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Why exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry."
] |
>
if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?
You believe that that was the intel they got from Putin. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?"
] |
>
I really like that news about Russians burning their own camps. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin."
] |
>
Armchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, "Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks." That is a move that screams desperation. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps."
] |
>
It has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation."
] |
>
Their approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war."
] |
>
In slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center "Senezh" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force.
The first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center "Senezh" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards.
The second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having "served abroad for 12 years" and being wounded in action multiple times, the "fighting major" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow.
[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th.
Russians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly "selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major "died in battle saving wounded friends".
On August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.
[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas."
] |
>
Quality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle."
] |
>
yup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die."
] |
>
Well there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army"
] |
>
I'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity.. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one."
] |
>
ikr!
My dick would pop off and run away! | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity.."
] |
>
Good to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!"
] |
>
Dude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell."
] |
>
You mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close."
] |
>
Why is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)?
Not sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way.
You would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why."
] |
>
Its currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there."
] |
>
That and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden."
] |
>
Vlad the Diddler | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year."
] |
>
He’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler"
] |
>
Russian military strategy as old as time | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy."
] |
>
Wow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.
Is that too dark? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time"
] |
>
Why call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?"
] |
>
It's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit."
] |
>
In Ukraine, dog eat YOU! | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war."
] |
>
Perhaps they meant to say "subsequent"? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!"
] |
>
British ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?"
] |
>
Yeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today."
] |
>
Still waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew"
] |
>
For those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:
1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization."
] |
>
Summary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.
Almost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.
Some of them are clearly afraid to talk.
A couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?"
] |
>
So, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go."
] |
>
This is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much."
] |
>
. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.
We can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong."
] |
>
When you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague."
] |
>
The full Zelensky quote:
The free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.
Together with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle.
Sounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole."
] |
>
More evidence of bot use.
It's not the first time either. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific."
] |
>
I love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to "do some corruption."
Not a bright brunch. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either."
] |
>
But Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!! | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch."
] |
>
Slava Ukraini! | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!"
] |
>
Heroiam slava! | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!"
] |
>
Soledar armchair analysis.
Even pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city.
Def Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with.
What Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance.
This is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again.
Ukrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner.
That suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began.
As the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that
Ukrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;
Both Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;
Ukrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.
Ukrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;
Russians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;
Ukrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.
Lastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events.
Everything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!"
] |
>
Between 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar.
Looking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?"
] |
>
I wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more....... | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall."
] |
>
Well there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more......."
] |
>
I imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them."
] |
>
One thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them."
] |
>
I think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut."
] |
>
Come what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog."
] |
>
Sometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares."
] |
>
Because, "the enemy is both strong and weak". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?"
] |
>
It's usually not "strong" as in "They're honourable and effective fighters." It's "strong" like "They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you." | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric."
] |
>
Either way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\""
] |
>
I'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort."
] |
>
Russians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare."
] |
>
True - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive."
] |
>
ReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.
Ukraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else."
] |
>
Any substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading "unconfirmed" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat."
] |
>
hi, may I ask you a question.
This deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit."
] |
>
All I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?"
] |
>
I see, thanks. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time."
] |
>
Zelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.
Edit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks."
] |
>
He’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk"
] |
>
You’re correct.
The article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city"
] |
>
Bakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Most of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake."
] |
>
Operation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast"
] |
>
Soledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory.
Ukraine needs weapons. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ."
] |
>
probably CIF / FOB prices.
CIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver
FOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons."
] |
>
Nope, 36$ is a contracts for "dear friends", and 52 its a "open market" | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading"
] |
>
cheers for clarifying! | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\""
] |
>
Armchair General Opinion:
Ukraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so.
Finally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!"
] |
>
Doomers gonna doom.
And then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling.
And then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.
And then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know "we" are all on the same team right?
And then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell."
] |
>
I swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA."
] |
>
I am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. "This country should annex this, that country should annex that", as if it's a completely normal thing.
Folks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing."
] |
>
That’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.
What you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well."
] |
>
excellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades."
] |
>
Obligatory Fuck Putin! | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves."
] |
>
With a rusty bayonet. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!"
] |
>
It was extremely accurate. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet."
] |
>
Day CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate."
] |
>
We must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII."
] |
>
Some days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC) | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster."
] |
>
Going from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)"
] |
>
It's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what? | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast."
] |
>
Which will happen first -
1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes
2) NATO intervenes with air power
3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death
4) Bakhmut falls | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?"
] |
>
Bit of a strange list of options to pick from.
Definitely #1, part 1. Tanks, with Russia already being the biggest contributor. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?",
">\n\nWhich will happen first - \n1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes\n2) NATO intervenes with air power\n3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death\n4) Bakhmut falls"
] |
>
I would see these as the four most likely things to happen during the winter.
1) Ukraine receives a large amount (100+) of modern tanks and the same amount of planes to make a decisive counter attack.
2) Situation (civilian especially) gets dire during the winter with hunters of thousands of mobiks attacks wave after wave, with civilian infrastructure attacked. If millions should start to freeze then decisive actions are needed. NATO could end this war with air (and missile) power and there might come a time when this is the only option. Hopefully, it will not come to that.
3) If 300k men are really thrown into the meatgrinder, then I would expect 100-200k dead or injured by the end of winter. Some will freeze to death.
4) It might, but then again it might not. More important for mental reasons than strategically though | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?",
">\n\nWhich will happen first - \n1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes\n2) NATO intervenes with air power\n3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death\n4) Bakhmut falls",
">\n\nBit of a strange list of options to pick from. \nDefinitely #1, part 1. Tanks, with Russia already being the biggest contributor."
] |
>
Guess the defense of Soledar is to buy time and maintain as much strategic depth as possible even though it'll be costly. Esp with the coming months with new types of aid. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?",
">\n\nWhich will happen first - \n1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes\n2) NATO intervenes with air power\n3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death\n4) Bakhmut falls",
">\n\nBit of a strange list of options to pick from. \nDefinitely #1, part 1. Tanks, with Russia already being the biggest contributor.",
">\n\nI would see these as the four most likely things to happen during the winter. \n1) Ukraine receives a large amount (100+) of modern tanks and the same amount of planes to make a decisive counter attack. \n2) Situation (civilian especially) gets dire during the winter with hunters of thousands of mobiks attacks wave after wave, with civilian infrastructure attacked. If millions should start to freeze then decisive actions are needed. NATO could end this war with air (and missile) power and there might come a time when this is the only option. Hopefully, it will not come to that. \n3) If 300k men are really thrown into the meatgrinder, then I would expect 100-200k dead or injured by the end of winter. Some will freeze to death. \n4) It might, but then again it might not. More important for mental reasons than strategically though"
] |
>
Yes/No.
Russia has thrown large elements of its "SF" GRU Spetsnaz units and equivalents and VDV elite forces into the Soledar fight. These are likely the troops that were sitting in the Kherson direction.
UA has an uphill battle ahead of them to either retake Soledar in its entirety or to stop potential continued breakthrough.
