I hate to burst your bubble, but the Russians are in full retreat right now. I hadn't looked at the reports in the past 12-24 hours when I wrote my post above and its even worse than it was yesterday. The Russian reinforcements were pure smoke and mirrors. Kharkiv is now in Ukraine's hands and several of the major supply lines that go to Sievierodonetsk are now cut off, both road and railway. If things keep going well for Ukraine they will retake that whole area and the Russians won't have the supplies to defend it. All the Russian gains are being undone.
All three of your examples are totally different than what is happening right now. Did the USA send the Georgians HIMARs, M-777, and lots of ammo? No. Pretty sure they didn't even send them basic stuff like AT4 much less Javelins, Stingers etc. You people need to wake up. Russia isn't a freaking supper power anymore. They aren't even a 1st world military any more. Its a little sad really. Its not a done deal but things are looking pretty bad for Russia ATM. Down-voting me just proves the truth hurts.
"We can say that today was the best ever, the second best ever, day for the Russians in the territory of Ukraine. Something must be changed. If you ask what the Russian should change, to tell the truth, I don't know. But I believe, if they don't change anything after this situation, that means there is no need to continue this Special Operation. Because the Ukrainians managed to collect a big number of infantry. Some sources are saying, joking of course they are joking, that now the Ukrainians these days have a so big army that the Ukrainian authorities can give them just stones. And this army is able to crack the Russians' defense order just with stones because there are so much of them."
The simplistic view that "quantity has a quality of its own," is usually attributed to Joseph Stalin, the Georgian leader of the Soviet Union during the second World War (as well as before and after).
Stalin was wrong, as the Second Battle of Kharkov, mentioned here yesterday, provides. In May 1942, near Izium, the Nazis thoroughly defeated a counterattacking Soviet force twice their forces size.
Statement by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense
*"In order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbass, a decision was made to regroup the Russian troops stationed in the Balakleya and Izyum regions to build up efforts in the Donetsk direction.
To this end, within three days, an operation was carried out to curtail and organize the transfer of the Izyum-Balakley group of troops to the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic.
During this operation, a number of distraction and demonstration activities were carried out with the designation of the real actions of the troops.
In order to prevent damage to Russian troops, a powerful fire defeat was inflicted on the enemy using aviation, missile troops and artillery.
Over three days, more than two thousand Ukrainian and foreign fighters were destroyed, as well as over a hundred units of armored vehicles and artillery."*
Has that been the plan all along?
In retrospect that seems likely. The Russian military must have know that the Ukrainian attack was coming. There was only light resistance against the Ukrainian attack. Major Russian units had already been moved out of the area. The region did not have any public priority in Russian planing. A larger fight would have cost many Russian soldier and civilian lives.
So there were no cunning plans to surround the Ukrainian forces and no real disaster or success on either side.
Well, that is at least what the Russian military says. It also fits to the known facts.
There may be another reason why the Russian military did not want to fight for Izium. In May 1942, during the Second Battle of Kharkov, a Soviet counterattack on Nazi held Kharkov was defeated by two pre-planned Nazi attacks south and north of Izium.
The Ukrainian offensive here is near identical to the Nazi offensive that existed in the same place in WW2.
The Soviet counterattack ended in a bloody defeat:
"On 17 May, the German 3rd Panzer Corps and XXXXIV Army Corps under the command of Fedor von Bock, supported by aircraft, arrived, enabling the Germans to launch Operation Fridericus, pushing back the Soviet Barvenkovo bridgehead to the south. On 18 May, [Marshal Semyon] Timoshenko requested permission to fall back, but Stalin rejected the request. On 19 May, Paulus launched a general offensive to the north as Bock's troops advanced in the south, thus attempting to surround the Soviets in the Izium salient. Realizing the risk of having entire armies surrounded, Stalin authorized the withdraw, but by that time the Soviet forces were already started to be closed in. On 20 May, the nearly surrounded Soviet forces mounted counteroffensives, but none of the attempts were successful in breaking through the German lines. The Soviets achieved some small victories on 21 and 22 May, but by 24 May, they were surrounded near Kharkov."
...
The Second Battle of Kharkov resulted in an extremely costly loss to the Soviets, which saw 207,000 men killed, wounded, or captured; some estimates put the number as high as 240,000. Over 1,000 Soviet tanks were destroyed during this battle, as well as the loss of 57,000 horses. German losses were much smaller than the Soviets, with over 20,000 killed, wounded, or captured. Soviet General Georgy Zhukov later blamed this major defeat on Stalin, who underestimated German strength in the region and failed to prepare an adequate reserve force to counter the arrival of the German reinforcement that turned the tide.
