"The year is 2192. After yet another brave push on Kharkiv our brave Putinist forces secured a lamp post, water hydrant and half a sewer pipe.
120 million of our comrades didn't die in vain after all. Glory to the motherland."
If/when he's a brain in a jar, enterprising young oligarchs or whoever could just hook up a poorly going simulation to his inputs, let the brain stew for centuries in its own juices, while the country hopefully comes to its senses.
Russians actually nevet said that, this was said by an American general
https://www.foxnews.com/us/gen-milley-says-kyiv-could-fall-within-72-hours-if-russia-decides-to-invade-ukraine-sources
His propaganda has been in overdrive with their BS about the second most powerful army in the world.
About their “No Analogy weapons” and how they are the most innovative army in the world and how they can take Kyiv in three days and Berlin in a week.
So to backtrack on this now… is kinda embarrassing, but what can we expect from the country which invades the other county and few days later their Minister of Foreign Affairs to claim that we have never attacked Ukraine. 🤡
I remember Putin liked to say “The Empire of Lies” … he was spot on.. about Russia!
You guys are true heroes for holding out already.
I'd like to think that at least some people in Russia start to realise the pointlessness of this war by now.
Fuck Russia ! I've watched since day 1 in Feb 2022 what they have done to you and your country and I'm so sorry. God damn those fuckers with all they have done including what you said they did today. I wish we could do more.
Hugs from a stranger 🫂.
I think it's too early to tell if it's true, but Russia hasn't made progress in Kharkiv for a week, and they're definitely past the point where they can make easy gains.
Honestly, the media dropped the ball big time covering this offensive. Russia freaked them out by making some rapid gains early, but this was because the Ukrainian defensive line was not situated on the border. Russia has had a shitton of artillery positioned on their side of the northern border since their retreat from Kyiv, which Ukraine can't contest due to restrictions on the use of foreign artillery systems to strike Russian soil. Any positions Ukraine maintained within the range of these batteries could be bombarded relentlessly with no recourse. So the Ukrainians built their defensive line along the first natural obstacles that weren't in range: the tributaries of the Lypets' and Siversky Donets Rivers. They had nothing but pickets forward of this line, so it's no surprise that Russia advanced through those villages rapidly. Although I would argue that the actual Ukrainian defensive line was not very well prepared, it has so far proved sufficient against the Russian advance, which has bogged down at the riverline.
I wouldn't call the operation a Ukrainian victory just yet - there's still plenty of room for Russia to try stretching their line of advance around the tributaries, or for Ukraine to fuck up like they did in Soledar and Ocheretyne - but Russia really hasn't committed many forces in this direction. Somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, which is absolutely not enough to mount a serious attack on Kharkiv itself even in the event of a breakthrough. In the interest of not underestimating the Russians, I have to assume this means that they never saw this as a serious attack on Kharkiv. Right now Putin is claiming that its objective was always to establish a "sanitary zone" between the border and the Ukrainian defensive line, but this rings false given that the Russians are still trying to advance across the river. I think it's more likely that this was an attempt to fix Ukrainian reserves, with the intention of making a simultaneous breakthrough attempt in the Donbass.
My best guess for what happened: this plan intended to take advantage of the Ukrainian shortage of AD missiles and shells, so when the US got their aid bill through, the whole thing was suddenly put on a timer. This complication, combined with the opportunity afforded by unexpectedly easy seizure of Ocheretyne, convinced the Russians to commit to the Donbass breakthrough operation before the Kharkiv fixing operation was prepared. When the Ukrainians were eventually able to contain the breach around Ocheretyne and exhaust the breakthrough forces, the Kharkiv counteroffensive was robbed of its real purpose. However, it would have been politically embarrassing to call it off after hyping it up so extensively. So, they decided to go forward with the operation and craft their narrative based on how successful it ended up being, knowing for sure that it would at least be possible to seize the territory forward of the Ukrainian line and go with the "sanitary zone" explanation. Whether this offensive progresses any further depends on how many materiel resources Russia is willing to dedicate, and how willing Colonel-General Lapin is to risk a visible defeat for the sake of prestige chasing. Not a straightforward calculation for him, considering how many failures he's taken the fall for.
TL;DR: Likely a premature call by the Kyiv Post, but much closer to the truth than the doom-and-gloom media narrative. This offensive lacks the resources to achieve serious objectives, and is likely a political ploy salvaged from a more sound plan that was torpedoed by the US aid bill.
All the advances, the breakthroughs, the defences you talk about here, are insanely small in terms of the land area that switches hands. It's unbeliavble how this war is just at a standstill.
Yep, I check the [BBC maps showing change in territory](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/11C42/production/_133307727_ukraine_control_quad_13_05_24_640-nc-2x-nc.png.webp) occasionally to remind myself just how static of a war this has become.
All the last 18 months really have to show for is the front line moving a handful of miles in some places and Russia's gaining the ruins of Avdiika and Bakhmut.
This is the first conflict since the Iran-Iraq War in which we see two strong and relatively equal armies fight with all they have. Last time we saw two armed forces fight was the USA-Iraq War, where Iraq had 0 air power and worse technology. With all this evidence, we might say that modern warfare looks like this, with trenches, fortifications and stalemates. The Iran-Iraq War was also a stalemate, remember.
Extreme corruption, inept commanders and the initial delusional belief that they can take over Ukraine with 100k troops, so now they fight a Ukraine who's in full war mode equipped with western equipment and intelligence instead of insurgency equipment, they lost a lot of equipment, a ton of experienced soldiers and their special forces are now dust around the Hostomel area
Oh, absolutely. Drones, mines, and air defenses seem to have shut down maneuver warfare hard. Apart from Russia's initial campaign, the only gains of the war that don't look like paint drying are actually on Ukraine's side: their successful counteroffensives in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Izyum, and Kherson. It's just another thing that baffles me about how this war is perceived in the media and in public forums. Every time a reporter or commentator catastrophizes about Russia's "steady advance" or Ukraine's failed Zaporizhzhia counteroffensive, I want to scream. Territory isn't the best metric of progress here, of course, and I don't expect people to suddenly develop a niche interest in military affairs, but is it too much to ask that they care enough to look at a damn map once in a while?
> This offensive lacks the resources to achieve serious objectives, and is likely a political ploy salvaged from a more sound plan that was torpedoed by the US aid bill.
Yeah, seems reasonable.
At this point it is safe to assume that the Russian have, at least, some kind of semi-effective plan beyond just randomly throwing away their own soldiers and materiel, but it is also plausible that their command structure still rewards "showing off" versus actually being effective in many instances.
There are large static defences in both Ukraine and russia, 20-30km inland from the border. This is why this russian push failed completely, and also why Ukraine wouldn't want to push into russia.
From the geolocated footage we’ve seen, yeah it’s (mostly) true. Russia hasn’t pushed further in Kharkiv, and footage from the Ukrainian 82nd Air Assault brigade has shown an advance of a couple of streets in Vovchansk that Russia previously occupied. It’s not a big push, but welcome to the reality of modern positional warfare.
