Such a militia should be set up and staffed with locals over 15 who are well acquainted with the terrain along all exposed border regions.
Their main task should be surveillance, observation and reporting of activity along less guarded border areas.
For the first, they need not be armed - except perhaps for self defence - but they should be eqipped with modern easily portable communications hardware, first class optics and the possibility of night surveillance.
Equipment could include small civilian drones equipped with cameras to patrol the border (and possibly the enemies border territories).
Armed Militias and reserve army personnel should be posted behind the lines for rapid deployment in case of an incident.
Far too much caution from Putin. Agree. Take out the GD bridges. It would be a huge mistake for Russia to absorb this punch, regardless of how weak it might have been. Bad optics. Answer decisively!
True. But I don't believe Russia has any intention of taking Kiev, only of forcing Zelenskyyyy to sue for peace. The longer this drags on, the more likely it goes sideways.
Your caution about the war continuing is absolutely correct btw, but there problem with a peace negotiation isn’t just willingness. Zelensky’s lack of mandate and legitimacy is also a problem.
I think the Russians are all too aware of the possibility of a later regime in Kiev, claiming that whatever terms Lil’ Z agreed to are null and void, since his mandate had run out.
I'm certain the Biden Crime Syndicate has already established a generous golden parachute for the dirty lying Nazi once he's been driven from office. He probably already has an office and a mansion prepared for him in Miami.
When Marcos escaped from the Philippines, besides bringing his wife's 2,700 pairs of shoes, he absconded with 24 suitcases of gold bricks and diamond jewelry hidden in diaper bags. Certificates for gold bullion valued in the billions of dollars were allegedly among their personal properties. Certainly, the miserable begging scum Zelensky will have provided for his own inevitable escape from his shit hole of a country.
In attrition warfare it is better to let the Ukrainians bleed off their resources in the east, than to cut them off and then having to meet them intact in the west. The bridges should be cut off when it provides a momentum effect during a regional maneuver operation. Bridges are about mobility, attrition is not so much about mobility.
Bad optics for sure! They should simply have defended their border, why didn't anyone think of that? Where's the northern version of the Surovikin line and its crew of soldiers ready to charge into Ukraine from the north?
100 years ago Europeans knew, from long and continuously evolving tradition and from the pure nature of their culture, something about warfare that they have lost since then. In 1914 Russia had 1½ million regular soliders standing and within days they mobilized 3 million conscripts who had one year training. They went to poredetermined sites where their officers waited for them, picked up their equipment, and went to the front. Now it is just ridiculous how amateurish the entire contracting and conscription business is behing handled. Some stupid virus has gotten epidemic.
If you take out the bridges over the Dniepr the flow of arms and munitions will not stop but continue to build up on the western side where they could be far more of a nuisance in the future.
A main objective of the Russian general staff is to destroy the elite Ukrainian units, which are generally the most virulent nationalists. On the main Donbass front they are quite shy about offering themselves up for slaughter, prefering to send in untrained conscripts, many of whom would likely not objext very much to the return of rule from Moscow and of whom at least 70% voted for peace when Elensky got himself elected. Now the Ukrainians have obligingly sent from one to three (depending on who you believe) of their élite brigades into Russia where they will loose all their US equipment and a high perentage of their personnel. Were they lured in by apparently bumbling Russian border policy?
It is hard not to notice that when the Ukro/NATO forces take advantage of apparent Russian negligence, they may gain ground for a whuile but they definitely suffer a wipe out. The old military maxim is that 'once is an accident, twice is a coincidence and three times is enemy action'. Depending on how you count, this is the third time this has happened.
The Russian government is unlikely to boast about risking civilian lives and property in order to achieve an important military sucess.
Russian hesitancy to bomb civilian targets is both admirable and impressive.
One dreads what Kiev would look like if say… Israel was involved.
I was in Kiev last year, and though I reckon it’s less the case today, the city was virtually untouched by war. Aside from the occasional uniformed man asking for donations, you might as well think that you are in Warsaw or Kaliningrad.
