I don't know if we want to sell Ukraine nukes right now. While that might put a damper on Pootypoot's weak-ass posturing, Mutually Assured Destruction is generally a pretty bad global policy. But I like where your head's at, let's keep supporting Ukraine with more conventional weaponry though.
They're kicking so much ass. That bridge cut off Russian retreat in a massive area. There was two other bridges but they can't carry heavy loads so it would be a very slow retreat. However, just for good measure, they blew up half of the bigger of the two. Plus several "elite" brigades have been routed. It's pretty great for Ukraine right now. Let's just hope Putin doesn't decide it's hopeless and nuke everything.
For more on this topic: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-used-western-rockets-destroy-bridge-kursk-region-2024-08-17/ ht">8-17/">https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-used-western-rockets-destroy-bridge-kursk-region-2024-08-17/ https://www.politico.eu/article/ukrainian-forces-destroyed-a-bridge-in-kursk-region-as-kyiv-continues-offensive-operation-moscow-says/
The point is to fuck up logistics, there's three bridges on that river, one came down due to a smoking accident and then this one got badly damaged by the wind blowing from the west. That leaves Russia with one functionnal bridge to go around with convoys of convicts and supplies. I have suspicions that the third bridge is scared for its life now. The plan is to be a pain in the ass of Putler, cut off logistics and divert troops from the frontline. Some reports came out that they've pulled some>
troops from Ukraine to defend Kursk, but they mainly mentionned that it's a tiny fraction for now. If shit gets bad enough, they'll have to pull more which will favor Ukraine. If it allows them to gain a lot of ground and take back what's theirs, it will be a pretty damn good gamble.
I could watch Russian shit getting blown to bits all day long. I wish there was a 24-hour channel that was nothing but live feeds of Ukrainian drones hitting Russian targets.
Crocodiles hide and wait for their Prey to come to the River. Since they can't cross they have to put up a temporary (read vulnerable) bridge. Attrition is the name of the game.
Good stuff @OP. Been a lot of good tactics for Ukraine this week! I watched about a hour of tank and drone strikes this weeks. This bridge thing means another positive step. I think something is "going on" but it's hard to get a real strategic image of what's happening when you're in public. Appreciate your sharing though.
Dude... I've been stuck down a rabbit hole of watching Ukraine footage on kaotic.com. Don't ever go to that website. It's like Rotten but with a shit ton of propaganda. I don't know how I wound up there, I don't know what caused it, but it's a trainwreck I can't look away from. This footage is graphic, and it's started haunting me. Seriously, be careful with that type of content. It can't possibly be healthy for us to be watching it.
So, you advice to not mention these kind of things, even when they are informative about their mental dangers ? Are you also one of those people who think sexual education should not be taught to minors ? Teens WILL stumble on stuff like that, we should of course not push them to it, but education is the best counter, not censorship
Tbh. I wouldn't recommend that channel, I found it around the time when he made a piece about ukranian tanks and somehow thought they only had a couple of heavy tanks left hidden away in the forest (about 6 months into the invasion I think). That was obviously incorrect and he seemed a little confused, so I stopped checking him.
I really like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/@anderspuck/videos He is an actual military analyst and he's focused on overall strategic goals for both sides. So he's really good at giving context to a lot of the actions that most other commenters are baffled by.
Another good channel https://www.youtube.com/@PerunAU/featured note its not purely Ukraine there is other defense stuff and the videos are long form so set aside some time. They rarely cover immediate events and let things fester for a bit so information can be verified.
This bears repeating: his videos are impeccably methodical and well-researched. He works hard to make accurate assessments, and avoid the pitfalls of confirmation bias and toxic positivity.
That's a bizarre channel. It has recent Ukraine related videos and a bunch of knitting videos before that. The voice over sounds like an automated voice that is reading Ukrainian government propaganda. I could only stand to watch about 10 minutes of it. The videos were not directly related to the speech either. Please consider that many of the statements in the titles and the voice-over speech sound hyperbolic. I personally wouldn't use that channel for my source of information, but you do you.
