The War in the Ukraine

Temstar said:

Some more images of this tank:
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View attachment 90427

See that odometer?
View attachment 90429
Total engine hours: 4
Total distance traveled: 19.6km
That military aid didn't last long. Are we sure someone didn't just drive this thing over to the Russian line in exchange for a stack of rubles?

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Easy come, easy to.

ukraine might have a very small cadre of professional military officers. But much of its so called military is a motley pool of poorly trained mixture of undisciplined self important idealists, opportunists, and those unlucky enough to not be able to dodge the draft. These would not be economical even with hard won, much prized equipment of quality that give them a plausible path to survival and victory. They surely will not value second equipment given to them largely to better make them into cannon fodder in the real service not of their bosses, not of their boss’s bosses, but of a overlord an ocean away who happen to have a grudge with the Russians.

Around 11:30 he mentions that on a Russian newspaper that anonymous officials said that any further negotiations must include ceding Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

It makes sense since that forms the land bridge to Crimea. Alongside those passports we have been hearing being issued out around those regions. I still think Odessa is probably still on the table here.

Yesterday I posted that source that claim EU is out of Soviet standard ammo. This article claims something further:

The United States also led an effort to comb through other ex-Soviet countries for ammunition, parts and additional supplies that would match Ukraine's needs.
But that all has now been used up or destroyed.
"They are gone from the world," a US official said of the Soviet and Russian-standard arms.
That means Ukrainian forces are having to switch to often unfamiliar arms built to Western specifications.

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If true this would then further degrade Ukrainian combat effectiveness. NATO weapons are not available in large enough numbers to make much of a difference and if ammo and parts for their existing Soviet weapons are nearly gone even within Ukraine then TDF will be down to fighting with sticks and stones soon. We were already seeing previously that they're bringing out their Maxim guns and DP-27.

Temstar said:

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Yesterday I posted that source that claim EU is out of Soviet standard ammo. This article claims something further:

If true this would then further degrade Ukrainian combat effectiveness. NATO weapons are not available in large enough numbers to make much of a difference and if ammo and parts for their existing Soviet weapons are nearly gone even within Ukraine then TDF will be down to fighting with sticks and stones soon. We were already seeing previously that they're bringing out their Maxim guns and DP-27.

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There’s a country in the east that recently retired all their 152mm field guns for 155mm truck mounts, maybe still have some ammo left too… lol

Poland can still send their PT-91 tanks. Right? They should have slightly more than 200 of them.
Just do not complain when Russia comes with their tanks close to the Polish border and the Poles are out of tanks.

gelgoog said:

Poland can still send their PT-91 tanks. Right? They should have slightly more than 200 of them.
Just do not complain when Russia comes with their tanks close to the Polish border and the Poles are out of tanks.

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That would leave us with a total of 105 Leo 2a5s and some 140 Leo 2a4s, but the 2a4s are being upgraded, so they're in pieces atm. On the other hand, think of the savings!

Well at least it would simplify logistics. No more 125mm ammo. Just make sure you get more Leopard 2A4s as replacement.
There should be hundreds of Leopard 2A4s in storage all over Europe.
Just don't ask for modern Leopard 2A6 or A7 from the Germans since they don't have them. Even Singapore has more upgraded Leopard 2s.

gelgoog said:

Well at least it would simplify logistics. No more 125mm ammo. Just make sure you get more Leopard 2A4s as replacement.
There should be hundreds of Leopard 2A4s in storage all over Europe.
Just don't ask for modern Leopard 2A6 or A7 from the Germans since they don't have them. Even Singapore has more upgraded Leopard 2s.

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There really aren't. Our gov't was looking for them way back around 2015-16, and the only ones they could find were the Spanish 2a4s, but even then the men sent to check them out opted against it, because of their poor condition. To this day they're kicking themselves that they didn't jump on the ex-Dutch 2a5s that were offered but we passed on. They eventually went to... Finland I think? Evereyone else has their leos and intends to keep them. Now last year and early this year they signed a deal, or are set up to sign a deal, with the US, for 250 sep3 Abrams, but those are still a long way away.

With the current situation some of those countries farther away from the border with Russia will more easily send their tanks.
Now that the Afghanistan conflict is over Canada might just get rid of all their Leopard 2s. The Spanish don't really need their tanks either. The problem with the Spanish tanks is that, I think, they don't have a standard package. And I don't mean their old Leopard 2A4, but the Leopard 2E.

Greece also has loads of Leopard 2 tanks. But they will never give them up because of Turkey.

gelgoog said:

Poland can still send their PT-91 tanks. Right? They should have slightly more than 200 of them.
Just do not complain when Russia comes with their tanks close to the Polish border and the Poles are out of tanks.

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PT-91 could be a good addition for the remaining Ukrainian tank fleet, it has thermals and more advance fire control system than vanilla T-64BV and T-72M1s that was sent previously and possibly even the current T-64 modernization by Ukraine, and also based on T-72 which is quite familiar with Ukrainian tank crews, i think it would work better than sending any Leopards to Ukraine which the Ukes don't have any experiences in operating.

Another recent daily Southfront video: