Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

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Avid
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Avid »

https://hurseda.net/gundem/246987-iddia ... plari.html
(requires translation from Turkish to English)
Allegedly, the field data of January 14, 2023, based on Israeli intelligence, is listed as follows:

RUSSIA:
Russian losses in the field with 418 thousand soldiers (plus 3,500,000 reservists) and a growing number of Wagner mercenaries :
23 Planes
56 Helicopters
200 (S)İHA / Armed UAV
889 Tanks and armored vehicles
427 Howitzer (Artillery systems)
12 Air defense system
18,480 dead
44,500 Injured
323 Captive

UKRAINE:
The losses of 734 thousand soldiers (plus 100 thousand reservists) and NATO officers, soldiers and mercenaries in the field of Ukraine are as follows:
302 Aircraft
212 Helicopters
2,750 (S)İHA / Armed UAV
6,320 Tanks and armored vehicles
7,360 Howitzer (Artillery systems)
497 Air defense system
157,000 Dead
234,000 injured
17,230 Captive
234 Dead – NATO military trainers (US and UK)
2,458 Dead – NATO soldiers (Germany, Poland, Lithuania, ...)
5,360 Dead – Mercenaries
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by gakakkad »

^ numbers are not implausible. However I question the source. Why would Mossad devote field agents to the cause ? they have otger fish to fry. I also wonder if the NATO casualties were under NATO flag or mercs. Also Russia FW aircraft losses are understated ..official russian sources admit higher loss IIRC.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by NRao »

gakakkad wrote:^ numbers are not implausible. However I question the source. Why would Mossad devote field agents to the cause ? they have otger fish to fry. I also wonder if the NATO casualties were under NATO flag or mercs. Also Russia FW aircraft losses are understated ..official russian sources admit higher loss IIRC.
All nations that want a seat at the high table, will have assets analyzing this once-in-a-lifetime conflict. And, for that, they need their own data.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Avid »

gakakkad wrote:^ numbers are not implausible. However I question the source. Why would Mossad devote field agents to the cause ? they have otger fish to fry. I also wonder if the NATO casualties were under NATO flag or mercs. Also Russia FW aircraft losses are understated ..official russian sources admit higher loss IIRC.
Every country is gathering and analyzing information.
This will inform everything from war strategies, operations and planning (short high intensity wars assumption is out the window).
Same reason as to why on BR, we are interested in the tactics and strategy -- but with a lot more at stake.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by sohamn »

The Fighter plane and helicopter numbers for Russia are inaccurate. Even the official count and open source intelligence counts are much higher.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Roop »

NRao wrote:All nations that want a seat at the high table, will have assets analyzing this once-in-a-lifetime conflict. And, for that, they need their own data.
That's right, and I certainly hope India has her spies on the job in Ukraine.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by chetak »

“We are again threatened by German tanks and they are again going to fight with Russia on the land of Ukraine by Banderites.

We will not send our tanks to their borders, but we have something to respond them with."


~ Russian President, Vladimir Putin
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by fanne »

counterview - why ukrain maybe winning -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9HJDC3I_Qg
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by NRao »

Wagner Assault Units BREAKTHROUGH North of Bakhmut

history legends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOL0EDC6q7U
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by drnayar »

chetak wrote:
“We are again threatened by German tanks and they are again going to fight with Russia on the land of Ukraine by Banderites.

We will not send our tanks to their borders, but we have something to respond them with."


~ Russian President, Vladimir Putin
Interesting , is he referring to a weapon ? or "gas" :mrgreen:
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

Seymore NYT journalist in his investigation has claimed that explosives on Nord was planted by US & charge activated by Norway, full story https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how ... ord-stream
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Avid »

IndraD wrote:Seymore NYT journalist in his investigation has claimed that explosives on Nord was planted by US & charge activated by Norway, full story https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how ... ord-stream
I recall articles about USN P8 flying over the pipeline hours after the explosion.

