danfrodo

Maybe it's my pro-UKR bias. But this kneecaping video just doesn't smell right. Seems tailor-made for propaganda to get soldiers to stop deserting/surrendering. Also could be real, UKR forces are pretty angry, justifiably.

If you have a desertion/surrender-too-easily problem, this is a smart thing to do. So it does make sense as propaganda, though we don't know if it is or isn't. For all we know they were shot for retreating or trying to desert. If every russian soldier saw the video of the prisoner being given hot tea and a phone to call him mom, this might be a short war.

Classic main stream media nonsense. They love to chase 'gaffes' and other nonsense. There's endless mass murder and destruction and outright terrorism, but let's spend hours and hours parsing over 10 words.

Too funny! and what is wrong w being morbidly funny about Putin's Willing Executioners? I will take the 'over' on this, I think he'll live past April 4, they've probably learned something at the higher level, though down lower they are still stuck w insecure comms and poor knowledge. His subordinates, well, I wouldn't bet on them lasting very long.

Hey all, I might get in trouble for this but I'm gonna do it anyway. While we are all very concerned about the deaths in UKR it's also important to remember the other slaughter that's been going on for two years. Another covid wave, very contagious, is on the way. I know this crowd skews a bit older so lots of folks here are more at risk. If you aint vaxxed, get vaxxed. If you aint boosted, get boosted. Only 50% of americans are boosted, though 75% are vaxxed. Immune system resistance wanes over time, particularly w Pfizer (moderna better in this respect). At Omicron peak we were losing ~2500 americans a day (~4000 per day at the pre-vaccine covid peak last year). That nearly all those omicron deaths were PREVENTABLE is a tragedy. And that tragedy is driven by propaganda, much of it spawned from Russia and percolated thru facebook. So if you want to give a big FU to Putin, get your shots! I don't want to lose any of you excellent Combat Mission aficionados. Hong Kong has a huge percentage of old people who refuse to get vaxxed, it's gonna be a bloodbath. Thanks, I will take my vacation now.

On the "putin senile" thing, I definitely fall on the side of a narcissistic sociopath megalomaniac who has learned over time that his wishes and his will become reality. Hench he does 'insane' thing but it's all quite rational to him. And so will someone please kill this monster???

just saw this. Allegedly somewhere in Kerson region. Only interesting in that we see infantry moving in broad daylight and they have VERY high morale, laughing and joking and seemingly not worried about artillery.

and now it's time to stop worrying about how the psycho in moscow will interpret everything the west does. We need to send weapons that can help drive RU out. RU-type tanks, AFVs, jets, helicopters, arty from the eastern bloc countries that UKR will know how to use. Then those countries backfill w modern western weapons. Anything short of NATO forces fighting w RU should be on the table. This stupid hand wringing over "putin will say this, putin will interpret it this way, oh no I just wet my pants" foolishness needs to end. As long as UKR pilots are in the jets it just doesn't matter where the jets came from.

Well, most of the world also thought Russia would fold up quickly in 1941 also. So you are in good company with the rest of us knuckleheads who thought Putin would basically have a fait accompli. But it does fit in w why Putin's plan was so incredibly optimistic. He thought he'd have a coup to cut off the head of the UKR state hours into the fight. And now he's stuck in a mess and continually doubling down on failure w his only real tool being mass murder and infrastructure destruction.

Is there much fighting in the 2013 Clancy book? I just want the combat I remember back in the day starting Patriot Games or some such and actually throwing it in the trash (it was cheap used paperback). Opening scene is basically teenage-level wet dream fantasy of Clancy where he (via alter ego Ryan) saves Lady Di from IRA terrorist attack with his good ol' football tackling skills, which are much better than those silly submachine guns the baddies had. The princess then gushes over the manly oh so manly american He-Man. That was the end of my Clancy reads except for occasional revisit of the great Red Storm Rising.

Now there is a quality post. I guess you have more tricks than just amazing AARs. Once one isolates and surrounds w syncophants, who knows what he was being told. The news today that he had paid coup-runners in UKR was interesting. he thought he'd topple from both inside and outside. Send army across border, take all the big airfields and use them to quickly get forces into place, and then trigger coup plotters. I recently re-read Red Storm Rising. Sooooooo fun. Though I think Larry Bond did a lot of the work on this as Clancy's co-author. Yeah, they deluded themselves into "this is our only option and is impossible to fail".

