Quote from: TwitchySeal on April 09, 2022, 05:49:54 PM

Quote from: PrimeNumber7 on April 09, 2022, 05:14:29 PM

Quote from: TwitchySeal on April 07, 2022, 11:15:10 PM

Quote from: DonaldRRR on April 07, 2022, 08:43:59 PM

Something to ponder on. We know that Russia did not expect the Ukrainians to put up such stiff and determined resistance; this explains why units went in unprepared (many buoys were under the impression that they would be welcome and where only told they were going in 48-72 hours prior); why Russia limited the number of targets it hit, etc but now that things are obviously going ratshit why aren't the Russians deploying some of the capabilities they have but so appeared to have held back?

Seems like there's a decent chance one of the cliffs notes for this chapter of the Global History books will be about what corruption did to Russias Military and Putins miscalculation in relying on the reputation of his army rather than his actual army.

The threat of overwhelming force can be enough to get an opposing army to lay down their arms. Wars have been won this way, as have battles. In WW2 for example, the axis were able to capture much of the pacific front by showing an overwhelming force.

Putins problem is that his military is apparently not very strong. Putin is committing nearly all his military resources towards Ukraine, and there is a stalemate at best.

This isn't the first time Russia has been in this position, either. There are a ton of similarities between what's going on now and the first few weeks of the first Chechen war. Russia sends a bunch of young, untrained conscripts to invade a country, gets ass whooped, demoralized. Google the Storming of Grozny if it interests you.

They ended up working out some sort of agreement, until Putin became president 5 or 6 years later. Putin decided to break the agreement and just bomb the shit out of them until the there was basically nothing left.

It appears in the case of Ukraine that the Russian troops were mostly lied to about the reasons they are fighting. Before the invasion, Putin had publicly said the reason for the military buildup was a training exercise, and it appears the Russian troops were fed the same lie. There are also reports that Russian troops had their phones confiscated so they cannot speak to their families to get a more accurate understanding of the war.

There are some signs that Russia is planning on using similar tactics as Putin did in the second battle of Grozny, as there has been some indiscriminate shelling of buildings, and the bombings of the childrens hospital.