LongLeftFlank

Southern front unit positions. (New source, so I cannot certify its reliability, but I've yet to run across a Pole who is pro-RU)

We're going to hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line / Have you any dirty washing Mother dear.... That being said, this (grainy) "CM Level 7" drone footage (7 minutes) from last month of a UA mechanised battalion getting backed up in a hedgerow gives you an idea of what could happen here. Russian shells start falling around minute 2:00. "Bad pathing" in action. UA please fix or do sumfink. .....The lead UKR tank actually has to *back up* and (via shouting???) get the rest of the platoon moving and out of the hedgerow breach. But by then, precious time has been lost and a traffic jam has formed, as the RU gunners zero in. This reminds me of some of my more frustrating CM games.

Zed's dead, honey. Zed's dead.

Comic book manuals and *shudder* reading is so, like 1985, Daddy-O. The Millenials and Gen Zer(o)s viddy the old YT....

Belarus: the Potemkin front... Do some of these poor old duffers count as 2 mobiks? And do they need to bring their own oxygen?

Ukraine raises the trolling bar, again! But as @The_Capt correctly reminds us, we cannot afford to assume "Russia Sux" when it comes to the Snark Wars. Those wily Ivans can surprise us, lashing back with sardonic wit!

Gooooood morning, North America! ....And what's behind Door Number 3? (oh, looks like that's outgoing. Weird how they fire air defence missiles offensively; seems a little wasteful.) Anyhoo, here's a bloody great bang....

Dang, that either sounds like a headline from @danfrodo 's 'Perilous Liberal Site' or something concocted by the Okhrana (evidently their Learned Elders of Zion had this fetish for derailing trains).

Future UKR President? And ok, the backdrop of high detail maps are pretty cool. Sign of a real hands-on administrator!

Bakhmut tactical situation (most of our discussion has been about Wagnerites and symbolic (un)importance. I am sticking here to the frontline situation). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63261600 Col Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for Ukraine's Eastern Command, still doubts the Russians have the numbers or equipment to take Bakhmut - which he says is now the concentration of its military efforts.... It is still possible that the Russian forces may be able to capture Bakhmut. But what then? "When we retreated from Lysychansk we exhausted the enemy," said Col Cherevatyi. His expectation is that Bakhmut might do the same. Maps. The longggggg topo map..... (miladviser is a RU source....) 4 minute clip, no combat footage but a look at the ground (ruins) and some discussion of the grunt level tactical situation (subtitles). "Every second level building has been leveled." you can see the terrain feature in the left centre (red zone) of that RU Google map above. ...Jawin's feed has a lot of these overhead kill sequences, for those into that kind of thing. I'm more interested in the field fortifications (and I read Hefner's mag for the articles too).

Wot, behind the rabbit? 'STARLINK DEMONSTRATES THE NEED TO REIN IN CAPITAL' Lol (and no, I'm not going there)

Great little 15 minute YT mini-doco of a 'day in the life' of a UA drone operator supporting a tactical attack in the Kherson direction. Very well done and worth a look. Part 1 of 2 Cliffhanger ending, sorry. I don't think Part 2 is up yet. The Terra Ops YT feed has some good (i.e. long takes, not jumpcut to incoherence) dronecam action vids, but this is the best I've seen yet in terms of telling the story. It is like the commander (callsign TALMUD lol) is playing CM but having a second party describe the visuals to him based on a level 5 view (and not being allowed to click on units for their exact status). (plug: This is why I so want CM to have designers allowed to assign 'execute until interrupted' AI plans to selected player side forces)

This. Russian military logistics is in every way a step backwards: it is built exclusively around railways and is highly dependent on a network of large logistics centers. Also

1. So how's that reverse slope defence on the west bank of the Krasna river working out? Hmm, maybe not so great, when your positions just get flanked and wiped out (those that don't just surrender) by veteran UA combat groups who don't care much about mud and rain. 2. Kraken clearing the 'all weather' road to the outskirts of Svatove (DefMon is *very* conservative about his control zones). 3. Noel's feed is more up to the minute, but his maps are way too 'Arrowy-Flaggy' to be useful. 4. A quick look at the ground.... 5. Dab For Effect!

