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Here’s your weekly dunking on Russian Military Incompetence agendapost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/world/europe/pro-russian-war-bloggers-kremlin.html

The destruction wreaked on a Russian battalion as it tried to cross a river in northeastern Ukraine last week is emerging as among the deadliest engagements of the war, with estimates based on publicly available evidence now suggesting that well over 400 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded.

And as the scale of what happened comes into sharper focus, the disaster appears to be breaking through the Kremlin’s tightly controlled information bubble.

Perhaps most striking, the Russian battlefield failure is resonating with a stable of pro-Russian war bloggers — some of whom are embedded with troops on the front line — who have reliably posted to the social network Telegram with claims of Russian success and Ukrainian cowardice.

“The commentary by these widely read milbloggers may fuel burgeoning doubts in Russia about Russia’s prospects in this war and the competence of Russia’s military leaders,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research body, wrote over the weekend.

On May 11, the Russian command reportedly sent about 550 troops of the 74th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 41st Combined Arms Army to cross the Donets River at Bilohorivka, in the eastern Luhansk region, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces near Rubizhne.

Satellite images reveal that Ukrainian artillery destroyed several Russian pontoon bridges and laid waste to a tight concentration of Russian troops and equipment around the river.

The Institute for the Study of War, citing analyses based on the publicly available imagery, indicated that there could have been as many as 485 Russian soldiers killed or wounded and more than 80 pieces of equipment destroyed.

As the news of the losses at the river crossing in Bilohorivka started to spread, some Russian bloggers did not appear to hold back in their criticism of what they said was incompetent leadership.

“I’ve been keeping quiet for a long time,” Yuri Podolyaka, a war blogger with 2.1 million followers on Telegram, said in a video posted on Friday, saying that he had avoided criticizing the Russian military until now.

“The last straw that overwhelmed my patience was the events around Bilohorivka, where due to stupidity — I emphasize, because of the stupidity of the Russian command — at least one battalion tactical group was burned, possibly two.”

Mr. Podolyaka ridiculed the Kremlin line that the war is going “according to plan.” He told his viewers in a five-minute video that, in fact, the Russian Army was short of functional unmanned drones, night-vision equipment and other kit “that is catastrophically lacking on the front.”

“Yes, I understand that it’s impossible for there to be no problems in war,” he said. “But when the same problems go on for three months, and nothing seems to be changing, then I personally and in fact millions of citizens of the Russian Federation start to have questions for these leaders of the military operation.”

Another popular blogger, who goes by Starshe Eddy on Telegram, wrote that the fact that commanders left so much of their force exposed amounted to “not idiocy, but direct sabotage.”

And a third, Vladlen Tatarski, posted that Russia’s eastern offensive was moving slowly not just because of a lack of surveillance drones but also “these generals” and their tactics.

“Until we get the last name of the military genius who laid down a B.T.G. by the river and he answers for it publicly, we won’t have had any military reforms,” Mr. Tatarski wrote.

Western military analysts have also pored over the imagery and say the attempted crossing demonstrated a stunning lack of tactical sense.

They have speculated that Russian commanders, desperate to make progress, rushed the operation. Some also suggested that it was a reflection of disorder in the Russian ranks.

If the estimates that hundreds of soldiers were killed or injured prove accurate, it would be one of the deadliest known engagements of the war.

There were more than 500 sailors aboard the Russian Black Sea flagship Moskva when it was struck by a Ukrainian missile in April. The Kremlin at first insisted that all the sailors were rescued, later saying one was killed. But even as the families of missing sailors have publicly demanded answers, the Kremlin has largely kept up an official silence on the fate of the crew, part of a larger campaign to suppress bad news.

https://twitter.com/blue_sauron/status/1524742847664173057?s=21&t=GrYw10pI8PagD2nPOhwa1w

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man im a serial underdog supporter and at this point im thinking i need to throw my RA RA behind the Rooskies jesus christ


https://i.rdrama.net/images/17035381209726467.webp

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Decades of basically buying yachts and other white trash rich shit from the military budget is finally catching up to the russian generals who spent most of the post cold war era just getting drunk and fricking anorexic whores.