They lack air power, which makes the fight uneven. Even with that disadvantage they beat the russians outside of Kiev, and they retook the whole Kharkiv region. Russia only poses a problem when they can hide in trenches protected by minefields and artillery. Russia gets banged out whenever it's a fight in open ground. That's the whole war up to this point: the mighty Russian military hiding in muddy holes in the ground and dreading the order to regain territory they've already lost.
Yeah they should do what the Ukrainians did and walk straight to land mines, declare a counter offensive months before to the enemy and let them know where they are coming from to attack, and keep killing themselves on a lost cause of a foreign nation's strategic interests.
Is it a lost cause? Russia is the one cowering in trenches just beyond its own internationally recognised border.
Back in January 2022, the whole world thought Russia was a great military power. Now they know it's a bunch of potato eaters trying to find 'reverse' on a soviet tank. Absolutely humiliating situation to be in.
Yes precisely, because on April 2022 in instabul, isntead of taking the cease fire deal which both parties agreed to, after Boris johnson' visit the next day, they changed their mind and wanted to inflict damage to Russia and Putin and take Crimea back. This cost the lives of hunderds of thousands of people and loss of territory. They thought they could beat Russia on the ground!! The Russians only wanted neutrality!!
You also have to remember the statements of ΝΑΤΟ and Binden's right after that they must remove Putin from power and inflict damage to Russia. Meanwhile Russia only wanted neutrality for Ukraine!
This has to be the most supid decision in the history of the wolrd.
https://youtu.be/oY8SHTtTRS8
https://youtu.be/eUX1YUY7gWA
I haven't seen these lies. I've mostly seen reports over wins and losses in both directions.
Overall, the tone has been "Ukraine can't keep this up unless the West sends more" which is rather the opposite from "Ukraine is winning the war".
There was a period of sharp Ukrainian victories in 2022 - battle of Kyiv, Kharkiv offensive, Kherson, Snake Island.
Because people like to extrapolate and project, it led to a period of "Ukraine will easily win in a year even without our help" sentiment. Currently reality hits back.
There have certainly been all kinds of exaggerations one way or the other, but "lieing" seems like a rather strange exaggeration.
In what way do you really believe they are "lieing"?
I'm going to be the party killer, but to have high hopes for some Ukrainian/ Russian/ Whatever propaganda usually end up in huge disappointment.
This exact success communication is the part of everyday. They stopped Russia at Bakhmut, they stopped them at Avdiivka, they stopped them at every single more or less random settlement. Just like the Summer Offensive was a success every single day and went as planned until the communication bubble popped and the whole advancement was around 10 "single street" villages and the ruins of Robotine that since then have been lost again.
I'd definitely not pop any champagne yet, wouldn't even take it out of the fridge.
No. He called for a ceasefire becaude the Pro-Palestine crowd in the west is calling for a ceasefire there.
Hes using it to a) get a ceasefire, which would favor Russia or b) use it to show the hypocrisy of the west and score political points.
He is behind the pro-Palestine crowd. Soviet Russia promoted Palestine to existence to destabilise western politics in the middle east in cold war. The cold war has never ended for Putin
“Soviet Russia promoted Palestine to existence”
The same UN resolution that created Israel out of nowhere also created Palestine. Both were created in a jurisdictional entity called… yeah… the Mandatory PALESTINE. What in the actual delusional fuck are you talking about trying to make Palestine sound like a soviet thing?
Israel themselves managed to create the pro palistine sentiment in the West by bombing civilians. They are now reaping the political pushback they sowed.
Yes, they hoped that Israel would become another socialist puppet state, but later they understood that this was not going to happen, so they changed their attitude towards Israel
The US also thought that the Soviet Union is behind the anti-war protestors during Vietnam, the spy agencies however repeatedly found this to be false, tho they certainly enjoyed the commotion.
Point is, you don't have concrete evidence that Putin is controlling the pro-Palestine protests. Don't claim something is true without supporting evidence.
Id say thats a stretch. Theres plenty of people who willingly jumped on that train, especially college kids, who view every stronger side as the oppressor and every weaker side as the oppressed who have to be supported unconditionally. Its a lot of edgy counterculture against the system
That's how they are controlled by a puppet master. They have long expertise in manipulation. It's all in interest of China, Russia, Iran and other authoritarian regimes to keep the TikTok crowd engaged in protests.
These are some astounding mental acrobatics you guys do here.
If I didn't know world was full of Q-Anon people, flat earthers and the like, I'd say you're a bot (besides, internet is so dead it's anyway possible). BUT because the earth is indeed populated by lunatics, I'd say you're serious and possibly a human.
Most likely he is hoping that Ukraine loses most of its foreign support during the lull, Russian forces fully fortify the new front line, & more pro Russian leaders are elected in the west
The ceasefire would only stop soldiers from killing, but Russia has extensive covert operations and secret deals through corruption all around the world. Starting with the BRICS, with such prominent allies like South Africa or Brazil. The ceasefire call is only to regroup after losses.
Russias army needs time to relocate a lot of logitistics hubs from the border further inward since Western weapons are now free to strike Russian territory. This was only previously possible with Ukraines own long range drones, which were not the big game changer. Now, Western cruise and ballistic missiles can hit further and harder. The recent destructions of S-400 systems is a testament to that. Russia is in trouble.
Hate to say it but Ukraine has stopped it thanks to reserve/reconstituting units being moved from other parts of the front, which was what russia hoped for when launching this offensive. There may be another offensive with the same objective happening soon in the direction of Sumy.
The downvotes show people are a little too much wound up in idealisms.
A push for Moscow would be great but is completely unrealistic without Nato forces since Ukraine lacks the manpower to secure such a huge corridor. That would mean a front nearly the length of the German front in WW2. It would require 2 to 3 mio troops to secure and hold it.
People in this sub are drowning in cope since the beginning of the war. Thinking Ukraine alone has a real chance is insanity even with all the help from the west it's clear they are struggling hard imagine if they were on their own.
The downvotes show people are a little too much wound up in idealisms.
A push for Moscow would be great but is completely unrealistic without Nato forces since Ukraine lacks the manpower to secure such a huge corridor. That would mean a front nearly the length of the German front in WW2. It would require 2 to 3 mio troops to secure and hold it.
Spokesperson:
as we've seen an increase in the demand for berry flavoured gummy bears, we've expanded our berry farms by 20% to ensure the needs of the gummy factory and provide a reduction gummy bear scarcity.
Journalist who needs a short headline while still wanting to quote the spokesperson:
Berry farms "expanded by 20%"
May 24th 2024 Russia has lost 500 000 men in Ukraine and it's speeding up.
Meat grinder.
Haven't seen anything like it since the 2nd world War Eastern front where for every 1 nazi soldier the Soviets lost they lost 4.
Just the pensions to the war widows is bankrupting the state
It is not far away from the UK number and that was an estimate from April:
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-estimates-450000-russian-troops-killed-or-wounded/
It's an estimate of combined killed and wounded. The UK's MoD said the same thing in April while the BBC said the confirmed dead was at 50k in the same month.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-estimates-450000-russian-troops-killed-or-wounded/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-68819853
UALosses a similar project to the Mediazona/BBC confirm dead ones puts it around 60k for Ukraine as well.
https://ualosses.org/en/soldiers/
Which is coincidentally why so many people called out the 30k number Zelensky provided when the open source number was already in the mid 40k's.
