Russia’s military is incompetent.

Russian troops haven’t demonstrated basic combined arms proficiency — the ability to coordinate between air power, land power and long-range firing — have failed to control the skies, evidently lack stockpiles of precision-guided munitions and are even communicating on open phone lines. They’re looting food and other supplies. It’s possible they have experienced more combat deaths in two weeks than the United States did in the entirety of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.

www.washingtonpost.com...

I think I'm not the only one surprised here. For my whole life I thought that Russias military was on par with NATO, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Can you imagine sending your boys out to war with food rations that are 15 years expired? Or missiles with a 50% failure rate?
NATO and U.S forces are obviously more coordinated. The Russians have exposed themselves as being a paper tiger here. They're in over their heads. In UKRAINE. Jeez Louis I bet Finland could give this rag-tag force of teenagers a run for their money. And with the mud season upon us one can only imagine what the Ukrainians will do against the retreating mob that calls themselves an army.
Is anyone else surprised at how inept Putins army is?
We all know that those convoys would be easy pickings if NATO decided to A-10 their sorry asses back to the motherland.
I'm shocked.

a reply to: radaghast5

I totally agree... I’m shocked at how badly they’ve preformed in conventual warfare.

Problem is though, they have nukes and lots of them... and we have no way of knowing how prepared they are to use them.

What can you expect when they resort to prostituting their own recruits to make more money. That's not good for morale.

Oh, if the WaPo says so it must be true...

I don’t think it is a matter of incompetence.

They were undertrained and their leaders were over confident.

Remember. Many of the first wave that Russia sent were conscripts with very little training who thought they were only there to receive more training. Not invade a country.

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: radaghast5

I totally agree... I’m shocked at how badly they’ve preformed in conventual warfare.

Problem is though, they have nukes and lots of them... and we have no way of knowing how prepared they are to use them.

Putin can point his nuclear pistol at our heads and threaten nuclear war. He already has. That's another reason why he's a loathsome piece of human garbage. But we won't be threatened. He can go to Hell. I'm not afraid of a dictator, and neither should you be.

It has been perplexing.. our mutual previous impression and all.

I began thinking that Putin was trying to be as "humane" to the Ukrainians. " Hey guys, chill I am here to liberate you from the Nazis".

Then, I evolved to . It's to not show the enemy how good you are, sun tzu...

evolved to; He is saving the real troops out of some fear of something of a trap by the euro/us..

Evolved to; he is trying to lure AZOV to cross Russia..

Evolved back to it's all a lie.. Russia is a nailing it , winning like charlie sheen.

Or.. my BIGGEST CONCERN...it's all a diversion ATTEMPT... the real Russian military is somewhere ELSE...and China is about to take Taiwan ..then the Russians invade europe and Canada from the center/north...

a reply to: IctorSniff

Yeah, to be fair they didn't have any experience from fighting against an equal opponent. Syria and Chechnya aren't really comparable. We'll see if they can learn from their mistakes, supposedly they have a new guy in charge now.

originally posted by: MindBodySpiritComplex
Oh, if the WaPo says so it must be true...

Well look, it does seem like Russia hasn't had much success near Kyiv. There's a ton of drone footage of Russian forces getting picked off by Ukrainian fighters on their retreat into eastern Ukraine.

Their logistical failures are beginning to show themselves. They are fighting like a Mongolian horde rather than a 21st century military.

The Russians haven't achieved air supremacy, they have not been able to take Kyiv despite having a numerically superior force, they have not met their goals in the east and are fighting like hell to cut off Ukraine from the Black Sea.

Russian tactics are garbage and have resulted in nearly 20000 Russian deaths and God only knows how many wounded.

originally posted by: radaghast5

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: radaghast5

I totally agree... I’m shocked at how badly they’ve preformed in conventual warfare.

Problem is though, they have nukes and lots of them... and we have no way of knowing how prepared they are to use them.

I'm not afraid of a dictator, and neither should you be.

Oh, I’m not afraid... far from it.

Just pointing out that the whole nukes angle is the only hand Putin’s got, if he goes so far to take on the US, Europe and their allies.

we assumed that the russians kept the military in good position because the soviet union did, we didnt up date our thinking.

When the wall fell, and corruption and the mob came in rising to the top, once that first guy funneled off money and didnt get punished how many more did it.

yea officially they were upgrading their military, and training the troops, but I never heard much about exercises they accomplished.

