Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

“Putin thought he could defeat Ukraine quickly, fracture the NATO alliance, and act with impunity. He was wrong,”

Yeh we showed 'em, didn't we boys? Sounds like the sort of thing you say when you're looking for an exit...

If you say so.

We'll see- rumors abound. Otherwise we are in for a long grinding war of attrition and (ultimately) logistics- and frankly, NATO isn't keeping up.

If you say so.

Originally Posted by sabang

Otherwise we are in for a long grinding war of attrition

Once this latest batch is attrited, where is Putin going to get the next batch of mobiks from?

‘Like turkeys at a shooting range’: Mauling of Russian forces in Donetsk hotspot may signal problems to come


The scenes are chaotic: Russian tanks veering wildly before exploding or driving straight into minefields, men running in every direction, some on fire, the bodies of soldiers caught in tank tracks.
Russian military bloggers are calling it a fiasco, and worse.

These scenes have been recorded by Ukrainian military drones over the past two weeks around the town of Vuhledar in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where successive Russian assaults have failed.
The Vuhledar debacle suggests chronic failures in the command and tactics of the Russians as they gear up for a spring offensive. If replicated elsewhere on the long military front in Donetsk and Luhansk, such failings could jeopardize the Kremlin’s plans to seize more territory.

About 20 videos geolocated by CNN show basic tactical blunders in an area that’s open and flat, where Ukrainian spotters on higher ground can direct artillery strikes and where minefields are worsening Russian casualties.

One video shows a tank running into a minefield and exploding, followed almost obliviously by an infantry fighting vehicle that suffers the same fate. Others show Ukrainian drones dropping small explosive charges on static tanks in open country – and a graveyard of abandoned armor.

At least two dozen Russian tanks and infantry vehicles have been disabled or destroyed in a matter of days, according to the videos, which were released by the Ukrainian military and analyzed by CNN and military experts. Satellite images show intensive patterns of impacts along tree lines where Russian tanks tried to advance.

The Russian Defense Ministry has insisted the assault on Vuhledar, where the 155th Marine Brigade is prominently involved, is going according to plan. In remarks recorded for a Sunday television show, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the “marine infantry is working as it should. Right now. Fighting heroically.”

But the leader of the self-declared, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, acknowledged Friday that the area was “hot” and said “the enemy continues to transfer reserves in large quantities, and this slowed down the liberation of this settlement.”

Vuhledar was built for the nearby coal mine (the name translates as “gift of coal”) and sits above surrounding plains. Its high-rise buildings give its defenders – principally the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized – a significant advantage, as well as hardened underground cover.

Military historian Tom Cooper, who has studied the battle for Vuhledar, describes it as “a big, tall fortress in the middle of an empty, flat desert.”

The town has become a lynchpin in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have been trying to take it for three months. Victory for Moscow here would make it harder for the Ukrainians to shut down a nearby railroad that links Donetsk with Russian-occupied Crimea and allow the Russians to begin a northern “hook” as part of their anticipated spring offensive.

A previously ill-conceived plan in November to take Vuhledar led to heavy casualties and a near mutiny among men of the 155th Marine Brigade.

Critics of Russia’s military high command say the handling of the latest offensive is worse still, with one military blogger describing it as a “shameful debacle.”

Cooper says the Russians built a formidable force around Vuhledar, “say, a total of about 20,000 troops, 90 MBTs [main battle tanks], perhaps two times as many IFVs [infantry fighting vehicles], and about 100 artillery pieces.”

But attacks launched in the last week of January were fatally flawed, he said. “They were advancing along a relatively narrow route, all the time in sight of Ukrainian observers posted atop of high buildings in Vuhledar, and now facing about 500 meters of empty terrain on the eastern side of the town,” Cooper wrote on his blog.

“Ukrainian artillery not only caused heavy losses to the advancing units but hit their rear too – cutting off both their supply links and their possible withdrawal routes.”

‘Only morons attack head-on’

A number of prominent Russian military bloggers have been unrestrained in their criticism of the Vuhledar offensive.

“They were shot like turkeys at a shooting range,” said former DPR Defense Minister Igor Strelkov, who has become a strident critic of the campaign.

Strelkov, also known as Igor Girkin, added on Telegram that “a lot of good T-72B3/T-80BVM tanks and the best paratroopers and marines were liquidated.”

In another post on Telegram, Strelkov wrote: “Only morons attack head-on in the same place, heavily fortified and extremely inconvenient for the attackers for many months in a row.”