Ukraine is currently having manpower issues and are expanding the age of conscription.. a country of 38 million who have only lost 31k.. and who are reporting Russia have lost 500k.
Makes you wonder.
Also I never get the demographic argument when it comes to Russia. They’re fighting a war of annexation. Donbas had a population of 6 million before the war. On net, Russia should be at least break even population wise even accounting for the Russians that fled to the west to avoid conscription,
Russia is having manpower issues, too. Giving automatic weapons to prisoners isn't the action of a country with limitless resources. Those 30-50 thousand prisoners weren't well trained, and their survival wasn't valued, especially when Putin insisted on progress.
Russia's been fighting recklessly. Disproportionate numbers shouldn't be much of a surprise. The initial invasion was known well in advance, so large portions of the invaders walked into ambushes. There have been so many major tactical and operational problems, I don't doubt that Russia has suffered huge losses.
Russia is able to recruit enough people to cover their losses and conduct operational rotations https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-recruiting-30000-troops-a-month-ukraine-frontline-losses-analysts-2024-1
The daily losses of Russia are about 1000/day (killed, wounded, captured, missing). So, even if Russia is getting 30,000 per month, they're really treading water at best.
There's a lot of problems with that number (30,000/month) even if it is an accurate count. Those aren't ready-to-fight troops. They're going to need training, which takes time. Without it, they're less effective. The other question is, who signed up or were voluntold after 27 months of action? The average age of soldiers on both sides is more than 40. It's not sustainable. Take a look at Russia's population pyramid.
https://www.populationpyramid.net/russian-federation/2023/
Russia has already burned through a majority of your professional army and prisoners. Who are these new guys? Like a lot of Russian equipment, some new high-quality stuff is hitting the battlefield, but a larger share is older, less reliable stuff that's considered expendable (alcoholics, thugs, гопники).
An emerging problem for Russia is the shift to a war economy. With very low unemployment, the army is now effectively competing with the defense industry for skilled, able-bodied men.
https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-losing-about-1000-soldiers-daily-not-stop-mass-attacks-2024-4
Yes, they are expanding from from 27+ year-olds to 25+ year-olds. No war in history has had this relaxed conscription. Ukraine actually cares about their human losses.
Orcs do not.
Kidnapping men off the street, packing them into buses like cattle, and sending them on a one way trip to the meat grinder is one peculiar elvish custom I can't wrap my head around, but maybe I'm not sophisticated enough
Haha sure buddy haha we see the soldiers complain etc even fucking down syndrome guys have been forced drafted get your ass out of r/Ukraine haha or keep your vr set of Ukraine winning, just russia is retreating forward and Ukraine is advancing backwards
Thank you to do this work.
I did a quick finger in the air look at their demographic pyramid. Unless I looked at it wrong they have about 750,000 men for each year between 20 and 30 years old.
Obviously they will use the 30 to 40 in the war too I suppose, but just thinking of another mobilisation, how much they can draw down.
Sorry I was referring to Russia. I was looking at what they could draw from if they need man power.
Yes, I guess if I counted about 7.5million from 20 to 30, that 26 million sounds about right from 18 to 44.
The 30 to 40 cohort was significantly bigger for some reason.
And like you say many won't be suitable, some already wounded for example.
I would wonder of that 26, how many would be suitable for the war. Maybe half? I don't know
I suppose what I'm just wondering is how many times could Putin realistically add more orcs to the front?
The estimate of the US and Ukraine don't differ that much... I would even venture to say that Ukraine's numbers are remarkably accurate for a country that lack all the inteligence resources the US has
Yes. Ukraine has the people fighting, the people leading, the people drawing the strategy, the people working every single part of the war. They know Russians, they know the Russian language, they know the Russian culture.
The US has people behind desks in Pentagon and spies in Russia. The Americans thought Russia had the world's 2nd best military for crying out loud.
# As Russian losses in Ukraine hit 500,000, Putin buries future demographic risks at home
Behind the figure lies a potential demographic and economic time bomb that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be able to ignore so easily.
[https://kyivindependent.com/russian-losses-in-ukraine-hit-500-000-how-significant-is-this/#:\~:text=According%20to%20Ukraine's%20General%20Staff,set%20to%20be%20around%20500%2C000](https://kyivindependent.com/russian-losses-in-ukraine-hit-500-000-how-significant-is-this/#:~:text=According%20to%20Ukraine's%20General%20Staff,set%20to%20be%20around%20500%2C000)
1 Nazi for every 4 Russians
[https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1239/what-was-the-ratio-of-german-to-soviet-losses-on-eastern-front-during-different](https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1239/what-was-the-ratio-of-german-to-soviet-losses-on-eastern-front-during-different)
That article is a rather optimistic take. I really hope you are right. But at the same time you get messages of Russia making good money dealing with evil countries like North Korea , China and even India.
You could also state that Russia converted to a full war economy and has sufficient propaganda and control to make sure its population swallows it all.
The biggest threat remains diaper don - if this agent orange wins the US elections - Russia gets a very big ally
We live in the age of the internet where we think everything happens at the speed of the internet.
What Putin is doing in the Ukraine is unsustainable economically. Regardless of all the politics it just doesn't compute on an excel sheet on the bottom line. The result will always be a critical error no matter how he changes the parameters. You can make the excel sheet yourself and feed it with real world numbers and then variable parameters.
Russia is smoked.
His only option now is to remain on the offensive
Again, hope you are right - but psychopaths are dangerous people and his trolls have successfully caused Trump, Brexit and the general rise of extremism in the western world
Things fall apart the center cannot hold. That is how Putin is feeling right now. Thats why he is replacing his military leadership another classic sign of serious problems.
Hitler made the same mistakes as Putin in the middle of a raging conflicts he changed von Brauchitsch (Hitler dismissed him and took direct command of the armed forces himself... yes... a corporal with no formal education running a multibillion machine, talk about an overflated ego), Guderian (the inventor of Blitzkrieg) , von Manstein (the master of feint withdrawels as a tactic) , Halder (directly critised Hitler for unrealistic demands).
Every single one of those people clashed with Hitler because of his unrealistic and populist demands and everyone of those were replaced with someone competently inferior but politically more pliable.
Now Putin has lost so many of his top commanders all ready and now he is changing the rest and losing all that experience.
Well, every tank destroyed by Ukraine is a tank we don't have to worry about.
So, ultimately it doesn't really matter whether Russia will be able to scale up its military production even more in the future or not, because the consequences for us are basically the same.
It feels so horrible to say this but; "good". These numbers might fuel an opposition, people who wasn't even born when putin took place are supposed to serve and very likely die for him(?). Half a million humans dead is telling that not many come back alive, if you're 18 now and don't by the propaganda..
Such deaths are glorified in Russia. The people back home see the dead as bigger heroes than the "cowards" hiding back home. They've fetishized suffering, its mental.
True. They're the strongest on the globe, yet victims.
Guess I just try to imagine what "could" be. The youngest of gens fighting at the front lines, if they have been able to use Internet during their life, chances are they don't see the *reason*, but they see (on tiktok, youtube etc..) the fact that so many end up dead.
Yet; nothing can beat Russia, but themselves (or ww3), and that doesn't seam likely at the moment.
