That Works posted:

Assuming there's a bunch of Ukrainian troops that can jump into an M1 and fight I guess?

GD_American posted:

Eh, good point.

It’d be funny to see the agony of Tanker Twitter after some Ukrainians take an 8 hr crash MOS course and then proceed to kick Ivan rear end tho in one, tho

GD_American posted:

Eh, good point.

It’d be funny to see the agony of Tanker Twitter after some Ukrainians take an 8 hr crash MOS course and then proceed to kick Ivan rear end tho in one, tho

psydude posted:

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-10

Lol. Imagine Ukraine seizing that entire convoy's worth of equipment.

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

I have to wonder if he'll just say gently caress it and drop a nuke or two at that point.

maffew buildings posted:

Yeah this It just doesn't seem off the table at all...how do you deal with someone who really, really doesn't loving care?

Stultus Maximus posted:

What legal hurdles have to be cleared in order to start using frozen Russian assets to send aid to Ukraine?

Jobbo_Fett posted:

https://twitter.com/markito0171/status/1501810755729084421?s=21

Multiple scoped mosins, I think at least one SVT-40 in there (unless I'm somehow confusing it with an SKS) and a rusted to hell and back AT Rifle (PTRS/PTRD, perhaps?)

ASAPI posted:

If this is true, expect some document dumps soon.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-700940

quote:

The Ukrainian Anonymous hacker group has hacked into Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal agency responsible for monitoring and censoring media, and released 360,000 files, the group announced on Twitter on Thursday.

It might be interesting to see some of the stuff in the dump.

Naked Bear posted:

Bored As gently caress posted:

A bunch or people in Fort Meade and Langley just had their desks rise.

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Come to think of it, we haven't heard from NSA WIZARD in a while.

freeasinbeer posted:

To be fair; there was a report where a frontline ukr unit had its NCO using a Lee Enfield and NLAWs. Which I guess makes sense as an ambush load out?

Marshal Prolapse posted:

https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1502081727518453763?s=21

psydude posted:

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-10

Lol. Imagine Ukraine seizing that entire convoy's worth of equipment.

Churchill posted:

So I binged through the lions led by donkeys seven-parter on the Soviet-Afghan war and let me tell you, the similarities to this war is loving uncanny. Poor planning and logistics, a floundering army, obsolete and failing equipment, grift and corruption, loyalty valued over competence in leadership at all levels, lack of lower-level initiative, political interference in military matters, VDV fuckups and that's just from the top of my head. Seriously if you haven't, give it a listen. His other episodes own p hard too.

Gonna give Zinky Boys a read too, seems really good skimming through.

Marshal Prolapse posted:

https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1502081727518453763?s=21

bees everywhere posted:

You might like enjoy this picture I took in 2007 (from this post):


An old Afghan dude told me once that the Soviets would often send unescorted solo trucks to resupply their FOBs, just a couple shmucks in a Ural truck full of food and ammo, and on certain routes they would be ambushed by the mujahideen every time. Some of them would get through but most of them didn't make it. So the Soviets just sent more of them. As long as enough made it through that the FOB would be resupplied, their mission was accomplished.

edit: if Ukraine wins this, I hope they leave some of the blown-up T-72 husks on the side of the road like in Afghanistan, maybe paint sunflowers all over them.

Bored As gently caress posted:

A bunch of people in Fort Meade and Langley just had their desks rise.

Churchill posted:

So I binged through the lions led by donkeys seven-parter on the Soviet-Afghan war and let me tell you, the similarities to this war is loving uncanny. Poor planning and logistics, a floundering army, obsolete and failing equipment, grift and corruption, loyalty valued over competence in leadership at all levels, lack of lower-level initiative, political interference in military matters, VDV fuckups and that's just from the top of my head. Seriously if you haven't, give it a listen. His other episodes own p hard too.

Gonna give Zinky Boys a read too, seems really good skimming through.

Cimber posted:

Russia supplied the Separatists with ww2 rifles and anti tank guns.

https://twitter.com/markito0171/status/1501810755729084421?s=21

Quackles posted:

Got a bit of a question.

It seems like the 'net is full of lots of people spitballing about Russia's capabilities, and what that means for the war (and by extension what the ideal international response to it should be / should have been).

What are good ways to tell what info's accurate and what's wild speculation / just plain wrong?

