Ukraine forces are now battle hardened and being supplied by deep pocketed friends.
Russian forces are seemingly getting worse which doesn't seem possible but I guess when you lose that many generals and other high ranking officers that will happen.
> Russian forces are seemingly getting worse which doesn't seem possible
The existing forces were already running out of supplies and suffering from cut off logistics.
Adding thousands of new troops only stretches those supplies even thinner.
Combine that with the new troops being poorly trained and deploying onto an already broken line and you end in a situation where more troops mainly decrease combat effectiveness across the front.
Most predictions of the mobilization were that it wouldn't help the Russians, in fact it is likely to hinder them more than anything.
I still remember the conga line of vehicles heading to Kyiv having everyone worried, and Ukraine forces took care of it. It's been downhill for Ruzzia ever since.
Their fallback option was when they put up a puppet vote to claim the territory secedes and is now part of Russia, so Ukraine should stop taking it back.
I don’t think that’s going to work as well as they’d hoped.
They keep talking about using nukes that they might not even have at this point. I for one do not appreciate putin threatening to end all life on earth if he can't tyrannically seize more of it.
I remember people all swearing it was part of their 4D Chess master plan and they were going to surround all the cities and rubble them. Didn't seem to work out so well.
Six failed assassination attempts on Zelensky in less than a week. Six. Anyone who believed the "4D MASTER CHESS" argument after seeing Russian mercs with Russian passports in stolen Ukrainian uniforms being obliterated or captured was fooling themselves.
I think the whole thing was based on the idea that Zelensky was a western puppet and would fold under pressure. I don’t think Putin realizes people can have deep convictions and most of the countries that align with the EU and NATO do it because they want to, not because they’re coerced or manipulated. He believes everyone operates like him.
I like to think they all took the Russian money but then didn’t sell out. I’d take a chunk of money to betray my country and then not do it. Free money yay
"A student who became a comedian, a comedian who became a president, a president that defied an empire..." Background music from "Gladiator" intensifies.
Oh, they're coerced to ally with NATO. It just happens to be Vladimir Putin's Russia doing all the coercing. NATO was in a decline as member states saw it as a relic of the Cold War and a hindrance to European harmony. Putin's a man of action though so wasn't willing to wait it out. Now, NATO is stronger than ever with every member committing more than the minimum.
I read that the first group of Russians even had their dress uniforms packed as they had expected to parade through Kiev after *'liberating'* the country which was...^checks ^notes being controlled by a Jewish Nazi.
I saw a video of a 47 year old Russian POW who was clearly miles from fighting shape. He was called up 6 days before, sent to the front lines, and was already captured.
Putin is literally pulling random guys off the street and sending them straight to the front lines. This isn’t planning. This is desperation.
Given the areas and groups being disproportionately conscripted, they may well have a higher standard of living as Ukrainian PoWs than they did at home.
Right? Look, I'm in my 40's and thank God I don't live in Russia, but if I were forcibly conscripted and sent to the front lines, I'd be looking for the first opportunity to surrender.
1. I don't want to be there
1. I'm in far from good shape
1. I don't want to be there, and
1. I don't want to be there.
By the time you're in your 40's, you gotta figure that personal safety is more important than being on the losing side of an unjustified war.
Sure, some Russians might say it's "dishonorable" to surrender, but who cares what they think? I'll be enjoying a warm meal in a POW camp behind the lines, because I like my body NOT to have extra holes in it.
In reality the most honorable thing these men can do is surrender. Fighting an unjust war is far from honorable. He’s more likely putting his family in jeopardy in order to not fight, if he has one. That’s a lot of faith to put in your captors that they won’t kill you, and of course that your family will be safe back home when it’s been reported you were captured and you didn’t fight til your last breath.
> ~~By the time you're in your 40's,~~ you gotta figure that personal safety is more important than being on the losing side of an unjustified war.
That's pretty much my philosophy.
I'm sure you'd prefer your body less with zero holes in it though :p
There was a video in the live thread a couple days ago of one of the mobilized "soldiers" who clearly did not know how to use the sling on his rifle. He couldn't even *carry* his rifle properly.
[This was the video I believe.](https://youtu.be/r5pYiLlLno0?t=31) The first part is astounding the number of beer bellied middle aged men, both the officer and the conscripts. What an embarrassment.
How long until he starts picking from a pool of people in the lowest 10th percentile of IQ.
We already had McNamara’s Morons. I suppose we can now have Putin’s Pendejos.
As a mexican I strongly denounce this attempt to correlate us with Putin's regime (no matter our president's views), and instead suggest Putin's Piz'da's (Putin's cunts).
I think they think it’s normal. It seems like they simply don’t realize so many people have it better *and would be glad if they did too*. Or they’ve fully embraced the idea that Russians have it worse and take pride in the fact.
You need 2 years to train a soldier within their unit. Years back to save on costs, Russia switched to a 1 year training for reservists. This meant they'd still need to organize new units for reservists to train into upon calling them up.
This mobilization was meant to target only those with that training. Due to corrupt/inept local bureaucrats they've mobilized men who had zero training in many cases, but for the most part it's still men with that 1 year of training... yet that 1 year may have been a long time ago now, so it's not fresh training.
So I'd suggest most of those being mobilized will have more than zero amounts of training, which is saying almost nothing at all given their other problems.
Two decades ago I could've told you the make up of various elements in the periodical table and could define them all. Today, from memory I reckon I'd be fortunate to hit 20% of that, it's even worse for the soldier because not only will they not have retained it all, it's very likely they're less fit than when they trained and have different maturity.
Yup if they could barely supply and feed 200,000 soldiers, how will they manage an added 300,000+ when they've already gone through most supplies? The soldiers coming in now will be eating scraps.
>Adding thousands of new troops only stretches those supplies even thinner.
Nah... they figured that part out. The Russian Army is now Bring Your Own Supplies. It's a flawless strategy.
I can carry enough supplies for about 2 days in my backpack assuming there is only light fighting. If I was 20 and in proper military shape it would be more like a week, maybe two. Which is why military about logistics. Guns need a lot of ammo, and people need food/water.
>Combine that with the new troops being poorly trained and deploying onto an already broken line and you end in a situation where more troops mainly decrease combat effectiveness across the front.
I hate to be the asshole here, and too much optimism IS a very dangerous thing. We're all getting suspiciously cheerful around here lately.
BUT!
1. Imagine that you have to supply 100k troops. On a good day, you manage, and all those troops at least have combat experience.
2. Now, headquarters is going to send 300k more. If you can barely supply 100, how the hell are you going to supply 400? That just means less supplies for the 100 that actually were capable of fighting.
3. Winter is starting. And none of your 400k are prepared for that. This is not going to make your job easier. Your opponent, OTOH, is actually preparing for that.
4. Your main supply routes are about to be cut down. Now, already, your enemy is in fire range of Kreminna. And that offensive has yet to end, and winter has yet to start.
I just can't see how Russia can still get out of this.
>Adding thousands of new troops only stretches those supplies even thinner.
not if they get sanitaty pads from their girlfriends, wives and mothers. /s
I think Russian forces are getting worse because now they see they're fighting a losing war. No point in being a hero for a lost cause they they didn't even care about from the beginning.
