Here we go again-Ukraine once again pt2

[mapuc]

Musk’s comments came as he agreed with Johnson’s statement that Putin would not lose in Ukraine. Johnson said those who expect a Ukraine victory were “living in a fantasy world.”

Edit
Found the English version of the story

https://www.business-standard.com/wo...1300579_1.html

End edit

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Russian landing ship Caesar Kunikov sunk off Crimea, says Ukraine

A big Russian amphibious ship, the Caesar Kunikov, has been sunk off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine's armed forces.

Powerful explosions were heard early on Wednesday, according to local social media, which suggested the landing ship was hit south of the town of Yalta.

Ukraine's intelligence directorate released video of what it said were Magura V5 sea drones striking the ship.

Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russia's Black Sea fleet in occupied Crimea.

Satellite images last year showed much of the fleet had left the peninsula for the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

Ahead of a Nato ministerial meeting in Brussels, the secretary general of the Western defensive alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said Ukrainian forces had won a "great victory" in recent months, inflicting "heavy losses" on the Black Sea fleet that had opened a corridor for Ukrainian grain exports.

Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine is due to enter its third year next week and Ukraine's armed forces chief has admitted the situation is "extremely complex and tense".

Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was appointed commander-in-chief last week, visited the front line on Wednesday and promised that units trying to prevent Russian troops from capturing the flashpoint town of Avdiivka would be reinforced. Avdiivka is almost empty and all but surrounded by Russian forces and one of the soldiers defending it said earlier that the situation there was critical.

"We are doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from advancing deep into our territory," he wrote on social media.

Overnight, a Russian missile attack claimed three lives including a child in the mining town of Selydove, 40km (25 miles) west of Avdiivka. Officials said four missiles had hit the local hospital and maternity ward, as well as nine blocks of flats.

Several other residents were wounded, including a baby.

There was no confirmation from Russia's navy that the Caesar Kunikov had been sunk in the Black Sea, merely that six Ukrainian drones had been destroyed. Video appearing to show the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack was uploaded only recently, BBC Verify confirmed.

"The Caesar Kunikov suffered critical holes in its port side and began to sink," Ukraine's main intelligence directorate said on the Telegram messaging site, adding that it had been destroyed off the Crimean coastal town of Alupka in Ukrainian territorial waters by a unit called Group 13.

The Magura V5 unmanned drones it said were used in the attack are made in Ukraine and travel just above the sea surface at a speed up to 42 nautical miles an hour, their manufacturer says.

Amphibious ships are used to move assault troops to land quickly, especially in enemy territory. Russia has also used landing ships in recent years to ferry military supplies to Syria, in support of Bashar al-Assad's government.

Russian military bloggers did not deny the Caesar Kunikov had been hit, saying only that the crew had survived. Russia's military rarely reports major losses and Russians rely on a handful of popular bloggers for information.

The Caesar Kunikov dates back to the end of the Soviet era. If its sinking is confirmed, it would be the second successful strike in the Black Sea this month. A small warship, the Ivanovets, was sunk by drones in a special operation almost two weeks ago.

Another Russian landing ship, the Novocherkassk, was hit while in port in Feodosiya in December.

Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine almost 10 years ago and its forces based there played a big role in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Caesar Kunikov has already been targeted since the war began. It was damaged along with the Novocherkassk in a Ukrainian strike on the occupied port of Berdyansk in March 2022, when a third landing ship, the Saratov, was sunk.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68292602

[Dargo]

You can never beat the notes on these twats, LOL

[Dargo]

Reports estimate Russia lost over 8,000 tanks, other armored fighting vehicles since February 2022

Separate reports published by Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on Feb. 13 suggest Russia has lost over 8,000 armored fighting vehicles, such as tanks and armored personnel carriers, in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The latest Russian losses update by the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces estimates that Russia has lost over 12,000 armored fighting vehicles since February 2022 According to Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Russia has lost 8,300 armored fighting vehicles in Ukraine, specifying that the figure includes 2,600 tanks, 5,100 armored personnel carriers, and 600 self-propelled artillery units.

The IISS said the figure has reached 8,800 since February 2022, with Russia losing more than 3,000 armored fighting vehicles in Ukraine in the past year alone. However, the IISS said Russia has managed to "keep its active inventory numbers stable," despite losses of "hundreds of armored vehicles and artillery pieces per month," by refurbishing over 1,000 tanks and over 2,000 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers in storage. "On top of that, Moscow was able to manufacture new tanks and other armored vehicles, though precise numbers are difficult to glean even from satellite images."

Based on current figures and satellite imagery of available storage bases, "Russia will be able to sustain its assault on Ukraine at current attrition rates for another two to three years, and maybe even longer," the IISS said. Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service also reported that Russia has turned to its "inventory of armored vehicles in long-term storage, primarily the thousands of units inherited from the Soviet military," but assessed that most vehicles are "decaying and technically outdated."... https://kyivindependent.com/reports-...nks-other-afv/

[mapuc]

Good news indeed, if true

"by refurbishing over 1,000 tanks and over 2,000 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers in storage. "On top of that, Moscow was able to manufacture new tanks and other armored vehicles, though precise numbers are difficult to glean even from satellite images." "

This may be the setback for Ukraine. The supply from west is very slow or not coming or isn't enough. While Russia can send in a neverending stream new tanks a.s.o. for the next 2 -3 years

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Estonian secret service says Russia is preparing for confrontation

Russia is preparing itself militarily for a confrontation with the West, the Estonian secret service said in a report released on Tuesday evening.

