Originally Posted by
NutLoose
That'll take a lot of blade tape to get back in the air. There was other images yesterday of a helo hovering over a bunch of troops that disappeared in a large fireball, along with all the squishy bits on the ground and inside presumably. Did not look like a MANPAD, but whatever it was, probably left everyone with tinnitus.
ORACs comments on the Russian manpower v Ukrainian, and the associated comments on combat fatigue, this has been an intense combat period for both sides. Russia has severely damaged it's "competent" "profesional" forces for little gain, but has harmed Ukraine on the way through. The training of Russians seems to be as chaotic and nonsensical as their tactics and logistics. When Lord farquard makes his statement that the losses of his army are a price he is prepared to pay, there may be a few of the teams that should be C/S "deadmeat" that may do the maths and work out that the 6th floor window is an attractive option for Lord Farquad to pay the price.
Ukraine has definitely fatigued and weary warfighters, but they have not displayed any loss of resolve, they know what they are fighting for, and they know what the consequences are if they lose resolve. The Russians have no commitment to the fight, and are being slaughtered in battalion and occasionally division levels daily. Ukraine has the fortitude to hold their ground while Russia disintegrates due to the stench that is emitted from the Kremlin. The only thing Ukraine needs is the munitions and systems to do what the west does not have the stomach to do.
On kalibr tracks over Romania, the lord lunacy is unlikely to deliberately result in a NATO nation having a casus belli to provide all materiel in the closet to Ukraine. Transnistria, like much of Russia's claims to territory in contravention of the Alma Ata accords and every other treaty that they have ever signed, is not Russian territory, it remains part of a sovereign nation and eventually needs to sorted out, as that sovereign nation has every liklihood of being a part eventually of an EU and NATO, even with the untidy bits that are the holdover of prior aggressive disregard of treaties by Russia.