Ukrainian War VI: Pyrrhus in Bakhmut

[Picairn]

Russia’s disposable infantry should be considered fundamentally different and are drawn from three principal sources: conscripts from the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (heavily attrited from early rounds of fighting); prisoners drafted by the Wagner Group; and undertrained mobilised Russian civilians. These troops were originally formed into companies of approximately 60 people, but have since been broken down into platoons of approximately 15. They are issued with small arms. Ukrainian troops report that they often appear to be under the influence of amphetamines or other narcotic substances, with material recovered from the battlefield indicating that these are commonly taken in liquid form."

- RUSI report Meatgrinder: Russian Tactics in the Second Year of Its Invasion of Ukraine, pp. 4 - 5.

Trying to imitate the Nazis, but fails.

[El Lazaro]

Russia’s disposable infantry should be considered fundamentally different and are drawn from three principal sources: conscripts from the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (heavily attrited from early rounds of fighting); prisoners drafted by the Wagner Group; and undertrained mobilised Russian civilians. These troops were originally formed into companies of approximately 60 people, but have since been broken down into platoons of approximately 15. They are issued with small arms. Ukrainian troops report that they often appear to be under the influence of amphetamines or other narcotic substances, with material recovered from the battlefield indicating that these are commonly taken in liquid form."

- RUSI report Meatgrinder: Russian Tactics in the Second Year of Its Invasion of Ukraine, pp. 4 - 5.

Trying to imitate the Nazis, but fails.

In Westoid America, there is the War on Drugs. In Fascist Russia, so too is the war SMO on drugs.

[Arval Va]

Russia’s disposable infantry should be considered fundamentally different and are drawn from three principal sources: conscripts from the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (heavily attrited from early rounds of fighting); prisoners drafted by the Wagner Group; and undertrained mobilised Russian civilians. These troops were originally formed into companies of approximately 60 people, but have since been broken down into platoons of approximately 15. They are issued with small arms. Ukrainian troops report that they often appear to be under the influence of amphetamines or other narcotic substances, with material recovered from the battlefield indicating that these are commonly taken in liquid form."

- RUSI report Meatgrinder: Russian Tactics in the Second Year of Its Invasion of Ukraine, pp. 4 - 5.

Trying to imitate the Nazis, but fails.

Ah, Pervitin.

[Hurtful Thoughts]

The Ukranians are clearly prepared for a post-apocalyptic war, if it comes to that.

The pinnacle of military technology has been reached. Everything past today is just living in the shadows of this monster.

Rolls Royce Armored Car makes a comeback.

[Eutania]

Bakhmut doesn't even exist as a city anymore, all the while Ukrainians are taking better positions on the hills aroung Bakhmut where they can see the whole city and shoot on it. Shooting from above is always an advantage.
The negative side is that no-military-aid activist in the West will have a field day and Russia will use this for propaganda as Stalingrad 2.0.

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

Photos of Putin trying to look triumphant standing in a heap of rubble will be hilarious.

[Asherahan]

First... To say something about Zaporizhzhia on this thread.

Ukraine has delayed it's counteroffensive, but I still think Ukraine's gonna try aim for Tokmak, Melitopol and Berdyansk rather than go full out on Bakhmut

That would certainly be the most logical choice. I'm still thinking that we're gonna see a repeat of last year where Ukraine launched two counteroffensives at basically the same time.

We will see if their attack works or fails.

[Kleinekatzen]

Sooo Ukraine is the Afghanistan of this decade?

[Mestovakia]

Posting just to keep track.

[Ventura Bay]

Ukraine War VI: Ukraine loses Bakhmut.

[Eternal Algerstonia]

this is a great day for the people of the russian federation. the russian are fighting a war to save their people from genocide! the woke west is mobilizing their globalist armies to take over russia, but russia threw a curveball in their plans by attacking first! russia has defeated the western empire at bakhmut, and i have no doubt that the tide of the special military operation is turning in russia's favor, and with it the unspoken war is turning against the NWO's legions of hellspawn! great victories have been won by freedom's best friends... the republican party taking back the people's house, viktor orban and andrzej duda bravely defying the deeply corrupt european unions's woke edicts, and now russia takes the bold step by combating the deep state directly. i stand in solidarity with the russian people!

[Cerespasia]

this is a great day for the people of the russian federation. the russian are fighting a war to save their people from genocide! the woke west is mobilizing their globalist armies to take over russia, but russia threw a curveball in their plans by attacking first! russia has defeated the western empire at bakhmut, and i have no doubt that the tide of the special military operation is turning in russia's favor, and with it the unspoken war is turning against the NWO's legions of hellspawn! great victories have been won by freedom's best friends... the republican party taking back the people's house, viktor orban and andrzej duda bravely defying the deeply corrupt european unions's woke edicts, and now russia takes the bold step by combating the deep state directly. i stand in solidarity with the russian people!