Russia’s military bloggers have tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of subscribers to their Telegram channels. They have been highly critical of previous episodes in the campaign.

One of them – Moscow Calling – said at the weekend that the movement of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in “slender columns” near Vuhledar was asking for trouble. He alleged that Russian units in the area lack information because commanders have failed to integrate intelligence-gathering into battlefield decisions.

By contrast, he said: “All this has been implemented or is in the process of being implemented by the Ukrainian armed forces.”

Moscow Calling asserted that older T-72 tanks deployed in Vuhledar lack upgrades that would improve the driver’s breadth of vision. That may help explain several instances in which Russian tanks seemed to get entangled or reverse blindly.

“How are blind, deaf tanks, armored personnel carriers, with equally blind, deaf infantry supposed to fight without columns? And then how to coordinate any actions if there is no communication and situational awareness?” he wrote.

“If the Russian Armed Forces try to disperse, they will shoot each other, because they do not understand who is in front of them.”

Several Russian commentators have called for the dismissal of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, the commander of the Eastern Grouping of Forces. Muradov was in charge in November when men of the 155th protested that his tactics had caused disastrous losses.

Another blogger said that Russian forces were doomed to repeat their mistakes if such commanders remained in place.

In an expletive-laden post, the pro-Wagner Telegram channel Grey Zone said of Muradov: “This coward is lying down at the control point and sending column after column until the commander of one of the brigades involved in the Vuhledar assault is dead on the contact line.”

The commander killed was a special forces colonel, Sergey Polyakov, according to unofficial Russian sources.

Another Russian blog with more than 500,000 followers said of Muradov’s team: “These people killed a significant number of personnel and equipment [in November] and did not bear any responsibility. After which, with the same mediocrity, they began to storm Ugledar [Vuhledar]. Impunity always breeds permissiveness.”

Questions over troop training

But the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says that poor leadership is only part of the problem: the “highly dysfunctional tactics are far more indicative of the fact that the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade is likely comprised of poorly trained mobilized personnel than of poor command.”

The UK defense ministry reported Sunday that an uptick in Russian casualties in places like Vuhledar “is likely due to a range of factors including lack of trained personnel, coordination, and resources across the front.”

Ukrainian military officials say there is a random mix of Russian forces in the Vuhledar area, including professional units, the recently mobilized, militia of the DPR and infantry of a private military company called Patriot, which is said to be close to the Russian defense ministry.

The setbacks around Vuhledar don’t bode well for a broader Russian offensive. ISW assesses that they “have likely further weakened the Russian ultranationalist community’s belief that Russian forces are able to launch a decisive offensive operation.”

However, some Ukrainian units have been running short of munitions as the tempo of Russian operations has increased.

“The key to success on the battlefield is effective fire damage, which requires an appropriate amount of weapons and ammunition,” said the commander of Ukrainian forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi on Saturday.

Analysts say the challenge for the Ukrainians is to resupply frontline units with shells and anti-tank missiles fast enough.

Russian forces continue to have a distinct advantage in firepower. On Saturday they launched a barrage of thermobaric missiles at Vuhledar, a reminder that they are more capable of inflicting destruction than taking territory.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/europ...ntl/index.html

Originally Posted by sabang

Yeh we showed 'em, didn't we boys? Sounds like the sort of thing you say when you're looking for an exit...

Originally Posted by sabang

We'll see- rumors abound. Otherwise we are in for a long grinding war of attrition and (ultimately) logistics- and frankly, NATO isn't keeping up.

This from the clown who bleated on for months that Putin would never invade. Putin is having his ass fed to him on a plate. Russians have been getting utterly smashed in the last week, talking over 1000 casualties a day and throwing entire brigades into the meat grinder.

Your clown car is ready for a ride, bozo.

^^ That from the clown who called the succesful and basically incident free Russian retreat across the Dniepr at Kherson a 'turkey shoot'- (even though the Ukrainian front lines were over 60km away). Frankly, I would think you would have avoided that term 'turkey shoot', to spare yourself further embarrassment.


Anyway, yet another post about Vulehdar. The only 'good news' you have, so lets rinse and repeat it a thousand times, yawwwn. Maybe the suckers will believe that's the story of the whole war (some probably do). In the context of the war, what the Director General of Nato, the senior Nato military commander, and even your beloved General Ben Hodges are saying is much more significant. Which is basically, this:-

Politico columnist: US urged Ukrainian Armed Forces to save ammunition due to depletion of Western arsenals
Just a moment...

