Russia - threadbanned users in OP

There has definitely been progress but not the kind you might see in a three minute news piece on the 9pm news.

It's hard to ever know what Russian strategy is currently, but drawing more US money in, as US continues to be drawn into Mid East, and just keep going until Trump gets back in, seems like a reasonable bet for what's currently happening.

Define 'so little' then. Because Ukraine has gained back enormous amounts and is making slow but steady progress. Driving the Russian navy out of Sevastopol with no navy of their own is one of the most notable naval victories in history.

very informative but genuinely wondering where 'Ukraine is gaining territory over Russia'. Any online map, originated from both sides, I look at recently doesn't reflect that. Maybe, I am looking at the wrong maps!!!!!

I’d imagine the bullets from a world war 2 era rifle would do as much damage as a modern rifle. My cousins still use the shotguns that my grandfather used 60/70 years to shoot pheasants. The design has not changed that much. The cartridges are pretty much the same. A lot of weapons and ammunition were dumped after world war 2 by the allies. The Soviets obviously didn’t dump theirs. I know the Soviets kept a large standing army at all times so they could maintain these weapons where as the allies demobilised but it does seem baffling and wasteful that so much was dumped. I understand the mood was very much anti war and never again but to just dump all that stuff in the sea is insane.

Maybe there was an economic logic to it to keep the arms industry in business post war???

I love how you leap to conspiracy and profiteering...

A piece of metal hitting you at decent velocity is always effective. But...

Old Russian Ammunition is corrosive. War time weapons are not built to high standards. So while they will not be reliable, occasionally dangerous, and likely not very accurate or consistent. If you have nothing else, you've no choice but firing old guns with old ammo is going to hard to hit anything, occasionally main or kill the shooter. Collectors of old weapons will cherry pick the best condition rifles and ammo. Even then the guns misfire and jam a lot.

A lot of weapons were not dumped after the war. They were stockpiled and reused if not by the host nation but by selling them to other nations. Ireland had Lee Enfield Rifles and Bren guns still on inventory until the 1980s. There were German WW2 guns used in the Vietnam War.

Lot of countries converted old Rifles into sporting or sniper rifles.

The last bren's were retired in the mid 2000's,

It's not just Russia using older weapons Ukrainian were using Lewis guns from WW1 the Russians on donesk were using mosin nagants rifles which looked pretty much new out of the factory,guns maybe old but the can be rechambered in modem calibres and just built new from the factory, either way they are still lethal weapons definitely wouldn't be volunteering to charge someone down using one or emplacement.

I think as well Russia I read has caught up with drone production and has thousands of drones for the battlefield and is hitting Ukrainian armour hard. So it's definitely slowing Ukraine down.

There are pictures of western armour and vehicles destroyed in Ukraine. Just a lot fewer.

Not sure if this person is talking crap or not but read it there.

do you have a bit more context for the arty superiority? the western media have been reporting arty shells issues, it will be a couple of years before there are increases in production if ever or may not be significant, it doesnt seem possible that Ukraine will receive anything like they did in 22/23 in 24. Currently a western shell costs $8K which implies its just price gauging due to shortages, the Russian cost for a shell is about 1/10th of that

It's probably based on number of shells fired each day. The fact Russia is firing less than Ukraine and the fact Russia have had to beg Kim for 100' of thousands of shells may lead people to the conclusion that Russia cannot produce enough to out shell Ukraine.

The cluster shells have been a godsend for Ukraine. They would be fooled without them.

Even if Russia can produce shells for $800, they cannot seem to do it at scale. 63k a day down to 7k, that's a significant drop.

but thats the past. the question is what will there supply be like in Q1 and Q2 of 24 , on the face of it, Ukraine wont receive anything like they did in 23 and Europe will only be supplying current production as the Europeans etc have given them their surplus and they wont be minded to run their stocks down to 0. Ukraine will have built up a stock for the summer offensive which they will have burned through now. If the Russians are going to do a serious offensive (if they are capable) it will be a Spring one, I see a risk for ukraine in the next 4-6 months. If the war rolls into 25 then I assume western production will have risen significantly.

Remember too that russian shells fired are very inaccurate compared to Ukrainian