laribe

While I do not disagree with Steve's assessment, I think we need to drop these as the "stated Russian strategic goals".  These are a list of BS that is starting to really reek and none of them hold up to serious analysis:
1. Demilitarization.  Nothing in the Russian strategy beyond "let's try to grab it all" points to this as a real strategic goal.  Further, I am sure Russia has no problem with Ukraine having weapons, so long as it is their people in power, all those weapons are bought from Russia, and they are all pointing westward.
2. Denazification.  So this is a bit like Counter Violent Extreme Organizations (C-VEO) that the west bit off during the big ISIL push.  Beyond not making any sense, BTGs and cruise missile strikes are not how one does it.  This is stuff like counter-self-radicalization programs, which in Russian terms is lining people up and shooting them, apparently.  Nope, I call BS.
3.  "Neutrality of Ukraine", again, nonsense.  Ukraine is in Russia's "near abroad" and they don't want Ukraine "neutral" they want them "anti-NATO/West", and they want the rest of Russia's near abroad to get in line with that.
4.  Acceptance of Russian control of...  This was never about Crimea and Luhansk/Donetsk, they already had defacto control of these areas, that was a stalemate right up until Putin pooped all over it.  Russia was looking for global acceptance of its control over the entire Ukraine, its Near Abroad and Whatever It Sets Its Mind To.
So these are garbage, bordering on propaganda that we should put in the bin next to "Black Bioweapon Sites" and "Ukrainian Alien Mind Waves Making Russian Men Droopy".
Remembering that all war is communication, I offer the real political goals of this war were:
1.  Demonstrate and re-assert Russian global power, effectively undeciding the outcome of the Cold War.
2.  Pull all of Ukraine back into its sphere of control as a lesson/signal to a fracturing global order.
3.  Send a message to the entirety of its near abroad that "this is what stepping out of line looks like for you"
4.  Show NATO/EU/UN and especially the US as 1) divided, 2) weak and dithering, and 3) not the pony to bet on.  
Probably not a bad start but I think this is a more accurate view of the Russian Vision on 24 Feb 2022.  Now that whole edifice has crumbled, so frankly I don't think Russia has any real coherent political goals left other than the worst "choose-your-own-adventure-of-survival" book in a long time.

I've thought the same from some of the videos posted, but as Dan posted a lot of these warriors didn't have the luxury of a long training cycle prior to invasion. A lot of the combat footage we have watched over the years has been US in Afghanistan and Iraq. These UA folks don't look like a USMC platoon under fire for sure, however the most junior rifleman in that USMC squad had 13 weeks of basic, 9 weeks of SOI and then probably at least a 6 month training cycle prior to deployment. Every Lcpl on up is on at least his 2nd combat tour and a hell of a lot of lessons learned have permeated those formations from years of combat. Their training budget is full and they have every bit of kit that they need. Pretty impressive how well they have done with what they have. 
A lot of these guys picked up weapons on February 24th and went to war. I reached out to Haiduk and asked for some sources to follow. He advised that most UA brigades have facebook pages and then he follows a lot of twitter accounts from soldiers and civilians in the different areas. The twitter is in Ukrainian so I can't get much from that however there are a lot of things on the brigade pages that were enlightening. The two biggest is how many of their personnel seem to have started work after the invasion and their general lack of kit. Several posts show the crowdfunding of bandages, LBE, optics, etc. Those two things are so hard to comprehend for me with my experience in the US military. It was just something that we would never have had to deal with. 
It is pretty easy to Monday morning quarterback a lot of what we see and I'm sure that their fully staffed and equipped regular units are an entirely different animal. We aren't getting to see much of that though as others have pointed out. I'm just extremely thankful that for all the short-comings we see with the UA and TD that they were invaded by an incompetent army military pack of savages that they've been able to eviscerate across their land.

That is straight talk and no soft tunes from the central scrutinizer of this forum.
I just about came back from sitting in the penalty box for five days.
I can't promise that I'll adhere to those words though. It will probably depend on the situation. And if I'm sent off to the penalty box for five days, I'll have to use that time of rest to consider my sins.

That's an old version of nazism. Russians have installed updates - viewing everyone as untermenschen.