Wonder if there is any database where the flight path of the Norwegian P8 can be tracked? The one that he says dropped the sonar buoy.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Cyrano »

Yes, some telegram channels had posted such flight patterns from "flightradar.com" etc - it will re-emerge on telegram or twitter very soon now.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Avid »

Image
From: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 022-10-07/

That's of the USN P8 that flew a few hours after.

If you become aware of anyone posting the flight path of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) P8 on Sept 26 -- please do share.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Cyrano »

We posted battlefield analyses of serving Austrian Col Markus Reisner here many times before.

Now watch this:
https://t.me/infodefENGLAND/3351
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

US bombed Nord Stream gas pipelines, claims investigative journalist Seymour Hersh

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-b ... -s730dnnfz
The bombing of the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea was a covert operation ordered by the White House and carried out by the CIA, a report by a veteran investigative journalist claims.
Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, has claimed that US deep-sea divers, using a Nato military exercise as a cover, planted mines along the pipelines that were later detonated remotely.
In September, a series of powerful explosions destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that run through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany and provide cheap gas to mainland Europe. The attack was soon revealed to have been a deliberate act but no culprit has yet been identified.

Hersh, 85, who broke stories such as the mass murder of 500 civilians at My Lai in Vietnam and the torture of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, says that the “Black Op” was ordered by President Biden, and that the attack was carried out by the CIA in co-operation with Norway.
In a 5,000-word report published on the online publishing platform Substack, Hersh writes that the operation was disguised “under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as Baltic Operations 22 or BALTOPS 22”, which was conducted in June off the coast of Germany.
He says that Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of top-secret planning within the American national security community. “For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible,” Hersh has written.

Once hailed “the greatest American investigative reporter”, Hersh’s more recent stories have been called into question. These included articles about how the US found Osama bin Laden and calling into question the use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians by Syria’s regime, which were criticised for relying heavily on anonymous sources and lacking hard evidence.
In his report on Nord Stream, Hersh has quoted an anonymous source “with direct knowledge of the operational planning”. He said that deep-sea divers from the US Navy’s Diving and Salvage Centre in Panama City, Florida, the largest diving facility in the world, planted C4 explosives alongside the pipeline, which were later triggered by a sonar buoy dropped by a plane.
Hersh has claimed that on September 26, 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane made “a seemingly routine flight” and released the sonar buoy. “The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1,” he wrote. “A few hours later, the high-powered C4 explosives were triggered and three of the four pipelines were put out of commission. Within a few minutes, pools of methane gas that remained in the shuttered pipelines could be seen spreading on the water’s surface and the world learned that something irreversible had taken place.”

Nord Stream is run by a Swiss-based company whose major shareholder is Gazprom, the Russian energy giant. Russia has spent about $20 billion building the pipelines. Nord Stream 2, which was completed in 2021, was not yet operational at the time of the sabotage.
Hersh notes that Biden and his foreign policy team, which includes his national security adviser Jake Sullivan, his secretary of state Antony Blinken and under secretary of state for political affairs Victoria Nuland, had spoken out against Nord Stream 2, which would have yoked Europe to Russian gas for decades. It would also have increased the Kremlin’s political influence over the continent at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and the West and significantly boosted revenue for Russia. Nord Stream 2, alone, would have doubled gas supply already provided by Nord Stream 1.
In February 2022, just weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while discussing possible sanctions against Moscow, Biden warned: “If Russia invades (. . .) there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Hersh’s anonymous source says that, because of the president’s threat, destroying the pipeline “no longer could be considered a covert option because the president just announced that we knew how to do it”.
“The plan to blow up Nord Stream 1 and 2 was suddenly downgraded from a covert operation requiring that Congress be informed to one that was deemed as a highly classified intelligence operation with US military support,” Hersh has written. According to Hersh’s source, “there was no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress. All they had to do now was just do it”.
Hersh’s report comes after Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, alleged last week that the attack had been carried out by Washington in an attempt to ensure its global dominance. Moscow had previously accused the British Royal Navy of blowing up the pipelines but did not provide evidence.
Last week, The Times revealed that German investigators remained open to theories that a western state carried out the bombing with the aim of blaming it on Russia. The explosions are also being investigated by Denmark and Sweden.
Some western officials initially suspected the Kremlin although they stopped short of formally accusing Moscow. However, 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine different western countries told the Washington Post recently that they had yet to see evidence linking Russia to the attack, with some saying they did not believe Russia was to blame. President Putin’s spokesman said allegations that Russia would cripple its own pipelines were “stupid and absurd”.
After the attack, Washington rejected allegations that the US was involved. “The idea that the United States was in any way involved in the apparent sabotage of these pipelines is preposterous. It is nothing more than a function of Russian disinformation and should be treated as such,” the US State Department said.
Adrienne Watson, a US National Security Council spokesperson, said: “This is utterly false and complete fiction.”
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