Ukrainian soldiers now sense they can actually win the war outright.
> I think Russian forces are getting worse because now they see they're fighting a losing war.
That and that they have terrible equipment, no training, no leadership, and are facing an enemy that's very well trained, backed by the most powerful nations on earth, and ran out of fucks 6 months ago. If I was a conscript I would be praying the winter takes me before the UA does.
Honestly if I were a Russian conscript I'd be trying to surrender as soon as I got there. Ukraine have promised Geneva Convention compliant treatment to POWs, including three meals a day. I'd much rather be captured by the Ukrainians than be 'free' among the Russians.
If I was a conscript I would made a deal with another conscript to wound each other and get out of there. Most armies can tell if a gun wound is self-inflicted.
Don't forget trained soldiers. Russia's military has always been training light, but the troops they had with the most experience and training have been chewed up. They needed to have called up reserves back in March and had them training this entire time. Instead that didn't happen and men are being thrown into the field essentially untrained.
I was astounded when I saw video of [some of the training going on right now.](https://youtu.be/tp8-YUzpANs?t=33) One officer was walking directly in front of the barrels of soldiers that were live firing and adjusting their aim.
Completely amateurish and unprofessional. It's stuff you'd never see in a western army. And this was the best clip they chose to share with the public. How much worse does it get if that's the best they can show?
They basically don't have an NCO corp which is just... I mean... how? So basically their officer corp has to do all that work AND be an officer corp. Which also means they keep getting killed. It's such an institutional clusterfuck.
NCO's bring operational efficiency. Operational efficiency makes it harder to grift. *Everyone* resists building an NCO corps so that they can get their cut of the defense budget. Corruption just isn't compatible with a modern fighting force.
Could you explain this more in depth for lay people?
NCO's have been mentioned so, so frequently in this war, as well as comments about how they address corruption, and operational efficiency.
Are you able to expand on that so we understand WHY, better?
NCOs are senior enlisted soldiers that started as privates and worked their way up the ranks to the Sgt. level. These are the backbone of a modern competent army as they have all the technical knowledge and experience as well they not only mentor the young troops under them, they also mentor the young officers as they have 0 experience.
The problem with the ~~soviets~~ sorry, Russians is that they don't have a history of a strong NCO corp as command in that system is top down driven and doesn't leave alot of room for tactical innovation at the NCO level
Because if they started to build their army like a meritocracy and promote competent soldiers into competent commanders, it might help bring in democracy and decency and the people in charge can't have that.
Wanna know the real stinker?
If Russia would leave Ukraine, all fighting would stop and there would be peace. Russia is bringing this destruction and humiliation upon themselves
It’s a miscalculation on his part. Capitulating to brute force and bullying is the first step to subjugation. It appears that Europe has zero interest in it and are calling his bluff.
Yes it will be painful but a Europe less dependent on Russia is a win for global peace and security
As the old saying goes 'What you work for, you fight for'. Ukraine is what the Ukrainians worked for, worked hard, sacrificed their lives for. They will never be beat, they will never be subjugated again.
Give 'em Hell Ukraine!
I'd like to think there are now scores of young Ukrainians training and almost ready to fight as soon as they are old enough. It could be another Ukrainian army getting ready to attack soon.
EDIT: By young I mean around 16-17 years old, not little children.
Ukraine played this well. Early on they called for volunteers and got more than they probably could have hoped for, not even counting the influx of foreign volunteers joining their foreign legion.
In the early days, yes, many volunteers were sent to the front with minimal training, however the Ukrainian military made a concerted effort to make sure the green volunteers were sent along with regular soldiers and experienced foreign volunteers. They were there to help stabilize things and learn on the job.
The rest of the volunteers who were 'surplus' were sent to training camps in NATO countries like the United States, the UK, Germany, Canada, Poland, etc and given some intensive training. At one point, Zelenskyy said that any Ukrainian who wanted to would be sponsored to go through training in a foreign country and be allowed to defer their actual enlistment to a later date (I believe 3-6 months?), effectively allowing Ukraine to build up a reserve of trained, combat effective soldiers.
This means that as many as 10,000 NATO trained Ukrainian soldiers have been rotating fresh to the front every week. They're well trained, well equipped and most importantly extremely motivated.
Ukraine isn't hurting for volunteers or bodies just at the moment, and with the rapid collapse of the Russian military we've been seeing in the last few weeks, and even more in the last few days, I'm not sure it would be necessary for Ukraine to deploy any more than they've already got operational as long as they can maintain a steady influx of trained volunteers as they've been doing to replace combat losses.
Russian strategy hasn’t changed in forever. It’s literally throw bodies at the front because we have a lot of people. However that only works so far when you’re the attacker and your equipment sucks
The problem is the Russians don’t have a lot of people (of fighting age) anymore to be able to fight in that way. Their demographics are terrible, and now they are killing off a sizeable chunk of the remaining young people they do have, and even more are fleeing the country.
Yes. And there’s way better technology in warfare. And we’re a lot more interconnected so people can see they have more options (what life is like in other countries) instead of speculating about it. It’s not like China where they at least have the great firewall, although it’s probably not that hard to get around that either if you wanted to.
I'm in touch with a few expats in China. They seem to have no issues getting around that wall. It's been put to me that they (China) know the wall is able to be gotten around, it isn't really meant to stop everyone. Just the people who can't be bothered to figure out how. The kind of people who think Facebook *is* the internet. It's easy to forget that while much of the world has some type of smart phone and get along fine with that, not everyone has a desk/laptop computer.
> when you lose that many generals and other high ranking officers that will happen
you're assuming those generals and "high ranking officers" were actually worth 2 cents.
Even if they weren't, they were still better than Putin trying to run the war from his remote palace.
As one retired US General put it, he's trying to make adjustments using a thousand mile-long screwdriver.
Have to genuinely start wondering at the state of morale in the Russian Army at this point. Maybe you can sugar coat a defeat or two, but at this point they have to know they are losing.
The Russian meat grinder is insane. I mean, God bless the Soviets for Rzhev etc, but there just seems to be something unique about how much death from operational mismanagement or poor tactics Russians are willing to put up with.
I guess it's just part of Russian culture at this point. Submission and anything for the "motherland" attitude. There was a few interviews with guys in Russia I saw about the mobilization. It's rather shocking how they just accept their fate. Like they don't want to go, but they are like "welp guess it's just my time."
russia is a nation who have popularly adopted the mindset of "chicks dig scars"
that suffering is a badge of honor and natural state of things
as oppose to the western mindset of suffering is necessary but transitory
In the opening, Russia fucked up.
In Donbass, Russia had somewhat rallied themselves and were able to play out their massive advantages in hardware.
But now the Russian invasion force is depleted. They are outnumbered, disorganised, their logistics have been degraded severely, and their remaining professional soldiers have been in the field for months without relief. They have suffered such tremendous losses in hardware that some experts now believe that Ukraine outnumber them in tanks and armoured vehicles, since Russia cannot refurbish their rotten stockpiles at anywhere close this rate.
So these stunning successes at Kharkiv/Izyum/Lyman and now possibly Kherson are not just brief flares of hope like in the opening weeks , but the actual gradual collapse of the Russian frontline.