Appreciate the honest feedback. You make a TON of good points. It's very very hard to know who is giving good info and who's not. Yours sounds like a good perspective. My OWN perspective is sometimes faulty - profile photo attached.
Blowing bridges is primarily a defensive tactic because now the river is a nearly impassable barrier. If you're planning on advancing you generally want to capture the bridge, not destroy the bridge. If Ukraine is blowing bridges that means they don't think they can advance that way.
Here you go. It appears to me, as an experienced armchair private, that they are covering their left flank, as well as, making it more difficult for the Russian forces to move supplies into areas near their northern border.
Only in this case it is to protect their flank from the city of Glushkovo where this bridge is all the way to the Ukrainian border at Hirky along the Reka Sym River. Encircling 18-20 more Russian towns and villages that are now cut off from supplies and reinforcements. It's about creating a buffer zone behind a river obstacles, I think there are not that many Russians left that still will remember the crossing at Bilohorivka where they lost two battalions in a few hours.
They plan to double the land gains that they have already made by destroying all the crossings of the Seym river making sure no reinforcements can arrive and taking all the land west of the land that they have already taken.
Glad you are not the strategist in Ukraine. That's a bridge in Russia, Ukraine is not going to invade Russia. Disabling supply lines in Russia is a smart move and helps Ukrainian offensives in Ukraine.
I mean they can only advance in so many directions they have a finite amount of troops so this strategically pins the Russians to go into the areas they want them to go
This, I watched a video on friday, blowing this bridge means a bunch of russian troops are left stranded and cannot be quickly evacuated and/or reinforced
They are blowing up the bridges in the area to cut off the area shown in windborne's image making it easier to capture another 1000 square kilometers of territory. They are creating a buffer zone so that russia can no longer hit towns in the sumi region with artillery and glide bombs.
Blowing bridges can also be used offensively for a fast moving assault force to not have to worry about that avenue of advance being used to outflank them.
Part of the tactic is to force Russia to divert forces away from areas they've been invading (which is working.) another is to demoralize the russian citizens by showing how easy it was for them to just roll in with minimal resistance. And I suspect a third, is they've realized that Russia is good at bombarding from a distance, and not fighting up close. So by getting into Russia, they've made it so that the military can't retaliate with their usual bombardment strategy.
They've listed their reasons; the first you listed IS one of them, and another is to give themselves a deeper staging point to strike Russian targets that their long-range weapons cannot otherwise reach.
If they didn't advance in the last 10 years of their war, they wouldn't now. There will be no turning point for Ukraine. Zelensky had no political experience, he was a comedian beforehand. If it were for the better Good of ukrainian people then the war wouldn't even start.
Of course it would be better for the people of Ukraine if Russia hadn't invaded. No shit. But they're in it now so they're going to do what they have to do.
Zelenskyy is actually going around visiting troops... Putler sits in his bunker and tells his generals to send more missiles on schools and hospitals when Ukraine fucks something up important in Russia... One is a leader, the other is a small dicktator.
The bridge is in Russia behind enemy lines. There are now about 1,000 Russian soldiers in Kursk cut off from supply and reinforcement being encircled between this bridge and the Ukrainians border. Ukraine want to move the front line up to this river. There are 2 more bridges, this is the next one - half gone
These are conscripts, they wouldn't be deployed to the frontline (probably big reason why they suck so bad, all training and equipment resources going to contract soldiers), but they are more valuable in prisoner exchange.
And the third (and last) bridge is a) very far away and b) very close to the ukrainian border. Russia has already established a pontoon bridge for the first demolished bridge. There are rumours that the russians are already starting to evacuate the region, to prevent beeing trapped.