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They also spend so much goddarn money on nukes, which makes absolutely no sense. There's a point where getting more nukes is just a waste, and they're lightyears past that point. Their nuke force is its own branch, with as much autonomy and respect as something like the USAF.

At this point it just seems pathological. They constantly come out with newer, more expensive delivery systems to get past NATO defenses. But NATO has never had the ability to stop a meaningful amount of their nukes in the first fricking place :marseyconfused:

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NATO has never had the ability to stop a meaningful amount of their nukes

Yeah I'm thinkin maybe the military has cray cray tech we haven't been told about, I wouldn't be surprised if we did already have a way to stop most of their nukes. I base this off of nothing.

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It's a lot better than most skeptics believe, per several of my friends who work on it. But it's definitely nowhere near an effective counter at the moment. Nuclear strategy is most useful when it's very publicized. No one actually wants to use them without an existential cause, so you need to lay your cards out for negotiations. That's why every nuclear power has an official doctrine that they make very clear to everyone. You'd publicize defenses for the same reasons, if you had any confidence in them.

Incidentally that doctrine is what makes Russia's arsenal so absurd. They actually have a very restrictive defense-only doctrine, and there's really no reason to doubt them. So the saber rattling is just hilariously pitiful.

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the saber rattling is just hilariously pitiful

um have you seen how big there saber is though. I agree with you but like if they nuke kiev (or wherever) then what would our response realistically be? I don't think it would happen but what, is the UN going to write them another angry letter?

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NATO would probably expand further. Most of the Russian population would instantly be disabused of the notion that Putin's a good guy pursuing their interests. Every country on earth would instantly cut any and all ties. Nukes are just so extraordinarily taboo in every single culture, I don't think any government would be able to keep their population supportive of Russia. Maybe North Korea, but probably nobody else. Angry UN letters are ineffective because nobody really cares that much about whatever's happening. But drop a nuke and you are instantly global enemy #1 of the entire human race.

And realistically they'd have to use many nukes. Even a dozen tactical nukes wouldn't make a huge dent in the defenses. They're big booms, but you can survive them from a mile away if you're in a trench. And I'm not sure how willing Russian soldiers would be to charge into literal fricking fallout.

There's just no universe where the cost-benefit analysis comes out in favor of using a nuke here. Then again there was no universe where invading Ukraine was worth it to begin with.

Play me out, longpostbot.

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cucked by longpostbot. I would commit sudoku in your place.

Good analysis tho.

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Google MKV.

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I only use ask jeeves

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Breathtakingly based.

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If anything, Starlink proves we could put a Brilliant Pebbles system in orbit cheaply and quickly so we can cuck and chuck the concept of MAD

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Ol Ronnie mentally buckbroke them with Star Wars and they never recovered from it

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who spent most of the post cold war era just getting drunk and fricking anorexic whores.

and people still wonder why I'm rooting for russia :taymindblown:

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Reporting actual criticism from the front as a Russian military propagandist sounds bad for your longevity.

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No there is a certain way you can do it. If you did in the form of "This is a point of shame compared to the history of Russia. The higher command who ordered this need to pay and then we need push forward and crush the ukies 5x as hard just like how we crushed the nazis." You would be fine, you can criticize but you have to make sure you praise Russia in the same breath.


https://i.postimg.cc/dVgyQgj2/image.png https://i.postimg.cc/d3Whbf0T/image.png

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I still think you're in more danger as a Kremlin representative than a soldier

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Surely this is the end of Drumpf Putin.

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4d chess

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The admins have not intervened in the powermod issue since before the time I was Reddit CEO.

My advice (if you really want them removed) is to troll the heck out of them until they're so far on tilt that they end up violating a Reddit rule, and then the admins ban them. However, this is ultimately a destructive, negative-sum way to live.

My better advice is to just go plant some trees. You'll feel good.

Snapshots:

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Based Yishan

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Oh God, I'm gonna PONTOOOOOOON!!!

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noooo but their recruitment ad was so manly, Shoigu is the modern Subedei!!! :!soycry:

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