My armchair general take is that Russia is just flinging whatever resources they have left at the Ukrainians. They’ve lost their professional army, their artillery stockpiles, KA-52s, Wagner. Now all they have left are T-72s, BMPs, and bodies, so they’re just hoping for any kind of win with that. It’s not working out, and I’m really curious how long it’ll be before they run out of soviet era armour and suicidal idiots, and what will happen next if they do.

Western media has become completely defeatist about Ukraine’s prospects because Russia is still able to project strength. I honestly think that these tactics are a sign of desperation, and that things could start to fall apart quite suddenly for Russia. If for example, the US and EU pass more aid for Ukraine in early 2024, and Russia runs low on materiel, then it’s not difficult to imagine. I’m hoping that the new ATACMS variant will knock out the Crimean bridge soon, and that a surprise offensive across the Dnieper could isolate Crimea and create a strategic disaster for Russia.

People who understand Putin say that he’s a gambler, not a strategic genius. He’s made so many bad bets since 2021, and I’m starting to hope that this latest roll of the dice using meat wave attacks could be the last time he’s able to double down without serious consequences.

I’m hoping that as soon as Runnia runs out of steam, the US will pass another $60 billion in military aid and flood the zone with bradleys, abrams, f-16s, missiles, etc.

I’ll give that article a read, thanks! In addition to infantry losses, I’ve been really scratching my head about equipment losses. I get that Russia has a colossal amount of old soviet junk which they can throw at Ukrainian defences, but they must be running out. They can only have so many old T-72s in storage that they can get going again. Tanks, APVs, artillary; long term I just don’t see how it will be possible to sustain an 800km long front line without armour or artillery support. Something has to give eventually.

I really hope that this insane tactic will come back to bite him in the near future. There’s no way these losses can be sustainable.

Did the Ukrainians switch on the explosive ammo cheat or something? Holy fuck.

It’s going to take a lot of brave people and a lot of money to demine Ukraine. Luckily, Ukrainians are very brave and they have some extremely rich friends.

Reports are saying there are 40000 reserves being sent to Avdiivka, so it looks like the numbers are going to stay high for a while. Appearently they’ve also run out of armour, so it’s just infantry assaults now. What a horror show. I didn’t think Russia had any reserves, since there’s no rotation happening.

From the Russian point of view, Russian speaking Ukrainians are their fellow citizens. The Russians claim Ukraine is mistreating them and invade to protect “Russians” in DPR/LPR. It’s total bullshit, but it fits Russian’s desire to be seen as both victims and heroes in their own psychodrama about the war.

What a great deal. Ukrainian’s democratic and human rites are being taken away by Russians in exchange for some bird food.

So all of those assurances from Western leaders about supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes were completely disingenuous.

I have no idea how Russia is sustaining these losses, or accepting them, but they are. I hope the US manages to pass a support package for Ukraine soon. Ukraine needs everything the West can send. I’d love to see EU countries up the ante too.

Well from my perspective, 4k monitors came out about ten years ago, so it’s not ultra-high end. It’s actually quite old. I’ve been holding off on getting into 4k for so long, but the prices keep going up. The expectation was that prices are supposed to go down over time. Hence, I no longer feel like PC has the edge it used to.

I looked it up, and a 6700XT costs the same price as a PS5/Xbox in my country. Add onto that all of the extra components you’ll need to build a PC and it’s way in excess of what a console costs. Sorry, but the cost of entry for PC just doesn’t compare to consoles.

Look, you’re welcome to nitpick graphical fidelity, but I think current gen console games running on a 4k tv look excellent. They’re also a fraction of the price compared to PC hardware. That’s a better proposition compared to PC gaming these days for anyone looking to get into gaming. I get that that’s not a popular viewpoint among the PC crowd, but that’s why I posted it.

I’m talking about something which can achieve parity with the 4k graphics that console gamers expect nowadays. That’s not remotely affordable on PC, but it is for consoles.

I’ve stopped advocating for PC gaming after about 15 years of being a PC enthusiast. It’s just too expensive these days. I think the Steam Deck is a good entry point, but not everyone wants a handheld console. I can 100% respect anyone who looks at the price of a gaming PC and just picks up a Playstation/Xbox for $500 instead.

I’m sure you’d feel the same way about this distinction between nice Russian occupiers and bad Russian occupiers if it was your country they were invading, your culture they were destroying, and your democratic rights they were taking away. It’s incredibly naive.

The ones who were executed declined to surrender while on Ukrainian territory. They also could have refused to serve and gone to prison instead, but they didn’t. These gopniks knew what they were getting involved in and they deserve what they got.

I doubt that distinction makes any difference to the Ukrainians who are defending their country from genocidal murderers.

I love it when fascists murder each other!