I do like their tactics though. Smart thinking to divert focus from areas where ukraine is losing ground to the enemies own territory. Its a new front line thats drawn by a river
Not to be too much of a downer, but it's not necessarily a genius tactic, and more of an opportunistic move to gain POWs in a sparsely defended region. IMO the relatively measured response from Putin about this invasion shows that he doesn't really care, and I highly doubt he'll substantially pull back troops from 'important' fronts to defend a low population region. The Russians will just propaganda their way out of it for as long as possible.
He doesn't care about the people or the land, but he has to care about the optics of the situation and the large nuclear plant and the steel production that are coming from and through Kursk. Disrupting those will be a big hinderance to the Russian war effort.
I think Ukraine is trying to force Putin's hand into general mobilisation. The idea is that when the well off people in Moscow and St. Petersburg hear their sons are to be called into the meat grinder, there might be a change in general opinion about the genocide russians are committing.
He can't pull the last elite troops he has or he'll lose Donbas. Literally the only ones he has left are the ones trying to slug their way north down there. And as for losing ground; Ukraine has taken as much land in a week that Russia has taken since Xmas, despite the much hyped "Summer invasion" that Western media said was going to be unstoppable in June.
Alot of the land being seized by russia is as densely populated as nebraska without the city populations. Very sparse. Melitopal was a rough one to lose, or whats left of it. But donbas works "okay" as a battlefield (relatively speaking of course...all war sucks) because of its low population density. Russia has also been struggling with manpower. 1 million men fled before the draft and the majority are poorly trained ans poorly led. Russia couldve won already if they had smarter leaders
Again, Putin desperately doesn't want to use the draft to call in resources, because it would be exceptionally unpopular (not to mention those troops are not trained for shit, as we see with the hundreds that has been POW in the last two weeks).
This isn't a defensive tactic if you look where the bridges are. Blowing those bridges will force Russia to retreat from the side of the attack group and will prevent a pincer movement against the attack group.
It may sound defensive, but due to the dismantled bridges it's Russians that are on defense there. No heavy equipment and limited amount of food and ammo. They probably will pull out without a fight, or if not suffer heavy losses.
They've not exactly shared their battle plans, but I doubt they were trying to invade the whole country. Seems like they're mostly just trying to put russia on the defensive and fuck up their supply lines. But I'm just a dude on the Internet.
Also, putin will never sign a peace accord while he has troops in Ukraine. If they take some of his land, maybe he will want to negotiate for peace. Otherwise, there is nothing for them to bring to the table.
They've listed their reasons, and this bridge was a few days ago also! But the reasons for invading are multi, mostly to gain ground to hit farther into Russia (at targets their weapons cannot otherwise strike), as well as pressing Russia's lines back to alleviate pressure within Ukraine itself and create a defensive/buffer zone.
Also just a dude on the internet but I'd agree. Logistics is way underrated in wars. Tanks and planes need fuel and ammo, soldiers need food and ammo. Cut off the supply lines and it goes from invasion to survival very quickly.
Some theories are that they are doing this to put political pressure on Russia and relieve the other fronts some as Russia now has to pull troops to respond. With peace talks maybe coming back they have something they can now leverage against Russia.
What you said, but also the peace talks likely won't go anywhere because Putin is not trading conquered land and Ukraine won't accept anything but return of all stolen land. However, Ukraine can destroy(safely) the nuclear plant and other critical infrastructure in Kursk to trade a massive blow to the Russian war effort, since large amount of steel and energy is coming from or through Kursk.
today i heard an interesting tidbit: Ukraine has significant reserves, which are neither fighting in the Donbas, nor were used in Kursk. We are talking 6 figure number of fresh soldiers and 3-4 Tank bridges (so something around 100 Tanks). So either Ukraine will double down in Kursk, attack somewhere else or something else.
They're still in Europe tho. West of Moscow is 100% Europe. That said, I still find it hillarious that even the first week of the invasion of Ukraine the Russian troops got bogged down in the very mud that caused the Swedish, the French and the Germans so much grief going the other way. It's like they thought "the mud won't harm US, right?"
