How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?

[LongLeftFlank]

53 minutes ago, Harmon Rabb said:

Young love in the middle of a war.

Do you remember? your President Yanukovitch / 

Do you remember the bills you have to pay for even yesterday

... Young Ukrainians young Ukrainians we were the young Ukrainians

Edited May 28, 2022 by LongLeftFlank

[Harmon Rabb]

Destroyed Aussie made Bushmaster.

[AlsatianFelix]

3 hours ago, Pete Wenman said:

Pretty intense video - infantry combat

 

and the main article here

 

After all that effort to drag a wounded buddy from under fire, he goes for hero level: "Ok. Let's get this tank."

Sure, why not.

[danfrodo]

1 hour ago, LongLeftFlank said:

Do you remember? your President Yanukovitch / 

Do you remember the bills you have to pay for even yesterday

... Young Ukrainians young Ukrainians we were the young Ukrainians

Mos Def some Elvis bait there.  In a good way

 

[BFCElvis]

20 minutes ago, danfrodo said:

Mos Def some Elvis bait there.  In a good way

 

I smiled when I saw it. 

[LongLeftFlank]

1. 4+ weeks and the Russians still haven't reached the river behind Lyman.

2. And to do that, they still gotta clear a small force of 79th AB out of this stuff....

 

https://kyivindependent.com/national/welcome-to-hell-ukrainian-airborne-fighting-russia-in-donbas-woods/

Swedish-made 84 mm AT4s, American M141s (SMAW-Ds), widespread British NLAWs, and rarer RGW-90 MATADORs, all lean against the earthen trench walls next to machine guns pointed against the deep forest.

“Our big regards to taxpayers giving us these toys,” the paratroopers laugh.

“This forest has a lot of destroyed Russian vehicles if someone wants an illustrated cost performance report.” 

....“We tried to talk to him. He was 20, maybe 21. He only managed to say that his name was Vadim, he served with the 15th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, and that his unit’s main mission in the area was to just get entrenched and wait.”  

That last bit seems to confirm that the RA objective in this sector is to secure the river line. Whenever that happens.

3. OTOH, they do seem to be bringing up (towed) guns in anticipation of bombarding the Sloviansk transport junction. 

4. Classic Russian mech attack (a few weeks back). AFVs turn a building into swiss cheese from a distance, with no confirmation of whether anyone's still in it, or any other kind of fire lanes set up to isolate it. Video is too grainy to see if there are any RU infantry flanking the position, but you just kind of know there aren't. Recon by fire, a pointless waste of ammo.

****

Bonus meme...

 

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by LongLeftFlank

[LongLeftFlank]

Interesting thread here on Russian attempts to scrape together a new army.  Georgian source, no idea of the quality of their info or analysis....

One comment: Wait... they want to form *and* train reserve battalions in THREE WEEKS? Da'hell?

More from the commenter (a fellow gamer):

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by LongLeftFlank

[dan/california]

5 hours ago, Machor said:

In the 2000s, I served in a foot company that had been assigned a single M48A2, complete with the original 90mm gun. The base we were defending had been overrun by the PKK in the 80s, when it was held by only a platoon, and the entire platoon beheaded, so me and many other conscripts were full of fear when we arrived there. When I started pulling guard duty along the base perimeter, I realized the M48 was the cornerstone of our defense: It was in an elevated overwatch position with an LOF over most of the base perimeter and beyond RPG range. It was great to have the 'Cadillac', as the M48 was affectionately called, covering our back.

Conceivably, the M48 could have been swapped for an AIFV, and I assume the AIFV's 25mm autocannon is deadlier for AP work than the 90mm, but I cannot imagine the AIFV acting as the same kind of morale booster. For the conscripts - excepting smart alecks like me - the M48 was a 'tank'; they didn't quite understand what the AIFV was, but they knew it wasn't a 'tank'. 'We have a tank' went a long way for morale. [That should be a W40K rule.] Therefore, fielding the T-62 with conscript formations, as Haiduk wrote, makes perfect sense.

 

It made more sense before Javelins, I am seeing a severe morale problem when the base's T-62 mascot enters the Ukrainian turret toss olympic qualifier.

