comment: >
  
  Okay, so the HMMWV is the humvee. I didn't know its true technical name. I posted a link for the M113. 
  MRAP looks like some kind of vehicle created out of necessity from experience in the Middle East. Russia deployed a lot of landmines, so those vehicles will be valuable for Ukraine.
  Thank you!
context: New post can be found here >
  
  Su25 is the Russian counterpart to the Thunderbolt. A very dangerous plane! Shooting it down saves lives, and is difficult to replace due to sanctions. >
  
  The good news is that like the A-10 would be, they haven't been particularly survivable in this conflict. At least the A-10 has a "bathtub" cockpit and redundant flight systems, not sure the Su-25 is as armored. >
  
  The Sukhoi 25 is broadly equivalent to the A-10 in terms of armour protection for the pilot. Even the helmet is armoured. >
  
  On Dutch NOS just now, I saw Zelensky talking about the so-called truce offer; he replies that “the russian soldiers should just retreat and take their toilets with them, they’re gonna need them.” >
  
  Lololol >
  
  Who was telling me Badleys couldn’t take out tanks? T72s are sitting ducks to these things. >
  
  Yea idk why anyone would say that. They have form in tank killing >
  
  Didn't Bradley's kill more enemy tanks in Iraq (or somewhere else) than tanks did? >
  
  As I dimly recall, Bradley's were shredding through Iraqi T-72s like they were made out of papier-mâché. >
  
  They are highly manoeuvrable which allows them to position themselves where they have the advantage in using their TOW missiles. >
  
  Hilarious how Russian milbloggers are raging at Putin for the way he said "ceasefire along the whole front in Ukraine". According to Russia all of the front lines currently lie on the Russian territory, but apparently unlike them even Putin knows it's all bullshit. >
  
  At least their anger is now directed towards the right person >
  
  So the Ukrainians have now managed to use Soviet Buk launchers to fire Sea Sparrow missiles... Mig's to launch US Anti-Radar missiles, adapted their own fire control software and systems to Pz2000 self propelled artillery and of course, everyday DJI drones to drops bombs.
  If anyone thinks they couldn't handle flying F-16's or driving M1 Abrams... >
  
  Oh you are forgetting integration of JDAM and Storm Shadow. >
  
  Yet to be seen. Fucking hope they have though. >
  
  From 24.02.2022 to 06.01.2023 (Day 317) estimated Russian losses so far (change since previous day):
  110,000 personnel milestone reached.  
  110250 (+530) Personnel
  3064 (+23) Tanks
  6124 (+16) Armored Personnel Vehicles
  2059 (+8) Artillery Systems
  431 (+5) MLRS
  215 (+0) Anti-aircraft Warfare Systems
  285 (+1) Aircraft
  272 (+1) Helicopters
  1844 (+0) UAV operational-tactical level
  723 (+0) Missiles
  16 (+0) Warships / Boats
  4797 (+38) Other vehicles
  182 (+0) Special Equipment >
  
  A lot of tanks and vehicles got hit.
  And crazy to think over 500 soldiers is low this week. >
  
  16 days to 10,000 further casualties. Jesus Christ have mercy on those poor souls (and pass the ammunition). It is terrifying how Russian fascist politics and propaganda has brought us to this point. How even more terrifying it is that some citizens in secure democracies want to have this style of ruinous ideological leadership. >
  
  But wait there will be more deads.
  If the rumors are true, they will just recruit a million more soldiers.
  And they already ran out of good weapons for the first wave.
  They will just try a zombie tower defence game style of rushing the base. Meanwhile ukriane gets better weapons each month.
  If only those soldiers would stork rhe kremlin they would survive. >
  
  The fucking irony never ceases to fire. >
  
  That's the biggest package since HIMARS. If you add other countries, that's a shitload of armored vehicles. Looks like it's tailored for counter attack in spring >
  
  At this point it's more dangerous to be a person with power/influence in Russia than it is to be a mobik on the frontlines in Ukraine. >
  
  Another post said there were 42 in total on that train. Super nice kit. >
  
  Key takeaways (for me, anyways).  Fast (40 mph), 400 miles on a full tank, can kill tanks with TOW missile from 3750 meters away, 25 mm chain gun can fire 200 rounds per minute to targets 3 km away.  In other words, fast and furious. >
  
  It can also carry infantry! This increases operational range and capability of small tactical squads and gives them a significant upgrade in protection and force projection with the optics, weapon systems, and mobility they provide. 
  I'm really excited to see how Ukrainian ingenuity and tenacity utilizes this platform after seeing what they have done with less. >
  
  Edit:
  We're up to 21 accounts.
  Another 7 bot accounts were taken care of during the past 5 minutes. All their posts appeared in the new queue during the past hour and have been removed. Each post appeared one right after the other from each different account. They all became active during the past 6 hours and within 15 min of each other. The oldest dormant account was 11 years old.
  
