Billy Ringo

Well said, I'm 100% with you. I had Great Grandparents and Grandparents who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900's, They lived in Poland close to the Ukrainian Border. They were pushed out by Lenin's Communists. They told me stories about how the Polish people and Ukrainian people got along so well and referred to them as cousins. I served in the Marines from 1982-1989, my MOS was 0351/0352, TOW Missiles, the M-47 Dragon ATGM, and the LAAW [Light Anti-tank weapon and Demolitions] with a little cross training on the M-60A1 Tanks. In the 8 years that I served all we were taught was how to defeat the Russian Armored Juggernaut, and honestly after I started learning more and more about the Communists and Soviets, I started to really dislike them, almost a hatred towards them. The hatred I had towards the Russians wasn't against its people but centered more on their leaders and military. I know what the Germans did to them in WWII and what the Soviets did to the Germans while they raced to Warsaw and Berlin how many in the Soviet Army acted like animals towards the Polish and German People. When I started watching the war that Putin unleashed on Ukraine, I figured it was a war like many before it, but after seeing the Atrocities against the Ukrainian People I clearly see that nothing has changed, the horrors that they committed against ordinary people, the old, young children and even babies made my blood boil. When I was a Marine, I wouldn't even think of doing that to any person, and if I saw anyone doing such a thing to civilians, I would have stopped it. I have a conscience that I have to live with, and I wouldn't be able to sleep if I witnessed something like that and did nothing to stop it. The Russian soldiers are acting in a barbaric way towards the Ukrainian people, almost like they are not even human. I hunt Deer and other animals like Wild Turkey, Elk, and Black Bear, and I always do my best to make sure that the animals I kill don't suffer, which is more I can say for the Russian soldiers killing civilians needlessly. If I had to kill a person in war or self-defense I can do it without hesitation, but I can't Murder somebody in cold blood. These so-called Russian soldiers are acting no different than the Roman soldiers or even the Huns, killing and murdering everybody they see. If Putin takes over the Ukraine, you know he's NOT going to stop there. I suspect he will start going after the Baltic Countries and Poland, maybe even Finland. I do have more to say on this topic but it's almost my bedtime.

I'm not very adept at quoting other posts, so I'll copy/paste relevant comments.  And thanks to Grigb for the translation and the excellent comments, from his post:
Putin:
The tactics proposed by the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff,
Putin noted that although he is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, he did not graduate from the General Staff Academy.
"I trust those people who are professionals, they act as they see fit to achieve the ultimate goal," he said.
Girkin
The President, apparently, does not really comprehend what is happening in the active army, of which he is the commander-in-chief. Otherwise, he would not say "about trusting professionals" (Shoigu is a military professional! What a joke!). [Shoigu is neither military, nor a governmental professional. He has reputation of PR man who cannot really manage anything)
They are already lining up where to place blame--away from themselves and straight to the military.  When the **** finally hits the fan Putin will claim he trusted his military leaders and they failed him, failed the Motherland.  And, they intentionally hid critical information from him so that he didn't "comprehend what is happening".
Dictators, Tzars and politicians.....some things never change.
 

I'm not very adept at quoting other posts, so I'll copy/paste relevant comments.  And thanks to Grigb for the translation and the excellent comments, from his post:
Putin:
The tactics proposed by the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff,
Putin noted that although he is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, he did not graduate from the General Staff Academy.
"I trust those people who are professionals, they act as they see fit to achieve the ultimate goal," he said.
Girkin
The President, apparently, does not really comprehend what is happening in the active army, of which he is the commander-in-chief. Otherwise, he would not say "about trusting professionals" (Shoigu is a military professional! What a joke!). [Shoigu is neither military, nor a governmental professional. He has reputation of PR man who cannot really manage anything)
They are already lining up where to place blame--away from themselves and straight to the military.  When the **** finally hits the fan Putin will claim he trusted his military leaders and they failed him, failed the Motherland.  And, they intentionally hid critical information from him so that he didn't "comprehend what is happening".
Dictators, Tzars and politicians.....some things never change.
 