Why would you presume that the attack wasn’t anticipated and plans weren’t prepared? The Ukrainians penetrated less than half a dozen kilometers, and were immediately met with artillery, aerial attacks and missiles. There are videos of a dozen destroyed Ukrainian vehicles along a short stretch of road.
And they did this with the local Rosgvardia troops and FSB border troops.
So Russia totally anticipated this and just let Ukraine get another easy P.R. win, rather than wreck troop concentrations before they could attack, because reasons? Come on.
For that matter, we could look at the shootdown of the IL-76 over Kursk last year as a similar snafu, as well as a bunch of other goofs.
I am as far as one can get from a Wehraboo, but one thing that the Wehrmacht did do right was to look hard for mistakes, learn from them and mercilessly root them out.
What would you have suggested they do? Weaken the units in the Donbas by transferring soldiers to Kursk? Attack preemptively with a bunch of mostly inexperienced local units, and possibly get hit hard by prepared Ukrainian artillery and air defenses?
I don’t see anything that indicates that they didn’t know that something was brewing here, and didn’t prepare accordingly.
What everyone, whether they’re doomposting on Telegram or celebrating on Twitter, seem to miss, is that the attack was dealt with decisively and that the penetration was a few kilometers. At a cost of dozens of armored vehicles and thousands of soldiers.
The Russians had to transfer troops is not necessarily indicative of failure. Reserves are located behind the lines to be able to react to the unexpected. Unless you have so many troops that they are tripping over each other along the battle line you can't be strong everywhere. Reserves (which means forces expected to move/transfer to meet the enemy's attack) recognize that fact.
And let me just point out that I’m not necessarily suggesting that the Russians knew their exact plans and forces. But they likely knew that someone was brewing in the area.
Well, Russian dithering and indecision have allowed the attack to do precisely what it was intended to do, which is to change the narrative from "Ukraine is losing" to "Ukraine is on the cusp of victory we just need one more aid package one NATO expeditionary force and they will win you gotta step up ZOMG!"
Which they will get, and more people will get killed, because of a Russian leadership that does not want this war and wishes it would just go away.
Disrupting the attack by throwing in relatively inexperienced troops into an offensive, would inherently be more risky than preparing them for defensive measures, presighted artillery, etc.
And yes, sure. Attacking and opening a new front there would be preferable if Russia had unlimited resources. Which they don’t. The war will ultimately be won or lost in the Donbas.
And Russia will still have to use experienced troops to get rid of this headache, not to mention that Russia has been trying this "just the tip" style of war for two years now and not a lot to show for it.
Let's get real. The fact that what was touted to be a near rag tag army made up of disgruntled conscripts was able to do what the Russian military has failed to do over the past year—a blitzkrieg surgical strike through enemy lines—points to very serious shortcomings in the Russian armed forces. I now wonder if Russia is even capable of winning this war.
No you are wrong. The Ukrainians have today firmly established a beachhead in Russia — the first time such has happened since the Nazi invasion. See this update from a highly respected source: The Military Summary Channel.
I fully agree with the idea of a border militia.
Such a militia should be set up and staffed with locals over 15 who are well acquainted with the terrain along all exposed border regions.
Their main task should be surveillance, observation and reporting of activity along less guarded border areas.
For the first, they need not be armed - except perhaps for self defence - but they should be eqipped with modern easily portable communications hardware, first class optics and the possibility of night surveillance.
Equipment could include small civilian drones equipped with cameras to patrol the border (and possibly the enemies border territories).
Armed Militias and reserve army personnel should be posted behind the lines for rapid deployment in case of an incident.
Far too much caution from Putin. Agree. Take out the GD bridges. It would be a huge mistake for Russia to absorb this punch, regardless of how weak it might have been. Bad optics. Answer decisively!
But they’ll need those bridges to take Kiev though?
True. But I don't believe Russia has any intention of taking Kiev, only of forcing Zelenskyyyy to sue for peace. The longer this drags on, the more likely it goes sideways.
