re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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They're all literally gangsters. It's a vast organized crime network.

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On the collapse of Communism in the USSR, one would think that the only proper way divide up the means of production would have been to give everyone an equal share. In reality, a few well connected party bosses became billionaires and that was gangsterism.

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On the collapse of Communism in the USSR, one would think that the only proper way divide up the means of production would have been to give everyone an equal share. In reality, a few well connected party bosses became billionaires and that was gangsterism.

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They did do that and several on street corners bought up the shares from clueless shareholders, that was for all state owned companies. The problem was later when large shareholders were being told to sell or their shares would be worthless. Also, only the insiders knew which companies had any value, since all were propped up by the government during the Soviet Era.

No

The head of the major fighting force for Russia who just led a mini revolt against Russian leadership got banished to Belarus and you’re trying to say it’s not on topic? Dafuq?

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All the mines Russia laid down in the winter seem to be slowing Ukraine down. What's the counter to them? Is it just an Army of Minesweepers?

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Countering minefields to restore mobility is an engineer mission hopefully supported by combined arms.

Every army in the world including the US Army is lacking in engineering assets.

There are multiple ways to breach a minefield from grunts with (non-metallic) sticks to branched Engineers with MICLICs and armored lane-proofing vehicles.

How you approach this depends on a lot of factors. Size of the field, type of mines (it can be a mixed minefield with several varieties), how critical timing is, and the amount of direct/indirect fire the enemy can rain down on you during breaching.

You need to set up three forces: breach, support, and assault. This is after proper recon so you have as much intel on the specifics I mentioned in the last paragraph. You send them in a specific order based on the conditions the enemy has set for you:


1. Enemy contact unlikely: Breach Support Assault
2. Contact likely, dismounted avenue Assault Support Breach
3. Contact likely, mounted avenue Support Breach Assault

The breach team will be equipped with what makes the most sense to breach that minefield. You have to keep in mind in a protracted conflict using just enough assets to do the job and if they are depleting assets (explosive based) using the ones that are in the largest supply that will still alloy for the accomplishment of the mission ie: don't use an M58 MICLIC for a handful of surface laid anti-armor mines on the approach to a bridge, a couple of engineers with a bag full of 1lb C-4 charges with timed fuses makes a lot more sense from a logistics POV. However, if this same minefield has a company of grunts guarding it and/or arty has it set as an on-call target you are going to want a different approach.

I really haven't answered your question since mining/countermining is a big area that combat engineers spend a lot of time on. I suppose it could suffice to say there are a number of options for well-trained engineers depending on the enemy, available assets, along with the type and size of the minefield. At least so far we haven't seen any chemical mines...

If you really want to go down the rabbit hole try to find an online PDF of FM 20-32. You want to get the one from 1998 with the latest updates you can find. The ones from the 70's are significantly out of date.

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Sorry if I intruded into your realm. I have followed your postings regularly and admired their content. I still say that we need to know what is going on in Ukraine more than we need to be reading a thread discussing peripheral issues.

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Fair enough, I apologize for clapping back hard. I thought you were trolling.

The challenge is there isn't much news flowing out of the front lines at the moment other than the following...and there isn't much real news about any of these.

1) There is the bridgehead over the river at Kherson
2) The Ukrainian capture of Rivnopil
3) Reported gains on the flanks of Bakhumt

Ukraine has done a really good job of clamping down on the social media space around it's operations. Makes for a lot of white noise and not much detail.

I do disagree that the Wagner March for Justice is a peripheral issue. It's the single biggest issue that has occurred since Ukraine retook Kherson. It has the potential to have a tremendous impact on the course of the war. It appears that Russia's best unit is off the chessboard for the time being, maybe forever. As a side effect, the Chechen units also appear to be headed home thus removing another well-equipped, albeit of questionable quality, set of units.

There also appears to be a LOT of dissension in the ranks of the Russian military.

There is also the matter of what we learned about the Russian military from Wagner's march. It is an eggshell, unable to muster the combat power to stop a hostile force approaching its capital. The best descriptor for the Russian Military at this point is Clusterfrick.

There's no way Putin stays in power. The only warriors actually fighting for him were TWG. They're gone and now Putin is left with a conscription heavy military who will either be killed in a heavy war zone or leave. Either way Putin can't hide that is a failed war anymore. He'll have to negotiate for his own safety within Russia's borders or be forced into exile hoping that Belarus doesn't hand him over to Interpol. Or does he deploy a tactical nuke when he realizes that he's out of options?

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I do disagree that the Wagner March for Justice is a peripheral issue

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That single event removed tens of thousands of trained and experienced combatants out of the Russian operation.

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Copium

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Are you saying that didn't happen?

I asked you yesterday to tell us what happened, you never responded. I'll assume this will be the same.