It's one of the main rules of wartime propaganda: "We are winning, the enemy is losing badly. We are suffering little-to-zero casualties, the enemy is being devastated and we are killing them by the thousands!"
I wonder what the actual ratio is in this war so far? Because there have been a lot of Russians killed, conscripts- I pity those guys. They get targeted by Ukrainian forces, using American/NATO intelligence, the Ukrainians set up an ambush for them and slaughter them. The young, poorly disciplined, poorly trained conscripts panic and are defeated. Prisoners are tortured and murdered (plenty of videos of Ukrainians doing this to captured Russians- still haven't seen any evidence of Russians doing shit like slitting throats or shooting legs, share footage if you've seen it) and then the Ukrainians blast the footage onto social media- "Another victory!"
Russian tank warfare has always seemed subpar in general. This trend seems to be continuing in this conflict. Their operators aren't always the best, but their tactics are awful. If you watch the videos of Ukrainians (or other enemies from previous wars) attacking and defeating Russian tanks, there's one common variable they all seem to share: ABSOLUTE LACK OF INFANTRY SUPPORT WHILE DRIVING A TANK THROUGH URBAN OR TIGHT AREAS. It's really, really easy for two men on foot to take out a multi-million dollar tank with a 4-5 man crew with improvised weaponry, give one man a rocket launcher and a little patience and he's going to blast a tank. Combined arms doctrine would have infantry moving in buildings/alleys/ditches around the tanks, looking for shit like enemies hiding in basements with a rocket launcher, waiting for a tread to come into view so they can blast it. Tanks alone cannot win a battle.
Meanwhile, an Alpha Group unit of Russians approaches Ukrainian troops, the Ukrainians flee. They get fucked up every time they engage the professional Russian soldiers. The only time the Ukrainians have success is with ambushes, fighting scared and inexperienced units of conscripts, and using attrition via their heavily defended positions.
You should get a job with the MSM. This jibes much better with evidence that I have seen and is well written.
As far as their tank fighting goes I think they try to make up for their lack of skill with sheer numbers of tanks. They have more than everybody else.
You should get a job with the MSM.
Is that an insult? I would never lay with dogs, as I hear you rise with fleas.
As far as their tank fighting goes I think they try to make up for their lack of skill with sheer numbers of tanks.
This may be true. They lose them at an absurd rate. It may be part of a strategy, to use somewhat shitty tactics- wrecked tanks make good cover for advancing infantry. Even better if they don't get wrecked entirely, and the crew can still operate the turret and various weapons while the infantry advances. Tanks also tend to soak up a lot more ammunition than necessary. I can say this from personal experience, from research and other accounts/videos- people shoot the shit out of tanks to an absurd degree. They will unload hundreds or even thousands of rounds of small arms from rifles or light/heavy machine guns.
Tanks are scary. They invoke fear in infantry as they approach, they have heavy weapons and optic systems nowadays that can really fuck you up if they see you first and have a clear line of fire to you. They can blast through your cover and wreck your ass before you can call in their position. I think this drives the response of "just shoot it with everything". Tank crews are rarely a threat when they bail- they typically do not grab their rifles/SMGs (if they have any) after they just felt the impact of a dozen+ RPGs or other armor piercing ordnance. They'll be all concussed, scared as shit, probably wounded in other ways- they always jump out and fucking bolt for the nearest thing they can lay down behind... so the small arms fire that is being poured onto a tank as it is finally penetrated or takes damage that forces the crew to eject ends up shredding the poor bastards. There's a lot of footage/accounts of this in the Chechen/Dagestan conflicts.
The footage I've watched of Ukrainians destroying Russian tanks is mostly using very sophisticated guided armor piercing missiles, including Javelins. One or two javs will make almost any tank a worthless pile of burning metal and cooking munitions, so that's what they're doing- nice fire and forget weapons.
But most importantly, is the Ukrainian mud. Someone made a great post about this, but this time of year is perfect for driving tanks through most of the country- a fews months back was the worst fucking time to tank there, which may be why the Russian offensive seems to be slow and labored; it may just be careful and measured. Who knows, I'm just a guy.
lol, sorry about the insult, I meant in in the kindest way. I was hoping you could raise the bar.
I think the recent news of Russia adding more troops to the conflict may have a lot to do with the weather and the coming of winter, they need to get this shit done before the place becomes a swamp again.
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