I have immense faith in Ukraine to win the war. What this battle should be displaying is that Russia is willing to throw what left of its trained contract troops just for a win on the television of a pretty insignificant city but also that the West needs to deliver modern weapons to Ukraine. Or.... really start to consider that its defence could require offensive measures. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?",
">\n\nWhich will happen first - \n1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes\n2) NATO intervenes with air power\n3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death\n4) Bakhmut falls",
">\n\nBit of a strange list of options to pick from. \nDefinitely #1, part 1. Tanks, with Russia already being the biggest contributor.",
">\n\nI would see these as the four most likely things to happen during the winter. \n1) Ukraine receives a large amount (100+) of modern tanks and the same amount of planes to make a decisive counter attack. \n2) Situation (civilian especially) gets dire during the winter with hunters of thousands of mobiks attacks wave after wave, with civilian infrastructure attacked. If millions should start to freeze then decisive actions are needed. NATO could end this war with air (and missile) power and there might come a time when this is the only option. Hopefully, it will not come to that. \n3) If 300k men are really thrown into the meatgrinder, then I would expect 100-200k dead or injured by the end of winter. Some will freeze to death. \n4) It might, but then again it might not. More important for mental reasons than strategically though",
">\n\nGuess the defense of Soledar is to buy time and maintain as much strategic depth as possible even though it'll be costly. Esp with the coming months with new types of aid."
] |
>
No. There are no regular army in Soledar. Only Wagner. He wanted to make it clear that if he will claim this town, it will be only Wagner's victory. VDV was sent south to help with Bakhmut, but also to fight for those small villages that are protecting Ukrainian flanks.
Wagner is sending 8 people groups of inmates to probe Ukrainian defenses. If any of the groups survives, it means they found a weak/blind spot in Ukrainian defense and only then are sending professional troops there. | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?",
">\n\nWhich will happen first - \n1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes\n2) NATO intervenes with air power\n3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death\n4) Bakhmut falls",
">\n\nBit of a strange list of options to pick from. \nDefinitely #1, part 1. Tanks, with Russia already being the biggest contributor.",
">\n\nI would see these as the four most likely things to happen during the winter. \n1) Ukraine receives a large amount (100+) of modern tanks and the same amount of planes to make a decisive counter attack. \n2) Situation (civilian especially) gets dire during the winter with hunters of thousands of mobiks attacks wave after wave, with civilian infrastructure attacked. If millions should start to freeze then decisive actions are needed. NATO could end this war with air (and missile) power and there might come a time when this is the only option. Hopefully, it will not come to that. \n3) If 300k men are really thrown into the meatgrinder, then I would expect 100-200k dead or injured by the end of winter. Some will freeze to death. \n4) It might, but then again it might not. More important for mental reasons than strategically though",
">\n\nGuess the defense of Soledar is to buy time and maintain as much strategic depth as possible even though it'll be costly. Esp with the coming months with new types of aid.",
">\n\nYes/No.\nRussia has thrown large elements of its \"SF\" GRU Spetsnaz units and equivalents and VDV elite forces into the Soledar fight. These are likely the troops that were sitting in the Kherson direction. \nUA has an uphill battle ahead of them to either retake Soledar in its entirety or to stop potential continued breakthrough.\nI have immense faith in Ukraine to win the war. What this battle should be displaying is that Russia is willing to throw what left of its trained contract troops just for a win on the television of a pretty insignificant city but also that the West needs to deliver modern weapons to Ukraine. Or.... really start to consider that its defence could require offensive measures."
] |
>
As is tradition
Day CCCXXI, Part I, thread CDXXVI | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?",
">\n\nWhich will happen first - \n1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes\n2) NATO intervenes with air power\n3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death\n4) Bakhmut falls",
">\n\nBit of a strange list of options to pick from. \nDefinitely #1, part 1. Tanks, with Russia already being the biggest contributor.",
">\n\nI would see these as the four most likely things to happen during the winter. \n1) Ukraine receives a large amount (100+) of modern tanks and the same amount of planes to make a decisive counter attack. \n2) Situation (civilian especially) gets dire during the winter with hunters of thousands of mobiks attacks wave after wave, with civilian infrastructure attacked. If millions should start to freeze then decisive actions are needed. NATO could end this war with air (and missile) power and there might come a time when this is the only option. Hopefully, it will not come to that. \n3) If 300k men are really thrown into the meatgrinder, then I would expect 100-200k dead or injured by the end of winter. Some will freeze to death. \n4) It might, but then again it might not. More important for mental reasons than strategically though",
">\n\nGuess the defense of Soledar is to buy time and maintain as much strategic depth as possible even though it'll be costly. Esp with the coming months with new types of aid.",
">\n\nYes/No.\nRussia has thrown large elements of its \"SF\" GRU Spetsnaz units and equivalents and VDV elite forces into the Soledar fight. These are likely the troops that were sitting in the Kherson direction. \nUA has an uphill battle ahead of them to either retake Soledar in its entirety or to stop potential continued breakthrough.\nI have immense faith in Ukraine to win the war. What this battle should be displaying is that Russia is willing to throw what left of its trained contract troops just for a win on the television of a pretty insignificant city but also that the West needs to deliver modern weapons to Ukraine. Or.... really start to consider that its defence could require offensive measures.",
">\n\nNo. There are no regular army in Soledar. Only Wagner. He wanted to make it clear that if he will claim this town, it will be only Wagner's victory. VDV was sent south to help with Bakhmut, but also to fight for those small villages that are protecting Ukrainian flanks.\nWagner is sending 8 people groups of inmates to probe Ukrainian defenses. If any of the groups survives, it means they found a weak/blind spot in Ukrainian defense and only then are sending professional troops there."
] |
> | [
"Wish we could provide more.\nNo country should suffer Russian aggression.",
">\n\nWho didn't see that coming when June HI:MA:RS got going. Plenty of cope on Russia's supposedly unlimited ammo stocks and how cheap/easy to make shells - ignoring logistics of supply and use.\nSame goes for missiles. Same goes for trucks. Same goes for mobiks.\nUkraine doesn't have to beat the entirety of Russia. Just carve them out of their country one slice at a time.",
">\n\nFor those who say \"Iran is already sanctioned enough\":\nThis is nonsense, sanctions (especially from Europe) are actually pretty lenient.",
">\n\nAlso this is a typical \"argument\" by people who fundamentally do not understand diplomacy and politics.\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. This sanction is the cost that has been attached to misbehaviour. All existing sanctions are in response to past misbehaviour. Therefore it doesn’t matter if existing sanctions seem to be high already.",
">\n\n\nFor each perceived mis-step there has to be a specific sanction. \n\nIt's clear that specific sanctions for particular mis-steps were not punishing enough",
">\n\nWith other words: Soledar has not fallen and people can stop dooming. Also shows how pathetic Russia has become: sacrificing thouands for places with no tactical importance.",
">\n\nAnd also even if it falls it’s because Ukraine is playing it smart keeping their soldiers alive while Russia throws them in the meat grinder giving them a pyrrhic victory.",
">\n\nInteresting that they mention that replenished VDV units are being thrown at Soledar. I didn't hear that. So it's Wagner reserves at Bakhmut and the best military units at Soledar. Really does sound like a last-ditch effort to make progress.",
