pintere

If Staromayorsk and Zavitne are now in Ukrainian hands then that’s surely a plus!

Not anymore for Makarivka, apparently

I would pay for it regardless . Looks like a really ambitious project!

At least on the southern part of the front, they had exactly zero divisions in reserve. The Soviets had an entire army group.

Bear in mind that the Tiger I’s combat debut was pretty unspectacular, and yet it also went on to wreck the Russians on quite a few occasions throughout 1943. It‘s still far too early to draw any conclusions about how effective the Leo 2 is.

From the BBC "The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has said a lack of cooling water at the Zaporizhzia nuclear plant could disrupt its emergency diesel generator. The area around the nuclear plant - near the breached dam - is in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine. “Absence of cooling water in the essential cooling water systems for an extended period of time would cause fuel melt and inoperability of the emergency diesel generators," Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. But he added that there was "no immediate risk to the safety of the plant" and pointed out there are a number of alternative water sources, including a large cooling pond next to the site."

There’s been lots of talk about the nuclear power plant being in danger of a meltdown if the dam blows. Now that the latter has happened, are we on track to disaster there or are there some backup options that can at least suffice for a little while?

Looks like you put a lot of genuine effort into making these campaigns as interesting and historically accurate as possible. Am excited to see how they turn out!

RIP Russian logistics officers

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It’s surprising to hear that recruit applications are so high despite the war having gone on for a year now. Are most of these recruits drawn from other military formations?

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Lavrov turned into Laughrov

A great example of a Russian mother defending Christian values in this video. Nothing screams virtue like the willingness to give up her sons for Putin's war. And why does that willingness exist? Because she can just have more...

The irony is just too much. May he rest in hell!

Looks like Ukraine is assembling its own set of shock units that are specifically earmarked for offensive action. Recruitment is apparently going well so far, with thousands of volunteers signing up: The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced the formation of assault brigades called the Offensive Guard. Volunteers who want to help the state expel Russian invaders and liberate the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine can join them. The Offensive Guard is eight professional assault brigades of the Ministry of Internal Affairs consisting of patriotic soldiers who want Ukraine to win the fight against Russian aggression. The National Guard of Ukraine invites you to Bureviy, Chervona Kalyna, Kara-Dag, Rubizh, Spartan, and the most famous, Azov. At the same time, the State Border Guard Service is recruiting volunteers for the Steel Border brigade, and the National Police is recruiting for an assault brigade called Rage. The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the units would consist of current police officers, border guards, and National Guardsmen. And the core of officers, sergeants, and soldiers will be defenders with significant experience who have shown themselves to be the best during the defense of Donbas since 2014 and the liberation of the Kharkiv region after February 24, 2022. The soldiers will not be sent to the front immediately. First, they will have to undergo several months of intensive training to ensure the combat cohesion of the new units. Only after that will they be able to take an active part in offensive operations to drive the Russians out of Ukrainian soil. The best instructors in firearms training and tactical medicine will be involved in the training of the soldiers, who will be equipped with high-quality weapons and equipment. https://fakty.com.ua/en/ukraine/suspilstvo/20230204-gvardiya-nastupu-yaki-ye-brygady-vymogy-pidgotovka-zarplata-ta-pilgy/

Bearing in mind that, if anything, it’s the Ukrainians who’ve shown far more talent in pulling rabbits out of hats in this war. The Russian withdrawal from northern Ukraine? Sinking of Moskva? Surprise Kharkiv Counteroffensive? Kherson withdrawal? All these happened quite suddenly, and without (apparent) warning. Meanwhile almost every one of Russia‘s battlefield successes were both drawn out and very predictable.

It’s gonna require a few elements. Obviously the Ukrainians will experiment and figure out how to best deal with these tactics, but we can still speculate for what would work best: 1) If the Russians now only use small groups in attack, the Ukrainians should use even smaller groups in defense. 8 men can easily be held up by just 2-3 with an LMG, especially if the former stops for artillery support as soon as contact is made. 2) The attacking groups won’t have cover immediately, now matter how fast they dig. To exploit this the forward Ukrainian units should be lavishly supplied with comms equipment so that any attacking Russian group gets plastered by artillery whenever they stop for more than a few minutes. In other words, they need the ability to effectively call in fire all the way down to squad level. 3) Ukraine has to learn how to effectively launch local counterattacks. If they can have effective reserve forces (ideally equipped with night fighting gear) then they should retake lost terrain as soon as possible. By all accounts the Russians aren’t the best at rapidly calling in artillery fire, so if they can avoid getting pinned down they could be very effective. In summary, more so than MBTs in my opinion, Ukraine should focus on getting as many of their infantry equipped and trained to NATO standard as possible, and couple them with US-level godlike artillery that is flexible, responsive and lethal. Then we‘ll see how long Russia can keep up their human wave tactics against qualitatively superior infantry that can call in annihilation upon any exposed hostile infantry that stay in the same place for more than a few minutes…

Granted this is mostly speculation… but I’d assume that most of the dismembering in modern war comes from shrapnel rather than the actual blast of an explosion. That’s a big boom, of course, but I don’t think a HEAT round would generate that much shrapnel and so the blast (though plenty fatal) wouldn’t generate that kind of damage.

Good to see Israel doing it‘s part as well! Found a pretty recent article talking about how Israel factors into this war. Apparently they might be pretty similar to Bulgaria in that they’re doing more for Ukraine than most folks realize. https://www.ukrinform.net/amp/rubric-polytics/3661175-israel-supports-ukraine-more-than-is-known-ambassador.html

Ditto for all the Nordic countries (except Finland), plus Germany. Poland is switching over to new tanks for their fleet so their Leo 2s won’t be needed for much longer. Between all those countries they could (and should) absolutely be able to dig up 300 Leo 2s for Ukraine.