re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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So what if Russia dropped a few tactical nukes on the Kursk area

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Russians supposedly are taught that while Russia was kicking arse at liberating Asia from Japan at the end of WWII, the US was floundering and concluded it could not win and that's why they used nuclear weapons on Japan...

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47% of Ukraine privately owned? Congratulations there have been some stupid fricking comments on this board but you might have taken the cake.You should win a prize for your stupidity.

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GDP

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Ukraine lost five armored vehicles in an ambush at Giri, and they lost a couple of MRAPs in the north, but they have otherwise lost only a few vehicles. The operation has largely been without significant cost in men or materiel.

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Out In The Open And On The Move In Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Ukrainian Forces Are Vulnerable—And Losing Lots Of Armored Vehicles

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The ratio of equipment losses—heavy Ukrainian write-offs compared to relatively few Russian write-offs—is unusual. On average throughout Russia’s 29-month wider war on Ukraine, the Russians have lost many more vehicles than the Ukrainians.

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But the Ukrainian maneuvers have exposed their tanks and infantry vehicles to Russian drones, artillery and ambushes. In the first nine days of the invasion, the Ukrainians lost four tanks and 41 infantry vehicles, according to one Oryx analyst. The losses have included a rare British-made Challenger 2 tank and several American-supplied Stryker fighting vehicles.

The attrition of infantry vehicles—including tracked fighting vehicles and wheeled personnel carriers—has been especially acute for the Ukrainian armed forces. They’re losing these valuable vehicles at almost double the normal rate. And where the average loss rate is for the entire 700-mile front of the wider war, those losses in Kursk are occurring along a 50-mile front.

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In contrast, Russia has already lost over 2000 POWs. In terms of KIA, they lost something like 450 when the Ryalsk column got blown up, and there's another video out there showing over a hundred dead in underground bunker.

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The order to move crackled over the radios at dawn on August 6th. Serhiy, a private in the 80th brigade, was among the first to emerge from the cover of the forest. By the time his unit crossed into Russia, supported by constant tank fire, the border had already been largely destroyed. “Our commanders didn’t spare a single round of artillery,” he says via voice messages from inside Russia’s Kursk region. Other Ukrainian troops report crossing the border on a wave of euphoria, with lines of prisoners almost immediately heading back in the other direction.

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Western allies were also deliberately left in the dark, claims the source. “Syrsky had two previous operations undermined by the West. One was leaked to the Russians, and on another occasion, we were instructed to abort.” Limiting communication to a need-to-know basis enabled the Ukrainians to launch their attack before the Russians grasped what was happening. “They realised something was afoot but likely assumed we would need American approval for such a daring operation.” Having been presented with a fait accompli the West did not object.

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General Syrsky is a pedant for detail. Yet while the first phase was planned meticulously the campaign is now developing in an ad hoc fashion. With the element of surprise lost, the Ukrainian advances have slowed. President Zelensky is still pushing for maximum progress, a source in the general staff says. But his top soldier is cautious, concentrating on expanding the flanks along the border to create more defensible lines. “Syrsky is no fool,” his confidante says. “He knows that rushing ahead risks the whole operation.” In recent days, an expanded Ukrainian contingent of 10,000-20,000 soldiers appears to be focused on establishing control on the southern bank of the Seim river to the north-west of Sudzha.

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The loss of so much valuable equipment may not worry Ukrainian planners—provided, of course, the strategic gains of the Kursk campaign justify the material cost.

If Jack Watling, an analyst for the Royal United Services Institute in London is correct in his assessment, Ukraine wants Kursk Oblast as a bargaining chip. As a bargaining chip, the oblast might be worth—so far—a few dozen armored vehicles.

“Politically, the purpose of the operation is to build leverage ahead of possible negotiations,” Watling wrote in The Guardian. “If Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency in November, the threat of withdrawing military-technical assistance is likely to force Kyiv to negotiate. The Ukrainian government wants to make sure that if it has to enter that process, it has things that Russia wants to trade for concessions.”

“The Ukrainian military, therefore, must take and hold a sizeable chunk of Russian land for the duration of potential negotiations,” Watling stressed.

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And they don't have any( supposedly) so if they did I would expect they would return the favor

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