F**k Putin all the way to hell the effing coward.
I can take a vacation for saying this but I had to get it off my chest.

Dang, the guy wrote a book in Tweet form. Well worth reading though, many thanks.

Doctrine is doctrine - but if you want to get into it...
If you look past the tactical vignette the dilemma is the same as it has been for ages; however, how it is delivered is different.  Those "recce dudes" now have eyes in the sky that stretch for kms in all directions and are linked to quick response (and pretty accurate) indirect fire.  So the Russian forces can either stay dispersed and hidden - and have their combat power dislocated and/or static.  Or they concentrate that combat power to manoeuvre, get spotted at much longer ranges and get hammered - Finding beats flanking.
Do that in enough locations across the Russian positions (and indications are that is exactly what the UA was doing - this account sounds very familiar), and now they can because "eyes", and you have attrition across the Russian system, which can (and perhaps did) cause collapse.  It is a form of attrition-to-manoeuvre, as opposed to the other way around, which we have been slavishly adhering to like a religion for years.
Infiltration - even if by UAVs - and attrition is not a "mere nuisance", over time it erodes the physical and moral elements of combat power (upscale it and you can strain the social as well).  Which means more rotations of units to and from the front, which leads to more friction.  
The only way out of the box appears to concentrate your mass to such a ridiculous extent that you overcome the artillery through sheer bloody-mindedness - a Zap Brannigan strategy if there ever was one.  It will gain you a few kms of ground on a narrow front but you will pay dearly for it.  The force ratios the Russian are having to employ to do this are crazy - e.g. Severodonetsk - 900 guns to cover a 30 km frontage is just insane...and that got them to inching.  The old MRD had, by my count, about 216 tubes and was expected to cover off 20 kms ( see: https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm100-2-3.pdf, pg 4-39, and: https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm100-2-1.pdf, pg 5-19).  Even with a second MRD in depth, that is about double the gun density for frontage being employed compared to what the Soviets had planned on to invade West Germany. 
So What?  Well if that is what it takes to create enough mass to attack in a box while staying secure from those "nuisances", then I would say that the combined arms tactics being described are pretty damned effective.

Regarding Tyra exchange scandal
Tyra is Azov linked civilian volunteer medic.

She was captured escaping Mariupol when RU were encircling it (She was not at Azov Steel). It seems in her car there were two kids those parents were killed (I am using RU sources and they are a bit sketchy). RU being RU outright declared that she is Super Evil Nazi who killed those (implied Russian) kid's parents to use kids as means for escape. They basically sentenced her for a brutal death.  What happened next is not clear but it appears a RU Chechen Mobster paid dozens of millions rubles to somebody higher up to make an exchange for his son who was in Ukraine. I do not know who came up with idea of exchanging Tyra but it was a brilliant move for UKR and extremely bad for RU. But RU corrupt guys being corrupt were dumb enough to think only about money probably because they hoped UKR will  be quiet about exchange.  UKR guys brilliantly declared that Tyra was exchanged but did not provide any serious proof. RU nationalists were flabbergasted at the news that RU government decided to release Super Evil Nazi RU journalists started asking their inside contacts about what is going on. They got semi-official reply calm down, nothing happened Tyra is still locked up. UKR closed the trap by releasing video of Tyra at home. RU journalists were extremely flabbergasted and released info that there was in fact exchange but not the official one but corrupt exchange for son of Chechen mobster.  Following spontaneous combustion of nationalists butts I think was seen from Mars. it was so serious that Chechen mobster made video declaring allegations are fake, his sone is in Ukraine and all these journalists are at risk unless stop spreading all these lies. He literally called female journalist and threatened her.  It did not help because nobody believed it. On the contrary it made things worse because not only was the exchange corrupt it looked like RU got nothing back, UKR untermensch easily screwed RU ubermensch. It is bad to be corrupt but much worse is to be corrupt loser who lost to despicable Ukrainians! Sensing big scandal RU government being RU government sent their propagandist to deal with the problem. And as you can expect from RU they managed to make it even worse because they basically said F*ck You, Nobody, it is none of you business, just shut up and go back to your peasant work. As result Nationalist combustions became so strong that had they real turrets they would easily win turret throwing competition.   Yes, sometimes it feels like I am watching Death of Stalin 2 as TV reality show.
Anyway, this scandal presented RU nationalist with huge problem how to explain what they just saw. It is not about corruption. It is about Propaganda and Moral High Group nationalist believed they had. The first explanation is obvious - RU government are pizdabols who cynically lied about Tyra. Given nationalist are on Glorious Crusade to Kill All Nazis the idea that the woman they were about to brutally kill is not Super Evil Nazi is scary. What else Ru government was lying about? The whole Glorious Crusade with a lot of blood spilled suddenly started to look very miserable.
So, nationalists declared a second explanation - conspiracy that RU governments are in secret deal with UKR government. It saves Glorious Crusade but throw RU government under the bus - for RU helping Nazis is equivalent of being Nazi. Nationalists just got perfect excuse to refrain from further activities helping RU government. 
RU government urgently needs something to district people from very bad thoughts about Tyra exchange.
 

