The War in the Ukraine

Atomicfrog said:

And you cannot compare manpower at equal ratio if your troops have no training and have one rusty ak per 5 starving man vs full armed well feeded trained soldiers...

Russia is like a steamroller in Ukraine, they are advancing very slowly and steadily. A meat grinder indeed.

Click to expand...

A few days ago I read in the official Telegram channel of Daniil Bezsonov, who works in the information department of the Donetsk People's Republic.

The whole front in Donbas is boiling.
Every day our troops are building their offensive potential in all directions. Slowly but surely we move forward, liberating village after village, height after height. Novolugansk is ours, which means that the next village will be Kodema, from where the enemy most often delivers artillery strikes on Gorlovka. And then Bakhmut (Artyomovsk).

Everything is going according to plan and we are moving forward. Our every step is preceded by diligent work of reconnaissance and artillery units.

Often (not for military expediency, but for informational and political reasons) Ukrainian soldiers have to hold every piece of land while suffering huge losses. Therefore, any settlement that is under our control is, first of all, a huge loss for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Yes, every time the military-political leadership of Ukraine announces an organized retreat of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to "more advantageous" positions, which practically means defeat.

To date, no more than 10% of the Ukrainian military that was here at the beginning of the military operation remains on the territory of Donbass. The rest were killed, seriously wounded, deserted or captured. In their place came "fresh cannon fodder" in the face of territorial defense and mobilized. Yes, defense is much easier than attack, and there are still many people in Ukraine, but the motivation and skills are not the same.

In the not too distant future, the day will come when the remnants of the defense potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be exhausted and our troops will rush in an avalanche. But until then we must continue to deal slowly, carefully and methodically with the enemy in order to preserve the lives of our soldiers.

Russian troops destroyed the Buk air defense system of the Ukrainian army.


Due to the large number of PFM-1 Lepestok mines in Ukraine, people began to destroy them with improvised means.

I think Ukraine has reached a point where they'd give up East to maintain some link to the black sea.

If Russia blunts the coming soon(tm) Kherson offensive in South West, then Ukraine is in deeper mess.

Ukraine will need to do something, they know they need some good PR so Western politicians can continue to support without any political costnlocally, but if you just have months of 'Ukraine loosing territory's, then the average person will ask what is the point of increased inflation and personal sacrifice that person is making.

Ukraine on Tuesday accused Germany and other member states of the European Union of blocking the release of funds approved earlier by the bloc as the country faces a financial crisis caused by its war with Russia.

"We are expecting €8 billion ($8.2 billion), but unfortunately certain EU states, including Germany, are blocking verification of this issue," Ihor Zhovka, deputy chief of staff in the presidential office, told local media.

Kiev had received €1 billion of the €9 billion in financial aid pledged by the EU in May, Zhovka said.

Guarantees from member states may be needed for the remaining funds, according to the European Commission, as securing them through the EU budget is not possible on account of a lack of resources.

Several international ratings agencies downgraded Ukraine's credit rating in July. And the largest state-owned company, Naftogaz, failed to service outstanding foreign debts a week ago, in accordance with to a government directive.

Ukraine's need for additional financing has been estimated by the presidential office at almost €50 billion for 2023.

Click to expand...

phrozenflame said:

I think Ukraine has reached a point where they'd give up East to maintain some link to the black sea.

If Russia blunts the coming soon(tm) Kherson offensive in South West, then Ukraine is in deeper mess.

Ukraine will need to do something, they know they need some good PR so Western politicians can continue to support without any political costnlocally, but if you just have months of 'Ukraine loosing territory's, then the average person will ask what is the point of increased inflation and personal sacrifice that person is making.

Click to expand...

I think by now even students of western educational system should have realized, that what Ukraine can keep or if there will be anything left is only decided by what Russia things will be acceptable to them. The West could give the Ukraine even Thermonuclear weapons and it would certainly not turn the tide. The only they achieve is an escalation between Russia and NATO spearhead and that is exactly what the US wants fight Russia until the last Ukrainian and Polish person standing.

FriedButter said:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Anyone catch that? Russia has an advantage in manpower? The Russians may not be all that outnumbered in Eastern Ukraine. Either Ukrainian forces are spread too thinly or they are taking significantly more casualties than the official numbers.

Click to expand...

I thought Ukraine was winning and launching a massive counterattack into Russia towards Moscow and St Petersburg.

phrozenflame said:

I think Ukraine has reached a point where they'd give up East to maintain some link to the black sea.

