Safe to say whatever Ukrainian losses have actually been, they have been fairly heavy. This is a very high intensity war with Russia leaning heavily on artillery and nothing kills more men than artillery.
This war has been immensely ridiculous and frustrating to watch. It’s like seeing a millionaire who could cure his cancer by taking just one $50 pill, yet keeps fretting about “the costly price of the medicine” and wants to pay on an installment plan of one dollar per month or something of that sort. Absurd.
Um… no, actually, the Russians don’t have to take care of their wounded. By our reckoning they should, but there’s no immutable natural law saying they must. And there are reports of Russian wounded being abandoned. It also seems clear that Russia values some soldiers over others. One way to get around the burden of removing wounded from the frontlines and treating them is to simply leave them where they lay.
Send lots more weaponry, much sooner. The West easily could and should have done so 10 months ago. Had we done so, all that weaponry could have been fully absorbed and integrated into the Ukrainian military by this point.
You are making the mistake of assuming the West wants a quick and decisive end to the conflict, versus the longer-term realpolitik benefits achieved by using it as a cauldron to slowly grind Russia down. A more comprehensive response needs to go somewhere other than a Breaking News thread.
I think most of the West wants a quick and decisive victory over Russia, but most Western leaders were too cautious (and probably still are to some extent), because of overblown worries about Russian escalation.
Hmm, looks like Germany has approved up to 88 Leopard I tanks now. Depending on how they’re equipped, they may be at least the equivalent of the T-72s they were equipped with at the beginning of the war.
Konstantin Yefremov’s story is quite compelling. Before the war he was the head of a de-mining unit of the 42nd Motorised Rifle Division - and was usually based in Chechnya, in Russia’s North Caucasus. The war brought him into situations he never expected. Resigning had to be a big personal risk.
In a nutshell: With the exception of submarines, the Russian Navy is old and in disrepair. ‘Putin clearly values the prestige and intimidation factor that large, powerful surface ships can offer,’ but fresh coats of paint don’t make the ships effective – as this war in Ukraine has shown. The author also points out that since * Admiral Kuznetsov* has not left port since 2017, ‘meaning that Russia’s cadre of naval aviators has almost certainly ceased to exist as an effective force.’ The Baltic is effectively closed to Russia
The author concludes:
The history of Russian naval power is sketchy at best, and there’s a strong argument that Russia should, for the near and medium-term, simply abandon any pretensions to naval power beyond patrol craft and its submarine fleet.
Full disclosure: The author of the article, Dr. Robert Farley, wrote Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), so his assessment of Russia’s Navy may be suspect. But I don’t think he’s that far off.
I think we have all known for decades how shabby the Russian Navy is – even at the end of the Soviet Union, and certainly afterward. Ukraine effectively does not have a Navy; and yet Ukraine destroyed the Russian flagship in the Black Sea. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is demonstrating Russia’s lack of capability at sea (Navy neutralised), on the ground (prevented from achieving their goals, showing ineptitude in operations), and in the air (failure to achieve air superiority). They’re down to untrained cannon fodder and shelling civilians.
Latest aid Package for Ukraine
Feb. 3, 2023 |
Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announces a significant new package of security assistance for Ukraine. This includes the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown of security assistance valued at up to $425 million, as well as $1.75 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds.
The Presidential Drawdown is the thirty-first such drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine that the Biden Administration has authorized since August 2021. Today’s announcement includes critical air defense capabilities to help Ukraine defend its people, as well as armored infantry vehicles and more equipment that Ukraine is using so effectively, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, artillery ammunition, and conventional and long-range rockets for U.S.-provided HIMARS. The specific capabilities include:
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS); unitary warhead or billion BB warhead not specified.
Additional 155mm artillery rounds; not specified, HE, Remote Anti-Armor Mine?
Additional 120mm mortar rounds; HE, perhaps some illumination
190 heavy machine guns with thermal imagery sights and associated ammunition to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems;
181 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Vehicles;
250 Javelin anti-armor systems; seems production is rolling
2,000 anti-armor rockets; AT4 or LAW.
Claymore anti-personnel munitions;
Demolitions munitions;
Cold weather gear, helmets, and other field equipment.
Under USAI, the DoD will provide Ukraine with:
Two HAWK air defense firing units; Expecting a lot more pressure on Israel to cough up missile (obsolete for them).
Anti-aircraft guns and ammunition;
Equipment to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles, and radars with Ukraine’s air defense systems;
Equipment to sustain Ukraine’s existing air defense capabilities;
Air defense generators;
Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems;
Four air surveillance radars;
20 counter-mortar radars;
Spare parts for counter-artillery radars;
Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems;
Precision-guided rockets; Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb - Wikipedia. THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Reach is up to 100 miles (160km) bringing a lot more of Russian logistics into range. On the downside, quantities will be small especially at first. It’s not a US inventory item, it’s an industry initiative. Perhaps a live fire test?
Communications equipment;
Medical supplies;
Funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment.
I"ve got to think that the economy of the US is going to have an uptick, as all of these military supplies are going to have to be replenished at some point.
They probably will be, but they don’t have to be. Remember, the reason all this stuff was made was to neutralize the Russian military. Once that purpose is served, it doesn’t need to be replaced.
Cold-weather gear has been a component of the past several aid packages. We’re sending more of it now, not just starting.