that times UK has published it means US wants the world to know, what are chances US deliberately got it released at a time when Ukr is getting thrashed badly
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by nandakumar »

IndraD
It is very likely that it was a deliberate leak. But what faction of the US want it leaked and what do they hope to gain from it?
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Pratyush »

nandakumar wrote:IndraD
It is very likely that it was a deliberate leak. But what faction of the US want it leaked and what do they hope to gain from it?
The Americans have been trying to sever any economic ties between Russians and Europeans for a long time.

This act of sabotage coupled with the Ukrainian war means that they have actually accomplished it.

A dependent on US energy Europe is easier to de-industralise. Especially when Germany is broken off from cheap Russian energy.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by nandakumar »

Pratyush
The US could have achieved all that without quite saying we did it. So why say it?
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Pratyush »

Hubris.

And tell the Europeans that you don't have any balls to question what we will do. Fall in line.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by YashG »

Avid wrote:https://hurseda.net/gundem/246987-iddia ... plari.html
(requires translation from Turkish to English)
Allegedly, the field data of January 14, 2023, based on Israeli intelligence, is listed as follows:

[
UKRAINE:
The losses of 734 thousand soldiers (plus 100 thousand reservists) and NATO officers, soldiers and mercenaries in the field of Ukraine are as follows:
302 Aircraft
212 Helicopters
2,750 (S)İHA / Armed UAV
6,320 Tanks and armored vehicles
7,360 Howitzer (Artillery systems)

234 Dead – NATO military trainers (US and UK)
2,458 Dead – NATO soldiers (Germany, Poland, Lithuania, ...)
5,360 Dead – Mercenaries
These numbers are ridiculous. Ukraine did not field world's 5th largest land force against Russia. 6300+ tanks and still more in the field is ridiculous. How does someone even come up with this.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

Vladimir Putin is about to make shock gains
Russia has stopped the bleeding and learned from its mistakes. We must be prepared for a nasty blow


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 ... ock-gains/
With Russia back on the offensive after significant Ukrainian combat successes around Kharkiv and Kherson in the second half of 2022, the past few weeks have been the bloodiest so far of an already bloody war, with both sides taking extraordinarily heavy casualties. Expect it to get worse.

Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov says Russia has mobilised “much more” than 300,000 troops, perhaps up to half a million, and these are pouring into Ukraine in preparation for what is expected to be a major offensive in the coming days and weeks. Although Kyiv has also been building up its forces and supplying them with modern equipment donated by the West, Putin has a much greater advantage in troop numbers than he did when he invaded a year ago. Despite repeated optimistic reports of Russia running low on artillery shells – a battle winner in this conflict – Putin’s war stocks are vast, and his factories have been working around the clock to churn out even more.

Under pressure towards the end of last year, Russia withdrew its forces to positions of strength, trading ground for time as it massed resources for a planned hammer blow while grinding down the Ukrainians in the east, softening them up for the assault to come. Much of this has been done by infantry attack, throwing away “expendable” troops in time-honoured Russian style. The Kremlin has at the same time been conserving artillery shells (though expending thousands each day around Bakhmut alone) and the armoured vehicles that are so essential for the fast-moving blitzkrieg Putin is planning.