Oh, just thought you should know:-

Ukrainian serviceman: To date, there is not a single safe way left for us from Bakhmut
Just a moment...


But I promise not to repeat it a thousand times. It does get old and boring.

US warns Ukraine that war is reaching pivotal point

As the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, US officials have informed Ukrainian authorities that a critical moment is approaching to change the trajectory of the war.


Source: The Washington Post


Quote from The Washington Post: "The war in recent months has become a slow grind in eastern Ukraine, with neither side gaining the upper hand. Biden officials believe the critical juncture will come this spring, when Russia is expected to launch an offensive and Ukraine mounts a counteroffensive in an effort to reclaim lost territory."


Details: The critical nature of the next few months has reportedly already been explicitly stated to Kyiv by senior Biden officials, including Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser; Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state; and Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defence, all of whom visited Ukraine last month.


In addition, a week before these officials visited, CIA Director William Burns visited Ukraine. He briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Russia's military plans for the coming months and emphasised the urgency of the moment.


The Biden administration is currently working with Congress to approve another US$10 billion in direct budgetary aid to Kyiv and is expected to announce another major military aid package next week and impose new sanctions on the Kremlin around the same time.


On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the full-scale war, the West is also seeking to signal to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin that support for Ukraine is not waning.


But some experts warn that neither Russia nor Ukraine will gain a decisive military advantage in the foreseeable future.


Biden and his top aides say they are determined to support Ukraine for as long and as fully as possible. But they warn that the policy course could become tougher after Ukraine exhausts the current congressional aid package, which could happen as early as this summer.


At the same time, according to the news outlet, there is underlying Western tension over how Ukraine should focus its resources in the coming months.


It is noted that for many months, Ukraine has spent significant resources and troops defending Bakhmut in eastern Donbas. However, American military analysts are convinced that it is unrealistic to simultaneously defend Bakhmut and launch a spring counteroffensive to regain the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.


The United States considers the liberation of land more important.


US officials believe that if Ukraine continues to fight wherever Russia sends troops, it will work in Moscow's favour. Therefore, they urged Ukraine to prioritise the timing and conduct of the spring counteroffensive, especially as the United States and Europe train Ukrainian soldiers to use the most sophisticated weapons that are already appearing on the battlefield.


The Biden administration is also convinced that Russia's capture of Bakhmut "will not lead to significant strategic shifts on the battlefield" because it "will not result in any significant strategic shift in the battlefield" because "it's a dot on the map for which they [Russians – ed.] have expended an extraordinary amount of blood and treasure".


In addition, US intelligence officials believe that the liberation of the heavily fortified Crimean peninsula is beyond the capabilities of the Ukrainian army.


At the same time, Biden's aides say that they are sticking to the best course of action: giving Ukraine the opportunity to regain as much territory as possible in the coming months before sitting down with Putin.

US warns Ukraine that war is reaching pivotal point

Originally Posted by sabang

Frankly, I would think you would have avoided that term 'turkey shoot', to spare yourself further embarrassment.

It was the title the author gave the article, dippy. I had nothing to do with it. You know you are getting desperate when the only Russian "success" you can find on the battlefield was the defeat it took in Kherson.

Originally Posted by sabang

But I promise not to repeat it a thousand times.

Those articles are just repackaged Russian propaganda sites. Just more of your typical crap. Why don't you try to explain to me how an entire Russian brigade got wiped out and its commander killed in Vuhledar.

The U.S. military is considering sending Ukraine thousands of seized weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition once bound for Iran-backed fighters in Yemen, an unprecedented step that would help Kyiv battle Russian forces, U.S. and European officials said.

U.S. officials said they are looking at sending Ukraine more than 5,000 assault rifles, 1.6 million rounds of small arms ammunition, a small number of antitank missiles, and more than 7,000 proximity fuses seized in recent months off the Yemen coast from smugglers suspected of working for Iran.

The unusual move would open up a new supply of firepower America and its allies could tap into as they struggle to meet Ukraine’s need for military support as its war with Russia enters its second year.

The Ukrainian embassy in Washington, D.C., and the National Security Council declined to comment on the matter.

America and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies met this week in Brussels to discuss new ways to speed up the flow of weapons going to Ukraine and the military supply shortage the war is creating.

“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, on the eve of the meetings. “The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain.”

The U.S. has provided Ukraine more than 100 million rounds of small arms ammunition as of this week and about 13,000 grenade launchers, guns and rifles, according to the Pentagon.