While I do not have experience with RU Navy historically it is the most screwed up RU force. It is constant embarrassment for RU. 
Regarding the current RU push - it needs to be seen in context of two ongoing UKR political victories. RU is suffering noticeable and highly embarrassing cracks in Donbass collaborators morale due to Donetsk shelling. Also, RU is suffering noticeable cracks in RU nationalist morale and loyalty due to the ongoing Tyra exchange scandal.
Two Pressure Cookers (Donetsk area and RU home) started to display the first cracks and that greatly unnerves RU command. They desperately need something to mask their political failures.
It does not mean both cracks will lead to open rebellion, but it does mean that the human base of RU is shrinking and UKR is growing because indifferent RU activists are good for Ukraine.
For US guys, it is like hardcore voters are getting pissed off - they are not going to vote for other party anyway, but they might decide to stay home during an election ensuring other party victory. That's where we are heading right now unless RU pulls something out of it's butt.

Looks like this thread will bring up China topic every 20 pages, inevitable destiny. Usually I will avoid because I believe this is off topic, also a lot of other members put some very good analysis and insights below. But I would just like to add some comments here.
China is helping Russian to stabilize its currency and inflation level by importing Russian oil/gas at higher than market level price , exporting the low cost consumer goods. And that’s it, nothing else. There are speculation that Chinese leadership is pushing for companies ignore the sanction but no avail. US sanction on Huawei and ZTE looks too scary. With China locked in some political drama this year, none of the Chinese corporation has the initiative to challenge the sanction (which I will explain later)
But the noise of “China is directly supporting Russia war efforts” will not go away. Almost every side is interested in to prove this is correct.
 
America:  making enough noise should remind the Chinese corporations don’t cross the red line, sending a clear message to the faction in CCP that pro business with western, Uncle Sam means business. To preserve our long time partner ship (and profits), you got to stand up and prevent such terrible things from happening. The threat of sanction should also reduce the volume of those panda hugger in Wall st, and make the international investor who want to invest into China think twice (OK, in the age of crazy inflation/recession, invest into America instead, I get it.😐)  ,
 
Russia: Back in 2019, a journalist asked Mr Putin that in the age of trade war between China and US, which one Russian will be side with. Putin replied , “when tigers fight in the valley, the smart monkey sits aside and waits to see who wins”. And this “Smart” monkey made a fatal mistake, got trapped, tigers wandering around the poor monkey. Monkey’s only hope is to have the tigers fight each other asap.  It looks like Putin and Xi had some kind of agreement during Beijing winter Olympic. Regarding how Russian can retaliate China if China refused to help, first , Russia can use the agreement to blackmail Xi
https://www.newsweek.com/china-planned-taiwan-invasion-fall-alleged-russian-intel-leak-claims-1688449
If that doesn’t work as intended , Russia can look for a different option, leak all the secrets to the public. Pushing Uncle Sam to keep his promise and sanction China. After that it’s probably out of control but that is what Russia needs, a chaos.
 
