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| How did Russia lose HALF of its 45,000 elite paratroopers in just seven months? CHRIS PLEASANCE explains how Putin's generals' blunders saw thousands of crack VDV soldiers slaughtered... and what that means for the Ukraine war | |
| 2023-03-01 | |
| [DM] Russia’s paratroopers – the VDV – are supposed to be the best of the best. The 45,000-strong elite and experienced force has a reputation for ingenuity, toughness, and violence. What's more, its soldiers are among Moscow’s best equipped and best trained fighters. This makes it all the more shocking that, seven months after Vladimir Putin ordered his armies to invade Ukraine in February 2022, half of them were dead. Here, Chris Pleasance examines how 50 percent of Putin’s elite fighting force were wiped out as Ukraine put up a fierce defence of its country, and what that means for the Kremlin’s remaining army.
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| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #11 More like the expectation he would soon have NATO troops on his doorstep The old Baltic States are already in NATO and on his doorstep. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-03-01 21:07 |
| #10 I think Putin invaded Ukraine out of fear that he would soon have NATO troops on his doorstep More like the expectation he would soon have NATO troops on his doorstep, given the recent admissions from both Angela Merkel and the head of NATO that the West has been planning this for some time. I believe there was also a mobilization taking place in Ukraine - one of those things we do not seem to hear much about in our press. For Putin, the question becomes is it better to fight them now or later? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2023-03-01 18:55 |
| #9 How? Ask Von Paulus. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2023-03-01 18:24 |
| #8 You believe what you want to believe. I think it sounds pretty far fetched. But then, it's hard for me to believe that anybody would follow Joe Biden into war. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-03-01 18:14 |
| #7 ^ like a predecessor before him, he was gambling on the 'allies' doing nothing, Sudetenland, Austria, Czechoslovakia. They were largely bluffs. Each indecision, each equivocation signal the next move. Even with Poland, the allies didn't really do anything, the Sitzkreig. Putin has the same mentality. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-03-01 17:58 |
| #6 Abu - yes I believe he believed his own and the world's PR about how fearsome his armed forces were. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2023-03-01 17:53 |
| #5 Evidently the Ukrainians were shelling Donbas (allegedly admitted by OSCE observers) right up until the special military operation. I hardly think the Russians were planning on rolling through the Baltics on its way to Poland and Kaliningrad/Königsberg. NATO is a whole different ball of dysfunctional wax. |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2023-03-01 13:37 |
| #4 Question: Does anybody really believe Putin was planning to conquer Europe with such a pathetic army? Do you really believe his is that stupid? I think Putin invaded Ukraine out of fear that he would soon have NATO troops on his doorstep in Donbas and Crimea. I think he's scared shitless because Biden has made it clear he wants Putin's head on a platter and he just might get it. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-03-01 13:20 |
| #3 Seizing the airport would have worked if Ukraine was caught flat footed and the convoy wasn't hung up at the river, but that didn't happen and the airborne units got slaughtered in a mechanized counterattack. Posted by: DarthVader 2023-03-01 11:20 DV, This sounds a lot like Desert One - an extraordinarily over-complex plan that required EVERYTHING to work perfectly, and also required the other side to cooperate. Mike |
| Posted by: MikeKozlowski 2023-03-01 12:41 |
| #2 For those that do watch videos: The Battle of Kyiv: A Tale of Russian Missteps and Ukrainian Ingenuity Nice deep dive on it. Also in short, Russia forgot how to war, Ukraine knew they were coming due to western intelligence, blew a damn to prevent a river crossing, moved their anti-air sites every 12 hours to prevent Russians from finding them and had a great counter-attack plan. Seizing the airport would have worked if Ukraine was caught flat footed and the convoy wasn't hung up at the river, but that didn't happen and the airborne units got slaughtered in a mechanized counterattack. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2023-03-01 11:20 |
| #1 Without reading the link ( I don't watch videos), I'll guess it's due to "MarketGarden Complex" |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2023-03-01 09:56 |