Oh there are (and has historically been) a lot of smart Russians. Russians are not known for questioning the chain of command tho. Mostly because of the whole "getting shot for asking" doctrine they're famous for.
You’re right, I once played King of the Hill in in Iraq and later that night they ran out of the Thai beef salad at dinner chow- I had to get a sandwich, it was ok but the panini press was greasy from the last guy. That never would have happened at the dining facilities in Germany.
ChloeRed
To the tun of london bridge: Russian bridge has fallen down, fallen down... ;)
slidewhistlesymphony
Slava Ukraini!
BuzzAldrinsPunch
Don't forget and don't forgive
#nukesforukraine
Nostradamuswaswrong
I don't know if we want to sell Ukraine nukes right now. While that might put a damper on Pootypoot's weak-ass posturing, Mutually Assured Destruction is generally a pretty bad global policy. But I like where your head's at, let's keep supporting Ukraine with more conventional weaponry though.
idiotsonfire
Hey Lassann, how do you become someone that so many people want to fuck?
MapleSyrupMafia
By being so fuckable!
runswithlag
Hey Lassannn
Lassannn
PhloydPhan
I didn't have 'battle of Kursk' on my 2024 bingo card, but I am here for it
Strategicgnomer
They're kicking so much ass. That bridge cut off Russian retreat in a massive area. There was two other bridges but they can't carry heavy loads so it would be a very slow retreat. However, just for good measure, they blew up half of the bigger of the two. Plus several "elite" brigades have been routed. It's pretty great for Ukraine right now. Let's just hope Putin doesn't decide it's hopeless and nuke everything.
IAmGORT
It looks like someone is enjoying their F-16s at last
followmeiknowtheway
dtallen243
Fuck you @Las.....*ahem* Russia
psmith00
they should do this to that bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland.
lonosham
TI99Kitty
"Bridge is up!"
(bridge explodes)
"No, it ain't."
mikenco
Putin cannot afford to win or lose this war. His main economy is now war. Things like this really give his efforts a bloody nose.
Thorketil
Kassimila
They should try ramming it with a cargo ship, I hear that works well.
softsuit
It's going to be hard to bring in that harvest. Note: Singapore surrendered to the Japanese after losing control of their water supply.
twelvoclocklevel
Cool the way smoke puffs out of the holes left by 4 previous attempts to blow it up
dixxienormus
Now for that Crimea link again but a permanent blast this time.
WorldMillipede
For more on this topic:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-used-western-rockets-destroy-bridge-kursk-region-2024-08-17/
ht">8-17/">https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-used-western-rockets-destroy-bridge-kursk-region-2024-08-17/
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukrainian-forces-destroyed-a-bridge-in-kursk-region-as-kyiv-continues-offensive-operation-moscow-says/
Kazpur81S
Weird, the other day I thought, “they should start dropping bridges….”
thepicklebucket
Don't they need the bridge to go into Russia?
MapleSyrupMafia
The point is to fuck up logistics, there's three bridges on that river, one came down due to a smoking accident and then this one got badly damaged by the wind blowing from the west. That leaves Russia with one functionnal bridge to go around with convoys of convicts and supplies. I have suspicions that the third bridge is scared for its life now. The plan is to be a pain in the ass of Putler, cut off logistics and divert troops from the frontline. Some reports came out that they've pulled some>
MapleSyrupMafia
troops from Ukraine to defend Kursk, but they mainly mentionned that it's a tiny fraction for now. If shit gets bad enough, they'll have to pull more which will favor Ukraine. If it allows them to gain a lot of ground and take back what's theirs, it will be a pretty damn good gamble.