The preparations are indicated by Russian military reform, according to the annual report of the foreign intelligence service of the Baltic EU and NATO country presented in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

The reform reflects the Russian leadership's ideas regarding the resources required for the war in Ukraine and a confrontation with the West, it said.

"We can assume that within the next decade, NATO will be confronted with a mass army of the Soviet type, which is technologically inferior to the allies, but poses a significant threat due to its size, firepower and reserves," intelligence chief Kaupo Rosin wrote in the report.
In order to defend themselves against a possible conventional attack by such an army, the armies and defence industries of the NATO allies would have to be significantly better prepared and equipped than is currently the case, Rosin wrote.

For Estonia the military reform will mean a significant increase in the Russian armed forces near the Baltic state's border in the coming years, the report said.

Russia is also planning to station more troops on the border with the other Baltic states and Finland. Russia's aim is to achieve military dominance in the Baltic Sea region, according to the report. However, according to Rosin, the likelihood of a direct attack on Estonia this year is low.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced a reorganization of the Russian army at the end of 2022 in order to implement the increase in troop strength demanded by the Kremlin.

The combat power of the navy, the air force and the missile forces were also to be strengthened. The renewal of the structures should be completed between 2023 and 2026.

Earlier Tuesday, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said there was "nothing suprising" about Moscow placing her, and other high-ranking Baltic politicians, on a list of "wanted" persons.

"Russia's move is nothing surprising," Kallas wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "This is yet more proof that I am doing the right thing – the EU's strong support to Ukraine is a success and it hurts Russia."

In addition to Kallas, Estonian Secretary of State Taimar Peterkop and Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys are also on the Russian Interior Ministry's list.

The declaration is seen as symbolic since none of the politicians is expected to travel to Russia any time soon.

The Russian authorities blame the Baltic officials for the demolition of memorials to Soviet soldiers.

"These people are responsible for decisions that are actually tantamount to desecration of historical memory," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the TASS news agency.

But affected officials sloughed it off, suggesting they considered the designation a badge of honour.

"I am glad that my work to remove the ruins of Sovietization has not gone unnoticed," Kairys commented on his inclusion on the list.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, speaking to the BNS news agency in Vilnius on Tuesday about Kallas' designation, described Russia's "political assessment" as a "kind of honour for people who support Ukraine and support the fight of good against evil."

In her post on X, Kallas said: "The Kremlin now hopes this move will help to silence me and others – but it won't. The opposite. I will continue my strong support to Ukraine. I will continue to stand for increasing Europe's defence."

Latvia summoned the chargé d'affaires of the Russian embassy in Riga to explain "a publicly accessible list of former and current public officials of Latvia against whom politically motivated charges had been brought by Russia," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

Russia said it is serious about the "crimes" these leaders are alleged to have committed.

"You have to answer for crimes against the memory of those who liberated the world from Nazism and fascism. And this is just the beginning," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram, explicitly referring to Kallas and Peterkop.

In the summer of 2022, a few months after the start of the all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine, Estonia demolished a Soviet war memorial - a replica of a T-34 tank with a red Soviet star - in the town of Narva on the border with Russia.

In 2007, the relocation of a bronze statue, another Soviet war memorial, from a park in Tallinn to the outskirts of the city sparked days of protests. One person was killed in the riots and more than 1,000 people were detained. Angry Russian-speaking Estonians said that the removal of the monument erased their history.

A number of monuments from the Soviet era were also dismantled in Lithuania and Latvia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...1c18e54&ei=133

[mapuc]

Are we talking about the same Russian army ? The army who is showing very much ineffective in Ukraine and who's corrupt.

Well I doubt they ever will be fit for fight against any NATO member.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Russia (imho) have always relied on 'weight of numbers' rather than quality.

[Dargo]

[mapuc]

Markus

[August]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Are we talking about the same Russian army ? The army who is showing very much ineffective in Ukraine and who's corrupt.

Well I doubt they ever will be fit for fight against any NATO member.

Markus

Doesn't mean they won't try.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Are we talking about the same Russian army ? The army who is showing very much ineffective in Ukraine and who's corrupt.

Well I doubt they ever will be fit for fight against any NATO member.

Markus

This army nevertheless is capable to bring a heartbreaking ammount of destruction over a country.

[Jimbuna]

Ukraine fights on in ruined Avdiivka despite severe weapons shortage

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned that the US failure to approve continued military assistance to Ukraine is already having an impact on the battlefield, although he expects Congress will eventually approve an aid package. Republicans in the lower House of Representatives are holding up a $95bn (£75bn) foreign aid package for Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Russia has continued attacks on Ukrainian cities. After months of heavy fighting, Russian forces appear close to surrounding the ruins of Avdiivka, where frostbite is taking its toll on Ukrainian troops.