Until now, the narrative in the West has been that Ukraine is comfortably winning this war, albeit while facing heavy bombardments on its major cities. The reality is more complex. The latest estimates suggest that each side may have taken upwards of 120,000 casualties already – hardly indicative of a triumph for Ukraine. And there may be worse to come: the truth is that recent promises of new combat equipment for Ukraine – especially longer range missiles, tanks and other armoured vehicles – are unlikely to be fulfilled in time to have an impact in this battle if Putin launches his offensive on the timetable Kyiv predicts.

With so many more men and resources at its disposal, Moscow will be able to sustain higher casualty rates. This is why Russia tends to do better in wars the longer they go on – it can bring more to bear over time. Even today, Putin does not fear high casualties: disproportionate numbers of his troops are recruited from distant provinces rather than cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg, where a stream of body bags could have some effect on what still remains rock solid support for him and his war.

Another concern is that, while Russian forces have performed abysmally – thwarted by low troop morale, inadequate numbers, badly maintained equipment, clumsy tactics, substandard battle discipline, poor logistics, the stiffest Ukrainian resistance and an unexpectedly united effort from the West – some Ukrainian reports from the front indicate the Russians have been learning hard lessons and making much needed improvements, at least at the level of battle tactics and discipline. The Russian army was bleeding before, but it appointed new commanders and – as in the Second World War – may be recovering from its earlier disasters.

We must therefore be prepared for significant Russian gains in the coming weeks. We need to be realistic about how bad things could be – otherwise the shock risks dislodging Western resolve. The opposite occurred last summer and autumn, as flagging support in parts of Europe and the US was galvanised by Ukrainian success.

It is essential that we not only maintain our combat supplies to Ukraine, but step it up even further and even faster. If Putin gains more ground, then Kyiv will need to counterattack more strongly, and will need more armoured vehicles, better air defences, longer-range missiles and vast quantities of artillery shells and ammunition. The only alternative is that President Zelensky is forced to come to terms, handing victory to Russia and defeat to Ukraine and Nato.
[behind paywall hence posted in full]
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Cyrano »

6,320 Tanks and armored vehicles means tanks, IFVs of all types, reinforced Humbles etc etc. Quite plausible.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Aditya_V »

And lets not forget, Not every thing, especially US sourced Soviet Union from around the world weaponry will not be Published, plus there will be covert support. A lot of facts will only come out after the war. In the cold war the CIA never published its support to Afghan Mujahaiden or supply of Stinger missiles.

Ukranian Artillery is being built up the 4th time, I suspect its Airforce is being built up many times, with Mi-8, Mi-17, Mig 29's being supplied from all kinds of sources including the ones US bought in 1995. Ukraine has suggested that F-16's supplied can take off from Poland , attack Russian positions and land back there which has been so far dismissed. I suspect a lot more Patriots, IRIS T and Thales radar will be kept in working order before multy million dollar F-16's are placed in Ukranian Airfields with their maintenance depots in Poland.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Pratyush »

Ukraine had close to 2000 tanks and 10000 APC of various discription at the start of the war.

Over the course of the last one year they have received nearly 800 tanks of USSR origin from eastern Europe and several thousand APC and armoured utility vehicles declared surplus from previous US and European involvement in the middle East.

Yet the Ukrainian general staff is asking for 300 tanks, 500 infantry combat vehicles and 500 arty pieces. In order to conduct operations. As disclosed in the Economist interview with the Ukrainian chief of general staff.

The losses taken by Ukraine from all indications are horrendous.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Deans »

Cyrano wrote:6,320 Tanks and armored vehicles means tanks, IFVs of all types, reinforced Humbles etc etc. Quite plausible.
Ukraine had the following armored vehicles.