">\n\nReports last night were that VDV were pulled in to Bakhmut to maintain pressure and frontline Wagner troops, rather than prisoner Mobiks, were involved in the frontal assault on Soledar. \n\nThe one disappointing element is that everything appears to be coordinated for the first time across most of the front with pressure maintained on Bakhmut, advance attempts in Adriivka direction and increased shelling around Kremmina. So they are really throwing everything at the Soledar push and trying to tie up UA reserves elsewhere. I can't really remember seeing any such coordination previously. \n\nThat level of coordination is doubly surprising to see with Lapin, who both Wagner and the Chechens have openly mocked, being appointed head of the Russian Army Main staff today. Hopefully this was coordinated before his appointment and it will be back to one upmanship attempts and infighting from now.",
">\n\nI suppose Russia was bound to get better at this eventually. It's just weird how often they follow that pattern, suffering some of the most lopsided defeats in history early in a war, and then completely flipping the script later on. \nBut of course Ukraine has gotten more competent too, so as long as Russia doesn't achieve great success here the Russians will probably go back to throwing each other under the bus for awhile.",
">\n\nYou just know when they announce they \"killed\" 600 Ukrainians they were all but admitting that was their loss count. Because they can't allow themselves to be shown as incapable of tit-for-tat.",
">\n\nUnited24 - donate directly to government of Ukraine\nSupport Ukraine Now - other ways to help",
">\n\nEvery responsible country should be looking at this war and thinking, \"holy shit, we need a procurement plan to massively increase our ammunition stockpiles or an industrial plan to scale up production within a few months.",
">\n\nIt is said that everyone assumes that the next war will be fought the same way as the last one (by which they mean that warfare evolves really quickly). On the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.",
">\n\n\nOn the other hand nobody could have predicted that Russia will be fighting this war like it's 100 years ago.\n\nI mean, there's a reason why USA's HIMARS has just a little bit more range than the Russian guns. And I like to think that the US Weapon manufacturers knew what specs would be good specs here.\nA lot of HIMARS weapon tests I've seen on Youtube has a Russian artillery gun as its target. The weapon manufacturers knew what they were doing.",
">\n\nThe fuck is a \"foreign intelligence provocation\" in this context?",
">\n\nCan't allow the foreign intelligences to demand we pay the promised compensation to relatives. So much better when people just disappear.",
">\n\nAh, I see",
">\n\nGood news, hopefully the Greek offer to wait with their deliveries of Marders is still on the table. That would help out a lot.",
">\n\nWhat’s old is new; flak cannons command and conquer style",
">\n\nThere are a lot of early cold-war era AA guns that I feel like are probably just a radar upgrade, a raspberry pi, and a good algorithm away from being drone swarm obliterators.",
">\n\nThat’s the spirit! Plug them in to network with the patriot radars for bonus points and away we go",
">\n\n\"Nazi's have little love for Jews\"\n\"KKK members not too fond of black folks\"",
">\n\nIt's so sad too... they're missing out on all these great friendships because of hate. Only hurting themselves in the long run.",
">\n\nAdd to Cart: U.S. Missile Defense System\nQuantity: 1\nShipping: Ukraine\nGiftwrap: Yes",
">\n\nReturns accepted until Jan 30th, 2023.\nWould you like a gift reciept?",
">\n\nThere was an agreement recently to aquire 88 F-35s in Canada to replace our old CF-18s. Also, Canada has a number of Leopard 2s. Hoping it's one of these or both.",
">\n\nIf I remember that story right, the first of those planes won't be delivered until 2026.\nSo while Ukraine may eventually get some free-or-almost-free, long-in-the-tooth jets from the Canadians, that could take quite a while. On the plus side, by the time they might get them, they'd be very much up to speed on NATO kit.",
">\n\nI'm saying Canada might offer some CF-18s in the near future if they're in decent condition.",
">\n\nWe have many many programs which generally boil down to \"Train the Trainer\".\nWe have been doing this for quite some time.",
">\n\nThis is a good update. The situation is still fluid. Sounds like the Ukrainian defenses held well enough, and hopefully reinforcements and new plans are ready.\n\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine\n\nThe overall Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi is in Soledar himself. He took some photos yesterday and there are some photos just coming in from today showing him in a \"bomb shelter in Soledar\". \nIf Syrskyi is personally supervising from a bunker in Soledar, I suppose the chances that Soledar will surrender are rather slim.",
">\n\nHmmm, he's a really good general - would prefer for him to be out of personal danger.",
">\n\nagreed, but having a general that close is great for morale and he might be able to call in support that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.",
">\n\nIt seems to me that the only real guarantee of Ukranian security is Ukranian military assets. Substantial deterrence on the ground ready to go.\nIf I was any neighboring country of Russia I'd be working on the same thing to remain autonomous. Or working on becoming a good puppet. \nA bully like Russia won't stop after they get a bruising in Ukraine. They'll reconstitute and pick a weaker target next time, with less support.",
">\n\nAbsolutely! Russia is a bully that only understands strength. This is something that some countries still don't understand. Diplomacy is for Russia only a ploy to buy more time to plan their crimes.\nUkraine (and all of the neighboring countries of Russia who don't want to get gobbled up) needs a military large and strong enough so that Russia won't even contemplate attacking them again.",
">\n\nI just wish that wolfhound was a Bradley.",
">\n\nThey have different uses, pros and cons.\nThe wolfhound is better armored, more likely to survive mine, ied, and RPG attacks.\nThe bradley would be more capable in terms of firepower, especially anti-tank.",
">\n\n\n...wolfhound is better armored,..\n\nI do not believe that is correct. \nMRAPs have great armor protection compared to a Humvee or truck/bus. Also great compared to a ballist vest or helm. \nBradleys have fragile lingerie armor when compared to a main battle tank like the M1 Abrams. \nArmor being \"good\" or \"bad\" is relative to the class of vehicle and what weapons you expect to defend against.",
">\n\nThe 80 civilian contractors that were killed by a HIMARS strike on a school in occupied Lantrativka on December 16th were not there to rebuild infrastructure as LPR officials have claimed, but rather to dig trenches.\nSource: Radio Svoboda investigation | Google-translated",
">\n\nStrelkov is a dead man walking. He'll never get what he wants, which is a great thing all around. He's pissing off a lot of people and must be becoming a liability for whoever it is that's protecting him. He might be Patrushev's creature.",
">\n\nI found no mention of the number of donated AMX-10 RC. Is that a significant one or just a symbolic one ?",
">\n\nIn French here\nNothing official yet but it would be 10 first then 30 total for the first wave.\nThe French army is waiting for the periodic delivery of the Jaguar to the active unit in order to free some AMX-10 RC.",
">\n\nI heared the number 30 on France24 too.",
">\n\nDaily DefMon3 update",
">\n\nEDIT: another update:\n\nRussian channels are spreading misinformation about the situation on the front lines. None of are troops are encircled.\n\nYuri Butusov who is currently in Soledar posted this in his Telegram channel about an hour ago:\n\nOur troops are doing everything possible, and some units are doing the impossible. Several paratroopers of the 46th Airmobile Brigade got frostbite, one of the soldiers will have ten toes amputated tomorrow, as they have been fighting in the cold for many days and remain in their positions for as long as possible. The brigade is well managed and motivated, many fighters have opened their personal count or significantly increased the number of enemies eliminated, and the 105 mm artillery is very accurate.\nOur command pays great attention to this area.\nThe command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in this area is in contact with every unit, this is crucial for control and coordination. \nNot everyone is performing well, but we will talk about problems later. Now it is important that we have significant forces in the area and every opportunity to act in accordance with the situation.",
