Welp...
Welp...
Snorkel kits for Russian tanks are nothing special, T-80 is not the best Russian tank T-90 and T-72B3 are, also Russians move their units by the railway all the time - have been doing that since 2008.
As long as Ukrainians don't decide to Leeroy Jenkins in Donbass there won't be any big fight and this is why there are so many pictures and videos of Russian units being moved, to discourage Ukrainians from military adventurism.
Yes and no. It's a big bluff, but I think the Ukraine will strike anyway, because they know that Russia will not go for the throat and soldiers are expendable goods. So there will be heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Donbass forces, if Ukrainians gain the upper hand then Russia will send a couple of battalion combat groups, backed by massive amounts of artillery to push the Ukrainians back to the starting line, perhaps also taking some villages to convince Ukrainians that they really lost this round.It may be a big bluff, but I doubt it with this much material and manpower being moved.
No. Grozny is still a sore memory for the Russians in general and having a replay of it on a city ten times it's size is not something any Russian politician would even think off. The current situation suits Putin so diplomacy and military will continue to play whack-a-mole for foreseeable future, because such massive operation simply wouldn't be worth the effort, especially as it would up the ante for USA and IMF involvement in Ukraine.No question about your analysis @PsihoKekec. I just wonder if it might be easier for Putin to head for Kiev, destroy the Ukrainian army in the field, dictate terms and then take what they want and leave? The rest of Ukraine can be the puppet basket case ala Belorussia that serves Putin's needs nicely.
No. Grozny is still a sore memory for the Russians in general and having a replay of it on a city ten times it's size is not something any Russian politician would even think off. The current situation suits Putin so diplomacy and military will continue to play whack-a-mole for foreseeable future, because such massive operation simply wouldn't be worth the effort, especially as it would up the ante for USA and IMF involvement in Ukraine.
Um, @ATP, the KGB ran literal rings around pretty much the rest of the world during the Cold War. Remember, this is the same agency that had a spy ring that was a hair's breadth from controlling MI6, and was undetected for years.
Could he possibly gather this amount of heavy forces near the border secretly if he wanted to?Since Putin is KGB,not GRU,then openly gathering forces in one place probably means that it would never be used.
Possibly - The Russians are very good at camouflage. But, the very public presence of the forces is a message.Could he possibly gather this amount of heavy forces near the border secretly if he wanted to?
Yeah, but the time and scale of the preparations seem way beyond that - we live in the age of spy sats, SIGINT and cellphones - speaking of, plenty of the commentary on this was sparked by a large amount of photos of heavy equipment being moved to the region by rail.Possibly - The Russians are very good at camouflage. But, the very public presence of the forces is a message.
Russia could gather these forces in matter of days and with much less observation, it's something they practiced since 2008, the fact that they are doing it gradually and a lot of publicity shows that this is used as tool as diplomatic pressure.Could he possibly gather this amount of heavy forces near the border secretly if he wanted to?
It definitely is. But is it the main goal, a secondary goal, or opportunistic advantage made out of an unavoidable problem?Russia could gather these forces in matter of days and with much less observation, it's something they practiced since 2008, the fact that they are doing it gradually and a lot of publicity shows that this is used as tool as diplomatic pressure.
As I mentioned before, the Russian goal is to convince Ukrainian leadership not to attack Donbas during spring/summer.What is Russia expecting to achieve through this pressure initiative
If Ukraine attacks Donbas, then Russia will assist Donbas forces, first with weapons and volunteers (and ''volunteers''), if that is not enough then there will be direct military intervention in the Donbas region.what is it going to do if Ukraine does not yield