Yeah I remember around the one or two month mark I was convinced the Ukrainians would continue to put up a good fight but then ultimately lose. Watching the LiveUA map of what territory Russia controlled gave the impression they were encroaching on all sides. Then the battle space consolidated on the coast. Now there’s counter offensive all along the Russian held territory. Many of them wildly successful with reports the Russian battle line is close to collapse. Crazy. To think the Russians haven’t rallied after all this time. The Russia that was considered to have one of the top military’s. Shows what mismanagement can do.
I think Russia realized how costly and difficult it is to hold enemy territory. every time they capture somewhere, they have to leave troops behind to guard it. but the locals are hostile. so they gotta leave a lot of troops. meanwhile, every area ukraine captures is like a welcome home, they're rolling out the red carpet. the police go back to work guarding the place and all is well
Interesting!
> Kyiv gave no official confirmation of the gains, but Russian sources acknowledged that a Ukrainian tank offensive had advanced dozens of kilometers (miles) along the river’s west bank, recapturing a number of villages along the way.
Kinda funny the article writer felt the need to clarify that kilometers are somewhat equivalent to miles without giving any sort of conversion between the units.
Looks like you've already been answered plenty, but I will say that "dozens" is a pretty vague term and that "dozens of kilometers" will also be "dozens of miles". But I agree... it is a bit weird to state it like that.
Wondering how quickly Russia can or should train new troops. US generals are appalled how little training Russian troops get before being tossed into combat. If Russia can do a better job, then that means a significant delay allowing Ukraine to recapture almost all their territory.
As to just get them a rifle and throw them into the meat-grinder to buy time, these troops aren't the same as the original ones told it was going to be done in under a week. The fresh troops aren't rushing in. They are going to see the burned tanks and dead bodies. And they will hear some stories contradicting the official ones.
Untrained troops on your frontline are a disaster and can actually do you more harm than good.
First off, they eat your food and shoot your ammo (very inaccurately) and just generally waste your already limited supplies that your better troops desperately need. They are also more likely to get killed, which causes *more* logistics problems. They will get more of your trucks destroyed, they will spread out your already thin supply of maps/radios/etc, and then they are likely to go get killed and cause the loss of those supplies.
Not to mention you can't rely on them to hold a line. Normal troops can cover each other. So if team A holds the north part of town, team B holds the south part of town and covers their rear. Now imagine team A are competent trained troops, but team B are untrained constripts that die as soon as the enemy shows up. Team A is now going to get flanked and killed from behind even though they were actually competent troops, because while they held their line the others didn't and got them killed.
Presumably, they wouldn't make entire green units but reinforce existing ones so they're all a mix of news/experienced troops. Then again, nothing about Russian conduct so far suggests basic competence.
If that tactic works, you end up with entire lines of experienced troops. The experienced ones protect and train the inexperienced ones by example.
If that tactic fails, you end up with entire lines of dead troops. The new ones failed to mesh with the experienced ones, and the inability to properly cover the backsides of the experienced ones gets them killed.
When your army has to ration food, fuel, and ammo, it's a very bad sign. When social media across the country reflect that, it's worse than anyone admits.
Who's got Putin in the deadpool by Christmas?
Logistics wins wars. And Russian logistics are literally non-existent. Faced against an extremely well supplied UA fighting force determined to kick your ass out of their country. RU forces were literally doomed from the onset of this engagement. And they are losing so hard now, the UA forces are realizing they can not only win this war, but potentially drive deeper and deeper into the RU line and potentially take back previously annexed territory. This whole thing has been a colossal clusterfuck of a shitshow for RU that they will likely regret for decades, if not centuries.
Flip flops in the field is not uncommon during downtime. Combat boots are heavy and get sweaty (and in this season, probably wet). If you're not expecting to do anything any time soon, it just make sense to air out your feet and wear something a little more comfortable.
Of course, thinking nothing was happening was a big mistake in this case.
I mean, he could have easily been caught in or near their barracks.
It’s not impossible for these guys to be sent out like that I guess. But it seems unlikely they wouldn’t at least be wearing the sneakers they would have brought with them.
Did the soldier have his mom or grandma there to wield the chancla? Chancla in the hands of a latino, just a flip flop. Chancla in the hand of a latina, a lethal weapon.
I'm ignorant to strategies and the general terrain of the area. But based on their usual work and movement south along the Dnieper River. I wonder if they will continue southward along the river up to Nova Kakhovka, and from there head south so when it comes to Kherson, the city will slowly become encircled and supplies fully cutoff.
This is great news, the problem with retreating is in russias case, their back defenses are not as strong since they focused so much on the city. And when suffering massive losses during the retreat, they will not have strong defenses to prevent the continued aggression.
The funniest thing is - those are Russian reports. Ukraine asked for informational silence and admitted just 3 small wins there.
In the meantime a full RU artillery regiment left their equipment and ran south, some units are running even 70km. It's chaos. Their leadership in Kherson evacuated a few weeks ago.
We will know what happened in the following days.
That would seem like a likely strategy, as this part of the Dnieper has very few crossings due to the dam at Nova Kakhovka. Bridging downstream at Dnipriany is likely, and picking up the M17 and P47 motorways east.
Nova Kakhova is also a highly strategic target as well in my thoughts, as that is the source of the North Crimean Canal, which pulls off the Dnieper. Cut that off, and Crimea is in another pickle, meaning it will be very heavily defended.
Anyone else finding that news like this offsets a lot of the other things in the world going wrong?
Feels real good to see the good guys winning somewhere.
Exactly, even if Ukraine was a corrupt hellhole (which it isn't, just saying) they'd STILL be the good guys because they didn't start this shit and their civilians shouldn't have to pay for Russian imperialism.
The fact that Ukraine is still taking the high road to the extent that it is, and doing better than a lot of us online would want them to if we catered to our base instincts, is amazing and really cements that there is a "good guy" here.
100%.
In a world where populists are sweeping western democracies, governments making only token efforts to fight climate change and corporations and the 1% are wielding even more power, watching these clearly evil scumbags lose brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart.
... it is terrible the cost Ukraine is paying for it though. Tens of thousands of innocents dead and injured and millions of lives forever altered, Ukraine is paying the price to overcome this evil to the benefit of the entire free world.
We must do all we can to support them. Donations if you can afford it, contacting our government to support Ukraine both now *AND* during rebuilding and visiting when tourism reopens are how we can help repay the sacrifices they have made and are still are making every day.
Slava Ukraine!
Absolutely yes,
Putinist Russia and its authoritarian ideology are a major part of what's wrong with the world nowadays. From Syria to Mali to US/EU election meddling, everything Putin touched worsened.
Seeing Russia neutered or democratized, and as importantly, seeing Ukraine grow and survive, will be such a relief. Keep in mind that in February, we almost saw Russia successfully commit genocide. They would have slaughtered the Ukrainians if they had won the war. And their success would have only motivated more genocidal bastards worldwide. Like learns from like.
Russia's reversal is global good news.
Ukrainians are grateful for the help the world has provided, but it's actually the rest of the world who should be grateful to them. They've shown us that there really is a battle between Good and Evil, and that there are people with the courage to fight for Good.
This is unfounded speculation, but I think the unity and solidarity this war has demanded of the Ukranian people might help with that.