Tanks: 1960 + captured 372 = 2332
BMP 1300 + captured 120 = 1420
APC 7000 + 650 from NATO = 7650

A loss of 6000 out of 11400 is plausible. Add to this whatever tanks and BMPs have been delivered by NATO to Ukraine so far.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Tanaji »

UK claims to be training Ukranian fighter pilots but has ruled out any transfers for now. The Sharad Pawar of UK had asked for 100 Typhoons to be transferred which the UK defence minister ruled out immediately….

I think a year down the line Ukraine will get planes. I suspect the war will be over by then.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Prem Kumar »

IndraD wrote:US bombed Nord Stream gas pipelines, claims investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
This is an act of war, no less. Imagine if some nation had done this to the US

The US has also opened itself up to retaliatory actions by saboteurs. Example: submarine cables, infrastructure etc. They cannot whine (like they did for the Chinese balloon), having been the provocateurs
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by NRao »

IndraD wrote:Seymore NYT journalist in his investigation has claimed that explosives on Nord was planted by US & charge activated by Norway, full story https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how ... ord-stream
This is most likely the voice of someone/group within the US Defense Department trying to contain the Neocons.

Look for attacks on Hersh.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

Soaring Death Toll Gives Grim Insight Into Russian Tactics
Moscow is sending poorly trained recruits, including convicts, to the front lines in eastern Ukraine to pave the way for more seasoned fighters, U.S. and allied officials say https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/us/p ... lties.html
WASHINGTON — The number of Russian troops killed and wounded in Ukraine is approaching 200,000, a stark symbol of just how badly President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion has gone, according to American and other Western officials.
While the officials caution that casualties are notoriously difficult to estimate, particularly because Moscow is believed to routinely undercount its war dead and injured, they say the slaughter from fighting in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and the town of Soledar has ballooned what was already a heavy toll.
With Moscow desperate for a major battlefield victory and viewing Bakhmut as the key to seizing the entire eastern Donbas area, the Russian military has sent poorly trained recruits and former convicts to the front lines, straight into the path of Ukrainian shelling and machine guns. The result, American officials say, has been hundreds of troops killed or injured a day.
Russia analysts say that the loss of life is unlikely to be a deterrent to Mr. Putin’s war aims. He has no political opposition at home and has framed the war as the kind of struggle the country faced in World War II, when more than 8 million Soviet troops died. U.S. officials have said that they believe that Mr. Putin can sustain hundreds of thousands of casualties in Ukraine, although higher numbers could cut into his political support.
Ukraine’s casualty figures are also difficult to ascertain, given Kyiv’s reluctance to disclose its own wartime losses. But in Bakhmut, hundreds of Ukrainian troops have been wounded and killed daily at times as well, officials said. Better trained infantry formations are kept in reserve to safeguard them, while lesser prepared troops, such as those in the territorial defense units, are kept on the front line and bear the brunt of shelling.
The last public Biden administration estimate of casualties came last November, when Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that more than 100,000 troops on each side had been killed and wounded since the war began. At the time, officials said privately that the numbers were closer to 120,000.
“I would say it’s significantly well over 100,000 now,” General Milley said at a news conference last month in Germany, adding that the Russian toll included “regular military, and also their mercenaries in the Wagner Group.”
At two meetings last month between senior military and defense officials from NATO and partner countries, officials said the fighting in the Donbas had turned into, as one of them put it, a meat grinder.
On Norwegian TV on Jan. 22, Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s defense chief, said estimates were that Russia had suffered 180,000 dead and wounded, while Ukraine had 100,000 killed or wounded in action along with 30,000 civilian deaths. General Kristoffersen, in an email to The New York Times through his spokesman, said that there is “much uncertainty regarding these numbers, as no one at the moment are able to give a good overview. They could be both lower or even higher.”
Senior U.S. officials said this week that they believe the number for Russia is closer to 200,000. That toll, in just 11 months, is eight times higher than American casualties in two decades of war in Afghanistan.
What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.
Learn more about our process.
The figures for Ukraine and Russia are estimates based on satellite imagery, communication intercepts, social media and on-the-ground media reports, as well as official reporting from both governments. Establishing precise numbers is extremely difficult, and estimates vary, even within the U.S. government.
A senior U.S. military official last month described the combat around Bakhmut as savage. The two sides exchanged several thousand rounds of artillery fire each day, while the Wagner private military company, which has been central to Russia’s efforts there, had essentially begun using recruited convicts as cannon fodder, the official told reporters. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details.
The convicts took the brunt of the Ukrainian response while the group’s more seasoned fighters moved in behind them to claim ground, the official said. Wagner has recruited some 50,000 troops to fight in Ukraine, according to senior American military and defense officials.
Thousands of the convicts have been killed, a loss of life that has shocked American officials, who say the strategic value of Bakhmut simply is not in line with the price Russia has paid.


