Sign Up | Log In
REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
Sunday, August 20, 2023 5:35 AM
SECOND
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:26 AM
SIGNYM
I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM SECOND is an idiot. QED. SECOND: There is the little thing the Russians have about threatening to nuke the world if Russians don't get what they want in Ukraine.
Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:35 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM SECOND is an idiot. QED. SECOND: There is the little thing the Russians have about threatening to nuke the world if Russians don't get what they want in Ukraine. SECOND is also a liar, with no moral code. QED.
Sunday, August 20, 2023 1:05 PM
Sunday, August 20, 2023 1:26 PM
Sunday, August 20, 2023 2:31 PM
Sunday, August 20, 2023 3:19 PM
Sunday, August 20, 2023 9:21 PM
Monday, August 21, 2023 5:10 AM
Monday, August 21, 2023 5:35 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: BIG SERGE: Götterdämmerung in the East https://bigserge.substack.com/p/gotterdammerung-in-the-east
Monday, August 21, 2023 12:56 PM
Quote: Among them, Soviet specialists Michael Ellman and J. Arch Getty have criticized the estimates for relying on émigré sources, hearsay, and rumor as evidence,[56] and cautioned that historians should instead utilize archive material.[57] Such scholars distinguish between historians who base their research on archive materials, and those whose estimates are based on witnesses evidence and other data that is unreliable.[58] Soviet specialist Stephen G. Wheatcroft says that historians relied on Solzhenitsyn to support their higher estimates but research in the state archives vindicated the lower estimates, and that the popular press has continued to include serious errors that should not be cited, or relied on, in academia.[59] Rummel was also another widely used and cited source[60] but not reliable about estimates.[54]
Monday, August 21, 2023 9:00 PM
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:29 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: But why do you keep dragging the thread off-topic? I mean, we've read about Big Bad Russia from Time Immemorial a couple hundred times by now, and when you're not blathering about that you're blathering about TRUMP! and TRUMPTARDS! Reality a bit too much for you?
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:40 AM
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 11:39 AM
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 12:06 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: *YAWN!* Ukraine will prove to you how 'smart' Biden* is.
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 12:27 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: *YAWN!* Ukraine will prove to you how 'smart' Biden* is. SECOND: This is what fools say when they have no real purpose or direction for their life: "We must keep doing what we have always done."
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 4:03 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: *YAWN!* Ukraine will prove to you how 'smart' Biden* is. SECOND: This is what fools say when they have no real purpose or direction for their life: "We must keep doing what we have always done." And that is exactly what Biden* is doing. And what YOU are doing! Russia has changed. Biden*, and YOU.... have not. Reality really is too much for you! PS: Ukraine will prove how 'smart' you are.
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:33 PM
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 8:59 PM
THG
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 1:45 AM
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 8:44 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: If it's not on military summary channel I don't believe it.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 12:44 PM
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 1:37 PM
Quote:You will like this news. The Ukrainians don't know any better than the Russians about successful military strategies: Ukraine’s Forces and Firepower Are Misallocated, U.S. Officials Say Eric Schmitt, Julian E. Barnes, Helene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff American strategists say Ukraine’s troops are too spread out and need to concentrate along the counteroffensive’s main front in the south.
Quote: Ukraine’s grinding counteroffensive is struggling to break through entrenched Russian defenses in large part because it has too many troops, including some of its best combat units, in the wrong places, American and other Western officials say. The NATO's main goal of the counteroffensive is to cut off Russian supply lines in southern Ukraine by severing the so-called land bridge between Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula. But instead of focusing on that, Ukrainian commanders have divided troops and firepower roughly equally between the east and the south, the U.S. officials said. As a result, more Ukrainian forces are near Bakhmut and other cities in the east than are near Melitopol and Berdiansk in the south, both far more strategically significant fronts, officials say.