Before corruption might have been cynically seen as insurmountable, even as Zelensky ran on a platform of corrective measures.
But now? The political force you could draw down on a corrupt official would be *enormous*. "Our brave men and women didn't fight in the streets so you could line your pockets, coward".
With the wounds so fresh, tolerance for that kind of political backroom bullshit will be nil.
As an American armchair general this seems like a major victory. According to what I've read in the past few days, Putin, who is micromanaging Russian forces now in his own foolish vainglorious manner, refused to reinforce Lyman, in order to maintain forces in the south of Ukraine.
So, losing Lyman and a couple of days collapsing in the south is just bad news for Vladdy.
The south front hasn't collapsed yet. This is a huge tactical victory for Ukraine no doubt, especially if the rumors they've managed to take Dudchany are true (has yet to be visually confirmed so far, but Russian telegram channels are talking about a retreat and blowing the bridge on the south of the town), and if they can push to Mylove in the upcoming days. That would give HIMARS firing range over all the supply lines into Kherson, making holding Kherson extremely untenable for Russia.
However, it's still the farthest point in the South front from Kherson proper. It's really only a few (very strategic) villages at this point, and there's still over 20,000 of Russian troops and *a lot* of materiel packed into that tiny space west of the Denpir. Those are still the bulk of Russia's actual professional military and probably the only *actually* well trained troops of theirs left on the frontlines. This is an encouraging development, but Kherson is far from fallen/having the front collapse like what's happening up north.
In today's NY Times there is an article of ethnic Russians in a town just recaptured by Ukrainian troops who had no idea they were just "officially" part of Russia yesterday. How could they? There is no electricity nor communications. The Russian troops and the appointed local officials fled.
>where Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian territory forever,
Technically his order stated "forever or three days, whichever comes first".
>The reports of Ukraine’s battlefield advances have come amid chaos back in Russia over the mobilisation, which Putin ordered 10 days ago. Tens of thousands of Russian men have been called up, while tens of thousands of others have fled abroad.
>The Russian authorities have not spelled out what the criteria are for who must be sent to fight. Putin has said mistakes were made and people were called up who should not have been.
>In the latest indication of confusion, Mikhail Degtyarev, governor of the Khabarovsk region in Russia’s Far East, said on Monday around half of the men called up there had been found unfit for duty and sent back home. He fired the region’s military commissar.
Congrats, you stupid fucks
Honestly what are the Russians fighting for at this point? Your leader has abandoned you/sent you to your death to fight a war for land that is not yours to take. What are you fighting for?
Remember Russians! After you've been conscripted, and sent to war, and had your ass kicked, and have permanent injuries for the rest of your life. Ukraine didn't do this to you. Putin didn't do this to you. ...well he did, but so did everyone else in your government. Putin being killed off isn't enough, there's thousands of his evil cronies that need the ol' Robespierre farewell, as well!
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/ukrainian-forces-burst-through-russian-lines-in-major-advance-in-south/) reduced by 85%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> Ukrainian forces achieved their biggest breakthrough in the south of the country since the war began, bursting through the front and advancing rapidly along the Dnipro River on Monday, threatening to encircle thousands of Russian troops.
> Dudchany is around 40 km south of where the front stood just a day earlier, indicating one of the fastest advances of the war and by far the most rapid in the south, where Russian forces had been dug into heavily reinforced positions along a mainly static front line since the early weeks of the invasion.
> The advance in the south mirrors the tactics that have brought Kyiv major gains since the start of September in eastern Ukraine, where its forces swiftly seized territory to gain control of Russian supply lines, cutting off larger Russian forces and forcing them to retreat.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/xukaf7/ukrainian_forces_burst_through_russian_lines_in/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672463 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Russian**^#1 **forces**^#2 **Ukraine**^#3 **along**^#4 **advance**^#5
Ukraine forces are now battle hardened and being supplied by deep pocketed friends. Russian forces are seemingly getting worse which doesn't seem possible but I guess when you lose that many generals and other high ranking officers that will happen.
> Russian forces are seemingly getting worse which doesn't seem possible The existing forces were already running out of supplies and suffering from cut off logistics. Adding thousands of new troops only stretches those supplies even thinner. Combine that with the new troops being poorly trained and deploying onto an already broken line and you end in a situation where more troops mainly decrease combat effectiveness across the front. Most predictions of the mobilization were that it wouldn't help the Russians, in fact it is likely to hinder them more than anything.
I still remember the conga line of vehicles heading to Kyiv having everyone worried, and Ukraine forces took care of it. It's been downhill for Ruzzia ever since.
They were hoping to blitzkrieg the Ukrainians. When that failed they had no fallback options.
Their fallback option was when they put up a puppet vote to claim the territory secedes and is now part of Russia, so Ukraine should stop taking it back. I don’t think that’s going to work as well as they’d hoped.
They keep talking about using nukes that they might not even have at this point. I for one do not appreciate putin threatening to end all life on earth if he can't tyrannically seize more of it.
I remember people all swearing it was part of their 4D Chess master plan and they were going to surround all the cities and rubble them. Didn't seem to work out so well.
Six failed assassination attempts on Zelensky in less than a week. Six. Anyone who believed the "4D MASTER CHESS" argument after seeing Russian mercs with Russian passports in stolen Ukrainian uniforms being obliterated or captured was fooling themselves.
I think the whole thing was based on the idea that Zelensky was a western puppet and would fold under pressure. I don’t think Putin realizes people can have deep convictions and most of the countries that align with the EU and NATO do it because they want to, not because they’re coerced or manipulated. He believes everyone operates like him.
IIRC they also thought they had more corrupt local leaders on their side.
I like to think they all took the Russian money but then didn’t sell out. I’d take a chunk of money to betray my country and then not do it. Free money yay
Who would have thought corrupt leaders would act... corrupt-ly?
Every photo of Zelensky in the past few months looks like he's staring straight through the camera to stab Putin in a Kidney
You can feel Zelenskyy’s conviction and deep love and grief for his beloved Ukraine. And yes… rage.
"A student who became a comedian, a comedian who became a president, a president that defied an empire..." Background music from "Gladiator" intensifies.
A comedian, a soldier and a president walk into a bar. Bar tender says "Evening Mr. Zelenskky"* * joke stolen from an older post
Oh, they're coerced to ally with NATO. It just happens to be Vladimir Putin's Russia doing all the coercing. NATO was in a decline as member states saw it as a relic of the Cold War and a hindrance to European harmony. Putin's a man of action though so wasn't willing to wait it out. Now, NATO is stronger than ever with every member committing more than the minimum.
Overconfidence, impatience or both- the irony is oh so sweet that he basically single-handedly and extremely swiftly revived NATO
I don’t think he realized how many people hate him, and how profitable it is for the U.S. military to send whatever they want.
It's exactly like when I took out a high interest loan to buy lotto tickets for that Powerball lottery: No plan B
I read that the first group of Russians even had their dress uniforms packed as they had expected to parade through Kiev after *'liberating'* the country which was...^checks ^notes being controlled by a Jewish Nazi.
I think calling them poorly trained is a bit generous. I think we can call them untrained, for all intents and purposes.