And yet I think we underestimate how well Putin's propaganda machine has done it's job in Russia. Yesterday I've watched a documentary about China and the view of the Chinese population of the West. This is not the old China anymore, but a determined, confident world power, that despises the weakness and decadency of the West. And although I know that Russia can't be compared to China I think the hatred of the West will motivate them to keep standing behind Putin and continue this fight to the bitter end. 
One of the things that struck me in the documentary about China was the statement of a China-expert that Chinese are used to suffering ('Eating bitterness'), while the West is 'in pursuit of happiness'. I think the Russians are also used to eating bitterness. Instead of a speedy collapse I think we are in for another long and bitter Cold War, with Putin in power, surviving disaster afer disaster like Stalin. Many people expect another 'downfall', like happened to the Soviets, but I don't.
China will profit from what's happening in Europe, that much is sure. I bet they are enjoying themselves tremendously, because no matter how we turn it, the war in Ukraine is costing the West a LOT of money.

This is what the PC and Woke Brigade of the West cannot grasp about Russia

This is what the PC and Woke Brigade of the West cannot grasp about Russia

This is what the PC and Woke Brigade of the West cannot grasp about Russia

Buran-30 moves elements of a BTG into a village. 

This is what the PC and Woke Brigade of the West cannot grasp about Russia

Are you seriously saying that there are good russian invaders?
Are you really telling me only some russian soldiers who came here to kill and occupy us are bad people?
Are you serious?

I didn't go off road anywhere or in any way. LongLeftFlank asked a question and I answered him with a history lection with information which should be common knowledge by now. But because of political correctness this information seems to be frowned upon.

India will not. They were oriented to Russia and even didn't join to sanctions.

Why don't YOU stop your nonsense, instead of trying to show how enlighted you are and accuse people of being racist, who just love their country and have a hard time to control their anger because it's being bombed to rubble. People like you make me sick to the stomach.

Plus you can add to that list a frozen conflict along the Kherson Oblast to Karkiv Oblast, well beyond Donetsk and Luhansk, with fake referendums in those wholly occupied oblasts transferring themselves to RF (over Ukr objections and not internationally recognised) before November this year, plus I guess a ten year program to reform the RA into something more than an artillery park with the money it gets from selling resources to China and India etc, while it prepares for the next war. Putin will die an old man in office.
Not what I'd like to see obv. but what I think is most likely.

The stuff in Bret Stephens article are consequences of this war, but I believe they are unintended consequences. Putin isn't stupid but he made a very poor choice initiating this conflict. He is now presented with a bunch of busted eggs that he needs to make an omelet out of. 
I don't think Putin falls after this. He will remain in power and his position will probably be strengthened when the dust settles. The failure in Ukraine gives the impetus for a lot of finger pointing and blame slinging and of course it will land on those that aren't 100% in his corner. He has removed the main public opposition and now he gets to clean up what other bumps may be in his way or he believes are in his way.
It is easy to spin a defeat as he controls the information. He can feed the people his story of fighting the good fight against the evil western nazis and trying to protect the motherland. He can let them all know how it was all wrapped up before they were betrayed by whoever he wants to say dropped the ball. They were bribed by the west and sacrificed all your sons for their greed, but don't worry, they'll be taken care of. Then those people and all their friends and family are tried, sentenced and placed in gulag's. He comes out as the father that is doing his best for a nation surrounded by evil and whatever pain is caused by the sanctions and rebuilding the military to better size and capability must be heroically endured for the continued survival of good ole mother Russia.
Of course the west will fall for the rhetoric as well, not really, but in order to lessen sanctions and get cheap energy several nations will resume business with them. I don't think private industry will be in a big hurry to go back in but maybe eventually. In the end it is all about money so with some super sweet incentives I'm sure it will happen. Over the next few years they will work really hard to open the new markets to the south and further strengthen economic ties to India and the middle east. They will be down but they won't be out. And they'll be back. Might take 20 years but Ukraine will always have to watch and wait. 
Ukraine will probably remain neutral and Nato will probably not want to try to induct them as they are scared and even after this will remain scared of upsetting Russia too much. What will probably happen is a new alliance of border nations. Poland, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine and I can see Turkey as well having a mutual defense pact. That should guarantee Russia is hemmed in for a long time. Russian can bluster all they want but they'd never be able to support a large enough military to confront that alliance. And all those countries except Turkey are rabidly opposed to Russia as they are neighbors and have dealt with their tendencies for centuries. Turkey I can see being part of it for economic and power reasons. They are expanding their military industrial capabilities and this would be a perfect market that they could join with some sort of caveat of being the sole supplier of certain weapons systems, etc.  
Just my thoughts and I'm probably wrong, but I could see it playing out that way. Of course there are 20 other ways it could play out and all we can do is make our guesses, watch, wait and see. No matter what plays out later I just hope after Ukraine finishes off the RA the west floods Ukraine with so much support to rebuild that it makes the Marshall Plan look like FEMA during hurricane Katrina.

