Right, but some of those 11,000 containers they got from North Korea might contain replacements.
Speaking of replacing hardware, it looks like the Russian Spring Offensive is largely unsupported infantry because they don’t want to lose hard-to-replace armored vehicles.
Apparently losing hundreds of troops in one operation is better than risking a few IFVs that might have increased the likelihood of a local breakthrough. It’s like the Russians have learned the wrong lessons from the history of human wave attacks.
Have they? They have plenty of humans after all. Armored vehicles, not so much. And they’re more useful in breakout situations anyway. It’s callous, cruel, and ultimately self-defeating from a societal standpoint, but Putin is going to be dead in a handful of years either way. He needs wins NOW.
Plus which, massive artillery bombardments and human waves — albeit supported by tanks — served them well after Stalingrad.
(I seem to recall an adage about the victors “refighting the last war.”)
This is how they always win wars, this is what they’ve learned.
Canada announces military package for Ukraine:
Especially after Operation Uranus got in the German rear.
Headline for that: Operation (Up) Uranus Push Bottles Up German Rear.
A gift link suggesting (somewhat obvious) reasons bilateral agreements and even Canadian support could be important.
Mr Putin now asserts that the Western system poses an existential threat to the sovereignty of Russia and the values it should hold. He speaks of two sharply contrasting visions of the future: either the Western system continues to exist and Russia is strategically defeated, or the Western system is replaced and Russia continues to exist. He is convinced that Russia has reached a historical crossroads in its post-Soviet development and that dismantling the existing global order and building a new one is fundamental to Russia’s greater-power aspirations. His revolutionary push is motivated by both internal power-preservation aims and external power-expansion aims.
His revolution values Russian advantage and gain of power over the West more than coexistence, mutual security, crisis avoidance and stability with the West. His security vision requires a Europe without NATO, and without organisations that uphold the fundamental principles of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. That vision also involves Russian co-operation with other countries to curb American power in the Arctic, Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.
This Youtube is fairly new and shows Russia may be losing the war of attrition-
Russia is a little shorter on drone operator cadets. A drone base and training center is an important target.
Interesting if true. But if your goal isn’t conquest, but merely vandalism, a lot of that lost capital equipment is irrelevant to your ongoing ability to vandalize. Yes, it represents a loss of blood and treasure that Russia the people and nation would be better off today had that stuff not been lost. IOW, had Putin never started his misbegotten adventure.
But IMO that’s not highly relevant to ending the current meatgrinder vandalistic stalemate.
Yeah. That video also failed to mention the biggest advantage, that being artillery and artillery shells. That’s where Russia’s greatest advantage is, and it seems like there’s no shortage in that area.
I dunno… They’re already resorting to importing artillery from North Korea. Now, granted, North Korea’s artillery arm is very disproportionately large, but still, when you’re replying on the likes of North Korea to prop you up…
Besides Russian air defenses, Ukraine has been emphasizing destroying enemy artillery (that’s because of the Russian advantage initially). Russia has been unable to match losses with production (the bottleneck is barrels - alloys, heat treatment, lack of forges). Similar to western industry, their precision manufacturing facilities were made dormant then sold off for scrap. Western artillery shipments and refurbishment of Ukraine’s Soviet era arsenal are turning the tide WITH ENOUGH AMMO (see US house morons/European complacency). Western ammo is more reliable, longer ranged and accurate. The stalemate on the ground comes from lack of air dominance by either side, entrenched defenses, and limited mobility.
Now they’re importing soldiers from North Korea
Are the F-16s now in the air being used by Ukraine for combat operations?
They could probably be enticed to surrender and defect to South Korea.
Not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing for Russia. I recall a few years ago a North Korean soldier somehow managed to cross the DMZ to the south. He was found to be in not-so-good health, including being afflicted with intestinal worms:
If that guy was a fair representation of what NK’s military has to offer, then I don’t think they’re going be a terribly effective fighting force in Ukraine.