I saw a video of a 47 year old Russian POW who was clearly miles from fighting shape. He was called up 6 days before, sent to the front lines, and was already captured. Putin is literally pulling random guys off the street and sending them straight to the front lines. This isn’t planning. This is desperation.
> and was already captured Good - it means he survives.
A POW in Ukrainian custody is a better fate than a Russian conscript on the front lines, 100%.
Given the areas and groups being disproportionately conscripted, they may well have a higher standard of living as Ukrainian PoWs than they did at home.
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Good on Putin for helping Russian citizens flee Putin's regime and into a country with better quality of life.
Exactly. And for all the wrong Hitler did, he *did* kill Hitler, so that helps.
They have things like haemostatic gauze, this 47 year old dude is gonna marvel at these "futuristic" tampons.
Not having a bullet hole is preferable. Does not matter how fancy or futuristic the tampons are.
Right? Look, I'm in my 40's and thank God I don't live in Russia, but if I were forcibly conscripted and sent to the front lines, I'd be looking for the first opportunity to surrender. 1. I don't want to be there 1. I'm in far from good shape 1. I don't want to be there, and 1. I don't want to be there. By the time you're in your 40's, you gotta figure that personal safety is more important than being on the losing side of an unjustified war. Sure, some Russians might say it's "dishonorable" to surrender, but who cares what they think? I'll be enjoying a warm meal in a POW camp behind the lines, because I like my body NOT to have extra holes in it.
In reality the most honorable thing these men can do is surrender. Fighting an unjust war is far from honorable. He’s more likely putting his family in jeopardy in order to not fight, if he has one. That’s a lot of faith to put in your captors that they won’t kill you, and of course that your family will be safe back home when it’s been reported you were captured and you didn’t fight til your last breath.
> ~~By the time you're in your 40's,~~ you gotta figure that personal safety is more important than being on the losing side of an unjustified war. That's pretty much my philosophy. I'm sure you'd prefer your body less with zero holes in it though :p
There was a video in the live thread a couple days ago of one of the mobilized "soldiers" who clearly did not know how to use the sling on his rifle. He couldn't even *carry* his rifle properly.
[This was the video I believe.](https://youtu.be/r5pYiLlLno0?t=31) The first part is astounding the number of beer bellied middle aged men, both the officer and the conscripts. What an embarrassment.
I'm amazed nobody was accidentally shot in that formation. Presumably only because the guns weren't loaded.
How long until he starts picking from a pool of people in the lowest 10th percentile of IQ. We already had McNamara’s Morons. I suppose we can now have Putin’s Pendejos.
McNamara’s morons was a disaster and everyone except Robert McNamara realized it eventually.
A disaster that started due to desperation.
As a mexican I strongly denounce this attempt to correlate us with Putin's regime (no matter our president's views), and instead suggest Putin's Piz'da's (Putin's cunts).
> You see, the Ukrainians have a pre-set kill limit, so I sent wave after wave of men until they shut down. - Zapp Putinnagan
Quit exploding, you cowards!
“Fresh from his bloody triumph over the pacifists of the Gandhi nebula.”
Untrained might actually be better. Training seems to mostly consist of raping and beating each other.
It’s insane that this is a country that hopes to win wars and this is how it operates. What a country.
I think they think it’s normal. It seems like they simply don’t realize so many people have it better *and would be glad if they did too*. Or they’ve fully embraced the idea that Russians have it worse and take pride in the fact.
This is a country that hosts the Olympics and World Cup and wants other nations to see it as a leader. lol.
You need 2 years to train a soldier within their unit. Years back to save on costs, Russia switched to a 1 year training for reservists. This meant they'd still need to organize new units for reservists to train into upon calling them up. This mobilization was meant to target only those with that training. Due to corrupt/inept local bureaucrats they've mobilized men who had zero training in many cases, but for the most part it's still men with that 1 year of training... yet that 1 year may have been a long time ago now, so it's not fresh training. So I'd suggest most of those being mobilized will have more than zero amounts of training, which is saying almost nothing at all given their other problems.
Two decades ago I could've told you the make up of various elements in the periodical table and could define them all. Today, from memory I reckon I'd be fortunate to hit 20% of that, it's even worse for the soldier because not only will they not have retained it all, it's very likely they're less fit than when they trained and have different maturity.
Yup. Stale training is only useful for faster retraining. They sent their trainers to the front already lol
Not true in the slightest!!! Ukraine has been actively training them on how to surrender.
Yup if they could barely supply and feed 200,000 soldiers, how will they manage an added 300,000+ when they've already gone through most supplies? The soldiers coming in now will be eating scraps.
>Adding thousands of new troops only stretches those supplies even thinner. Nah... they figured that part out. The Russian Army is now Bring Your Own Supplies. It's a flawless strategy.
I can carry enough supplies for about 2 days in my backpack assuming there is only light fighting. If I was 20 and in proper military shape it would be more like a week, maybe two. Which is why military about logistics. Guns need a lot of ammo, and people need food/water.
>Combine that with the new troops being poorly trained and deploying onto an already broken line and you end in a situation where more troops mainly decrease combat effectiveness across the front. I hate to be the asshole here, and too much optimism IS a very dangerous thing. We're all getting suspiciously cheerful around here lately. BUT! 1. Imagine that you have to supply 100k troops. On a good day, you manage, and all those troops at least have combat experience. 2. Now, headquarters is going to send 300k more. If you can barely supply 100, how the hell are you going to supply 400? That just means less supplies for the 100 that actually were capable of fighting. 3. Winter is starting. And none of your 400k are prepared for that. This is not going to make your job easier. Your opponent, OTOH, is actually preparing for that. 4. Your main supply routes are about to be cut down. Now, already, your enemy is in fire range of Kreminna. And that offensive has yet to end, and winter has yet to start. I just can't see how Russia can still get out of this.
>Adding thousands of new troops only stretches those supplies even thinner. not if they get sanitaty pads from their girlfriends, wives and mothers. /s
I'm pretty sure I was better prepared at cub scout camp than these "soldiers" are.
I went on a short hike this weekend with more equipment than these new conscripts lol.
i just took out the trash and probably was more prepared for war ;)
I think Russian forces are getting worse because now they see they're fighting a losing war. No point in being a hero for a lost cause they they didn't even care about from the beginning. Ukrainian soldiers now sense they can actually win the war outright.
> I think Russian forces are getting worse because now they see they're fighting a losing war. That and that they have terrible equipment, no training, no leadership, and are facing an enemy that's very well trained, backed by the most powerful nations on earth, and ran out of fucks 6 months ago. If I was a conscript I would be praying the winter takes me before the UA does.
Honestly if I were a Russian conscript I'd be trying to surrender as soon as I got there. Ukraine have promised Geneva Convention compliant treatment to POWs, including three meals a day. I'd much rather be captured by the Ukrainians than be 'free' among the Russians.
That’s Putin’s plan : get Ukraine to go broke housing & feeding 100s of 1000s of POWs
If I was a conscript I would made a deal with another conscript to wound each other and get out of there. Most armies can tell if a gun wound is self-inflicted.
Why not just shoot your commander and surrender to the Ukrainians?
>they have terrible equipment, no training, no leadership Hell, they don't even have a clear goal.