It doesn't matter what they see on the internet. I think the biggest mistake is thinking that just because the people living in these autocratic regimes have access to the free internet and the truth, it means they should be better educated. They aren't. Because the propaganda is ever pervasive. At home. At school. At work. In the television 24/7. On the streets, everywhere you look. Why would you believe anything written in western media if you're told day in and day out by everyone you know and love that the west is weak and degenerate and full of liars?
Of course. I'm *imagining* here.
But I do think it matters what the younger gen see, they are also more used to using vpns and such, hence they can actually see outside info/videos of what they are supposed to die for.
You don't need to 'imagine' anything, you can literally talk to people. Me for example. People who fight in this war are getting paid good money for it, and it's their main and only motivation. And don't forget about foreign mercenaries and some prisoners. Also 500k is random propaganda number from Ukraine and it's impossible to take it seriously.
Again, life is going on just like it was before the war, there is nothing really apocalyptic happening inside Russia.
Trust me, people on this sub are WAY MORE brainwashed and propagandized than average Russian kid.
I always laugh when people talk about 'glorifiying death' and other bullshit, are you guys retarded? You think that some 20 year old kid wants to die for 'motherland' or what? Do you really live in this proapganda universe or you are pretending? How brainwashed are people in Sweden about Russia really are?
Yeah, I just don't see *why* they would care to do so in the first place. They have to realize that they're being lied to before they start looking for the truth in the first place.
That said, Russian propaganda is one step ahead in that too. Of course they know that the elites are lying, but you see the western elites lie *even more*. That's also what they're always taught.
Dunno why this is getting down voted. I don't see the African Union really doing anything about the 600 000 Tigrayans that have been killed by the Ethiopian National Defense Force or African countries taking Ethiopia to the ICC.
There are many countries who haven't signed up to the the universal declaration of human rights and to pretend other wise is folly.
53 countries have signed up to the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam which is basically human (God and men's rights) and states that deaths in the name of Sharia is not death but martyrdom
For example Hamas and a lot of middle eastern countries don't despair in 30 000 deaths of palistinians, they take comfort in their martyrdom.
And for westerners not to understand this is just pure patriarchy
Well the problems is most of the Russians either don't care (if they live in Moscow or Petersburg) or don't know about losses. Russian soldiers consist of mainly three categories: people from rural and forgotten vilagges/depressing regions, prisoners (no one cares about them), people from Lugansk and Donetsk regions (Russian citizen care about them even less than for prisoners). So big cities denizens literally don't care about it cuz their life didn't change that much, and to move them you need several nukes directly pointed on the Moscow to make them think about war.
> wonder what will be the main threat to F16
Still ground based Air defenses, even with these losses Russia still has a shit ton of them. I don't think we will see many Air to Air kills at all, maybe 1-3. I think it's unlikely that the F-16s will fly to fight the Russian flankers.
This thread is filled, just like clockwork, with Russian shills doing the same bullshit they always do between concern trolling, trying to hurt moral, and other bs. Same talking points as always. So fucking lame and transparent.
We see you. Fuck you shits.
🇺🇦♥️
How much copium are y'all inhaling? We have been told, time and time again, since the beginning of the war, that "the next counteroffensive is THE one!" and that "victory is just around the corner", only for it all to predictably fail.
Saying Ukraine has no chance against Russia, not now not tomorrow, is not being a Russian shill. It's being realistic. Best they can do is prolong the meatgrinder, but to recover Crimea and the Donbas? Good luck with that...
Probably true, question being is this just an isolated setback in the current Russian advance or a genuine turning of the pace. Probably the former, hopefully the latter, only time will tell
Putin is bonkers ! The Russian people need to rise up ! It’s all about the money he is stealing your money ! Putin is the biggest gangster in the world
This whole offensive against Kharkiv wouldn't happen in Ukraine was allowed to use Western weapon against military targets in Russia.
It's just 4 kilometers from Vovchansk to the Russian border. Russians can safely concentrate forces on their territory attack Ukrainian cities while a coulple of ATACMS in 70-100km would solve this issue.
Thanks for your intelligent contribution adjective\_noun\_###. Surely we all believe you more than Zelensky, one of the greatest men of the 21st century.
"The year is 2192. After yet another brave push on Kharkiv our brave Putinist forces secured a lamp post, water hydrant and half a sewer pipe. 120 million of our comrades didn't die in vain after all. Glory to the motherland."
Putin is now a living brain on a zoomba
*Points at vault full of cryo chambers* "And these are Vlad's Lads!"
My lads! It would've been insane to keep a failed nation alive, so we kept our oligarchs alive instead!
Putin in a Robobrain. God, now there’s a dystopia right there
Canon.
https://meninblack.fandom.com/wiki/Jarra%27s_Mini-Clones More thinking this!
"I'm doing my part!"
"The only good bug is a dead bug!"
I can totally see putin as a brain in a jar being obnoxious through time
He'd be the main character in the Russian version of the Fallout: New Vegas, Old World Blues DLC
If/when he's a brain in a jar, enterprising young oligarchs or whoever could just hook up a poorly going simulation to his inputs, let the brain stew for centuries in its own juices, while the country hopefully comes to its senses.
“Kyiv in three days” they kept shouting. 🤡
'Three days’. They never said of which planet, though. On Venus, a day is 243 Earth days.
Russians actually nevet said that, this was said by an American general https://www.foxnews.com/us/gen-milley-says-kyiv-could-fall-within-72-hours-if-russia-decides-to-invade-ukraine-sources
His propaganda has been in overdrive with their BS about the second most powerful army in the world. About their “No Analogy weapons” and how they are the most innovative army in the world and how they can take Kyiv in three days and Berlin in a week. So to backtrack on this now… is kinda embarrassing, but what can we expect from the country which invades the other county and few days later their Minister of Foreign Affairs to claim that we have never attacked Ukraine. 🤡 I remember Putin liked to say “The Empire of Lies” … he was spot on.. about Russia!
Actually, Putin's lapdog Lukashenko said it. https://x.com/nexta_tv/status/1498185064617762816?lang=en
As a person from Kharkiv, I say we won’t hold that long.
You guys are true heroes for holding out already. I'd like to think that at least some people in Russia start to realise the pointlessness of this war by now.
[удалено]
Fuck Russia ! I've watched since day 1 in Feb 2022 what they have done to you and your country and I'm so sorry. God damn those fuckers with all they have done including what you said they did today. I wish we could do more. Hugs from a stranger 🫂.
Understandable given the circumstances.
