General Surovikin is already reshaping the war. He may be the most capable and dangerous commander the Ukrainians will fight.
Well, I’ll be dogged. I would have sworn I was right about that, and in fact I even Googled it before I posted. The first link I found (which was obviously wrong) gave me the confirmation bias I wanted, so away I went. A deeper search after your post showed the truth.
My ignorance has been fought. Thanks very much!
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while at the topic of short of munitions:
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while being aware that this is a propaganda account for Ukr. they def. do a lot of things right over there…, contrasting the russian “lets just funnel cars over that bridge and see what happens” attitude.
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compact synthesis of what’s going on (not independently vetted)
this is the 3rd “crash” of a RU plane within a week …
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… are they scraping the bottom of the barrel in term of “aviation talent” or is it just coincidence?
huge belly-laugh, right there!!!
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Bah. They said almost literally the same thing they said about his predecessor Alexsandr Dvornikov. Gee, ‘General Armageddon’ vs ‘The Butcher of Syria’ - who will emerge as the most ruthless and vicious?
It likely won’t make much practical difference. Dvornikov fell out of favor because he failed to make an impact and they’ve moved on to the next scary, ruthless general on the list. If Surovikin was so much more skilled and terrifying he would have had the post already - it’s not like this is an action rpg where Russia is slowly bringing out a bigger and badder boss with each level up. Considering Russian resource restraints they are probably somewhat interchangeable. If Surovikin starts going full on massacre-happy it will be because Putin demands it, not because he is a bigger ogre than Dvornikov.
One of the three people killed in the Kerch Bridge attack was a top Russian judge and ally of Putin.
Most of us have figured out by now that Russian lists of equipment on paper does not equate to Russian war-fighting ability.
You, however, have not yet gotten that message.
Belarus is backing away from getting involved.
I take it Lukashenko has relocated to a windowless ground level office.
That may be the case for Lukashenko and Belarus, but other reports have Russians arriving in Belarus “by the trainload.” Western intelligence sources are no doubt watching deployments there carefully, and Ukraine has taken developments seriously and responded by building fortifications along its northern border.
If the Russians do decide to open another front, it would likely be a foolish move on their part. They can’t even supply their current position much less taking on a whole new front. Opening a new front would only amplify the strategic difficulties imposed by Russia having exterior lines and Ukraine having more compact interior lines.
One possibility might be that Russia is using Belarussian resources to provide some training to the mobilized recruits. Russia’s ability to train new troops is beyond stretched, and while they’re obviously not averse to throwing untrained uniformed civilians with assault rifles into the fray I’m sure they’re aware that they’d be much more effective with a few weeks/months of training.
Lukashenko is in a precarious position. One wrong move and Russia will step in. He’s barely holding onto power.
Ukraine spent years trading with Russia and trying to placate them.
It’s the Russians that have kept him in power this year. He was nearly a goner until Russian troops started pouring into the country for the northern offensive in February. A side effect of the Russian build up in Belarus was that Lukashenko’s rivals couldn’t make a move to unseat him.
while I agree that L. is in a precarious position, I recon that the RU are in no condition to enter another country in hostility. I have no doubt the Belorus-army is another (smaller) paper-tiger … but the population might not be one.
I think L. risks are more domestic than international (any case of abuse or murder might trigger a movement like we are seeing in Iran right now).
He is def. walking the tightrope while his coattails are on fire…
ohhh … and…
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russia seems to prepare to fight WW1
You must be spending your time on Reddit NonCredibleDefense…
NATO has more ships in the Baltic.
Any idea where this video geolocates? And I don’t know the source (can’t tell the players without a collectible program).
Belarus, while under threat from Polonia (/s), is sending war assets to putin
It looks like they are trying to construct tank barricades.
The berm looks okay, but the the triangle objects have to be dragon’s teeth and whoever is managing the emplacement doesn’t seem to know how to use them. The spacing is too far apart to be effective. They need to be irregularly placed and securely anchored so that a tank can’t just push them aside.