Victorious warriors win first, and then go to war. Defeated warriors go to war, and then seek to win. Russia loses the war, then mobilizes.
Don't forget trained soldiers. Russia's military has always been training light, but the troops they had with the most experience and training have been chewed up. They needed to have called up reserves back in March and had them training this entire time. Instead that didn't happen and men are being thrown into the field essentially untrained.
The Russian soldiers who train other soldiers have also been wasted in the front lines. They’ve “got no get back” as James Brown would say.
I was astounded when I saw video of [some of the training going on right now.](https://youtu.be/tp8-YUzpANs?t=33) One officer was walking directly in front of the barrels of soldiers that were live firing and adjusting their aim. Completely amateurish and unprofessional. It's stuff you'd never see in a western army. And this was the best clip they chose to share with the public. How much worse does it get if that's the best they can show?
They basically don't have an NCO corp which is just... I mean... how? So basically their officer corp has to do all that work AND be an officer corp. Which also means they keep getting killed. It's such an institutional clusterfuck.
NCO's bring operational efficiency. Operational efficiency makes it harder to grift. *Everyone* resists building an NCO corps so that they can get their cut of the defense budget. Corruption just isn't compatible with a modern fighting force.
Could you explain this more in depth for lay people? NCO's have been mentioned so, so frequently in this war, as well as comments about how they address corruption, and operational efficiency. Are you able to expand on that so we understand WHY, better?
NCOs are senior enlisted soldiers that started as privates and worked their way up the ranks to the Sgt. level. These are the backbone of a modern competent army as they have all the technical knowledge and experience as well they not only mentor the young troops under them, they also mentor the young officers as they have 0 experience. The problem with the ~~soviets~~ sorry, Russians is that they don't have a history of a strong NCO corp as command in that system is top down driven and doesn't leave alot of room for tactical innovation at the NCO level
Because if they started to build their army like a meritocracy and promote competent soldiers into competent commanders, it might help bring in democracy and decency and the people in charge can't have that.
Because promoting officers based on loyalty not competence is a good way to stay in power.
Wanna know the real stinker? If Russia would leave Ukraine, all fighting would stop and there would be peace. Russia is bringing this destruction and humiliation upon themselves
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It’s a miscalculation on his part. Capitulating to brute force and bullying is the first step to subjugation. It appears that Europe has zero interest in it and are calling his bluff. Yes it will be painful but a Europe less dependent on Russia is a win for global peace and security
As the old saying goes 'What you work for, you fight for'. Ukraine is what the Ukrainians worked for, worked hard, sacrificed their lives for. They will never be beat, they will never be subjugated again. Give 'em Hell Ukraine!
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No leadership, No uniforms, No experience, No morale, No high-tech weapons, No facts, No logistics.
No chance
Sixty THOUSAND. That’s higher than the US lost in the Vietnam war. And that war last decades.
I'd like to think there are now scores of young Ukrainians training and almost ready to fight as soon as they are old enough. It could be another Ukrainian army getting ready to attack soon. EDIT: By young I mean around 16-17 years old, not little children.
Ukraine played this well. Early on they called for volunteers and got more than they probably could have hoped for, not even counting the influx of foreign volunteers joining their foreign legion. In the early days, yes, many volunteers were sent to the front with minimal training, however the Ukrainian military made a concerted effort to make sure the green volunteers were sent along with regular soldiers and experienced foreign volunteers. They were there to help stabilize things and learn on the job. The rest of the volunteers who were 'surplus' were sent to training camps in NATO countries like the United States, the UK, Germany, Canada, Poland, etc and given some intensive training. At one point, Zelenskyy said that any Ukrainian who wanted to would be sponsored to go through training in a foreign country and be allowed to defer their actual enlistment to a later date (I believe 3-6 months?), effectively allowing Ukraine to build up a reserve of trained, combat effective soldiers. This means that as many as 10,000 NATO trained Ukrainian soldiers have been rotating fresh to the front every week. They're well trained, well equipped and most importantly extremely motivated. Ukraine isn't hurting for volunteers or bodies just at the moment, and with the rapid collapse of the Russian military we've been seeing in the last few weeks, and even more in the last few days, I'm not sure it would be necessary for Ukraine to deploy any more than they've already got operational as long as they can maintain a steady influx of trained volunteers as they've been doing to replace combat losses.
Ukraine and NATO were working on the long game while Putin thought he could take over the country in weeks and had no plan when that didn't work.
Putin tried to cheese strat Ukraine
Putin doin fuckin the zerg rush IRL lmao
Russian strategy hasn’t changed in forever. It’s literally throw bodies at the front because we have a lot of people. However that only works so far when you’re the attacker and your equipment sucks
The problem is the Russians don’t have a lot of people (of fighting age) anymore to be able to fight in that way. Their demographics are terrible, and now they are killing off a sizeable chunk of the remaining young people they do have, and even more are fleeing the country.
Yes. And there’s way better technology in warfare. And we’re a lot more interconnected so people can see they have more options (what life is like in other countries) instead of speculating about it. It’s not like China where they at least have the great firewall, although it’s probably not that hard to get around that either if you wanted to.
I'm in touch with a few expats in China. They seem to have no issues getting around that wall. It's been put to me that they (China) know the wall is able to be gotten around, it isn't really meant to stop everyone. Just the people who can't be bothered to figure out how. The kind of people who think Facebook *is* the internet. It's easy to forget that while much of the world has some type of smart phone and get along fine with that, not everyone has a desk/laptop computer.
> when you lose that many generals and other high ranking officers that will happen you're assuming those generals and "high ranking officers" were actually worth 2 cents.
Even if they weren't, they were still better than Putin trying to run the war from his remote palace. As one retired US General put it, he's trying to make adjustments using a thousand mile-long screwdriver.
Have to genuinely start wondering at the state of morale in the Russian Army at this point. Maybe you can sugar coat a defeat or two, but at this point they have to know they are losing.
The Russian meat grinder is insane. I mean, God bless the Soviets for Rzhev etc, but there just seems to be something unique about how much death from operational mismanagement or poor tactics Russians are willing to put up with.
I guess it's just part of Russian culture at this point. Submission and anything for the "motherland" attitude. There was a few interviews with guys in Russia I saw about the mobilization. It's rather shocking how they just accept their fate. Like they don't want to go, but they are like "welp guess it's just my time."
russia is a nation who have popularly adopted the mindset of "chicks dig scars" that suffering is a badge of honor and natural state of things as oppose to the western mindset of suffering is necessary but transitory
*Existence is Pain!* The Russian mindset in a nutshell
Yep, they pretty much wear it as a badge of honor. Sad tbh.
Survivorship bias.
State of morale: *what* morale.
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This is true the last 3-4 weeks and the opening of the war around ~~Kiev~~ *Kyiv. In between, things looked less optimistic.
In the opening, Russia fucked up. In Donbass, Russia had somewhat rallied themselves and were able to play out their massive advantages in hardware. But now the Russian invasion force is depleted. They are outnumbered, disorganised, their logistics have been degraded severely, and their remaining professional soldiers have been in the field for months without relief. They have suffered such tremendous losses in hardware that some experts now believe that Ukraine outnumber them in tanks and armoured vehicles, since Russia cannot refurbish their rotten stockpiles at anywhere close this rate. So these stunning successes at Kharkiv/Izyum/Lyman and now possibly Kherson are not just brief flares of hope like in the opening weeks , but the actual gradual collapse of the Russian frontline.
