The story of an elite Russian unit's war in Ukraine
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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Absolutely tragic.
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What proportion of the Russian army is meant to be in Ukraine now?
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That Bucha clip is horrific.
I think in one of Elena Kostyuchenko’s texts there was a scene from Belarus with a Russian soldier coming to a pawnshop with a bunch of golden teeth, chainlets etc. (which ended up into him beating the shit out of the owner and, eventually, getting rescued from the police by his superiors). Not sure if her texts were translated to English yet, she’s a correspondent from Novaya Gazeta that spent the past month in Ukraine, visiting Mariupol, Kherson, Odessa among other cities. Horrendous stuff. Novaya Gazeta was eventually shut down because of her texts even though they’ve lasted longer than literally any other independent Russian media that haven’t relocated abroad.
Golden teeth? FFS
About 75% of its active force.
What Russia did to their airborne units is criminal (not literally, but morally).
That's insanely high for a country of their size.
I’m not sure about that number although it depends on the definition of active force. Russian army has around 1,8 million personnel, around 1 million of them are military — the rest are administrative etc. Around 260 thousands out of that 1 million are conscripts (2 call ups by roughly 130 thousands). Which leaves around 740k? There are certainly less than 75% of that in Ukraine. Although I’m not a military expert at all, but I believe that the 75% number was based on the original estimate of the potential forces that could’ve been used in the conflict.
You have to also include Rosgvardia (National Guard) — a militarized police force that is also used in Ukraine even though they’re not part of the army (army answers to Ministry of Defense, Rosgvardia answers to Ministry of Internal Affairs). I’m not sure if their numbers in Ukraine were published but overall there’s around 340 thousands of them.
Anyway, it does look like Russia doesn’t have a lot of reserves that they can realistically add to their offensive.
If you look at it based on the Russian Army’s order of battle, elements (in part or in whole) of the following field armies have been committed to Ukraine…
1st Guards Tank Army
2nd Guards Combined Arms Army
5th Combined Arms Army
6th Combined Arms Army
8th Guards Combined Arms Army
20th Guards Combined Arms Army
29th Combined Arms Army
35th Combined Arms Army
36th Combined Arms Army
41st Combined Arms Army
49th Combined Arms Army
58th Combined Arms Army
11th Army Corps
14th Army Corps
This means the Russian Army has pulled combat units from 14 of their 16 total field armies for the invasion.
If people want Ukraine to be held by those standards and be judged for their share of war crimes, then why now of all places? Why did no one even bother going after the Viet-Cong, the Mujahideen and the Taliban? They won their wars for their own existence and yet probably did their share of war crimes, but no one went after them publicly.
I'm speaking out my ass a bit here, but given that they pulled units from as far as the Far East district, I think they probably committed well over 75% of what they have available of professional units for offensive action. Meaning that if Putin asked his military to launch an offensive campaign anywhere else right now they'd probably just have to laugh at him.
Modern militaries just aren't that big, not when compared to the giant WW2 armies that were a result of commiting over 50% of GDP towards the war on the part of most belligerents. Even the US Army only has 11 divisions today compared to the 91 that were raised during WW2.
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I really hope they have correctly followed the Geneva Convention protocols in poisoning occupiers.
Are there any new noticeable movements in the last days? Is Mariupol still resisting? Is the UA pushing through the east yet?
My previous post was wrong. It is 75% of the active ground forces that are belived to be deployed, not all forces. I don't think the Rosgvardia is included in that as they are seen more as an domestic force, at least they where befor this war.
Bye bye, it’s symbolic for us to start this irreversible trend. We’ve been the first ones to break away from Soviet occupation and later others have followed, hopefully, it will lead to the same sort of effect here too.Tweet
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This has been one of the bleakest days in the war so far seeing what has happened in Bucha, and then learning that Russia has kidnapped and forced a false confession out of the pregnant survivor from the Mariupol hospital, Marianna. Some genuinely disgusting and upsetting scenes.
You shouldn’t put dead bodies on front of newspapers all too often, but this is one of those times when the world needs it right in front of them. feck those bastards. feck them.
I would have to agree with you. Russia is incapable right now of fighting on another offensive front against any sizeable / decently trained enemy’s military. And honestly, they really don’t have enough professional soldiers to perform this current invasion, as they’re having to use large amounts of conscripts as it is.
Armies have definitely trimmed down from what they used to be… the key factor being technologies serving as force multipliers, especially in NATO forces, allowing smaller units in the chain of command having firepower/fighting power equal to older larger formations.
I understand you are Lithuanian than? Makes me proud to have helped you people with that transition away from Russian dependency
I’m sure they had the Geneva approved recipe book open for reference as they baked them.
Here’s the updated war map for today…
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I don't know what the "narrative" is. But again, things are quite simple. Who wins in a war? The one who kills the most enemies. There are exceptions, but that's the general rule, isn't it?
Once again I recommend the daily videos from this guy, complete with detailed and very up-to-date maps. He appears to be ex-military, doesn't waffle and quickly condenses a lot information. Each new report comes out very late evening UK time.
You worked on infrastructure/LNG?I understand you are Lithuanian than? Makes me proud to have helped you people with that transition away from Russian dependency
Agree. Actually, despite AFP reporting it and the mayor himself confirming it, the Bucha news still hasn't made it to the MSM in here. When I search for the keywords "mass grave Bucha" on Twitter the only verified TV that shows up mentioning it are Aljazeera and some other non-western media ().
In Portugal, during the New State era, the consensus was that the majority of people supported the government and even the wars in Africa. In the elections, the government party won elections with numbers similar to Putin. Official media told everyone how happy the people were.
But if you talk to the people who lived it, if you read underground publications and portuguese authors from that period, it becomes clear the majority of people were simply afraid of speaking up because Portugal is a small country and no one outside cared about what happened to the common citizen sent to prison or labor camps in Angola.
I'm always very hesitant to paint with a wide brush the population of countries where freedom doesn't exist and conclude people support the tyrant. I dated a russian girl many winters ago and she (and her friends) hated Putin and the situation in Russia. One day I saw her post some celebration bs about Putin's party related with her university. When I asked her why the feck was she doing it, she told me the people from her college would see who didn't post it and ask them why. So from an outside perspective, yeah the students supported it, but it was fear, not support.
We don't have reliable numbers, so I don't buy this "majority support him" talk.
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It's getting tedius.
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