- Joined
- Oct 16, 2020
Some of these guys may have served during the Occupation of Afghanistan 
Ukrainian Defensive War against the Russian Invasion - Mark IV: The Partitioning of Discussion
- Thread starter Bohdan Khmelnytsky
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2023
A Lenin-era war fought by Stalin-era tanks manned by Brezhnev-era soldiers born under Khrushchev. Pretty much all of Soviet history is on display.Some of these guys may have served during the Occupation of Afghanistan
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2020
You see comrade, we give them ancient Soviet tanks because it’s what they trained on during their first tours.
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2017
They aren't just breaking eggs trying to take Pokrovsk before the end of the year. They are throwing the chickens at it too while strangling the rooster to death.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
Those chickens were counter-revolutionary, comrade.
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2019
You know he ain't gonna die.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
As a not super engaged follower of the war, I’m suddenly seeing a lot of articles and YouTube videos bluntly stating things like “Russia has run out of tanks” “Russia is running out of rocket munitions” and of course“Russia is running out of soldiers”.
There is also some hinting that the Chechens might go rogue on them, and rumours of dissatisfaction in Moscow. Is this all hopium?
And the situation on the ground clearly isn’t great, losses are awful and failure to recapture Kursk is demoralizing.
Could a “final push” of long range attacks on supply and infrastructure drive Russia back enough to end the war, or will Trump swoop in and save the day for Putin?
There is also some hinting that the Chechens might go rogue on them, and rumours of dissatisfaction in Moscow. Is this all hopium?
And the situation on the ground clearly isn’t great, losses are awful and failure to recapture Kursk is demoralizing.
Could a “final push” of long range attacks on supply and infrastructure drive Russia back enough to end the war, or will Trump swoop in and save the day for Putin?
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2017
Like all things there is a grain a truth to it. Russia is in no danger of running out of tanks soon, but this really does depend on the definition of tank. Modern T-90s and Modernized T-72s are critically endangered in the wild. As are BTRs and Modernized BMPs. Most of what Russia is fielding now would not look out of place in a 1970s red army parade, and a good chunk of what they are using was probably used to put down the Hungarians back in the 60s.
As for the Chechens I don't think they will go rogue, but by all accounts they have also refused to serve in the meat waves too. So they are dancing the fine line between disobedience and loyalty.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
It's a mix of facts and hopium.
Russia will never really "run out" of any of the above - especially meat for the meat grinder.
HOWEVER, what does happen is as supply quantities dwindle is (both sides) start to "triage".
In the early stages of the war, Russia was slinging Kalibrs, Iskanders and even shit like S-300 missiles (a SAM lol) and Kh-22 & P-800 (anti-ship missiles) at anything and everything Ukrainian. Now, you see Russia 'stockpiling' missiles for a month or more before launching waves at a single target (currently energy infrastructure).
I would spitball and say there are 5 stages of "running out",
1) "Use it against everyone everywhere" -> 2) "Use it with some discretion" -> 3) "Only use when necessary" -> 4) "Pick and chose when & where are the MOST necessary and admit some situations wont get it" -> 5) "we've actually run out".
It's unlikely Russia will ever reach Stage 5, however, even as they approach stages 3-4, their situation either begins to deteriorate OR something else changes (i.e. KJU decides to bankroll Russia's artillery consumption) OR quantities remain stable but quality declines (i.e. less 2S19 Msta-S and more D-30s duct-taped to rusty MT-LBs)
Now what you might have heard is the first signs that Russia's Soviet stockpiles are being used up. OSINT data is starting to reveal that at least one of Russia's tank storage facilities is basically tapped out of usable hulls and other facilities are approaching similar conclusions.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
Yes and no. Hopium, but hopium with some grounding in reality.
Monthly reminder that until the last few months of WWII, germany was still making 250 fighters every month. That's almost 10 fighters every day while the Allies were pushing accross france, launching bombing raids from two directions and the Eastern front was rapidly collapsing. War economies don't slow, they seize and collapse.
Also remember that Ukraine is not a must-win existential battle for Russia. If Russia fails in Ukraine, their borders just go back to how they were in 2014. That's it. Russia needs to be able to defend against Chinese and NATO forces, so they won't seriously degrade their ability to resist an existential threat for Ukraine.
For tanks....
