Amidst the reporting I caught this by Mark Urban of the BBC, entitled: The story of an elite Russian unit's war in Ukraine - BBC Newsnight The summary: Link: (9 mins) He ends speculating a third of the 1500 strong unit have died. Having a mechanised parachute regiment is not unique, a UK Para Battalion was deployed on a tour to Berlin and became mechanised - though don't ask me when, it was during the 'Cold War'.
But, and hear me out on this, wouldn't the helicopters have taken off in Novorossiya? All the best Andreas Very possibly and which the Russians could claim gives more basis to a Ukrainian attack.
Re the VDV Would this not be the first time they have met a very well trained army, included in that training would be help and training from the west. Did they think they were just fighting ill trained individuals? I assume this is a modern take on land warfare and the VDV and the russian troops have been met by the well trained along with a passion to keep Ukraine an independent country (which it is). I assume the Ukraine defenders have also suffered badly. A comment on one of the posts remembering a dead VDV sums up the thought of Ukrainian people. " Everyone who steps on our soil to occupy it will get buried in it" Still waiting for the war criminal putin to be confirmed a war criminal along with all his hangers on.
As I recall the Russian constitution expressly forbids citizens being extradited. This point was made after the suspects for the Salisbury poisonings were identified. Yes, he may be a 'war criminal' - which I will leave lawyers to argue about. If a Russian cannot be extradited, upon request, what hope is there for a President facing the ICC or another court?
I dont think for one minute we could get the vermin extradited but just have it up there in history that he and his ilk are war criminals
Frank Ledwidge, ex-RAF and now an academic (an acerbic critic of the MoD), has this article: Ukraine will not be like Korea – dogged resistance will turn it into Putin's 'bleeding ulcer'
None, but a nice humiliation that he will never be able to set foot outside his economically ruined country or attend swanky conferences in Davos etc.
The way they're going to remove him, if they do, will feature Mr. Makarov and a small metallic object travelling at high speed into his head. He's never going to be extradited. All the best Andreas
An American news website 'The Daily Beast' has an article on some of the aspects of intelligence assessment entitled 'How Russia’s War Revealed a Blindspot in U.S. Intelligence':https://uk.news.yahoo.com/u-intelligence-community-blew-russia-000016524.html The author's Wiki bio: David Rothkopf - Wikipedia
Confirmation that the Antonov An-225 Mriya has been destroyed. Drone footage taken on 31 March shows heavy damage to the aircraft as well as the hangar at Hostomel airport that was housing it
Well this is not the case when airborne troops, used as regular infantry, are given armoured vehicles. Instead these vehicles are intended to be deployed via planes, parachuted if needed, and are part of standard unit equipment. So it is unique in some way. Sure, other armies at some time had special support vehicles, like Tetrarch or Sheridan tanks for example, that could be deployed either via glider or parachute but I don't know any which actually had armoured infantry vehicles, at least not in active use. BMDs are giving Russian VDV troops better mobility and fire power but these vehicles are very lightly armoured and once hit with artillery or AT missile they usually get obliterated. Seems like BMD-4 is especially prone to detonation due placement of 100mm ammo for a gun just like its infantry counterpart, BMP-3.
Good to hear a tactical analysis of the situation on the ground rather than trying to decipher what's going on from the media or propoganda. UA won the 1st round of the battle (thwarting the strike of the eastern and western groups of the rA against Kiev, both groups together totalling roughly 95.000 men, nearly half of the russina troops committed in the Ukraine - so far for the russian claims that this was only a feint). Now preparing for the 2nd round. One threat subsides, another one emerges. Will the Izium bridgehead, SE of Kharkov, become the new focal point of the rA offensive? Is the military situation in Mariupol really as bleak as it is presented in the press? How many times has the city been reported fallen and then not. It turned into a nasty little Leningrad. The difficulties of an UA attack against the Cherson bridgehead were explained yesterday - open countryside (steppe) which is in the rA's advantage. The russians have numerical and fire superiority in this area. Overall the battle will become more difficult and heavy fighting is still ahead. The UA, with fewer assets, probably will stick to the defensive. A strategy thusfar deployed so successfully. It remains to be seen if the russian Army can continue offensive operations. It has sustained pretty heavy losses and many units are worn out. Refilling them with new draftees will not do much to enhance their combat effectiveness. A few small scale Ukrainian counter-attacks to improve the tactical situation, before russian can fully redeploy their battered and partly radioactively contaminated troops, would be nice, for example in the Charkov area and against the Izium bridgehead. Unfortunately they have not been very successful in that over the last week. The utter callousness of the russian leadership for loss of human life, even that of its own troops, is evidenced by the fact that it let large contingents of its troops camp for a month around Tsjernobil, one of the most heavily radioactive polluted and dangerous areas of Europe. Some cases of radiation sickness among the russian soldiers are already known, many others will slowly die. After Putin, the russian Army now also 'is coming out', showing its real face as multiple atrocities are discovered. It is bad. People have been shot next to a bicycle or just somewhere among the rubble, or in groups in a courtyard behind a destroyed house: some with their hands tied behind their backs. New photos and videos are popping up on the internet all the time, with more and more bodies. Is it evidence of how high russian frustration has risen by all set-backs and now is vented against the innocent population. As more and more evidence surfaces ... these appear to be no incidents, but some form of a more systematical cleansing. 'Denazification', 'Russification' ... or whatever eufinism it may be given by the russians; normal humans call it murder. Unfortunately this is nothing new for the rA ... and they probably will deny everything .. just as they are denying there is a war going on.
Yes, the planned decapitation strike against Kiev and the government there has completely failed. And the images currently circulating in the media landscape are awful. I fear that the 2nd phase will bring a very brutal escalation if a diplomatic solution is not found quickly.....
Let us hope so and quick sticks Boris Johnson wants to give Ukraine anti-ship missiles to target Russian ships in the Black Sea | Daily Mail Online
Given the pictures coming out of Bucha and other liberated, towns northwest of Kyiv, I am struggling to understand how anyone can continue to support what Russia is doing to the Ukrainians and their country. My region in Northwest Germany was de-nazified by British troops in 1945. This was a bloody business which culminated but didn't end at Belsen with severe losses to the British army at Leese, Rethem and other places. Where required British commanders were ready to tear apart villages to dig out lunatic SS soldiers, such as at Husum near Nienburg which had to be cleaned out with Wasp flamethrowers. Regardless, I am not aware of a single instance of British soldiers executing soldiers let alone civilians in cold blood, or that they were raping and murdering their way to Hamburg, the Baltic Sea and Flensburg. I am working on a daily basis with people who just got out of this, who don't know if they still have a home to go back to, who worry about their families and friends. I don't know what to say to them. All the best Andreas
The only thing I can personally predict with absolute certainty at the moment: The spiral of violence and propaganda will spiral upwards very rapidly from today. And if I look at the shockwaves that this war since the beginning is already sending out into the world, then we already have a global crisis. I'm afraid there are still "interesting times" to come
I agree India,Pakistan and South Africa to name a few All of them should be ashamed of themselves but of course they dont care A list of them here Which countries abstained from UN vote on Ukraine?
