danfrodo

Sorry, I'm a broken record on this..... but do these idiots really think they can take over the govt? Can take over the MOD? As if MOD & Shoigu & FSB don't all report to Putin???

Prig's gonna be shocked at how fast his fighters defect. Can't wait to see that. He can't pay them if RU stops the money. he can't feed them, he can't supply them. This is absurd. And RU MOD will just sweep all those men into the RU regular army. Gawd, now this is entertainment!!

well, if this is real they are all gonna be a lot more distracted than they are now. This whole thing fills me w joy. Prig maybe thinking w whole army stuck at the front this is his big moment? -- either Putin is behind this or Prig is committing suicide, unintentionally. Anyone have any info on how many men Prig has available these days?

So we are seeing RU attacking relatively small UKR penetrations w reserves -- seems kinda crazy. Were they given "not one step back" orders from Herr Putler-Stalin? It's easy to say "no one is that dumb" but how then does one explain Bakhmut and Vuledar, where the same forces that would now be in the trenches are instead underground, plus the destroyed equipment and wasted ordnance. I am loving the destruction of RU artillery systems. It seems when these are hit the crew typically is hit also. So RU's 'up front' strategy is causing the loss of irreplaceable artillery personnel killed right when needed most, along w tubes. Plus the ammo dumps being hit plus the reduced supply rate. Not a good recipe for defense. Without lots of artillery, there's just no way for RU to hold, as per Steve above. Maybe have more tubes & shells they can bring up, but crews??

I'm always terrified of what sneaky tricks General GeorgeMC-ovich has in store, but decided this was best path forward. I've got first contact and realized I didn't put a TRP in this particular spot, but STUGs & 75mm halftracks should clean this up pretty quickly. The infantry are assaulting also. OF course I'm caught right at the traffic bottleneck coming out the woods. Next turn I'll get spread out & get a lot of fire onto the enemy. Distance is good for the halftrack MG gunners to lay down fire without getting killed, at least not yet. https://imgur.com/4i98IvShttps://imgur.com/4i98IvS

Yeah, I am with you this one. It could be desperation. Or just the overall commander of that front managing to get a bunch of resources and then wants to commit them before they are taken away and sent south. And hopefully get big reward for being an aggressive commander who is capturing ground. Wouldn't be the first time a general in one front made self-serving decisions that de-optimize the overall war effort. But what major strategic change could RU make w this attack? Pushing UKR back doesn't really change anything unless it causes UKR to move reserves there, which I doubt they will do. The terrain is good for a delaying defense, go ahead and give up some space while attritting RU forces. And best of all these forces are not in the south. Unbelievable that RU would launch an attack w scarce and precious mobile forces that would actually not capture anything useful.

I'm doing a right hook, w everything. Only the engineers left in reserve. I plan on crossing the far right bridge & use the terrain & woods to shield my flanks...... I bet you are laughing right now, knowing I am making some big mistake I placed TRP to help facilitate this advance. We'll see. Holiday for me today, maybe I'll get some progress.

Ah, this is good news. It means they are not yet wise to our space lasers that have been hitting RU men in the nuts w low power at night to change their DNA and turn them effeminate! Ha, stupid russians! Their hands were in front of them but I'm not sure they were surrendering. They were rushing forward. I think they were blindly fleeing. If they were surrendering I'd expect them to come forward slowly. Hard to say. edit: on second watch, I think you are right DesertFox. But I think he came out too fast and w/o enough warning, having probably waited too long to decide, surprising the soldiers.

oh Boy! Thanks GeorgeMC, can't wait to watch! I'm currently early in Panzergrenadiers in Hampkampfeld. Looks great so far. But you are a sneaky fella so probably will be getting smacked around pretty soon. Started new job a couple months ago and it put quite a crimp in my CM time, but should have more time going forward.

ex seal team squad six leader? Yeah, whatever. I just met a guy who's telling people he's ex navy seal. But it seems he's also army? And the army "won't let him go" meaning they call him out of the blue to leave his day job and go on 'missions'. Oh, and he says he killed one of the 'playing card' villians in Iraq w his sharpshooting prowess. Dude is ~40 yrs old, beer belly the size of a witch's cauldron, couldn't run a 100m w a bear on his tail. The only 'mission' he can perform is carrying 12 pack out of the store to his truck. Yet everyone seems to believe him. I do not. Not one bit.

was is los??? I will wait for confirmation over today & tomorrow, but hopefully this is true. RU went heavy in trying to hold every meter of land. Hopefully RU getting what it deserves for that clever strategy. There's lots of hopeful signs. RU with bad water, poor food, ammo being expended & unreplenished due to dumps being hit, heavy loss of arty. Using T55/62s as arty wouldn't happen if one has plenty of real arty available before this offensive even started. Some pages ago there was link to person saying it was unrealistic that RU front would collapse. Indeed, we all know this. but UKR doesn't need the front to collapse. It just needs some sectors to collapse, unhinging neighboring sectors. A platoon that runs away or surrenders could mean UKR advance onto a critical road or junction, leaving neighbors cut off from supply, the problem cascades until RU move up some reserves and stops the advance after some kms. The key is that RU can only afford this so many times in so many places before there's a serious breakthrough. The map above looks rather optimistic and I very much want to believe it. But it seems to good to be true at this point.

