c3k

They are just following the stupid political correctness trend that have seen statues being toppled over in other European countries, and also in USA if I'm correct. The Russians are showing that they are exactly like the rest of that rabble and hope to be taken seriously by doing this.

Roman Donik about UKR and RUS artillery on Izium direction:
Our artillerists are really gods. Counter-battery fire this is first of all a war of calibers, distance and recon. Enemy has advantage in quantity and in artilery systems nomemclature. Whether you like it or not, but this is fact. And in ammunition types too. And in UAVs. And in missiles. And in aircraft. 
Therefore, in conditions, which our artillery works, I can say confidently - nobody can work better. Because of this SP-gunners of 93rd brigade after their effective work at the enemy, almost all day chased battery of Uragans, with continuos monitoring from the sky with 2-3 Orlans. They just were stopping for short time for the rest and almost immediately taking fire. And this mess whole day. But could break away from chasing and at the morning again poured on the attacking Russians. Why we don't beat up enemy Uragans? Because let see again about advantage in missiles and aircraft. Though... Why don't beat up? Lately a battery of Grads under comamnd of "Shkval"  - the legend of the Donetsk airport defense times, in result of raid actions almost across enemy's rears, poured fire on enemy Uragan-crews, which have been deploying to shell our positions. And there is tons of such examples. 
For two days of fighting on Kharkiv and Izium directions, according to Roman Donik, enemy has conducted 19 and 37 artillery strikes respectively. 4 airstrikes.
What is artillery strike? This is not several explosions. This is work of several guns, battery and sometime even several batteries simultainously. And this can last for hours. Tons of deadly steel are falling from the sky on you. And after this attack of Russian infantry begins with support of armor. This is hard to explain by words. This is just a psyche of people under these close explosions is beyond the edge of reality, understandable to us. And immediataly after theese explosions, this people take own rifles and launchers and repell enemy attacks on short distances. 
For two days of fight OUV "Sloboda" destroyed  11 tanks, 5 BMP, 3 BTR, 4 MTLB, 1 SP-howitzer, 2 UAVs Orlan, about 65 of personnel.
On the photos - the consequenses of just one attack. Super-short distances. And NLAW is recognized world leader of equipmnet, which produce barbeque-boxes in contact way. 
 

 

      

Monuments, schmonuments.
Pointless diversion. We all have opinions and anyone stating them here is unlikely to change theirs. We're just gonna slam doors on each other, to no good end and to the absolute detriment of this wonderful Thread.
Lets pivot back to the war happening right now, not waste our energies on the long gone battlefields of decades ago.
I, for one, want to see what UKR does with the Kherson knot...

Guys you are being very short sighted sorry, cruising along with the shallow cancel culture. Here we have german paratroopers cemetery in Crete, German soldiers cemetery in Attica, Turkish monuments, venetian, franks monuments, all the freaking occupiers that walked this earth. And we respect all that no matter what, you vandals. 
 

