I see what you did there.
The T72s and Mig 29s that both sides are using are Soviet era. The Ukrainians were using T64s from the 60s. The Ukrainians don’t have a lot of options for vehicle mounted, radar equipped anti air weapons to shoot down aircraft at high altitude or at night.
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Looking forward to Trump citing this on the campaign trail as the right way to deal with BLM protesters, and getting a huge ovation for it.
“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength,” Trump replied. “That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak…as being spit on by the rest of the world.”
We reached an entryway, and armored cars whisked us to a darkened basement. Only then did we learn from a policeman why the Ukrainians had risked the lives of soldiers to extract us from the hospital.
“If they catch you, they will get you on camera and they will make you say that everything you filmed is a lie,” he said. “All your efforts and everything you have done in Mariupol will be in vain.”
I knew Russian forces would see the eastern port city of Mariupol as a strategic prize because of its location on the Sea of Azov. So on the evening of Feb. 23, I headed there with my long-time colleague Evgeniy Maloletka, a Ukrainian photographer for The Associated Press, in his white Volkswagen van.
On the way, we started worrying about spare tires, and found online a man nearby willing to sell to us in the middle of the night. We explained to him and to a cashier at the all-night grocery store that we were preparing for war. They looked at us like we were crazy.
We pulled into Mariupol at 3:30 a.m. The war started an hour later.
Incredible story. Also one I can instantly believe 100% unlike twitter where you’re usually never quite sure.
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https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1505980549298593833
https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1505981640329375746
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That’s staggering. That’s around 5% of their amassed forces killed, and another 8% injured. So 13% incapacitated.
your guys kept saying it’s unlikely, ukrainian estimates are too high.
ftr, VSU claims over 90 planes downed and over 120 helicopters. those are 30-40% of available aircraft, and god knows what percentage of pilots.
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This does lend a lot of credence to the Ukrainian estimates. Their latest, I believe, was 14K and we have the Kremlin internally suggesting 9K. So now the likely range is in between those two numbers.
It’s also possible the Kremlin isn’t counting Chechnyan soldiers’ deaths, for example.
Ukrainian casualty estimates have traditionally been known for being conservative if anything, because they want to be believed. It’s undoubtable that even an accidentally leaked Russian # is too low.
it’s understood that when russia reports losses that only includes “armed forces”, even though we now know that among the dead are members of Rosgvardia, and riot units, not technically a part of military. I don’t believe chechen contingency is high. they are only a coupl percent of the total. Wagner apparently wasn’t invited to the war ahead of time, which caused some bitterness, then they went in and promptly lost thousands. gjge general zolotov and chef prigozhin. i can’t even find a historical reference for a worse couple of people
https://twitter.com/MoscowTimes/status/1505984269151260672
Also injured as less than double fatalities doesn’t line up with any typical WWII fighting afaik. Generally injury casualties are around 3x fatalities.
We’ve been hearing that Belarus was going to join the invasion for weeks. So far Belarus’ troops seem adamantly opposed to going in to Ukraine. Making a statement like this might be a way to try to sow more dissention among their ranks. But who knows.