All things Russia and Ukraine...

If he was up in a combat jet flying combat missions, he isn't very retired!

 

Also, Ukranian intelligence also stated that in the last several years there has been a number (5?) attempts on Putin's life. The last one only a couple of months ago. All failed obviously. Damn Russkies can't get anything right!

 

He was actually "retired" from the Russian military for destroying an aircraft back in June of 2012. He crashed an SU-27 he was not authorized to fly. Retired Major General Kanamat Botashev was 63 years old, well past the age of operational pilots and he'd been out of the military for nearly 10 years. The most likely explanation is that he was working for ChVK Wagner, a Russian private military contractor with close ties to Putin, (This has also been hinted at on Russian social media). Wagner's mercenaries have been used in the Ukraine, the Crimea, Libya, Syria, the Sudan, Africa and many other places. They have often been implicated in war crimes, rapes, robberies, murder and torture of civilians, etc. They're also the ones that got "whacked" hard by Kurds and US Special Operations forces supported by US airstrikes in Syria back in 2018. The Wagner Group was supporting Syrian troops trying to capture a gas field, over 200 Russian PMC's were apparently killed. Early in the current war with Ukraine it was rumored that the Wagner Group was tasked with assassinating Ukrainian political figures. That didn't work out real well.

My personal take is they are a brutal but not particularly professional or tactically proficient bunch, though probably more so than your one and two year conscripts. They have a lot of Bosnian Serbs (at least an entire battalion) and Chechen's, supposedly they're made up of at least 15 different nationalities. They also have, ironically, given Putin's initial reasons for invading Ukraine, a far right neo-Nazi component, the Rusich Unit.

I do kind of wish the Ukrainians would stop killing so many Russian commanders, eventually they'll kill off all the ones making the stupid mistakes and they'll probably be replaced with some that actually know how to wage war.

 

The Wagner group mercenaries are a subset of Russian military power-just not an overtly official one. Thus, Botashev was flying for Putin and Russia. Obviously, he came out of retirement.

I agree with your last sentence!

 

They have identified Russian T-62"s in the battle area. Losing too much tanks pr increasing useless tank power?

 

Zelezhnyi has visited Kharkov.

The newest US military material has been received in Ukraine.

 

There is a Nazi party and White Nationalist movement in Ukraine, however Putin is behaving like the Nazi.

 

Actually, the facts support no conclusions as of yet.

We do know, Putin wants to claim this area as his own, and the T-62Ms would go a long way in establishing localized tank units comprised of reservists - not fit for front line combat, but perfectly capable of keeping the peace behind the front lines or fighting against pockets of cutoff Ukrainian resistance. Which is what Russia has done in Syria and elsewhere.

Also, these tanks involve fairly simple operate & maintain compared to newer Russian MBTs. Coupled with the fact that there is a 4th crewman(no autoloader) to ease maintenance tasks.

So, we will have to await further developments, before we can say anything with certainty.

 

I'm getting bored of all the "Nazi this, Nazi that"... honestly, Nazism isn't the greatest evil ever (that would be Communism), so no need to call everyone a Nazi. More importantly, Putin's actions have nothing to do with Nazism. Russia always was an imperialistic power, just like the United States always had been, and Putin is merely continuing tradition that has originated with the Russian Empire, and continued through the Communist times. His actions are based on the perceived Russian interests, and these are based primarily on Russian geographic/geostrategic situation.

 

Are you trying to excuse the Russian aggression?

 

How is the US imperialistic?

 

The answer is going to depend on who you ask.

Various viewpoints can be found here:
American imperialism - Wikipedia

 

So far Putin has not cancelled his talk of neo-nazistic Ukraine government, the invasion of Donbass and that it's not war. Interesting for him is that NATO gets bigger instead his playground getting smaller. And the sanctions. Would China go into Russo-China trade only? I would think China would lose more than gain but who knows?
Anyway, Russia politically now seems to settle for Donbass instead of changing the Ukrainian government. Do you even get that and lose Crimea as well, what is your future, Mr Putin?