">\n\nAny person with half a brain sees the similarities between Putin and Hitler’s personal histories.\nGrew up during a patriotic time and early in adulthood experience the collapse of that system. \nProceeded by years of hardship for their entire nation and a reduction in it’s total territory.\nBecame fervently ambitious about re-establishing the glory that the weak leaders of the past had destroyed, that an outside force had deprived them of. \nQuite literally, Putin, Hitler and many other people across history and across the entire world have developed this same deluded view of the world due to their personal history.\nIt’s a psychological development effect that happens when certain people go through nationalistic indoctrination and then in early adulthood experience the collapse of that system and the longing for the re-establishment of the past glory.\nIn many ways it resembles WWII. Putin invades Chechnya, but it’s pushed aside because it isn’t important and the territorial dispute is “reasonable”. \nPutin invades Georgia. OK, 2nd invasion, but still seems reasonable-ish and what can you realistically do about it anyway?\nPutin invades Crimea and the Donbas… OK the pattern is emerging and encroaching further into Europe.\nPutin stages a blitzkrieg of the entire nation of Ukraine… OK, now we’re at the “France never could have seen it coming!” Phase and it finally clicks that Putin won’t stop until he has East Germany back under Soviet rule.",
">\n\nWell said",
">\n\nUkrainian MoD update from just now seems to have good news\n\nThe enemy is conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Lyman directions, and is trying to improve the tactical position in the Kupyan direction. He concentrates his efforts on capturing the Donetsk region within the administrative border, without success.\n\nAnd according to faux-Girkin:\n\nSoledar - critically difficult, to the end.\n46th Airmobile Brigade at the moment practically recaptures the heroism of 36th and Azov from this spring.\n\n[Edit] Ukrainians apparently now claim to be in control of Kuzmine, last village on the road to Kreminna.",
">\n\nI think Kuzmine happened some time back. It was posted then that Russia was shelling it and Ukraine repelling attacks there. The conclusion then was that yes they have it and are now outside Kreminna. Ukraine didn't announce it, so it's unnoticed. Though this front doesn't seem to get any attention, I'm not even sure there have been any map changes to reflect this. \nBut there's a reason Russia moved their administration staff out of Kreminna and supposedly added reinforcements.",
">\n\nI thought they removed him after the last debacle but he's back and with more power. Amazing.\nBtw not connected or anything but didn't France get rid of their head of intelligence because he failed in his job about this war.",
">\n\nWe did.",
">\n\nI really like one of the reasons given for sacking him: \"lack of mastery of subjects\". Such an understated way to put it.",
">\n\nNo I think this is right. We had the intelligence, but the interpretation was invalid because it was estimated that it would make no sense to launch the attack when acting rationale. The issue was that Putin acted irrationally based on our intelligence data, which is something that surprised us. This interpretation factor turned valid data into a wrong conclusion.",
">\n\nFrom 24.02.2022 to 10.01.2023 (Day 321) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):\n112470 (+710) Personnel\n3084 (+4) Tanks\n6154 (+7) Armored Personnel Vehicles\n2073 (+4) Artillery Systems\n434 (+0) MLRS\n217 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems\n285 (+0) Aircraft\n275 (+0) Helicopters\n1860 (+4) UAV operational-tactical level\n723 (+0) Missiles\n17 (+1) Warships / Boats\n4817 (+8) Other vehicles\n183 (+0) Special Equipment",
">\n\nI wonder what the boat is. If raptor class or something smaller. Anything bigger I feel we would have heard about. They don’t have many of those raptor class boats left.",
">\n\nIm guessing it’s a raptor, but I’m giddy at this point to see any new boat loss, I missed them",
">\n\nPutin is a man with no conscience. His eyes show he is loooooong past the point of human connection.\nThe way he casually lies, the complete lack of care for even his own associates, and the sarcastic way he communicates. Like everything is some kind of joke to him. He doesn't take anything seriously. People are literally killed in front of him and he just shrugs as if someone told a flat joke on a sitcom and goes right back to eating a fancy dinner. Casually threatening the nuclear death of billions as if he was ordering a cheeseburger. \nI agree with the Japanese foreign minister. There needs to be a defensive alliance for all of the world's democracies (as well as holding each other to a high democratic standard to prevent backsliding) NATO should be reformed to include countries outside of Europe. As long as monsters like Putin and Kim Jong-Un exist, then that is an existential threat to democracy.",
">\n\nYep. \nThe world needs to move on from dictators.",
">\n\nNon democracies are all illegitimate governments. The power to govern comes from the consent of the governed.",
">\n\nI agree.\nThat is the definition of democracy.\nDemo = the people",
">\n\nCracy = not crazy. Unlike dictators",
">\n\nHow the “patriotic” education system puts pressure on Russian schoolchildren: so that children are not forced to support the war, families sometimes have to simply leave the country\nAnother look at the creep of propaganda (masked as Patriotism .. what is the difference?) into the Russian education system. It's in Russian, so hit that translate button",
">\n\nLatest General Staff update from 6:00 today, in relation to Soledar, mentions the following:\n- \"the enemy continues attacking in Bakhmut, Avdiiivka and Lyman directions\"\n- \"AFU repulsed attacks in the areas of [...] of Luhansk region and Soledar, [...] of Donetsk region\".\nSince there hasn't been any definitive footage from either side or information about AFU pulling out, I'd judge the current situation as inconclusive.",
">\n\nOn ISW it said the reason why Wagner is focusing on the salt mines is because Prigozhin wants to seize them to house troops in them (as well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there). \nIf that's true and Wagner takes the mines then I reckon that there will be a new headline not long after about a HIMAR hitting the mines, collapsing it and trapping hundreds of Russians inside.",
">\n\n\nas well as some disproven theories about old WW1 weapons being there\n\nwell this might as well be true, given the state of Russian weapons.\nthey are scrapping the barrel so low that they will need WW1 weapons soon",
">\n\nI still really don't know where all the fires are coming from. It's not Ukraine, that makes no sense. Is everybody in Russia trying to cash in their insurance at the same time?",
">\n\nRussia has terrible fire safety, so frequent fires are fairly normal. We are just paying more attention. There have been rumours that a few fires set a more strategic locations are from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.",
">\n\n\nare from an internal Russian resistance, but hard to tell if that's true.\n\nAnd if it is: Bravo to them!",
">\n\nWarships/boats?! What did I miss?! Stupid sleep keeping me outta the loop…",
">\n\nUkraine sunk a Russian cutter near the Dnipro delta. So definitely a smaller boat, designed for river warfare instead of open water. Still, a good boat to sink as that’s the type of boat you’d use for a cross river raid or to interdict traffic coming out of the river.",
">\n\nAbsolutely. They’ll need to get across en masse at some point. The destruction of any potential impediment is a plus!",
">\n\nI feel given some of the recent Russian tactics of WW1 like storm assaults, me thinks the desire to and delivery of a certain cluster of munitions is highly warranted. \nObviously comes with huge detractors for the future but in all fairness, given some reports that up to 25% of Russian shells are duds a lot of clean up is going to have to happen anyway. M483A1 could be give over to be used in a defensive way or for area denial in the face of massed infantry.",
">\n\nOn behalf of the United States of America, I would like to make the following statement in regards to the remarks made by a US ambassador that the Russian embassy called “unacceptable” :\n\nWe know that it is wrong to make fun of people for their physical characteristics. Please be aware that our ambassador was not making light of the fact that Vladimir Putin is only 5'4\". What our diplomat was saying was his actions are that of a \"small man\" as in small in comparison to a great man, not \"small man\" in reference to Vladimir Putin's height, which is only 5 feet 4 inches. There have been many great men who were also short. While he is now actually known to be average height for his time, Napoleon has been remembered in history as a short man and this never stopped people from recognizing his great impact. I apologize sincerely for any misunderstanding.",
">\n\nThe Dnipro delta. Hmm. Russia is trying to keep its hold on the mouth of the river and Ukraine is fighting back.",