The challenge for the Biden administration is finding a legal justification for taking weapons from one conflict and transferring them to another. The U.N. arms embargo requires the U.S. and its allies to destroy, store or get rid of the seized weapons. Biden administration lawyers have been looking at whether the resolution creates any wiggle room for them to transfer the weapons to Ukraine, according to U.S. officials.

Advocates of the idea said President Biden might be able to resolve the legal question by crafting an executive order, or working with Congress to empower the U.S. to seize the weapons under civil forfeiture authorities and send them to Ukraine.

There is precedent for the U.S. to use asset forfeiture laws to seize Iranian weapons. The Justice Department used such laws in 2020 to take control of two shipments of seized weapons, including guided antitank missiles, surface-to-air missiles and cruise missile parts.

Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, and a proponent of the idea, said there is bipartisan support in Washington for the concept.

“This seems like a very easy thing for the White House and Congress to get behind and solve,” he said. “I think the president might be pushing on an open door here.”

A spokeswoman for Albania’s United Nations mission, which holds the U.N. Security Council’s rotating presidency, declined to comment. Iranian officials in New York and Tehran didn’t respond to requests on Tuesday for comment.

Nasr al-Din Amir, the Houthi deputy information minister, mocked the U.S. idea as ineffective.

“What change can this make to war?” he said of the idea to send the arms to Ukraine. “They’ve been sending much heavier weapons.”

The rifles and ammunition have been seized in recent months by the U.S. and France as part of a global effort focused mainly on preventing Iran from smuggling weapons into Yemen. Tehran’s Houthi allies have been fighting an eight-year war against the Saudi-backed government, which was forced out of the capital in 2014.

Typically, the weapons are seized and destroyed by the U.S. and its allies enforcing a United Nations arms embargo on Yemen. But U.S. officials said the global effort to supply Ukraine with weapons triggered a discussion about sending the confiscated military supplies to Kyiv.

U.S. military officials began seriously considering the idea late last year after the U.S. Navy seized a million rounds of ammunition on board a fishing boat traveling from Iran to Yemen, the officials said. A few weeks later, the American military seized more than 2,000 AK-47s from a small fishing boat in the Gulf of Oman. In mid-January, French forces found 3,000 assault rifles, nearly 600,000 rounds and more than 20 antitank rockets on board another fishing boat in the Gulf of Oman.

While the volume of seized armaments may not make a huge dent in the war effort, sending the weapons bound for Iran-backed forces in Yemen to the Kyiv government would allow America to turn the tables on Tehran, which has provided Russia with hundreds of so-called suicide drones used to target civilians in Ukraine, U.S. officials said.

It would also open the door for the U.S. to redirect other types of weapons seized off the Yemen coast, if needed by Kyiv.

“It’s a message to take weapons meant to arm Iran’s proxies and flip them to achieve our priorities in Ukraine, where Iran is providing arms to Russia,” said one U.S. official.

The U.S. and its allies have accused Iran of supplying Houthi fighters in Yemen with military aid for years. Iran, which provides open political support for Houthi forces, denies that it supplies weapons in violation of the U.N. arms embargo.

The U.N. says that Iran is the most likely source of missiles, drones, rockets and small arms that have helped the Houthis successfully hold their ground in the eight-year war against Saudi-backed Yemeni forces.

Houthi forces have repeatedly fired missiles and launched drones from Yemen targeting the capitals of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have both provided military support for the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

The war created what the U.N. calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, with 23 million people in Yemen—almost three-quarters of the population—in need of humanitarian aid.

Last April, the U.N. helped broker a truce in Yemen to aid political talks aimed at ending the war. But diplomatic efforts to end the conflict remain stalled. The U.S. has accused Iran of using the lull to try to resupply Houthi fighters with weapons.

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/sei...raine-2516b45d

The challenge for the Biden administration is finding a legal justification for taking weapons from one conflict and transferring them to another.

Since when did that bother the Biden admin, or any other US gov't in recent history? But it sure spells desperation. Perhaps raid the starving Afghan childrens food fund next? The Venezuelan peoples social fund? I mean, the USD is the worlds safe haven after all.

Originally Posted by sabang

But it sure spells desperation.

No, it really doesn't. You are just triggered again. Triggered over the fact that Putin is getting his ass handed to him on a plate in Vuhledar and now reading that the US Navy is dominating the Arabian Sea and treating Iran like a little bitch.

Oh, so is that why the Houthi are winning in Yemen? Allah moves in mysterious ways. Perhaps that is why the Ukrainians are losing in their former eastern provinces.

