White2Golf

Appreciate the comments.   Lurk Mode: Re-engaged.

Can't see the thread but looking at his posting stream I am not ready to add him to my list of "trusted SMEs" anytime soon.

Appreciate all the assists on the translation.   Apologies for not being more clear.      

Appreciate all the assists on the translation.   Apologies for not being more clear.      

Thank goodness no one was hurt.
Sad thing is forget the right procedure for clearing a weapon. Some people don't even know that ejecting a magazine is not enough to clear a semi-automatic pistol. I have heard stories of some people killing themselves because of this mistake.
I own a few firearms and I support civilian ownership of firearms, but this all reminds me of how important firearms education is.

Or a learning disability.  True story (put your helmets on), one of my troops in Bosnia put a round between the guys legs in front of him clearing his weapon…on the first night.  He cocked, then took the mag off and fired.
No one got hurt but of course he was charged.  At his trial the CO asked him to demonstrate that he knew how to clear a weapon.  The guy did the exact same thing! - thank god it wasn’t loaded.  The kid has some sort of mental block.  He ended up getting fined and doing 10 days CB’d and old-school punishment duty.  Teenagers and guns, never boring.

The RU guys went to the US Dining Facility. As they entered they were required to clear their weapons. A few of them forgot to clear the round from their chambers, and accidently fired said round into the sand filled metal barrel provided for just that purpose. Doing so is frowned upon.

Chow = food/lunch
Clearing barrel = when you enter a base you go through a process of unloading your weapons, ensuring they're unloaded, and proving to others they're unloaded. Usually it's routine - remove the magazine, cock the weapon, inspect the chamber, fire the action in a safe direction which is usually a sand filled barrel to trap any errant rounds. Sometimes its embarrassing if you get the sequence mixed up, which seems to be what happened here - the negative peer pressure that lands on you for doing that is intense, and lasts a long time. That's because occasionally its fatal if you get mixed up AND neglect to point it in a safe direction.
Getting it wrong is due to laziness, extreme fatigue, and always poor discipline.
 

Uh, could someone translate, please?

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Dropping from hyperspace/lurking to affirm this statement here.   Did a few joint patrols in Bosnia, early 2000's with some VDV guys riding BTR's.  Oy Vey.   They went back to our base for chow once.  More than one of their dudes killed the clearing barrel coming in.  Woof.  

Guys,
So beyond the obvious competing narratives out there (nazis, bio-weapons, crisis actors etc) let's remember what this entire thing is, an egregious violation.  There has been no, and I mean zero, casus belli established for this invasion. 
People are pointing to the US invasion of Iraq in '03 in some weird "well two wrongs make it ok to kill thousands of civilians", however, the US did take their case to the UN, they were attacking a strongman dictator who had; invaded a neighbor for "reasons", used massive oppression on his own people, and had even employed chemical weapons against civilians.  So we are not even in the same strategic context here as Ukraine; a free democracy that had not even coming close to behaving like Saddam Hussein.
I have stayed out of a lot of these conspiracy theories floating around but even if the wildest ones are true (which I do not believe for a second) and let's say the Ukrainians were employing a combination of recovered nazi-occult and alien technology to make all Russian bears impotent...in the modern world your first response to that is not rolling in 120 BTGs!!  Worse, you cannot back that up with "well they were gently rolling in 120 BTGs"...no such reality exists.  That much metal + ammo + scared teenagers is never going to equal "gentle violation of sovereignty".
We can play the point-counter point game all day and try to gain political points but all of that is noise around the central and incontrovertible fact that Russia illegally invaded another sovereign European nation in a gross violation of sovereignty and global order...this is not "ok", this will never be "ok".
Finally, I know there are theories floating out there that the Russian Restraint can explain the slowness and stalling on the Russian side.  This is abject nonsense.  It is much, much harder to try and do a soft invasion.  The US military tried in Afghanistan and Iraq and they found it nearly impossible to avoid collateral damage and civilian deaths.  I have seen nothing to suggest that Russian ISR and Joint Targeting is so sophisticated and disciplined that they have any idea what they are hitting beyond..."hit there".  This baby hospital thing has been brought up, right sure....how exactly did Russian Joint Targeting know the hospital was empty (which it was not)?  How did Russian C2 know this when they don't even know where most of their own troops are?
So I am going to offer some simple rules that people can chose to adopt or not:
- Precision is hard, incredibly hard.  If your theory depends on greater Russian precision in anyway shape or form stop and think.
- Organization is hard.  If your theory depends on highly organized Russian capability...stop and think.
- Conspiracies are hard, in this day and age nearly impossible.  If your theory is relying on a "big secret"...stop and think.  All western governments leak like a sieve and even the autocratic ones bleed data like a stuck goat.  No government on earth, even NK, has an airtight seal on what information it leaks out.  So if you are relying on a "star chamber" or "black sites"...stop and think.
- If it looks like a Duck, stop calling it a Kitty Cat.  War is incredibly hard so the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.  It is the principle that has actually put this thread and forum out in front.  We have avoided over-analyzing (I know right?!) compared to others chasing some theories.  If Oryx has 297 open source pictures of destroyed/abandoned Russian tanks, well given the UA was outfitted with thousands of next gen ATGMs...it is not a hard squint to see the freakin quacking water fowl.  This is not some photoshop campaign for the ages, the Russians have lost a lot of tanks.  Is it 297, probably not could be more or Orxy might have some double accounting but it is a lot. 
- Assumptions, Factors and Deductions.  All this comes down to Assumptions, Factors (or Facts) and Deductions.  As I tell dead-eyed Majors, "make sure the line between these items is as straight and short as possible".  Make damn sure your Assumptions and Facts stay on speaking terms and then do not under any circumstances let the line between Factors and Deductions turn into a Pollock painting.  War is hard enough, complex enough and weird enough...it does not need your help in any of these areas. 
Go with the god of your choice grognards,  and try and stay out of trouble.
 