">\n\nDo not lose hope against Putin. His entire image, both inside his own country and the one he projects to the world, is that going against him is hopeless. \nHe, and his bots on social media, blackpill you into a sense of nihilism, hopelessness, and powerlessness. People in Russia are completely zombie-fied by this, so don't let this take root. He has this air of casual inevitability. \nThis is just a pot of crap. 💩\nThe response of \"nothing matters\" or \"this changes nothing\" is their standard answer to demoralize you. Russian forces failing to capture Kyiv and leader Zelenskyy? All part of their master plan of course! Western weapons that are causing major damage against their vehicles? Didn't feel a thing! \nSee through that crap. They ARE hurting. Ukraine IS doing serious material and morale damage. The Russian economy and industry IS straining under the sanctions and war. There IS unrest, and these DO change their plans! \nRemember that, and keep up the donations and cheerleading. Every bit helps.",
">\n\nAgreed with everything except the unrest - what gives you that idea?",
">\n\nSeveral high-ranking military and government leaders dying over the past year. Mass desertions by conscripts. Recruiting stations being attacked. Mass exodus by Russians trying to leave Russia. VPNs selling like crazy (and Russia is only blocking the internet that is negative of their invasion. So more VPNs = more people looking at info that Putin doesn't approve of). \nI am not suggesting that Russia will collapse or anything, only that there is unhappiness that can impact the war directly or indirectly in a number of ways. Mass desertions being chief among them.",
">\n\nI can understand that every such act matters, but all of those things are not nearly enough to put any real dent in the war effort. The \"exodus\" of some hundreds of thousands who only want to escape fighting is the most overrated of them all - what gives you the idea that they are really against the war? All we can say for sure that they want is for someone else to fight - to stop a war in this way there needs to be millions escaping, and that is not happening.\nThe war has gone on for this long for a reason and that is because Putin still enjoys a huge level of popularity and population lethargy (in practice the same thing) so that there is no real prospect of this insanity being stopped by Russians themselves.\nThe only thing that will really work is for Ukraine to get more and more weapons until they liberate their entire territory and then Russians (commoners and oligarchs) can deal with Putin, or not, it's their decision finally.",
">\n\nTrue, they may just be saving themselves, but that still has an effect. It removes them from the Russian workforce. It removes them as possible Russian military recruits. It removes them as a source of taxes. By simply being a \"zero,\" they aren't a \"plus.\"\nCombined with Russia's losses and the sanctions, it is still hurting them. It's just another punch, a cumulative effect. It will take many \"punches\" to make Russia stop attacking, but it is still progress toward a free Ukraine. \nI am not an expert or analyst at all, I am a regular person, so I can be completely wrong. This is just what I think by reading these news stories and press releases.",
">\n\nOperator Starsky going live in 8 minutes\nLive Q&A: Day 321 | russian brainwashers went nuts",
">\n\nRU: Look at UA killing all these civilians too! Both sides!\nWorld: What were those civilians doing, going to market or dance class in their hometown in Russia?\nRU: No, they were digging trenches in UA for our war... but they're civilians!\nWorld: Riiiiight /s",
">\n\nThat goes in line with all the \"humanitarian aid\" gathered by Russians. While the kind of things being sent to the occupied territory may count as humanitarian aid. The moment you hear that they're sending the goods to soldiers, the aid is no longer humanitarian.",
">\n\nI'm surprised the Ukrainians aren't already training at Ft Sill. Unless the ones there were only training on m777 and HIMARS.",
">\n\nYeah... This is not that surprising, but still disappointing. People keep saying things like \"If they said they are sending X then it is already on its way into Ukraine with Ukrainians already trained how to use it.\"\nIf only we were that proactive.",
">\n\nIt's disconcerting how the Russian ethos is that collapsing standards of living and hundreds of thousands of dead are a price worth paying so long as you destroy the neighbor you invaded. A cancer on the face of the planet.",
">\n\nRussia and Wagner likely in control of most of Soledar, says UK defence ministry\n\nRussia and Wagner have made tactical advances in the last four days, the ministry says, in what it described as “highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt lines of communication”. It adds that Russia is, however, “unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes”.\nUS considering sending Stryker armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine - report\nRussia and Wagner 'likely in control of most of' Soledar, says UK defence ministry\nAlmost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues",
">\n\nI hope UKR was able to retreat.",
">\n\n\nTheir losses in the last 24 hours are HUGE and if this major attack fails they are checkmated in the area.\n\nLet us hope so! Slava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHonestly the second the onslaught stops, Ukraine should slam reserves into them and push them back in a counterattack. At some point the Russians are going to break again like they did in Kharkiv.",
">\n\nI'm sure Ukraine is weighting all the options. No one is more eager to kick out Russia than them :)",
">\n\nYeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on them not knowing.",
">\n\nYes and no. I think Xi was indeed well aware of the invason but from what I read it seems Putin lied to Xi's face and \"sold\" him a limited invasion of the Donbass, not of the entirety of Ukraine. And it's pretty obvious China has been very pissed at Russia since then.",
">\n\nI might be able to believe that if it wasn't shouted prior to the invasion by US intel what was about to happen. Sorry.",
">\n\nWhy exactly would China listen to US intel if they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?",
">\n\n\nif they believed that they got the right information from Putin directly?\n\nYou believe that that was the intel they got from Putin.",
">\n\nI really like that news about Russians burning their own camps.",
">\n\nArmchair General thoughts: Today's tactic from Russia appears to be, \"Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.\" That is a move that screams desperation.",
">\n\nIt has been their approach since the failed in the first 3 days of the war.",
">\n\nTheir approach has changed from throw all the tanks at the wall, to throw all the artillery shells to the all, to throw all the convicts to the wall, and whenever you have them, throw all the drones and missiles at random civilian areas.",
">\n\nIn slightly stale, putrid news, Russia confirmed some very interesting casualties today that took place on Aug 4th somewhere in Ukraine. These are the first ever Spetznaz GRU casualties confirmed by Russia, and both are high-ranking officers. ~~They're both~~ All three are from Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" military unit 92154, Russia's preimere special forces outfit, a rough equivalent of Russia's Delta Force. \nThe first meaty casualty is none other than the Commander of the Special Forces GRU Special Operations Center \"Senezh\" himself, a Lieutenant Colonel Mikheev Boris Vladimirovich. Born in 1985, graduated special forces 2003, served in Russia, 'middle East' and Syria, and received multiple awards. \nThe second casualty from the same day is a major Aseev, also from GRU Special Operations Center Senezh, military unit 92154. Described as having \"served abroad for 12 years\" and being wounded in action multiple times, the \"fighting major\" from Buryatiya was buried at the unit's top secret base near Moscow. \n[Edit] Oh apparently there's a third Major from the same special forces unit that died on the same day, but that one was announced back in August. Major Shtepa was buried in his hometown on Aug 12th. His 33rd birthday would have been on the 8th. \nRussians provide scant details about how they died. Lt Col Mikheev apparently died of blood loss in the hospital after supposedly \"selflessly risking his life, he held the line of defense. Having been wounded, until the end of the battle he led the personnel and supporting fire weapons\". He received the Hero star posthumously. The fighting major \"died in battle saving wounded friends\".\nOn August 4th Ukraine was close to retaking Izium as well as probing around outer Kherson defenses. There were also various artillery and HIMARS strikes all over the place. Hard to say which was responsible for decapitating Russia's premiere special forces unit.\n[Edit] Now that we're seeing three high-ranking commanders, my guess is they were all hit in a headquarters strike instead of dying heroically in battle.",
">\n\nQuality soldiers is perhaps the resource that Russia can replace the least. There is no real training anymore. Mobiks aren't learning in an effective way, they're just sent out to die.",
