Article

2023-03-01 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

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

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Posted by Skidmark 2023-03-01 08:17|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 09:56|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 11:20|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 12:41|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 13:20|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 13:37|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 17:53|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 17:58|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 18:14|| Front Page Top

#9 How? Ask Von Paulus.

Posted by Rex Mundi 2023-03-01 18:24|| 2023-03-01 18:24|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 18:55|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2023-03-01 21:07|| Front Page Top

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