Ukraine War. 2022-

JDKR · Dec 20, 2022

Ramiles · Dec 20, 2022

BBC News - Ice soldiers mark Russia's very patriotic Christmas
Ice soldiers mark Russia's very patriotic Christmas

"It's an unusual way of celebrating the New Year," Ludmila tells me. "Normally you'd have Santa Claus, bunny rabbits or squirrels. But it's a sign of the times."

ltdan · Dec 20, 2022

Bakhmut + Moscow: no words needed....

ltdan · Dec 20, 2022

By the way, today is day 300 of the "3-day special military operation":
Official Russian map from early March '22 - when the Kremlin still believed it had a modern, well-equipped and powerful army....

davidbfpo · Dec 20, 2022

From the Wavell Room by Sergio MIller, it starts with:

From the beginnings of the war, a lack of coordination and disjointedness in Russian Army operations has surprised. What happened to the vaunted operational level of command? Why have we not witnessed regimental or brigade-level operations? Why is YouTube sagging with videos of platoon actions, but rarely a company and still less a battalion action? The reason, to use the phrase, was hidden in plain sight. It lies in the Russian Army’s tactical communications system.
Click to expand...

Link: Russian Army Tactical Communications » Wavell Room

TTH · Dec 22, 2022

Thanks to bad internet I only heard a few minutes of Zelensky's address to Congress. But what I heard sounded like Elizabeth I at Tilbury.

EmpireUmpire · Dec 22, 2022

They should use a few bucks from their overseas aid to buy him a suit.

ltdan · Dec 22, 2022

EmpireUmpire said: ↑

They should use a few bucks from their overseas aid to buy him a suit.
Click to expand...

Well, how about a siren suit

MR CHURCHILL IN HIS SIREN SUIT AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 3 JANUARY 1942, WASHINGTON DC, USA. DURING MR CHURCHILL'S MISSION TO AMERICA.

JDKR · Dec 24, 2022

I knew the murderous Wagner group rang a bell…
Putin’s convict army is a nasty Nazi revival | Comment | The Times

JDKR · Dec 24, 2022

EmpireUmpire said: ↑

They should use a few bucks from their overseas aid to buy him a suit.
Click to expand...

As opposed to a leader who would appear to use a significant proportion of his country’s GDP…

Inside Putin’s expensive designer wardrobe

JDKR · Dec 24, 2022

Ukraine War. 2022-

Just thought I would remind Owen of his post back in February!

Happy Christmas everybody!

Owen · Dec 24, 2022

JDKR said: ↑

Ukraine War. 2022-

Just thought I would remind Owen of his post back in February!

Happy Christmas everybody!
Click to expand...

Which is why I said it, I thought it might drag on.
Looking at the mud & trenches it looks just like WW1.

JDKR · Dec 27, 2022

Oh no. The extraordinary toll on Russian politicians, oligarchs etc goes on. Keep well away from the windows guys.

Michel Sabarly · Dec 28, 2022

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A St Petersburg politician has asked prosecutors to investigate Russian President Vladimir Putin for using the word "war" to describe the conflict in Ukraine, accusing the Kremlin chief of breaking his own law.
Source: Russian politician files legal challenge over Putin's reference to Ukraine "war"

Rising challenger Yevegenyi 'Adolf' Prigozhin can now use this to have Putin jailed for 15 years and take his place. Not sure this would be a change for the better though...

Pat Atkins · Dec 29, 2022

Another candidate for the “oops, who knew that 10th floor window was open?” no suspicious circumstances demise, you’d think.

davidbfpo · Dec 29, 2022

Recommended by ret'd Australian general Mick Ryan, an assessment by Michael Kofman, an American analyst: The Russo-Ukrainian war ten months in: taking stock – Riddle Russia

davidbfpo · Dec 30, 2022

From a book review of two British author's books on command (Freedman & Storr) by Anthony King, an academic @ Warwick University, a couple of passages on Russian and Ukrainian command:

There is one final unavoidable question. What do these books tell us about the current Russo-Ukrainian War? On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. An intense war has been raging since that time. Against all predictions, the Russian invasion has failed in its strategic aim of destroying the Zelensky government and it has struggled badly to annex eastern and southern parts of the country. The war has once again raised the question of command to the forefront. It will be fascinating to compare Russian and Ukrainian command systems when more evidence is declassified. However, some initial observations are evident. Russian generalship has failed egregiously. One of the many problems of the Russian Army seems to have been its command system. The operation has been coordinated by a steep but disaggregated command pyramid. Commanders in theatre with responsibility for only limited sectors have been under direct control of Putin. There has been little integration between echelons, and across the services and formations. The Russians have failed to conduct an integrated, joint campaign; they have fought a series of local tactical battles. Freedman’s diagnosis about the failures of dictatorship seem entirely accurately. No good can come of the fusion of political and military leadership, as Putin’s autocracy shows.

