Russo-Ukrainian War Thread - Page 379

On February 11 2023 09:10 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
What? This seems like a current myth going around the Russian units to excuse why they can't advance. Needless to say I want to see those photos...

On February 12 2023 00:10 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
There wasn't a Senior Diplomat available to be brought with him to try and smooth what he said over...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOXaOd_h2hA

Russian soldiers are dying in greater numbers in Ukraine this month than at any time since the first week of the invasion, according to Ukrainian data.

The Ukrainian data shows 824 Russian soldiers dying per day in February.

The figures were highlighted by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The figures cannot be verified - but the UK says the trends are "likely accurate".

The increase comes as Ukrainian officials say that Russia has launched a "big offensive".

However, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine (NSDC), Oleksiy Danilov, also said Russia is experiencing "big problems" with the campaign.

"Our troops are repulsing [the offensive] very strongly," Mr Danilov said. "The offensive they planned is already taking place, gradually, but it's not the offensive they imagined."

Last week, Ukraine's outgoing defence minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, said they were anticipating a new Russian offensive around 24 February - the anniversary of the full-scale invasion.

Some of the fiercest fighting has been around Bakhmut in the east of the country.

On Sunday, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary force said the group had seized a settlement near the devastated city.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram: "Today, the settlement of Krasna Hora was taken by assault detachments of the Wagner PMC."

Mr Prigozhin also gave his group credit for the offensive on Bakhmut, downplaying the Russian army's role: "Within a radius of 50 km, plus or minus, there are only Wagner PMC fighters," he wrote.

The statement hints at longstanding tensions between the Russian military and Wagner.

When the town of Soledar was taken in January, Mr Prigozhin claimed his fighters were in full control there boasted that only his troops took part - a claim the Russian defence ministry questioned.

Bakhmut's strategic importance has been questioned, but the prolonged fighting has turned it into a symbolic prize.

According to the Ukrainian data, highlighted by the UK, 824 Russian losses a day is more than four times the rate reported in June and July, when around 172 Russian soldiers died each day.

The Ukrainian military claims 137,780 Russian military deaths since the full-scale invasion began.

The UK's MoD pointed out the recent increase could be due to "a range of factors, including lack of trained personnel, coordination, and resources across the front".

Ukraine "also continues to suffer a high attrition rate", the UK said.

Russian forces have made little progress in Ukraine since their retreat from the major southern city of Kherson last November.

Last month they captured the town of Soledar north of Bakhmut after an intense battle. Capturing Bakhmut could enable Russian forces to press on towards the bigger cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to Western countries to hurry sending heavy weaponry to Ukraine to help Ukraine repel Russia's expected offensive.

The US agreed last week to send long-range missiles that would enable Ukraine to double its attack range.

But President Zelensky wants the West to send fighter jets - saying during a visit to the UK Parliament this week that he was "thanking you all in advance for powerful English planes"

KYIV — As Russia probes Ukraine’s defensive lines ahead of an expected offensive, it might have lost the entire elite 155th naval infantry brigade while storming Vuhledar, a coal-mining town in the Donetsk region.

“A large number of enemy forces, including the command staff, were destroyed near Vuhledar and Mariinka in Donetsk Oblast,” Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, head of the united press center of the Tavriskiy District of Ukrainian defense forces, told POLITICO. “In addition, over the past week, the enemy lost about 130 units of equipment, including 36 units of tanks.”

Russian forces also were losing 150-300 marines a day near Vuhledar, Dmytrashkivskyi said.

Russian tactical failures around Vuhledar have likely further weakened the Russian ultranationalist community’s belief that Moscow’s forces are able to launch a decisive offensive operation, the Institute for the Study of War reported in its latest update. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers have been mourning huge losses and criticizing the Russian command for sending the elite troops in frontal attacks.

The Ukrainian marines also published a video of Russian troops panicking and piling up on a battlefield near Vuhledar. “Go make a cemetery! Gosh, the first column went there and blew up, and then the second one went exactly the same route,” Ukrainian artillerymen can be heard saying while watching Russians approaching Vuhledar.

“The 155th brigade already had to be restaffed three times. The first time after Irpin and Bucha; the second time they were defeated near Donetsk — they recovered again. And now almost the entire brigade has already been destroyed near Vuhledar,” Dmytrashkivskyi said.

Russian military and nationalist community met the defeat near Vuhledar painfully. The Institute for the Study of War reported that recent footage of failed Russian assaults near Vuhledar has pushed some Russian military bloggers to call for public trials against the high-ranking officers as they continue to repeat the same mistakes.

The defeat happened only a few days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported about a “successful offensive near Vuhledar.” The Ukrainian Defense Ministry trolled the Russians by posting a video of a Russian military column being destroyed in the area.

Russian former paramilitary commander Igor Girkin, sentenced to life in prison in absentia for the downing of MH17 passenger flight in 2014, has called Russian generals “complete morons, who don’t learn from their own mistakes.”

In his Telegram military blog, Girkin, who uses the pseudonym Igor Strelkov, echoed the ongoing criticism of the Russian military community toward the commanders. He confirmed that Russian forces near Vuhledar had to advance in motorized and tank columns along narrow roads and ended up piling up.

“Ukrainian artillery shoots exceptionally accurately. More than 30 units of armored vehicles were lost. Dozens of tankmen were killed. Even more marines, special forces, and motorized riflemen died,” Girkin said. “All these losses turned out to be ‘one-sided’ — the Ukrainians shot the attackers like in a shooting gallery.”

Girkin pessimistically described the defeat near Vuhledar as the end of the offensive of the Russian army on the entire Donetsk front.

Ukrainians are not rushing to celebrate victory, though, as Russian forces continue to storm Ukrainian positions near Vuhledar, Avdiivka and Bakhmut, where Ukrainians are preparing for street fighting.

“I wish weapons from our partners would come more quickly, as that would give us the opportunity not only to protect ourselves and hold the attacks but also finally push them out of our territory,” Dmytrashkivskyi said.

On February 12 2023 05:50 maybenexttime wrote:
Did he say that Poland took eight million Ukrainian refugees? ;o That's not even close to the real number (about three, with some 1-1.5 million staying).

On February 13 2023 16:49 plasmidghost wrote:

You're free to post anything you find

I don't post Russian sources because they're not trustworthy. Right now, the pro-Russian accounts are saying Ukraine launched a Tochka-U missile at Mariupol that was shot down by Russian Air defenses. The Tochka-U is a ballistic missile and Russia does not have the capability to shoot them down outside of Moscow

On February 13 2023 14:15 Taelshin wrote:
I'd expect a huge number of folks to be fleein, with Ukraines pop 8 million feels like a lot but its hard to say.