In an interview on Tuesday, a senior Defense Department official pointed to myriad military supply and tactical problems to explain the Russian tactics. The Russian military is running low on critical supplies and replenishment, said Colin H. Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy. “They’re running low on artillery. They’re running low on standoff munitions, and they are substituting by sending convicts in human waves into places like Bakhmut and Soledar.”
The Russian military has been following the Wagner playbook and deliberately using the poorly trained troops to draw, and deplete, Ukrainian fire, senior American military and defense officials said.
Kusti Salm, Estonia’s deputy defense minister, in a briefing with reporters in Washington last week, said that Russia was better able to stand its losses than Ukraine.
“In this particular area, the Russians have employed around 40,000 to 50,000 inmates or prisoners,” Mr. Salm said. “They are going up against regular soldiers, people with families, people with regular training, valuable people for the Ukrainian military.”
“So the exchange rate is unfair,” he added. “It’s not one to one because for Russia, inmates are expendable. From an operational perspective, this is a very unfair deal for the Ukrainians and a clever tactical move from the Russian side.”
Moscow has thrown people it sees as expendable into battles for decades, if not centuries. During World War II, Joseph Stalin sent close to one million prisoners to the front. Boris Sokolov, a Russia historian, describes in a piece called “Gulag Reserves” in the Russian opposition magazine Grani.ru that an additional one million “special settlers”— deportees and others viewed by the Soviet government as second-class citizens — were also forced to fight during World War II.
“In essence, it does not matter how big the Russian losses are, since their overall human resource is much greater than Ukraine’s,” Mr. Salm, the Estonian official, said in a follow-up email. “In Russia the life of a soldier is worth nothing. A dead soldier, on the other hand, is a hero, regardless of how he died. All lost soldiers can be replaced, and the number of losses will not shift the public opinion against the war.”
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

SpaceX curbed Ukraine's use of Starlink internet for drones -company president https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 023-02-09/
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Pratyush »

NYT article is interesting. But just one of the many articles stating that.

Another interesting point is the assumed passivity of the Russian population regarding casualties.

The mental block in certain nations about the Russian state.

It's also bringing into open the sheet futility of keeping Ukrainians in the fight. If the Russians with vastly greater population and industrial resources can just grind on for several years. Then why continue with Ukrainian destruction. If they know that Ukraine is ultimately going to lose the war.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Cyrano »

Nytimes indulging in projection. Probably fed by the Ukr regime
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by MeshaVishwas »

Dhanda hai bhailog
:D
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Ashok Leyland Stallion 6*6 with the AFU.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Roop »

That NYT article is b.s. -- probably Deep State propaganda generated for the neocons.
Russia is using convicts/prisoners in its campaign.
IOW, Russia is doing what western countries routinely do. Can you say "French Foreign Legion"? "Afghan mujahidin" anyone? Jabhat al Nusra? Has anyone seen the movie "The Dirty Dozen"? It was a Hollywood adaptation of a real-life story from WW2.