It is a fallacy to decry the demise of the tank based on this conflict.   The lack of competence, well trained tank crews, the use of tactics from the days of Wellington vs Napolean, lack of sound maintenance, lack of logistics...... damn, I can go.
An analysis of the tank's future is needed to be done from a position where such variables like above are equal across the board in 'the best data points' consideration.   If with the best tactics, logistics, maintenance, equipment designs, etc. that the tank is found wanting, then have the discussion of the future of the tank.  This conflict isn't rock, paper, scissors where the tank is rock.   This conflict is rock, paper, scissors, where rock is a pile of manure, the scissors are dull and the paper is arse wipe when considering the Russian performance to date.

As others have noted, the explosions seem fake.  But I have seen that sort of UXO/Ordnance handling by, how shall we say, less than professional soldiers before.   Most of near death experiences in the Army were from people handing stuff like this, poorly.   Yikes.  "You morons realize that thingy is supposed to explode, right?  Maybe you want to handle it with care?"  
This is right up there with smoking around ammo, especially M256 main gun ammo.   

There it is...moving the goal post.  I have avoided getting into "well here is how the Russian's could have succeeded" discussions too deeply as there is still a real war and it is kinda disrespectful to people still fighting and dying but maybe we are far enough along to offer a few ideas.
If Russia had made the Donbas and the infamous "land bridge" to the Crimea to sole operational objectives of this war, they may have actually achieved, or at least had a better chance at their strategic and political ones.  If they had focused their main efforts to 2 main axis of advance with a limit of exploitation pretty close to what we are seeing on the maps now in the SE, along with "shock and awe" strikes across Ukraine they could theoretically have:
- Achieved their objectives much faster by concentrating their combat power and logistical capability.  This would have prevented or at least mitigated the UA build up and influx of western support.
- They could have simply dug in, took Mariupol and the land bridge and declare "mission accomplished".  Russia would have demonstrated its "immense power" to the world.  A shortened war (and I am not talking 72 hours but maybe a couple weeks) would have lessened western resolve and shaped the negotiation table.
- A short hard modest successful demonstration would have left a lot of "doubt" on the table for the West and Ukraine.  This would have made a threat of "further special actions" much more effective on the calculus on the West.  It also would have kept a lot more strategic options open as compared to where they find themselves now.
- It may have fractured the west more than fused it.  If Russia could demonstrate restraint and humanity in a "internal border dispute" it immediately call into question the economic sacrifices the rest of Europe will be making in what has become an economic war with Russia.  Further, it would play on the ever widening political divides in just about every western democracy.  It would have kept China very happy, without risking becoming one of their provinces. 
- If Putin really was a "genius", his play would be to immediately call for UN Peacekeepers in a ZOS once he had gained what he needed to.  Not western troops but Malaysians or Brazilians, a crew he could keep in his pocket.  We would have crumbled into a hot burning mess if Russia, backed by China and India, called on the global collective diplomacy and security body to intervene...it would have broken us.  If we say "no freakin way", then who are the warmongers who are pushing their agenda and supporting a massive military industrial complex?  If we say yes, we are in for years of negotiation and diplomacy, likely false but we built the system now we have to use it, all the while those sanctions start to go stale and erode.  
But here we are on the possible threshold of some really scary stuff, led by an insulated and deluded madman surrounded by yes-men, who decided that he could pull off a modern land invasion on the scale of the Fall of France with a couple hundred thousand poorly supported troops and complete failure to establish pre-conditions or align his strategies. 

