Russia invades Ukraine

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by starseed

https://twitter.com/KyivPost/status/1568300744255721472

This is crazy quick. Can the Russians actually be this tactically inept?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568313692097331201

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568308603001380865

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568289417374089216

Look on the map on where Lyman is. This is Battle of France / Battle of Sedan levels of breakthrough and decimation (what led to Dunkirk).

[opendoor]

Pretty good example of the difference between defending occupied land vs. defending your homeland. When Ukraine was on the defensive and vastly outgunned, they made Russia fight for every inch of land even when it looked hopeless for them. Now in the places where Russia is on the defensive and outmanned/outgunned, they're just collapsing and retreating because the soldiers have no incentive to take part in a suicide mission to try to keep control of a city/village they had probably never even heard of 6 months ago.

[Firebot]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568250799641198595

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568251030990721025

Russians literally never planned for a potential Ukraine counteroffensive breaking their line of defense and had nothing behind it. These are areas that were taken back in March / April and had plenty of time to be heavily reinforced but Putin moved whatever they had around on boneheaded objectives like "take all of Donbas by Sep 15".

Considering he's personally directing the armies now ala Hitler, he may be seen as the most incompetent military commander in history.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Pretty good example of the difference between defending occupied land vs. defending your homeland. When Ukraine was on the defensive and vastly outgunned, they made Russia fight for every inch of land even when it looked hopeless for them. Now in the places where Russia is on the defensive and outmanned/outgunned, they're just collapsing and retreating because the soldiers have no incentive to take part in a suicide mission to try to keep control of a city/village they had probably never even heard of 6 months ago.

Judging by the previous six months, it's just another example of competence vs incompetence.

[Ugly Kid Joe]

Originally Posted by Firebot

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568313692097331201

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568308603001380865

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568289417374089216

Look on the map on where Lyman is. This is Battle of France / Battle of Sedan levels of breakthrough and decimation (what led to Dunkirk).

Do you know from which direction they are coming from to attack Lyman? This could be another axis of advance from Sloviansk. If it's from the north, then holy smokes they are moving.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Ugly Kid Joe

Do you know from which direction they are coming from to attack Lyman? This could be another axis of advance from Sloviansk. If it's from the north, then holy smokes they are moving.

It's coming from the south.

Ukrainian forces still have a front line in the Donbas just a bit away from Severodonetsk and not far from Lyman. One thing to understand is that all along the lines there are tens of thousands of troops defending / attacking dug in, The push from the South is t flank and remove pressure off the North offensive, as Russians now need to defend their backs.

The key objective is very obvious by now, the total annihilation of Izyum and isolation from all routes and supply routes. The north push will likely link up with the new south push in a day or two at this rate.

This is a pincer movement that will completely encircle Izyum and Russians are unable to stop it. The whole Izyum front is almost effectively gone and has totally collapsed.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568301304073822208

Even Rybar is conceding the total collapse and in total panic conceding that Ukraine controls the whole western bank of the Oskil River, it's quite funny how Russians propagandists go from "they are suiciding against our walls" to "run for your lives everything is collapsing" in their tone but still have to keep the illusion they are winning and that a mass of elite Russian troops are coming to the rescue. By the way, Rybar still stubbornly claiming on his Telegram that Balaklya still has Russians controlling it (why you see the band still there), but we know it's fully in Ukrainian control for a few days now.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568215104704888833

An absolute masterpiece.

[TKB]

Came to see how Baron was going to spin these latest developments, leaving disappointed…

[Firebot]

This is the mighty Russian army

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568284610714570757

[karl262]

Excellent post from the daily reddit r/worldnews Russia invades Ukraine thread, thought it was worth sharing:

Something I felt like saying in the light of ongoing events:

I have left Russia, the place where I lived my whole life, 3 months ago because the country began descending into full insanity. The negative feelings towards Ukrainians have always been there but they were mostly expressed through jokes and kitchen talk; a lot of people had family in Ukraine whom they mostly seen as "kinda weird and uppity" but still kept in touch.

When I think about it now I realize that it was because no one saw Ukraine as a threat or even a serious entity; everyone made fun of Ukraine's often-changing government and loud political activists and thought to themselves "how does this country even exist, they're so disorganized, they can't do anything".