Some of the conversation over the few pages have referenced the former Yugoslavia.  Which brings back... well, not so good memories.
I was a Canadian peacekeeper in Bosnia in latter half of '93.   During the Croatian offensive in the Medak in Sept of '93, I was with the 2 PPCLI when we went into the sh*tstorm to try to stop the ethnic cleansing going on.  The Croatian army attacked our unit during that operation, a thing that the Croatian government denies to this very day.  Despite us photographing the Croatian dead after the battle and collecting their ID, etc.    We had god damn evidence and to this day, the Croatian government position is that they never attacked us.
Part of our job, beside trying to keep the warring factions apart, was to document evidence of ethnic cleansing and I was in charge (I was an officer) of a evidence collection team.  So, literally thousands of photos, videos.  Transcripts of interviews with witnesses and victims.  Six months exposed to that living hell, day after f*n day....
So I had the evidence, because sometimes our official recording devices ran out film or tape and we used our personal recording devices to finish up at a site.
After I got out the military, I found myself sometimes on various military forms about games, such as this one.  Arma forums, military wargame forums... that sort of thing.  And as it happened, I ran into forum members from Croatia and Bosnia Serbs and we would get into it.
Universally, every Croatian or Bosnian Serb forum poster denied what happened there.  And I was called a liar on many occasions for telling them them the truth of that war as I was there and they weren't.  And I have evidence to back up my claims.  No one believed me and if I offered visual proof, they didn't want to see it or they disclaimed it as fake.
I remember a particular Bosnian Serb who was not in the war but we got deep into the weeds discussing what happened during that war.  Deny, deny, deny.  It never happened.  Until videos that the Bosnian Serbs took of them killing civilians and dumping them in mass graves what was recorded by the very soldiers who committed the atrocities surfaced and made it onto their local media and they couldn't deny it any longer.  Those videos were part of the process besides sanctions that resulted in some notable Bosnia Serb / Serbian leaders being turned over to the ICC for prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.  After the revelation came out, this individual on that forum who I had spent hours engaging with about the culpability of Serbs in the atrocities simply ignored me from that point onwards.  I will never know why.... was it that he discovered that I was right all a long and he was wrong and he was ashamed (as he would have been) or he simply wanted to hang onto his delusion of what narrative he wanted to believe was true and he knew that I would keep chipping away.   
Denial is a powerful thing.   I don't understand why it has such power but it does.  People can dismiss an outright objective reality because to accept the truth is to undermine what they think reality is or should be.   I don't get it and is beyond madding to see the denials in the face of objective reality happen over and over.
Sigh.   I don't know why the hell I rambled on with this.  Maybe it was a story I need to tell to remain sane in light of the same brutality I witnessed back in Bosnia happening in Ukraine now.  Or maybe I still am the greater fool for believing my experiences in Bosnia can be an object lesson to others about holding onto a narrative that is personally comfortable but runs counter to all the real evidence to the contrary.   DMS, I am looking at you....
The truth will come out after all this is over.  At least, I hope it does.  The truth of this war needs to be told and codified so generations that follow can know what really happend.
Now at the end of this and reviewing it, I feel that I should have deleted this or apologize for it.  
I am hitting post. It is my truth.  Let people accept it and learn something from it or ignore it.  I needed to say this for a long time.   
 
 

Gah! Were I King for the Day, and a minion presented the idea of hacking into the Russian ICBMs to neuter them, I'd have to put that minion in stocks for the day.
I cannot imagine a more dangerous thing to try to do. Let's imagine...
1. The hack is successful and Russia cannot use their ICBMs. They would, most likely, presume this to be an attack precursor and they would then use/launch their SLBMs, and any other nuke (SRBM, air-launched) etc. against whichever agency they think has just hobbled them.
2. The hack is unsuccessful. See "1", above.
 

Rough count, about 32 impacts. One was a direct hit. Reference the hit on the Russian HQ north of Izyum, the odds given of hitting the HQ building (or, the assumed HQ building) by random chance was given as 2 or 3%. Or so I remember it.  The argument was that it had to be a guided weapon to hit that building.
Looking at the above video, what are the odds of a direct hit on the launcher? Yet, that's what occurred...
 

Rough count, about 32 impacts. One was a direct hit. Reference the hit on the Russian HQ north of Izyum, the odds given of hitting the HQ building (or, the assumed HQ building) by random chance was given as 2 or 3%. Or so I remember it.  The argument was that it had to be a guided weapon to hit that building.
Looking at the above video, what are the odds of a direct hit on the launcher? Yet, that's what occurred...
 

There's an old saw..."those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities". The absurdity that you believe is that there are two realities with equal legitimacy. That's simply not true. The evidence of the atrocities in Bucha exists. The evidence of random shelling of obviously civilian targets in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Odessa and elsewhere exists. Evidence of some mustache twisting Western plot to destroy the Russkiy Mir does not. The reality is that your leader started this war in the pursuit of Russian hegemony and your badly trained, led and used army has committed enormous war crimes. As a Russian friend of mine put it; "****...this time *we're* the Nazis in '41". And yes...many, many Russians realize this. I hope you can find your own way there as soon as possible. Russians acquiesced to Putin's rotten silovik regime and only Russians can put a final end to it. 
 