Also just as a reminder, the T-72 and T-90 are nearly identical. A T-72 can be converted to a T-90. The T-90 has better optics/electronics, an improved turret and has things like the ammo box won't instantly vaporize the crew or toss the turret if hit with something stronger than a rock, but a upgraded T-72 and a T-90 are virtually identical and largely interchangable. (oh and I think a better engine)
Russia is far from running out on Tanks. They still making somewhere between 10-30 new-production T-90 hulls every month. This doesn't include rebuilt tanks from Soviet storage or recovered and repaired tanks from the battlefield. But Russia seems to have largely retired their T-90/T-72s from the Ukraine battlefield, only using limited numbers. They still have hundreds with armored divisions station across Russia, but they are seeming to be holding them back to keep Russia safe from NATO/China and instead using T-80s, T-62s and now T-54/55s in Ukraine. This indicates that Russian T-72/90 levels are lower than they want.
T-72 hulls are also disappearing from Soviet storage the slowest of all tanks last OSINT I saw.
I've heard a few reasons put down for why that might be:
Some wonks are saying that "good" T-72s are already gone and what's left has been pick-a-part'ed; what you see in the satellites are non-op tanks that might look complete but the engines are practically gone due to being picked over by armored commanders over the decades for spare parts. You can frankenssemble a T-62 from a couple boneyard tanks, but if its a T-72 you're going to be missing key parts you'll be waiting on the factory for anyway.
Other wonks are saying that the T-72s are being explicitly excluded in case they need them for a war with China. Better to have a few hundred mobliks die due to being given T-55s than be short on T-90s when it really matters.
SPGs/mechanized artillery is a little more dire for the Russians. They are nearly out of barrels and have limited ability/capacity for making more. But even if completely out, even without a change in Russian artillery practice, it could be another 3 years before the shortages are really felt.
For munitions:
Russia's rocket Munitions are getting low. They aren't out by a long shot, but they are having problems finding modern rocket artillery and are having to use older, odder calibers and buy old soviet stocks from Iran and the Norks. But Russia is the larger country, doing the attacking with significant defensive works. This lets Russia control the pace of ammunition expenditure a lot better than Ukraine can.
155mm they are having issues, but again, if they need to slow down the artillery for a month to build stocks for a big push, that is a thing they are able to do.
For missiles, As @Fanatical Pragmatist points out, early in the war Russia was lobbing everything they had at Ukraine willy-nilly. They've stopped doing that and what they used to do in a week they now launch a quarter of that once a month. They don't have the stockpile or production to just go hog-wild anymore, but they are far, far from being "out". However, they also need to maintain a reliable threat to keep China/NATO out of their turf so they can't afford to drop all the way to Completely, Totally Gone.
And obviously Trump is going to swoop in and bomb Moscow until Putin gives in. Trump will take Russia's gold reserves as a war trophy to decorate his new hotel and casino. This will be after Trump forces Putin to replace all his generals with literal dogs, and will force Putin to have monthly breifings with them where Putin will be forced to talk to the dogs and give them orders like they are people.
you post your baseless fanfic, I'll post mine.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2021
Covert Cabal has released yet another new video within a week: "The Resilient, But Poor Condition Russian 103rd Central Tank Storage Base - Latest Satellite Imagery", Dec 15, 2024:
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2020
The Russians still use T-90, they're just being lost at a low rate of maybe 5-10 per month (Russians only lose a bit over 100 tanks a month on average this year).
(T-90 percentage in this looks higher because the "unknown tanks" are not included in the graph)
Warspotting has a lot of great features for seeing losses, they even have a map.
Also, the counting people found a bunch of new bases recently.
"Decent" looks outwardly fine-ish.
"Poor" are rust buckets that look like they haven't felt the touch of a man since Soviet times.
"Worse" are rusted hulls with missing turrets and engines, something like that.
link <- see for details of what and where
There's also some recycling going on beyond "'turn two into one" (the refurbishment plants accumulate sometimes quite substantial stocks of broken hulls that lie discarded in some corner of the base, presumably after donating their organs), as there's been a recent report about old Soviet missile engines showing up in modern Russian cruise missiles, and there was a loss of a BMP-1 based reconnaissance vehicle that had the turret of a BTR-70 grafted to it. It wouldn't be surprising if it turned out a bunch of refurbished Russian vehicles have parts from different vehicle types inside of them.
(T-90 percentage in this looks higher because the "unknown tanks" are not included in the graph)
Warspotting has a lot of great features for seeing losses, they even have a map.
Also, the counting people found a bunch of new bases recently.
"Decent" looks outwardly fine-ish.
"Poor" are rust buckets that look like they haven't felt the touch of a man since Soviet times.