The man's fist looked unrecognisable. Like a split and bruised peach.

"Or like a rock," said the Ukrainian army surgeon, tapping the frozen fingers.

It was the second case of frostbite he'd treated that morning, standing beside a makeshift operating table, hidden inside an anonymous-looking cottage near the besieged ruins of the Ukrainian front-line town of Avdiivka.

"He'll probably lose both hands," said the surgeon with a frown.

As Russia's invasion edges towards the end of its second year, the mood among Ukraine's defenders is darkening, as exhaustion, frustration at a shortage of weapons, and the knowledge that there will be no quick military victory, all take their toll.

"My best friend was killed this morning," a bearded soldier shouted, along with a hail of swear words and a blast of cold air, as he barged through the back door into the 47th Brigade's well-hidden field hospital.

Moments later, two more wounded men were helped in through another entrance. Vadym, 48, had been hit by shrapnel in his upper arm that morning as his unit was storming a Russian position in Avdiivka.

"It's very hard out there," he said, as the surgeon, a senior lieutenant named Vitalii, came over to look at the wound and two army medics cut away Vadym's filthy uniform.

"We do not have enough of the weapons we need."

"It's difficult. The enemy has a lot of everything, of every type of equipment, while we have almost nothing," said the other wounded man, 24-year-old Andrii, before wincing in pain. A Russian artillery shell had hit his trench overnight and a piece of shrapnel had sliced through his ankle.

The surgeon, Vitalii, worked at a children's hospital before the war. He spoke wearily of his experience amputating limbs last year during Ukraine's failed counter-offensive across Russian minefields, and of the shrapnel wounds that were now filling his days and nights.

"I urge the West to be more decisive in assisting Ukraine, because (if they don't) sooner or later their soldiers will (also) have to fight against this evil that has invaded our country," he said.

Further north, two huge Ukrainian tanks roared along a mud-and-snow-smeared country road, then swung away through another heavily destroyed village and on towards the nearest Russian lines, perhaps 2km away.

After many months of fighting, the Kremlin's forces appear close to surrounding the ruins of Avdiivka, with some Ukrainian soldiers privately admitting the town, scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the war so far, could fall at any moment.

"We're upset," said a Ukrainian officer, Oleksii, from Ukraine's 110th Mechanised Brigade, standing beside a huge mobile artillery piece as the sound of Russian guns boomed in the distance.

The Czech-supplied artillery can hold and fire up to 36 shells at one time, and last year it was routinely shooting 80 shells a day at Russian positions around Avdiivka. But not today.

"Currently we have two shells, but we have no (explosive) charges for them… so we can't fire them. As of now, we have run out of shells," said Oleksii. He suggested that the shortages were widespread and having a dramatic impact on the fighting in Avdiivka.

"We feel a very strong responsibility for our guys fighting right now in the town, armed only with assault rifles." He compared the situation to early in 2022, when ammunition was also in short supply and he'd been wounded.

"I'm worried that there will now be the same large number of casualties that I saw in hospital then," said Oleksii.

Back in the field hospital, the two wounded men were now bandaged. The older man, Vadym, stood up, as if to leave, and argued that he was fit enough to return to his comrades in the trenches, but the doctor insisted he needed to wait at least a week.

The surgeon, Vitalii, scoffed at the idea that some Ukrainian soldiers might be deliberately getting frostbite wounds in order to avoid the hellish conditions on the front lines.

"That's absurd. You'd have to be a complete idiot. We don't have deserters like that, and I've never encountered a situation like that. On the contrary, our fighters are determined to stand firm," he said.

"But the conditions are extreme, and they have to sit in trenches without a stove in -15 or -20C, because any heat will be visible (to Russians) through thermal imaging devices."

Despite the difficulties around Avdiivka, there is no evidence yet that Russia is poised to make any broader, more substantial territorial gains.

After its failed counter-offensive, Ukraine is now preparing for a long defence of attrition, seeking to make Russia pay an even heavier price in men and machinery as the Kremlin tries to revive its stalled offensive in the Donbas.

But the longer-term prospects for Ukraine remain uncertain. It will need to find many more weapons and soldiers to have any chance of liberating territory in a conflict that looks set to drag on for some time.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68298854

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Skybird

This army nevertheless is capable to bring a heartbreaking ammount of destruction over a country.

They are indeed capable to create havoc among the places they attack/invade.

This was not what I meant.

I meant not only attacking/invading to destroy a lot, but to win the war.

And they are too ineffective to manage this.

Russia may try invade Poland, if Russia decide to do so

Yes they will do a lot of destruction where they go

Their loses will be tenfold in according to the war in Ukraine.

Can't remember who once said in our older Ukraine thread- The Russian military has to be rebuild from scratch to become more effective and accurate on the battlefield

Markus

[mapuc]

Markus