">\n\nyup - a last desperate attempt to make a doomed strategy work. Losing your skilled training officers and NCOs are just about the dumbest thing you can do at the start of a war. They are LITERALLY the whole future of your conscript army",
">\n\nWell there’s an evolutionary dead-end if I’ve ever seen one.",
">\n\nI'd rather shit in my hands and use it as face cream than stick my dick within a hundred feet of that monstrosity..",
">\n\nikr!\nMy dick would pop off and run away!",
">\n\nGood to hear that Ukraine is still holding out and sending Wagner Nazi's to their well deserved places in hell.",
">\n\nDude on the right doesn't look thrilled to be standing out in the open trying to look relaxed. Fighting must be somewhat close.",
">\n\nYou mean the Russian guy without any identifying markings wearing a Ukranian uniform? He looks nervous? I wonder why.",
">\n\nWhy is nothing happening on Zaporizhie front (the one in the south, between Dnieper river and the north of Mariupol)? \nNot sure this has been answered 'officially' in any way. \nYou would think that after the liberation of Kherson (city) Ukrainian forces might have more troops to deploy there and even have a breakthrough on that front, specially because it is so vast that I doubt russia could have serious defenses anywhere there.",
">\n\nIts currently being softened up with HIMARS hits, i think Ukraine is waiting for the ground to harden.",
">\n\nThat and I believe UAF are gathering troops, equipment and everything else required before major push some time this year.",
">\n\nVlad the Diddler",
">\n\nHe’ll just keep throwing bodies at it until Ukraine is exhausted. He really doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned this is a valid strategy.",
">\n\nRussian military strategy as old as time",
">\n\nWow. He's been well fed on corpses, I guess.\nIs that too dark?",
">\n\nWhy call it a joke if it is the truth? There are reports of dogs feeding on Russian corpses. In a way it is fitting: that the only worth these fascists have is as dog food/shit.",
">\n\nIt's ironic considering there were reports of Russian soldiers eating dogs earlier in the war.",
">\n\nIn Ukraine, dog eat YOU!",
">\n\nPerhaps they meant to say \"subsequent\"?",
">\n\nBritish ministry of defense tweeted that likely most of the town is captured today.",
">\n\nYeh they are always a few days behind. The salt mine is town the back of the town. So they are confirming what we already knew",
">\n\nStill waiting on Wagner PMC being designated an international terrorist organization.",
">\n\nFor those who are interested, 1420 is back after a pause they've taken:\n1420: What young Russians in Saint Petersburg think about Putin?",
">\n\nSummary: interviews of young people in St. Petersburg.\nAlmost everyone is apolitical. They don't care. They don't want to get involved. It's not their problem.\nSome of them are clearly afraid to talk.\nA couple of them speak freely and say Putin needs to go.",
">\n\nSo, I watched a bunch of video's on the YouTube channel 1420, and I wonder whether I'm the only one who is so f*cking tired of a certain portion of the people answering questions regarding Putin that they do not care and that they are a-political. For some reason, they irk me more than nationalists being all happy with their psycho-Nazi leader. In the latest video, this guy just answers that as long as he lives well, he has nothing bad to say about Putin. And he also did not say it in a depressed way or something. Only cared about himself and his friends. How selfish and self-absorbed does a human have to be to think and feel along these lines? Right across the border your leader is organizing the mass destruction, rape, and genocide of a country that had around 40 to 45 million people, and there you are sitting on a bench being okay with Putin, b/c you are relatively well off (and how well is that if we compare it to western countries or oil-rich countries in the Middle East?). How will his logic work out, btw, when he or his friends are called up for mobilization? One would almost wish that on these apathetic folks, but that would also mean more dead Ukrainians, and that is the last thing I want. I see brave and fierce people in Iran fighting their regime, and then I see these guys giving their egotistical answers, and it irks me so much.",
">\n\nThis is common among many (I would even dare to say majority) of the Russians. They consciously distance themselves from politics and then they are genuinely surprised when blamed for inaction or warned about responsibility. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.",
">\n\n\n. In their minds it's not them it's politicians to blame because they themselves did nothing wrong.\n\nWe can accept that if its true. That means they support having the trials at the Hague.",
">\n\nWhen you make politics more toxic than radioactive waste, you effectively prevent people from being willing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.",
">\n\nThe full Zelensky quote:\n\nThe free world has everything necessary to stop Russian aggression and bring the terrorist state to a historic defeat. And it is important not only for us. It is important for global democracy, for all those who value freedom. It is even more important now, when Russia is gathering forces for another escalation.\nTogether with our partners, we must do - and we are doing! - everything to make it clear to Russia's masters that no escalation will help them. The defeat of the Russian aggression must remain unalterable, no matter who and what Russia tries to throw into the battle. \n\nSounds like he's not talking about anything new or specific.",
">\n\nMore evidence of bot use.\nIt's not the first time either.",
">\n\nI love the prosecutor bullshit. Like, the govt of Ukraine fired the prosecutor who was famously not going after corruption and somehow they think they were fired to \"do some corruption.\"\nNot a bright brunch.",
">\n\nBut Hunter ... something... something... DemocRAT... something... something... Biden... something... something... BUTTERY MALES!!!!",
">\n\nSlava Ukraini!",
">\n\nHeroiam slava!",
">\n\nSoledar armchair analysis. \nEven pro-Russian sources believe that Russian claims to fully surround it are BS. The situation is likely similar to what we see on maps like this one from Def Mon, two pincers to the north and south, and fire control over Ukraine's supply route into the city. \nDef Mon reads that as Russians being able to fire directly on the round from the high ground he marked, but that's likely wrong. Russian guns or tanks would be ultra high-priority targets that deep into Ukraine's backyard, and as such would be an easier problem to deal with. \nWhat Russia likely does now have is the same thing Ukraine's been enjoying for months: a good drone-artillery link. Russians control a lot of ground close enough to the road to where they can keep it under constant drone surveillance. \nThis is somewhat corroborated by our favorite Bakhmut drone ace, the stick guy МАДЯР. His video from a few days ago shows something incredible: a Russian drone operator getting VOG'd by Madyar's drone. A burly rescue squad arrives within 4 minutes, which is absolutely unheard of in theater. They jog with the drone operator in a stretcher for easily a mile before getting VOG'd again. \nUkrainian defenders also report that the Russians attacking Soledar are far less anemic than the usual condemned mobiks they've gotten used to. There are freshly refitted VDV troops fighting alongside Wagner. \nThat suggests Russians have their good reinforcements that incorporate high-profile drone operators in the area as part of the new offensive. Can't forget that Russia asked for their pinky-swear truce right before their offensive began. \nAs the map looks today, Ukraine's position in Soledar looks untenable. The two Russian pincers are of course ripe for a counter-attack. For the next few days I would expect that\n\n\nUkrainians try to retake ground around the city before they try to retake the city itself;\n\n\nBoth Ukrainians and Russians pour reinforcements into the area;\n\n\nUkrainian war-winning drones and artillery are likely stretched beyond thin. Their ability to bullseye Russian attacks while fending off reinforcements and doing round-the-clock counterbattery duty will decide the outcome of the battle.\n\n\nUkrainians in Soledar will not be reinforced or supplied as well as we'd like until the supply route is secure;\n\n\nRussians are likely to continue to lie and claim far more progress than they attain;\n\n\nUkrainian forces are by now guaranteed to have a set of conditions and a codeword for pulling out of Soledar. The longer Russians can hold the ground around the city they recently took, the more likely that retreat will be. Ukrainians are also guaranteed to have boobytrapped the famous salt mines and will deny Russians their use one way or another.\n\n\nLastly, maps and words are just maps and words. Bakhmut is a small town and Soledar is even smaller, only 5 square miles. These are not giant set piece battles with entire divisions. Individuals matter. A single squad can have a deciding effect on the day's events. \nEverything will be decided in the next few days. If Russia can keep up the momentum, Ukraine will be right to pull out. So the main question is, how big and how good are Russia's reserves?",
