Good video. I think it’s well grounded and the guy is trying to keep things realistic. I do think a lot of folks have let their enthusiasm and their expectations really soar, but the reality is still that Russia is slowly grinding its way to meeting its objectives and encircling key strategic points and cities in eastern Ukraine, as well as the capital. Like the guy in the video, I want to see Ukrainians hurt the Russias and would love to see them toss Russia out, but the reality is what it is. All along I think it’s been said…if Russia is willing to pay the price, they are going to win this thing. So far, it seems Russia is willing to pay the price.
The parts about Russia doctrine wrt convoy movement really cleared up some of the questions I had. That’s not the way the US does things, for sure, and it’s been a bit strange to see how they are progressing, as it really exposes them to fire that usually the US tries to mitigate. But, if that’s their doctrine, then they are following it. And something I’ve suspected since the beginning is that the initial attacks were the Russian conscripts and second (or even third) stringers. Again, completely different than how the US does things, where we usually use our elite forces for the initial, lighting strikes and our reserves for clean up, flank support and security of taken objectives.
Anyway, thanks for the video. This isn’t a channel I subscribe to, but I’ll be checking him out going forward. That map he’s using is the same one I have been following…at this point, probably everyone is, as it seems to be the best tool for the overall strategic situation.
I’ve been curious about this as well since there’s no Cyrillic character in the Russian alphabet that looks particularly like a Z. There’s also been a recurrent snippet of some AVVs with a circle on the roof.
But in the days since Moscow ordered the bloody assault on Ukraine, what started as a mysterious military symbol has become a sign of popular support for the war in Russia, and what analysts describe as the unfurling of a chilling new nationalist movement.
Russians have daubed the “Z” on their cars, sported black hoodies emblazoned with the symbol, and fashioned makeshift “Z” brooches on lapels – a sign that there is some popular support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his efforts to expand Moscow’s sphere of influence by seizing parts of Ukraine.
So what was this bullshit claim by the Russians supposed to accomplish? They must have known it would be exposed as false pretty quickly. I bet NATO intelligence knew the claim was bullshit within the first hour or less.
I know this post if 15 days old, but the video itself repeats this claim. I find it completely insane. If this is your strategy, all you’re really doing in this case is providing free on-the-job training for your opposing military. They get good at using weapons and tactics, and then your more experienced troops have a harder time when they eventually show up. That kind of strategy might work if there is an extreme difference in power and capability, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. In fact, it seems that the Ukrainians can bring more material and men to bear at important points, and don’t seem to be running out of supplies.
If they were actually trading those lives and machines for actionable goals, then I could maybe see a point. Given the current situation, if that’s their actual doctrine, they deserve to lose.
To me, the hypersonic missile usage scans as training/demonstration. Its ideal use case is for hitting mission-critical assets like aircraft carriers or ballistic missile warning radars. There are few such targets in Ukraine.
But if you’re saber-rattling with NATO, it’s good to let them know you can hit EIS in Poland, or Fylingdales in England, aircraft carrier or airbases anywhere around Europe, with little or no warning. By hitting the early warning sites, NATO is half blind in a nuclear confrontation, and thus might hesitate to threaten or escalate further.
just like the downed helicopter gunship video… where they claimed it flew a tactic mission to drive out Ukr. … with all the alarms w/in the copter going of, spewing chaff as much as possible and still being hit …
it’s just “action-cinema” for the 9 o’clock news in a state dominated media space, I guess…
a more innovative aspect of warefare can be seen here - the Ukr. backing up the Irpin river, converting the northwestern suburbs of kiev into a non-negotiable swamp for the russians
I’d be curious why they would want to use a hypersonic missile against Ukraine at all. Unless it was a test to just see how well they do I can’t imagine why they would bother. AFAIK Ukraine has no advanced missile defenses and regular rockets and artillery work just fine against them.
No need to shoot a hyper-expensive missile at them.
This was what I was wondering… Testing their toy? Running out of things to throw? One hyper-sonic missile has to be pretty expensive. And how many would they have anyway? You would think that it would be reserved for high value targets. Twitter suggested they were targeting the barn of the farmer who towed away one of their tanks - an anti-tractor missile…
The Ukrainians do have passable air defense systems. (Which is why the Russians still don’t have total air superiority) News showed one apartment building where the top floors burned because it was hit by a missile shot down by air defense systems.
Plus, the USA has promised to start sending more anti-aircraft systems to help defend against high-flying bombers.
