killed on the battlefield since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Every day, the names of those killed in Ukraine, their obituaries and photographs from their funerals are published across Russia in the media and on social networks.
Russia’s war dead tops 70,000 as volunteers face 'meat grinder'
More than 70,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine - volunteers now make up the highest number of deaths.
www.bbc.com
Colin Parkinson
Army.ca Myth
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In the east, Russia is slowly winning. Not just Meat wave assaults, but drones and glide bombs, along with artillery is grinding down the Ukrainians. Not helped by poor planning and leadership when it comes to defenses and fortifications.
RangerRay
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Putin is betting on Trump winning in a few weeks, who will “end the war in 24 hours”. Most likely on Putin’s terms.
Ukraine had to take units and assets away from the eastern fight in order to pull off the 'Battle of Kursk 2.0'
It was a gamble, and I can't say it wasn't an extremely tempting one. The payoff, had it gone according to plan, was worth it. (I haven't been following this war as closely as usual lately, are the Ukranians still well inside Russia? Withdrawn? Been pushed out?)
Either way, the Ukranians had to take units away from the east so they could make the push towards Kursk, which left their defensive positions more suseptible to being overrun.
Hopefully the gains made by attacking Kursk will be enough to prompt another round of peace talks sooner vs later, and give them a great chip to barter with.
(Notably the drone attacks on ammo depots deep inside Russia and the elimination of the Russian air base, plus the psychological impact of having the Ukranian army take the fight to them on their own soil.)
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Except that fact we just dumped 5.4B worth of Draw Down material to Ukraine.
You can also bet that the current administration will do whatever it can before 20 Jan 2025 (Inauguration Day) if Trump wins.
RangerRay
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They won’t keep making Ukraine play “Mother May I”?
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I don't know what the larger plan is. The Draw Down funding was expiring and so it needed to be used or lost - and finally POTUS used it -- we had lost lend lease which should have been the path to victory, but wasn't renewed last year as it was not being used.
Finally the Peace Plan
Skysix
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Yaking the wR to the Russian public has more value than incremental lisses of farm fields and the occasional village. Trading land for time and casualties is one strategy but it slso means losses of your own with minimal impact on Russia. Forcing the Russian public to realise they are at war with long range drone attacks and refugees spreading throughout the country starts to make them realize that they are losing and is part of a psychological war rather than a physical one with little impact on the core of Russia. Ultimately the psychological impact in the will to fight is more important than the slow drain on the ability to fight. The gamble for Ukraine is alao one of time vs resources based on the US election. Which gamble, the Russian or the Ukrainian one will prevail is yet to become obvious.
And YES there are serious competency and primitive thinking (as well as Soviet mentality hangover) at the O6 and above level that has cost Ukraine dearly. Firings should be done far faster when incompetence or careerism or corruption are seen. I really hope the moving of their most effective general into the political arena is part if a strategy to get him into the halls of western power where he xan run his networks and influence decision makers directly gets more results than leaving him in charge of their SF and agents.
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