">\n\nBetween 3 and 6 thousand professional mercenaries + unknown number of inmates. Inmates are used as a probe - they are divided into groups of 8 and are sent off to occupy some building or other defensible point. If any of those groups survive, it means there is a weak/blind spot and professional soldiers are sent to reinforce. That's how they captured a defensible positions in the north and east of Soledar. \nLooking at the map and geolocated videos I'm worried about Ukrainian flanks. They need to be secured soon or Soledar will fall.",
">\n\nI wish the west would hurry the hell up and provide Ukraine with Tanks and combat vehicles, Plus more modern longer range weapons. Fuck Russia, what are they going to do about it, die some more.......",
">\n\nWell there are also only so many Ukrainian soldiers to crew these. You've gotta train them all (and the mechanics) and the more variety of vehicles you have from different countries the harder it is to field them.",
">\n\nI imagine if we announce abrams or leopards for Ukraine there would be no shortage of volunteers to train on them.",
">\n\nOne thing that baffles me is why there is still a civilian population in towns like Soledar or Bakhmut.",
">\n\nI think it's just sunk cost fallacy after not fleeing initially. Like boiling a frog.",
">\n\nCome what may in the Battle of Soledar, the fact that mineshafts and tunnels are involved means that place will forever be known for both Legends and Nightmares.",
">\n\nSometimes I have no idea what the Russians are up to. Why is he praising the Ukrainians all of a sudden?",
">\n\nBecause, \"the enemy is both strong and weak\". A typical and well-documented feature of fascist rhetoric.",
">\n\nIt's usually not \"strong\" as in \"They're honourable and effective fighters.\" It's \"strong\" like \"They're sneakily and wily bastards who will backstab you.\"",
">\n\nEither way, they are a pain in the ass for the cause, something that needs to be dealt with in a collective effort.",
">\n\nI'm wondering if Russia is launching this offensive to try and spoil the incoming Ukrainian offensive. Seems odd that the entire frontline lights up right as the ground is about to freeze enough for mechanized warfare.",
">\n\nRussians throwing themselves into the meatgrinder still seems like a Ukrainian offensive.",
">\n\nTrue - Ukraine forcing Russia into untenable positions, resulting in ~~hundreds~~ thousands of KIA and WIA, loosing moral and just about everything else.",
">\n\nReportingFromUkraine now reports that the Russian encirclement of Soledar is progressing enough to make supply/relief routes unstable, and that the next 24 hours will be decisive.\nUkraine needs to stabilize their flanks or make the call to retreat.",
">\n\nAny substantiated news on the Soledar situation? Keep reading \"unconfirmed\" rumors in r/Ukraine Reddit.",
">\n\nhi, may I ask you a question. \nThis deepstatemap.live/en, can you give a short ELI5 or a source as to how it works and how its updated ?",
">\n\nAll I know is that it seems to be a Ukrainian source. Seems to be updated daily during night-time, or sometimes more frequently during large movements. Despite being Ukrainian, it seems to be fairly accurate and not too biased apart from not showing UA troops or UA shelling events. You can rewind the map all the way back to Mar -22 to see how the battlefield has changed over time.",
">\n\nI see, thanks.",
">\n\nZelenskyy saying of Bakhmut “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” is pretty depressing to hear.\nEdit: *Bakhmut not Donetsk",
">\n\nHe’s saying that about Bakhmut which is a separate city",
">\n\nYou’re correct. \nThe article says Bakhmut, but for some reason I wrote Donetsk. My mistake.",
">\n\n\nBakhmut is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.\n\nMost of the Oblasts(regions) are named after their big city. Raion are smaller subdivisions. Donbas is usually defined as Donetsk and Luhansk(sometimes spelled Lugansk from Russian transliteration) Oblasts. Donetsk and Luhansk the cities have been under Russian proxy control since 2014 even though large parts of the region remained under Ukrainian control during that time(Ukraine temporarily moved administration of Luhasnk oblast from Luhansk city to Sievierodonetsk and of Donetsk oblast from Donetsk Oblast to Kramatorsk after 2014). Edit: Bahmut is part of Donetsk Oblast",
">\n\nOperation VOZmezdiye? More like Operation GovnoVOZ.",
">\n\nSoledar will be another phyrric victory to Russia, but is still a victory. \nUkraine needs weapons.",
">\n\nprobably CIF / FOB prices.\n\nCIF is the seller covering all costs to deliver\nFOB is buyer assumes all costs excluding loading",
">\n\nNope, 36$ is a contracts for \"dear friends\", and 52 its a \"open market\"",
">\n\ncheers for clarifying!",
">\n\nArmchair General Opinion:\nUkraine has the forces and means to push Russia out of Bakhmut/Soledar however it would come out of the operational capabilities of the ongoing crawling offensive to the North or the next planned offensive currently being cooked up. Ukraine see's little value in taking the mass of infantry and artillery head long, and therefore is fine giving ground when it has to. Anyone legitimately worried that the Soledar situation indicates a change in moment has been eating the propaganda too much. Ukraine is still taking towns at a faster rate then Russia has over the last couple weeks, Ukraine just doesn't try to generate headline news every time it does so. \nFinally for those overtly worried, Russia Took Popasna back in early May, and since then, despite concentrating all of its attacks in this direction towards Bakhmut, they've advanced a mere 25km (15 miles in freedom units) half of which was taken the first month after Popasna fell.",
">\n\nDoomers gonna doom. \nAnd then complain when nobody here buys into the story they're selling. \nAnd then disparage everyone as sheep / echo chamber / can't handle negative news / disconnected from reality i.e. the one that they just made up to push.\nAnd then feign concern about Ukrainians, backpedal, declare support for more UA weapons, and foster really genuine concern cause ya know \"we\" are all on the same team right?\nAnd then later try to shift the narrative again. Throw spaghetti and see what sticks. Leverage every online rumor and update and opinion. Victory in this curated propaganda offensive is measured in undermining public support for UA.",
">\n\nI swear.... we got like one week of reprieve when Ukraine took Kherson and then it was back to Bakhmut. Ukraine could take Sevastopol but if Bakhmut lost a city block we'd be hearing about it on equal footing.",
">\n\nI am not sure if it's just me, but ever since this war started, I've noticed people online becoming more and more obsessed with annexations. \"This country should annex this, that country should annex that\", as if it's a completely normal thing.\nFolks playing too much Europa Universalis, if you ask me. Then again it is mostly iterated by kids on Reddit, and Youtubers, though I've started noticing it more and more among the everyday folk as well.",
">\n\nThat’s why multinational institutions like the EU and NATO are a threat to authoritarians and would-be despots. In a world with strong multilateral cooperations, Luxembourg and Belgium can get on with the business of making a better future for their citizens without having to worry about their much larger neighbors simply annexing them out of the blue one day.\nWhat you’re seeing is the expression of the kind of thinking that has been going out of style ever since the European powers started getting serious about putting an end to their centuries of ‘great-power’ and ‘spheres-of-influence’ malarkey that had been regularly blowing the continent up every few decades.",
">\n\nexcellent use of malarkey. Dark Biden approves.",
">\n\nObligatory Fuck Putin!",
">\n\nWith a rusty bayonet.",
">\n\nIt was extremely accurate.",
">\n\nDay CCCXXI, Part I. Thread CDLXII.",
">\n\nWe must have basically simulposted, but it appears you were slightly faster.",
">\n\nSome days, like today, I just look up and it's rollover time. Other days I don't notice till and hour or more later. One day recently we both were snoozing and musr filled in. (IiRC)",
">\n\nGoing from 60% Russian gas in 2021 to 0% in half a year after the war started, sounds pretty fast.",
">\n\nIt's something Putin definitely misunderstood about this and/or underestimated the West's ability to cut their demand / reliance on Russia. Now there are other nations fast tracking pipeline projects to fill the supply void. Russia literally killed one of the few industries they were successful with. And for what?",
">\n\nWhich will happen first - \n1) Ukraine gets tanks and planes\n2) NATO intervenes with air power\n3) Hordes of mobiks freezing to death\n4) Bakhmut falls",
">\n\nBit of a strange list of options to pick from. \nDefinitely #1, part 1. Tanks, with Russia already being the biggest contributor.",
