OT: Putin's War in Ukraine

[micromachine]

Looks like the Russians are trying to bring back General Mud to slow the Ukrainian offensive down, and keep them fixed to roads at least in the mentioned regions.
Hopefully, the Russian Forces don't pull a 'Hail Mary" flank attack out of Belarus by Russian Forces, and take them from the rear, while the Ukrainians are fixated on the little green men of Wagner Group.

[kato13]

Latest theory is the Russian were placing charges for future use (perhaps this week or next) and there was an unintentional explosion. Explains the odd timing which did not isolate any Ukrainian units (I would have done it after a major crossing), and led to manned Russian positions getting flooded out.

Works well with the general incompetence the Russians have shown so far.

If this was semi planned and the Crimean implications were dismissed or ignored, the Russians seem to really be grasping at straws for the most minimal short term advantages.

[Raellus]

An accidental demolition would be hilarious, if civilians weren't affected. Russian incompetence seemingly knows no bounds.

I other finger pointing news, the Washington Post is reporting that, three weeks before the Nord Stream Pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea was damaged, a "close ally" informed US intel that the Ukrainians had a plan in place to sabotage it.

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[bash]

Originally Posted by Raellus

An accidental demolition would be hilarious, if civilians weren't affected. Russian incompetence seemingly knows no bounds.

I other finger pointing news, the Washington Post is reporting that, three weeks before the Nord Stream Pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea was damaged, a "close ally" informed US intel that the Ukrainians had a plan in place to sabotage it.

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I bet they used one of their submarines!

[Heffe]

Originally Posted by micromachine

Looks like the Russians are trying to bring back General Mud to slow the Ukrainian offensive down, and keep them fixed to roads at least in the mentioned regions.
Hopefully, the Russian Forces don't pull a 'Hail Mary" flank attack out of Belarus by Russian Forces, and take them from the rear, while the Ukrainians are fixated on the little green men of Wagner Group.

From my understanding, most of the border between Belarus and Ukraine is thick marshland. Between western satellite imagery available and the unfavorable terrain conditions on the border, I'm not expecting much of a push from the north anytime soon.

[micromachine]

Heffe...that is why it makes perfect sense....could be the Ardennes all over again and the Wehrmacht caught the Allies 1-1/2 times with that one during World War 2. This would also explain the lack of the top tier Russian gear in Eastern Ukraine as well (and yes I have read the casualty reports provided by the Ukraine).

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by micromachine

Heffe...that is why it makes perfect sense....could be the Ardennes all over again and the Wehrmacht caught the Allies 1-1/2 times with that one during World War 2. This would also explain the lack of the top tier Russian gear in Eastern Ukraine as well (and yes I have read the casualty reports provided by the Ukraine).

Given how badly the lunge towards Kiev went in the opening weeks of the war, I don't see a major Russian attack out of Belarus going particularly well in the future. That said, it's something the Ukrainians shouldn't sleep on.

@All: Does the war have an official name yet? As far as I can remember, I haven't seen anything presented as such. I would nominate Russo-Ukrainian War. Just googled it, and Wikipedia has an entry for it under that name, but there doesn't seem to be widespread use yet.

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[kato13]

I personally am fine with "Russo-Ukrainian" as historically the second listed name is more likely to be the winner. When I was a very young war historian I actually thought that the names of the wars always listed the winner last (rather than being a product of media of the time). I think I thought it was similar to how the home team in a sport is listed at the bottom when showing scores (from baseball batting order)

From the below it was a reasonable suspicion when I only had partial information ("winners" in bold)
Austro-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
Russo-Turkish War
Sino-Japanese War
Spanish-American War
Anglo-Boer War
Russo-Japanese War
Arab-Israeli Wars

[Raellus]

That's really interesting. As a fellow historian, I'm surprised that this never occurred to me, or thatI haven't seen references to this apparent unwritten naming convention elsewhere.

I knew why most American Civil War battles have two names (the Union named battles after the nearest river; the Confederacy after the nearest town), regardless of who won but yeah, that's battles, not wars.

I joke with my students each year that the French & Indian War / Seven Years War is one of the worst-named wars in the modern era, because both titles are misleading.

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[Raellus]

Here are a couple of recent articles that may be of interest here. The first is about the UAF Marines executing their version of a "Thunder Run" along the Mokri Yaly river.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=729f2cb35fb6

The second describes two weeks on the front lines in Eastern Donbass with the UAF.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...ont-in-ukraine

It's an illuminating piece but, in it, the author talks about a vehicle he calls a B.R.M. that has "...tracks and a cannon but was too lightly armored to qualify as a tank, and its inability to withstand direct fire had earned it a grim epithet: the Iron Casket."

It's not a BMP because, a little later on in the article, the author (an embedded journalist) describes a resupply operation involves BMP (clearly identified as such). Any idea what this "B.R.M" is?

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