But you don't give a shit about the Ukrainian people- you just care that the latest US neo-con military adventurism is being embarrassed, yet again. Story of this century.

Originally Posted by sabang

Perhaps that is why the Ukrainians are losing in their former eastern provinces.

Is that so? Last I checked, Vuhledar was in Donbas oblast. Losing a brigade of men along with its commander makes it hard to imagine that you have any idea what you are talking about. It would seem to me that you keep walking things back. Now, you are talking only about the partially occupied eastern oblasts. What happened to the talk of taking Kyiv or Odessa?

Originally Posted by sabang

But you don't give a shit about the Ukrainian people- you just care that the latest US neo-con military adventurism is being embarrassed, yet again. Story of this century.

I care about them far more than you do. I have actual Ukrainian friends here in America and in Ukraine. They have enlightened me to a level of understanding I would never of possessed if I did not count them as my friends. You on the other hand cheerlead genocide and spout kremlin propaganda relentlessly. No, I am not like you. I am not a cheerleader.

I want my friends to be able to go back to doing the things they did before Putin unlawfully invaded their sovereign nation.

Originally Posted by sabang

But you don't give a shit about the Ukrainian people

Says the bloke who gloats over every piece of pro-high-heeled war criminal propaganda he can get his grubby hands on.

Someone has to tell you patsies that you are being willfully deceived, and Ukraine is not winning this war. It's even beginning to slip through in MSM now, albeit partially.

Think about it- Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, now Ukraine. Notice a pattern? My responsibility is to the truth- not the Kremlin, or the Whitehouse.

^ You may want to check the US sources for your Russian news to make sure the source actually said what the Russian news says they did.

Russia Has Deployed 97% of Army in Ukraine but Is Struggling to Advance, U.K. Says

The U.K. said Russia has deployed nearly its entire army in Ukraine, increasing pressure along the front line in the east of the country but falling short of a breakthrough.


Ukrainian officials have warned of a renewed Russian onslaught to coincide with the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion next week. But some Western officials say the offensive is unlikely to be one single event. Russian forces have redoubled attacks along the front lines in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, eking out gains after a series of reversals last year.

“We now estimate 97% of the whole Russian army is in Ukraine,” U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the British Broadcasting Corp.’s “Today” show on Wednesday.


Russian forces were trying to advance on all fronts, he said, adding: “We haven’t actually seen this massing of a single force to punch through in a big offensive. We’ve just seen an effort to advance, and that has come at a huge cost to the Russian army.”

Ukraine is seeking to absorb the attacks, buying time to build up its own forces for an offensive to retake territories occupied by Russia. Western officials expect Ukraine to launch a counteroffensive in the spring.


Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said Russian forces were rushing to gain ground before Kyiv amassed sufficient combat power for its own offensive. “The Russians understand that the continuation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive and operations to liberate our territories are inevitable,” he said. “That’s why the enemy is in a hurry.”

Fighting has been particularly fierce in the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces are resisting Russian moves to encircle the city.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said grueling battles in the east were depleting Russia’s capacity to mount a broader offensive. In his nightly address, Mr. Zelensky said the situation in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk remains extremely difficult.


“We must understand the significance of these battles,” Mr. Zelensky said. “That is where the unprecedented destruction of Russian potential is taking place now.”


Mr. Wallace’s remarks came as the U.S. and other allies gathered for a second day of talks on boosting supplies to Kyiv. On Tuesday, Kyiv’s allies pledged more air-defense systems and training during talks of the Contact Group on Ukrainian Defense. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said discussions on Wednesday would focus on the provision of tanks.


An immediate priority, however, is munitions. Ukrainian troops have fired so many rounds at Russia’s invading forces over the past year that Kyiv’s allies are struggling to meet demand and have had to increase arms production.

Western countries are hoping to reduce Kyiv’s firing rate by improving Ukrainian tactics and coordination through training, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.


“Russia continues to pour large numbers of additional people into the fight,” he told reporters at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. “And those people are ill-trained and ill-equipped and because of that, we see them incurring a lot of casualties.”


Russian military-industrial output is also struggling to keep pace with the war, the U.K.’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry pointed to a televised meeting last month in which Russian President Vladimir Putin castigated the deputy prime minister responsible for the defense industry for “fooling around.”

“Production is almost certainly falling short of the Russian demands to resource the Ukraine campaign and restore its longer-term defense requirements,” the ministry said.


