“No one exercised that vehicle for 1 year “

Military 99 Comments

This is a thread that will explain the implied poor Russian Army truck maintenance practices based on this photo of a Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile system’s right rear pair of tires below & the operational implications during the Ukrainian mud season.

99 Replies to ““No one exercised that vehicle for 1 year “”

  1. True story:
    A russian ship was sunk in a storm, crew evacuated into a boat and starved because someone has stolen the can opener, and they had no other way to open the emergency provisions. A perfect metaphor for everything russian.

  2. Interesting, as far as it goes. I’d be surprised if Ukrainian military maintenance practices are much different.

    1. They are. The Ukranian military is vastly improved over the past 8 years through training and experience. It previously had many Soviet poor practices.

      1. Oh good, you’re an expert on Ukrainian military maintenance procedures now too. Because of course you are.

        1. Or because I listened to an extensive interview with CF Col Lake who ran Operation Unifier for years.

        2. The Ukranians have been trained by NATO for some years while the Russians have reduced their draft service from three years to a year. Guess what? Takes over 6 months to learn the basics. Officer and NCO training in the Russian military is awful, how do I know. Seen them in action. Their is no NCO cadre. NCOs are the backbone of small units up to the battalion level. Any company commander who ignores his senior NCO is looking for trouble. Ditto battalion commanders.

    2. I’m a bit dubious of these stories about abandoned equipment just left behind. It makes for good propaganda, but recall, both countries use the same trucks, tanks, etc. About half of this tiff is being fought in the worlds media, and the lead up to the start, was largely a cause, goaded on by various media/government organizations.

      1. @robins111 – “I’m a bit dubious of these stories about abandoned equipment just left behind”

        Sleepy Joe Biden left $83 billion dollars worth behind. It’s getting reverse engineered in at least 3 different countries as we speak.

        1. Haven’t been fortunate enough to have many veterans as friends half of which were vehicle maintenance I am fairly confident in stating that not all that 83 billion was worth 83 billion nor was it anywhere near working condition. Why would we leave a bunch of our stuff behind well in the next war we’re gonna know how to destroy it because we built it.

  3. Most of the equipment being used in Ukraine is not state of the art.

    I am not really sure the Russians ever planned a shock Blitzkrieg. The Russians seem to have always favoured the famous steamroller: unglamorous, methodical, steady, stodgy and relentless.

    They have never, ever NOT had maintenance, logistics and communications problems, at least as far back as I can recall analyzing. They seem to just “get it done” though.

    Ask the Germans.

    1. To be fair Bagration was pretty much blitzkreig. Although it was only possible because Siberians relied on Studebakers, Dodges and Jeeps for their logistics.

      1. So we see a truck with effed up tires. Someone’s getting docked pay over that. There may be more. But to assume that is the entire Russian force, ok, maybe. Maybe not. We don’t know if the tires are a bad batch, just old, or what is happening really. Is it one company? One Battalion?

        Even the best armies (and ours was pretty damn fine) had endless SNAFUs, clusterfucks and dingleberries. And that was in some of our finest operations.

        People just seize on every snippet of news and immediately apply it to the entire situation.

        We used to chuck guys in chookie for doing that shit (rumour-milling) when on Ops.

        2. You got a point. Know of a outfit recently left $80billion of mil stuff by the road

    2. They didn’t favor the “steamroller” at first. They expected the blitz to work and suffered huge losses after they kept getting cut off and isolated. Only in the past few days have they slowed down. But their supply lines are still extremely vulnerable.

      1. Didn’t look that way to me. Their rate of advance is picking up. Look at the day-by-map. I suspect this campaign will be studied in war colleges around the world for decades to come. I find it hard to believe the Russians didn’t know about the Rasputitsa – I mean it played a massive role in WW2. The T34 was largely unaffected by mud. Unlike the M1 Abrahams, the Russian tanks are designed specific to home front and Eastern Europe conditions. With Turkey a NATO member, they exepcted NATO landings off the Black Sea during the Cold War, and planned their maneuver warfare against that eventuality.