If the training and supply budget was being laundered it would explain why a decent chunk of their military appears to be terrible.

*shrugs* I dont know and we will probably never know the truth.

From the article:

Russia’s plans to conquer Kyiv quickly were delusionally optimistic

From the Speech of the Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy:

Initially, we did not plan to storm them [Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and Nikolaev] in order to prevent destruction and minimize losses among personnel and civilians.

not that Russia hasn't performed like crap, but it's just as much who, why, and how the Ukrainians are fighting.

Pretty sure NATO intelligence has been invaluable as well as the arms shipments and financial aid. Throw in Russian soldiers reluctance to shoot Ukrainian brothers

On top of everything, this man's theorizing still fits, Putin thought he had enough Ukrainians bought off. So far I've found nothing anywhere that discredits this theory. Corruption which Russia and eastern Europe are full of, If you haven't read the full story is worth a read to just ponder the possibilities.

If this happened then no wonder they have been struggling so much since the invasion began.

www.thelowdownblog.com...

It is well known that Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB 5th-Branch (Ukraine portfolio), has been arrested, along with his deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh. (The FSB is basically the former KGB.) (Beseda is a very high-ranking spy, his rank the equivalent of a U.S. 4-star general, Bolyukh a 3-star.)

It is also known that Beseda and Bolyukh were arrested for something that at first glance seems rather strange--embezzlement from the state

Vladimir Putin has been placing billions of dollars into the 5th-Branch budget for the express and sole purpose of bribing Ukrainian officials, that is, military officers, Ukrainian secret service officers, Ukrainian internal security officers, and politicians. After Yanukovych was ejected in 2014, Putin got serious about bringing Ukraine back into the fold

Sergey Beseda and Anatoly Bolyukh have been embezzling every dime of the bribe budget--literally billions of dollars

Putin was depending on--actually counting on--all these bribes having been paid. Because during the meeting, Putin discounted any resistance from Ukraine, saying all he had to do was kick on the door and the whole country would fall--in two days--because for years the FSB 5th-Branch had been doing such a good job at bribing Ukrainians.

originally posted by: turretless
From the article:

Russia’s plans to conquer Kyiv quickly were delusionally optimistic

From the Speech of the Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy:

Initially, we did not plan to storm them [Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and Nikolaev] in order to prevent destruction and minimize losses among personnel and civilians.

Just read that. Can't stop laughing. The laughter began here.

With the beginning of a special military operation, air supremacy was won during the first two days.

It reads like a script for a comedy satire.

a reply to: radaghast5

What is russias plan, that is militarily in Ukraine?

What are they after, endgame?

a reply to: alldaylong

It reads like a script for a comedy satire.

Carry On in the Donbas.

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: alldaylong

It reads like a script for a comedy satire.

Carry On in the Donbas.

Nice one mate.



My contribution " Carry On Retreating "

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: radaghast5

I totally agree... I’m shocked at how badly they’ve preformed in conventual warfare.

Problem is though, they have nukes and lots of them... and we have no way of knowing how prepared they are to use them.

Yes, but if the nukes also have a 50% failure rate because of the same shoddy workmanship and/or maintenance, they might not be too keen to threaten to use them.

Mission Accomplished... the FAKE NEWS MEDIA has reported and most have bought it. i rather would believe the obvious.. they must not WANT to destroy the entire county of Ukraine? why? Maybe they really are just going after certain targets?... watch something else besides CNNMSNBCABC and you may get a bit more of the truth than you bargained for.

originally posted by: daboxfan
Mission Accomplished... the FAKE NEWS MEDIA has reported and most have bought it. i rather would believe the obvious.. they must not WANT to destroy the entire county of Ukraine? why? Maybe they really are just going after certain targets?... watch something else besides CNNMSNBCABC and you may get a bit more of the truth than you bargained for.

watch something else besides CNNMSNBCABC

And THAT, folks, is the "knee-jerk reaction post we've all gotten accustomed to.
There are so many different sources of media in Ukraine that it's pretty much block-chained. Thousands of reporters are documenting the Russian atrocity and epic failure. The "Fake News" retort is old, tiresome, and blatantly devoid of the elements of debate.
Just curious, Where do you get your information from exactly? ?