dan/california

Would you be so kind as to submit this to the New York Times, as either an op-ed or a letter to the editor? They need a bit of talking around far more than our honored friend LLF. LLF's' heart is in the right place, even if his nerve has gone a bit wobbly. The New York Times' problem seems rather more severe. No offense LLF, none at all, love your stuff.

There may have been some premature celebration in the last week or so. But I REALLY don't think the Russians finding a less than great territorial defense unit holding a small piece of the front, and advancing a few miles is going to change the course of the war. If it happens over and over again that is a different story. The Ukr command has shown an amazing ability to adapt so far. And some portion of that forty billion might show up Federal Express if it needs too.

I really think the escalatory issue is overblown. Russia desperately does NOT want to escalate this war. If they DID want to the tens of thousands of Russian troops killed with Nato weapons and ammo are all the justification any dictators propaganda machine could ask for. Not one missile has touched Poland, because the Russians KNOW they would get erased. I don't think the Russians would escalate even if NATO air power was directly committed to the fight in Ukraine. I definitely don't think the Russians are going to escalate over anything less than that.

And that wasn't the worst thing posted today, either. But Steve wants to keep the focus on the tactics, as opposed to the atrocities, and it is his game, and board....

This is pure speculation on my part, and yes i realize the the last thing I wrote was wrong but.. I think the Ukrainians a have very intentionally held their lines in the Donbas with the minimum number, and the minimum DENSITY of troops they can possibly get away with. In addition to freeing up soldiers for the 9,000 other things they need them for it just reduces casualties from Russian artillery. And you certainly can't say the Russian artillery is any good, but seems a lot more effective than the rest of their army. Thus taking some risks with manning of the front layers of defense being penetrated occasionally hurts less than a higher daily casualty number from the shelling the Russians are spraying pretty much everywhere, aimed or otherwise. This obviously would hamper the Ukr ability to do local counter attacks. They certainly seem to be making good use of their mobile forces around Kharkiv. Hopefully they will be able to do more in other areas soon.

Izyum, and Irpin are just locked together in my mind as one word....sorry about that

Unless I really read something wrong this guy's story pretty much happened around Kyiv, and the Russians did get booted out there.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/19/nato-finland-sweden-republicans-russia-00033749 Republicans are on side for Swede-Fin expansion, and the $40 billion for Ukraine just passed. U.S. support looking rock solid for the foreseeable future.

This is the letter/email I just sent my Congressman, and senators. Fell free to copy and paste to your hearts content. Open to suggestions for the next one. The Biden Administration has generally done a decent job of navigating the war in Ukraine, But some faction in the Administration is apparently still trying split hairs on what support to give and not give Ukraine. Ukraine needs several different kinds of MLRS systems to win the artillery duel that is currently the heart of the war with Russia. According to various news reports the Administration is withholding these because they think it would be too provocative, or that the Ukrainians might launch a few at Belgorod. Just to state the obvious, the Russians are ALREADY mad, they have suffered tens of thousands of casualties due to the combination of western support and Ukrainian courage. They can't get any more upset. the only possible goal now is a complete Ukrainian victory. Send the Ukrainians anything they ask for. Send the MLRS systems, now today, send them better surface to air systems now, today. Biden can't run for a second term on some ugly compromise in Ukraine, He can WIN a second term with the world celebrating Eurovision next year in a liberated Mariupol.

This, this, this! Nato has to hold its nerve and break the Russian will to fight. REALLY losing in Ukraine is a lesson even the shambles that is the Russian government will remember.

Does this imply the Russians are down to one functional infantry assault force? They are bouncing it around Luhansk praying to get a breakthrough before they burn them out?

He did beat Le Pen, so it could be worse.

Macron seems to be suffering from a bad case of reading his own press releases, and thinks he is angling for Nobel Peace Prize. He is going to get the longest lame duck period in history, instead. There is another election soon, for parliament, so maybe after that. But I am not very hopeful.

The army might decide it is easier to suggest a new Czar, and blame this mess on the newly departed one....

Some reports today the are trying even harder to take Lyman, but that really strikes me as a last gasp attempt for some minimal success.

Or the HMMV version, if there is one

We need to give the Ukrainians those new SHORAD Strykers. Bleep the security issues and everything else. If there are only four of them on a proving range somewhere, SEND THEM ALL. And the contractor's reps to operate them if need be. edit: fixed various idiotic typos.

Given that Turkey is NOT demanding that Sweden and Finland deport various Turkish dissidents that reside in both countries I have to say this actually seems workable. Erdogan is a problem for another day, And the Kurds got bleeped by the last administration. Lets land the Ukrainian thing successfully, and see if Assad is still standing when the dust settles.

I am not quite prepared to believe this on the information available so far. But it does fall in line with rule of thumb that the less the UKR general staff is talking the better they are doing. If true this severs the most direct GLOC into the Northern Donbas. Haven't quite sorted yet if it would bring even their longest range rocket artillery into range of the other one. Cutting one and pressure on the other should bring the Russian offensive in the northern Donbas to a screeching halt.

Great thread from the guy who wrote Bloodlands, which is basically the History of how we got here.

His headstone would be lovely....

I REALLY want an updated modern game that takes into account the lessons of the Ukrainian War, and has some options for near future possibilities. I would love to be able to try things with infantry with exoskeletons, UGVs, and various types of UAV options, including swarms. They could even do a base game with one of those, and the rest as modules. All of this has been at least attempted on Pentagon proving grounds. I would pay for a module just to get current approximation Ukrainian order of battle and equipage into Black Sea. You can pretty much simulate the Russians with the current Black Sea OOB if you just pick the absolute worst of everything.

Well said, and we shouldn't bleep off with low interest loans and financial annoyances, either. They need EU membership, and actual cash at the fastest rate they can absorb it. If the bureaucrats absolutely have to bleep around with the actual membership, they should have absolutely duty and tariff free access in the meantime.

~54 times the ammo tonnage per day, pretty much explains why the Iraqi army just went away.

Could you re-release it as a mobile app? I realize you wouldn't want to spend ages on it, but if the rights were available? For triple extra points either include it as an extra with an Eastern Front game bundle. For 10x points you could put it out at a slightly inflated price, and donate all the profits to Ukraine.