From the other side in Popasna:
 

Some news from Luhansk oblast, looks like this guy either in action, or has communication with own comrades in 81st airmobile brigade, which elements fight both in Rubizhne and Popasna
May 1st
Gifts [ammunition+equipment] at last came to our lads in Rubizhne. Slightly calmed down orcs. No artillery support. Barely not shot with friendly fire with SBU [special force "Alfa" of Security Service of Ukraine], which draged motherf...s [captured enemies] to "zeros" [forward positios] but HQ has ruled this mess. 81st keeps strong. 
Special forces against us. They take back own "200", make smoke, armor support, all feng shui. We can't take back ours. Advantage in some places 1 to 20. On old positions sometimes came to hand-to-hand combat. The house three times a day the house changed hands. There are just f..g alot of them. Our withdrew.
About Popasna. 200 our guys were ready to go in order to maintain corridor for heroes for their breathrough, but HQ cancelled. Memory to the heroes... There is no communication with them. They in encirclement. There is no any fight there anymore. There were about two platoons [maybe exactly this episode was on long video, where Russian PMC fighters is capturing 7 UKR soldiers in Popasna]
May 3rd
Popasna. Road juction is ours. Our arty at last worked this night. Orcs began to dig in. Our tanks on positions. There will be no more offensive. Guys stood out 
May 5th
Popasna today. Right flank keeps position in the town. About 15 houses are ours. We saged there a lot for theese days, but didn't withdraw more. There is 81st only. The center. Road junction is our. For two days we have crumbled about company of SOBR [I doubt this was Russians, probably either PVC or LDPR police special forces]. This wasn't street fight. They just came at us in the open. We were fuc..g astonished. Their spetsnaz so stupid. Our tanks on the place. Our artillery today keeps silence, so we make nightmire for orcs themeselves. 
 
Other article was issued with interview of volunteer battalion (actually rather reinforced company) "Svoboda" (Freedom), which fights in Rubizhne. This guy said Russians used there own standard tactic - alot of artillery, then tanks ruined buildings with direct fire, then LPR conscripts attacked, after them - regular LPR units, after them - Kadyrov's troopers or Russian units. If they havn't success, all repaeted. Our artillery answers 1 shot against their 15-20. On their small position Russian artilelry each day is sootong about 500 shels. Thus each day on Rubizhne enemy fired whole military train of ammunition 
  
 

Can't find the meme picture now, but the idea was roughly
(Russia, knocking on door) "Let me in"
(Finland) "Why?"
(Russia) "I'm going to protect you"
(Finland) "Protect me from what?"
(Russia) "From what I'm going to do to you if you don't let me in"

@Haiduk has noted that this guy and DanSpiun tend to be a few days behind the times with their source info, so this is FWIW:
Hard to believe the Russians found a way into Dibrova (heavy woods) without more heavy losses to their (undermanned) assault infantry.
Unless the UA is indeed withdrawing from Lyman.
 
 

The US is the world's largest grain producer and exporter. If there is a shortage of bread on your local supermarket shelves it isn't because of a lack grain being imported from Ukraine. Bigger chance the cause is a shortage of plastic for the bags than wheat for the bread.
 
I think this is a common misconception and comes from some truly heroic defensive actions in WW2. The reason I think it is a misconception is because it is used as a special strength of the Russian military and it is predicated on some actions and not all. Not every defensive action fought by the Russian army in it's history has shown to have this "tenacity". Sure there are examples but it is not the rule. Sure they have a better record than the ARVN but I'd argue they are not in the same league as the USMC, Japanese Army, IDF or French Foreign Legion. 
On top of that this is a different war. Almost any people from any nation that have an ounce of nationalism will fight pretty hard to defend their homes. They might not win but they will give a very stubborn defense. The RA is not defending its homes. As much Russian state propaganda would like to make them believe that Ukraine is Russia and should be defended that way the soldiers know it isn't. They know that they are part of an invading army and the soil they stand on isn't theirs.
If they truly felt that way they would be way more tenacious in the attack as well. They aren't. The RA has failed to display almost all of the fairy tale qualities that we in the west and themselves have painted them with. For that matter they should be inflicting horrendous losses on the counter attacks around Kharkiv. The high commands operational art should be being applauded by approving generals in the west. Their famous armored spearheads should have shattered the UA and encircled Kyiv. Their vaunted arty should be wiping whole brigades off the battlefield at whim. Their dominating air force should have uncontested air supremacy across the whole country and their illustrious fleet should sail with impunity throughout the Black Sea.  
LOL, I think I just wrote a new season for Mythbusters!!
 