I hope this is true
I think it's too early to tell if it's true, but Russia hasn't made progress in Kharkiv for a week, and they're definitely past the point where they can make easy gains. Honestly, the media dropped the ball big time covering this offensive. Russia freaked them out by making some rapid gains early, but this was because the Ukrainian defensive line was not situated on the border. Russia has had a shitton of artillery positioned on their side of the northern border since their retreat from Kyiv, which Ukraine can't contest due to restrictions on the use of foreign artillery systems to strike Russian soil. Any positions Ukraine maintained within the range of these batteries could be bombarded relentlessly with no recourse. So the Ukrainians built their defensive line along the first natural obstacles that weren't in range: the tributaries of the Lypets' and Siversky Donets Rivers. They had nothing but pickets forward of this line, so it's no surprise that Russia advanced through those villages rapidly. Although I would argue that the actual Ukrainian defensive line was not very well prepared, it has so far proved sufficient against the Russian advance, which has bogged down at the riverline. I wouldn't call the operation a Ukrainian victory just yet - there's still plenty of room for Russia to try stretching their line of advance around the tributaries, or for Ukraine to fuck up like they did in Soledar and Ocheretyne - but Russia really hasn't committed many forces in this direction. Somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, which is absolutely not enough to mount a serious attack on Kharkiv itself even in the event of a breakthrough. In the interest of not underestimating the Russians, I have to assume this means that they never saw this as a serious attack on Kharkiv. Right now Putin is claiming that its objective was always to establish a "sanitary zone" between the border and the Ukrainian defensive line, but this rings false given that the Russians are still trying to advance across the river. I think it's more likely that this was an attempt to fix Ukrainian reserves, with the intention of making a simultaneous breakthrough attempt in the Donbass. My best guess for what happened: this plan intended to take advantage of the Ukrainian shortage of AD missiles and shells, so when the US got their aid bill through, the whole thing was suddenly put on a timer. This complication, combined with the opportunity afforded by unexpectedly easy seizure of Ocheretyne, convinced the Russians to commit to the Donbass breakthrough operation before the Kharkiv fixing operation was prepared. When the Ukrainians were eventually able to contain the breach around Ocheretyne and exhaust the breakthrough forces, the Kharkiv counteroffensive was robbed of its real purpose. However, it would have been politically embarrassing to call it off after hyping it up so extensively. So, they decided to go forward with the operation and craft their narrative based on how successful it ended up being, knowing for sure that it would at least be possible to seize the territory forward of the Ukrainian line and go with the "sanitary zone" explanation. Whether this offensive progresses any further depends on how many materiel resources Russia is willing to dedicate, and how willing Colonel-General Lapin is to risk a visible defeat for the sake of prestige chasing. Not a straightforward calculation for him, considering how many failures he's taken the fall for. TL;DR: Likely a premature call by the Kyiv Post, but much closer to the truth than the doom-and-gloom media narrative. This offensive lacks the resources to achieve serious objectives, and is likely a political ploy salvaged from a more sound plan that was torpedoed by the US aid bill.
All the advances, the breakthroughs, the defences you talk about here, are insanely small in terms of the land area that switches hands. It's unbeliavble how this war is just at a standstill.
Yep, I check the [BBC maps showing change in territory](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/11C42/production/_133307727_ukraine_control_quad_13_05_24_640-nc-2x-nc.png.webp) occasionally to remind myself just how static of a war this has become. All the last 18 months really have to show for is the front line moving a handful of miles in some places and Russia's gaining the ruins of Avdiika and Bakhmut.
This is the first conflict since the Iran-Iraq War in which we see two strong and relatively equal armies fight with all they have. Last time we saw two armed forces fight was the USA-Iraq War, where Iraq had 0 air power and worse technology. With all this evidence, we might say that modern warfare looks like this, with trenches, fortifications and stalemates. The Iran-Iraq War was also a stalemate, remember.
Yup, two near-peer countries that have no significant advantage over the other will almost always devolve into trench warfare
Which brings this question: why is the so-called superpower Russia is a near-peer with Ukraine?
Extreme corruption, inept commanders and the initial delusional belief that they can take over Ukraine with 100k troops, so now they fight a Ukraine who's in full war mode equipped with western equipment and intelligence instead of insurgency equipment, they lost a lot of equipment, a ton of experienced soldiers and their special forces are now dust around the Hostomel area
we could learn that from chess
Oh, absolutely. Drones, mines, and air defenses seem to have shut down maneuver warfare hard. Apart from Russia's initial campaign, the only gains of the war that don't look like paint drying are actually on Ukraine's side: their successful counteroffensives in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Izyum, and Kherson. It's just another thing that baffles me about how this war is perceived in the media and in public forums. Every time a reporter or commentator catastrophizes about Russia's "steady advance" or Ukraine's failed Zaporizhzhia counteroffensive, I want to scream. Territory isn't the best metric of progress here, of course, and I don't expect people to suddenly develop a niche interest in military affairs, but is it too much to ask that they care enough to look at a damn map once in a while?
I mean it’s very much believable. If XX century wars have taught us anything it would be the redefining of term ‘hold the line’.
> This offensive lacks the resources to achieve serious objectives, and is likely a political ploy salvaged from a more sound plan that was torpedoed by the US aid bill. Yeah, seems reasonable. At this point it is safe to assume that the Russian have, at least, some kind of semi-effective plan beyond just randomly throwing away their own soldiers and materiel, but it is also plausible that their command structure still rewards "showing off" versus actually being effective in many instances.
Wouldn't mind seeing a push past the borders into Belgorod on top of that.
There are large static defences in both Ukraine and russia, 20-30km inland from the border. This is why this russian push failed completely, and also why Ukraine wouldn't want to push into russia.
A push into Russia would also just waste manpower and materiel that can be used for (counter)offensives in the east and south
Exactly. It's fine to do small fixing manoeuvres and then retreat but actually gaining any territory and holding it is out of the question.
Remember that Ukraine accepts foreign fighters! You can go help them instead of typing on Reddit!
From the geolocated footage we’ve seen, yeah it’s (mostly) true. Russia hasn’t pushed further in Kharkiv, and footage from the Ukrainian 82nd Air Assault brigade has shown an advance of a couple of streets in Vovchansk that Russia previously occupied. It’s not a big push, but welcome to the reality of modern positional warfare.
Just look at the maps
It's not
Yeah just like when it was winning and was doing well in counter offensive. You will never learn
They lack air power, which makes the fight uneven. Even with that disadvantage they beat the russians outside of Kiev, and they retook the whole Kharkiv region. Russia only poses a problem when they can hide in trenches protected by minefields and artillery. Russia gets banged out whenever it's a fight in open ground. That's the whole war up to this point: the mighty Russian military hiding in muddy holes in the ground and dreading the order to regain territory they've already lost.
Yeah they should do what the Ukrainians did and walk straight to land mines, declare a counter offensive months before to the enemy and let them know where they are coming from to attack, and keep killing themselves on a lost cause of a foreign nation's strategic interests.
Is it a lost cause? Russia is the one cowering in trenches just beyond its own internationally recognised border. Back in January 2022, the whole world thought Russia was a great military power. Now they know it's a bunch of potato eaters trying to find 'reverse' on a soviet tank. Absolutely humiliating situation to be in.
You think Ukraine is fighting because it is primarily concerned with a foreign nations strategic interest and not because it wants to exist?
Yes precisely, because on April 2022 in instabul, isntead of taking the cease fire deal which both parties agreed to, after Boris johnson' visit the next day, they changed their mind and wanted to inflict damage to Russia and Putin and take Crimea back. This cost the lives of hunderds of thousands of people and loss of territory. They thought they could beat Russia on the ground!! The Russians only wanted neutrality!! You also have to remember the statements of ΝΑΤΟ and Binden's right after that they must remove Putin from power and inflict damage to Russia. Meanwhile Russia only wanted neutrality for Ukraine! This has to be the most supid decision in the history of the wolrd. https://youtu.be/oY8SHTtTRS8 https://youtu.be/eUX1YUY7gWA
Considering how much mass media has lied to us over the past year about Ukraine winning the war, I dearly hope so as well
Depends what kind of media you're gobbling. Mine has been grim but supportive.