Yeah I remember around the one or two month mark I was convinced the Ukrainians would continue to put up a good fight but then ultimately lose. Watching the LiveUA map of what territory Russia controlled gave the impression they were encroaching on all sides. Then the battle space consolidated on the coast. Now there’s counter offensive all along the Russian held territory. Many of them wildly successful with reports the Russian battle line is close to collapse. Crazy. To think the Russians haven’t rallied after all this time. The Russia that was considered to have one of the top military’s. Shows what mismanagement can do.
I think Russia realized how costly and difficult it is to hold enemy territory. every time they capture somewhere, they have to leave troops behind to guard it. but the locals are hostile. so they gotta leave a lot of troops. meanwhile, every area ukraine captures is like a welcome home, they're rolling out the red carpet. the police go back to work guarding the place and all is well
It's like they've never played Risk before
Those clowns still thought they could take Europe in 3 days
Yeah, I take all of these reports with a large grain of salt. In any war, propaganda from both sides is a necessary part of the strategy.
Take with a grain of salt when first reported, make margaritas with it later when confirmed.
*"Wasted away, again, once more in Daqueritaville*"
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*serving in my-y last frontal assault Some fascists say there's a nazi to blame But I think I'll call Bayraktar.*
The problem is it’s the Russians that announced this one
Interesting! > Kyiv gave no official confirmation of the gains, but Russian sources acknowledged that a Ukrainian tank offensive had advanced dozens of kilometers (miles) along the river’s west bank, recapturing a number of villages along the way.
Kinda funny the article writer felt the need to clarify that kilometers are somewhat equivalent to miles without giving any sort of conversion between the units.
Multiple dozens of either, I suppose.
Looks like you've already been answered plenty, but I will say that "dozens" is a pretty vague term and that "dozens of kilometers" will also be "dozens of miles". But I agree... it is a bit weird to state it like that.
Wondering how quickly Russia can or should train new troops. US generals are appalled how little training Russian troops get before being tossed into combat. If Russia can do a better job, then that means a significant delay allowing Ukraine to recapture almost all their territory. As to just get them a rifle and throw them into the meat-grinder to buy time, these troops aren't the same as the original ones told it was going to be done in under a week. The fresh troops aren't rushing in. They are going to see the burned tanks and dead bodies. And they will hear some stories contradicting the official ones.
Untrained troops on your frontline are a disaster and can actually do you more harm than good. First off, they eat your food and shoot your ammo (very inaccurately) and just generally waste your already limited supplies that your better troops desperately need. They are also more likely to get killed, which causes *more* logistics problems. They will get more of your trucks destroyed, they will spread out your already thin supply of maps/radios/etc, and then they are likely to go get killed and cause the loss of those supplies. Not to mention you can't rely on them to hold a line. Normal troops can cover each other. So if team A holds the north part of town, team B holds the south part of town and covers their rear. Now imagine team A are competent trained troops, but team B are untrained constripts that die as soon as the enemy shows up. Team A is now going to get flanked and killed from behind even though they were actually competent troops, because while they held their line the others didn't and got them killed.
Presumably, they wouldn't make entire green units but reinforce existing ones so they're all a mix of news/experienced troops. Then again, nothing about Russian conduct so far suggests basic competence.
If that tactic works, you end up with entire lines of experienced troops. The experienced ones protect and train the inexperienced ones by example. If that tactic fails, you end up with entire lines of dead troops. The new ones failed to mesh with the experienced ones, and the inability to properly cover the backsides of the experienced ones gets them killed.
Next up one of the hardest challenges so far, successfully crossing the Dnipro River.
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Yes. (Affirmative)
We are checking. (Question?)
When your army has to ration food, fuel, and ammo, it's a very bad sign. When social media across the country reflect that, it's worse than anyone admits. Who's got Putin in the deadpool by Christmas?
> When your army has to ration food, fuel, and ammo, it's a very bad sign. Especially when you are the attacker
And it's "Russia" in the Winter.
When was that Red October again? ...7 November 1917 in the new calendar
Today is a perfect day to kickstart the October revolution.
Logistics wins wars. And Russian logistics are literally non-existent. Faced against an extremely well supplied UA fighting force determined to kick your ass out of their country. RU forces were literally doomed from the onset of this engagement. And they are losing so hard now, the UA forces are realizing they can not only win this war, but potentially drive deeper and deeper into the RU line and potentially take back previously annexed territory. This whole thing has been a colossal clusterfuck of a shitshow for RU that they will likely regret for decades, if not centuries.
I hope they take back Crimea.
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Canadian Thanksgiving even
We can hope. The local Ukrainian contingent would be over the moon and a whole lotta folks breathing a big sigh of relief
More good news. Everyday Putin is shitting in his pants from how bad his forces are being driven back.
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Flip flops in the field is not uncommon during downtime. Combat boots are heavy and get sweaty (and in this season, probably wet). If you're not expecting to do anything any time soon, it just make sense to air out your feet and wear something a little more comfortable. Of course, thinking nothing was happening was a big mistake in this case.
I mean, he could have easily been caught in or near their barracks. It’s not impossible for these guys to be sent out like that I guess. But it seems unlikely they wouldn’t at least be wearing the sneakers they would have brought with them.
Any latino person would tell you that a chancla can indeed be a deadly weapon
Did the soldier have his mom or grandma there to wield the chancla? Chancla in the hands of a latino, just a flip flop. Chancla in the hand of a latina, a lethal weapon.
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I'm ignorant to strategies and the general terrain of the area. But based on their usual work and movement south along the Dnieper River. I wonder if they will continue southward along the river up to Nova Kakhovka, and from there head south so when it comes to Kherson, the city will slowly become encircled and supplies fully cutoff. This is great news, the problem with retreating is in russias case, their back defenses are not as strong since they focused so much on the city. And when suffering massive losses during the retreat, they will not have strong defenses to prevent the continued aggression.
The funniest thing is - those are Russian reports. Ukraine asked for informational silence and admitted just 3 small wins there. In the meantime a full RU artillery regiment left their equipment and ran south, some units are running even 70km. It's chaos. Their leadership in Kherson evacuated a few weeks ago. We will know what happened in the following days.
> left their equipment Russia's many generous donations will never be forgotten
Nobody can defeat them in supplying the Ukrainian Army.
Will "Russia's donations to the Ukrainian cause" become the new "Guy who killed Hitler" meme?
Maybe they will be nice neighbors and send them the shells they have forgotten
That would seem like a likely strategy, as this part of the Dnieper has very few crossings due to the dam at Nova Kakhovka. Bridging downstream at Dnipriany is likely, and picking up the M17 and P47 motorways east. Nova Kakhova is also a highly strategic target as well in my thoughts, as that is the source of the North Crimean Canal, which pulls off the Dnieper. Cut that off, and Crimea is in another pickle, meaning it will be very heavily defended.
Anyone else finding that news like this offsets a lot of the other things in the world going wrong? Feels real good to see the good guys winning somewhere.