Quote: American planners have advised Ukraine to concentrate on the front driving toward Melitopol, Kyiv’s NATO's top priority, and on punching through Russian minefields and other defenses, even if the Ukrainians lose more soldiers and equipment in the process. Only with a change of tactics and a dramatic move can the tempo of the counteroffensive change, said one U.S. official, who like the other half a dozen Western officials interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Another U.S. official said the Ukrainians were too spread out and needed to consolidate their combat power in one place.
Quote: Nearly three months into the counteroffensive, the Ukrainians may be taking the advice to heart, especially as casualties continue to mount and Russia still holds an edge in troops and equipment.
Quote: In a video teleconference on Aug. 10, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; his British counterpart, Adm. Sir Tony Radakin; and Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the top U.S. commander in Europe, urged Ukraine’s most senior military commander, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, to focus on one main front. And, according to two officials briefed on the call, General Zaluzhnyi agreed. Admiral Radakin’s role has been especially important and not widely appreciated until now, the officials said. General Milley speaks to General Zaluzhnyi every week or so about strategy and Ukrainian military needs. But the Biden administration has prohibited senior U.S. officers from visiting Ukraine for security reasons and to avoid increasing tensions with Moscow. Britain, however, has imposed no such constraints, and Admiral Radakin, a polished officer who served three tours in Iraq, has developed close ties with his Ukrainian counterpart during multiple trips to the country.
Quote: American officials say there are indications that Ukraine has started to shift some of its more seasoned combat forces from the east to the south. But even the most experienced units have been reconstituted a number of times after taking heavy casualties. These units rely on a shrinking cadre of senior commanders. Some platoons are mostly staffed by soldiers who have been wounded and returned to fight. Ukraine has penetrated at least one layer of Russian defenses in the south in recent days
Quote: and is increasing the pressure, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said. It is close to taking control of Robotyne, a village in the south that is near the next line of Russian defenses. Taking the village, American officials said, would be a good sign.
Quote: A spokesman for the Ukrainian military did not respond to text messages or phone calls on Tuesday. But some analysts say the progress may be too little too late. The fighting is taking place on mostly flat, unforgiving terrain, which favors the defenders. The Russians are battling from concealed positions that Ukrainian soldiers often see only when they are feet away. Hours after Ukrainians clear a field of mines, the Russians sometimes fire another rocket that disperses more of them at the same location. Under American war doctrine, there is always a main effort to ensure that maximum resources go to a single front, even if supporting forces are fighting in other areas to hedge against failure or spread-out enemy defenses. But Ukraine and Russia fight under old Soviet Communist doctrine, which seeks to minimize rivalries among factions of the army by providing equal amounts of manpower and equipment across commands. Both armies have failed to prioritize their most important objectives, officials say.
Quote: Ukraine’s continued focus on Bakhmut, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the war, has perplexed U.S. intelligence and military officials. Ukraine has invested huge amounts of resources in defending the surrounding Donbas region, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, does not want to appear as though he is giving up on trying to retake lost territory. But U.S. officials say politics must, at least temporarily, take a back seat to sound military strategy.
Quote: American strategists say that keeping a small force near the destroyed city is justified to pin down Russian troops and prevent them from using it as a base for attack. But Ukraine has enough troops there to try to retake the area, a move that U.S. officials say would lead to large numbers of losses for little strategic gain. American officials have told Ukrainian leaders that they can secure the land around Bakhmut with far fewer troops and should reallocate forces to targets in the south. that they proritize Ukrainian leaders have defended their strategy and distribution of forces, saying they are fighting effectively in both the east and the south. The large number of troops is necessary to pressure Bakhmut and to defend against concerted Russian attacks in the country’s northeast, they say. Ukrainian commanders are competing for resources and have their own ideas of where they can succeed. American officials’ criticisms of Ukraine’s counteroffensive are often cast through the lens of a generation of [American, NATO] military officers who have never experienced a war of this scale and intensity. Moreover, American war doctrine has never been tested in an environment like Ukraine’s, where Russian electronic warfare jams communications and GPS, and neither military has been able to achieve air superiority.
