Just hope the supplies are not cut off, the $40 B bill that one lone Republican stopped, to show he has his panties in a knot, needs to pass by Thursday otherwise the armament supply will be stopped.
The Brits, us, others and Administration probably have temporary work arounds. Mitch must be squeezing Paul's balls as hard as he can over this, it is not a winning issue for them, too many of the base have been seduced to the cause of Ukraine. Rand must be taking local heat over this as well from his own voters. In any case it's a done deal even with the delay I figure and it could be why they choose the smaller operation instead of going the whole nine yards to Kupisnk.
Maybe.. I haven't been following the war as much as you but it seems Putin is in range of having all of Ukraines Black sea. If that's his goal then he has it in sight.
They are blocked in the west around Kherson, blocked by blown bridges and the Ukrainians. Right now the plan appears to break the main Russian force in the east with superior western artillery and drones. They will drive towards their logistical hubs and force the Russians to fight or retreat if they are not cutoff in battles they cannot win. The brutal truth is the 155mm artillery we, CAN, AUS, US and UK gave them has a range of 30km and the Russian stuff has a range of 18km. The M777 is more accurate, has a faster rate of fire, is more mobile and is networked into a digital system so they can use drone intelligence to put shells on target in minutes. In addition we have been supplying tens of thousands of extended range and precision rounds.
The goal is the destruction of the Russian army, liberating Ukraine is a by product of this. The overall idea now is to suck as much of Vlad's army into Ukraine as we can, by making him and the public think he's got a chance and he's been reinforcing failure. Deception is a big part of war and in order to deceive the enemy we must deceive the public too, they haven't been announcing arrivals of arms and equipment or it's time table. The situation evolved over time and when the military people said they not only had a chance, but with the right equipment they could beat the fuckers, the attitude changed. Then there were the atrocities and that really opened the flood gates.
We know its Ukrainians..Its Ukraine. Russians were also blocked at Kherson and Melitopol and Mariupol. If Putin's goal is to have access to all of the old Soviet Black sea then he has it in his sights hasn't he?
I noticed the colors on the UK MoD map, Crimea is colored Ukraine territory, just Russian controlled. Fewer maps are showing it as disputed or annexed by Russia any more. Transnistria with it's Russian occupiers isn't even shown as sperate from Moldovia other than a dotted line. The Russian annexation of 2014 is not recognized by anybody, but some map makers show it as part of Russia. I figure by fall the maps will change quite a bit and it looks like the MoD are changing theirs!
His grasp exceeds his reach, he would have wanted the whole of Ukraine, but settled for the east and holding the gains in the south, but he can't. Another way of looking at it is the Ukrainians have a half million trained men between the regular army and veteran reservists and can call upon over 5 million fit men. In addition they have a large force of reservists, territorials who are useful for many things freeing up soldiers.
I think you have this idiom backwards.
they already have access to the black sea at Novorossiyk...no one stops them now from sailing the whole thing, including the sea of azov...so why do they want more of what they already have free use of?
It’s about the industrial wealth of the Donbas, and secondarily Vladolf’s ego.
they're going to die on the battlefield...even if they embrace those changes today, it takes time to build those assets. non commissioned russian veterans are rare, they do their time and then move on to civilian jobs. they lose their touch, which may or may not come back to them if required. but even the most experienced have NO experience doing the things that make ncos so valuable in other armies.