As for the Daily Telegraph article, it is also clearly propaganda, but from the British Deep State (i.e. MI5 / MI6). All the talk of massive Russian casualties is b.s., but an interesting point to note is that they are actually warning the rubes (the gullible Brit public) that Ukraine is getting hammered -- almost as if they are preparing the public for the worst, when the news finally becomes too obvious to hide.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

Ukraine’s rocket campaign reliant on U.S. precision targeting, officials say
Ukrainian officials say that they almost never launch HIMARS rounds without detailed coordinates provided by U.S. military personnel situated elsewhere in Europe


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... ry-russia/
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials said they require coordinates provided or confirmed by the United States and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced U.S.-provided rocket systems, a previously undisclosed practice that reveals a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war.

The disclosure, confirmed by three senior Ukrainian officials and a senior U.S. official, comes after months of Kyiv’s forces pounding Russian targets — including headquarters, ammunition depots and barracks — on Ukrainian soil with the U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and other similar precision-guided weapons such as the M270 multiple-launch rocket system.
One senior Ukrainian official said Ukrainian forces almost never launch the advanced weapons without specific coordinates provided by U.S. military personnel from a base elsewhere in Europe. Ukrainian officials say this process should give Washington confidence about providing Kyiv with longer-range weapons.

A senior U.S. official — who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue — acknowledged the key American role in the campaign and said the targeting assistance served to ensure accuracy and conserve limited stores of ammunition for maximum effectiveness. The official said Ukraine does not seek approval from the United States on what to strike and routinely targets Russian forces on their own with other weapons. The United States provides coordinates and precise targeting information solely in an advisory role, the official said.
The GPS-guided strikes have driven back Moscow’s forces on the battlefield and been celebrated as a key factor in Kyiv’s underdog attempt to stave off the nearly year-old Russian assault. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House in December, he gave President Biden a military medal that had been approved for meritorious service by the commander of a Ukrainian HIMARS unit.

The issue is sensitive for the U.S. government, which has cast itself as a nonbelligerent friend to the government in Kyiv as it fights for its sovereignty and survival. The Kremlin has repeatedly accused the United States and its NATO allies of fighting a proxy war in Ukraine.
Senior Pentagon officials declined for days to answer questions about whether and how they provide coordinates for the strikes, citing concerns about operational security. They instead provided a statement highlighting the limitations of American involvement.
“We have long acknowledged that we share intelligence with Ukraine to assist them in defending their country against Russian aggression, and we have optimized over time how we share information to be able to support their requests and their targeting processes at improved speed and scale,” Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said in the statement. “The Ukrainians are responsible for finding targets, prioritizing them and then ultimately deciding which ones to engage. The U.S. does not approve targets, nor are we involved in the selection or engagement of targets.”
The senior Ukrainian official described the targeting process, generally: Ukrainian military personnel identify targets they want to hit, and in which location, and that information is then sent up to senior commanders, who then relay the request to U.S. partners for more accurate coordinates. The Americans do not always provide the requested coordinates, the official said, in which case the Ukrainian troops do not fire.
Ukraine could carry out strikes without U.S. help, but because Kyiv doesn’t want to waste valuable ammunition and miss, it usually chooses not to strike without U.S. confirmation, the official said, adding that there are no complaints about the process.

For months now, the Ukrainian government has been lobbying Washington for longer-range precision weapons.
Kyiv possesses HIMARS launchers and a similar weapon, the M270 multiple-launch rocket system, each of which fire a U.S.-made rocket that can travel up to 50 miles.
Ukrainian officials also have sought the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, a munition that can be fired from the same launcher and travel up to 185 miles. Biden administration officials have declined to provide that weapon, which is in limited supply and seen by senior U.S. officials as an escalation that could provoke Russia and drag the United States directly into the war.
Kyiv has pledged that it would not use the longer-range missile to strike across the border inside Russia.
The senior Ukrainian official contended that the Ukrainian military would face the same limitations it does now with conventional HIMARS rounds if it received ATACMS, with Ukraine still dependent on U.S. targeting coordinates.
“You’re controlling every shot anyway, so when you say, ‘We’re afraid that you’re going to use it for some other purposes,’ well, we can’t do it even if we want to,” the senior Ukrainian official said.
The senior U.S. official disputed the characterization. It is “not true,” the U.S. official said, that “Ukrainians run targets by us for approval.”
Ukrainian military officials have said that Russian forces have moved back their ammunition stocks out of HIMARS range, which has led to a steep decline in the daily bombardment of Ukrainian cities and soldiers but also reduced Kyiv’s ability to target Moscow’s arsenal. With ATACMS, the Ukrainians probably would target Russian military installations in Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed illegally in 2014.
The United States also recently approved the purchase and delivery of another GPS-guided munition, the ground-launched small-diameter bomb, or GLSDB, that can travel more than 90 miles and be launched from HIMARS and similar launchers. The round was initially designed to be fired from aircraft but has been repurposed.