If Russia blunts the coming soon(tm) Kherson offensive in South West, then Ukraine is in deeper mess.

Ukraine will need to do something, they know they need some good PR so Western politicians can continue to support without any political costnlocally, but if you just have months of 'Ukraine loosing territory's, then the average person will ask what is the point of increased inflation and personal sacrifice that person is making.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure the mythical Kherson offensive will never come, Russia and the separatists started moving again. At this point, Ukraine's well trained USSR standard soldiers are almost all if not all gone.

Western tanks that arrive are immediately shipped to the front where they end up on videos. So no armored spearhead is being built up that can break through Russian lines, not that it would even work since Ukraine has no air capabilities anymore.

I'm curious to see if China will begin giving more support now, although its late now.

I am really scratching my head in respect of what I am hearing about Kherson.
The line seems to be that the Ukraine has amassed a force of up to 200,000 in the Kherson area and that this has forced the Russians to re-deploy up to 30 BTG's to their Kherson front in order to counter it.

It has been suggested that the Ukrainian build up; having numbers, but lacking real offensive capability was really all about forcing Russia to redeploy its forces from the Donbass, this taking the pressure off Ukrainian forces in the East. This narrative though becomes undone by other reports saying that the Ukraine is also redeploying forces from the Donbas to face the newly deployed Russian force in Kherson!!??

What can you say. Yes in parts of the Donbass line the Russian offensive pressure has reduced, but in others (often in areas with the strongest Ukrainian fortifications in them) the Russians are now cutting through like hot butter and getting behind the Ukrainian trenches in areas immediately adjacent to Donetsk City. In short there are enough break through bridgeheads now, to ensure the complete collapse of the Ukrainian front lines within a matter of weeks.

As for Kherson. Are the Ukrainians really planning to pit large, but badly equipped and poorly led, mainly light territorial foot infantry units against up to 30 Professional Russian BTG,s in open steppe, where the Russians dominate in terms of Air Power and Artillery? Really?
If they do, it could be the real knock out blow that ends the effective part of the war altogether.

Biscuits said:

Pretty sure the mythical Kherson offensive will never come, Russia and the separatists started moving again. At this point, Ukraine's well trained USSR standard soldiers are almost all if not all gone.

Western tanks that arrive are immediately shipped to the front where they end up on videos. So no armored spearhead is being built up that can break through Russian lines, not that it would even work since Ukraine has no air capabilities anymore.

I'm curious to see if China will begin giving more support now, although its late now.

Click to expand...

China could help rebuild big time. They could rebuild industry and housing in no time if Russia give them access to some ressources and control of some parts of the industrial sector in Ukraine. Russia will have a functional province faster and China will have gain in eastern Europe economy.

SampanViking said:

I am really scratching my head in respect of what I am hearing about Kherson.
The line seems to be that the Ukraine has amassed a force of up to 200,000 in the Kherson area and that this has forced the Russians to re-deploy up to 30 BTG's to their Kherson front in order to counter it.

It has been suggested that the Ukrainian build up; having numbers, but lacking real offensive capability was really all about forcing Russia to redeploy its forces from the Donbass, this taking the pressure off Ukrainian forces in the East. This narrative though becomes undone by other reports saying that the Ukraine is also redeploying forces from the Donbas to face the newly deployed Russian force in Kherson!!??

What can you say. Yes in parts of the Donbass line the Russian offensive pressure has reduced, but in others (often in areas with the strongest Ukrainian fortifications in them) the Russians are now cutting through like hot butter and getting behind the Ukrainian trenches in areas immediately adjacent to Donetsk City. In short there are enough break through bridgeheads now, to ensure the complete collapse of the Ukrainian front lines within a matter of weeks.

Click to expand...

The Ukrainians have been claiming a Kherson offensive for months now. Back in June there was supposed to be a 1 million army doing the liberating, now it's 200,000?

Ukraine has about as much chance taking Kherson as they do Moscow.

SampanViking said:

As for Kherson. Are the Ukrainians really planning to pit large, but badly equipped and poorly led, mainly light territorial foot infantry units against up to 30 Professional Russian BTG,s in open steppe, where the Russians dominate in terms of Air Power and Artillery? Really?
If they do, it could be the real knock out blow that ends the effective part of the war altogether.

Click to expand...

That's what their strategy has been in this war from day one.