 
Now the most interesting one is China:  President Xi’s inner circle has used all available resource advocating “blood alliance” with Russia. Although never admitted publicly, under the instruction of Publicity Department many news outlets and influencers spread the rumor says Russia has received tremendous war materials from China. Funny thing, this propaganda is for internal political struggle.
Contrary to common popular belief, China is not a dictatorship. It is an oligarchy. Although people love to compare Emperor Xi to Chairman Mao, Xi is not a dictator yet.  Of course, we can safely assume he wants to be the Emperor. And due to the fact that he have made so many enemies,  he’d better to become the dictator to save his ass. So the scheduled ccp 20th party congress become a super important event. The country’s future, many elites families’ fate will be decided in this congress. Xi is facing a strong resistance at this moment. TBH it is unlikely he will be sacked in 20th party congress, but the opposition factions can block many important positions previously promised to Xi’s follower, which makes him a caged tiger without teeth. 
In order to secure his position, expand his territory, Xi must show the Party that under his leadership China has become
1, economic powerhouse: No one is going to deny that, but generally Chinese economic take a downturn under Xi 2nd term. It could face a crisis later this year. Of course, a projected western recession works in his favor. And a Chinese economic crisis works as a double edge sword, bad economic could damage Xi’s opposition factions’ power and influence, boost the message to all party members that we need an isolated, self-sustainable economic, and a STRONG LEADER
2, unification of the whole country: not going to happen this year, but maybe PLA can make a limit size operation, occupy Kinmen, Matsu and Taiping Island
3, successfully defend the population from pandemic: people will buy this in 2021, but with crazy strict lockdown this year, other factions interests have been badly damaged, it may have forced many neutral factions take the opposite side
4, China has taken the leadership of new world order: If Putin can come out as a victorious one. Or even a draw should be good enough, Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party will brainwash the population and make people believe that Nato and America is doomed. Empty word won’t help however, Xi must find a way to supply Russia. Unfortunately, most of the Chinese high-tech corporations, military enterprise are controlled by factions that is either hostile to Xi or don’t want to take a side at this moment. So, Xi’s inner circle must make a lot of noise, “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak”.  The propaganda campaign hopefully will convince some of the factions, that ignore US sanction and helping Russia is taking the side with the winning party.  I know this sounds stupid and could backfire. No one guarantee this will work, but that is their plan.
 
 

Any more news on the Ukrainian advances  in Kherson and  Izyum ?  Really would like to see some more  Ukrainian  War   news on this thread  - but seems like the amount of  details getting out is shrinking ?

Pay attention to what China does, not what the Russians say the Chinese promised.   Most Chinese banks, funding operations, corporate investment,  business engagements etc. dealing with Russia have backed off or discontinued operations with the Russians.  They don't want to risk Western economic sanctions.
Those Chinese entities aren't independent businesses like McDonalds, Nike or Purnell's Home Folks Country Sausage.  Their actions represent what China really thinks about the Russian invasion--which doesn't seem very supportive.  And, so far, I've heard nothing about Chinese military assets being supplied to Russia.

After 100+ days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China has not supplied war materials or weapons of any significance to Russia.  And, Chinese businesses, banks and investment firms have pulled significant resources and funding away from Russia.
China could do a lot of things.  But so far they haven't and their actions indicate they are not going to align themselves with Russia.   Actions speak louder than Russian words.
With regards to weapons, the Chinese have seen how poorly Russian arms and equipment performed in battle.  They may have decided it's better to keep their toys to themselves for the time being.
Peace.
 