"Worse" are rusted hulls with missing turrets and engines, something like that.
link <- see for details of what and where
There's also some recycling going on beyond "'turn two into one" (the refurbishment plants accumulate sometimes quite substantial stocks of broken hulls that lie discarded in some corner of the base, presumably after donating their organs), as there's been a recent report about old Soviet missile engines showing up in modern Russian cruise missiles, and there was a loss of a BMP-1 based reconnaissance vehicle that had the turret of a BTR-70 grafted to it. It wouldn't be surprising if it turned out a bunch of refurbished Russian vehicles have parts from different vehicle types inside of them.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
Wonk I've heard is that between destruction and capture (in especially the eartly part of the invasion), and parts like optics being unavailable, Russia has been holding back putting T-90s into the front, using new production to replace "borrowed" hulls in regular units.
They also just might be trying to get a massive T-90 push ready, which if that's the goal its going to be even harder with ATACMS green-lit.
Its also just as likely T-90s are only given out to commanders who have friends in high command, which is also the people assigned to quieter postings.
Smekalka, Comrade.
It gets even worse when you add in the various variants. I'm pretty sure everything Russia is using in Ukraine is some level of frankenvehicle at this point and if their mechanics weren't incompetent drunks I'd feel bad for them.
Wasn't there a picture of some russian AFV with roadwheels from an entirely different vehicle family?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2024
You're just missing all the Stalin-era killings of generals and enviable Gorbachev-era collapse of Russia. But you are at the Brezhnev-era of stagnation.
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2024
That is another sign we're back in the good old WWII days. As armor in the front was going to Frankentanked, the longer it's away from the rear and repair facilities. The Chieftain brought this in one of his videos as a way to "politely" fuck with the picture perfect, period accurate, no deviation and fun allowed autistic modelers. As the tankers at the front were salvaging parts from everything to replace stuff like nuts, bolts, MGs, road wheels, track assemblies and etc.. To the guys in the depots experimenting and playing with the larger stuff like whether the cannons, turrets and larger items from opposing tanks would fit in or on their tanks and vice versa.
But the major key point is to have the picture(s) of the IRL frankenmech(s) their model is based on hand for when the autists start screeching to shut them up.
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2017
Russias central bank is expected to raise rates to 23%, in order to try and get control of inflation that is running at nearly 10%.
This is particularly bad as due to sanctions and limited access to foreign money markets its almost impossible for businesses and banks to hedge against the inflation. One wonders how much longer Putin can keep the shell game with the Russian economy going. Especially since the Mobliks expect to at a minimum be paid for potentially dying in a frozen trench.
This is particularly bad as due to sanctions and limited access to foreign money markets its almost impossible for businesses and banks to hedge against the inflation. One wonders how much longer Putin can keep the shell game with the Russian economy going. Especially since the Mobliks expect to at a minimum be paid for potentially dying in a frozen trench.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
basis points are a fucking garbage unit for lay people. 2%. They're going to raise the interest rate another 2% from 21% to 23%.
And just to put this into perspective for those too lazy to click and read:
- in 2024 Russia also raised their interest rate 2% from 21%. These are 2000s numbers and they are heading towards 90s.
- Russia is going to raise the rate to 23% which was what it hit in 2002.
- There is some extreme soviet leves of cope they will be able to give a rate cut in the second half of the year, but its unlikely since it looks like the 2% last year wasn't enough to curb inflation.
So that's 4% over 2 years.
Just a reminder that causing the US centeral rate to rise 5%, or 500 basis points, in a year is a large part of what made prices to zoom to the fucking moon over the past two years in the US.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Excuse me, bigot. Some screeching journo on prime time MSM told me that there is no inflation in the US and any price increases are due CORPORATE GREEEEEDDD
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
I know you are making a funny, but its triggered my autism.
Which is in the US, due to Purpa Dranks policy of "Oh god here's free money please don't let the economy collapse" prices had been kept artificially low for a while. Additionally prices on a lot of things had found "artificial" price points that sellers were reluctant to exceed because of what it did to consumer mentality; when you sell drinks for $1 you sell significantly more than if you sell them for even $1.25. Subway going from $5 footlongs to $6 footlongs did just horrible things to their sales despite the modest price increase.
Add in the damage done during COVID lock-downs....
What the US saw in 2022 had been coming and honestly was long overdue. It just sucked, honestly was too much all once, but really the worst part was the fucking shine job we got from the elites and their toadies trying to tell us it wasn't happening when anyone could clearly see it was. Becasue they didn't want to have to defend their absolutely retarded COVID powergrabs.
Anyway, Russia's economy is fucked for decades.