Edit: I need to type faster, @The_Capt and @Reclaimer are quick-draws!!

Longtime lurker, first time poster here. I've been playing the games for a few years now and I have to say that I have been stunned at just how closely the footage we've seen from the war tracks with what we see in game. Really impressive. Also, the quality of discourse on this thread has been amazing. It has become one of my primary sources for information and insights into the conflict.
Anyways, I hadn't seen this article posted yet, and I wanted to share it: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/putin-war-propaganda-russian-support/629714/
 
I don't really agree with the author's conclusion (I don't think that any attempt to convince the Russian population at large to stop this war has any real chance of success), but I thought that the story about the Ukrainian family that was forced to shelter in their basement with a group of Russian soldiers was really interesting.

Welcome to page 666 of the discussion, thus making this the thread of the beast.

There is a seed of a very important point here - No, we cannot trust anything Russia is saying...because they are the enemy.  I am not sure it has sunk in yet within the western world but at some point -some argue from the very beginning- this whole thing has become a war between Russia and the Western Global Order.  If the May 9th things happens or not, we are already in an undeclared war between Russia, its allies, and the western world.  Ukraine gets the unfortunate distinction of being the battleground but this thing does not end if either Russia takes the entire nation, or is kicked out of the entire nation of Ukraine; this is a violent collision of irreconcilable certainties as to how the world will be ordered into the latter half of the 21st century.
I strongly suspect that we are seeing orders of magnitude proxy happening here.  Ukraine is one, Russia is the other.  And I am not going all "conspiracy theory" here but the other great world power is watching this all in the background and seeing a lot of wins as outcomes.  China is not only tacitly supporting Russia and, it is grabbing up all that US intel - a brilliant move to beat Russia to the punch, but risky in its exposure to China, a risk I am sure the US was aware of.  It could be argued that China is staying on the side lines because it has the most to gain in this collision, and it is likely in its interests to keep it going until Russia is burned out and pulled into its sphere further as a weakened and dependent partner.
This also sets up for further economic incursion into Europe as there is nothing illegal with Chinese owned oil and gas, coming out of Russian soil, being bought by Europe.  Our sanctions are against Russian corporations.  As this thing expands and intensifies, I am starting to see a Chinese long-game emerge as Russian and Western world drive whatever is left of Russia into the Eastern orbit.  I personally would have thought this impossible given culture and history but here we are.
As to the current fight, this is very much us vs them and will be long after the shooting stops in Ukraine itself.  Welcome to the Complicated War 1.
  

No, this is new one. And this could be even company HQ.
"Strike on Kherson, killing many officers" - looks like this is another fairy tail of Arestovich based on information from Kherson citizens, that building of one of city enlistment offices was set fire by molotov coctails or even blew up. And as if several officers were lost or injured.
Though, our artillery and MLRS often strike at Chornobaivka airfield, so maybe there also some HQ was hit once again

There's suggestion that the pre-strike image is photoshopped. I'm no expert on that, but seem plausible:
 

Here's how the estimated front lines around Karkhiv have moved in the last 7 days (diagonal lined area shows territory regained by Ukraine).
For added info, I've added in various exploding things in Russian controlled areas in the same time (one supply convoy, 2 military warehouses (1 of which is slighly off the north of the map - too lazy to go and re-crop everything), 2 claims by Russians of shelling of border villages).
Not included is a claimed shot down TB2 drone and 10 or so incidents of Russian air defences (mostly in Belgorod) firing at unknown stuff / reckless geese. And a few claims of shell fragments landing in random places.

