Volunteers are fucked.
Hearing rumor's Odessa is getting pounded with missile strikes, and the streams from there have frozen, so likely true.
edit: Seems to be confirmed.
Translation: "Anton Gerashchenko, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, announced that the Ukrainian city of Odessa was bombed by Russian ships over the Black Sea. "
Ok, interesting. Will need to keep an eye on that stream.Streams are working fine.
Zelenski is calling for a 'no-fly-zone', again; this time trying to get Canada to ok it.
It's to take away cover. Hiding behind trees and shooting at people is how asymmetric warfare is done. It's a lot harder to do when there's no trees to hide behind. Also a certain amount of spite, I imagine.I don't read Russian, so I don't really accept that unless I see a translation from a more reputable source. And the policy just sounds retarded. How is cutting down all the trees going to pay for anything?
The Missile Strike on the Foreign Legion.
We have seen how well that goes when enemy counters it with 7,62x54 and 30x165. Most of the Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria is treeless and yet asymmetric warfare flourished there for years. Unless something more concrete arrives the ''Putin going full Mameluke on Ukraine'' can be safely dismissed as similar forgery as Ghost of Kiev and Martyrs of Snake Island.It's to take away cover. Hiding behind trees and shooting at people is how asymmetric warfare is done.
They may have had unrealistic expectation, but they're certainly a lot braver than most of the people on this board.did these idiots actually think they were going to be l33t operators and get equipped the same as Ukrainian citizens instead of being used as human anti-tank barriers?
Even if Russia does win this war, and I think they will simply due to numbers, I honestly think it's going to be a massive Pyrrhic victory to the point of an actual strategic defeat.
There's going to be massive insurgencies all over the country, which is going to tie down Russia's forces and whatever patsies they put in power.
Ironically, that'd also mean that the breakaway 'states' and Crimea are going to be victim of this, too.
Russia has been made to bleed for this invasion in terms of resources, men, and equipment -- Much of that equipment, such as the more modern attack helicopters, cannot be easily if at all replaced. Hell, a lot of it is being abandoned and outright fucking stolen by Ukraine! If the inevitable insurgents get their hands on this stuff, Ukraine is going to be a second Afghanistan for the Russians.
Generals have been killed. Generals.
Public opinion in Russia is either for the war or against it, so there are massive social divides forming. Hell, a lot of Russians and Ukrainians are openly saying "why the fuck are we fighting?" -- including Russian troops!
Western companies, governments, and people have mostly turned against Russia completely -- Whatever "good imagery" they had in people's eyes is now gone. This stigma is going to last for decades.
This may mean Russia will have to turn to China -- Yeah, the Russians don't like or trust the Chinese either.
Russia's economy, already precarious, is hemorrhaging, and it's never been in the best shape to begin with!
The Russian oligarchs are losing money and influence. Putin may end up with a bullet in the back of the head one night if they all turn against him, which is becoming increasingly likely as time goes on.
Yeah, victory or not, it ain't gonna be good for Russia. smh
While generals are sacrosanct in the West, they are not in Russia, they are supposed to go in the harms way. They lost several generals in Chechnya and even couple of days of fighting in Georgia saw one of their generals wounded.Generals have been killed. Generals.
And apart from sanctions I think this is the main reason why USA pushed both countries to war, State Department is probably exerting constant pressure on Ukrainian leadership not to accept Russian terms (accepting loss of Crimea and Donbass) and fight indefinitely. Dead Ukrainians are a paltry price for USA to pay in it's struggle against the Great Satan.There's going to be massive insurgencies all over the country, which is going to tie down Russia's forces and whatever patsies they put in power.