The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[CharlesPhipps]

I think it's forgotten that:
-> The Soviets grabbed up tons of land in the Winter War
-> The British had to face the French and deal with an emerging global war
-> Putin is still managing to take control of more territory, at least from a "lines and points" perspective, and remains insensitive to casualties.

The biggest surprise from this is the Ukraine is carrying out counterattacks versus constant retreats.

[hammerofglass]

I've seen a bunch of rumors that Putin is conducting a pretty thorough purge of everything from his inner circle and generals to his personal domestic staff, but not a lot of confirmation.

[Madner Kami]

I've seen a bunch of rumors that Putin is conducting a pretty thorough purge of everything from his inner circle and generals to his personal domestic staff, but not a lot of confirmation.

It's a lot of inference. People noticed senior staff people suddenly appearing in obituaries in newspapers who didn't seem close to being at "that age" not too long ago.

[CmdrKing]

From what I've read the officials being removed and placed under house arrest (or various worse things) has been confirmed, but the personal staff is rumors. Lemme see if I can find an article...

Yeah, multiple outlets are reporting the head of the spy agency at minimum has been placed under house arrest.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 34350.html

[TGLS]

Don't worry. When the next May Day parade rolls around we'll just note who disappeared from the dais and fell out of favor.

[phantom000]

Another high ranking Russian officer got killed in Ukraine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/th ... 40adf35527

How does that make now? In other news the Russian invasion has forced one of SpaceX's competitors to use their rockets.

https://news.yahoo.com/oneweb-fly-compe ... 747112b7fe

Makes me think of the 34th rule of acquisition.

War is good for business

[Frustration]

What is disturbing, however, is it seems the Russians reached that point after a week and they still aren't backing down.

They have nothing to gain by fighting, but by ceasing fighting they will lose face. They continue for the same reason soldiers kept being ordered to place flags atop the Chernobyl reactor: it saves face for the people giving orders.

It's a very minor benefit, but to their mind, people's lives are virtually worthless, so the price is negligible.

[CharlesPhipps]

Pravda published 9,800 dead in the war on the Russian side and 16,000 injured.

It was quickly taken down.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissa ... b52b9d23d1

This is notably absurd levels of casualties and about 2/3rds of the number killed in the Russian Afghanistan War, which helped bring down the Soviet Union.

[Madner Kami]

Pravda published 9,800 dead in the war on the Russian side and 16,000 injured.

It was quickly taken down.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissa ... b52b9d23d1

This is notably absurd levels of casualties and about 2/3rds of the number killed in the Russian Afghanistan War, which helped bring down the Soviet Union.

It's actually a bit more complex than accidentally released and then redacted. The article was released as you see it now, without the numbers. After release, the article was altered to include the numbers by an unknown actor and then was redacted into it's original state.
The numbers themselves are neatly placed between what the western intelligence assumes (lowballing) and the Ukrainians report (highballing). What stuck out like a sore thumb was the relation of dead to wounded. Almost a 1:2 ratio, which hints at a very low battlefield recovery-rate and bad treatment of wounded soldiers. This gives reason to presume, that these numbers weren't just made up, but had a credible source.

Oh and by comparison, the Russo-Afghan war cost the lives of about 15k soldiers in 10 years. Let that sink in for a moment.

[hammerofglass]

American and coalition military dead in the twenty years in Iraq and Afghanistan is about 9000, just for comparison closer to home.

Although that's not counting contractors or local allies, it's an order of magnitude more if you do.