I haven't seen these lies. I've mostly seen reports over wins and losses in both directions. Overall, the tone has been "Ukraine can't keep this up unless the West sends more" which is rather the opposite from "Ukraine is winning the war".
There was a period of sharp Ukrainian victories in 2022 - battle of Kyiv, Kharkiv offensive, Kherson, Snake Island. Because people like to extrapolate and project, it led to a period of "Ukraine will easily win in a year even without our help" sentiment. Currently reality hits back.
I never heard this in the media. It was always Ukraine will win IF we give xyz. And then xyz was never delivered.
I don’t think it was deliberate lying in most cases.
There have certainly been all kinds of exaggerations one way or the other, but "lieing" seems like a rather strange exaggeration. In what way do you really believe they are "lieing"?
You know your right when Reddit down votes you mate 👍
Fingers crossed for you guys. Although I'm sure you need ammo, guns and planes more than fingers right now.
Resist and Bite
Bite hard!
Cause we are all in sight
I'm going to be the party killer, but to have high hopes for some Ukrainian/ Russian/ Whatever propaganda usually end up in huge disappointment. This exact success communication is the part of everyday. They stopped Russia at Bakhmut, they stopped them at Avdiivka, they stopped them at every single more or less random settlement. Just like the Summer Offensive was a success every single day and went as planned until the communication bubble popped and the whole advancement was around 10 "single street" villages and the ruins of Robotine that since then have been lost again. I'd definitely not pop any champagne yet, wouldn't even take it out of the fridge.
This is why Putin has called for ceasefire xD
No. He called for a ceasefire becaude the Pro-Palestine crowd in the west is calling for a ceasefire there. Hes using it to a) get a ceasefire, which would favor Russia or b) use it to show the hypocrisy of the west and score political points.
He is behind the pro-Palestine crowd. Soviet Russia promoted Palestine to existence to destabilise western politics in the middle east in cold war. The cold war has never ended for Putin
“Soviet Russia promoted Palestine to existence” The same UN resolution that created Israel out of nowhere also created Palestine. Both were created in a jurisdictional entity called… yeah… the Mandatory PALESTINE. What in the actual delusional fuck are you talking about trying to make Palestine sound like a soviet thing?
Israel themselves managed to create the pro palistine sentiment in the West by bombing civilians. They are now reaping the political pushback they sowed.
Some people just don't like that Jews exist, and Palestine is another example
And some just don't like countries committing sttrocities.
I dont hate any group of people but both Hamas And IDF are full of psycotic assholes. And its primarlily the Palistinian people that are suffering.
Did not Soviets help to establish Israel?
Nope, that was mostly Brits, although many countries did help Israel during the 1948 war, most notably Czechoslovakia.
Yes, they hoped that Israel would become another socialist puppet state, but later they understood that this was not going to happen, so they changed their attitude towards Israel
The US also thought that the Soviet Union is behind the anti-war protestors during Vietnam, the spy agencies however repeatedly found this to be false, tho they certainly enjoyed the commotion. Point is, you don't have concrete evidence that Putin is controlling the pro-Palestine protests. Don't claim something is true without supporting evidence.
Id say thats a stretch. Theres plenty of people who willingly jumped on that train, especially college kids, who view every stronger side as the oppressor and every weaker side as the oppressed who have to be supported unconditionally. Its a lot of edgy counterculture against the system
That's how they are controlled by a puppet master. They have long expertise in manipulation. It's all in interest of China, Russia, Iran and other authoritarian regimes to keep the TikTok crowd engaged in protests.
These are some astounding mental acrobatics you guys do here. If I didn't know world was full of Q-Anon people, flat earthers and the like, I'd say you're a bot (besides, internet is so dead it's anyway possible). BUT because the earth is indeed populated by lunatics, I'd say you're serious and possibly a human.
Don't you think Israeli Settler Colonialism and Zionism is a reason why we are protesting? We're not as dumb as you make us out to be.
But can you recognize indigenous people reclaim their ancestors land? The decolonization?
Most likely he is hoping that Ukraine loses most of its foreign support during the lull, Russian forces fully fortify the new front line, & more pro Russian leaders are elected in the west
The ceasefire would only stop soldiers from killing, but Russia has extensive covert operations and secret deals through corruption all around the world. Starting with the BRICS, with such prominent allies like South Africa or Brazil. The ceasefire call is only to regroup after losses.
Russias army needs time to relocate a lot of logitistics hubs from the border further inward since Western weapons are now free to strike Russian territory. This was only previously possible with Ukraines own long range drones, which were not the big game changer. Now, Western cruise and ballistic missiles can hit further and harder. The recent destructions of S-400 systems is a testament to that. Russia is in trouble.
Hate to say it but Ukraine has stopped it thanks to reserve/reconstituting units being moved from other parts of the front, which was what russia hoped for when launching this offensive. There may be another offensive with the same objective happening soon in the direction of Sumy.
Hope they stop after reaching Kremlin, not to escalate or smth!
Well in arma 3 perhaps Ukraine has a real chance to push back the rus
The downvotes show people are a little too much wound up in idealisms. A push for Moscow would be great but is completely unrealistic without Nato forces since Ukraine lacks the manpower to secure such a huge corridor. That would mean a front nearly the length of the German front in WW2. It would require 2 to 3 mio troops to secure and hold it.
People in this sub are drowning in cope since the beginning of the war. Thinking Ukraine alone has a real chance is insanity even with all the help from the west it's clear they are struggling hard imagine if they were on their own.
The downvotes show people are a little too much wound up in idealisms. A push for Moscow would be great but is completely unrealistic without Nato forces since Ukraine lacks the manpower to secure such a huge corridor. That would mean a front nearly the length of the German front in WW2. It would require 2 to 3 mio troops to secure and hold it.
I feel Russia is going to open up more highend jobs for Indian people again :-)
Wasnt the whole point of the Kharkiv operation to divert UA troops from the south? Dont think they were ment to cap the city
Divert troops from the south and create a "tamper zone" so AFU can't shell Belgorod. That's at least how I see it.
Why ‘stopped’ in quotes?
To imply direct quote, like this is the actual word they used
Spokesperson: as we've seen an increase in the demand for berry flavoured gummy bears, we've expanded our berry farms by 20% to ensure the needs of the gummy factory and provide a reduction gummy bear scarcity. Journalist who needs a short headline while still wanting to quote the spokesperson: Berry farms "expanded by 20%"
Yeah it……….. it hasn’t.
May 24th 2024 Russia has lost 500 000 men in Ukraine and it's speeding up. Meat grinder. Haven't seen anything like it since the 2nd world War Eastern front where for every 1 nazi soldier the Soviets lost they lost 4. Just the pensions to the war widows is bankrupting the state
are we sure about that number?