I mean no disrespect, but what the hell.

[The Selkie]

this is a great day for the people of the russian federation. the russian are fighting a war to save their people from genocide! the woke west is mobilizing their globalist armies to take over russia, but russia threw a curveball in their plans by attacking first! russia has defeated the western empire at bakhmut, and i have no doubt that the tide of the special military operation is turning in russia's favor, and with it the unspoken war is turning against the NWO's legions of hellspawn! great victories have been won by freedom's best friends... the republican party taking back the people's house, viktor orban and andrzej duda bravely defying the deeply corrupt european unions's woke edicts, and now russia takes the bold step by combating the deep state directly. i stand in solidarity with the russian people!

You do know, that sarcasm is very hard to transmit via text, right?

In any case, the Special Military Blunder is still ongoing, the Ukraine is going to receive F-16s together with all the other nice things the Western arms industry has lying around and Russia is left by their friends and allies - when even India promises to aid end the war in the Ukraine, despite a massive increase in imports of Russian oil, Putin should know, that he lost.

[Gravlen]

The genocide in Ukraine carried out by the russian forces are still ongoing.

[Vivida Vis Animi]

Sooo Ukraine is the Afghanistan of this decade?

A depressing but increasingly accurate comparison. I don't think many expected this war to last so long, and still no end in sight.

[Gravlen]

Sooo Ukraine is the Afghanistan of this decade?

A depressing but increasingly accurate comparison. I don't think many expected this war to last so long, and still no end in sight.

It's also always interesting to notice that Russia officially suffered 9,500 combat casualties during the 10 year long war, while the number of soldiers killed in action during the last year in Ukraine is likely somewhere between 35,000 and 60,000.

(The total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Ukraine are larger, and the number of casualties including wounded are much larger still)

[Vivida Vis Animi]

A depressing but increasingly accurate comparison. I don't think many expected this war to last so long, and still no end in sight.

It's also always interesting to notice that Russia officially suffered 9,500 combat casualties during the 10 year long war, while the number of soldiers killed in action during the last year in Ukraine is likely somewhere between 35,000 and 60,000.

(The total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Ukraine are larger, and the number of casualties including wounded are much larger still)

With numbers like that you'd think the Russians are just forming up line formations and marching into battles with unloaded guns as if this were just another parade in the Red Square.

[El Lazaro]

Sooo Ukraine is the Afghanistan of this decade?

If you’re talking about the, then that’s a solid no. US invasion of Afghanistan took two months and resulted in a handful of coalition deaths. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken 15 months and resulted crippling casualties for the Russian military, and it is very unlikely Russia will ever achieve its original goal of annexing all of Ukraine. While there would be plenty of pro-government partisans if Russia won, Ukraine is also not Afghanistan and isn’t as intensely complicated to govern, meaning that “nation-building” wouldn’t play a major role outside of the mass deportation and cultural genocide of ethnic Ukrainians, which is not quite the same thing.

The Soviet-Afghan War was a disaster for imperialist aggression that helped put a nail in the coffin of the existing Russian empire, but there were only two of these wars in the 20th century, and Russia hasn’t collapsed yet either. We ought to start thinking about what we’d do if Putinist Russia imploded, but it’s certainly not a certainty at this point.

[The Two Jerseys]

this is a great day for the people of the russian federation. the russian are fighting a war to save their people from genocide! the woke west is mobilizing their globalist armies to take over russia, but russia threw a curveball in their plans by attacking first! russia has defeated the western empire at bakhmut, and i have no doubt that the tide of the special military operation is turning in russia's favor, and with it the unspoken war is turning against the NWO's legions of hellspawn! great victories have been won by freedom's best friends... the republican party taking back the people's house, viktor orban and andrzej duda bravely defying the deeply corrupt european unions's woke edicts, and now russia takes the bold step by combating the deep state directly. i stand in solidarity with the russian people!

You forgot to mention the Nazis.

[Primitive Communism]

I have a question which I promise is in good faith:

There is a common objection to the relocation of Ukrainian children in occupied territories to Russia, which is often called "kidnapping" and "genocide" - an understandable perspective. What I would like to know, though, is where should the children go? They should stay in their homes which are likely reduced to rubble and probably without no electricity or plumbing or maybe even food, close to the front line and thus in the line of fire for stray munitions? Should they be sent to the Ukrainian side where they could potentially end up in cities that Russia intends to conquer or attack, thereby putting them at risk again anyway? Should they be sent to foreign lands with alien environments and unknown cultures to be subject to uncertain conditions? If sending them to Russia is the "wrong" answer, then what is the right one? This is a genuine question; not a defense of Russia's acts. I've seen the act condemned a multitude of times but not once have I seen an alternative be proposed, and I personally do not find it agreeable to keep them in an active warzone and thereby oppose the status quo. I admit I'm not familiar with the experiences these children have had in Russia so far, either.

