Ukraine, full scale invasion ?

But how many of his own countrymen and others will he take with him?

Diseasel wrote:

They say Putler's strategy is to hold out for winter as the EU will crumble with a shortage of nat gas to keep warm. Hopefully he loses power before.

Well that didn't happen.

TheQuig wrote:

Everything we guessed/thought  Putin would do turned out to not work:

When he loses a lot of troops, he will pull out

Or this.

TheQuig wrote:

Putin does not care about his own people let alone Ukraine.

This IS true

TheQuig wrote:

He will continue to throw his troops as cannon fodder.

By all accounts most definetly happening.

Even as a proxy war the Ukrainians appear to be united in keeping their independence from Russia.
More so than the middle east countries we tried to "help".

TheQuig wrote:

Eventually it is a war of attrition which Ukraine will run out of soldiers.

I hope I am wrong, but this war will go on forever. The EU will cave once they can't cook or warm their homes in winter.

Valid concerns still.

Diesel Dan wrote:

Diseasel wrote:

They say Putler's strategy is to hold out for winter as the EU will crumble with a shortage of nat gas to keep warm. Hopefully he loses power before.

Well that didn't happen.

So much for my military analyst career.

Post mortem - sounds like the EU got lucky with warmer weather this time. They say the Ukraine spring offensive should put the hurt on Russia. Gotta hope so with all the US monies spent. Maybe the only hope for an end is Putler's overthrow or a drop-off in the West's provided weapons, resources, and spending.

Just about every single thing we were led to believe about big bad Russia these past 60plus years had been horseshit. Have to wonder now just how viable their nuclear arsenal actually is. None of their other weapon systems have proved to be anything other than 3rd world crap at best. And their soldiers have zero stomach for any fight other than protecting their own homeland. Even then, it took an epic winter and millions of fresh bodies to turn back Hitler.

pup wrote:

Have to wonder now just how viable their nuclear arsenal actually is. None of their other weapon systems have proved to be anything other than 3rd world crap at best.

Unfortunately, they don't have to be accurate at all.
All it will take is just one or two detonations, like what we did in WWII.

Short of a bad launch taking out Moscow or hitting China they can claim where ever it hit as the target. Aim for DC but hit a corn field in Iowa, no problem. It was just a warning shot.

IF the news is half way correct things could be getting interesting, not in a good way either.
Wagner military coup in the making?

Russia needs the Wagner Group. The way it looks, there is a major split between Wagner and the Russian Brass. This could only go bad for Russia. It appears any success that Russia only does well in this war is when Wagner does well. This split will be the death of any success Russia was hoping for.

Sounds like Yevgeny Prigozhin is off to Belarus and his mercs are going to be rolled into the regular russian army. Wonder how that will work for the non-russian fighters he recruited? Probably going to be some animosity towards the former Wagner fighters too.

I believe the Russian army is afraid of the Wagner group. I wonder how many of the Wagner Group will stay on to fight? Those that stay with Russia have to sign a contract.

How many russian commanders will want former wagners in their ranks???

I agree. If they went against them once, they can't be trusted. The Wagner group are well trained while the Russian soldiers hardly have any training. A divided army can't conquer.

Approaching day 600 and one can only wonder what the history books will show of actual losses incurred.

Billions from the US mainly. 10% going to The Big Guy

The US and a lesser extend the Europeans are still funding and propping up the Ukrainian military and economy. But I say its well worth it. We send over old equipment and they use it to take out Russia. Its a bargain for us if you think about it. WE count it a billions but most of it was just sitting collecting dust and storage cost.

Its just sad that so many people on both sides have the needlessly die. And now the Hamas and Israeli war is going to cause even more unnedded death.

My brothers son-in-law who is a state trooper and Marine Reserve with an artillery unit sent their Cannons to the Ukraine. He said the artillery equipment was worn out.