Your caution about the war continuing is absolutely correct btw, but there problem with a peace negotiation isn’t just willingness. Zelensky’s lack of mandate and legitimacy is also a problem.
I think the Russians are all too aware of the possibility of a later regime in Kiev, claiming that whatever terms Lil’ Z agreed to are null and void, since his mandate had run out.
I'm certain the Biden Crime Syndicate has already established a generous golden parachute for the dirty lying Nazi once he's been driven from office. He probably already has an office and a mansion prepared for him in Miami.
Doubt. Puppets are expendable. See also what happened with the super duper special NATO partner also known as Afghanistan.
At some level the Z regime probably also knows this, which is why they’re stealing hand over fist to squirrel it away in foreign bank accounts.
When Marcos escaped from the Philippines, besides bringing his wife's 2,700 pairs of shoes, he absconded with 24 suitcases of gold bricks and diamond jewelry hidden in diaper bags. Certificates for gold bullion valued in the billions of dollars were allegedly among their personal properties. Certainly, the miserable begging scum Zelensky will have provided for his own inevitable escape from his shit hole of a country.
I heard Z and Ms Z bought a vineyard in Tuscany complete with villa. He'll scoot fairly soon - or be assassinated.
They didn’t have any intention of annexing the Donbas regions originally either, until developments forced them to.
In the same vein, Russia may just have to take Kiev and at least Odessa, if the war drags on.
To clean Kiev they just need to drop FAB-3000... from afar.
Russia has been indecisive from the beginning of this war, hell, from 2014.
In attrition warfare it is better to let the Ukrainians bleed off their resources in the east, than to cut them off and then having to meet them intact in the west. The bridges should be cut off when it provides a momentum effect during a regional maneuver operation. Bridges are about mobility, attrition is not so much about mobility.
Bad optics for sure! They should simply have defended their border, why didn't anyone think of that? Where's the northern version of the Surovikin line and its crew of soldiers ready to charge into Ukraine from the north?
100 years ago Europeans knew, from long and continuously evolving tradition and from the pure nature of their culture, something about warfare that they have lost since then. In 1914 Russia had 1½ million regular soliders standing and within days they mobilized 3 million conscripts who had one year training. They went to poredetermined sites where their officers waited for them, picked up their equipment, and went to the front. Now it is just ridiculous how amateurish the entire contracting and conscription business is behing handled. Some stupid virus has gotten epidemic.
If you take out the bridges over the Dniepr the flow of arms and munitions will not stop but continue to build up on the western side where they could be far more of a nuisance in the future.
A main objective of the Russian general staff is to destroy the elite Ukrainian units, which are generally the most virulent nationalists. On the main Donbass front they are quite shy about offering themselves up for slaughter, prefering to send in untrained conscripts, many of whom would likely not objext very much to the return of rule from Moscow and of whom at least 70% voted for peace when Elensky got himself elected. Now the Ukrainians have obligingly sent from one to three (depending on who you believe) of their élite brigades into Russia where they will loose all their US equipment and a high perentage of their personnel. Were they lured in by apparently bumbling Russian border policy?
It is hard not to notice that when the Ukro/NATO forces take advantage of apparent Russian negligence, they may gain ground for a whuile but they definitely suffer a wipe out. The old military maxim is that 'once is an accident, twice is a coincidence and three times is enemy action'. Depending on how you count, this is the third time this has happened.
The Russian government is unlikely to boast about risking civilian lives and property in order to achieve an important military sucess.
Russian hesitancy to bomb civilian targets is both admirable and impressive.
One dreads what Kiev would look like if say… Israel was involved.
I was in Kiev last year, and though I reckon it’s less the case today, the city was virtually untouched by war. Aside from the occasional uniformed man asking for donations, you might as well think that you are in Warsaw or Kaliningrad.
It’s an “attack” that barely managed to get a few kilometers in, before it got defeated.
It’s squandering resources for some brief headlines.
Meanwhile the Russian advances in the Donbas continue.