        So let’s assume they knew about the mud. OK, so were they realistically expecting Ukraine to fall in 3 days. Seriously? Seems a tad reckless, and we know Putin’s generals are not typically reckless, as they rebuild their military after Georgia and Donbas. Where many see a desparate crazy gamble, I see a timid, almost over-conservative opening. Slow advances. Probing attacks. Seeking enemy weaknesses, withdrawing from strength, crushing weakness. I mean, ok, maybe I have got this all wrong, but we keep being told that Putin’s army is about to collapse, and yet towns keep falling, acres keep rolling by, and Ukrainian troops keep dying and surrendering. So what am I missing?

        Kharkov and Kiev seem to have been brilliantly successful blocking maneuvers. They have pinned down the bulk of the Ukrainian forces protecting the two key assets in Ukraine. Meanwhile the Russians have been steadily suffocating the neoNazi “battalions” and the Eastern UAF garrison troops.

        I mean, sure, logistics are crappy for them. But errr… this IS the Eastern Front we are talking about here. No one has great logistics.

        Here is a thought: seriously professional sokdiers typically aren’t snapping selfies with cellphones. They are too busy being professional, maybe? So I see the same damned clips day in and day out from different angles. Add up all the dead Russians and KOed tanks you have seen on social media in the last week. How many?

        In reality, we have no clucking idea what is really going on in the UAF and the RFAF, what the casualties are, what the losses are. Because THOSE actual battles (not patrol ambushes and skirmishes) are happening between larger, professional formations, where the real killing and dying is going on, and where there is very little social media footage, if any, and few, if any, civilians.

        But there is one way to tell.

        Look at the map.

        1. Kyiv is nowhere near blocked, I’m not sure what you are looking at. It is maybe 20% encircled.

          1. Maybe you aren’t familiar with what a blocking force is. Kiev is 100% blocked.

            It is not surrounded. That is encirclement.

            Blocking is when you (a) prevent the enemy from coming forward into your lines (believe me if the Russian army was about to collapse, and the Russian Air Force was not in charge of the sky, the Ukes would be launching massive offensives)
            (b) More importantly, the UAF cannot leave their positions! Withdrawal of Kiev military assets from the city would effectively surrender the city.

        2. As we used to say in the army: In a straight up conventional war, everyone has an opinion based on photographs and newsreels. But it’s the ground that tells the story.

          How many days did it take for the US to seize Iraq? Start to finish. For how many dead Iraqi civilians?

          1. I looked it up: major combat operations took 26 days. Yup. 26 days.

            Against Iraqis. After 10 years of crippling sanctions. And no foreign suppliers pouring weapons in.

            Seems a bit premature to write off the Russian military. I am not putting a ton of money on Ukraine surviving this intact.

        3. T-34 myth number: 1798709438757
          “The T34 was largely unaffected by mud.”

        4. “Meanwhile the Russians have been steadily suffocating the neoNazi “battalions” and the Eastern UAF garrison troops.”

          Yeah except that they weren’t. I am beginning to think that you’re another Kremlin bot.

          1. Nah, if I am, they sure haven’t been paying me.

            Kiev is blocked.

            If Ukrainian assets pulled out of Kiev, you telling me the Russians wouldn’t pour their troops in? Exactly.

            Ditto Kharkiv.

            So maybe I am just reading the map all wrong, but every day the part that is red gets a lot bigger, and the part that is blue gets a lot smaller. What am I missing?

          2. Yes Ukrainians are defending and the troops engaged cannot withdraw, call it blocked if you like. Just yesterday Kiev got new ATGM and SAMs via rail!

            Ukrainians still have working mass media and internet, major fail by Siberians.

            Ukrainian air force is still flying combat missions and inflicting loses on Siberians. Contrast that to how well Iraqi air force was doing on either first or second Gulf war.

            Airborne battalions dropped behind enemy lines got whipped out time and time again. By territorial defense forces. Hell, they even managed to take out two (or more) IL-76s loaded with paras (one had its transponder on).

            Siberians will likely try another landing against Odessa, the first was whipped out.

