Completely agree. So many basic things that I'm not seeing.
- Air superiority against UAF. Russians should flooded Ukrainian airspace backed by AWACS to down any jet that took off from an air field. If they did this, we won't have those ridiculous propaganda rumors like ghost of kyiv or something. Day 2 and on-wards maintain that constant CAP with some jets. But I guess RuAF lacks enough air refueling planes to maintain the tempo from subsequent days.
- Credible EW jets to conduct SEAD with anti-radiation missiles for any Ukraine SAM units that pop-up and survived the initial cruise missile strike from Day 1. This will give some cover for the helicopters to fly in low but those also risk from getting picked off by MANPADS.
- Sufficient surveillance with drones to assist artillery and ground units.
- Once air superiority is achieve, RuAF can bring in bombers to break Ukrainian backs.
We are not seeing none of this. Russia is fighting like it's a second rate military or they are underestimating the Ukrainians and are not fully employing their forces. It feels like they are employing some of the things they have or are not doing it properly.
All they are doing is throwing in ground units, backed by artillery. That strategy is risky and leads to many causalities for the Russians. It can decrease the morale of the Russian troops.
They can't win with long sieges. For Kyiv, they need to seize govt. buildings to induce some morale into their troops and end Ukrainians propaganda. Putin will be risking it if this war continues to drag on and becomes to feel like a stalemate. He will also be risking his presidency and personal future.
So many lessons for armchair generals to learn from lol