That Ukraine was able to do this at all shows that Russian intelligence and ISR are not all they are cracked up to be.
Why would you presume that the attack wasn’t anticipated and plans weren’t prepared? The Ukrainians penetrated less than half a dozen kilometers, and were immediately met with artillery, aerial attacks and missiles. There are videos of a dozen destroyed Ukrainian vehicles along a short stretch of road.
And they did this with the local Rosgvardia troops and FSB border troops.
So Russia totally anticipated this and just let Ukraine get another easy P.R. win, rather than wreck troop concentrations before they could attack, because reasons? Come on.
For that matter, we could look at the shootdown of the IL-76 over Kursk last year as a similar snafu, as well as a bunch of other goofs.
I am as far as one can get from a Wehraboo, but one thing that the Wehrmacht did do right was to look hard for mistakes, learn from them and mercilessly root them out.
The Red Army in its conflict with the very same Wehrmacht did the same thing. So, nothing unique to the Germans there.
All armies do this to a certain extent, but the Germans were especially relentless in self-criticism, even in victory.
What would you have suggested they do? Weaken the units in the Donbas by transferring soldiers to Kursk? Attack preemptively with a bunch of mostly inexperienced local units, and possibly get hit hard by prepared Ukrainian artillery and air defenses?
I don’t see anything that indicates that they didn’t know that something was brewing here, and didn’t prepare accordingly.
What everyone, whether they’re doomposting on Telegram or celebrating on Twitter, seem to miss, is that the attack was dealt with decisively and that the penetration was a few kilometers. At a cost of dozens of armored vehicles and thousands of soldiers.
What I would have Russia do is disrupt the attack before it started and not after, and have adequate reserves in place to deal with such stunts.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Russia had to transfer troops anyway.
The Russians had to transfer troops is not necessarily indicative of failure. Reserves are located behind the lines to be able to react to the unexpected. Unless you have so many troops that they are tripping over each other along the battle line you can't be strong everywhere. Reserves (which means forces expected to move/transfer to meet the enemy's attack) recognize that fact.
I get that, and I know what a mobile defense is, but that wasn't the argument.
And let me just point out that I’m not necessarily suggesting that the Russians knew their exact plans and forces. But they likely knew that someone was brewing in the area.
Well, Russian dithering and indecision have allowed the attack to do precisely what it was intended to do, which is to change the narrative from "Ukraine is losing" to "Ukraine is on the cusp of victory we just need one more aid package one NATO expeditionary force and they will win you gotta step up ZOMG!"
Which they will get, and more people will get killed, because of a Russian leadership that does not want this war and wishes it would just go away.
Disrupting the attack by throwing in relatively inexperienced troops into an offensive, would inherently be more risky than preparing them for defensive measures, presighted artillery, etc.
And yes, sure. Attacking and opening a new front there would be preferable if Russia had unlimited resources. Which they don’t. The war will ultimately be won or lost in the Donbas.
Who said one had to to launch a ground attack?
And Russia will still have to use experienced troops to get rid of this headache, not to mention that Russia has been trying this "just the tip" style of war for two years now and not a lot to show for it.
Your comment suggested you did not understand the concept.
Let's get real. The fact that what was touted to be a near rag tag army made up of disgruntled conscripts was able to do what the Russian military has failed to do over the past year—a blitzkrieg surgical strike through enemy lines—points to very serious shortcomings in the Russian armed forces. I now wonder if Russia is even capable of winning this war.
LMAO what “blitzkrieg strike through enemy lines”?!
That never happened.
The Ukrainians got across the border, and about 6 km into Russia, they ran into the “Russian lines” and got smashed.
No you are wrong. The Ukrainians have today firmly established a beachhead in Russia — the first time such has happened since the Nazi invasion. See this update from a highly respected source: The Military Summary Channel.
https://youtu.be/cElCu2RmGvs?si=84S07Dt2-IVlDRDi
Indeed the need to CUT the physical links to Ukrainistan is the best way forward.
Maybe in a few decades, or centuries, those Bridges can be build again.