            Then look at casualties, Siberians have already lost multiple times the number of troops than US did during Desert Storm.

            Actually the part that is red is gettign only painfully slowly bigger and often shrinks and the other part is very slowly getting smaller. This is not say that Ukrainians are winning but given the disproportion of forces they are being extremely effective and Siberian Mongols don’t look much better then they looked ramming their heads against Mannerheim Line in 1939.

            I am not saying Ukrainians will win but they are making Siberians pay for every inch of their land and the outcome is far from settled.

        5. You must be a manure farmer. No military designs tanks that cannot handle mud, except for the gay brigade.

      2. You have to be one of the most ignorant people I have ever seen? Why do you think anyone believes a word you say?

    3. ‘I am not really sure the Russians ever planned a shock Blitzkrieg.’

      Battles of Khalkhin Gol and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria are two examples.

      (The Soviet Blitzkreig in the Far East was underway prior to the German-Polish conflict of September 1939.)

      1. Was that summer or Winter? Last I checked, Soviet “spring” offensives were not super successful. Bagration (destruction of Army Group Centre) was summer. Operation Uranus (drive to Kalach, straight through the Romanians and Hungarians) – early winter on frozen ground.

        So why did the Russians
        1. Attack in late winter, knowing mud was coming, and
        2. Not commit all their forces in one giant swoop?

        HHhhhmmm. Because they never thought of that, and CNN did. Of course. Silly me.

        Hey, it’s war. Anything can happen. But it is premature for one to celebrate victory after 8 days of fighting, and some of it rather tame and low level at that.

        Use cheaper, older equipment, and rookie troops to absorb Ukraine’s early firepower. Send in the Guards Shock Armies after. Sounds pretty classic “Red Army to me”.

        A pal I have who is from Kiev, and whose family is still there, told me the Russian Army has calculated it is cheaper and more cost-effective for the Russian Army to train “on the job”. A scary thought, if true.

    4. Yeah the Russians were staving in Afghanistan and you could see their troops ragged and without arms or ammo. Where do you get your information? CNN or Mother Jones?

  4. Russian army slang for “reliable” was “Studebaker” as the best vehicles they had were Studebaker trucks supplied under Lend/Lease during WWII

    1. Right. I keep forgetting the T34, the PPSh, the Mosin-Nagant and the Sturmovik were unreliable pieces of junk.

      1. Actually early T-34s were unreliable. Massive transmission problems. There is also – going by memory – a very poorly designed fuel system. A sample vehicle was sent to the US during the war for examination and the investigators were so gob smacked at the design they actually put into their reports that they were unsure if it was a deliberate sabotage attempt at design office level.

        The T-34 got away with its flaws largely because they were/are a VERY basic tank (once you get past looking at the sloped hull and the ‘big for its time’ gun the vehicle is very primitive. Even the later T34-85 still has vision slits) and didn’t have that many moving parts, and the fact they were getting ‘turned over’ in combat (aka – destroyed) at a crisp rate.

        KV-1 did get a bad rep for reliability, which is possibly because being a heavier tank (and bigger just by the by – those thinks are HUGE in the flesh. A T-34 is not that much bigger than a decent sized SUV and sort of underwhelming to be honest) and harder to destroy in combat they lasted longer.

        The Soviets did respect the reliability of Western kit. The British Valentine tanks were apparently well regarded. Personally never been a tank I have felt strongly about, but Vickers by this stage had developed the suspension and transmission system into a sound piece of working kit and, by all accounts, they ran pretty well. Not a great combat tank after 1940 IMO, but at least they didn’t breakdown. Apparently.

        PPSh and Mosin-Nagant were no frills infantry weapons. PPSh was a blow back SMG and if you can’t get one of them to work you should give up designing small arms, and bolt action rifles had a long history by WW2. Can’t really pass comment on the Sturmovik. Never deep dived into it to be honest.

          1. No it wasn’t, there is plenty of information on its multiple mechanical and ergonomic problems. Start with Nick Moran videos, read stuff from Bean and Fowler, or Steven Zaloga.