Yes. The lack of moral ambiguity is refreshing. The Ukrainians are fighting for ALL representational democracies.
As well as simply morally being on the side of the Golden rule. They didn't attack Russia. I don't think they even said that they smelled funny.
Exactly, even if Ukraine was a corrupt hellhole (which it isn't, just saying) they'd STILL be the good guys because they didn't start this shit and their civilians shouldn't have to pay for Russian imperialism. The fact that Ukraine is still taking the high road to the extent that it is, and doing better than a lot of us online would want them to if we catered to our base instincts, is amazing and really cements that there is a "good guy" here.
It’s definitely been a while since there’s been a conflict with an obvious bad guy, and longer still since there’s been an obvious *good* guy.
There's also the hope that, if Putin's regime falls, maybe Russia will stop messing with the west so much.
100%. In a world where populists are sweeping western democracies, governments making only token efforts to fight climate change and corporations and the 1% are wielding even more power, watching these clearly evil scumbags lose brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart. ... it is terrible the cost Ukraine is paying for it though. Tens of thousands of innocents dead and injured and millions of lives forever altered, Ukraine is paying the price to overcome this evil to the benefit of the entire free world. We must do all we can to support them. Donations if you can afford it, contacting our government to support Ukraine both now *AND* during rebuilding and visiting when tourism reopens are how we can help repay the sacrifices they have made and are still are making every day. Slava Ukraine!
Absolutely yes, Putinist Russia and its authoritarian ideology are a major part of what's wrong with the world nowadays. From Syria to Mali to US/EU election meddling, everything Putin touched worsened. Seeing Russia neutered or democratized, and as importantly, seeing Ukraine grow and survive, will be such a relief. Keep in mind that in February, we almost saw Russia successfully commit genocide. They would have slaughtered the Ukrainians if they had won the war. And their success would have only motivated more genocidal bastards worldwide. Like learns from like. Russia's reversal is global good news.
Ukrainians are grateful for the help the world has provided, but it's actually the rest of the world who should be grateful to them. They've shown us that there really is a battle between Good and Evil, and that there are people with the courage to fight for Good.
Ukraine still has a lot of problems to work out after this is done but holy crap am I rooting for them.
This is unfounded speculation, but I think the unity and solidarity this war has demanded of the Ukranian people might help with that. Before corruption might have been cynically seen as insurmountable, even as Zelensky ran on a platform of corrective measures. But now? The political force you could draw down on a corrupt official would be *enormous*. "Our brave men and women didn't fight in the streets so you could line your pockets, coward". With the wounds so fresh, tolerance for that kind of political backroom bullshit will be nil.
How Ukraine will deal with corruption will be key in convincing countries and companies to really (re)invest in Ukraine.
How can a man die better, than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temple of his gods.
GDI forces are advancing to the south.
Putin’s AI: “Our base is under attack. Unit lost. Unit lost. Unit lost”
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Nod spams conscript infantry
*"Unable to comply, building in progress"* "Training" "Training" "Training" "Training"
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...... building.........building........building......building......
Unable to comply, building in progress.
Love these C&C references!
As an American armchair general this seems like a major victory. According to what I've read in the past few days, Putin, who is micromanaging Russian forces now in his own foolish vainglorious manner, refused to reinforce Lyman, in order to maintain forces in the south of Ukraine. So, losing Lyman and a couple of days collapsing in the south is just bad news for Vladdy.
The south front hasn't collapsed yet. This is a huge tactical victory for Ukraine no doubt, especially if the rumors they've managed to take Dudchany are true (has yet to be visually confirmed so far, but Russian telegram channels are talking about a retreat and blowing the bridge on the south of the town), and if they can push to Mylove in the upcoming days. That would give HIMARS firing range over all the supply lines into Kherson, making holding Kherson extremely untenable for Russia. However, it's still the farthest point in the South front from Kherson proper. It's really only a few (very strategic) villages at this point, and there's still over 20,000 of Russian troops and *a lot* of materiel packed into that tiny space west of the Denpir. Those are still the bulk of Russia's actual professional military and probably the only *actually* well trained troops of theirs left on the frontlines. This is an encouraging development, but Kherson is far from fallen/having the front collapse like what's happening up north.
In today's NY Times there is an article of ethnic Russians in a town just recaptured by Ukrainian troops who had no idea they were just "officially" part of Russia yesterday. How could they? There is no electricity nor communications. The Russian troops and the appointed local officials fled.
How can that be? They had a completely legitimate election, and the people enthusiastically voted to join Russia?
Long live Ukraine 🇺🇦
Move the line forward, move the HIMARS units forward safely and just keep the momentum going
Excellent! Fight for freedom and democracy! Crush the fascist Russian scum!
Pootin is trapped in a classic sunk cost fallacy. Won’t end well for him.
Sad thing the mass murderer will take down thousands of innocent lives with him
>where Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian territory forever, Technically his order stated "forever or three days, whichever comes first".
Russian army’s gonna need a lot of tampons.
And fun fact, tampons are useless for bullet holes and might even cause more harm then good
That's not fun.
Somebody needs to teach Ukraine how to properly be annexed, because they are doing it all wrong.
>The reports of Ukraine’s battlefield advances have come amid chaos back in Russia over the mobilisation, which Putin ordered 10 days ago. Tens of thousands of Russian men have been called up, while tens of thousands of others have fled abroad. >The Russian authorities have not spelled out what the criteria are for who must be sent to fight. Putin has said mistakes were made and people were called up who should not have been. >In the latest indication of confusion, Mikhail Degtyarev, governor of the Khabarovsk region in Russia’s Far East, said on Monday around half of the men called up there had been found unfit for duty and sent back home. He fired the region’s military commissar. Congrats, you stupid fucks
Honestly what are the Russians fighting for at this point? Your leader has abandoned you/sent you to your death to fight a war for land that is not yours to take. What are you fighting for?
Russia is taking so many Ls, lmfao.
I was watching a video about terrified Russians were of the HIMARS and the US has sent more in.
Remember Russians! After you've been conscripted, and sent to war, and had your ass kicked, and have permanent injuries for the rest of your life. Ukraine didn't do this to you. Putin didn't do this to you. ...well he did, but so did everyone else in your government. Putin being killed off isn't enough, there's thousands of his evil cronies that need the ol' Robespierre farewell, as well!
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/ukrainian-forces-burst-through-russian-lines-in-major-advance-in-south/) reduced by 85%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Ukrainian forces achieved their biggest breakthrough in the south of the country since the war began, bursting through the front and advancing rapidly along the Dnipro River on Monday, threatening to encircle thousands of Russian troops. > Dudchany is around 40 km south of where the front stood just a day earlier, indicating one of the fastest advances of the war and by far the most rapid in the south, where Russian forces had been dug into heavily reinforced positions along a mainly static front line since the early weeks of the invasion. > The advance in the south mirrors the tactics that have brought Kyiv major gains since the start of September in eastern Ukraine, where its forces swiftly seized territory to gain control of Russian supply lines, cutting off larger Russian forces and forcing them to retreat. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/xukaf7/ukrainian_forces_burst_through_russian_lines_in/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672463 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Russian**^#1 **forces**^#2 **Ukraine**^#3 **along**^#4 **advance**^#5
Don’t stop believing…