Ukraine War Watch Thread

[R8Z]

One thing is certain: with the internet and decentralized information, Ukraine has already won the ethical and moral high ground in this war on the minds of most probably the majority of the world citizens. Not sure if this will help them in any way, but it's a good thing that internet has provided us.

[raklian]

This one nearly gave me a heart attack.




But it turns out it was a case of misunderstanding the situation by the person who tweeted this.

[wjfox]

[rennerpetey]

One thing is certain: with the internet and decentralized information, Ukraine has already won the ethical and moral high ground in this war on the minds of most probably the majority of the world citizens. Not sure if this will help them in any way, but it's a good thing that internet has provided us.

I think this is only true in the west where we don't hear any Russian perspective.

[weatheriscool]

[Xyls]

I'm not sure what Russia is doing exactly... but it appears they have suffered at least 2 major setbacks so far...

Russians have failed to secure Hostomel and are taking major casualties in the battle for the airport:



The Ukrainians also seem to be putting up major resistance in Sumy and Kharkiv...



With reports of some defections of Russian soldiers I'm wondering how well the Russians are performing (is this some sort of distraction for the actual plan against Ukraine, since there are rumours this isn't the full invasion force yet) and they are moving people to other positions to throw them off?

Or is this clumsiness and tactical incompetence by Russia? It could be this too, as Russia was reportedly quite sloppy in their 2008 war with Georgia...

[weatheriscool]

I'm not sure what Russia is doing exactly... but it appears they have suffered at least 2 major setbacks so far...

Russians have failed to secure Hostomel and are taking major casualties in the battle for the airport:



The Ukrainians also seem to be putting up major resistance in Sumy and Kharkiv...



With reports of some defections of Russian soldiers I'm wondering how well the Russians are performing (is this some sort of distraction for the actual plan against Ukraine, since there are rumours this isn't the full invasion force yet) and they are moving people to other positions to throw them off?

Or is this clumsiness and tactical incompetence by Russia? It could be this too, as Russia was reportedly quite sloppy in their 2008 war with Georgia...

Wouldn't it be funny if Ukraine beat Russia out of their country and massed troops on russia's border. lol

[Cyber_Rebel]

Wouldn't it be funny if Ukraine beat Russia out of their country and massed troops on russia's border. lol

Perhaps as a bit of irony, but it becomes far less amusing when said losing nuclear power starts resorting to tactical nukes. If Putin is psychotic enough to take things this far, there's no telling what would happen if/when he is nationally disgraced.

[Yuli Ban]

[Xyls]

Wouldn't it be funny if Ukraine beat Russia out of their country and massed troops on russia's border. lol

Perhaps as a bit of irony, but it becomes far less amusing when said losing nuclear power starts resorting to tactical nukes. If Putin is psychotic enough to take things this far, there's no telling what would happen if/when he is nationally disgraced.

I mean the thing about modern war is that it is about defeating your enemy and surviving popular opinion at home. Russian regimes have a history of collapsing if wars don't go their way (The Russian Monarchy in WWI, The Soviet Union following Afghanistan), if Putin doesn't outright win then he will be gone, this isn't exactly communist China... dissent is already growing and failure to get his objectives rapidly will result in a collapse of support for his government in both the public and potentially the military. I don't really think we have to worry about nukes as Ukraine isn't going to try to invade Russia, and in fact using one would destabilize his government further...

The failure to secure Hostomel is a major setback to trying to encircle Kyiv... if morale is low amongst Russian force (and there appears to be reason to think this is the case) then low morale can offset many technology/numerical advantages. In addition, it's not like the Russians are being particularly innovative in tactics here (neither is Ukraine thus far), but Ukraine is the defender and might be able to massively frustrate attempts to quickly take Kyiv. Also Russia does not have a particularly good history when it comes to urban warfare recently. Russia took years to beat Chechnya during the Chechen wars (a way smaller opponent mind you) and had their army defeated at the Battle of Grozny in 1996 by a relatively small force.

Russia has major advantages in tank and open ground warfare... but that doesn't mean they will do well in urban combat against a motivated and sophisticated enemy...

In other news, reports are that a massive bombing campaign could be in store for Kyiv tonight, similar to the Shock and Awe in 2003. (Hopefully, not The Blitz in WW2)