        2. Funny the Wehrmacht had the exact opposite reaction to the T34, when they were first treated to a demo, bsck when the Nazi-Soviet pact was still in place. In fact the Soviets were outraged that the Germans were only showing them their garbage beercan tanks, and they were sure the Germans were hiding the good stuff from them.

          1. Two different stories few years apart mixed up. Russians were looking at early German designs few years earlier and were unimpressed they weren’t looking at tanks that formed the bulk of Barbrossa. Later Germans were looking at T-34 prototype series tanks but had no way to evaluate them at that time. They looked impressive and the hard stats were intimidating, until one had a ride and seen how they worked. Like I said, there is so much information on T-34s problems, the evolution of the design etc that I don’t feel like going into details with a guy who believes T-34s were unaffected by mud.

      2. Bad tranys. How’d you like to carry a spare into battle. Sunlight welds that fractured. Air filter system was sabotage quality. At best 2 rounds a minute vs 4 German. Poor sights and visions. Breakdowns at 40 miles. Horrific crew ergonomics Sherman’s, 3000.

        1. Find me a major battle the Soviets lost on the East Front because the T34 was so shit.

          The West is not prepared to take casualties. The Russians were. And are. The T34 did the job they were asked to do against German armour in any and all weather conditions. German tanks were much worse affected by weather. Their aircraft also.

          You DO know the FN FAL is a far superior rifle to the AK, except under actual battlefield conditions, where its finicky nature was a bit of an issue.

          The AK lacks punch compared to the FN FAL (due to the round it can chamber) … AKs are largely unaffected by weather.

          They died in droves. But droves is one thing the Russians also seem to have.

          1. The Russians had 1,200 T-34s in service on June 22, plus 500 KV series tanks vs 3300 German tanks, the majority Pz III and 38ts. The T-34 were smashed everywhere they were met. They turned the tide or stopped the Germans no where-the Panzers romped delayed only by logistics and the inability of the infantry to keep up.

            The T-34 had shit optic, no turret basket, a two man turret, was basically blind when closed down, lacked radio, was mechanically unreliable, its welding was inferior, its armor was uneven, other than that it was awful. That’s why the Pz III could cope with it even though they were outnumbered moron.

            Its amazing that the Russians managed to beat the Germans by sacrificing 20 million of their citizens through stupidity and crude tactics that are the hallmark of Russian tactics.

      3. T-34 was so great it failed every 120 miles. It was so great that production managed to keep up with the numbers the Germans destroyed. The Germans who used almost every captured item they could shunned the T-34. Try reading US intelligence assessments of the T-34/85 captured in the Korean war. They were pathetic. The IL-2, a flying coffin. The Mosin, of all the bolt action weapons of WW2, probably the best ranked among the French and Italian bolt actions. Best used for clubbing. Really highly regarded. Only the Finnish version is worth anything. Try again skippy.

    2. German equipment on the other hand was over-engineered. They were building airplanes that would last 20 years, to be shot down in 20 hours.

      1. German late war equipment was at times overenginered and at times ridiculously oversimplified. Both schools of thought were present. German early to mid war gear was serviceable and efficient. The only area where Germans were utterly incoherent from the start wad surface navy. There delusions of grandeur combined with limited know how produced absurd results.

    1. The map is pretty depressing for Ukraine. Given that the US took 26 days to take Iraq, and looking at the map, I’d say Russia is anything but bogged down. If you look at the square miles per soldier taken by Russia per day so far, they are well ahead of Israel in the 6 day war.

      2. Wow I’d say as a military analysist you’re one hell of a shoe salesman.

    1. So the one thing I am noticing in this war on both sides is the tendency to take a tiny sample of events (surrenders, texts, crying to Mom, supermodels witb AKs) and extrapolate to the entire situation.

      It’s weird.

      Social media really is a kind of insane asylum. It is almost as bad as the high school rumour mill.

