Russia's War Against Ukraine

[Tripoli]

Report that the Ukrainians have been "hunting" senior Russian commanders with success.

Russian use of unsecure comms reportedly led to the death of at least one of the Russians along with his staff.

Kind of reminds me how American long-riflemen became very good at targeting British officers in the American Revolution. Similar concept...just updated technology.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-killed-a-russian-general-after-he-made-an-unsecured-call-that-gave-away-his-location-report-says/ar-AAVbLC5?ocid=undefined

From the links, it sounds like a number of staff officers were also killed.  Possibly it was an artillery strike?

[Gusington]

^A fourth Russian general was killed in the last 12 hours.

Good video here on Russian military markings and what they mean:

[Tripoli]

Here is the UK MoD assessment of the conflict: https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1504336242997174274

From the slide:

-The Russian invasion of Ukraine has largely stalled on all fronts
-Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses.
-Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated.  The vast majority of Ukrinian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands

[steve58]

Report that the Ukrainians have been "hunting" senior Russian commanders with success.

Russian use of unsecure comms reportedly led to the death of at least one of the Russians along with his staff.

Kind of reminds me how American long-riflemen became very good at targeting British officers in the American Revolution. Similar concept...just updated technology.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-killed-a-russian-general-after-he-made-an-unsecured-call-that-gave-away-his-location-report-says/ar-AAVbLC5?ocid=undefined

I saw reports last week that the Canadian sniper Wali was heading to Ukraine.  Maybe he bagged a general or two.

But now I'm seeing rumors he may have been killed.  :(

[GDS_Starfury]

russia vs the Irish

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/01/how-irish-fishermen-took-russian-fleet-and-won/361377/

[GDS_Starfury]

and heres some good news for a change.
the theater that the russians bombed yesterday, while pretty much totally destroyed, served its function as a bomb shelter pretty damn well.
the civilians that were sheltered there survived and are being rescued now as they clear debris from the entrances.

[Con]

I know you have all been waiting patiently but finally the Putin Downfall Meme has dropped like a badly planned VDV para drop onto a Ukrainian airfield
And yes the irony of a War to liberate a country from Nazis using Hitlers complete and utter mental breakdown to represent Russia is delicious

[Pete Dero]

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/russian-ambassador-says-bih-can-join-nato-but-moscow-will-react/

Bosnia and Herzegovina has the right to decide whether or not to join NATO, Russian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Kalbukhov has said, warning, however, that Moscow reserves the right to respond to such a possibility.
"If (Bosnia and Herzegovina) decides to be a member of any alliance, that is an internal matter. Our response is a different matter. Ukraine's example shows what we expect. Should there be any threat, we will respond," Kalabukhov told the FTV entity broadcaster.

According to Kalabukhov, the West is posing a threat to Bosnia and Herzegovina's security by claiming that Russia "is allegedly preparing a plan."
"We do not have any plans. We will respond having analysed the strategic and geopolitical situation," the ambassador said. NATO membership is not a reality for BiH given the current lack of consensus on the matter in the country, he added.

[JasonPratt]

What was even more loopy about the Downfall meme being applied to Ukraine22, is that it could almost just as easily be applied to Ukraine43. (Or even 41 -- things started going really badly for TeamNazi really early, which goes to show that 'going badly' often still gets the job done quite far!) "Don't believe the Nazi propaganda. All lies." made me lol unexpectedly hard given the meme context. 

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile, the reports of blocking forces keeping the assault forces from turning around and quitting, sounds appropriate. Russia has been doing that since at least as far back at Lenin's first few armies in 1918 (maybe longer).

Those blocking forces back then were NKVD, and the ones today are the modern equivalent of NKVD, of course. (Not that Soviet-era NKVD didn't have other jobs; they had a ludicrous number of "mobile response" divisions lined up on the 1941 border, with plans to fulfill the basic functions of Hitler's SS divisions during a successful invasion: pacification of civilian populations.)

Nowadays, the modern equivalent would be run by the organized crime oligarchs, which leads into the twitter stream of Kamil Galeev, who recently posted a long thread explaining that the Russian military has long been hamstrung and bullied by the crime gangs in order to keep the military too weak to stage uprisings against Putin and his cronies. The "Podcast of the Lotus Eaters" comments on that thread here:

. Also included is a reference to the photo-sourced track of Rus v Uks losses.

[GDS_Starfury]

Bosnia and Herzegovina has the right to decide whether or not to join NATO, Russian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Kalbukhov has said, warning, however, that Moscow reserves the right to respond to such a possibility.
"If (Bosnia and Herzegovina) decides to be a member of any alliance, that is an internal matter. Our response is a different matter. Ukraine's example shows what we expect. Should there be any threat, we will respond," Kalabukhov told the FTV entity broadcaster.

those fucking morons cant even take out a country on their border no less another country thats surrounded by NATO.  wtf are they smoking in the kremlin?

[Tripoli]

The Modern War Institute at West Point has a podcast from 2 days ago about what the battle for Kiev would look like. 

https://mwi.usma.edu/what-will-the-battle-of-kyiv-look-like/

My notes from the podcast:

•   Kiev is what the Russians estimate to be the Center of Gravity of the Operation (I'm not sure that was their original plan, but I would agree they may think so now. )
•   The Russians wanted to do a "Battle of Baghdad" type operation: Do a rush (in this case after capturing an airhead) to get a large force into the city, possibly de-capitate the government and declare victory before the city could be reinforced by forces outside.  Because they failed in this plan, the operation will devolve into a Stalingrad/Manila type operation.
•   The Russians don't have the manpower to take Kiev.  Need at least 5X the defending force, and the Ukrainians have been flowing forces in.   (I'm not sure how this relates to the Stalingrad scenario, unless he means the Russians will simply bomb Kiev into oblivion.)
•   Kiev has an extensive and deep system of underground facilities (subways, sewers, etc) so attriting the defending forces by bombardment will be difficult.

[Gusington]

Happy St. Paddy's Day...Sky News reports on Ireland and how the Russo-Ukraine War is affecting their traditional neutral stance:

[Gusington]

A few pages ago someone posted the glorious stand and epic display of cajaones that Irish fishermen made against the Russian Navy a few weeks ago...so there's that.

[GDS_Starfury]

its on this page and I posted it.
pass that joint Gus.