[Picairn]

What I would like to know, though, is where should the children go?

With their parents to other countries in Europe or refugee shelters in western Ukraine? The "alien experience" of being in a foreign land will be less alienating with their parents acting as support.

If they are orphaned, then send them to orphanges west of Ukraine, far away from the frontline. Then the state raises them until adoption or reaching the age of majority.

[El Lazaro]

I have a question which I promise is in good faith:

There is a common objection to the relocation of Ukrainian children in occupied territories to Russia, which is often called "kidnapping" and "genocide" - an understandable perspective. What I would like to know, though, is where should the children go? They should stay in their homes which are likely reduced to rubble and probably without no electricity or plumbing or maybe even food, close to the front line and thus in the line of fire for stray munitions? Should they be sent to the Ukrainian side where they could potentially end up in cities that Russia intends to conquer or attack, thereby putting them at risk again anyway? Should they be sent to foreign lands with alien environments and unknown cultures to be subject to uncertain conditions? If sending them to Russia is the "wrong" answer, then what is the right one? This is a genuine question; not a defense of Russia's acts. I've seen the act condemned a multitude of times but not once have I seen an alternative be proposed, and I personally do not find it agreeable to keep them in an active warzone and thereby oppose the status quo. I admit I'm not familiar with the experiences these children have had in Russia so far, either.

Not violating international law by kidnapping and grooming preteens into becoming russified Z-stooges would be an awesome start

[Great Britain eke Northern Ireland]

Russia kidnapped orphaned Ukrainians with the intention of committing cultural genocide upon the Ukrainian nation by raising those orphans as Russians. It’s no different to the supposedly ‘civilising’ boarding schools that First Nation children in Canada and the United States, and Aboriginal children in Australia, were sent to. They’re both driven with the same intent and beliefs - that the children come from ‘savage/primitive’ cultures and need to be ‘civilised’.

[Primitive Communism]

What I would like to know, though, is where should the children go?

With their parents to other countries in Europe or refugee shelters in western Ukraine? The "alien experience" of being in a foreign land will be less alienating with their parents acting as support.

If they are orphaned, then send them to orphanges west of Ukraine, far away from the frontline. Then the state raises them until adoption or reaching the age of majority.

Reuniting them with their families outside Ukraine is certainly the best option. But for orphanages or relatives in Western Ukraine that just brings up the previous point: Russia intends to move the front line. Will they get all the way to the Polish border? Doubtful, and I'm not certain they even want to anymore, but Russian missiles can still land in Lviv. As long as they're still in Ukraine they're still at risk. Is that really worth it?

I have a question which I promise is in good faith:

There is a common objection to the relocation of Ukrainian children in occupied territories to Russia, which is often called "kidnapping" and "genocide" - an understandable perspective. What I would like to know, though, is where should the children go? They should stay in their homes which are likely reduced to rubble and probably without no electricity or plumbing or maybe even food, close to the front line and thus in the line of fire for stray munitions? Should they be sent to the Ukrainian side where they could potentially end up in cities that Russia intends to conquer or attack, thereby putting them at risk again anyway? Should they be sent to foreign lands with alien environments and unknown cultures to be subject to uncertain conditions? If sending them to Russia is the "wrong" answer, then what is the right one? This is a genuine question; not a defense of Russia's acts. I've seen the act condemned a multitude of times but not once have I seen an alternative be proposed, and I personally do not find it agreeable to keep them in an active warzone and thereby oppose the status quo. I admit I'm not familiar with the experiences these children have had in Russia so far, either.

Not violating international law by kidnapping and grooming preteens into becoming russified Z-stooges would be an awesome start

That you have no answer tells me you didn't consider the question at all.

[Primitive Communism]

Russia kidnapped orphaned Ukrainians with the intention of committing cultural genocide upon the Ukrainian nation by raising those orphans as Russians. It’s no different to the supposedly ‘civilising’ boarding schools that First Nation children in Canada and the United States, and Aboriginal children in Australia, were sent to. They’re both driven with the same intent and beliefs - that the children come from ‘savage/primitive’ cultures and need to be ‘civilised’.

I am not disagreeing, but I would like to see evidence for the claim that they are trying to Russify the children. I've heard the claim often but never seen it substantiated. Not that it isn't believable of course, just that I'd like to see weight behind the claim.