The War in the Ukraine

[sheogorath]

Germans didn't just use Russian tanks but they even had dedicated facilities for repairs and doing modifications.

Not really, no. They tried, sure, particularly when they captured Kharkov but at most what they did was build unfinished hulls with what was left at the plant after the Soviets moved them to the other side of the Urals.

But there are other reasons for the fact that Russian tanks, especially the T 34, were not used by the German Army:

Mere possession of a captured tank is not enough. It is useless unless continuous maintenance of the vehicles is possible, and this depends on the availability of spare parts. Aside from technical difficulties, manufacture of spare parts for the T 34 in German factories would have been possible only at the expense of a reduction in the number of German tanks turned out. For this reason the use of T 34 tanks could not be considered.

In isolated instances the German Army organized captured-tank companies using captured T 34 tanks and tried to get the needed spare parts from captured matériel. But the method was unsuccessful, and these captured-tank units were dissolved very soon. In was impossible to get enough spare parts from the matériel captured. The method also involved an irrational expenditure of effort, which was increased by the fact that maintenance itself required special experts thoroughly trained in the work and the manufacture of special repair tools.

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Also, kind of silly trying to compare T-34's with T-72, T-80's and T-90's, and even more silly when Ukraine's current industrial capacity is basically non-existant

Also the Russians have left a stupid amount of working vehicles behind in Ukraine so far. Like seriously...

This keeps getting thrown around but we keep seeing the Ukranians running around in T-64s, T-72M, BMP-1/2, M113, MRAPs, Hilux, Soviet vans with the odd T-72B3M or T-80BVM being the personal limo ride of one far-right commander or another.

 

[reservior dogs]

When the Russians were retreating from Izyum and being defeated in Lyman, I accepted the narrative that the Russians are failing due to lack of manpower, lack of modern electronic equipment etc. The Ukrainians simply pour more manpower with Western backing into some weak point in the Russian defense line and broke through. I changed my mind when I see the Kherson retreat.

If you look at how the Russians fought this war, they have been very careful to advance in a broad front and not allow a single spearhead to push too far into enemy territory. This is to avoid the spearhead being cutoff and surrounded. In Kherson, we have a single Ukrainian spearhead traveling along the road deep into Russian territory. The Russians have troops in the area. There are many ways to deal with this grouping who are confined to the roads due to the increasingly muddy situation. The Russians can simply cut them off and destroy them, but instead, they retreated to "avoid being surrounded". I now believe in the whole retreat business, Putin is playing a game. This guy in Zhihu wrote an answer that voiced a similar view.

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Putin is using this "defeat" to mobilize inside Russia for a full declaration of war and to take out all of the Ukrainian territory East of the Dnipro River and all of the South including Odessa. He is using this "defeat" to silence all dissent inside Russia and mobilize public opinion so he can have the mandate to go to the next level.

The next phase of the war will be a lot more brutal. At the end, there won't be much of a Ukraine left when all is said and done.

 

[Maikeru]

Latest Drive update. Perhaps the new conscripts are better at fighting than they are at singing, but I doubt it.

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[ZeEa5KPul]

When the Russians were retreating from Izyum and being defeated in Lyman, I accepted the narrative that the Russians are failing due to lack of manpower, lack of modern electronic equipment etc. The Ukrainians simply pour more manpower with Western backing into some weak point in the Russian defense line and broke through. I changed my mind when I see the Kherson retreat.

If you look at how the Russians fought this war, they have been very careful to advance in a broad front and not allow a single spearhead to push too far into enemy territory. This is to avoid the spearhead being cutoff and surrounded. In Kherson, we have a single Ukrainian spearhead traveling along the road deep into Russian territory. The Russians have troops in the area. There are many ways to deal with this grouping who are confined to the roads due to the increasingly muddy situation. The Russians can simply cut them off and destroy them, but instead, they retreated to "avoid being surrounded". I now believe in the whole retreat business, Putin is playing a game. This guy in Zhihu wrote an answer that voiced a similar view.

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Putin is using this "defeat" to mobilize inside Russia for a full declaration of war and to take out all of the Ukrainian territory East of the Dnipro River and all of the South including Odessa. He is using this "defeat" to silence all dissent inside Russia and mobilize public opinion so he can have the mandate to go to the next level.

The next phase of the war will be a lot more brutal. At the end, there won't be much of a Ukraine left when all is said and done.

That's the optimistic interpretation and I hope it's true. However, the Russians could just be that bad.

