The War in the Ukraine

Biscuits

Colonel
Registered Member
What exactly is Russia's endgame if they retreat from Kherson? Since the brief burst of advance at the start of the war, except for a brief period over the summer, they have been losing land and/or retreating. Do they hope to eventually get a stalemate (without Kherson) and then wear Ukraine down into a cease fire? That looks like the best case scenario for them yet it would seem to be a strategic defeat for them given the cost.
Nobody has said that they plan to retreat from Kherson. Regardless of how much certain bots try and organize to repeat this as fact, or most laughably, one or two special "people" here, my favorite chicken from eggs counters, are already acting like Russia already withdrawed lmao. This is just an untreated critical copium overdose and we can only pray for the victims.

There seems to be contingency for a flood, hence some civilians can choose to leave. Military is digging in.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
Wagnerites don't mince words when it comes to praise and criticism but I doubt we need a random bot account to get a hold of a video of theirs.
Can’t understand what they are saying, but the level of illiteracy about basic body armour makes me certain the guys in the video are not professional soldiers.

They are shooting steel plate, that either stops the round or it doesn’t. There is no bulging as that only happens with ceramic plates.
 

Minm

Junior Member
Registered Member
The AFU claims 86% success in intercepting Geran-2s, this rate has been relatively sustained in all major attacks since the 10th.

How to explain the image below?
View attachment 99920
If that rate were 50%? Or even 40%? I don't think there would be a single light bulb glowing in the whole of Ukraine.
They're probably lying, but of course it might be true. If Russia is sending a swarm of 10 drones at every target, they can afford to lose 90% to air defence. One hit is enough
 

gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
There are many consequences of a Russian attack at Ukrainian nuclear infrastructure that will bear negative cost for Russia but I don't have the time to explain it here at length. I'll mention just the most obvious and pertinent: per adopted NATO policy any disruption to nuclear safety in Ukraine caused by Russian military activity triggers article 5.
...
Because apart from Enerhodar all other facilities are only vulnerable to air and missile strikes the measures undertaken will establish a de jure NATO-enforced no-fly zone over nuclear sites in Ukraine
If NATO declares war on Russia then Russia will just blow up NATO airbases. Good luck trying to enforce a no fly zone without airbases.
In every single conflict US led forces attacked other nations since 1991 none of the nations they attacked could counter attack their airbases but this would not be the case here. I doubt Russia considers a possible conflict with whole of NATO without Russia using tactical nukes considering the force disparity.
Why do you think Russia developed Kinzhal and put Zircon into production? Kinzhal has already been used successfully multiple times in this conflict, with a conventional warhead, but the Russians can switch to tactical nuclear ones up to 500kt yield if necessary. Most of those targets the Russians hit did not require the use of Zinzhal so it was clearly both a test and a warning to NATO. Figure out yourself if a 500kt nuke would finish up an airbase or not.

Trying to enforce a no fly zone over Ukraine would require the US to deploy a substantial amount of its own air power to Europe, since Russia basically has more combat aircraft than France, the UK, and Germany combined. Even if you do not consider the Russian air defense network. If the US tried to move that many aircraft into Europe to attempt a no fly zone those aircraft movements would be detected by Russia.

the reaction to Russia's use of tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine would be the destruction of Black Sea Fleet.
What makes you think Russia cannot counter that with attacks on US forward bases in either Europe or Japan?

As such it is most likely that any offensive operation undertaken by Ukrainian forces at such time will not meet any meaningful resistance which will end with a total rout of Russian forces from Ukraine since two weeks is all that is necessary to clear the southern region of the front between Zaporozhia and Donetsk which will then result in the collapse of defenses on the right side of Dnepr, a disorganized rout into and out of Crimea.
Nice fantasy.

Furthermore point 4 effectively makes it possible to attack Russian facilities in Syria simply by using the excuse that they constitute threat to USAF bombers from Diego Garcia and USAF will ensure it by flying bombers as close to Latakia as possible. It won't happen to demonstrate that it is "all about nuclear safety in Ukraine".
Do you even know where Syria and Diego Garcia are by pointing them on a map, or are you just delusional?
Just for your reference Moscow is a lot closer to Damascus, than Damascus is to Diego Garcia, let alone Latakia.
 

Sinnavuuty

Captain
Registered Member
They're probably lying, but of course it might be true. If Russia is sending a swarm of 10 drones at every target, they can afford to lose 90% to air defence. One hit is enough
This is not true, one hit is not enough.

In my opinion, this claim of over 80% intercept is a complete lie. I've seen enough videos of SAMs failing, MANPAD interception failures, lack of evidence of large SAM kills by the AFU, plus the continued rhetoric about providing the AFU with all kinds of air defense they can, even people begging for ATACMS. They're even sanctioning Iran for it, by the way, previously everyone believed that all this technology from Iran was all photoshop, but now they're falling into reality.

But a blow from Geran-2 is not enough to destroy an entire unit of electrical generation, if you consider the CEP of Geran-2 and it's not even that accurate, its warhead does small damage to targets that demand much more accuracy and greater explosive power. In fact that this is true, Russia always sends waves of drones to the same place but at different times.

Update:
RBS-17 in action

Engineering vehicles like floating bridges being shipped to Belarus

Russian forces launched a counterattack north of Kupyansk on the east bank of the Oskil River, driving out Ukrainian forces and apparently securing the city.
 

Phead128

Major
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
I get the sense, though I can't prove it, that the Russians are baiting the Ukrainians. They may appear weak, they may broadcast to the world that they are vulnerable.
Ukraine is receiving (nearly) full-spectrum NATO ISR, so I find that the likelihood of Ukrainian tricked into an ambush or cauldron due to feigned strategic retreat or faux weakness to be unlikely. The only reason Ukrainian offensives are remotely successful is because NATO ISR, likely planned/coordinated in the US or London from beginning to end, so Russia needs to trick NATO+Ukraine combined brains, not just Ukraine.

You would not mention this on TV interviews if you are actually vulnerable.
Does this reverse psychology work on nuclear weapons threats in TV live streams as well? As in, everything mentioned on TV is not real if you are actually serious...
 

reservior dogs

Junior Member
Registered Member
Ukraine is receiving (nearly) full-spectrum NATO ISR, so I find that the likelihood of Ukrainian tricked into an ambush or cauldron due to feigned strategic retreat or faux weakness to be unlikely. The only reason Ukrainian offensives are remotely successful is because NATO ISR, likely planned/coordinated in the US or London from beginning to end, so Russia needs to trick NATO+Ukraine combined brains, not just Ukraine.
I answered this once and was deleted by the mod.
Does this reverse psychology work on nuclear weapons threats in TV live streams as well? As in, everything mentioned on TV is not real if you are actually serious...
It is not reverse psychology, it is a message you want to send. If you want the other guy to know that you have nukes and are ready to use them, it may or may not be true. If you want the other guy to know you are weak, it definitely is not true. No one who is truly weak will want to advertise this fact.
 
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