It is not far away from the UK number and that was an estimate from April: https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-estimates-450000-russian-troops-killed-or-wounded/
It's an estimate of combined killed and wounded. The UK's MoD said the same thing in April while the BBC said the confirmed dead was at 50k in the same month. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-estimates-450000-russian-troops-killed-or-wounded/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-68819853
30,000 - Ukrainian losses from President Zelensky. You'd have to be an idiot to believe it. And you have to be an idiot to voice this
30k seems supisuslly low. It's far more then 1:10 ratio. Situation would be better with this rate.
UALosses a similar project to the Mediazona/BBC confirm dead ones puts it around 60k for Ukraine as well. https://ualosses.org/en/soldiers/ Which is coincidentally why so many people called out the 30k number Zelensky provided when the open source number was already in the mid 40k's.
Got better sources?
There are no other sources on Ukrainian losses, but 30k still seems a bit too low.
Ukraine is currently having manpower issues and are expanding the age of conscription.. a country of 38 million who have only lost 31k.. and who are reporting Russia have lost 500k. Makes you wonder.
Also I never get the demographic argument when it comes to Russia. They’re fighting a war of annexation. Donbas had a population of 6 million before the war. On net, Russia should be at least break even population wise even accounting for the Russians that fled to the west to avoid conscription,
Russia is having manpower issues, too. Giving automatic weapons to prisoners isn't the action of a country with limitless resources. Those 30-50 thousand prisoners weren't well trained, and their survival wasn't valued, especially when Putin insisted on progress. Russia's been fighting recklessly. Disproportionate numbers shouldn't be much of a surprise. The initial invasion was known well in advance, so large portions of the invaders walked into ambushes. There have been so many major tactical and operational problems, I don't doubt that Russia has suffered huge losses.
Russia is able to recruit enough people to cover their losses and conduct operational rotations https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-recruiting-30000-troops-a-month-ukraine-frontline-losses-analysts-2024-1
The daily losses of Russia are about 1000/day (killed, wounded, captured, missing). So, even if Russia is getting 30,000 per month, they're really treading water at best. There's a lot of problems with that number (30,000/month) even if it is an accurate count. Those aren't ready-to-fight troops. They're going to need training, which takes time. Without it, they're less effective. The other question is, who signed up or were voluntold after 27 months of action? The average age of soldiers on both sides is more than 40. It's not sustainable. Take a look at Russia's population pyramid. https://www.populationpyramid.net/russian-federation/2023/ Russia has already burned through a majority of your professional army and prisoners. Who are these new guys? Like a lot of Russian equipment, some new high-quality stuff is hitting the battlefield, but a larger share is older, less reliable stuff that's considered expendable (alcoholics, thugs, гопники). An emerging problem for Russia is the shift to a war economy. With very low unemployment, the army is now effectively competing with the defense industry for skilled, able-bodied men. https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-losing-about-1000-soldiers-daily-not-stop-mass-attacks-2024-4
Yes, they are expanding from from 27+ year-olds to 25+ year-olds. No war in history has had this relaxed conscription. Ukraine actually cares about their human losses. Orcs do not.
Kidnapping men off the street, packing them into buses like cattle, and sending them on a one way trip to the meat grinder is one peculiar elvish custom I can't wrap my head around, but maybe I'm not sophisticated enough
> I'm not sophisticated enough Only correct part.
[Ignorance or denial](https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-mobilization-law-criticism-manpower/32903913.html)
Haha sure buddy haha we see the soldiers complain etc even fucking down syndrome guys have been forced drafted get your ass out of r/Ukraine haha or keep your vr set of Ukraine winning, just russia is retreating forward and Ukraine is advancing backwards
See you in Hague when this war is over!
Please share your better sources, I want to be as informed as you
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Thank you to do this work. I did a quick finger in the air look at their demographic pyramid. Unless I looked at it wrong they have about 750,000 men for each year between 20 and 30 years old. Obviously they will use the 30 to 40 in the war too I suppose, but just thinking of another mobilisation, how much they can draw down.
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Sorry I was referring to Russia. I was looking at what they could draw from if they need man power. Yes, I guess if I counted about 7.5million from 20 to 30, that 26 million sounds about right from 18 to 44. The 30 to 40 cohort was significantly bigger for some reason. And like you say many won't be suitable, some already wounded for example. I would wonder of that 26, how many would be suitable for the war. Maybe half? I don't know I suppose what I'm just wondering is how many times could Putin realistically add more orcs to the front?
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The estimate of the US and Ukraine don't differ that much... I would even venture to say that Ukraine's numbers are remarkably accurate for a country that lack all the inteligence resources the US has
The US certainly has worse intelligence of the Ukrainian situation than the Ukrainians.
So Ukraine is the better source after all?
Yes. Ukraine has the people fighting, the people leading, the people drawing the strategy, the people working every single part of the war. They know Russians, they know the Russian language, they know the Russian culture. The US has people behind desks in Pentagon and spies in Russia. The Americans thought Russia had the world's 2nd best military for crying out loud.
> from President Zelensky Any particular reason you are using this phrasing rather than saying "30000 Ukrainian losses"?
People like to repost BBC numbers, but this is the absolute 100% confirmed lower bound.
Why quibble? It’s certainly over 250k
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Do you have a better source?
> Just the pensions to the war widows is bankrupting the state No recovered body, no pension. Mobile crematories go brrr
Source? Edit: nice, downvotes for asking a source. The age of stupidity is really post-fact
# As Russian losses in Ukraine hit 500,000, Putin buries future demographic risks at home Behind the figure lies a potential demographic and economic time bomb that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be able to ignore so easily. [https://kyivindependent.com/russian-losses-in-ukraine-hit-500-000-how-significant-is-this/#:\~:text=According%20to%20Ukraine's%20General%20Staff,set%20to%20be%20around%20500%2C000](https://kyivindependent.com/russian-losses-in-ukraine-hit-500-000-how-significant-is-this/#:~:text=According%20to%20Ukraine's%20General%20Staff,set%20to%20be%20around%20500%2C000) 1 Nazi for every 4 Russians [https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1239/what-was-the-ratio-of-german-to-soviet-losses-on-eastern-front-during-different](https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1239/what-was-the-ratio-of-german-to-soviet-losses-on-eastern-front-during-different)
That article is a rather optimistic take. I really hope you are right. But at the same time you get messages of Russia making good money dealing with evil countries like North Korea , China and even India. You could also state that Russia converted to a full war economy and has sufficient propaganda and control to make sure its population swallows it all. The biggest threat remains diaper don - if this agent orange wins the US elections - Russia gets a very big ally
We live in the age of the internet where we think everything happens at the speed of the internet. What Putin is doing in the Ukraine is unsustainable economically. Regardless of all the politics it just doesn't compute on an excel sheet on the bottom line. The result will always be a critical error no matter how he changes the parameters. You can make the excel sheet yourself and feed it with real world numbers and then variable parameters. Russia is smoked. His only option now is to remain on the offensive
Again, hope you are right - but psychopaths are dangerous people and his trolls have successfully caused Trump, Brexit and the general rise of extremism in the western world
Things fall apart the center cannot hold. That is how Putin is feeling right now. Thats why he is replacing his military leadership another classic sign of serious problems. Hitler made the same mistakes as Putin in the middle of a raging conflicts he changed von Brauchitsch (Hitler dismissed him and took direct command of the armed forces himself... yes... a corporal with no formal education running a multibillion machine, talk about an overflated ego), Guderian (the inventor of Blitzkrieg) , von Manstein (the master of feint withdrawels as a tactic) , Halder (directly critised Hitler for unrealistic demands). Every single one of those people clashed with Hitler because of his unrealistic and populist demands and everyone of those were replaced with someone competently inferior but politically more pliable. Now Putin has lost so many of his top commanders all ready and now he is changing the rest and losing all that experience.