 

[phrozenflame]

When the Russians were retreating from Izyum and being defeated in Lyman, I accepted the narrative that the Russians are failing due to lack of manpower, lack of modern electronic equipment etc. The Ukrainians simply pour more manpower with Western backing into some weak point in the Russian defense line and broke through. I changed my mind when I see the Kherson retreat.

If you look at how the Russians fought this war, they have been very careful to advance in a broad front and not allow a single spearhead to push too far into enemy territory. This is to avoid the spearhead being cutoff and surrounded. In Kherson, we have a single Ukrainian spearhead traveling along the road deep into Russian territory. The Russians have troops in the area. There are many ways to deal with this grouping who are confined to the roads due to the increasingly muddy situation. The Russians can simply cut them off and destroy them, but instead, they retreated to "avoid being surrounded". I now believe in the whole retreat business, Putin is playing a game. This guy in Zhihu wrote an answer that voiced a similar view.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Putin is using this "defeat" to mobilize inside Russia for a full declaration of war and to take out all of the Ukrainian territory East of the Dnipro River and all of the South including Odessa. He is using this "defeat" to silence all dissent inside Russia and mobilize public opinion so he can have the mandate to go to the next level.

The next phase of the war will be a lot more brutal. At the end, there won't be much of a Ukraine left when all is said and done.

I'm not sure how defeat improves morale. It probably forced them to make a decision that they should've made 4 months ago

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

I'm not sure how defeat improves morale. It probably forced them to make a decision that they should've made 4 months ago

it doesn't improve morale, but it also silences critics. many people in Russia were against the war because it was seen as unnecessary and unrelated to them. The same mentality as late Qing dynasty and why Britain could win the Opium Wars. Unlike Russia, Chinese didn't get woke fast enough. Russia is hopefully using this opportunity to get the population woke.

 

[Phead128]

When the Russians were retreating from Izyum and being defeated in Lyman, I accepted the narrative that the Russians are failing due to lack of manpower, lack of modern electronic equipment etc. The Ukrainians simply pour more manpower with Western backing into some weak point in the Russian defense line and broke through. I changed my mind when I see the Kherson retreat.

If you look at how the Russians fought this war, they have been very careful to advance in a broad front and not allow a single spearhead to push too far into enemy territory. This is to avoid the spearhead being cutoff and surrounded. In Kherson, we have a single Ukrainian spearhead traveling along the road deep into Russian territory. The Russians have troops in the area. There are many ways to deal with this grouping who are confined to the roads due to the increasingly muddy situation. The Russians can simply cut them off and destroy them, but instead, they retreated to "avoid being surrounded". I now believe in the whole retreat business, Putin is playing a game. This guy in Zhihu wrote an answer that voiced a similar view.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Putin is using this "defeat" to mobilize inside Russia for a full declaration of war and to take out all of the Ukrainian territory East of the Dnipro River and all of the South including Odessa. He is using this "defeat" to silence all dissent inside Russia and mobilize public opinion so he can have the mandate to go to the next level.

The next phase of the war will be a lot more brutal. At the end, there won't be much of a Ukraine left when all is said and done.

Putin can declare war on Ukraine because of presence of NATO troops, weapons, aid in Ukraine.
Putin can declare war on Ukraine because of alleged genocidal policies against ethnic kinsmen by neo-Nazis.

Why does Putin need to fake "defeats" to issue a formal war declaration? You can literally make up any reason to declare war at this point, and since Putin controls the media, who is there to offer an alternative opinion?

 

[TK3600]

Let's just hold Russia to same standard as China. If China suffered such set back people will be reflecting not making up excuses. Russia is facing set backs in Ukrainian war and this is a fact. There are strategically important land lost like Izym so it is unlikely to be a feint retreat.

 

[Botnet]

Whenever I see a video of Russian helicopters in action, they usually just go nose up and fire their unguided rockets in the general direction of the Ukrainians. Its dubious whether this method is really all that effective, and calls into question the quality of the air force itself. I mean, its about as useful as the Ukrainians using RPGs in indirect fire mode.

 

[RottenPanzer]

Whenever I see a video of Russian helicopters in action, they usually just go nose up and fire their unguided rockets in the general direction of the Ukrainians. Its dubious whether this method is really all that effective, and calls into question the quality of the air force itself. I mean, its about as useful as the Ukrainians using RPGs in indirect fire mode.

Should have been pretty useful since Russian Helicopters has the guidance to do so