This sounds plausible. I don't believe that Ukraine all of a sudden is able to to put the Russians into full retreat. No way. The media is having a big party, "Ukraine is winning the war, this is a turning point, Russia will finally be defeated". Bullshit.
On July 7, in a session with Duma leaders and party factions heads, Putin said:
"Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try. We have already heard a lot about the West wanting to fight us ”to the last Ukrainian.“ This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but that seems to be where it is going. But everyone should know that, by and large, we have not started anything in earnest yet."
Russia has been fighting with one-hand tied behind its back and using only its best thumb.
See in the far right column the "Field uniform insignia" matches. That is a Russian Lieutenant colonel and his driver. He's in charge of an entire battalion(that's maybe 1000+ men) but he's been captured. Totally normal. Nothing to see here.
I've studied various maps throughout this whole thing and while they aren't perfect they are generally accurate(to within 24-72 hours of what's happening). There is TONS of video evidence to support that they are accurate ATM, such as the one above, and videos of Ukrainians forces on the roof of buildings showing a specific formerly Russian held towns skyline. If this shit is fake is it literally tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars of edited and computer graphic video. More importantly the Russian's simply aren't talking or they give obvious false info Baghdad Bob style bullshit with zero detail.
I'll sum this up. The Russians are still holding their ground in the east and south. The north has completely collapsed. The Russian troops are running away so quickly that when a truck, tank, or BMP etc breaks down they just leave it on the side of the road. They don't even take the time to scuttle or sabotage it. They just grab everything that will fit on the other vehicles and leave it sitting there for the Ukrainians chasing them to find and repair. Its a literal cluster fuck. I've seen like 20 credible videos of abandoned vehicles.
One video was of an obvious supply area/very large barn. There were like 6 Ural trucks and 2-3 grad rocket launcher trucks with big a Z on the side. Every one the hood was opened up. Someone took 5-10 min to try and fix it then said fuck it and got in the working truck to flee the area.
This is exactly why the Russians are losing. Its so obvious, to me at least. Their equipment was all in piss poor shape to start with they just had shit-tons of it. After months of war half of it doesn't work and they don't even have parts to fix it. When you combine that with Ukraine blowing up tons of stuff that DID work... you get a VERY ugly picture. The mighty Russian machine reached its limit.
Now look at the next part of the puzzle. There had been little to no real fighting in the north for weeks on end. Ukraine was set to attack in the south. They were clearly massing troops. The Russians took their good working equipment from the north and moved a lot of it to the south in order to bolster their defenses. Ukraine (really the CIA) tricked them though. They used HIMARS to blow up those two key bridges. That trapped most of the working equipment in the south... but cut off resupply and escape. Yet in the north it left a paper thin defense line which they attacked just to see how strong it really was and it collapsed completely.
The problem is right now the Ukrainians up north are making their way east virtually unopposed. In a few days they are going to be headed back south BEHIND the current Russian lines in Donetsk. Its either that or they are going to invade Russia. When they turn south even more troops will have to decide to risk being cut off or run the fuck away. The momentum is completely on Ukraine's side.
Nothing is guaranteed, but all indications are Russia is totally fucked. The only way they can fix this is to pull troops from other places like NATO border bases which will leave that lightly/undefended. Even if they do that it might take them a week to figure out the logistics. This whole damn war might literally be over in a week at the current pace Ukraine is setting.
Understand now? Russia is fucked. That's just the facts on the ground. If they were a competent 1st world army with good equipment and disciplined professional solders they COULD recover from this. And if they do I will be impressed, but they aren't. They are a 3rd world military with degraded poorly maintained aged/ancient equipment and poor training. They will be slow and ineffective which will allow the Ukrainians to keep right on overwhelming them.
The only advantage and only reason Russian won ANY fight in this whole war was massive artillery barrages and large numbers of troops. They are now out of ammo(because the depot was either blown up by HIMARS or the bridge to get more was blown up) and half their guns are either at end of life from being used too much or they've been blown up. PLUS all their towing/grad trucks are breaking down from poor maintenance. Any one of those can be compensated for, but all of them together have made the Russian forces ineffective. Ukraine on the other hand has brand new M-777 guns and plenty of trucks/ammo. They have fewer of them BUT THEY ARE EFFECTIVE. AND they have what... a dozen or more insanely accurate HIMARS...
I hate to burst your bubble, but the Russians are in full retreat right now. I hadn't looked at the reports in the past 12-24 hours when I wrote my post above and its even worse than it was yesterday. The Russian reinforcements were pure smoke and mirrors. Kharkiv is now in Ukraine's hands and several of the major supply lines that go to Sievierodonetsk are now cut off, both road and railway. If things keep going well for Ukraine they will retake that whole area and the Russians won't have the supplies to defend it. All the Russian gains are being undone.