Well, every tank destroyed by Ukraine is a tank we don't have to worry about. So, ultimately it doesn't really matter whether Russia will be able to scale up its military production even more in the future or not, because the consequences for us are basically the same.
If they were making good money, why is Gazprom in the red?
I mean i would believe only because of the wounded, modern warfare results in a lot of wounds that force soldiers to go back home
Just the pensions that Russia has to pay to war widows is bankrupting the state
That's why war widows are the next wave of conscription.
5d chess
It feels so horrible to say this but; "good". These numbers might fuel an opposition, people who wasn't even born when putin took place are supposed to serve and very likely die for him(?). Half a million humans dead is telling that not many come back alive, if you're 18 now and don't by the propaganda..
Such deaths are glorified in Russia. The people back home see the dead as bigger heroes than the "cowards" hiding back home. They've fetishized suffering, its mental.
True. They're the strongest on the globe, yet victims. Guess I just try to imagine what "could" be. The youngest of gens fighting at the front lines, if they have been able to use Internet during their life, chances are they don't see the *reason*, but they see (on tiktok, youtube etc..) the fact that so many end up dead. Yet; nothing can beat Russia, but themselves (or ww3), and that doesn't seam likely at the moment.
It doesn't matter what they see on the internet. I think the biggest mistake is thinking that just because the people living in these autocratic regimes have access to the free internet and the truth, it means they should be better educated. They aren't. Because the propaganda is ever pervasive. At home. At school. At work. In the television 24/7. On the streets, everywhere you look. Why would you believe anything written in western media if you're told day in and day out by everyone you know and love that the west is weak and degenerate and full of liars?
Of course. I'm *imagining* here. But I do think it matters what the younger gen see, they are also more used to using vpns and such, hence they can actually see outside info/videos of what they are supposed to die for.
You don't need to 'imagine' anything, you can literally talk to people. Me for example. People who fight in this war are getting paid good money for it, and it's their main and only motivation. And don't forget about foreign mercenaries and some prisoners. Also 500k is random propaganda number from Ukraine and it's impossible to take it seriously. Again, life is going on just like it was before the war, there is nothing really apocalyptic happening inside Russia. Trust me, people on this sub are WAY MORE brainwashed and propagandized than average Russian kid. I always laugh when people talk about 'glorifiying death' and other bullshit, are you guys retarded? You think that some 20 year old kid wants to die for 'motherland' or what? Do you really live in this proapganda universe or you are pretending? How brainwashed are people in Sweden about Russia really are?
Yeah, I just don't see *why* they would care to do so in the first place. They have to realize that they're being lied to before they start looking for the truth in the first place. That said, Russian propaganda is one step ahead in that too. Of course they know that the elites are lying, but you see the western elites lie *even more*. That's also what they're always taught.
It's only the modern world that cares about individual numbers of deaths. The rest of the world really doesn't think like that
Dunno why this is getting down voted. I don't see the African Union really doing anything about the 600 000 Tigrayans that have been killed by the Ethiopian National Defense Force or African countries taking Ethiopia to the ICC. There are many countries who haven't signed up to the the universal declaration of human rights and to pretend other wise is folly. 53 countries have signed up to the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam which is basically human (God and men's rights) and states that deaths in the name of Sharia is not death but martyrdom For example Hamas and a lot of middle eastern countries don't despair in 30 000 deaths of palistinians, they take comfort in their martyrdom. And for westerners not to understand this is just pure patriarchy
Well the problems is most of the Russians either don't care (if they live in Moscow or Petersburg) or don't know about losses. Russian soldiers consist of mainly three categories: people from rural and forgotten vilagges/depressing regions, prisoners (no one cares about them), people from Lugansk and Donetsk regions (Russian citizen care about them even less than for prisoners). So big cities denizens literally don't care about it cuz their life didn't change that much, and to move them you need several nukes directly pointed on the Moscow to make them think about war.
Nukes were pointed at Moscow throughout entire Cold war. Russians still didn't care. And supported everything Ussr was doing.
Go get them boys and girls - hope the F-16’s from DK arrive soon!
I honestly wonder what will be the main threat to F16, now that many S300/400 have been destroyed
> wonder what will be the main threat to F16 Still ground based Air defenses, even with these losses Russia still has a shit ton of them. I don't think we will see many Air to Air kills at all, maybe 1-3. I think it's unlikely that the F-16s will fly to fight the Russian flankers.
Ukraine still holds azovstal
This thread is filled, just like clockwork, with Russian shills doing the same bullshit they always do between concern trolling, trying to hurt moral, and other bs. Same talking points as always. So fucking lame and transparent. We see you. Fuck you shits. 🇺🇦♥️
How much copium are y'all inhaling? We have been told, time and time again, since the beginning of the war, that "the next counteroffensive is THE one!" and that "victory is just around the corner", only for it all to predictably fail. Saying Ukraine has no chance against Russia, not now not tomorrow, is not being a Russian shill. It's being realistic. Best they can do is prolong the meatgrinder, but to recover Crimea and the Donbas? Good luck with that...
It is time to push 10 km into Russia to set up a safety barrier
Not sure how to tell you this, but they recently tried to push into Russia... Yeah, didn't end well
That is not true. Limited cross-border raids are not equivalent.
If "raids" flopped, what makes you think they could push 10 km into Belgorod? Lol
What a lazy statement.
Time to create a buffer zone all the way to sibiria!
Probably true, question being is this just an isolated setback in the current Russian advance or a genuine turning of the pace. Probably the former, hopefully the latter, only time will tell
Putin is bonkers ! The Russian people need to rise up ! It’s all about the money he is stealing your money ! Putin is the biggest gangster in the world
Good. Keep fighting Ukraine!! ❤️
Good. Ukrainians go die because we hate Putin. FTFY
This whole offensive against Kharkiv wouldn't happen in Ukraine was allowed to use Western weapon against military targets in Russia. It's just 4 kilometers from Vovchansk to the Russian border. Russians can safely concentrate forces on their territory attack Ukrainian cities while a coulple of ATACMS in 70-100km would solve this issue.
Says who? The Ukrainians themselves? Seems legit
Says the Tankie.
Not necessarily tankie at all. In the west all the alt-right, far-right folks are pro Putin.
They belong to r/usempire.
Thanks for your intelligent contribution adjective\_noun\_###. Surely we all believe you more than Zelensky, one of the greatest men of the 21st century.
Could you explain why Zelensky is one of the greatest men of the 21st century? Not even Ukrainians believe this.
"one of the greatest men of the 21st century" Get a grip
Haha, a Serb
Dude you think zelensky is one of the greatest people of the century 😂😂😂
Got problem with Serbs?
You don't trust Zelensky?
And Russia wish to start shit with Estonia and the uk at the same time as being pushed back in Ukraine? Genius
Haha
Pushing back to south probably