• CmmnsmWllWn [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    It seems like Russia is very much still holding back at this state but to your point a lot of the sloppiness so far is surprising. My theory is that the special forces soldiers were expected to have killed Zelenskyy and his government by now and that not happening yet has acted as a bottleneck for the rest of the objectives. Hopefully the ceasefire talks are productive today, otherwise I think the ugliness will ramp up and consideration for civilian lives will be minimized in order for them to secure Kiev and/or take our Zelenskyy and his circle by a certain time point.

    No doubt about it that Ukraine/NATO is dominating the propaganda arm of the war but to be fair Russia is the one doing the invasion. NATO/US provocation only excuses so much when the average person thinks “maybe they expanded NATO eastward because Russia is crazy enough to invade its neighbors while killing thousands of civilians in the process” without regard for the hypocrisy of US’ recent imperialistic campaigns in MENA.

    • spectre [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I'm with you on just about everything

      It seems like Russia is very much still holding back at this state

      I just want to point out that yes they're sending in the B-team, but if not committing A-team resources to this under any circumstances was never an option (which would be wise imo), then I don't thinks this point matters at all. Nevertheless, we have no fucking idea if their latest capabilities are in play or not.

      • doctor_sociology [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Nevertheless, we have no fucking idea if their latest capabilities are in play or not.

        You are seeing a lot of upgunned t-72s with modern enhancements but not a whole lot of t-90s or even the new armatas in the field for a reason. russian doctrine calls for holding back those units as maneuver groups to exploit a breakthrough. since this war is more about bringing ukraine to heel and less about pouring through the north german plain i doubt they will make an appearance

        • spectre [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Interesting, mind if I ask if you have a place to read more about this sort of thing?

        • Bulma [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I heard the modded t-72s were good and the t-90s were trash, that wrong?

          • doctor_sociology [none/use name]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            considering the t-90 is just a reworked t-72 with modern materials, optics and electronics i would disagree. the t-80 line was a dead end so they went back to basics after the panic from the iraqis getting smashed in '91 died down. people realized the steel tipped AP rounds didn't have a chance to beat M1 armor and the export models were pretty questionable to begin with.

            a principle of tank warfare is that who shoots first often wins the fight, and everything the russians put into modernizing the t-72 line works towards that concept.

            • BeamBrain [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              This sounds fascinating and I'd love to learn more. What were the problems with the T-80?

              • dinklesplein [any, he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                I'm not OP, and my specialization is in WW2 Naval gunnery and not land combat. With that said, I believe that the T-80's issues are that it's simply not quite as economic as the T-72 series, uses more fuel, and tended to need much more maintenance because of the gas-turbine engine compared to other Soviet designs. It was mostly for those economic reasons that the Russians dropped it as a developmental base after the fall of the union, as there weren't any funds left to maintain them. With that said, the Tank still had unmatched tactical maneuverability for its time, and I believe its reputation was largely tarnished by how hard the Russian forces got owned by ex-Soviet Chechen forces in the Battle of Grozny. The T-80 series is still getting modernisations though, and I believe the Armata series is a pretty large departure from the T-72/T-90s anyways.