  Original comment:
  14 more bot accounts were taken care of today.
  Most of the accounts were dormant up until the past couple of days. For example, one account may have been 5 years old and had zero activity until 06:30 UTC. Each subsequent account was reactivated within a few 15 minutes of each other. All of the sus accounts were active within 3 hours of the first one. 
  A second batch was similarly activated 24 hours later, and likewise had accounts that were upwards of 9 years old, with zero activity until a similar time frame. 
  Each of the sus accounts began posting on the sub within a few hours. The sus accounts also commented on the same threads on other subs but not this one as far as we can tell.
  None of the sus accounts' posts or comments are visible on the sub and all the accounts were reported to the admins. It's unknown what the accounts intentions were but it's likely they were karma farming to post spam elsewhere.
  The last batch of accounts were mostly stopped by the admins, and the ones that slipped through ended up spamming domains or comment spammed an unrelated sub before finally being stopped.
  
  If you see a troll, bot or spam account--report it.
  You can click the "report" link if you find one those comments. Thanks if you already do this.
  🚜
  ^Also, ^don't ^name ^any ^users ^in ^any ^comments ^as ^this ^can ^be ^seen ^as ^a ^type ^of ^personal ^attack. >
  
  Thank you for your effort. It is much appreciated. >
  
  This would be awful... you mean destroy their OWN churches with their OWN people? Much worse than the weird pipeline thing and won't even work as a false flag operation. >
  
  Well... it'd be the same playbook as the apartment bombings before the 2nd chechen war. >
  
  NEW: U.S. is providing self-propelled Paladin howitzer guns to Ukraine for the first time in Friday's $3 billion military aid package: Pentagon. 18 Paladins are in the latest package. The U.S. has already provided 160 155mm and 72 105mm Howitzers and more than 1 million rounds. >
  
  Considering they’ve been operating M109s for a while now, the Paladins should fit right in. >
  
  1420 - Russians look at pictures of destroyed Ukrainian city (Bakhmut) >
  
  Might just be due to a different set of people but its pretty different to the indifference / denial in response to pictures of the war much earlier in it. >
  
  Yeah, but that was just a small sample too back then. >
  
  True, I would be interested to see rural russias reaction to before and after pictures. >
  
  Good guy Macron. Even if in absolute terms Germany does a lot more. France has a certain  je ne sais quoi. >
  
  Funny enough the CAESAR I think was as well the first truly modern vehicle sent. >
  
  It was the first heavy weapon send to Ukraine that was not Soviet-made. >
  
  It’s so strange. Last time Ukraine was screaming about an offensive was Kherson. And they launched Kharkiv first and Kherson. Followed days after. I wonder what they are trying to do to Russia by announcing their plans month in advance. >
  
  Force Russia to reinforce one spot then attack multiple places. Russia now has a lot of men, but they are relatively untrained and essentially worthless while a lot of equipment is running low. The same equations that set up Kharkiv and Kherson still apply. Force Russia to pick a spot to defend and reinforce. Trap the men there and whittle away at them while you attack wherever Russia had to pull reinforcements from. Zhaporizhia or Crimea might be the new Kherson. >
  
  Wasn't this all mostly about resource money? >
  
  BBC does a forensic examination of those infamous people who keep cropping up in Putin's official photographs >
  
  It is so insulting. 
  Can you imagine the despair that an actual Russian widow or mother who lost her son feels when she sees televised actors who support the war and don't mind the "sacrifice" their loved ones made? That dying for Putin in this horrific war is the highest honor a man could make and is the most his life will ever live up to? 
  They are Putin's puppets! They sacrifice nothing, and don't even have shame!
  The whole "mothers of the mobilized" performance was one of the sickest things I have ever seen. >
  
  I can imagine it quite well actually, they probably don't feel despair over it as they lap up the nonsense on Russian TV quite readily >
  
  Regarding the mention of Global Firepower Index (GFI) in the livefeed.  Just some info:  
  
  Ukraine was ranked 25 (15 now) in 2015.  Iran was 23 (17 now).  
  The GFI is a "score with categories ranging from quantity of military units and financial standing to logistical capabilities and geography" with a "unique, in-house formula allows for smaller, more technologically-advanced, nations to compete with larger, lesser-developed powers and special modifiers, in the form of bonuses and penalties, are applied to further refine the list which is compiled annually."  
  It is largely dependent on data provided by the countries themselves, which can be overestimated.  
  Since land area, population, and financial standing are factors, this is not reflective of relative raw military strength.  Russia for example has almost the same index as the US due to its land area.  Nevermind that it has 9000 fewer aircraft or half the population.  
  Some categories aren't applicable and yet still count as handicaps.  The US receives a handicap for not having frigates, despite being first in total naval assets and most naval categories.  Both the US and Russia (and Ukraine to a lesser extent) receive handicaps for national debt, which is a misunderstanding of national debt and the dynamics of debtor-nations.  
  Drone count and capabilities have been left out of the index completely.  
  
