Alright, almost three weeks into the biggest fucking shitstorm of our lives so far, here’s my takeaways/updates for you anime avatars here who don’t want to dip into the Ukraine happening thread for good reason.
-Ukraine is losing, but slowly
Kharkiv hasn’t fallen yet and neither has Mariupol, which is significant. Both are very important border cities the Russians obviously planned taking within the first week. Kyiv is slowly, very slowly, being encircled. The Ukrainians are holding out far better than ever predicted and keep managing to strike command posts and supply elements, not to mention destroy armor elements. This is a bit like Mike Tyson in his twilight career (Russia) taking a bout with a welterweight and that welterweight lasting into round five. It’s not the best for that boxer but he’s still in the fight despite the hits he’s taken, and he’s given Tyson a black eye.
-Everything everyone expected out of the Russian military is not happening the way it should
They’ve finally managed to reorganize a bit and are actually using concentrated artillery and rocket barrages now, but the Russian ground support by air is still a mess, their supplies are still in a harsh position and in general they’re losing men and equipment they really can’t afford to lose in dumb ways in what seem to be the same dumb ways again and again. Heads are going to roll in the military command structure for this for sure. The Blyatzkrieg has failed to even approach the absolute fucking devestation of the American air campaign in Iraq in 2003 or the coalition brutally curbstomping Iraq in 1991. The Russians seem to have learned nothing from Georgia and gotten the completely wrong lessons from 2014 when they invaded Ukraine the first time.
-The reputation of the VDV is fucking destroyed
Hostemel airport was a risky move that cost them some of their best and all over Ukraine there’s burned out BMD’s. Irpin and Bucha have been slaughterhouses for them. And that’s just what we’ve confirmed for losses. They’re being used like mechanized infantry, except they’re in aluminum death traps.
-Propaganda from both sides is flying fast and thick but the Russians are lying a lot more than even I expected
The official figures from either MOD is absolutely bullshit (aside from maybe the Ukrainian tank kill claims as at least 2/3rds of that has photographic evidence of being destroyed, captured, or abandoned.). Best estimates are likely between 7 to 8 thousand dead Russians and 5 to 6 thousand dead Ukrainians, just counting combatants. Civilian death tolls from indiscriminate Russian bombardment are easily into the thousand plus range and will only continue to climb. The Russian tactic of obscuring and what about isms has been firmly met with the West going “yeah no, that’s bullshit Ivan”.
-Vatniks have been absolutely blown the fuck out
I cannot stress enough how cathartic this has been for so many milspergs who’ve had to deal with Russian nationalists, Serbians, and western retards crowing about the newest Russian gear being totally there in vast quantities and the best EVARR111!!1!11!!! And to then see it completely blown the fuck out by western tech from the 1980’s like the Javelin, using old almost fried missiles, old stingers, cheap Turkish drones, Warsaw Pact leftovers, and random farmers with a tractor and a desire to get a new piece of very expensive farm equipment. I have seen more T-72B’s destroyed than ever before, and the Russians have been fielding fucking T-72A’s, which are mid 70’s vintage tanks, in the front line. Their most advanced fighter bomber got shot down by a pensioner with an Igla he’d trained on in the 80’s when he was in the Red Army in East Germany. An SA-8 Gecko killed a modern Russian cruise missile. Someone took out a T-90A with a damn RPG-7. The Russian Air Force seems to have no answer to MANPAD’s or midrange air defense systems. There’s the possibility a Russian patrol boat (basically a coast guard cutter) got hit by Grad MLRS fire, but that’s still very unconfirmed. The Russians believed they’d neutralized the UAF day one but all indications are it’s been flying on and off again, and running drone strikes into hostile airspace under the noses of the vaunted Russian air defenses. This war has totally destroyed the reputation of Russia as a modernized military force.
All in all I expect at least another week of fighting.