">\n\nI would see these as the four most likely things to happen during the winter. \n1) Ukraine receives a large amount (100+) of modern tanks and the same amount of planes to make a decisive counter attack. \n2) Situation (civilian especially) gets dire during the winter with hunters of thousands of mobiks attacks wave after wave, with civilian infrastructure attacked. If millions should start to freeze then decisive actions are needed. NATO could end this war with air (and missile) power and there might come a time when this is the only option. Hopefully, it will not come to that. \n3) If 300k men are really thrown into the meatgrinder, then I would expect 100-200k dead or injured by the end of winter. Some will freeze to death. \n4) It might, but then again it might not. More important for mental reasons than strategically though",
">\n\nGuess the defense of Soledar is to buy time and maintain as much strategic depth as possible even though it'll be costly. Esp with the coming months with new types of aid.",
">\n\nYes/No.\nRussia has thrown large elements of its \"SF\" GRU Spetsnaz units and equivalents and VDV elite forces into the Soledar fight. These are likely the troops that were sitting in the Kherson direction. \nUA has an uphill battle ahead of them to either retake Soledar in its entirety or to stop potential continued breakthrough.\nI have immense faith in Ukraine to win the war. What this battle should be displaying is that Russia is willing to throw what left of its trained contract troops just for a win on the television of a pretty insignificant city but also that the West needs to deliver modern weapons to Ukraine. Or.... really start to consider that its defence could require offensive measures.",
">\n\nNo. There are no regular army in Soledar. Only Wagner. He wanted to make it clear that if he will claim this town, it will be only Wagner's victory. VDV was sent south to help with Bakhmut, but also to fight for those small villages that are protecting Ukrainian flanks.\nWagner is sending 8 people groups of inmates to probe Ukrainian defenses. If any of the groups survives, it means they found a weak/blind spot in Ukrainian defense and only then are sending professional troops there.",
">\n\nAs is tradition\nDay CCCXXI, Part I, thread CDXXVI"
] |
I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem. | [] |
>
Same. I went to a seminar for young professionals where they taught us a bunch of stuff, including the "continental" style of using your fork and knife (i.e., using it in your left hand). It took no time to figure out, and I've been doing it that way ever since.
I don't know if it's true, but during the seminar, they said that one of the ways the Russians used to catch American spies was that they swapped their knife and fork when eating. Now that I type that, it's probably a lie, but I'll go with it anyway. | [
"I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem."
] |
>
Reminds me of Inglorious bastsrds where the British guy gives himself away by using the "western" three-fingers up instead of using the "german" three-fingers up. | [
"I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem.",
">\n\nSame. I went to a seminar for young professionals where they taught us a bunch of stuff, including the \"continental\" style of using your fork and knife (i.e., using it in your left hand). It took no time to figure out, and I've been doing it that way ever since.\nI don't know if it's true, but during the seminar, they said that one of the ways the Russians used to catch American spies was that they swapped their knife and fork when eating. Now that I type that, it's probably a lie, but I'll go with it anyway."
] |
>
I find it fascinating that such small things could give someone away. | [
"I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem.",
">\n\nSame. I went to a seminar for young professionals where they taught us a bunch of stuff, including the \"continental\" style of using your fork and knife (i.e., using it in your left hand). It took no time to figure out, and I've been doing it that way ever since.\nI don't know if it's true, but during the seminar, they said that one of the ways the Russians used to catch American spies was that they swapped their knife and fork when eating. Now that I type that, it's probably a lie, but I'll go with it anyway.",
">\n\nReminds me of Inglorious bastsrds where the British guy gives himself away by using the \"western\" three-fingers up instead of using the \"german\" three-fingers up."
] |
>
Knives are sharp. I feel it makes sense to have as much control over the instrument as possible. | [
"I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem.",
">\n\nSame. I went to a seminar for young professionals where they taught us a bunch of stuff, including the \"continental\" style of using your fork and knife (i.e., using it in your left hand). It took no time to figure out, and I've been doing it that way ever since.\nI don't know if it's true, but during the seminar, they said that one of the ways the Russians used to catch American spies was that they swapped their knife and fork when eating. Now that I type that, it's probably a lie, but I'll go with it anyway.",
">\n\nReminds me of Inglorious bastsrds where the British guy gives himself away by using the \"western\" three-fingers up instead of using the \"german\" three-fingers up.",
">\n\nI find it fascinating that such small things could give someone away."
] |
>
This initially sounds intuitive, yet somehow as a right-hander the one thing my left hand is very adept at is slicing steak. | [
"I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem.",
">\n\nSame. I went to a seminar for young professionals where they taught us a bunch of stuff, including the \"continental\" style of using your fork and knife (i.e., using it in your left hand). It took no time to figure out, and I've been doing it that way ever since.\nI don't know if it's true, but during the seminar, they said that one of the ways the Russians used to catch American spies was that they swapped their knife and fork when eating. Now that I type that, it's probably a lie, but I'll go with it anyway.",
">\n\nReminds me of Inglorious bastsrds where the British guy gives himself away by using the \"western\" three-fingers up instead of using the \"german\" three-fingers up.",
">\n\nI find it fascinating that such small things could give someone away.",
">\n\nKnives are sharp. I feel it makes sense to have as much control over the instrument as possible."
] |
>
I mean your hand will get used to doing what you often do | [
"I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem.",
">\n\nSame. I went to a seminar for young professionals where they taught us a bunch of stuff, including the \"continental\" style of using your fork and knife (i.e., using it in your left hand). It took no time to figure out, and I've been doing it that way ever since.\nI don't know if it's true, but during the seminar, they said that one of the ways the Russians used to catch American spies was that they swapped their knife and fork when eating. Now that I type that, it's probably a lie, but I'll go with it anyway.",
">\n\nReminds me of Inglorious bastsrds where the British guy gives himself away by using the \"western\" three-fingers up instead of using the \"german\" three-fingers up.",
">\n\nI find it fascinating that such small things could give someone away.",
">\n\nKnives are sharp. I feel it makes sense to have as much control over the instrument as possible.",
">\n\nThis initially sounds intuitive, yet somehow as a right-hander the one thing my left hand is very adept at is slicing steak."
] |
>
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) | [
"I don't find it particularly difficult to use my left hand to transfer food from a plate to my mouth hole with a fork... No need to swap, if that's a problem.",
">\n\nSame. I went to a seminar for young professionals where they taught us a bunch of stuff, including the \"continental\" style of using your fork and knife (i.e., using it in your left hand). It took no time to figure out, and I've been doing it that way ever since.\nI don't know if it's true, but during the seminar, they said that one of the ways the Russians used to catch American spies was that they swapped their knife and fork when eating. Now that I type that, it's probably a lie, but I'll go with it anyway.",
">\n\nReminds me of Inglorious bastsrds where the British guy gives himself away by using the \"western\" three-fingers up instead of using the \"german\" three-fingers up.",
">\n\nI find it fascinating that such small things could give someone away.",
">\n\nKnives are sharp. I feel it makes sense to have as much control over the instrument as possible.",
">\n\nThis initially sounds intuitive, yet somehow as a right-hander the one thing my left hand is very adept at is slicing steak.",
">\n\nI mean your hand will get used to doing what you often do"
] |
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