Quote: American officials said Ukraine has another month to six weeks before rainy conditions force a pause in the counteroffensive. Already in August, Ukraine has postponed at least one offensive drive because of rain. “Terrain conditions are always fundamental drivers” of military operations, General Milley said in an interview with reporters on Sunday. “Fall and spring are not optimal for combined arms operations.” Wet weather will not stop the fighting, but if Ukraine breaks through Russian lines in the coming weeks, the mud could make it more difficult to capitalize on that success and quickly seize a wide swath of territory, officials said. More important than the weather, some analysts say, is that Ukraine’s main assault forces may run out of steam by mid- to late September. About a month ago, [July] Ukraine rotated in a second wave of troops to replace an initial force that failed to break through Russian defenses. Ukraine also shifted its battlefield tactics then, returning to its old ways of wearing down Russian forces with artillery and long-range missiles instead of plunging into minefields under fire.
Quote: In recent days, Ukraine has started tapping into its last strategic reserves — air mobile brigades intended to exploit any breakthrough. While fighting could continue for months, U.S. and other Western officials say Ukraine’s counteroffensive would not have enough decisive firepower to reclaim much of the 20 percent of the country that Russia occupies. U.S. officials say they do not believe the counteroffensive is doomed to failure ...
Quote: but acknowledge that the Ukrainians have not had the success that they or their allies hoped for when the push began. “We do not assess that the conflict is a stalemate,” Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, said on Tuesday. “We continue to support Ukraine in its effort to take territory as part of this counteroffensive, and we are seeing it continue to take territory on a methodical systematic basis.” While a smaller, dug-in Russian force has performed better in the south than American officials and analysts anticipated, the Kremlin still has systemic problems. Russian troops suffer from poor supply lines, low morale and bad logistics, a senior U.S. military official said.
Quote: But Russia is keeping with its traditional way of fighting land wars in Europe: performing poorly in the opening months or years before adapting and persevering as the fighting drags on. By contrast, Ukrainian troops, in launching the counteroffensive, have the steeper hill to climb, the official said. It took them more than two months — rather than the week or so that officials initially thought — to get through [to] the initial Russian defenses. Several U.S. officials said they expect Ukraine to make it about halfway to the Sea of Azov by winter, when cold weather may dictate another pause in the fighting.
Quote: Senior U.S. official said that would be a “partial success.” Some analysts say the counteroffensive will fall short of even that more limited goal. Even if the counteroffensive fails to reach the coast, officials and analysts say if it can make it far enough to put the coastal road within range of Ukrainian artillery and other strikes, it could cause even more problems for Russian forces in the south who depend on that route for supplies. Speaking to reporters on a flight to Rome on Sunday, General Milley said the past two months of the counteroffensive have been “long, bloody and slow.” “It’s taken longer than Ukraine had planned,” he said. “But they are making limited progress.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/22/us/politics/ukraine-counteroffensive-russia-war.html
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 3:16 PM
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 4:18 PM
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 8:57 PM
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 9:08 PM
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 9:46 PM
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 9:54 PM
Thursday, August 24, 2023 10:51 AM
Thursday, August 24, 2023 11:10 AM
Thursday, August 24, 2023 11:32 AM
Thursday, August 24, 2023 3:49 PM
Thursday, August 24, 2023 10:03 PM
Thursday, August 24, 2023 11:51 PM
6IXSTRINGJACK
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: The jet was a Wagner business jet, and the three top Wagner guys, including Prigozhin, were onboard.