Mr. Putin urged the Emergency Situations Ministry to improve the country’s civil-defense system, in remarks broadcast on state television.


State news agencies, meanwhile, said Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, would hold a meeting on Feb. 22, a day after Mr. Putin is set to deliver a state of the nation address ahead of the first anniversary of the invasion.


On Feb. 21 last year, Mr. Putin recognized the independence of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, setting the stage for the invasion three days later.

Russia Has Deployed 97% of Army in Ukraine but Is Struggling to Advance, U.K. Says - WSJ

Originally Posted by sabang

the truth

Which comes in many versions depending on where you chose to look for a truth that supports a truth you feel is the truth.

Originally Posted by sabang

Someone has to tell you patsies that you are being willfully deceived, and Ukraine is not winning this war.

Regurgitating your kremlin supplied talking points like the useful idiot you are.

You would have said the same during the VN war, and various TD members said the same during the Iraq invasion, Afghan quagmire, and Syrian rebellion. So at least I'm consistent at giving you the news you don't wanna hear.

Russia’s losses around Vuhledar renew questions about its ability to sustain a fresh offensive.

As Russia steps up its offensive in eastern Ukraine, weeks of failed attacks on a Ukrainian stronghold have left two Russian brigades in tatters, raised questions about Moscow’s military tactics and renewed doubts about its ability to maintain sustained, large-scale ground assaults.The fighting has also come at a cost for Ukraine, which is expending vast amounts of ammunition to repel Russia’s growing numbers of ground troops, often supported by heavy armor, artillery and close air support. That has added urgency to Ukraine’s pleas for more ammunition, while Western allies this week expressed increasing concern about their ability to meet the demand.

The battle around the Ukrainian city of Vuhledar, which sits at the intersection of the eastern front in the Donetsk region and the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region, is viewed as one of Moscow’s opening moves of a nascent spring offensive. Though it has been playing out for weeks, the scale of Russia’s losses is only beginning to come into focus.

Accounts from Ukrainian and Western officials, Ukrainian soldiers, captured Russian soldiers, Russian military bloggers, and video and satellite images all paint a picture of a faltering Russian campaign that continues to be plagued by dysfunction.

Moscow has rushed tens of thousands more troops, many of them inexperienced new recruits, to the front line in recent weeks as President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces seek to demonstrate progress before the anniversary of his full-scale invasion on Feb. 24.

Western officials estimate that the vast majority of Russia’s army is now fighting in Ukraine. Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, told the BBC on Wednesday that “97 percent of the Russian army” is in Ukraine. U.S. defense officials estimate that about 80 percent of Russia’s ground forces are dedicated to the war effort.

In attempting to capture Vuhledar, which lies near a rail line Russia uses to supply its forces, “the enemy suffered critical losses,” Col. Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military forces in the area, said in an interview.

The Russians failed to take into account the terrain — open fields laden with mines — or the strength of the Ukrainian forces, he said. Two of Russia’s most elite brigades — the 155th and 40th Naval Infantry Brigades — were decimated in Vuhledar, Colonel Dmytrashkivskyi said.


In one week alone, the Ukrainian General Staff, which is responsible for military strategy, estimated that Russia lost at least 130 armored vehicles, including 36 tanks. That estimate has been supported by accounts from Russian military bloggers, whose reporting on the war is influential in Russia, and by drone footage of the destruction reviewed by independent military analysts.

Mr. Wallace on Wednesday cited reports that “a whole Russian brigade was effectively annihilated” in Vuhledar, where he said that Moscow “lost over 1,000 people in two days.” The British defense intelligence agency reported last week that Russian units had “likely suffered particularly heavy casualties around Vuhledar,” abandoning at least 30 armored vehicles after one failed assault.

Mr. Wallace told LBC News, a British news outlet, that the losses in Vuhledar showed the result of “a president and a Russian general staff that defies reality or ignores reality and simply doesn’t care how many people they are killing of their own, let alone of the people they are trying to oppress.”

Many of the captured soldiers were newly mobilized under a call-up Mr. Putin announced last September of some 300,000 recruits, while others had been recruited by the Wagner mercenary group, according to Ukrainian and Russian accounts.

In recent weeks, a rivalry between Wagner forces and the regular Russian army has opened up, with the mercenary group claiming that its fighters are more capable.

nytimes.com

If you really wanna beat this 'Russian scourge', grow some cojones. Put your own men on the ground, your own peoples blood in the soil. Otherwise, what are you? Just vapid cheerleaders. Others might say, cowards.