ChromePlatedEquator
I could watch Russian shit getting blown to bits all day long. I wish there was a 24-hour channel that was nothing but live feeds of Ukrainian drones hitting Russian targets.
twelvoclocklevel
we call it YouTube
Onlyhereforthelaughs
"We've safely cleared the sheep off the tracks. We're now heading for the rendezvous in Central, as planned." - Fullmetal Alchemist
TacoFox
Nice
AGRIADR2
Crocodiles hide and wait for their Prey to come to the River. Since they can't cross they have to put up a temporary (read vulnerable) bridge. Attrition is the name of the game.
epicurusaquinas
Good stuff @OP. Been a lot of good tactics for Ukraine this week! I watched about a hour of tank and drone strikes this weeks. This bridge thing means another positive step. I think something is "going on" but it's hard to get a real strategic image of what's happening when you're in public. Appreciate your sharing though.
JustSomePersonThere
Where do you see this footage? I can only ever find sanitized network-news garbage.
thedarkcanuck
A website called kaotic but I'm telling you, you don't want to see that shit.
JustSomePersonThere
Thx for the heads up!
thedarkcanuck
Dude... I've been stuck down a rabbit hole of watching Ukraine footage on kaotic.com. Don't ever go to that website. It's like Rotten but with a shit ton of propaganda. I don't know how I wound up there, I don't know what caused it, but it's a trainwreck I can't look away from. This footage is graphic, and it's started haunting me. Seriously, be careful with that type of content. It can't possibly be healthy for us to be watching it.
Rogerwilco1974
Are you the fucking Kaotic marketing dept, because what the fuck do you expect to happen posting a comment like this, you ass?
Zamerine
Be smart and not go there after being warned ?
Rogerwilco1974
You've clearly never met teenagers
Zamerine
So, you advice to not mention these kind of things, even when they are informative about their mental dangers ?
Are you also one of those people who think sexual education should not be taught to minors ?
Teens WILL stumble on stuff like that, we should of course not push them to it, but education is the best counter, not censorship
Alfurin
It's crazy how documented this war has been.
SnoopyDancing
hey man, nice shot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9mJ82x_l-E
thelastboomer
This guy has good analysis of the situation: https://www.youtube.com/@CombatVeteranReacts
Styxwash
Tbh. I wouldn't recommend that channel, I found it around the time when he made a piece about ukranian tanks and somehow thought they only had a couple of heavy tanks left hidden away in the forest (about 6 months into the invasion I think). That was obviously incorrect and he seemed a little confused, so I stopped checking him.
damogen
I really like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/@anderspuck/videos
He is an actual military analyst and he's focused on overall strategic goals for both sides. So he's really good at giving context to a lot of the actions that most other commenters are baffled by.
thelastboomer
I checked out his videos. His videos are ok. I notice he posts on a much slower schedule than Paul (CombatVeteternReacts).
damogen
yeah, overall strategy doesn't really change from day to day, so it wouldn't make sense for him to make videos daily.
Filanwizard
Another good channel https://www.youtube.com/@PerunAU/featured note its not purely Ukraine there is other defense stuff and the videos are long form so set aside some time. They rarely cover immediate events and let things fester for a bit so information can be verified.
apatheticantisocialite
Perun has some amazingly researched videos. it's a great channel all around.
tacoaboutit
As does William Spaniel and his lines on maps
drmuelr
This bears repeating: his videos are impeccably methodical and well-researched. He works hard to make accurate assessments, and avoid the pitfalls of confirmation bias and toxic positivity.
epicurusaquinas
IDK who's good and who's not. I watched this channel today too. Is this stuff good? https://youtu.be/YeGdTXhTuaY?si=2xhkGm3AdqtECxuU
thelastboomer
That's a bizarre channel. It has recent Ukraine related videos and a bunch of knitting videos before that. The voice over sounds like an automated voice that is reading Ukrainian government propaganda. I could only stand to watch about 10 minutes of it. The videos were not directly related to the speech either. Please consider that many of the statements in the titles and the voice-over speech sound hyperbolic. I personally wouldn't use that channel for my source of information, but you do you.
epicurusaquinas
Appreciate the honest feedback. You make a TON of good points. It's very very hard to know who is giving good info and who's not. Yours sounds like a good perspective. My OWN perspective is sometimes faulty - profile photo attached.
thedarkcanuck
Never forget that the first casualty of war is truth. Verify everything you see from both sides. I dig your goggles my dude.
