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Pondering the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive

Here is an interesting thread about the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive by Mick Ryan.

9 comments to Pondering the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive

  • Paul Marks

    An army without real NCOs – and where Generals have to do traffic control and get sniped (shot dead) doing it.

    Back under President Yeltsin there was a strong move to create a professional, all volunteer, Russian Army – but a new Prime Minister vetoed that policy.

    The name of the man who personally vetoed replacing this mess with a professional, all volunteer, Russian Army?

    The same man who vetoed the move to real (rather than fake) Trial by Jury and later destroyed all independent television and radio stations in Russia. And had murdered anyone who dared oppose such things – did not kill them himself (in open battle), had them murdered by others.

    Vladimir Putin.

    You have failed Sir – if you have scrap of manhood left within you, you know what you must do.

  • Paul Marks

    At the Battle of Borodino in 1812 observers noted the contrast between the wounded French and Russian soldiers.

    The French soldiers screamed in pain, as (no doubt) I would. The wounded Russians were silent – for it was shameful to show pain and fear even as one bled to death, or had an arm or leg amputated.

    I doubt Mr Putin would behave in such a way – or the criminal thugs (some of whom fresh from prison) that he has sent into the Ukraine.

    At the Battle of the Kovel in 1916 – the Imperial Guard marched down three causeways-of-death as the Germans shot and shelled them from three sides. They did not shirk their duty – but that meant they were not around to prevent the Marxist coup (backed by Imperial German Intelligence) in 1917.

    Not around – because they were dead. Between half a million and a million Russians died or were crippled in the “successful” Brusilov offensive of 1916 alone. And they were the best men – the cowards and traitors found ways not to be at the front.

    Alexander Solzhenitsyn noted that this “reverse eugenics” continued under the decades of evil that was Soviet rule.

    Russians of honour and basic decency, the best people of each village, were persecuted and destroyed – leaving the shit, the “activists”, the “social justice” types in each town and village – the cowards, the criminals, the betrayers and murderers. These were the mothers and fathers of the next generation after 1917 and the generations after that.

    Still Ukraine suffered in the same way – and has recovered, at least in part.

  • The thread is worth reading. As far as we in the UK are concerned, the most important point is the last.

    We will be studying this campaign for decades into the future. But for now, we need to ensure the west continues to provide the equipment and munitions for this campaign, and for those that will inevitably follow. End.

    There’s little you and I can do towards that but not quite nothing (the Kilmartin household has just done its bit organising a charity walk that raised money for Ukraine, and, as opportunity offers, we can show that, though Boris – good on this if a disappointment elsewhere – be gone, we want Ben Wallace and the government generally to continue support).

  • Gerryireland

    A good thread.

    The main thing missing there is the use by Putin of energy supply against Europe which has the potential to undermine what is happening on the ground in Ukraine.

    We had better source alternative supplies asap, eg from Africa.

  • I really don’t think anyone has thought through what happens next in Ukraine and we should do so

    There are a few people who, like me, expect Ukraine to regain all its territory in the next year or two but none of them have really predicted what happens afterwards. Everyone else who isn’t a Russia supporter appears to simply expect things to continue as they are now indefinitely, which is inconsistent with the same people reporting that Russia’s economy is seizing up, recruitment is failing etc. The Russia supporters seem to think that Ukraine can be conquered and then peace will break out magically which is even more stupid

    I wrote some thoughts up in this blog post

  • rhoda klapp

    “We had better source alternative supplies asap, eg from Africa.

    Like that could ever go wrong.

  • Alex

    “We had better source alternative supplies asap, eg from Africa. — Gerryireland

    Like that could ever go wrong. — rhoda klapp

    Indeed, out of the frying pan into the fire springs to mind. We need energy security from developing our own energy resources.

  • Gerryireland

    Well anything could go wrong. But that isn’t a reason not to do things that are necessary.

  • Gerryireland

    As far as I’m aware, we do not have sufficient energy resources to develop.

    Time is also of the essence.