  Really I find it a pretty arbitrary and misleading statistic and I don't know why it's something to get excited about.  Most of the factors are non-military.  The 'shared border' stat is in there just to give a boost to smaller nations, but why artificially inflate something you're calling a firepower rating for countries that can fit inside Manhattan? >
  
  I love how an alleged #25 army has been fighting the alleged #2 army for almost a year now and somehow managed to only increase in power. >
  
  There was speculation in the last thread false flags are planned against churches, likely in the annexed regions. Not sure how substantiated, but it wouldn't surprise me. >
  
  Watch the ruble. If it crashes, then the rats are fleeing, meaning DoW and Martial Law are coming in fast. >
  
  It's been going down as far as I can tell, but there's a lot of sleight-of-hand possible with forex until it isn't >
  
  The west will remember all the names he called their leaders. He will have to cry and beg for people to give him the same attention he used to get back in the day. >
  
  "they made me do it", the cry of all cowards >
  
  Daily reminder that Michael McKay isn’t a reliable source as he tends to over exaggerate good news and add shit with no additional sources. >
  
  Russian sources confirm that information actually saying their artillery is preventing further movement of Ukrainian troops. >
  
  Rumors of a Russian offensive coming soon, and then Putin asking for a weekend ceasefire. Yeah, not suspicious at all.. >
  
  I think NATO leaders could have secret intel on that. It could be why the light tanks and patriot air defense were approved, and why other countries have increased urgency to donate more equipment.
  They know way more than we do. All of these announcements were carefully discussed beforehand. >
  
  I don't think it takes a background in military intelligence to realize Russia is going to attempt a renewed offensive once winter ends again. They attacked near the start of March, so it stands to reason they're going to attempt another push come March again. I'm sure the announced Bradleys, Marders etc. will be there well before then. Also their air defenses should continue to improve as more and more AA gets shipped into the country. >
  
  I could see Russia attempt another offensive during the one year anniversary of the war just because they love their numbers and symbolism. >
  
  I can't be the only one that can't stand perfectly good plain text being interspersed with unicode icons. >
  
  I agree, it's horrible and slows my reading down. >
  
  I posted a bit of this elsewhere earlier, but had a subsequent realization more relevant for here.
  So, rehash of what I said elsewhere, having binged BBC's Trauma Zone, which looks at the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union (with many scenes from Ukraine), and the subsequent collapse of democracy in Russia, the Ukrainian scenes are haunting me. Can't get them out of my head. And I learned something new... that documentary does a great job beautifully, simply explaining what happened in Ukraine when the Soviet Union collapsed. The communist leader "switched sides", changed the name ONLY of everything from 'Soviet' to 'National', and not a single fucking thing beyond that changed. They were still fully in Russia's chains. Ukraine didn't start from the same place as the Baltic states. It started from the same place as Belarus, as the most infamous Central Asian republics. It's mind-blowing how much progress they made from that starting point to Maidan.
  And that's what my realization is... they had a momentum behind them that that I didn't even notice, and I imagine some others of us here didn't notice either. The progress they made from the collapse of the Soviet Union to Maidan is just as impressive as the Kharkiv offensive, as all their hard-fought, painful successes since Russia invaded. We are SO late to this party. Shamefully, embarrassingly late. The Ukrainians have been consciously, successfully, passionately fighting for their values, for our values, for decades. And they've been winning. So glad to see we finally get it, and are finally helping. >
  
  Yep, and this is why Russia is so desperate to win here.
  Russia FEARS Ukraine.
  They know that the best soliders, industry and science of the USSR was all Ukraine.
  Russians despise Ukraine not because they 
  consider them to be inferior, but because they know Ukraine is superior to them in many ways that are critical to Russia’s existence in its present form.
  Authoritarian government in Russia will go into a permanent decline if Ukraine is lost to the Russian sphere of influence, because then Russia will have no choice but to start treating its neighbours as equals.
  “Traditional” Russians hate this idea. Being the bully is seen as a right. Losing this and having to learn to actually cooperate with their neighbours in good faith will be unbearable to the sense of entitlement in most Russians, especially the Russian upper classes. >
  
