Russo-Ukrainian War Thread - Page 576

On September 07 2023 22:07 JimmiC wrote:
This article talks about how the Russian defences of mine fields and trenches were very good, then he goes on to talk about how the dragons teeth were completely useless. How exactly were they designed to stop tanks? They do seem really easy to avoid, or completely useless as this guy describes.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/russias-infamous-dragons-teeth-defenses-105548192.html

On September 07 2023 01:07 Ardias wrote:
Kharkov (or to be mo exact, frontline from Siverskiy Donets to Balakleya) was thin by the end of summer 2022. We even discussed it here with my take that 35th Combined Arms Army was pulled to the Vostok-2022 exercise, and Manit0u's opinion was that it was moved to support defence of Kherson (actually here he was right, at least 35th CAA in particular was indeed confirmed in Kherson later on).
My longpost on the matter back then
https://tl.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=27987508

As for judging the knowledge of the person based on accuracy of his past prognosis, suggested above - I recall you predicting collapse of Russian military in 5-6 months during Kharkov offensive, as well as Kwark predicting 2nd battle of Mariupol by the end of 2022. Should that disqualify your opinions from the discussion?

But it's interesting idea, lets roll with it. I encourage people here to write down their prediction of the events, lets say, a year from now. Will use it as a time bottle. I'll write mine down a bit later, as I'm ending my worktime atm.

On September 06 2023 14:03 Ardias wrote:

There are only 14 Challys, all of them belonging to tank company of 82nd Airborne brigade, which was deployed to the frontline only couple of weeks ago. There was even Forbes article about it.

@Kwark - it was not exactly the opinion of western media before the offensive, including Royal Armoured Corps former members:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/09/british-made-tanks-about-to-sweep-putins-conscripts-aside/
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-battle-tanks-russia-spring-counteroffensive-abrams-leopards-challengers-1799378

On September 07 2023 22:07 JimmiC wrote:
This article talks about how the Russian defences of mine fields and trenches were very good, then he goes on to talk about how the dragons teeth were completely useless. How exactly were they designed to stop tanks? They do seem really easy to avoid, or completely useless as this guy describes.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/russias-infamous-dragons-teeth-defenses-105548192.html

On September 08 2023 04:11 Ardias wrote:

It's a bit more complicated.
First of all, if we talk about late Cold War era (1970-1989) - yes, there was quite a difference between the tank school of thought, mainly that Soviets had an autoloader, and Western tanks (to be more precise - US, British, German and Italian) hadn't.
But that didn't happen because Soviets simply didn't care about the loss of crews. There were couple of reasons to this.
1. Soviet school of thought at time was - "the smaller is the target, the harder it is to hit". Since the accuracy of targeting equipment and precision weapons was much lower back then, than it is now, this kind of thought had some merit.
2. Western tanks were designed to operate on well-developed road network of Germany, which was supposed to be a main battleground for WW3. Couple of dozens tons of additional weight weren't that much of an issue there.
Soviet tanks were designed to be able to be moved and transported via all road and railroad network of Soviet Union, which had less of a capacity than West Germany had (many Russian bridges still have 50 ton limit). Hence they were forced to maintain weight below 50 tons, but to retain combat capabilities similar to the Western tanks. Hence Soviet engineers were forced to fine a solution (besides cramped accomodation, the reason while in USSR you were recruited to be a tanker only if you were shorter than 175 cm), and they found it in autoloader.

And in terms of autloaders' inferiority, there is a question to be answered - why all new Western tanks developed after Cold War, actually have an autoloader instead of 4th crew member (Leclerc, K2, Type 10)? Because current Leopards, Abrams' and Challys are still a deep upgrades of 1970-1980 designs, they aren't some brand new models.

HAVANA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Cuba has uncovered a human trafficking ring that coerced its citizens to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry said, adding that Cuban authorities were working to "neutralize and dismantle" the network.

The statement from Cuba's foreign ministry late on Monday gave few details, but noted the trafficking ring was operating both within the Caribbean island nation, thousands of miles from Moscow, and in Russia.

"The Ministry of the Interior... is working on the neutralization and dismantling of a human trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine," the Cuban government statement said.

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Russia last year announced a plan to boost the size of its armed forces by more than 30% to 1.5 million combat personnel, a lofty goal made harder by its heavy but undisclosed casualties in the war.

In late May, a Russia newspaper in Ryazan city reported that several Cuban citizens had signed contracts with Russia's armed forces and had been shipped to Ukraine in return for Russian citizenship.

It was not immediately clear if the Cuban foreign ministry statement was associated with the Ryazan report.

Russia, which has strong political ties with communist-run Cuba, has long been an important destination for Cuban migrants seeking to escape economic stagnation at home.

The defense ministers of Cuba and Russia earlier this year discussed the development of joint "technical military" projects at a meeting in Moscow. But the administration of Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel denies any involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

"Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine," the foreign ministry said late on Monday. "(Cuba) is acting and will act energetically against anyone... who participates in any form of human trafficking for the purpose of recruitment of Cuban citizens as mercenaries to use arms against any country."

Cuba said it had already begun prosecuting cases in which its citizens had been coerced into fighting in Ukraine.

"Attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against people involved in these activities," the statement read.