BletchleyGeek

Thanks for this. It's always interesting to hear how other parts of the anti-Putinist coalition see the fight and this was informative. You might have heard of Terrell Starr who has a lot of experience in Ukraine and really lays into folks on the left from the left who don't understand why it's necessary to fight Russia. Not my politics but his experience and analysis is quite thorough.
 

https://lefteast.org/it-is-always-darkest-before-the-dawn-how-russian-anarchists-today-struggle-for-revolution/
Really interesting interview with anarchists in Russia who are sabotaging railways(sharing recipes on their telegram even) and firebombing recruitment centers. 
You'll also find that their analysis of conditions in Russia echoes a lot of what has been discussed in this forum, as well as being sober in realizing that getting consensus for a different future is difficult.
 
https://commons.com.ua/en/im-ukrainian-socialist-heres-why-i-resist-russian-invasion/
 
And here is the article I referred to earlier, it's by a Ukrainian TDF member. Some of the choicest bits-
The following three paragraphs outline his thoughts on Zelensky,  offer a counter to accusations around Ukraine's language policies, and acknowledge that should he fail, worse movements and actors will take his place 
 
And a more general outlook if Ukraine loses and powers like Russia win
 

"Official" part of training of UA tankers on Leos2 started in Poland:
- dozen hours a day - 6 days a week - day and night activities - fire training, tactical training, cohesion up to the battalion level - training of logisticians https://twitter.com/BBN_PL/status/1625169114242097152
Here just a short clip from interview for UA media from training grounds; note that major speaking has 57 years and was taken straight from the line.
 

that really isn't fair to morons.

Where the hell are they chumming up these idiots?  And Piers is a moron.  

Eng language version: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/02/13/that-extra-heavy-load
Ahh if only, poetic justice for MH17.
 

This is 
This is the absurd culmination of this episode. By doing it too aggressively and too early, China just gave everyone else a big heads up on a set of tools it was developing that had been filtered out in the past from NORAD screens. Now, well there goes that in the case things get wild and wooly over Taiwan. 
It's the nth example that the "China plans long term" thing is complete balderdash.

Pro-kleptocracy, pro-illegal war and anti rule of law (well those not his own), pro-authoritarian, pro-mis/dis information, pro-murder of just about everyone including his own people.  The guy is a piece of work.
The problem is that certain political parties back at home jumped on some of this particular bandwagon - obviously not to the same extremes.  They did so not because I think they honestly believe this stuff, but because like JRR Tolkien wrote:
And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of men, who, above all else, desire power.
 And here we are.  Personally I think political discourse is all part of free and fair democracy, and people with different perspectives need to be valued and respected. 
But when you find yourself siding with a genocidal monster based on your political position it may be time for some quiet time and a re-think.

I think it might be because Putin has branded himself as the very opposite of the liberal left - anti-minorities, anti-LGBT, anti-feminism, anti-climate action, anti-multiculturalism, etc.

Gonna take the big risk of putting myself out here as maybe the resident 'far left' lurker in this forum and say that you're pretty spot on. Myself and comrades I organize with know that Putin is a far right demagogue who jails socialists, that socialists in Russia have been jailed in particular because of their opposition to the war, and that socialists within Ukraine by and large are in the TDF and the UA. As one Ukrainian socialist interviewed put it recently, supporting the arming of Ukraine by NATO is not disimilar to supporting the arming of Vietnam by the Soviet Union/China, despite onerous things done by those states in Hungary and Prague, etc. 
There are concerns about fascism in Ukraine, but i think it's outweighed by the fascism of Russia.   That, and I'm pretty sure the worst of the UKR far right got killed in Mariupol. Most acknowledge that a Russian win in Ukraine will make the world more reactionary, and capitalism worse, particularly for people there. as for the tankies, they make it clear by all of their stances that they are cheerleaders for inter imperial conflicts, just on the side of the underdog oligarchs. Really they're just fascists. 
 
Before the war I was skeptical of Russia actually being stupid enough to invade and I didn't trust US intelligence if they said their mothers loved them as children. I have thus had the honor of being called a Moscow shill before the war, and currently get called a CIA shill/fed by those tankies. Two extra paychecks from competing Intel agencies  would be nice. 😂
 

Personally, I don't find myself to be too surprised by support for arming Ukraine from many in the center/left vs that of the far left/far right. In the years leading up to it, there was something like a reactionary International forming with a predilection for Caesarism and Putin was seen as the epitome of their ideal. In that world, the dissenters were talking about Salazar's Portugal as a better model! And the parts of the far left supported that sort of thing because the real struggle is against the 'social fascists' (aka 'neo-libtards')  in the middle who defend the status quo. 
So...if you are at all moderate and can actually see that overturning the global order on behalf of Vladimir ****ing Putin is an evil idea there's only one moral and obvious practical thing to do. Putin helped quite a bit by pulling a slapstick version of Fall Weiss on Kyiv. Now to stick with the job and finish him. Slava, etc.

1.  HeliosRunner seems of the view that Gerasimov's grand offensive has already shot its bolt, at least at the 'pincers' in the south (Vuhledar) and north (Kreminna).
LITTLE SATURN vs. NORDWIND.
2. But NOEL, usually very rah rah 🇺🇦, not so sure.
3. Shift of Russian focus (and seeming commitment of VDV) further up the line around Svatove could support this hypothesis.
4.   And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week.....
 
 

Dmitri Alperovitch talks to David Bramlette, a former U.S. Ranger and Green Beret combat veteran, who has recently returned from fighting with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts for 10 months. David shares his experiences of the war, why he went over to risk his life for a foreign country, his impressions of the Russian and Ukrainian forces, and what happens when Americans get wounded in Ukraine.