All three of your examples are totally different than what is happening right now. Did the USA send the Georgians HIMARs, M-777, and lots of ammo? No. Pretty sure they didn't even send them basic stuff like AT4 much less Javelins, Stingers etc. You people need to wake up. Russia isn't a freaking supper power anymore. They aren't even a 1st world military any more. Its a little sad really. Its not a done deal but things are looking pretty bad for Russia ATM. Down-voting me just proves the truth hurts.
What reports do you refer to? The media? Could you provide solid intel about the Russians being in full retreat, please?
crickets
You suffer, but why?
Raaaaawwr
The following is an interesting analysis called -- "The Izium Withdrawal - A Catalyst For 'Starting In Earnest'"
"We can say that today was the best ever, the second best ever, day for the Russians in the territory of Ukraine. Something must be changed. If you ask what the Russian should change, to tell the truth, I don't know. But I believe, if they don't change anything after this situation, that means there is no need to continue this Special Operation. Because the Ukrainians managed to collect a big number of infantry. Some sources are saying, joking of course they are joking, that now the Ukrainians these days have a so big army that the Ukrainian authorities can give them just stones. And this army is able to crack the Russians' defense order just with stones because there are so much of them."
The above is the opener of Dima's Military Summary of yesterday's events in Ukraine.
The simplistic view that "quantity has a quality of its own," is usually attributed to Joseph Stalin, the Georgian leader of the Soviet Union during the second World War (as well as before and after).
Stalin was wrong, as the Second Battle of Kharkov, mentioned here yesterday, provides. In May 1942, near Izium, the Nazis thoroughly defeated a counterattacking Soviet force twice their forces size.
Statement by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense
*"In order to achieve the stated goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbass, a decision was made to regroup the Russian troops stationed in the Balakleya and Izyum regions to build up efforts in the Donetsk direction.
To this end, within three days, an operation was carried out to curtail and organize the transfer of the Izyum-Balakley group of troops to the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic.
During this operation, a number of distraction and demonstration activities were carried out with the designation of the real actions of the troops.
In order to prevent damage to Russian troops, a powerful fire defeat was inflicted on the enemy using aviation, missile troops and artillery.
Over three days, more than two thousand Ukrainian and foreign fighters were destroyed, as well as over a hundred units of armored vehicles and artillery."*
Has that been the plan all along?
In retrospect that seems likely. The Russian military must have know that the Ukrainian attack was coming. There was only light resistance against the Ukrainian attack. Major Russian units had already been moved out of the area. The region did not have any public priority in Russian planing. A larger fight would have cost many Russian soldier and civilian lives.
So there were no cunning plans to surround the Ukrainian forces and no real disaster or success on either side.
Well, that is at least what the Russian military says. It also fits to the known facts.
There may be another reason why the Russian military did not want to fight for Izium. In May 1942, during the Second Battle of Kharkov, a Soviet counterattack on Nazi held Kharkov was defeated by two pre-planned Nazi attacks south and north of Izium.
The Ukrainian offensive here is near identical to the Nazi offensive that existed in the same place in WW2.
The Soviet counterattack ended in a bloody defeat:
"On 17 May, the German 3rd Panzer Corps and XXXXIV Army Corps under the command of Fedor von Bock, supported by aircraft, arrived, enabling the Germans to launch Operation Fridericus, pushing back the Soviet Barvenkovo bridgehead to the south. On 18 May, [Marshal Semyon] Timoshenko requested permission to fall back, but Stalin rejected the request. On 19 May, Paulus launched a general offensive to the north as Bock's troops advanced in the south, thus attempting to surround the Soviets in the Izium salient. Realizing the risk of having entire armies surrounded, Stalin authorized the withdraw, but by that time the Soviet forces were already started to be closed in. On 20 May, the nearly surrounded Soviet forces mounted counteroffensives, but none of the attempts were successful in breaking through the German lines. The Soviets achieved some small victories on 21 and 22 May, but by 24 May, they were surrounded near Kharkov." ...
The Second Battle of Kharkov resulted in an extremely costly loss to the Soviets, which saw 207,000 men killed, wounded, or captured; some estimates put the number as high as 240,000. Over 1,000 Soviet tanks were destroyed during this battle, as well as the loss of 57,000 horses. German losses were much smaller than the Soviets, with over 20,000 killed, wounded, or captured. Soviet General Georgy Zhukov later blamed this major defeat on Stalin, who underestimated German strength in the region and failed to prepare an adequate reserve force to counter the arrival of the German reinforcement that turned the tide.
This sounds plausible. I don't believe that Ukraine all of a sudden is able to to put the Russians into full retreat. No way. The media is having a big party, "Ukraine is winning the war, this is a turning point, Russia will finally be defeated". Bullshit.