After 100+ days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China has not supplied war materials or weapons of any significance to Russia.  And, Chinese businesses, banks and investment firms have pulled significant resources and funding away from Russia.
China could do a lot of things.  But so far they haven't and their actions indicate they are not going to align themselves with Russia.   Actions speak louder than Russian words.
With regards to weapons, the Chinese have seen how poorly Russian arms and equipment performed in battle.  They may have decided it's better to keep their toys to themselves for the time being.
Peace.
 

After 100+ days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China has not supplied war materials or weapons of any significance to Russia.  And, Chinese businesses, banks and investment firms have pulled significant resources and funding away from Russia.
China could do a lot of things.  But so far they haven't and their actions indicate they are not going to align themselves with Russia.   Actions speak louder than Russian words.
With regards to weapons, the Chinese have seen how poorly Russian arms and equipment performed in battle.  They may have decided it's better to keep their toys to themselves for the time being.
Peace.
 

After 100+ days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China has not supplied war materials or weapons of any significance to Russia.  And, Chinese businesses, banks and investment firms have pulled significant resources and funding away from Russia.
China could do a lot of things.  But so far they haven't and their actions indicate they are not going to align themselves with Russia.   Actions speak louder than Russian words.
With regards to weapons, the Chinese have seen how poorly Russian arms and equipment performed in battle.  They may have decided it's better to keep their toys to themselves for the time being.
Peace.
 

Pay attention to what China does, not what the Russians say the Chinese promised.   Most Chinese banks, funding operations, corporate investment,  business engagements etc. dealing with Russia have backed off or discontinued operations with the Russians.  They don't want to risk Western economic sanctions.
Those Chinese entities aren't independent businesses like McDonalds, Nike or Purnell's Home Folks Country Sausage.  Their actions represent what China really thinks about the Russian invasion--which doesn't seem very supportive.  And, so far, I've heard nothing about Chinese military assets being supplied to Russia.

Pay attention to what China does, not what the Russians say the Chinese promised.   Most Chinese banks, funding operations, corporate investment,  business engagements etc. dealing with Russia have backed off or discontinued operations with the Russians.  They don't want to risk Western economic sanctions.
Those Chinese entities aren't independent businesses like McDonalds, Nike or Purnell's Home Folks Country Sausage.  Their actions represent what China really thinks about the Russian invasion--which doesn't seem very supportive.  And, so far, I've heard nothing about Chinese military assets being supplied to Russia.

Pay attention to what China does, not what the Russians say the Chinese promised.   Most Chinese banks, funding operations, corporate investment,  business engagements etc. dealing with Russia have backed off or discontinued operations with the Russians.  They don't want to risk Western economic sanctions.
Those Chinese entities aren't independent businesses like McDonalds, Nike or Purnell's Home Folks Country Sausage.  Their actions represent what China really thinks about the Russian invasion--which doesn't seem very supportive.  And, so far, I've heard nothing about Chinese military assets being supplied to Russia.

Pay attention to what China does, not what the Russians say the Chinese promised.   Most Chinese banks, funding operations, corporate investment,  business engagements etc. dealing with Russia have backed off or discontinued operations with the Russians.  They don't want to risk Western economic sanctions.
Those Chinese entities aren't independent businesses like McDonalds, Nike or Purnell's Home Folks Country Sausage.  Their actions represent what China really thinks about the Russian invasion--which doesn't seem very supportive.  And, so far, I've heard nothing about Chinese military assets being supplied to Russia.

In addition to those links provided by @cesmonkey there is this picture also linked by Kamil Galeev:

EDIT: You can use this site to help translate the text (you might want to use this version of the image as it is bigger without the English notation).