      1. On social media, the outliers get all of the attention regardless of the issue. It’s not a new phenomena.

      2. First Casualty of War.

        (that supermodel with AK is the one that annoys me the most. First it is not an AK she is holding, and – open to correction – more likely an AR-15 family. Then she has her nice clothes and nice glasses. Sorry CLEAN nice clothes and glasses. Then the background is a partly destroyed building that seems to have been around for a while. So… not saying she isn’t taking up arms, but I am saying she found time for a photo shoot beforehand.)

        The point is that just because there are some massive cringe fakes, doesn’t mean other things aren’t happening. If Ukraine had rolled over the Russians would have just driven straight into Kiev. Either this is all some massive 3D chess game designed to win the hearts and minds of Iran, or the invasion hasn’t going 100% Russia.

      3. It is the high school rumour mill, with graphics. I have noticed that one time adults I know tend to get more childish the more time they spend on social media.

    2. Dirtman,

      If the Russians still use the same conscription system the Soviets used? About a quarter of the troops going into Ukraine are raw recruits with maybe two months or so experience?

      The Soviets did not have basic training or recruit depots where new recruits were given basic training. They parceled them out to the actual military units, so as the senior conscripts ended their 2 year hitch, they were replaced with brand new untrained recruits. So every 6 months, 1/4 of the troops would be 0 experience noobs, untrained, useless. Imagine being in the Russian Army, barely trained in how to march and salute in your two or four months of Winter Field Exercises and Boom! You are suddenly invading a foreign country. No boot camp, No AIT, no specialist training. How many had any real, complete military training? How many even fired their weapons more than once? How many with less than a year are well trained? that is have the troops.

      Yeah, they probably have morale issues. Moral Issues too.

      1. recruits

        Yeah… but why? Russia has been planning this for… Putin knows how long. This is not a full mobilisation thing from the Russian pov. Even if they did have to mobilise recruits/conscripts they SHOULD have had weeks to shake them down with training exercises beforehand.

        So… open question.

        Just saying it would not be how I would invade a neighbour if I had strategic level responsibly.

        1. Russia was initially thinking “this isn’t really a foreign country”.

          Perhaps underestimated the extent and effectiveness of anti-Russian psyops due to the nationalists.

          It would explain the light touch from the get go.

          I can tell you Reserve troops are showing up and more on the way.

          They have also begun shooting civilians who are chucking MCs at them. That is a change. They are now treating the population as hostile.

          The Ukes blundered somewhat with all their anti-Russian rhetoric and arming civilians. I think they galvanised a big chunk of the Russian public, who are now becoming susceptible to propaganda that the Nazi presence in Ukraine is massive enough to warrant giving Kiev the Berlin treatment.

      2. The Russian conscripts are not deployed to warfighting units. They are mostly REMFs and supply jockeys like the guys who got lost and got picked up and worked over by the Right Sector boys.

        They can join the bullet-chuckers if they want, but that is a formal transfer, and I think a switch in contract.

      3. Conscript pay. 230 rubles a month. What’s that now, $2.15 US?
        Well at least you get cold, damp waiting for a javelin to take your head off.

  7. I was at CFB Wainwright in 1997. There were some German soldiers there with the British Army Training Unit. I was talking to one of their Captains in the Mess. (He had been a Captain in the East German Army, was reduced to Lt on unification, when he decided to stay in, and had just become a Captain again) He summed it up in a short sentence: “You’d have beaten the crap out of us if we had gone to war”.

    1. The current Russian army is very different from the late 80’s. We cane to the same conclusion. We had assets in at least two Soviet motorised rifle divisions. It was bad. Guys were using exercises to smuggle booze and ciggies. Drunk half the time.

      This army seems quite different. They are clearly up to something. Every Army has a few REMFs on point – least they shoulda been REMFs. They tend to get clipped or snagged pretty fast.

      Watching footage of MPs and supply tiffies who’ve been abused and sleep deprived in a dungeon for 3 days, weeping on the phone to Mum … only an amateur or a dunce would conclude that is strong evidence of an army in collapse.

      The Russian Army may very well be about to collapse. But those videos don’t make the case.

      You better believe that if either side were panicking in droves, there would be hours and hours and hours of such footage, non stop.