Im currently in a Spike equipped section, and If Spikes do make it to Ukraine I will be extremely happy. With a good amout of simulator time a group of guys can become VERY proficient at NLOS sniping in a matter of hours. I hadnt touched the system and was doing NLOS attacks (in the simulator) in an hour.

New episode of the strike on Zmiinyi island, probably on 30th of April. UKR Bayraktar destroyed some radar and comms equipment and hit SA-missiles depot. Operator says "we destroyed two antennas and two were slashed with fragments"
According to information of military journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk, Russian garrison on Zmiinyi had 42 men of 1299th maritime intelligence center and 744th communication center. Both units belong to Black Sea Fleet and dislocated in Sevastopol. Also there were several ZU-23-2 and Strela-10 of unknown unit. Reportedly only 8 servicemen survived and were evacuated, rest of personnel consider as missing.
Operative Comamnd "South" made a statement, that Russian Raptor boats conducted recon mission near the mouth of Danube during the night before their elimination. Probably both boats belonged to 338th maritime recon post of 1299th intelligence center - it has 4 boats Raptor/BK-16 classes. On the video were hit both types.
 

1. Finish push E/NE out of Kharkiv. Put Vovchans'k-Dvorichna road under interdiction. Threaten Kupiansk. Put Izyum on rationed ammo supplies. Take advantage of interior lines and shift fronts.
2. Mechanized counter attack S out of Zaporizhzhia to Tokmak to threaten both Melitopol and Berdyansk.
3. Mutually supporting drives down the Vasylivka-Melitopol and Tokmak-Melitopol corridors. Look for battle of annihilation.
4. If still have momentum after that, bag Kherson.
In general, this first threatens everything Ru gained in Donbas which they have to hold first. Ru will be tempted to withdraw into Kherson from Melitopol in light of their political aims to declare a Kherson Republic/annexation. Ukrainian goal is not to comply with Ru's desired political lines, but to kill as many Ru assets as possible and keep the battle of annihilation going. Don't have to liberate everything on first strategic counter offensive. Bleed them where you can bleed them the most.
I feel monumentally silly and naive for all that in the face of reality, but you're dangling a baited hook in front of me and I'm a fish.

In another area, discussing Ukraine's strategic options, I posted this:
 
In fact, push towards Melitopol is my preferred. 
1. Avoids Mariopul...for now.
2. Threatens Kherson concentration of forces.
3. Cuts land bridge
4. Threatens Crimea.
As part of that push, cut the LOCs to Crimea at Kerch.
Russia's response would be to either evacuate Kherson, if they react quickly enough (if Ukraine can cut to the coast), or rush forces from the east to break the Ukrainian coastal penetration.
THAT would then allow another Ukrainian push near Mariopul...bagging the rescue/reinforcements between the two Ukrainian envelopments.
Yeah, the enemy gets a vote, too.  
 
Ukraine is countering the Russian attack from Izyum. As long as the Russian forces are concentrated there, they are weak elsewhere.
The land bridge is a long front with a lot of opportunities. 
Moving south to the Sea of Azov, through or near Melitopol, will cut the LOCs of any Russian forces west of that point (especially Kherson). Cutting the Kerch bridge will isolate that zone completely. (Physically dropping the Kerch bridge and then interdicting any supplies being shipped or flown into Crimea.)
The reaction from Russia will have to be to remove any Ukrainian corridor cutting down to the Sea of Azov. Force to the west of the corridor (Kherson) will be needed to attack the corridor from their side, while other forces will attack from the east.
Meantime, if Ukraine can maintain that corridor and attacking the Kerch strait via long-range fires, Crimea and all the forces near Kherson will whither on the vine.

During the war 2014-2015, especially during Debaltsevo battle radio operators of 128th mountain brigade from Transcarpatia spoke on own local dialect - crazy mix of Ukrainain, Russian, Hungarian and local dialectisms. The same did units from Western Ukraine - they also spoke on Halicia dialect, so Russians thought "the Polish merceneries fought against them"