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What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

reuters.com

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Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#441

Post by rr808 »

ProjectArcturis wrote: post #190
rr808 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my thought too. They have the luxury if just sitting there waiting safely for the right time while the capital self implodes. Western press talks a lot about it, meanwhile in the South the war is going badly.

Sources? I'm trying to diversify media and would love anything that doesn't filter through a pro- or anti-Russia lens. So far Al Jazeera is the best I've found.

https://t.me/s/MedvedevVesti https://t.me/s/epoddubny https://t.me/s/sashakots have propaganda and opinion but some worth reading. You'll have to get browser to auto translate.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#442

Post by JumpCrisscross »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #420
saiya-jin wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its easy - imagine massive, gargantuan corruption. On all levels, including the very top and going all the way to the lowest soldier. Heck, they were selling gas to Belarus civilians from their own machines while waiting just across the border during February. And then they ran out of it in Ukraine. Can you imagine US or western Europe soldiers doing something similar en masse? And its not just that - heavy drinking,…

>I think its actually very dangerous for Russia as a state right now. Showing this much weakness might motivate some neighbors. Especially China, they could run through the country all the way to Barents sea without breaking a sweat. To which I say: Russia has ~half of the world's nuclear arsenal. (The US has ~half, the rest of the nuclear states are mere footnotes by # of nukes, relying on the fact that no one reall…

> Russia has ~half of the world's nuclear arsenal

If this is the state of their conventional military, it raises questions about the state of their nuclear deterrent.

In any case, if China wanted Siberian resources, fomenting a breakaway region would be cleaner than invading.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#443

Post by mensetmanusman »

killjoywashere wrote: post #426
kspacewalk2 wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was, however, nothing close to the levels of support Ukraine is getting. And those insurgencies faced a vastly superior US armed forces.

Those American forces also had vastly longer supply lines to sustain. What the Russians lack in financing and capability, the make up a lot with proximate borders, time zones, etc.

It’s interesting because the U.S. has an order of magnitude more military funding and was trying to secure a supply line an order of magnitude longer. I wonder if this ratio makes it approximately as difficult?

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#444

Post by ashwagary »

raducu wrote: post #362
jl6 wrote: post #261

I guess everyone's weighing in with their view, so why not? Firstly, we should be mindful that the fog of war is now in play, and a good amount of what we think we know is unverifiable. With that caveat out of the way... It seems that the Russian soldiers are making efforts to avoid attacking civilians directly. Counterexamples exist and could be explained by rogue units, incompetence, or hot-blooded revenge on local…

Let's face it, Russian airforce, russian army and russian equipment suck, but are good enough in this situation. The Emperor Putler has no clothes.

I've seen reports that Russia's only deployed 5-10% of their forces. This might be a slow steady escalation to allow evacuations of civilians and test the endurance of battalion forces.

Any victories for Ukrainian forces may be short lived, as Russia seems to be using this opportunity to guage hot and cold zones.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#445

Post by jnwatson »

lmohseni wrote: post #309
ChildOfChaos wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean all I see when I look online is Russia attacking Civilians and not caring who they attack. Yes there is a degree of restraint because they are trying to take the country over, they cannot burn it to the ground, but they don’t really seem to care about civilians and keep committing war crimes, just now they directly bombed near a hotel and train station, people trying to flee the country. Saying they are ‘pro-c…

We have footage of cluster bombs striking civilian apartment buildings in Kharkiv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuKEwuZznw

It is important to distinguish between strategic and tactical decisions.

Russia has made a strategic decision to avoid heavy bombers due to the high likelihood of civilian casualties.

Some platoon commander launched a rocket barrage for whatever reason. Command discipline isn’t perfect, especially among new recruits, so individual deviations are to be expected.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#446

Post by csee »

tguvot wrote: post #404
csee wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, suppose that Putin does capture all of eastern Ukraine. How does he plan to announce it to the population? "Surprise! it wasn't actually just LNR/DNS!"?

"They overthrew their nazi juna and surrendered". The official propoganda states that ukranian army doesn't fight, only nazi batallions. also nazi's execute ukranian military personal that refuses to fight. there is an article about this on ria Also this was published on 26th and purged https://web.archive.org/web/20220226224717/https://ria.ru/20...

Do you think Putin wants to find a negotiated solution right now, or he's still all-in on the outcome?

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#447

Post by jihadjihad »

csense wrote: post #407
jl6 wrote: post #261

I guess everyone's weighing in with their view, so why not? Firstly, we should be mindful that the fog of war is now in play, and a good amount of what we think we know is unverifiable. With that caveat out of the way... It seems that the Russian soldiers are making efforts to avoid attacking civilians directly. Counterexamples exist and could be explained by rogue units, incompetence, or hot-blooded revenge on local…

Don't forget about option (d), try to kill everyone in Ukraine. Less than 100 years have passed since Stalin attempted exactly that, by killing all the farmers and selling all the food.

It's hard to know what that would serve to accomplish, considering it contradicts Putin's entire ethos for invading in the first place: he fundamentally views Ukrainians as culturally Russian, and wants to bring them back "into the fold." His entire rhetoric is adamant about that--it's why he uses words like genocide when talking about eastern Ukraine. I can't see how (d), which in effect would be genocide, would do anything but erode any possibility of support for the war effort, considering the family ties to Ukraine held by Russian nationals.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#448

Post by burntoutfire »

michael1999 wrote: post #269

I'd be worried that any un-married fighter pilots might just defect. A quick run to Poland, and you're done.

The Ukrainians borders are closed for all men in fighting age (18-60). They're forced to stay in the country.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#449

Post by kspacewalk2 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #442
kspacewalk2 wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think its actually very dangerous for Russia as a state right now. Showing this much weakness might motivate some neighbors. Especially China, they could run through the country all the way to Barents sea without breaking a sweat. To which I say: Russia has ~half of the world's nuclear arsenal. (The US has ~half, the rest of the nuclear states are mere footnotes by # of nukes, relying on the fact that no one reall…

> Russia has ~half of the world's nuclear arsenal If this is the state of their conventional military, it raises questions about the state of their nuclear deterrent. In any case, if China wanted Siberian resources, fomenting a breakaway region would be cleaner than invading.

>If this is the state of their conventional military, it raises questions about the state of their nuclear deterrent.

A scary fucking thought. i.e. some of them will stay in silos, but others will be partially airworthy.

>In any case, if China wanted Siberian resources, fomenting a breakaway region would be cleaner than invading.

This would result in a nuclear exchange.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#450

Post by MisterBastahrd »

kettro wrote: post #413
throwawayay02 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are counter claims that that building was being used for recruitment for the Azov battalion.

The Azov Battalion is the cause of everything, it seems. They're recruiting everywhere, I'm surprised it itself isn't the whole of the Ukrainian defenses now, if I believed all of the Russian shills. /s/Azov Battalion/Ukrainian National Guard/

Yeah, they have around 2500 members, but that's totally a reason to lose 2000 people a day in an unprovoked invasion and tank your entire country's economy while doing it.

Would be nice if Europe and the US would seize Putin and associates' accounts and donate them to Ukraine.

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