Corvinus85 Posted May 5, 2023 Share Posted May 5, 2023 Heh, the Kremlin drone attack may have indeed been a government false flag, but only to use an excuse for reducing and cancelling parade events for Victory Day on May 9. Because in reality, they no longer have much to parade about. https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-4-2023 Quote Russian officials are likely using the May 3 drone strike on the Kremlin to expand cancellations of parades for the May 9 Victory Day holiday. Russian sources reported that Russian officials have canceled May 9 parades in 21 cities in Russia and occupied Crimea either without offering official justification or citing security reasons.[14] Russian officials in several cities claimed that they were canceling May 9 events and parades out of concern for participants of the “special military operation... The Kremlin likely hopes to limit typical May 9 events to conceal the degradation of the Russian military because such events demonstratively showcase advanced Russian military equipment, much of which is either critical to Russian operations in Ukraine or has been destroyed in 14 months of attritional fighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maithanet Posted May 5, 2023 Share Posted May 5, 2023 26 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said: Heh, the Kremlin drone attack may have indeed been a government false flag, but only to use an excuse for reducing and cancelling parade events for Victory Day on May 9. Because in reality, they no longer have much to parade about. https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-4-2023 What I've heard took a slightly different spin on the May 9 cancellations. These celebrations started in one providence as a nice way of honoring WW2 veterans. But then Putin hijacked this into a national celebration of Russian victories, Russian greatness and the Russian military. This is the biggest propaganda day of the year in Russia. It is traditional at these parades to bring photos of fathers/grandfathers who fought in the war who have since passed. This isn't just for WW2 veterans, often veterans of Afghanistan and Chechnya would also wear their uniforms to these events. But therein lies the problem. Russia is afraid that many Russian families will bring pictures of their sons, brothers, husbands lost in the war. And unlike grainy pictures of old men, these will be modern pictures of young, vital men, lost forever. They fear this could turn into a spontaneous anti-war protest, or at least foster the sentiment that a great many young Russians are dying and have died already. Hence, they have cancelled the parade nationwide. It is a sign of fear and weakness from the Russian government. mormont, Ser Scot A Ellison and Corvinus85 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted May 5, 2023 Share Posted May 5, 2023 US intelligence believes that 20,000 Russian soldiers have been KIA since the start of this year and 80,000 wounded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted May 6, 2023 Share Posted May 6, 2023 14 hours ago, Werthead said: US intelligence believes that 20,000 Russian soldiers have been KIA since the start of this year and 80,000 wounded. Peter Hitchens and Douglas Macgregor are crying into their beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted May 6, 2023 Share Posted May 6, 2023 16 hours ago, Werthead said: US intelligence believes that 20,000 Russian soldiers have been KIA since the start of this year and 80,000 wounded. With the Afghan War mentioned seems like a good time for a comparison. Soviet casualties in that decade-long conflict were around 15 thousand KIA and 53 thousand wounded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted May 6, 2023 Share Posted May 6, 2023 59 minutes ago, DMC said: With the Afghan War mentioned seems like a good time for a comparison. Soviet casualties in that decade-long conflict were around 15 thousand KIA and 53 thousand wounded. Those figures are generally believed to be a severe undercount, but the most pessimistic estimates still put the deaths at between 25,000 and 30,000 (with a lot more deaths amongst allied Afghan factions). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted May 6, 2023 Share Posted May 6, 2023 1 hour ago, Werthead said: Those figures are generally believed to be a severe undercount No, they're not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted May 6, 2023 Share Posted May 6, 2023 6 minutes ago, DMC said: No, they're not. A Russian assessment of the war published in 2006 (drawing on Soviet General Staff papers over a long period of time) and published in The Soviet-Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and Lost, claimed 26,000 deaths in the 40th Soviet Army between 1979 and 1989. It might be that subsequent/other evidence rounded the figure down, or some Afghan forces were included in the count, but that was not evident in my survey of the sources. The official Soviet figure remains 15,000, but then the official Russian figure for deaths in Ukraine has never been updated past 5,000, which is clearly ludicrous. Both the USSR and Russia severely undercount their deaths as a matter of course (to the tune of almost 7 million for several decades after WWII), both because of political/morale purposes and also because they also just don't do a good job of keeping track of it. The Soviet Union downplayed casualties in Afghanistan during the war's course and kept updating the figure only as a result of protests in which mothers gathered in Moscow with pictures of their dead sons in enough numbers to make the official figures clearly BS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted May 6, 2023 Share Posted May 6, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Werthead said: It might be that subsequent/other evidence rounded the figure down, or some Afghan forces were included in the count, but that was not evident in my survey of the sources. The official Soviet figure remains 15,000, but then the official Russian figure for deaths in Ukraine has never been updated past 5,000, which is clearly ludicrous. Did the Soviets underreport their casualties? Maybe. Hell, maybe to probably. But those figures have been widely accepted and are "generally" reported as the estimates. At least according to The Encyclopedia Brittanica, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Kyiv Independent, and an article from the British Medical Journal republished by the NIH. CIA's own assessment in 1986 put it at 30-35 thousand casualties with a third of them dead. The Mujahideen always estimated a much higher casualty count for the Soviets, but that's hardly a reliable source. Edited May 6, 2023 by DMC Wrong Brittanica link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted May 6, 2023 Share Posted May 6, 2023 Another pro-war russian blogger in a car bomb (injured but survived) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65509809 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 Kamil Galeev with a clear explanation for why Russian ammunition production is limited. Manufacturing shells didn't make anybody any money, so they didn't do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 Russia deployed one tank at its parade. The last one left? https://news.sky.com/story/vladimir-putin-says-a-war-has-been-unleashed-against-russia-in-stripped-down-victory-day-speech-in-moscow-12876869 Jace, Extat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted May 9, 2023 Author Share Posted May 9, 2023 20 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said: Russia deployed one tank at its parade. The last one left? https://news.sky.com/story/vladimir-putin-says-a-war-has-been-unleashed-against-russia-in-stripped-down-victory-day-speech-in-moscow-12876869 Here’s a video of the mighty single T-34… Jace, Extat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrim Fox Cauthon Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 That tank? Made in Ukraine. Jace, Extat, Arakasi, Wilbur and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 They should parade the washing machines, dishwashers and tractors captured in the war. Arakasi and Jace, Extat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 (edited) ...along with the children. Edited May 9, 2023 by Spockydog Jace, Extat, Ser Scot A Ellison and SpaceChampion 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted May 9, 2023 Author Share Posted May 9, 2023 31 minutes ago, Spockydog said: ...along with the children. Would that surprise anyone if they did that? Dressed up caputured Ukrainian children and forced them to wave flags and walk in the parade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 2 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: Would that surprise anyone if they did that? Dressed up caputured Ukrainian children and forced them to wave flags and walk in the parade? The Romans did it. Ser Scot A Ellison 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toth Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, SeanF said: The Romans did it. And Russia already did! I think the heartrending clips were linked here even. Fucking disgusting shit. Edited May 9, 2023 by Toth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThinkerX Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 7 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: Here’s a video of the mighty single T-34… Can't say for sure as my mechanic days are long behind me, but some of those trucks did not sound healthy. Ser Scot A Ellison 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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