cesmonkey

I'd be happy if the media puts out alarmist stories about the recent Russian successes, IF that helps convince the allies to speed up the delivery of needed heavy weapons to Ukraine.

I wholeheartedly agree with that. Unfortunately, our president is showing about the same amount of backbone that he did in Afghanistan last year. Maybe one of the other allies that bought American M270 MLRS can start the ball rolling by donating one of their systems?

My college German is rather rusty, but I'm sure someone on this forum could provide a good translation. You can let Twitter translate that particular quote for you:

That particular exchange is about 36 minutes into this video:

So what do you do when your defensive lines are nearing the breaking point and all that you have available to fill the holes are territorial defense units? Retreat to a more defensible line that your existing units can defend? What if that more defensible line is a long way away? I don't have answers for this. Just questions.

Some interesting articles I stumbled across lately: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-special-ops-vet-training-ukrainians-explains-success-against-russia-2022-5 https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/western-advocates-of-appeasement-need-a-crash-course-in-putinology/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/vladimir-putin-is-running-out-of-options-to-avoid-defeat-in-ukraine/ https://cepa.org/the-kremlin-cannot-negotiate/ https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/05/nuclear-deterrent-putin-china/ https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/why-taiwan-cant-copy-ukraines-civil-defense-blueprint/

For a bit of a contrast: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/to-yield-to-putins-nuclear-threats-would-be-to-yield-the-free-worlds-future and:

However, if you have been reading the opinion pieces from the NYT and The Washington Post lately, you can't help notice that they are increasingly expressing their worries about the actions of the West in support of Ukraine and/or the defeat of Putin risking a nuclear war. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/11/ukraine-war-expansion-risks-nuclear/ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/opinion/ukraine-russia-putin-biden.html

Supposedly: Russia and Ukraine reach agreement to evacuate wounded from Azovstal https://english.pravda.ru/news/hotspots/151841-azovstal_evacuation_wounded/

In today's end-of-day update, the YouTube channel War In Ukraine says a small Ukrainian recon group crossed over the Russia border to the village of Morum, found no Russian forces there, and returned back to Ukraine.

Perhaps it's a PsyOp designed to strike fear into the hearts of all Russian vehicle crews?

According to this article, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-russia-canadian-forces-1.6443048 Wali is a famous Canadian sniper: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/wali-alive-despite-russian-disinformation-1.6393191

I wouldn't if I was Putin. Those troops can put on a fantastic parade. It's probably the one thing they are good at. Why send them to Ukraine and risk them getting killed?

What's the rank of this casualty from South Ossetia? https://www.e-osetia.ru/news/3384773/pri-ispolnenii-voinskogo-dolga-pogib-zitel-ruo-tedeev-alan

In the latter half of this video from the Austrian Army, another prediction that the Donbass encirclement will have the same outcome as the 1943 Kursk battle due to mostly the same factors.

Here's some comic relief, depending upon your point of view ... People familiar with Russian culture are probably aware how much superstition plays a role in society, even in modern Russia. Here's an article from the Russian tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda. (Google translation, of course) https://www-kp-ru.translate.goog/daily/27387/4581000/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp The consequences of the eclipse: Numerologist called the two most dangerous days in May 2022 Numerologist Farida Krasavkina advises avoiding any conflicts and quarrels on May 1 and 10

Long term-lurker to this thread, here. I played the original Combat Mission and recently bought CMBS. It's interesting to look at how some of the regional Russia newspapers are reporting on the war dead coming home to their particular regions. Two examples: https://baikal-journal.ru/2022/04/28/tut-vsyo-propahlo-mertveczami/ "Everything here smells of the dead" - according to Google translation. https://www.e-osetia.ru/news/3375492/spisok-pogibsih-v-ukraine-iz-osetii 22:00, April 21 List of those killed in Ukraine from Ossetia - according to Google translation.