FrozenVent posted:

In case anyone is wondering why all the broken links:

https://twitter.com/marcowenjones/status/1502033627483414536

Churchill posted:

So I binged through the lions led by donkeys seven-parter on the Soviet-Afghan war and let me tell you, the similarities to this war is loving uncanny. Poor planning and logistics, a floundering army, obsolete and failing equipment, grift and corruption, loyalty valued over competence in leadership at all levels, lack of lower-level initiative, political interference in military matters, VDV fuckups and that's just from the top of my head. Seriously if you haven't, give it a listen. His other episodes own p hard too.

Gonna give Zinky Boys a read too, seems really good skimming through.

golden bubble posted:

https://twitter.com/NAZK_gov/status/1501960273313345536
https://twitter.com/NAZK_gov/status/1501960422966108165
https://twitter.com/NAZK_gov/status/1501960588595015686


Cardboard "ERA" and Cardboard "bulletproof" plate inserts. That's some corruption.

quote:

Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation

Sergei SHOIGU

THANK YOU LETTER


The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (hereinafter referred to as the Agency) supports all representatives of foreign states who contribute to the development of Ukrainian anti-corruption bodies, as well as help in strengthening democratic institutions in Ukraine.

In this regard, the Agency expresses its sincere gratitude to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, for his invaluable contribution to the fact that Russian means and support resources for the attack on Ukraine were stolen even before they were accumulated on the border of the two states.

Participating in the methodical, systematic, and long-term work on the theft of the budgetary funds of the Russian Federation, which were allocated for the development of military potential, Sergei Shoigu, together with other officials of the defense sector, contributed to the acceleration of the liquidation of the occupiers on the lands of the sovereign state of Ukraine.

The persistence of officials from the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces of the Russian Federation to embezzle funds from Russian taxpayers that should have gone to the needs of the army makes it much easier to defend democratic Ukraine.

Thanks to this, Ukrainian anti-corruption institutions, which work to ensure transparency in the use of public funds, counteract corruption, fraud, and economic crime, will be able to resume their activities as soon as possible instead of wasting time on destroying the occupiers on their land, as well as scrap metal brought to the territory of our state.

The military and Ukrainian intelligence team document numerous examples of this undoubtedly important activity.

In particular, the protection of Russian tanks T-72 and T-80 made from cardboard egg trays. Without a doubt, these means of protecting military equipment deserve to become a separate assessment factor in the PowerIndex when forming the Global Firepower rating of the strongest armies in the world.

The Agency also expresses its deep gratitude to Mr. Shoigu for the use of ZIL-130 cars to transport personnel, which has no analogs in the world. While such cars are obviously comfortable to the Russian soldiers as they feel light dizziness during the Ukrainian March frosts, the speed of movement of this vehicle, as well as its bright aquamarine color, allow the local territorial defense forces to effectively undergo training in the operation of modern weapons against light targets.

Special thanks also go to those that provide the Russian army with military food packages, the expiration date of which is due to 2015. Due to the lack of food, the Russian occupation troops abandon military equipment and surrender to the local residents of Ukrainian villages in order to eat.

We also admired your bulletproof vests made of cardboard instead of the armored plates that were worn by the crew members of the captured Russian Barnaul-T armored car.

Bulletproof vests were so strong that they were damaged by conventional small arms. In this regard, we express special gratitude, because now the armored car serves in the ranks of the Ukrainian defense forces and helps to resist the aggressor.

We also want to draw your attention to the fact that our army found a bulletin named “On the procedure for detecting corruption and other violations when identifying a conflict of interest in military units” in place of the armored plates.

Impressed by such a thorough and detailed methodological support for the military personnel of the occupying forces, the Agency’s experts prepared a number of recommendations for further inclusion in the relevant bulletins.
Thus, according to the generally accepted definition, a conflict of interest is the presence of private interest in the area in which a person performs his/her official or representative powers, which may affect the objectivity or impartiality of his/her decision-making.

We see the risk that, despite the presence of mobile crematoria brought to the territory of Ukraine by the command of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the private interest of a Russian soldier to save his life instead of following the orders of his commander is still extremely high. In this regard, we propose to reduce the likelihood of a conflict of interest by supplementing the bulletins with the following step-by-step instructions:
“In case of crossing the border with Ukraine, a Russian serviceman is obliged to:
– get to the nearest settlement;
– move away from the equipment at a safe distance and drop the weapon;
– ask for forgiveness for crossing the border without passport control;
– wait for the Ukrainian military, who will allow him to call his mother;
– wait for his return home”.

We look forward to fruitful cooperation in taking into account our recommendations.

Attached to the letter of thanks, we send photos illustrating the above achievements. We are sending the letter now, while there is still foreign computer equipment in Russia that allows you to view the relevant photographs.

Head of the Agency
Oleksandr NOVIKOV