My very first impression of the Russian VDV guys we did a few patrols with in Bosnia was this....   Their NCO's were very "un-NCO" like.  Also their BTR's were garbage.  They flew this big flag from the lead BTR while we were running around, well, until it broke down about 15 km in.  Apparently not much has changed.

We had constantly drilled into us that we'd better be ready every day, that we were "come as you are, no notice deployment".  That meant training, maintenance, medical, even everyday personal affairs, had to be up to date all the time and we trained and trained and trained and cross trained endlessly. It costs the DOD a lot of money. Not as sexy as buying new jets or submarines, but probably MORE important to keep the equipment and troops you have in top readiness than buying new stuff.
Dave

Doctored explosions or not, these videos are showing far more than poor ammunition handling.  Up front one has to admit this could be isolated incidents but they track with a lot of other battlefield indicators we have been seeing pretty much since Day 1.
This shows a seriously lacking NCO corps, I can hear the rage of eons of Sgt Majors echoing across time.  It shows a lack of training and training standards.  It shows a serious lack of expertise.  It brings into question "what else is happening?".  In the second video, the one with a truck that is going to drive over those rounds scattered all over the ground, I immediately wonder when the last time it had a 1st line maintenance check?  If the crews are comfortable tossing live ammunition into a pile, what else have they neglected?
So back to the Capt's qualitative rants, it is incredibly hard to get troops to consistently and reliably get the basics right.  Particularly as combat systems have gotten more complex.  We drill it into them and then have to keep drilling it into them to do the essentials and basic combat skills to keep a very large and complex war machine in operation.  Then when one goes into a warzone or combat arena, you have to work harder as everyone starts to get distracted by stuff, like getting killed.  Weapons maintenance, vehicle maintenance, sanitation and hygiene, mental maintenance,  TTPs/Drills, SOPs, reports and communications are an entire set of skills that anyone in these situations needs to master before we give them specific training within their chosen trade.  We spend billions on this annually and it is the unsexy reality of 90% of the effort to create and sustain a modern military. 
It appears silly and "overdone" to most people but if you have lived the life it is essential.  Example, I had an SSM back in the day, who insisted that the troops empty their mags and stretch the loading springs out every week.  Lotta eye-rolling and grunts but it was pure genius.  First off, if you leave the rounds packed in a mag for 6-12 months, there is a chance the spring will compress and you might see misloads at the back end of the mags.  But the genius was it got the troops to actually pay attention to their weapon on a schedule by forcing them to go through the boring chore of loading and reloading their mags.  Further, the SSM insisted the troops adopt a 2-8-2-8-2-4-3 pattern of alternating tracer - ball (everyone had a proprietary system).  This engrained that pattern into the troops heads so that when they did get into a dust up they knew the tracer indicator counts by heart.
So when I read about how the Russians can muster "millions of troops" and smother the Ukrainians and I see videos like this, I immediately think "smother will millions of corpses more likely".  You cannot take a teenager and turn them into well trained and disciplined troops in 90 days anymore (I am not sure we ever could...thank you WW1 and WW2 mobilization myths).  You can however create uniformed and armed "dead men walking" where your best hope is that the Ukrainian Army will run out of ammo in the process of killing them.     

This is the most awesome thing in the world. Prove me wrong.