      2. The Russian Army is not about to collapse. They have overwhelming numbers of both men and modern war machines. It hasn’t gone as well as Vlad had intended, defenders have had some surprising successes, but the reality is, there is only one plausible outcome.

  8. I think more and more Ukrainian AF troops (not the militias) in the coming days are going to start defecting.

    This is a civil war, and we did the right thing not recklessly blundering ourselves into the middle of it.

    1. No it is not a civil war, it is a Siberian Mongol invasion of a sovereign country.

      Coincidently AWACS, Global Hawk and River Joint or Combat Scent have been spotted operating close to Polish Ukrainian border… Ukrainians might be getting better intel than Siberians.

    3. Right. That’s why the Russians must use terror tactics against civilians.

      This demonstrates the bankruptcy of their cause and their SOP. But Lefturds always resort to terror.

  10. Wheels on combat vehicles. I thought only the Canadians were stupid enough. Wheels cant go where bullrushes grow.

  11. Just looking at this photo again.

    Where is the Russian recovery assets?

    Vehicles get bogged. It happens. It is embarrassing. But as long as you can recover the vehicle it only remains embarrassing. If you have to leave it in the mud it becomes a lost vehicle.

    So? Why was this vehicle not recovered?

    1. By Russia or Ukraine? Russia does not seem to be making much of an effort to recover. They aren’t recovering bodies either. The Ukranian country is littered with Russian bodies which dogs are feasting on.

      Russia hasn’t practiced the most basic military training. There are private military analysts who are completely baffled. Stuff like spreading out convoys, rear protection, even the deployment of elite airborne troops to their death. There was one yesterday. They were dropped right in front of Ukranian special forces and slaughtered. Hard to be effective qhen you are being killed before touching the ground.

      Don’t forget the fuel issue. That plays a role.

        1. What did I say that was incorrect? There’s plenty of geolocated videos of Ukranian soldiers liberating Russian equipment.

    2. Because it isn’t stuck in the mud, it’s been hit by something. Right front tire is burning. Right front door is open and clearing shows signs of fire in the cab. Also looks like the right rear took a dead center hit as the hub cover, tire and rim are blown off.

    3. There is this philosophy of war that was taught in the late 60’s of the past century.
      While this here guy was not a soviet soldier, he was in an army whose country was dominated by the Sovietsky.
      The simple account of the war was that every element including a soldier have a life time in war.
      The life time of a soldier, calculated by sovietsky ‘experts’ was something like 3 or 5 hours. Life time of a truck would be something in minutes and so on and so on. The calculation is consecutive, meaning that 100 soldiers removed from fight would take 3 – 5 min for every one until you got to 100 x 3 or 5, don’t remember exactly its been some 55 years since.

      1. I do understand that its confusing and the 3 – 5 min should have been 3 to 5 hours though I may be wrong on the time.
        The simple point is that a truck lasts 2 min, the next truck will last 2 min from the first one until so many trucks add up to 3 or 5 hours then the soldier is removed, and so on and so on.
        Sounds complicated though it is just one long line, not two or any other parallel lines.
        You can say that it is a linear situation.

  12. Mmm Russia’s first plan of a quick strike did not work. Now it is the grind. They have switched gears, not perfectly, but good enough. They are executing a plan of attack that is successful so far. The Ukrainian forces are only able to slow not stop. Short term they will most likely lose the battle. Long term who knows. This will be expensive for Russia. Permenant occupation forces considerable damage to civilian infrastructure that will need to be repaired somehow. Also this means that most likely a general rearmament and refurbishment of Western Europe military forces that Russia can’t match over the long term. Of course it is always the short term that can kill you first.

    The biggest problem western countries have is leadership. We do not have anyone. Boris is a joke. Macron a dreamer. Germany’s chancellor too new. The us? dementia joe is barely competent to eat his morning gruel.

    People should be furious over this but instead they are apathetic.