I still think the WSJ commentator is getting it right:
"The Ukraine incursion will end with a whimper:
Hostilities will end after Putin has secured the land bridge in eastern Ukraine. NATO countries will breath a sigh of relief, but holler about how Russia will have to 'pay' for the incursion. Biden will boast that his leadership was successful. Russia will pay lip service to reparations, but cease after the sanctions are removed. Germany, Italy, Turkey and other countries will revert back to energy reliance on Russia. NOTHING will change, save Putin getting more valuable land, ala Crimea. Putin will begin planning for 'annexing' the rest of Ukraine." Also adding that Russia and China will continue to chip away at the US dollar's dominance and nations like SA, UAE, India and others will support the "new world order".

Contrarian take, FWIW. I do at least agree with the last paragraph I'm quoting below - all opposition in Russia has been crushed for good:
"What if Putin Didn’t Miscalculate?"
By Bret Stephens
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/opinion/ukraine-war-putin.html?referringSource=articleShare
"The conventional wisdom is that Vladimir Putin catastrophically miscalculated."
"The conventional wisdom is entirely plausible. It has the benefit of vindicating the West’s strategy of supporting Ukraine defensively. And it tends toward the conclusion that the best outcome is one in which Putin finds some face-saving exit: additional Ukrainian territory, a Ukrainian pledge of neutrality, a lifting of some of the sanctions."
"But what if the conventional wisdom is wrong? What if the West is only playing into Putin’s hands once again?"
"When Western military analysts argue that Putin can’t win militarily in Ukraine, what they really mean is that he can’t win clean. Since when has Putin ever played clean?"
"Suppose for a moment that Putin never intended to conquer all of Ukraine: that, from the beginning, his real targets were the energy riches of Ukraine’s east, which contain Europe’s second-largest known reserves of natural gas (after Norway’s)."
"Combine that with Russia’s previous territorial seizures in Crimea (which has huge offshore energy fields) and the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk (which contain part of an enormous shale-gas field), as well as Putin’s bid to control most or all of Ukraine’s coastline, and the shape of Putin’s ambitions become clear. He’s less interested in reuniting the Russian-speaking world than he is in securing Russia’s energy dominance."
"“Under the guise of an invasion, Putin is executing an enormous heist,” said Canadian energy expert David Knight Legg. As for what’s left of a mostly landlocked Ukraine, it will likely become a welfare case for the West, which will help pick up the tab for resettling Ukraine’s refugees to new homes outside of Russian control. In time, a Viktor Orban-like figure could take Ukraine’s presidency, imitating the strongman-style of politics that Putin prefers in his neighbors."
"If this analysis is right, then Putin doesn’t seem like the miscalculating loser his critics make him out to be."
"It also makes sense of his strategy of targeting civilians. More than simply a way of compensating for the incompetence of Russian troops, the mass killing of civilians puts immense pressure on Zelensky to agree to the very things Putin has demanded all along: territorial concessions and Ukrainian neutrality. The West will also look for any opportunity to de-escalate, especially as we convince ourselves that a mentally unstable Putin is prepared to use nuclear weapons."
"Within Russia, the war has already served Putin’s political purposes. Many in the professional middle class — the people most sympathetic to dissidents like Aleksei Navalny — have gone into self-imposed exile. The remnants of a free press have been shuttered, probably for good. To the extent that Russia’s military has embarrassed itself, it is more likely to lead to a well-aimed purge from above than a broad revolution from below. Russia’s new energy riches could eventually help it shake loose the grip of sanctions."
 
 

My read on British advances in tank invisibility are that they are called defence cuts. 😉

Is this mod going  to be made public?  Or has anyone else done a Russian symbols mod?

+1

We have them where we want them, they all around us