Friday, August 25, 2023 7:41 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Well, I guess Zelenskiy didn't get to claim Rabotyno for Ukrainian Independence Day (today), like he wanted. Rabotyno is the area of that giant early June clusterfuck of a "combined arms" attack where dozens of Leopard 2s and Bradleys got caught in minefields and taken out by drone and artillery. In fact, so many Bradleys were destroyed in a field before Rabotino that the field is colloquially named "Bradley Square". Ukraine has been trying to advance on this area ever since, losing thousands of men in the process, and deployed their last remaining elite unit- the 82nd Brigade, along with the 43rd tank brigade, to take the village.. Apparently this is such a critical objective for the USA that Ukrainians will keep on it no matter how many men and weapons they lose. It threatens to become another Bakhmut. And this area of the front is where Ukraine is shown the MOST progress, so far.
Friday, August 25, 2023 7:58 AM
Quote:Originally posted by 6ixStringJack: Prigozhin wasn't on that plane. The only thing he was on was the flight manifest. -------------------------------------------------- How you do anything is how you do everything.
Friday, August 25, 2023 3:06 PM
Saturday, August 26, 2023 7:12 AM
Saturday, August 26, 2023 8:12 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: TOO BAD YOUR GRAPH DOESN'T INCLUDE 2022. Because that was the start of the SMO. Kinda makes the chart pointless, doesn't it?
Saturday, August 26, 2023 8:35 AM
Saturday, August 26, 2023 10:41 AM
Saturday, August 26, 2023 12:06 PM
Saturday, August 26, 2023 12:55 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: TOO BAD YOUR GRAPH DOESN'T INCLUDE 2022. Because that was the start of the SMO. Kinda makes the chart pointless, doesn't it? SECOND: I get the feeling you missed the point.
Quote:The Kremlin has, unsurprisingly, not published data on the matter. And independent estimates have varied from 500,000 to 1m. But a new analysis has narrowed that range (see chart).
Saturday, August 26, 2023 2:34 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: See chart? It's missing the year that they're purportedly talking about. But if you want to compare emigration, country to country, Ukraine has lost at least 5 million to other countries, including about 1.5 million to Russia.
Saturday, August 26, 2023 7:18 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: "See chart?" It's missing the year that they're purportedly talking about. But if you want to compare emigration, country to country, Ukraine has lost at least 5 million to other countries, including about 1.5 million to Russia. SECIND: When this war is all over, Russians will brag that they killed/wounded/displaced millions of Ukrainians and destroyed trillions of dollars of Ukrainian property,
Quote: SECOND: which all adds up in the Russian mind that Russia is the winner.
Quote: SECOND: In Ukraine, they will see victory as their country still exists and Russia did not murder all of them.
Quote: SECOND: I get the feeling you missed the point. Imagine this scenario: Ukraine has a list of the 922,000
Quote: SECOND: most productive, smartest Russians
Saturday, August 26, 2023 7:38 PM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: "See chart?" It's missing the year that they're purportedly talking about. But if you want to compare emigration, country to country, Ukraine has lost at least 5 million to other countries, including about 1.5 million to Russia. SECIND: When this war is all over, Russians will brag that they killed/wounded/displaced millions of Ukrainians and destroyed trillions of dollars of Ukrainian property, No, they won't. Quote: SECOND: which all adds up in the Russian mind that Russia is the winner. Russia will have achieved its goals when Ukraine is constitutnally neutral, de-Nazified, and demiltarized. Those are Russia's security goals. You don't read very well, do you? Quote: SECOND: In Ukraine, they will see victory as their country still exists and Russia did not murder all of them. I think the survivors will be grateful to be alive. Quote: SECOND: I get the feeling you missed the point. Imagine this scenario: Ukraine has a list of the 922,000 So you say. I never take anything you post as close to the truth Quote: SECOND: most productive, smartest Russians Oh, baloney! They're a bunch of self-entitled snivelling narcissists, and Russia is better off w/o them. If we got rid of ours, WE'D be better off. But then we'd have next to nobody left.
Saturday, August 26, 2023 8:10 PM
YOUR OPTIONS
NEW POSTS TODAY
OTHER TOPICS
FFF.NET SOCIAL