Video of trench firefight, followed by UKR troops gathering booty & such. One thing I've been noticing in videos is how nice it is for UKR forces to be constantly resupplied as they advance. One video showed a bounty of mortar shells. This one a grenade launcher, lots of very nice looking rifles.

Even this is not necessarily the point. If UKR expected to be farther by now that could be based on RU making rational decisions about delaying vs holding + counterattacks. Normandy's a good example. The allies expected to move much faster but were stuck for nearly two months. However, during that time the allies were inflicting crippling casualties on the germans which led to allies breaking out into huge areas that were basically empty of the enemy. And then the allies found themselves back on schedule after the thunder run to the Seine. Hopefully RU is expending lots of men & material to hold those first ~10-20km and when UKR breaks thru it will be thunder run time.

I saw above someone said UKR tried a pontoon across Dnieper but was shelled by RU, according to RU blogger. Interesting. Maybe UKR simply wants the threat of crossing to fix at least some RU troops & arty along the river. Good idea as long as cost of feint is much less than RU has to spend.

I can picture the excellent marketing bullet points given to potential investors. "Invest in Russia! Why invest here? Because we're like N Korea but with lots of oil! How can you resist? Also, we have no real rule of law! And we might kidnap you if you visit or just kill you where you live. And your family! Or maybe just blackmail you based on what you did here during your visit. Or we blackmail you on something we just made up. That's why you should invest here!"

Idiot w camera nearly shot two of his comrades in back of the head. Hopefully there's more like him in RU army, will save UKR a lot of effort.

That's my point. You did NOT have to reply to everything. That is called dropping it. watch how it's done. You will, invariably, reply to this. I will be silent. No matter what you say. You have wasted a damn bunch of my time and I don't appreciate it. I read (nearly) every post out of respect to this forum and this stream was just page after page of clutter.

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So getting even more RUMINT that UKR adding more power to the 'novo' attack. I guess first major goal would be Rozivka. A breakthrough here, in the least defended part of the line, would nice outflank a whole lot of RU trenches. And to stop the advance RU would have to come more or less out into the open or into villages.

These soldiers are going to be in huge trouble. They didn't send a cut of their loot to the battalion & regimental commanders.

I just read that UKR putting more of it's elite units onto the 'novo' offensive area. This one leads toward Mariupol. Here on the forum it was generally thought that an offensive like this leaves two exposed flanks while moving along the Dnieper only leaves one. But Mariupol direction does have the advantage, if successful, of cutting off the entire land bridge at once from eastern supply lines. This line of advance is less well defended, though RU reinforcements would be on interior lines from both sides. Not saying this push is going to happen, but it is on the table of options. If I were one of those billionaire guys I would give UKR $100M just to sit in the general staff planning meetings, even if it meant I couldn't have any contact w outside world for a month or two.

@Taranis above says UKR took the very important heights overlooking Bakhmut. Gonna be hell to pay for anyone down below. This is excellent news. What if the first RU collapse was actually in Bakhmut sector? Wouldn't lead to anything strategically significant but would get back everything RU fought at great cost for many months to get. At least it would be great for UKR morale and terrible for RU morale.

What an interesting few days it's been. UKR is attacking, but actually seems to be more interested in drawing the rats out of their holes. RU forces (mostly allegedly) moving up to stop UKR and getting punched hard for it. RU banging away w arty right into what looks like very well planned, precise CB ambushes up & down the front. The fervency with which RU is trying to hold the first line makes me wonder how strong the next lines of defense are. Maybe they spent all their mines up at the very front of their front? I am particularly interested in the far west, the attacks toward Vasylivka. There's rumors that UKR is fighting near Verknihia, to the W/SW of Lohove. Is RU gonna crack and force wholesale commitment of their southern front reserves? Or maybe UKR is gonna get stuck because attacking w economy of force (we think)? I guess we wait, another day we wait, as the fighting gets hotter & hotter. edit: in video above, I really hope they were hitting RU mines. That would make my day.

Good point on UA goals vs territory. I think my vote is that UKR will attack in the north with sufficient forces to push through at least first line then will do whatever opportunity allows. But I agree w posters above that the south is still the main goal.

OK, folks, time to put your money on the table. I don't gamble for money but we can pretend. 1. Is UKR southern offensive a shaping operation intended to divert RU resources from a bigger attack toward Svatove-Starobilsk? Given that it's only June 12, UKR would have still have plenty of time to take the landbridge if northern attack goes well. If northern attack goes poorly, then still can stop there and put resources to the south. RU is tied down in Bakhmut & southern front, so this could be interesting. And I hope that somewhere along the Dnieper UKR can still manage to put across some raiding parties. Especially now since RU probably has nearly nothing there.