re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

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Russian soldiers being killed faster than Kremlin can recruit them

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This seems to be the same artticle, with no paywall

Sun.US: PUTIN’S DEADLY CHURN Russians ‘being killed faster than Kremlin can recruit them’ – as Zelensky shares new glimpse of his war bunker

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Russia's plan was good on paper.


The vector from Belorussia via a single road through a swamp 40 miles long was stupid. Easy for Ukrainian artillery to be dialed in trapping it

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If Putin had not waited until after the Olympics were over then the ground would have been frozen solid enough for Russia's vehicles to go off the road without getting stuck. Luckily for Ukraine, Putin waited because he did not want to piss Xi off while Chyna was hosting the Olympics.

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Ya'll know this how it always goes, right?

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Well, it worked very well based on the historical documents I studied. I haven't seen any reports of bug attacks in years.

Would you like to know more?

I failed to mention that the Russia army used 80's paper maps with no mention of the Red Forest at Chernobyl, where they dug defensive positio. All ended up radioactive.

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Russia's plan was good on paper.

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Russia's plan on paper sucked - it straight F'ing sucked.

Russia's military is a Soviet-based defense force, and they tried to fight a war of conquest based on Western tactics. They had no organized command structure but rather a four-pronged attack into Ukraine each with their own commander, leaving the inevitable lack of coordination and fights over resources and territories. They brought 120K when they needed about 2M. It's clear that they had no coordination between their air, naval, and ground forces, no adequate command-and-control, logistics, communication, or intelligence plans. They not only managed not to achieve any surprise due to the buildup on the Ukrainian border they managed to surprise their own troops by lying to them about it being a training exercise. The fact that they have no competent or professional NCO corps became apparent when they got stuck on their way to Kiev - their attempts at taking the airport in Kiev was uncreative, poorly planned, horribly executed, and the Ukrainians saw it coming from a mile away. Their attempt at a huge convoy taking Kiev was even worse, running first out of fuel and secondly out of food, leaving a 40-mile train of vehicles stranded. And their 'planning' has only gotten worse from there.

I refuse to be kind here.

I can go on an hour-long rant - and have - about how sickeningly stupid, lazy, unprofessional and just plain pathetic this whole endeavor has been. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about it and its high time people stop kissing the Russian butts and acknowledge just how bad they suck.

Their military sucks.
Their leadership sucks.
Their media sucks.
Their government sucks.
Their FSB sucks.
And finally, Putin sucks.

I'm sick and tired of people trying to throw the Russians a bone, so please, for the love of God people, everyone stop making excuses for the Russians and tell it like it is.

Here's an interesting take that's useful to this discussion:



"If I read one more article where some village is called 'the strategic village of middle of nowhere' I am going to explode. I remember...two years ago when Avdiivka was 'finally captured' and people were walking around like it was Stalingrad. I look at a map of Ukraine all of the time and I'm like 'where the hell is Avdiivka??" Then I look at the map and I see where it's in the far, far East, like, 5% of Ukraine! It took'em two years to get there! And then Pokrovsk, which they still haven't been able to completely take control of, and that's, I think, 60 kilometers from Avdiivka. So let the Russians brag about their inexorable advance all they want while the Ukrainians figure out how to slaughter them to the tune of 40 or 50,000 a month."

General Ben Hodges, former Commander of US Army, Europe.

It's a correct assessment.

As stated before, the Russians had every possible, conceivable advantage you could imagine and yet they still managed to blow it; they should have been able to overcome even a bad plan, yet here we are.

If it had been a good plan the Russians would have taken the Ukraine by now.

So, please, everyone, stop with the 'Russians aren't that bad at war' schtick. It got old after the first year.

Hit four days ago and the fire is still out of control. Sad.

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Russia’s Transneft cut crude intake by about 250,000 barrels per day after a Ukrainian drone strike hit the Kaleikino pumping station in Tatarstan, Reuters reported.

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I grant you that TexAg and our good friend JB are about the only ones who have said it explicitly.

But I see it when I see people warn me that the Donbas is falling - not this year it isn't. Or talk about their opening plan. Or that their plan to use donkeys for logistics isn't the dumbest idea in war this century, one born out of complete desperation. And other things that I've seen though I'm not going to go through the entirety of this thread to point them out.

The Russians suck at war and we need to except that and start planning around that, not them taking over the Ukraine.

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US forces seize third sanctioned oil tanker in Indian Ocean, Pentagon says

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Venezuelan cargo bound for China, with Chinese ship management.

Other than taking the hull out of Shadow fleet service for a temporary period, this has nothing to do with Russia. The question is - who claims the cargo and into which bank account does it land?

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The Bertha departed in early January from Venezuelan waters as part of a flotilla that has been seized by the U.S. almost completely. The ship was carrying some 1.9 million barrels of Merey heavy crude bound for China, according to shipping reports from Venezuelan state company PDVSA.

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