Russia - threadbanned users in OP

At least Jimmy Savile raised some money for children's hospitals to try and put something in the 'good' side of the ledger for when he died. Putin, on the other hand, is bombing the fecking things.

Ironically, such a demonstration would be banned in their own dictatorship (!) All protests are banned in Russia, even those 'in favour' of the Putin regime.

Maybe I'm wrong here,

But some posters seem to be forgetting some very simple facts.

1) Russian invaded a neutral, free and sovereign nation.

2) Russia is bombing cities and targeting civilians.

3) Russia fired on a nuclear plant.

4) Russia is committing war crimes.

Are the Ukrainians out of javelin missiles?

Do Russia have any real tank forces? Or is it just more rusting relics with poorly trained, demotivated amateurs operating them.

Wonder are the helicopter boys who hit belgorod up for another spin

That's too simplistic of a way to look at things. Even a poorly equipped army can achieve some pretty spectacular successes if they have the right leadership with respects to logistics & organisation, tactics and human/morale issues. Even an old T-72 can deliver a whole lot of pain to its target if operated properly and under the command of a good platoon/company commander. This type of leadership is something that has been painfully absent on the Russian side, leading to the current rather unflattering picture we're getting of their army. Whilst Ukrainian doctrine since 2014 has emphasised independent tactical thinking even at the platoon and company level, especially in absence of any direct orders from HQ, the Russian army is far more hierarchical in its approach and initiative is frowned upon, if not actively encouraged. Let's use an example.

Let's say that a tank company, supported by mechanised infantry, is supposed to proceed along an axis of attack "A" to take and secure a strategically important target "X". The nature of that target is irrelevant for the time being. On their way there, reconnaissance elements find that "A" is blocked by a strong defensive position "B" at a critical chokepoint.

Generally, a Ukrainian, or western-trained, commander, would use his reconnaissance elements, together with part of its mechanised infantry support, to scout out the terrain to the left and right of "B" for any weak spots and if possible take it out with a flanking attack, the infantry hitting "B" from the flanks or behind, whilst the tanks use the distraction provided by this attack to engage "B" head on and catch the position in a pincer move, clearing the position and moving on to "X".

From my knowledge, a Russian commander would simply go for a frontal assault, using the tanks to provide covering fire for the advancing infantry as they storm "B", despite the fact that this might incur significant losses amongst the soldiers and their APCs, IFVs or whatever they're using as transport. Any type of lateral thinking does not seem to take place.

If I'm completely honest, the demotivation you describe is a symptom rather than a problem on its own. And given that the root causes for this, and many other symptoms, are systemic, I doubt that Russia will be able to overcome them anytime soon, especially given that the current political and social climate in Russia doesn't exactly encourage the type of open dialogue that would be needed.

Inferior ? Russia had far more tanks & just kept pouring them into the battle. Ukraine can't do that.

Javelins are of limited use against a tank charge. Their positions may be overrun. I would of thought that they need the US Switchblade system asap.

The one good thing is they will have excellent intelligence unless it's cloudy. A pitched battle is the opposite of the tactics that have worked so well for Ukraine.

Could be a chance for a massive strategic win for the west. From what we have seen up to now Ukraine could eliminate vast amounts of Russian equipment. It may not win them the war in the short term but could be the final nail in the coffin of Russian military threat to Europe for the next couple of decades at least.

A neutral, free and sovereign nation?

Sovereign, yes.

Free, depends. More so than Russia politically but Ukraine is just as corrupt a country as Russia is. Make no mistake about that.

Neutral? No. They have been trying to join NATO and the EU since the first Russian invasion after the Maidan coup. They never pretended to be neutral.

The country was closer to neutral before the government was overthrown in 2014.

Yes, but those superior numbers have already taken an absolute battering. An American general was on CNN last night pointing out "this is not a video game". You don't take a hammering, move a few forces around, regroup and you're good to go again. The Russian army is in very bad shape and morale is low. All of the momentum is with the Ukrainians, not with the Russians.

We were talking about Russia's sheer numbers in the opening days of the invasion as well. Wasn't Groundhog day a couple of months ago? - "Russia have 200,000 troops massed near the border. Ukraine can fight the good fight, but there's no way they can hold out against such overwhelming numbers. Kyiv to fall by Monday. OK, the end of this week. Oh, sh*t, did you see the length of that convoy? It's gotten even longer, now. Russia to encircle Kyiv, then it's game over. Yep, any day now. Aaaaand the Russians have fecked off."

Womp, womp, womp.

For the record, I have absolutely no clue what will happen in the east of Ukraine and make no predictions about it. All I can say is that having taken confident assertions at face value about what the Russians would be able to do this time last month, I'm now content to just wait and see.

Translation..

Russia has assembled at least 32 Su-27 fighters, as well as several IL-76 and other aircraft at the military airfield in Voronezh, as evidenced by satellite photos of Planet Labs from April 9

This comes up as the same airbase ' Voronezh malshevo on Google earth dated May 2021