panzermartin

Oh my, how did he end up in there, is there a possible way out for him? Maybe for the right amount of money

Re the prisoner thing. To be totally fair, Ukraine did this as well in the early days of the war

This is very intense, seems they are in a hurry to advance or not?...I dont think its logical for RU to pause and wait for UKR to strengthen their artillery even more.

Yes very probable it seems . But to be honest that kind of patriotism is not only russian exclusive, the most vocally patriotic are sometimes the most draft dodging everywhere. But truth is the Russians I have met have an indirect way to express themselves, like they need to hide something, soviet evasive decoding? Oh well don't remind me of this story

Flag waving from space. Strange, these were apparently the same people that were dressed in Ukrainian yellow back in February. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/04/russian-cosmonauts-display-flag-of-occupied-luhansk-region-on-iss-ukraine

Man, it won't be fair in the future to use these against infantry. Sides must agree, either drones or people. And our favourite strategy games will be reduced to artillery and drone shoot em up

Yes good points. I guess Russian empire, the communist party, Soviet Union etc has always been like that, so people involved and have a clue, should not be surprised.

Does anyone else get a feel that Girkin behaves like a hurt narcissist being rejected and ousted from what he would love to take part in. He sounds really bitter and while his points are valid he is constantly painting a very grim picture of the battlefield for RA even now that a major hub was conquered. Not that he couldn't be right, it is just the vibe I get from him.

Life in the frontlines is tough . I wonder how many more fake accounts exist.

I don't have the deep tactical understanding some posters here demonstrate but just wondering. If Kramatorsk and Slavyansk fall inside July with a repeat of Siverodonetsk pattern (quite possible given the momentum now) , do you believe Ukraine can still challenge Russian dominance in Donbas. Seems almost a finished case to me. These are the most well prepared and dug in lines UKR had and there are no significant terrain features beyond these. I see Russians sealing the ground all the way in SE until Dnipro before winter comes. Russia can't achieve a big superiority in infantry numbers but so far it doesn't really matter when your hammer is really big (arty) and you only need to clear shattered force remnants and isolated pockets. Ukraine is also in a transition phase and soon it will be relying solely on western systems but you can't build a truly effective army in few months with random systems getting into the fight bit by bit. (And also getting destroyed bit by bit before making a difference). You have to use a big solid force at once to achieve big gains. No significant tank force and no air power is also a very limiting factor. From what I can tell at least UKR has been using its new arty systems very carefully and I haven't seen many reports of destroyed m777 or Ceasars, or someone can enlighten us on this. This might be encouraging for UKR side as it could gradually acuumulate a sizeable arty force with preserved and newly trained units and suddenly present this at the battlefield.

Thank you! I had very faint memories of this film, from some 30 years ago, incredibly I rediscover it here. +2 for Pola Raska

Amazing! Thanks Huba. I've watched many old war films from the soviet era and I find them very well crafted, (with actually not so much party propaganda as well).

In some scences you can see soldiers with AK-47 rifles or IS-3 tanks That's nothing compared to the M47s as King Tigers in the (around the same date - 1965) battle of the bulge movie!

This looks pretty interesting and well executed for its age, I searched the title, Pancerni and pies or smth. Mini series. Maybe we could find this somewhere online. Looks indeed like the kind of movie that haunts you as a little kid. Das Boot (in mini series) was the one for me. I was so excited when it was re-eleased as directors cut to the cinemas 20yrs later. Edit : Another old B&W polish film came to mind, one with the Warsaw uprising and many sewer battle scene. Any luck with that?

Wow, they must be thinking they are all incredibly lucky to escape out of an outdated, smoking T 62. Unless it was an engine failure

Yes, I thought that somehow they would have tweaked the sensors to enhance accuracy for ground use but didnt bother (and propably didnt anticipate they would be using the 60s Kh22 in this conflict)

Apparently they have been reported Tupolevs with Kh22 operating in Ukraine, since May. Probably they are destocking their large quantities. If they can't hit a factory how they were supposed to be used against moving and armed ships?

It's a worrying scenario. North Korea might look cartoonish in comparison right now, but imagine that with the size and weight of Russia. In regards to comparison with Germany, pre WW2 Germany was pretty weak as well. And a more "normal" western country before getting sick with the national socialism poison. It didn't take many years to become what it became. Russia is a lot crazier country as it is, a mystery in a riddle as Churchill had once said and any prediction of where this will lead "contained" for a few years is risky. All these years, having relatives that went through the WW2, civil wars, dictatorships etc I have been thinking how incredibly lucky our generation was and the thought that all this was an temporary illusion comes from time to time. I hope we are not the unluckiest ever but maybe it's just my pessimistic self again.

I don't know, I'm reading this thread since day 1 and I have encountered quite a few posts about the "fundamentally flawed", since the dawn of times, russians.

I agree voices calling for the "final solution" on the russian nation are rather shortsighted. But wouldn't also what you propose kinda resemble Germany post WW1?

I still can't understand how they sent all these well trained units practically unsupported and straight into the UKR artillery range in Hostomel.

No personally I don't have, I was born after that. It is just my parents were bit oldish when I was born.

Haha, so you carry here the words you can't get to her . Now it makes sense j/k I'm curious, what are her arguments on that ?

Actually yes, my parents. My father in Athens had some very rough time, executions, hunger, people dying in the streets searching for food...My mother in Crete had a better 4 years living in a self sufficient village. Only one day they were rounded up in a church with her mother and the villagers with germans pouring gasoline around. Repisals for beating (killing?) two german soldiers. The wehrmacht doctor, that also looked after the kids of the region, intervened and prevented the holocaust. I still believe they didnt intend to burn them though but rather scare them. But a 15yr old kid that run away was shot in the back. Strangelly she still recalls, a soldier among the chaos stealing a pouch and some money from some poor peasants house and the officer forcing him to return it. A paradox, among the sheer sinster brutality they still had a sense of "professionalism" and discipline. Apologies for the off topic but thought you mind find it interesting. So yes, I dont think there is wisdom in supporting fascism. That being said I dont think Russia will ever achieve even a fraction of the level of darkness Nazi Germany brought, so I cant see the parallel with Hitler. I hope I'm not mistaken with their potential, I will come here to sincerely apologize to be honest and recognize the vision you all had and I missed. And I very respect that. Here I have to say that Russias intervention role effectively ended the rule of ISIS. I don't know what we were doing there training and arming moderate rebels that somehow were ending in the radical islamists ranks but we had a share on the mess. I think ISIS was hell on earth. Probably worse than Assad. And ISIS was the child of the iraqi invasion, Europe had no involvment and opposed vigorously. (hence the French fries were banned) . Also the refugee boats are filled with many nationalities, some are coming through Libya that has become an international slave hub, some from Iraq, many were also coming from Afghanistan. The biggest weaponizer of the refugees is by far Erdogan, (see the greek/turkish border crisis a couple of years ago) a ruler we are harbouring in our alliance, conduct common army drills and even allowing to have a say in Finland -Sweden entrance to NATO.

Apologies for releasing the Trump here.