This website is cited as a source for casualties by region, if you can get someone to translate the charts and tables for you:
https://zona.media/casualties 
Actually, look at the graphics on this one:
https://zona.media/translate/2022/05/20/casualties_eng

And here are some, rather dated, news articles:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220517-young-poor-and-from-minorities-the-russian-troops-killed-in-ukraine
https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-61638530
 

I cannot find now but I have seen map with percentage of KIA per population. Most affected per population are indeed minorities like Dagestan or Byritia. 
Do not ask a Russian about war. Ask him when he is going to enlist. Any Russian who is older 20 years remembers Grozny. Any Russians who is older 30 remembers Afghan. 
Reality is even ultra nationalists know perfectly well that Ru generals are incompetent butchers. So majority of them want somebody else to answer the call.
Let me give you example - this funny DMS guy. He is relatively young(like 30), has no family, unimportant job and has shooting skill. He is an indoctrinated patriot who literally believe that in 2014 Ukrainian evil Nazis made coup and started killing Russian-speaking people.
He literally believes his people are being murdered all these years and he is sitting it out. 
All you need to know about RU patriots.
So, the majority of Russians do not want to be cannon fodder regardless of their support. It is just in poor regions people tend to enlist much more often because they have little choice to support their families. Better developed regions have options. 
Most likely it will be not just tipping point but crashing hammer - that's what broke Tsar (ww1). Thats what helped to collapse USSR (Afghan). Stalin managed to survive but he was mad dog and he had to kill or lock up a lot of people. Current RU oppression organizations are incapable of that.
That's why Putin so far avoided call for mobilization. Extremely risky.
It is not just about limiting conscription pool. What are you going to do with all these dodgers and deserters? You have to deal with them otherwise conscription will fail. But the harsher you deal with them the harsher they will respond. It's like creating Ukrainian partisans all over the country. They are not going to fight for Ukraine. They are not going to even fight but they will **** around, steal, rob, drunk, pillage, rape, shoot and doing usual stupid stuff military aged males do when they have nothing to do.
That's like 1917 all over again. It's a nightmarish scenario for RU government.

And that would entirely be on us in the West.  If we do crack and fold, well we deserve what happens next and maybe we should not be holding the pen that writes the global order. 
We (the West) are the military industrial complex for the Ukraine - we committed to that pretty early on.  Ukraine has demonstrated that they will fight, we need to demonstrate that we will back them until the job is done. 
I am not sure how potentially losing a tiny berg in the Donbas is somehow shaking everyone's resolve.  I swear the online tone is as jumpy as the prettiest goat at an Afghan barn orgy right now.  "Oh no, we have lost Severdonetsk!  The war is lost!!"  Why? Because the Russians actually managed to get a very costly tactical win?  A win that is unlikely to go anywhere?
The UA is collapsing!!!!  Really?  Where is that coming from?  Based on Russian rates of advance, we in the west have clearly forgotten what an operational collapse actually looks like, which is really weird as we just saw the Russians do one in March.  Ukraine is hurting right now but there is a whole lotta country besides the Donbas and for every day the Russians are burning resources, Ukraine has an opportunity to make more.
We, in the West, are either in this to win it - which includes, at least: continuing to backstop UA force generation, building/funding a Ukraine internal military industrial complex for a long war and re-construction of the country after this is all over.  Hell we did this in spades in Afghanistan...FFS!  And the global stakes are orders of magnitude higher in this war than that "interesting adventure".
Or we get ready to accept that we have pissed away billions, fracture and withdraw support, and live what happens next.
There is no "easy out", or hedge fund strategy here...this is war.  You do not take the Last Argument of Kings option lightly and to steal from Stephen King, we will have forgotten the faces of our fathers if we fail on this one.

Subtle reminder: Turkey is and has been a valued and important member of NATO.  Militarily and strategically located.
Erdogan--not so much. 
But Turkey will be around a LOT longer than Erdogan.  Let's think long term.

Subtle reminder: Turkey is and has been a valued and important member of NATO.  Militarily and strategically located.
Erdogan--not so much. 
But Turkey will be around a LOT longer than Erdogan.  Let's think long term.