Hyndisfox
Blowing bridges is primarily a defensive tactic because now the river is a nearly impassable barrier. If you're planning on advancing you generally want to capture the bridge, not destroy the bridge. If Ukraine is blowing bridges that means they don't think they can advance that way.
Windborne
Here you go. It appears to me, as an experienced armchair private, that they are covering their left flank, as well as, making it more difficult for the Russian forces to move supplies into areas near their northern border.
whyowhyareallgoodusernamestaken
Only in this case it is to protect their flank from the city of Glushkovo where this bridge is all the way to the Ukrainian border at Hirky along the Reka Sym River. Encircling 18-20 more Russian towns and villages that are now cut off from supplies and reinforcements. It's about creating a buffer zone behind a river obstacles, I think there are not that many Russians left that still will remember the crossing at Bilohorivka where they lost two battalions in a few hours.
evildadunit
They don't want to
taggat
They plan to double the land gains that they have already made by destroying all the crossings of the Seym river making sure no reinforcements can arrive and taking all the land west of the land that they have already taken.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
Glad you are not the strategist in Ukraine. That's a bridge in Russia, Ukraine is not going to invade Russia. Disabling supply lines in Russia is a smart move and helps Ukrainian offensives in Ukraine.
Or are you just a clever Russian propaganda bot?
JustTryingToLiveLife
I mean they can only advance in so many directions they have a finite amount of troops so this strategically pins the Russians to go into the areas they want them to go
iSellTeenyTinyFrogGreenBabyCoffins
This could be more to disrupt supply lines more than to defend their territory
c64masterrace
This, I watched a video on friday, blowing this bridge means a bunch of russian troops are left stranded and cannot be quickly evacuated and/or reinforced
Firsthope
My understanding is that they also are trying to pull Russian forces from other areas that need relief.
Spidey209
The Ukrainians don't want the Russians to get re-enforcements or supplies or to get away. They are all out of bubble gum.
Partsx
They are blowing up the bridges in the area to cut off the area shown in windborne's image making it easier to capture another 1000 square kilometers of territory. They are creating a buffer zone so that russia can no longer hit towns in the sumi region with artillery and glide bombs.
TootiesMagooties
They are covering their flanks, moving forward can be very costly if you expose your weak areas
HenryGant
"The destruction of the road bridge will force Russian reinforcements on a dangerous detour." I'm sure I read somewhere.
OMGamIImguringCorrectly
Or, they are just really fuckin horny.
gumshoe99
You can come blow up my bridge ;)
HollerinAtTheVoid
Or they're cutting off the potential of an attack from the rear or being flanked from that position as they move deeper into Russia
MeestowKitty
Blowing bridges can also be used offensively for a fast moving assault force to not have to worry about that avenue of advance being used to outflank them.
artrald
Primarily, yes, but in this instance they're using it to encircle a Russian formation.
mhgrider
They are making it 'costs to move out. They don't want to hike long term but want Russia to divert attention and resources
Etereo
This has been war strategy on imgur,all day all time
SoraHjort
Part of the tactic is to force Russia to divert forces away from areas they've been invading (which is working.) another is to demoralize the russian citizens by showing how easy it was for them to just roll in with minimal resistance. And I suspect a third, is they've realized that Russia is good at bombarding from a distance, and not fighting up close. So by getting into Russia, they've made it so that the military can't retaliate with their usual bombardment strategy.
Feralkyn
They've listed their reasons; the first you listed IS one of them, and another is to give themselves a deeper staging point to strike Russian targets that their long-range weapons cannot otherwise reach.