The head of the Ukrainian military’s missile forces and artillery training, Maj. Gen. Andriy Malinovsky, told The Washington Post in an interview in October that Ukraine’s Western allies had confirmed coordinates for targets ahead of the Kharkiv counteroffensive.
The partners had worked out a process, he said, with Ukraine receiving precise coordinates to ensure they wouldn’t miss their mark with multiple-launch rocket artillery systems as the rapid counteroffensive caught Russian forces unprepared. The targeting information also provided a workaround for when Russian signal-jamming prevented aerial drone reconnaissance on the battlefield, Malinovsky said.
“According to our maps and software, a point will have one set of coordinates,” Malinovsky said. “But when we give this target to partners for analysis, the coordinates are different. Why? Because the Americans and NATO countries have access to military satellites.
“We’re all basically always online,” he added. “They immediately get us the coordinates and we then fire the MLRS right away.”
A third Ukrainian official confirmed that targeting all goes through an American installation on NATO soil and described the process as “very fast.” The Post is withholding the name of the base at the request of U.S. officials who cited security concerns.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by IndraD »

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60525350
Ukrainian troops on the front lines in the Donbas have told the BBC that Russian forces are "learning every day and changing their strategy" as they continue to gain ground around the heavily contested town of Bakhmut. But the soldiers also insisted that morale remains high, despite growing exhaustion after almost a year of war.
Russian forces were now hiding and dispersing their ammunition stores far better and targeting Ukrainian logistics routes more effectively. As a result, they are continuing to gain ground around Bakhmut and threatening another potentially significant town, Vuhledar, further south.
There have been cases of [Ukrainian] units who don't seem willing to fight, and disagreements [over tactics]," one Ukrainian soldier acknowledged, speaking off the record.

Others talked about the trauma of seeing their friends die, of units that had sustained overwhelming numbers of casualties and of the psychological impact of fighting amidst the corpses of so many uncollected Russian soldiers. One soldier, citing fears of a new Russian mobilisation and the huge size of the enemy's population, spoke of his fear that "Russia will grind us down". But most troops we met waved away such doubts, blaming them on exhaustion and - in general - praising their commanders for giving them time to rest.
very peculiar that such writings have started appearing all of a sudden even on BBC
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by Deans »

Pratyush wrote:NYT article is interesting. But just one of the many articles stating that.

Another interesting point is the assumed passivity of the Russian population regarding casualties.

The mental block in certain nations about the Russian state.
Russian has begun EVERY war in its history with a colossal eff up, in terms of intel, planning and casualties. They have invariably won at the end.
They lost in Afghanistan, but NATO tried for twice as long, with far more resources, with the same result.
Russians expect that wars will begin badly and soldiers believe its normal to be sacrificed for a greater good.
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Re: Russian-Ukrainian War: Combat Tactics & Strategy

Post by YashG »

IndraD wrote:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60525350
very peculiar that such writings have started appearing all of a sudden even on BBC
This happens whenever public opinion has to be molded in favor of sending huge arms cache to Ukraine and Ukraine is doing badly on ground. Then when arms are sent, suddenly news of Ukraininan triumph are written. Like a well oiled machine.
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