[kraze]

8 hours ago, Endyamon said:

 The minorities are forbidden to speak hungarian in Ukraine, and there are many cases of rapes and general discrimination. Some years ago also Ukraine threated Hungarian to start a war to regain some hungarian territory that Ukraine thought it was theirs.

it's almost as if someone in Hungary literally CtrlC CtrlV russian playbook because it literally sounds the same. Guess they just decided that this half-assed excuse would've cut it if Hungary invaded Ukraine to grab some land as per that "peacekeeping" deal Orban and putin reportedly (have) had.

Edited May 28, 2022 by kraze

[kraze]

20 minutes ago, dan/california said:

It made more sense before Javelins, I am seeing a severe morale problem when the base's T-62 mascot enters the Ukrainian turret toss olympic qualifier.

T62 wouldn't be tossing many turrets as it doesn't have an auto-loader.

But it would tossing around bits and pieces of its turret because ammo is stored all over the tank, incl the turret.

[LongLeftFlank]

Surprise. They were expecting to capture all kinds of sinister foreign operatives at Azovstal. 

 

[Sequoia]

Sorry Poesel but I don't buy that diagram. It has several issues, including listing the Eastern European countries other than the Soviet Union as losing the Cold War.

[G.I. Joe]

6 hours ago, Ts4EVER said:

Shouldnt Russia be in "lost WW1"?

 

6 hours ago, poesel said:

Yes, you are right. I could say I didn't make that diagram but I didn't spot that when I posted it so its still my fault.

Depends how you look at it...I assume whoever made the diagram was taking the view that the Russian Empire was one of the Allies and the Allies won, so it tracks in a sense. Also, it lists the Soviet Union, so they could also be taking the view that the USSR (as such) didn't participate in World War I (much as Poland was split between German and Russian rule, Slovakia was part of the Habsburg Empire, etc.)

That being said:

-Bulgaria was also in the Warsaw Pact, so they should probably be in the centre with Hungary.

-I'm a bit surprised Italy doesn't show up next to Japan as having lost WWII only. Maybe they're taking Co-Belligerent Italian forces later in the war into account, but several of the countries listed as losing World War II also changed sides after their defeat (and I'm sure there must have been many Slovaks in the Free Czechoslovak forces on the Allied side, as well as the Slovak National Uprising).

-Counting Germany as losing the World Wars but not the Cold War tracks if you consider West Germany the "true" Germany and East Germany a Soviet puppet. Most of us on this board probably lean towards that view, but it does overlook the East German perspective and smoothe over the "Cold German Civil War" aspect of the Cold War.

-Austria arguably also lost World War II (as part of Germany at the time).

-Slovakia could be counted as also having lost the Cold War (as part of Czechoslovakia).

-Although communist, Yugoslavia was technically neutral in the Cold War and even leaned a little pro-Western at times... despite the multiple tragedies of the breakup of Yugoslavia, it's debatable to say they lost the Cold War.

Don't mind me...history nerd mode.

Edited May 28, 2022 by G.I. Joe
Misread Bulgaria's position on the diagram in initial post.

[kraze]

30 minutes ago, LongLeftFlank said:

Surprise. They were expecting to capture all kinds of sinister foreign operatives at Azovstal. 

 

In their state news on the biggest channel they report heroic deeds of their now sunflower fodder, which literally include one guy destroying 5 tanks with one shot, another guy single-handedly shooting down a "flock of Bayraktars" in a single battle and the third guy stopping a barrage of Smerch rocket arty with his bare hands. Literally.

So them capturing whole squads consisting of nobody else but US admirals shouldn't be surprising.

Them planting a Z flag on the surface of the Sun is just one North Korea away.

Edited May 28, 2022 by kraze

[akd]

@sburke @Kinophile

Lt. Col. Alexander Dosyagaev, commander 2nd Airborne Battalion, 104th Guards Airborne Regiment, 76th Guards Air-Assault Division:

Reserve Maj. Denis Sorokin, unknown unit in Kharkiv area:

LNR Police Lt. Col. Denis Babich:

 

[Harmon Rabb]

 

Anyone have any additional information on this?