WatermelonT
If they didn't advance in the last 10 years of their war, they wouldn't now. There will be no turning point for Ukraine. Zelensky had no political experience, he was a comedian beforehand. If it were for the better Good of ukrainian people then the war wouldn't even start.
Nostradamuswaswrong
Of course it would be better for the people of Ukraine if Russia hadn't invaded. No shit. But they're in it now so they're going to do what they have to do.
yzark01
Yes comrade many rubles for you
thesmelge
Shut the fuck up.
erinaceus
written in a russian accent.
MapleSyrupMafia
Zelenskyy is actually going around visiting troops... Putler sits in his bunker and tells his generals to send more missiles on schools and hospitals when Ukraine fucks something up important in Russia... One is a leader, the other is a small dicktator.
melmboundanddown
The bridge is in Russia behind enemy lines. There are now about 1,000 Russian soldiers in Kursk cut off from supply and reinforcement being encircled between this bridge and the Ukrainians border. Ukraine want to move the front line up to this river. There are 2 more bridges, this is the next one - half gone
whitey211
Yup. More prisoners. Less people to fight again tomorrow.
SalmonTheWise
These are conscripts, they wouldn't be deployed to the frontline (probably big reason why they suck so bad, all training and equipment resources going to contract soldiers), but they are more valuable in prisoner exchange.
exterminans
And the third (and last) bridge is a) very far away and b) very close to the ukrainian border. Russia has already established a pontoon bridge for the first demolished bridge. There are rumours that the russians are already starting to evacuate the region, to prevent beeing trapped.
webbstar85
I do like their tactics though. Smart thinking to divert focus from areas where ukraine is losing ground to the enemies own territory. Its a new front line thats drawn by a river
INeedMoreGifMeMoreJustOneMore
Not to be too much of a downer, but it's not necessarily a genius tactic, and more of an opportunistic move to gain POWs in a sparsely defended region. IMO the relatively measured response from Putin about this invasion shows that he doesn't really care, and I highly doubt he'll substantially pull back troops from 'important' fronts to defend a low population region. The Russians will just propaganda their way out of it for as long as possible.
DeanSledgehammer
He doesn't care about the people or the land, but he has to care about the optics of the situation and the large nuclear plant and the steel production that are coming from and through Kursk. Disrupting those will be a big hinderance to the Russian war effort.
villlllle
I think Ukraine is trying to force Putin's hand into general mobilisation. The idea is that when the well off people in Moscow and St. Petersburg hear their sons are to be called into the meat grinder, there might be a change in general opinion about the genocide russians are committing.
INeedMoreGifMeMoreJustOneMore
That's definitely a possibility, though I think the Russians still have plenty of meat to throw into that grinder before they get to that.
Avilan1972
He can't pull the last elite troops he has or he'll lose Donbas. Literally the only ones he has left are the ones trying to slug their way north down there. And as for losing ground; Ukraine has taken as much land in a week that Russia has taken since Xmas, despite the much hyped "Summer invasion" that Western media said was going to be unstoppable in June.
webbstar85
Alot of the land being seized by russia is as densely populated as nebraska without the city populations. Very sparse. Melitopal was a rough one to lose, or whats left of it. But donbas works "okay" as a battlefield (relatively speaking of course...all war sucks) because of its low population density. Russia has also been struggling with manpower. 1 million men fled before the draft and the majority are poorly trained ans poorly led. Russia couldve won already if they had smarter leaders
Avilan1972
Again, Putin desperately doesn't want to use the draft to call in resources, because it would be exceptionally unpopular (not to mention those troops are not trained for shit, as we see with the hundreds that has been POW in the last two weeks).
PanNonOpticon
This isn't a defensive tactic if you look where the bridges are. Blowing those bridges will force Russia to retreat from the side of the attack group and will prevent a pincer movement against the attack group.
RestlessVagabond
"Prevent a pincer movement" sounds defensive to me.