 

I am trying to explain how the Russians think. Explaining somebody's actions merely with "he is evil" is stupid, and also insulting to both your enemy and yourself.

And you also need to understand that the world is not black and white. It is more of a black and black, or at best black and grey - so just the fact that one side is evil doesn't mean their opponents are any good.

Who knows? But just the fact that he has not cancelled the talk of Neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian government means that he may still hold some hopes of overthrowing it. And at any rate, he is in too deep now to just bow out.

EDIT:

For starters, read up on the Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. And basic tenets exist even today, although significantly changed.

 

We shall see. If Russia loses its areas in Ukraine Putin loses a whole lot more.

 

Has nothing to do with his hopes(as no one outside of Russia believes that). Basically, it is for the Russian public's consumption - to keep them behind his Ukranian quagmire.

 

The Russians have taken very heavy losses in tanks (1,358 as of 5/31). The total number of tanks in the Russian standing army at the time of the invasion was 2,609 per TOE. They have/had another 7,391 stored at seven Weapons and Equipment storage bases, these tanks require time and trained personnel to bring to operational readiness. Only a little over half of the tanks were destroyed outright, another 1/3 were actually captured. This is a very high percentage of captured to knocked out. Many were abandoned due to Russia's logistical problems early on, others were abandoned due to poor morale among the one and two year conscripts. The number is so large you have to consider that operational maintenance levels were probably not optimal when the invasion kicked off, and some were abandoned due to mechanical failure.
Consider the following factors:
1.) They're 97 days into the invasion, maintenance issues with the tanks still in action have to be almost crippling.
2.) It takes time and trained personnel to pull a tank from storage and make it combat ready. The more modern/complex the tank the more highly trained the personnel required.
3.) There are reports that the Russians are having to resort to scavenging computer chips out of refrigerators and dishwashers to keep their tanks operational. US/NATO/EU sanctions have dried up the chips needed to maintain/build high tech systems. Russia is resorting to putting computer chips from dishwashers and refrigerators in tanks due to US sanctions, official says (yahoo.com)
4.) Back in mid-April, Germany pondered sending 50 Leopard I tanks to Ukraine. The Leopard I is an older, less capable tank (contemporary to T-62) but still useful. However, Rheinmetall stated it would take six weeks for the first tanks to be made combat ready and all should be made capable and delivered within three months. That's quite a wait. Russia is probably looking at similar lead times for its tanks in storage.
German defense giant ready to provide 50 Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine (aa.com.tr)

So, if the Russians have lost about 1/2 of their pre-invasion tank numbers (the percentage of deployed tanks lost will be higher because all Russian tanks in their standing army were not deployed to the Ukraine), and there is a high demand for trained personnel to maintain, repair and make operational from storage high tech tanks, the Russians are faced with a serious problem. Further, if there are issues with getting the parts needed to repair/maintain/build new high tech tanks, you have to look for other ways to replenish your tank numbers.
Using lower tech stored tanks like the T-62 that can be maintained and repaired by minimally trained personnel, using parts readily available or capable of being produced by Russia, makes sense. It's not a good option, but in the short term do they have better options to make good their high attrition? I am sure they are maximizing the use of their trained personnel to keep their forward deployed tanks operational, repair damaged vehicles and bring stored vehicles up to deployable condition, but the numbers needed for replenishment are too high.

 

So Turkey is continuing in it's refusal to admit Sweden and Finland into the NATO alliance. Didn't they also have reservations about allowing Greece in as well? Looks as if NATO won't be enlarging anytime soon as long as Turkey continues their opposition to their membership.

Ideas, comments, observations?

 

They joined on the same day, February 18, 1952. The Cold War mostly kept the lid on their disagreements. However, with the end of the Cold War, these disagreements are starting to boil over, with lots of Sabre rattling going on.