burning military equipment ukraine

A lot is being asked of 30K troops who are being placed in unenviable positions

Putin wasn't kidding when he said he was launching a "special military operation". Relative to what the Russian military brought to the edge this is not yet all-out state of war.

I would say nearly xxx,000 Russian troops take crossed over into Ukraine so far. A small portion of the strength assembled.

Moreover, the Russians are (so far) waging the war in a way that keeps civilian losses to a minimum and even trying to minimally disrupt civilian life.

The Russian operation could take opened with strikes against power plants and the electric grid (both bombed past US in Yugoslavia) that left civilians in shock and without power, and with ballistic and cruise missile strikes on Ukrainian ground forces barracks.

Instead, the Russian enterprise is and then far conducted in a mode that limits not only Ukrainian civilian, but fifty-fifty Ukrainian military machine losses. The Russians accept barely used their artillery.

It's as if so far Putin is trying to conduct less a war, and more a 1968-way policing activeness.

Kiev's arroyo has been just the opposite, to distribute weapons to civilians. To ask them to "make Molotov cocktails" and to film and publish Russian troop movements.

It'south a competition. Kiev is trying to induct the populace into a people'southward state of war and give Moscow the kind of war it does not desire. And Moscow is doing everything it can from its side to not have that happen but to instead wage a minimally disruptive government-change.

Russia wants the populace passive, Ukraine wants it as mobilized as possible. Thus there is adept reason for Russia to refrain from using all the firepower it has, but it has made the life of its troops more difficult.

This economy-of-strength approach is actually typical of how Russia operates. Information technology will try something express and small-scale starting time so escalate into something bigger when that hits a wall and then on.

There are good reasons to do it the Russian style, merely there is also proficient reason not to. Certainly on the negative side is that information technology ways asking a lot of their troops.

The brazen helicopter assault on Gostromel Airport was the most dramatic instance of this, but really all Russian troops that have been committed are being asked to exercise brazen stuff with not much cover.

Small units of 800 men are being told to bulldoze along a route l kilometers into the enemy's rear and to go around major cities.

It has been less Ogarkov and more Tukhachevsky. Less the long-range fires apocalypse of non-contact warfare and more than the deep boxing of columns racing for the rear and fighting fights that are very much contact, sometimes afterward driving into an ambush or running into Ukrainians head-on.

The troops themselves accept done rather well actually, simply of course there is a limit to how far 30K troops can go.

I get out y'all with commentary by ii other observers. You don't have to have their word as gospel, but something worth considering.

Michael Kofman (perhaps the number one authority on the Russian armed services exterior of Russia):

Some very early on impressions of the last 2 days. It'due south an operation with maximalist war aims, and Moscow'south thinking on this war seems to have been colored by war optimism. It looked equally though Russian forces were expecting a quicker Ukrainian military collapse and easier gains.

Early entrada to knock out Ukrainian air defenses and air strength had mixed results, Russian aerospace forces aren't particularly proficient at suppression or destruction of air defenses. Most of the strikes in the opening phase were via cruise missiles. Ukrainian air force still has some aircraft up.

A brazen heliborne set on to take Hostomel airport with a small airborne chemical element was a puzzling move. I doubt the goal was to land more airborne at a contested airport easily covered by arms and MLRS. Likely they expected to hold out for ground reinforcements.

So far we've seen only a fraction of the Russian force arrayed for the performance. Unclear if Russian forces reached initial objectives, but best estimate is they expected more rapid gains and less resistance.

Russian forces seem to be fugitive employ of massed fires, except maybe around Kharkiv, focusing on trying to brand a speedy advance. Expect they will revert to much larger use of fires when frustrated. Non seeing much in the mode of cyber and less electronic warfare effects than many anticipated.

Russian forces are mainly sticking to the road network (every bit in 2014-2015). Early on advances fabricated by recon troops, but driving along roads left support units open to ambushes. Already signs of urban warfare and firefights in cities.

At that place has been heavy fighting effectually Kharkiv and in Sumy. Russian forces tried to accelerate past Okhtyrka, and information technology looks like they're attempting to go around Kharkiv. In that location is too an advance west of Sumy to Konotop. This is a very incomplete picture.

Russian forces entered from Belarus and went through Chernobyl exclusion zone to Dymer. Early on signs of fighting on outskirts of Kyiv in Obolonskyi distict today. They're clearly going for the capital.

Master breakout appears to be in the south from Crimea. Russian forces pushed to Kherson, and Melitopol. There'due south sustained fighting for Kherson still and around Antonovsky bridge. Some early on signs they may have entered Mykolaiv, but probably just a recon chemical element.

Russian forces retain significant quantitative and qualitative superiority. Ukrainian forces have demonstrated resolve and resilience. Russian conventional overmatch, such as it is, may not translate into attaining their maximalist political aims. This is just the opening of the war.

Nosotros should take care making assumptions on how this war will progress based on the opening 24-48 hours. The Russian military conspicuously tried something. I think it at best yielded mixed results for them. They will accommodate.

What's articulate is that is that if Moscow had hopes of quick and easy gains, they were terribly optimistic.

My main concern is that over time the Russian military may revert to heavy use of firepower, and this will consequence in immense devastation, and big civilian casualties.

Andrei Zhukov (a random Twitterer just to an extent he is on to something):

Russia is bombing fuel and armament depots, simply the Russian army does non bomb the places where Ukrainian armored vehicles and personnel gather. Why? Considering they even so hope that their fairy tales about friendship, peace and the international will work.

Due to the fact that the night of February 24 did not strike the barracks of the AFU, the Russian army is now suffering losses

Russian troops are moving quickly in small columns from one metropolis to another, without fifty-fifty getting a foothold in it and not clearing it from the partisans. The logistics support that goes after them comes nether burn down from the Ukrainian army.

The Russian regular army currently does not command a unmarried city - they simply drive by, leaving the cities in the rear. The Ukrainian military calmly enter these cities and try to strike, so it was in Sumy.

Russian planes are not at work - they simply practise not flop the columns of the Military machine of Ukraine, still hoping for desertion and the transition to the Russian side. Once more, THIS DOES Non Work, a tolerant attitude towards the Ukrainian military has led to losses, prisoners.

For example. Rosgvardia and OMON are going together with the war machine to "accept Kiev"(!). Internal troops should follow the armed services After the army destroys the Ukrainian regular army in a given sector. This did not happen. They merely get ahead into Kiev blindly.

The Ukrainian army will however be destroyed, but the Russian army is suffering unjustified losses that could have been avoided

Non bad for 30K troops and 48 hours — would have been farther along if more than of the assembled forces and fires were committed from the onset