  Hear, hear! >
  
  The  other country, better not be Switzerlamd again. >
  
  I've seen speculation about Qatar (don't need them anymore) and Brazil (the German president is visiting currently and Brazil might be interested in newer systems). >
  
  Well Lula is against the war and he said early on that Zelenskiy shares blame for whats happening in Ukraine ,don`t get me wrong I like Lula over Bolsonaro anyday but some of his statements are controversial. >
  
  That's why the part with Brazil wants new systems would be quite important I think.
  They certainly would not want Russian systems.
  Lula is also mostly sceptical of US/Western intentions in anything as most South American leftists are which is understandable considering South American history with the US. >
  
  
  Lula is also mostly sceptical of US/Western intentions in anything as 
  most South American leftists are which is understandable considering 
  South American history with the US
  
  Not only south american leftists. If you railed your whole life against US imperialism (because, well, that was the one in your countries or done by your countries) it is a mental jump to move firmly behind NATO in this instance. >
  
  
  Ukrainian Intelligence has stated that they now believe the Russian Government has delayed the announcement of a further Mobilization from January 5th until at least the 15th and that the Mobilization is set to include over 500 Thousand Conscripts.
  
  All sides signaling they can escalate forever.  What does that mean?  Lots and lots and lots and lots of dead Russians.  And Ukraine takes Crimea in 6-18 months.  
  Look on the bright side, Russia, 2% less population means you need 2% less land! >
  
  Where are they gonna get the equipment for 500k new conscripts? >
  
  I assume that's why Putin invited Chinese Winnie the Pooh. And hope to unite the gang of evil. >
  
  I don’t know if China is all too keen to waste their own equipment for another county’s failing invasion >
  
  Especially when they have their own future failed invasion to waste them on >
  
  
  Reuters: US believes Putin ally Prigozhin wants control of salt, gypsum mines in Bakhmut.
  
  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Get fucked, you fool! >
  
  I can see gypsum, but salt? It's not like the world is hard-pressed for that particular resource. >
  
  Considering gypsum is what you get when marble statues corrode, it isn't exactly that rare either. If he wants gypsum, the Ukranians have a nice statue of Catherine the great that he can buy and leave in the rain for a while. >
  
  Winter is comming. Tonight it will freeze hard in Donetsk. let's hope the warm winter clothes help the Ukranians. And i wish the conscripts a "good" night without the stolen uniforms that oligarch pocketed. >
  
  I think the real game changer here is the fact that Ukraine is fighting at home. Civillians tend to help the Ukranian soldiers in any way they can. Russian soldiers just get scolded at. >
  
  The further east and south Ukraine comes the less likely will be this form of help – which can become a real problem. Who stayed there or was brought in later is/was usually more on the side of Russia. >
  
  Less, sure, but I don't think we have to overestimate the support for the Russian cause. If areas dominated by pro-Russian folk, are liberated, many will just act like they were on Ukraines side all along or just keep quiet. People are pragmatic. That's my best guess. True pro-Russian supporters might leave those areas, but of course not all of them. >
  
  It makes sense as Poland is slowly trying to streamline their heavy tank force to be just the Abrams and K2 with the Leo’s to be divested by the end of the decade. Pretty sure they’ve sent most, if not all of their T-72s and some of their PT-91s with the rest to be disposed of as the K2s arrive as well.
  With the main force they were to deter currently embroiled in a quagmire in Ukraine, they might see this as both an opportunity to support Ukraine and also to try and expedite their orders if the US/SK agree. It’d be a smart play imo. >
  
  At this rate by march they will have lost the equivalent to the entire army they fielded for the February 24th invasion... Let that sink in. >
  
  Not sure how Russia is expecting to hold onto Ukraine or project power really anywhere in the world after this is over. >
  
  That link provides specific numbers for vehicles. 
  50 Bradley vehicles, 100 M113 APCs, 55 "MRAP," 138 humvees, 18 howitzers, 36 towed howitzers, and a lot of ammunition. 
  Can someone break down what some of these things are? The Bradley tanks and howitzers have been talked about and we know what they are, but what are the others and how are they used? 
  EDIT: The M113 is one of the most widely produced APCs. Over 80,000 built and with 60 years of service! That seems pretty good.
  The MRAP is an armored truck that is resistant to landmines. The HMMWV is the humvee jeep. >
  
  MRAP is the newer wheeled transport, Mine resistant truck essentially, for protection from IEDs. HMMWV is pronounced Humvee, that's the regular 4 door modern jeep-thing aka Hummer. M113 is an outdated armored troop transport.