[sburke]

31 minutes ago, akd said:

@sburke @Kinophile

Lt. Col. Alexander Dosyagaev, commander 2nd Airborne Battalion, 104th Guards Airborne Regiment, 76th Guards Air-Assault Division:

Reserve Maj. Denis Sorokin, unknown unit in Kharkiv area:

LNR Police Lt. Col. Denis Babich:

 

I'll say this much for the Russian Army. - there is plenty of opportunity for advancement.  

[danfrodo]

31 minutes ago, Harmon Rabb said:

 

Anyone have any additional information on this?

interesting strategic choice.  They would regain territory and have an easily defensible line which they could hold w weak units.  This would free up resources for elsewhere.  Of course, same goes for Russia so hopefully can trap some RU forces north of the river.  Maybe another reason for choosing to attack here is simply that it seems possible and not particularly risky.  UKR units would gain experience in offensive action w/o facing the power of the best RU units.

[Taranis]

37 minutes ago, Harmon Rabb said:

 

Anyone have any additional information on this?

"As result of Ukrainian offensive actions, Russian forces have suffered loses and attempting to hold ground near Andriyivka, Lozove and Bilohirka of Kherson region, battles continue, - General Staff of Armed Forces of Ukraine says in the evening report"

https://t.me/lumsrc/1589

[cesmonkey]

41 minutes ago, Harmon Rabb said:

 

Anyone have any additional information on this?

 

[dan/california]

11 minutes ago, danfrodo said:

interesting strategic choice.  They would regain territory and have an easily defensible line which they could hold w weak units.  This would free up resources for elsewhere.  Of course, same goes for Russia so hopefully can trap some RU forces north of the river.  Maybe another reason for choosing to attack here is simply that it seems possible and not particularly risky.  UKR units would gain experience in offensive action w/o facing the power of the best RU units.

Kherson is the a pretty good sized city whose population the Russians are systematically torturing. Regardless of the operational significance of the Donbas front, 90% plus of the population has left. A successful assault on Kherson frees tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians.

 

[poesel]

1 hour ago, Sequoia said:

Sorry Poesel but I don't buy that diagram. It has several issues, including listing the Eastern European countries other than the Soviet Union as losing the Cold War.

1 hour ago, G.I. Joe said:

 

Depends how you look at it...I assume whoever made the diagram was taking the view that the Russian Empire was one of the Allies and the Allies won, so it tracks in a sense. ...

Guys - we were talking about Hungary and I remembered seeing that Venn diagram of it. So I dug it up and posted it. The point was to show that Hungary was on the bad end of all the three big conflicts of the 20th century. Which may explain some of the, lets say, erratic behaviour of the Hungarian government.
A bit similar to Poland actually.

And I'm not criticising any of both countries. I'm just saying that it is necessary to keep the history of a country in mind to understand its current behaviour.

[danfrodo]

8 minutes ago, poesel said:

Guys - we were talking about Hungary and I remembered seeing that Venn diagram of it. So I dug it up and posted it. The point was to show that Hungary was on the bad end of all the three big conflicts of the 20th century. Which may explain some of the, lets say, erratic behaviour of the Hungarian government.
A bit similar to Poland actually.

And I'm not criticising any of both countries. I'm just saying that it is necessary to keep the history of a country in mind to understand its current behaviour.

Just goes to show, folks here know their military history

[G.I. Joe]

12 minutes ago, poesel said:

Guys - we were talking about Hungary and I remembered seeing that Venn diagram of it. So I dug it up and posted it. The point was to show that Hungary was on the bad end of all the three big conflicts of the 20th century. Which may explain some of the, lets say, erratic behaviour of the Hungarian government.
A bit similar to Poland actually.

And I'm not criticising any of both countries. I'm just saying that it is necessary to keep the history of a country in mind to understand its current behaviour.

No worries, I figured as much, which is why I gave the original post a like before replying.

[Kinophile]

https://www.armyrecognition.com/defense_news_may_2022_global_security_army_industry/raytheon_from_us_to_produce_more_stinger_air_defense_missiles_weapons_for_ukraine.html

Someone's not watching Perun's videos.