I think it also doesn't help (IIRC) that BFC only has half a programmer too, since Charles is only part time and I don't think Steve touches the engine side much (correct me if I'm wrong). There are certainly only so many hours in a day!
I'd also like to apologise to Steve et al. I stand by what I said but I certainly wasn't my best last week and I don't stand by how I said it.  You guys certainly don't deserve that tone.

Well, I've found source of information about "1:1 losses rate since January around Bakhmut", This is from interview with ArtyGreen - known figure of Debaltsevo battle in 2015, junior officer, who organized brilliant "horizontal" system of artillery support, targeting and info transmitting, which allowed to hold the town enough long time.
But as often happens, his words were took out of context and shared in twitter in biased sense. He told that 1:1  rate of losses was not in whole Bakhmut direction, but particularly in final stage of Soledar defense, when UKR troops withdrew from the town and often turned out in encirclement and when UKR comamnd decided to win some time for new defense lines establishing and threw in attack battalion of 46th air-assault brigade, which led to additional casualties, because we counter-attacked on the enemy who had advantage in infantry. 

Has anyone come across an article on how the UA is evacuating and caring for its most serious wounded? For example, is the environment such that helicopters can be used to transport soldiers to well staffed field hospitals having the resources to complete major surgery? I wonder if NATO can provide assistance in this? Perhaps the medical facilities are staged close to the fighting and long range transport is rarely needed. I ask because I don't know. And given how brutal this war is, this would seem to be a big part of its history. Many unnamed heroes behind the lines. It's hard to imagine the stress on the medical system this war must be. We so often discuss weapons procurement, but where are the IV bags, antibiotics, pain killers coming from? I might be able to answer if this were a nice tidy post cold war conflict. But sadly we are in new/old territory now. 

Well the Philippines is the best place to ease into that phase of life, mate. I see ugly old guys all around me like kids in the candy store.  Not my scene personally, but yeah.
My personal experience with mined areas is actually nonzero (Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar), but never handled the buggers, so many thanks for the info. I agree that it sounds like cluster/butterfly munitions do the nasty job I'm thinking of.
...Speaking of CM, I gained a new respect for AP mines when a 1/4 reduced Grenadier platoon stopped 2 fresh US companies cold in la Meauffe on 19 June 1944, with 3 HMGs, plenty of 81mm and about a dozen AP minefields/traps scattered in chokepoints and transit routes.  Historical action, well documented and mapped out, and simple to recreate, though not much 'fun to play' for US so I never released it.
First or second GI hits a bouncing Betty, the rest of his (Green) squad goes to ground and the stonking begins. Repeat, all effing day.

No question about the comparison betw DPICM and a-pers mines, but you have also repeatedly made the case that DPICM is no biggie on it's own terms or compared to HE. In the game of duelling links, I'll go with the report in my edited post c.f. wiki
As for personal experience, yeah, sure. I've inadvertently slept next to a 105mm UXO - hutchied up at o-dark o'clock, then was mildly disturbed to see the base end of a round sticking out of the ground just beside my head when I blearily blinked awake at dawn.^ And there is a rather large area of Waiouru that is just closed because of the amount of rounds that have been fired in there and the presumed UXO hazard.  And we had this happen a few years ago, but ... you know. Don't kick UXO. I don't think any of that materially changes my point though - I would feel (and be) far safer wandering around an area of known HE UXO than through any DPCIM target area.
 
^ my guess is that it was probably an inert carrier round from a smoke or illum mission, but I didn't investigate too closely. I just GTFO.

Not really.  Something more special that is almost impossible to categorize into traditional left and right. I think the “MAGA (Make America Great Again = Trump cult) communist” pretty much sums it up. But ultimately these people are fascists wearing masks.

Hi, not military related, but here in Argentina we are experiencing a curious side effect of the war, an unusual influx of Russian women coming here to give birth, The Guardian even run a article in January about it:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/03/everyone-is-looking-for-options-russian-women-fly-to-argentina-to-give-birth
Some couples even decide to stay here for various reasons (the political situation in Russia, avoid mobilization, etc.).
Yesterday local authorities busted a criminal network charging thousand of dollars for quick permanent residence obtained by less than legal means lets say (not that obtaining residence here is that hard).
Not everyone wants to stay an enjoy the glorious future of the Russian Empire it seems, even if it means coming here an experience our 100% inflation rate...you`ll never get bored here!
 

Oh, please. Russia violated the very agreement they signed to guarantee Ukraine's security. You think that Putin seriously meant that?  You used the correct word - "bait"
Dave

An instructor from one of the US military educational institutions based at Fort Benning, on an initiative basis, teaches cadets Ukrainian tactics of using drones, working with 3D printers for printing drop tails, programming, creating FPV kamikaze drones

Enjoying these preview shots of the new CM engine! 🤩
 
 

Welcome mate, feel free to chime in.
He's still active at BoardGameGeek, but hasn't posted here since 2016. We aren't friends per se, 'His Supreme Magisterial JasonC' treated me as haughtily as everyone else here. But yeah, he was very deeply read and a great macro (OR) brain, though not infallible.

In this war positions mostly changed dynamically and continuously. The chain of small positions in tree-plants on in the village yards, which small groups of defenders changes continuously. If you will sit on one place too long time, consider you are dead. Sooner or later artillery or tank will deal with you. Large entrenched strongpoints as I understand mostly used like close-rear "fortresses of last hope". They are big attractive targets to arty and aviation,so when the "thin red line" of small positions are lost, the fate of strongpoints is predicted. We had enough fortified positions near Kurdiumivka and Klishchiivka, but they were taken by continuous air and arty strikes + zerg-rashes.