By contrast, the Ukrainian command system has triumphed. This was surprising given their handling of the war in the Donbas in 2014, when they were responsible for some fiascos, like the disaster at Zelonipihlya in July 2014 when they lost two brigades to a Russian rocket strike. They have learnt a lot. It has also now become public knowledge that they have been heavily dependent on the US. The US has admitted that it has given them intelligence with which they have struck Russian generals so successfully. It is possible the assistance runs deeper. The Ukrainian force seems to have developed a robust and responsive system of command, under western mentor-ship. At the strategic level, Freedman is surely correct that Zelensky and General Zaluzhnyi have forged a crucial relationship.

However, at the operational level, things are very interesting. In the first six months of the war, Ukrainian forces conducted a successful defence of their country. They fought from fortified urban areas, striking Russian forces in the deep. They repelled the Russians from Kyiv and slowed their advances elsewhere. They inflicted appalling losses on the Russians in this way. On 29 August 2022, they launched a counter-offensive around Kherson, before the main blow fell east of Kharkiv. In a month, they had taken back 6000 square kilometers of terrain. The counter-offensive was supported by sophisticated information operations and deep strikes on Russian command nodes, logistical hubs, and artillery batteries.

The sophistication of the counter-offensive suggests that the Ukrainian may have institutionalised a highly professional system of operational command. It seems to be directed by a Joint Task Force at the highest level, under General Zaluzhnyi, with a series of subordinate, presumably brigade and, perhaps, divisional commands below that. In short, although, at this point, it can be only inferred, they seem to have adopted an integrated, joint system of command which has close echoes which the kind of operational command system which Freedman has described in his book – and which I analysed in mine. Commanders have communicated across – and between – the echelons closely to synchronize their actions. It may not matter so much whether we use terms like, mission command, collective command or operational command, to classify such systems. It is more important that we look carefully at how land warfare and military operations are now actually conducted in order that we can recognise how and why the practice of command might be distinctive today.
Click to expand...

Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402390.2022.2139243

davidbfpo · Dec 30, 2022

Professor Lawrence Freedman's assessment of his commentary this year on the war: Assessing War Commentary

He repeats his November prediction:

As has been the case from the start of the war … judgements on who is winning and losing continue to depend on the course of the land battle. But for now Russia lacks a credible concept of victory whereas it is possible to see how Ukraine might prevail, at least to the point of leaving Russia with holdings that are minimal and incoherent, with even Crimea left vulnerable.
Click to expand...

davidbfpo · Jan 2, 2023

A short Ukrainian military video (12 mins) of an attack on a village:

An article in the US publication 'Foreign Affairs', currently open to all, 'Russia’s New Winter War:Could Putin Go the Way of Napoleon and Hitler' by the historian Antony Beevor: Russia’s New Winter War

von Poop · Jan 2, 2023

The thing that gets me about all these mysterious defenestrations is that these chaps must have massive & serious security teams. I just assume that'd be innate for operating in their circumstances at this time.
So... presumably, the defenestrators are usually from within those teams... I think that makes sense?
It is so hard to get good staff...

Still keep thinking what happens post-Putin.
Many equally iffy or far worse propositions.
Far from guaranteed that something with a lighter touch gets hands on the levers..
So what's the result there if transition isn't smooth?.. A Russian civil war? Not sure anybody wants that.

Log in or Sign up

Ukraine War. 2022-

JDKR Member

Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

ltdan Nietenzähler

ltdan Nietenzähler

davidbfpo Patron Patron

TTH Senior Member

EmpireUmpire .........

ltdan Nietenzähler

JDKR Member

JDKR Member

JDKR Member

Owen -- --- -.. MOD

JDKR Member

Michel Sabarly Member

Pat Atkins Well-Known Member

davidbfpo Patron Patron

davidbfpo Patron Patron

davidbfpo Patron Patron

davidbfpo Patron Patron

von Poop Adaministrator Admin

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Ukraine War. 2022-

JDKR Member

Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

ltdan Nietenzähler

ltdan Nietenzähler

davidbfpo Patron Patron

TTH Senior Member

EmpireUmpire .........

ltdan Nietenzähler

JDKR Member

JDKR Member

JDKR Member

Owen -- --- -.. MOD

JDKR Member

Michel Sabarly Member

Pat Atkins Well-Known Member

davidbfpo Patron Patron

davidbfpo Patron Patron

davidbfpo Patron Patron

davidbfpo Patron Patron

von Poop Adaministrator Admin

Share This Page

Useful Searches