PanNonOpticon
It may sound defensive, but due to the dismantled bridges it's Russians that are on defense there. No heavy equipment and limited amount of food and ammo. They probably will pull out without a fight, or if not suffer heavy losses.
rivitingone
Ah, but I didn't look at where the bridges are, so grammatically, it IS a defensive tactic.
sirava
They've not exactly shared their battle plans, but I doubt they were trying to invade the whole country. Seems like they're mostly just trying to put russia on the defensive and fuck up their supply lines. But I'm just a dude on the Internet.
Isthe4thtimethecharm
Also, putin will never sign a peace accord while he has troops in Ukraine. If they take some of his land, maybe he will want to negotiate for peace. Otherwise, there is nothing for them to bring to the table.
GlobalImageServiceCat
For fun and shit, they should try invade Moscow for real. Prigozhin reached Rostov-on-Don with zero resistance.
DoseOfScience
I mean, turning a part of an enemy country into a buffer zone is classic soviet doctrine?
Kunkoh
No sir. You are NOT just a Dude on the internet! You are an Internet General! :-)
Feralkyn
They've listed their reasons, and this bridge was a few days ago also! But the reasons for invading are multi, mostly to gain ground to hit farther into Russia (at targets their weapons cannot otherwise strike), as well as pressing Russia's lines back to alleviate pressure within Ukraine itself and create a defensive/buffer zone.
Ninjainslippers
Also just a dude on the internet but I'd agree. Logistics is way underrated in wars. Tanks and planes need fuel and ammo, soldiers need food and ammo. Cut off the supply lines and it goes from invasion to survival very quickly.
salteddiamond
“Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics”
cryptumsaga
Some theories are that they are doing this to put political pressure on Russia and relieve the other fronts some as Russia now has to pull troops to respond. With peace talks maybe coming back they have something they can now leverage against Russia.
DeanSledgehammer
What you said, but also the peace talks likely won't go anywhere because Putin is not trading conquered land and Ukraine won't accept anything but return of all stolen land.
However, Ukraine can destroy(safely) the nuclear plant and other critical infrastructure in Kursk to trade a massive blow to the Russian war effort, since large amount of steel and energy is coming from or through Kursk.
exterminans
today i heard an interesting tidbit: Ukraine has significant reserves, which are neither fighting in the Donbas, nor were used in Kursk. We are talking 6 figure number of fresh soldiers and 3-4 Tank bridges (so something around 100 Tanks). So either Ukraine will double down in Kursk, attack somewhere else or something else.
My point: Things will be interesting.
thedarkcanuck
Can you imagine if they conquered all of Russia? It'd be like watching a honey badger take over a Kodiak den
Feralkyn
Kamchatka den
CgnCalling
Because honey badger don’t give a fuck. Honey badger is so nasty.
NotSomoneElse68
An old Kodiak with bad teeth.
Lassannn
Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
HandoB4Javert
YourFellowMan
One of the classic blunders.
PinkEater
onlyawfulnamesleft
Unless you're the Mongols!
Avilan1972
They're still in Europe tho. West of Moscow is 100% Europe. That said, I still find it hillarious that even the first week of the invasion of Ukraine the Russian troops got bogged down in the very mud that caused the Swedish, the French and the Germans so much grief going the other way. It's like they thought "the mud won't harm US, right?"
villlllle
Russians in general aren't known for the big smart.
Avilan1972
Oh there are (and has historically been) a lot of smart Russians. Russians are not known for questioning the chain of command tho. Mostly because of the whole "getting shot for asking" doctrine they're famous for.
DeserTimmy
You’re right, I once played King of the Hill in in Iraq and later that night they ran out of the Thai beef salad at dinner chow- I had to get a sandwich, it was ok but the panini press was greasy from the last guy. That never would have happened at the dining facilities in Germany.
Malus333
Desk force?
Lassannn
Goddamn...
thedarkcanuck
The horror... the horror...