Like welding cages on his turrets, Ivan gonna think whatever helps him cope with his increasingly crappy days. Keep chewing up the RU forces and the rest takes care of itself, as Napoleon said. At this point, the West is *far* too engaged in Ukraine to allow it to fail. As others on this board know firsthand, we backed far weaker horses in the Mideast (and Southeast Asia) for years, to the tune of trillions. It's so refreshing to back a nation with broad popular support, a people shaping their own destiny largely through their own efforts and sacrifices, for a change! When the heck did we last see that? Oh, right, early 2014, same people....

Fixed that for ya **** https://mhinfographics.com/2022/05/24/random-details-of-failed-maps/

Nah, you were right the first time. Shave that actor's head (think Buschemi as Khrushchev, although he was still WAY too skinny) and do some CGI to shrink the chin and he would do nicely. While a pathological INTJ type (I am INTJ as well btw, but the happy kind), Putin can do *quite* intimidating stuff with his eyes (VERY limited eye contact though) and general body language; very catlike (apologies @IanL, @FancyCat and various other Forum hepcats). Putin smiling (with teeth) is about as natural and comforting as this.... ...We can hate on our enemy without denying the personal skills that moved him to the top of a very vicious pyramid.

Yes, a truly independent Belarus -- a successful and overtly 'Russian' state* not dependent on Moscow -- is an even more unbearable affront to the Tsars (Red or White) than the existence of an independent Ukraine. Just as the very existence of Taiwan (or Singapore for that matter) as a wildly successful and prosperous 'Free Chinese' society is an intolerable affront to the fundamental mythology around the Middle Kingdom, where all largesse must radiate out from the all-wise all-knowing seat of the Emperor (while tribute flows in), presently in Beijing. Because it is only He who protects you from the barbarians. (Sound familiar at all?) A lot of extremely powerful mandarins and technocrats have a vested interest in that kind of thinking not being allowed to spread.... * Furious post from Kraze incoming in 3 - 2 - 1

All your base.... For great justice! Vlasov Army, anyone?

Fill yer галоши, mate! Specs (in Russian) are at front, drawings at the back. (I'm not a research genius -- well actually I am not bad, I just hit my event horizon of caring about the Bridge whodunnit a while ago. Anyhoo, it was embedded in some tweet or other)

What were we all saying about a thousand pages ago about 'digging in like ticks'? If Putin can make this 'low tech' war work well enough to avoid losing further large swathes of these lands (other than Kherson bridgehead) to the UA through the winter, that's enough of a 'win' for him to sell to his numb, glum populace. He has 'gathered the Russian lands' of Novorossiya and repelled NATOUkronazi aggression. Expect him and his foreign tools to push ever harder for peace talks, while also trying different pressure tactics on Ukraine and Europe: power grids, transport, cyber, etc. ....That is, if his battered army and economy can sustain the upcoming siege. Our thesis here, of course, is that they can't, and that each attempt will dissolve into a sh*tshow even quicker than the last.... **** Keenly awaiting the next surprise out of Ukraine's bag of tricks! I am still guessing that it involves seizing air superiority and eviscerating RU artillery in the land bridge in 4 days of precision guided 'shock and awe', followed by a dozen brigades relentlessly blasting and hacking the best regular formations RU has left into doomed, unsuppliable pockets.

Well by any normal definition, they're already belligerents. The Belarusian Armed Forces are largely a mobilisational force. Their manpower is at around 50-60% of the required peacetime strength. To reach 100%, they'd need to mobilise at least 20k men. Operationally, they are subordinated to the Russian Western MD. They don't have Land Forces Command, and they do not conduct exercises above battalion level, but even these are rare. They mostly train platoons and companies. More forces are deployed for Russia-organised drills such as Zapad or Union Shield. Currently, they maintain some presence near the border with Ukraine (1000 km long). Size varies depending on the source. Ukrainians claim Belarusians deployed up to 7 BTGs, but we assess these are actually CTGs, which would correspond with their level of training and capability. Given that the Belarusian Armed Forces are a mobilisation force, given they would need to deploy a lot of personnel towards the border, create concentration areas, etc., I am certain we will be able to pick up changes in the Belarusian posture. Hmm....

5. Kupyansk zone of control is expanding (last bits of Kharkiv Oblast). 6. Mic drop 7. June - October