In the last couple years something grim has started happening: the dismissive attitude towards Ukraine and its people started being transformed into full blown hatred. By power of changing information background the people of Russia were encouraged to no longer just think about Ukrainians as silly and unworthy of attention but as evil malevolent beings whose very existence as a nation is an unacceptable threat to Russia and its people.

The people were explained that Nazism is the essence of Ukrainian culture, that the entire Ukrainian people should be punished for the crime of "genocide" against ethnic Russians and that Ukrainian language, culture and heritage need to be exterminated forever to remove the threat against Russian people. It sounded like a big task but the Russians were not to worry for Putin had an answer: Ukraine is a severely corrupt non-functional country and as soon as Russian troops crossed the border the Ukrainian army and government would run away without any resistance and Russia would be free to fulfill its mission.

Now we've seen the opposite happen: Ukraine has stopped Russian army after it barely managed to take 20% of Ukrainian land with severe casualties and is now rapidly retaking its land.

I think the most poetic aspect of this war is that Russia, which prided itself on its military might and being the world's second greatest army, took an embarrassing defeat not from another one of the world's major militaries, but from the very country is used to degrade and dismiss and consider "not a real country" for such a long time. I don't know yet how everything will end but I like to think that the sheer scale of this embarrassing crushing defeat will prevent any future Russian government from trying anything like this ever again. This turnaround has been one of the few examples of justice being delivered in world affairs and one of the few things inspiring hope for the better future for at least some people.

[mivdo]

I watched a pro-Russian video earlier today to see how they are spinning this and it is hilarious. Pretty much saying they are right where the Russians want them. Rope-a-dope if you will, with columns upon columns of equipment on the way decimate the pocket the Ukranians are in.

Also says its not about how much land you control or how many troops you lose. He must be an official Russian military strategist.

[Firebot]

The masterpiece is nearly complete. Not shown on these maps is the sheer amount of artillery and equipment that Ukraine has been capturing. This is stuff that is meant to attack from far on the back lines, safe from enemy attack, and some of the really good stuff that Russia actually still has.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568379292047794176

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568356841289138178

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568224082503802881

You see a small subset of the sheet amount of stuff captured at https://twitter.com/UAWeapons

[burn_this_city]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568416858059214853

[burn_this_city]

Appears they're close to capturing Kupyansk, the critical rail hub in the area.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568464792909643778

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Appears they're close to capturing Kupyansk, the critical rail hub in the area.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568464792909643778

As per Russian propaganda, "situation in Kupyansk is tough but Russians are holding on".

Update: Russian media reports that Russian troops have left Kupyansk.

Second update: Russia also confirms leaving Izyum. Man, that seems like a rout and propaganda seems out of ideas on how to spin it. They say "we have stopped Ukrainians at Lyman FOR NOW". Seems like a total panic.

"We had to leave Izyum and some other settlements".
"It happened because of strategic failures of higher brass".
"If we didn't leave Izyum, our forces there would collapse"

https://news.ru/europe/vlasti-dnr-po...okinuli-izyum/

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Pointman

As per Russian propaganda, "situation in Kupyansk is tough but Russians are holding on".

Update: Russian media reports that Russian troops have left Kupyansk.

Second update: Russia also confirms leaving Izyum. Man, that seems like a rout and propaganda seems out of ideas on how to spin it. They say "we have stopped Ukrainians at Lyman FOR NOW". Seems like a total panic.

yes this seems like a total collapse of the front, at this point the only thing that will stop the Ukrainians will be their ability to supply the advance, they may have to stop just to reestablish supply lines

[KootenayFlamesFan]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568564738757459968

[starseed]

https://twitter.com/LostWeapons/stat...IgQBmd9hOs5heA

Looks like Russia continues to donate ammo and heavy equipment to Ukraine. It's probably no more useful than scrap metal, but every little bit helps.

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk

[Pointman]

China may feel like they want themselves some Siberia at this point.

[GGG]

We’re the attacks in the South designed to move troops and equipment away from Kharkiv to open up the East or is this Russian failure everywhere

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by GGG

We’re the attacks in the South designed to move troops and equipment away from Kharkiv to open up the East or is this Russian failure everywhere

I hear nothing about Kherson offensive lately. So it was probably a feint