This makes complete sense, and is the lowest risk option. They will run out of food, fuel and ammunition shortly, and then units will start to surrender. If their commanders don’t want to surrender, then the next in line will, after a tragic accident.
Time for Cannae 2.0
Yes, if time is not of the essence, then continuing to disrupt their supplies would look to be the best option as it could lead to soldiers surrendering without a fight.
Meanwhile, north-east of Kyiv:
Sure, but if it’s the only working printer you have access to or if the other printers in your business are also spitting out the Anonymous message, you’re stuck. There’s no repair to fix the issue. So you’re either going to go grumbling off to find another printer each time, or you’re going to keep feeding this printer paper until the copies stop.
Either way, you’re not going to shrug it off and forget it, and you’re probably going to tell others.
And don’t assume this would have to be happening at thousands of printers for news to get to the Kremlin. That’s why the 100,000 copies are more important than the number of computers: a big number gets more press, and if the story hits big on major news sites, the Kremlin knows about it. As I said, the message is clear.
Anonymous will move on to another hack shortly. That’s apparently part of their game plan: the Russians never know when, where, or how they’ll be popping up next.
Exactly the opposite - time for Fabius.
Latest intelligence update from the Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland:
So a quick logistics question: If the Ukrainians suddenly find themselves with some 10,000 surrendered hungry, demoralized frostbitten Russian soldiers on their hands, what do they do with them?
The Biden administration says that Ukraine is not able to make full use of the planes it does have, due largely to the Russian AA systems. And that article bears that out – “In almost four weeks of fighting, Andriy has flown 10 sorties.” That’s a very low level of usage for an active war.
Now, if and when Ukraine loses enough planes that the numerical lack of planes becomes a factor, THEN it will be worthwhile to give them the Polish MIGs.
Per news I saw earlier today (sorry, can’t point to the specific article), hacking from Russia has increased noticeably, with attempts being made even on individuals.
Take them to the rear, of course. I would think they have soldiers with relevant training and could closely adhere to international law.
See:
A Troubling Silence on Prisoners of War
To summarize what I make of my link, we know that Ukraine’s treatment of POW’s is imperfect. We know hardly anything about how Russia is treating POW’s, leading to suspicion it is worse.
Why not just delete the print queue?
That triggers the virus which will display “PC Load Letter” (in Cyrillic) for all eternity.
Internet of Things comes into its own - for hackers of course.
Or signs you up for a time share in Balakovo.
From the ISW:
Russian mobilization efforts are likely becoming urgent given Russian losses in the war. The Wall Street Journal cites an unnamed NATO official claiming that Russia has lost as many as 40,000 troops killed, wounded, or missing of the roughly 190,000 deployed to invade Ukraine.[2] That assessment, which is plausible given previous estimates of Russian combat deaths, must be considered in the context of the assessment offered by an unnamed Department of Defense official on March 21 that Russia had committed a high proportion of its available battalion tactical groups to the war already.[3] The protracting pause of Russian offensive operations in Ukraine and increasing anecdotal reporting of breakdowns in the morale and capability of Russian combat units all accord with these assessments. These reports and assessments collectively suggest that Russia may not be able to find new combat power with which to regain offensive momentum for weeks or even months.
40,000 killed, wounded or missing? Holy crap.
I hope, for the Russians’ sake, that a significant chunk of those are missing in the sense of having abandoned their posts and fled. Though it can’t be an enormous fraction given that Russia’s own death count is ~10k, with the real/latest numbers being higher, and the injury count being some multiplier on top of that.
If they are alive and missing and have not surrendered, wouldn’t they mostly be living off the land AKA behaving like criminals? If so, I suspect Ukrainians would call the police and said missing would soon become prisoners.
In a well-run modern army with decent morale, there are few missing soldiers, even when you lose. Consider:
A U.S. Military First: The War in Afghanistan Ended With Zero M.I.A.s
But maybe I am overestimating how modern a country Ukraine is, especially in wartime.
It might be possible to hide among the refugees. They wouldn’t stick out too much, even knowing only Russian. And there are so many that countries accepting them must have some process for dealing with people with no paperwork.
Alternatively, there must be plenty of evacuated villages one could hide out in.
Pure speculation, of course. I have no idea what the situation is on the ground. But it’s not quite like a white American trying to blend in to some village in Afghanistan.
My almost pure speculation is that Russian speaking Ukrainians are very careful to carry ID, and worry about being mistaken for actual Russians may be one reason.
According the this, Ukrainian Roma refugees often lack documentation. But I don’t think a Russian soldier will have success posing as Roma.
I’m afraid that missing Russian soldiers are more like this:
It would be like American GIs trying to blend in with British people by putting on fake British accents.
In any case, they would remain in Ukraine, as men aged between 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country.