Yeah, the entire strategy was to take the land and banish/enslave/murder all the people there. Kinda hard to go backwards and say "if they just would've...." about things that were completely opposite of the war aims in the first place. This was a war of conquest, with all the old school meanings of that -- resource extraction, colonization, slavery, murder-as-desired/required. Germany did later recruit dissaffected slavs quite heavily, but that was based on necessities of Plan A failing so very badly.

a good summary of recent fighting & ground gained. ALERT> LIBERAL website, so if you don't like that just don't stray from this military summary page else you might be displeased w what you see https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/26/2088342/-Ukraine-update-So-much-talk-about-logistics-let-s-talk-strategy-today

Oh, I agree that's why they do it. Ego and need to look strong. And it gets back to the fundamental dictator/totalitarian/oligarch mode -- everything is about themselves, the country is just a pot of gold to be looted. The theoretical best gov't is the benevolent philosopher king, but it turns out that what it takes to become king seems to be exactly the opposite of what it takes to be a good king. On other items, I saw today that Chernihiv is surrounded? -- any corroboration on this? And that Odessa still possibly a target of an attack? -- how on earth would this happen at this point? I am not believing this one.

Interesting. And brings up a point that would seem to be obvious to someone actually trying to solve problems for their country -- why do dictatorships always decide the "only choice" is to double down? Japan decided their only choice was to double down on war, same w Germany. Russia could've said "hey a way to reduce sanctions is to negotiate something w Ukraine that could get us out of this mess but still save face for us. Crimea and the Donbas really aren't worth the cost we're incurring." Or, of course, one could simply choose to make all the problems worse by several orders of magnitude by doubling down on more war. yeah, brilliant.

Good points Kinophile. As they say, one learns a lot more from failure than from success. Hitler won in Poland, Norway, and shockingly quickly in France. So he thought "hey, I am a genius, just like I always said I was, so let's attack Russia. I never lose; every enemy army has folded up in weeks."

Whew, crazy couple of days in Ukraine. counterattacks and ground gained. RU moves the goalposts. Some interesting forum stuff today. My thoughts for today: 1. UAVs vs ATGM discussion -- you get both, why talk about choosing? 2. Finland comparison has been made here many times, but I think the proper Finland comparison to make is to not do what the germans did. Germans concluded that Russia was an easy win because of their poor performance in Finland. Let's not make that mistake. Russians are not more stupid than anyone else. They are very poorly led and in the control of a corrupt, unmovable state. They are not dumb in the same way that the French were not 'surrender monkies' in WW2 (they were very very poorly led leading into and during that fateful May 1940). Russia is dangerous and let's not assume they will remain utterly incompetent. NATO needs to beef up and stay ready. 3. Are we seeing the beginnings of russian military collapses, locally? Maybe, maybe not. I wake up every day hoping to see collapse, but it's not here yet. 4. West is talking very tough this week. Letting Putin know there's red lines that will trigger escalation but not telling him exactly what those are -- I want them to trigger us, yeah, go ahead. Calling specifically for his removal from office. I like this. 5. anyone have any reads on China? Seems they are moving their betting money to neutral and away from Putin The Unreliable, Dangerous Lunatic.

looks like a LONG way from surrounded. But if supplies are cut and there's no retreat is as good as surrounded. Hopefully Putin will declare the area a fortress and scream "not one step back!". I love when dictators do that.

On TV news tomorrow: Russia expert says current Russian military pause is simply waiting for Putin to revive, reanimate and re-arm WW2 red army corpses For more on this we go to our experts.... (que experts who've been wrong from the start and are continually 5 days behind information everyone else seems to have ....) "well, this would swell the Putin's forces in Ukraine well beyond anything the Ukrainian armed forces can possibly handle"\ "yes, I believe this was all part of the plan, to hollow out the existing force structure to make room for this new zombie army. It's classic Russian military strategy"

UKR's military will just melt away? Moscow will install a new gov't in Kyiv? They can't even reach Kyiv let alone take Kyiv. RU will soon be outnumbered in-theater due to UKR militia and reserve forces. And those forces have lots of next gen weapons. I guess this assessment is based on what they think RU can do next, despite the strong evidence they are seriously bogged down and bleeding men, equipment, and supplies at an alarming rate. Interesting take on a situation where UKR is gaining ground on several fronts and widening supply corridors to threatened areas of Chernihiv and Sumy.

Am i correct in that Putin thought he would still go the G20 meeting? And that he'd be allowed to enter? Wow, that is chutzpah!! It's in Riyadh, would the saudis actually say OK for him to enter their country??

wow, that is a really good AAR. thanks!

I am out of words...... a real hero. Choosing to make the world better by fighting and risking his life. I hope that's the first of many AFVs his team smashes. I wonder where this is. Once again we see UKR (+US) forces not only destroying RU forces but owning the battlefield afterwards.

I am still behind Poles, w help from any other countries that wish to volunteer, to set up a safe zone in western UKR. There's millions of displaced people who need to safety, shelter, food, medical, etc, and it would be good to do much of that within UKR. The safe zone could start small and expand. As long as there's no RU ground forces in contact then Putin would scream but not be able to do much. We'd have lots of air defense assets in that zone. Putin is terrified of fight w NATO, that's why all the nuke threats. But a safe zone would not be in direct conflict w RU unless RU attacked it.

This could get to be fun in a hurry. Food riots. Hopefully the west can weather the inflation and other shortages, which are all much much less than what will hit Russia (I hope). They need us a lot more than we need them going forward.