On July 7, in a session with Duma leaders and party factions heads, Putin said:
"Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try. We have already heard a lot about the West wanting to fight us ”to the last Ukrainian.“ This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but that seems to be where it is going. But everyone should know that, by and large, we have not started anything in earnest yet."
Russia has been fighting with one-hand tied behind its back and using only its best thumb.
Is it the preddit MEAL TEAM SIX morbidly obese faggots?
You sound like an idiot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/x81y30/ukrainian_soldiers_with_russian_prisoners/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Pause this video at about 8 seconds and look VERY hard at his left shoulder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_ranks_and_insignia_of_the_Russian_Federation#Officers
Lieutenant colonel - Подполко́вник - Podpolkóvnik
See in the far right column the "Field uniform insignia" matches. That is a Russian Lieutenant colonel and his driver. He's in charge of an entire battalion(that's maybe 1000+ men) but he's been captured. Totally normal. Nothing to see here.
I've studied various maps throughout this whole thing and while they aren't perfect they are generally accurate(to within 24-72 hours of what's happening). There is TONS of video evidence to support that they are accurate ATM, such as the one above, and videos of Ukrainians forces on the roof of buildings showing a specific formerly Russian held towns skyline. If this shit is fake is it literally tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars of edited and computer graphic video. More importantly the Russian's simply aren't talking or they give obvious false info Baghdad Bob style bullshit with zero detail.
https://deepstatemap.live/en#8/49.732/36.200
https://liveuamap.com/
https://militaryland.net/
I'll sum this up. The Russians are still holding their ground in the east and south. The north has completely collapsed. The Russian troops are running away so quickly that when a truck, tank, or BMP etc breaks down they just leave it on the side of the road. They don't even take the time to scuttle or sabotage it. They just grab everything that will fit on the other vehicles and leave it sitting there for the Ukrainians chasing them to find and repair. Its a literal cluster fuck. I've seen like 20 credible videos of abandoned vehicles.
One video was of an obvious supply area/very large barn. There were like 6 Ural trucks and 2-3 grad rocket launcher trucks with big a Z on the side. Every one the hood was opened up. Someone took 5-10 min to try and fix it then said fuck it and got in the working truck to flee the area.
This is exactly why the Russians are losing. Its so obvious, to me at least. Their equipment was all in piss poor shape to start with they just had shit-tons of it. After months of war half of it doesn't work and they don't even have parts to fix it. When you combine that with Ukraine blowing up tons of stuff that DID work... you get a VERY ugly picture. The mighty Russian machine reached its limit.
Now look at the next part of the puzzle. There had been little to no real fighting in the north for weeks on end. Ukraine was set to attack in the south. They were clearly massing troops. The Russians took their good working equipment from the north and moved a lot of it to the south in order to bolster their defenses. Ukraine (really the CIA) tricked them though. They used HIMARS to blow up those two key bridges. That trapped most of the working equipment in the south... but cut off resupply and escape. Yet in the north it left a paper thin defense line which they attacked just to see how strong it really was and it collapsed completely.
The problem is right now the Ukrainians up north are making their way east virtually unopposed. In a few days they are going to be headed back south BEHIND the current Russian lines in Donetsk. Its either that or they are going to invade Russia. When they turn south even more troops will have to decide to risk being cut off or run the fuck away. The momentum is completely on Ukraine's side.
Nothing is guaranteed, but all indications are Russia is totally fucked. The only way they can fix this is to pull troops from other places like NATO border bases which will leave that lightly/undefended. Even if they do that it might take them a week to figure out the logistics. This whole damn war might literally be over in a week at the current pace Ukraine is setting.
Understand now? Russia is fucked. That's just the facts on the ground. If they were a competent 1st world army with good equipment and disciplined professional solders they COULD recover from this. And if they do I will be impressed, but they aren't. They are a 3rd world military with degraded poorly maintained aged/ancient equipment and poor training. They will be slow and ineffective which will allow the Ukrainians to keep right on overwhelming them.
The only advantage and only reason Russian won ANY fight in this whole war was massive artillery barrages and large numbers of troops. They are now out of ammo(because the depot was either blown up by HIMARS or the bridge to get more was blown up) and half their guns are either at end of life from being used too much or they've been blown up. PLUS all their towing/grad trucks are breaking down from poor maintenance. Any one of those can be compensated for, but all of them together have made the Russian forces ineffective. Ukraine on the other hand has brand new M-777 guns and plenty of trucks/ammo. They have fewer of them BUT THEY ARE EFFECTIVE. AND they have what... a dozen or more insanely accurate HIMARS...
Russia is fucked. That's just reality.