    1. This is an interesting take on it.
      Huge casualty numbers are not in Putin’s best interests.

      “As the multinational corporations, multinational banks, collective corporate and political west along with the EU, NATO and media, tell Ukraine to keep fighting, it appears Russia is moving through a methodical plan they have no hope of stopping. This would explain why the Russian convoys are pausing before going hardcore on the cities and population centers. ”

      https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/01/col-douglas-macgregor-talks-common-sense-with-tucker-carlson-about-the-russia-ukraine-conflict-video/#more-228935

      1. Good observations. As the costs mount up I wonder how many Brutus types will show up.

    2. I think the quick strike was the only way to win really. I don’t mean capturing Ukraine because they could probably accomplish that. I mean win in terms of annexing Ukraine and eventually being free of sanctions. At this point Russia is basically going to have permanent sanctions unless it completely withdraws and pays for the damage.

  13. It may be true that the Ruskies do not properly maintain their equipment, but this kind of information doesn’t prove that. The reports I’ve seen from more independent media suggest that the Ruskies are using their oldest equipment and their most inexperienced soldiers to start the war.

    1. What a bad joke you are. The videos show front line equipment. Not T-62s or 3rd line stuff. But then again you probably teach CRT to pre schoolers.

  14. Never a shortage of ex military armchair quarterbacks who think they have it all figured out. I doubt very much shitty tire rotation practices are going to determine the outcome of this war but you do you.

  15. Pretty much what you can expect from a dictatorship where the individual of course doesn’t matter. The emphasis isn’t on doing your job properly, but rather f*cking up as a group to avoid personal responsibility. You do anything to not stand out in a culture like that.

  16. That is a new Pantsir-SM air defence system. Its not old kit. It did not break down, it was damaged as is evident by the bent a deformed rim on the first rear axle. It is in soft ground with both wheels on the real axles busted. Its probably close to 25 tons on four axles and eight tires so that would be a massive ground pressure for each tire of around two to three tons per tire. Those kinds of numbers don’t work on soft ground and really don’t work when you lose a tire or two. The remaining tires and axles can’t distribute the weight and it becomes almost impossible to tow. It can only be dragged or flat bedded.

    1. Notice the damage to the right front on fire and the fire damage on the inside of the front open door also.
      That little mud wouldn’t stop that thing, it’s been hit multiple times by something.

  17. Two years ago the entire country was largely convinced the refrigerators IN OUR OWN HOSPITALS were stacked full of bodies and improvised coolers were operating in the parking lots to handle all the dead.

  18. I am with you richfisher. Who are the ones threatening, beating and firing foreigners? Two local Russians I know fired for being Russian during sanctions.

    Those nations doing this are usually the guys in the deepest trouble. In 1945, Germany was hanging teenagers for “desertion”, and sending the families to the camps if their sons’ regiments surrendered “too quickly”.

    Everything I see this Ukrainian government doing smacks of desperation. A bit depressing, really.

    They know something we don’t. They know NATO isn’t coming. They know they are going to get cut in half, and lose the East. They seem to know they will get down to a rump state, and appear desperate to hang onto Kiev and Kharkov if the can.

    If you are Ukraine, why do you want Odessa? Seems to have way too many Syrian drug lords and Turkish tycoons who will back your pkay now, but whose “commission fee” is going to be steep. If I am Zelensky, I’d love to let the Russians have it. Let them deal with the endless terrorism and crime!

    I’d be prepared to dump Kharkov in exchange for Kiev. I suspect that would be a decent end state?

    After dicking around for 8 years refusing to honour the Minsk Accord signed obligations, East Ukraine is gone. It’s not coming back. I always wondered why Zelensky never sorted this out? His election platform was “end the war in Donbas, protect Russian speakers’ civil rights, and implement Minsk.” Then he gets elected and dumps all that in a flash. But the militias in the East seem determined to die fighting.

    Putin and Zelensky agreed today in principle, for safe passage for civilians. We will see what the militias (who own a lot of towns
    in the East) have to say about holing up in Severodonetsk and Zaporizhiya, and letting the civilians leave. I doubt they will allow that, since they know at that point they are just artillery and rocket fodder.

    I also doubt Zelensky is actually in charge in Kiev. He has propaganda value. But I doubt he decided to take on Russia all by himself, and out of the blue!

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