Russia is on course to losing a half a MILLION soliders in it’s fight with Ukraine….
Ukraine troops ARE tired of the continued numbers of scarified troops Russia is sending against them….
It IS wearing some of the Ukrainian military down….
France with ramp up help for Ukraine, this after the UK says it will send several Billion dollars in aid to the Ukraine and the American’s put future Ukraine aid on the side while they fight internal poltical battles…..
Russia keep sending rockets at Ukraine saying they are targeting military locations….
It seems that Russia is having internal issues with it’s imported mercenaries again….
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Moscow continues to consider Taiwan an integral part of China, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry has said after voters elected Lai Ching-te from the ruling pro-sovereignty party. The president-elect said it was a “victory for the community of democracies”.
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Russia has lost 369,160 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its invasion almost two years ago, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. The Russian military is on course to lose 500,000 personnel within the next year, according to a statement by the UK’s Ministry of Defence last week – the average daily casualty numbers, which today stood at about 700, have risen by nearly 300 during the course of 2023.
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France and Ukraine have agreed to “scale up” their defence cooperation,Ukraine’s foreign minister has said after a meeting with his counterpart. France’s show of continuing support will be welcome news to Ukraine, which fears backing for the country is waning as the war nears its second year and critical aid packages remain stuck in Brussels and Washington.
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Russia launched 40 attacks against regions across Ukraine on Saturday morning using weapons including hypersonic missiles, according to local authorities and the Ukrainian air force. According to Ukraine, 37 were missiles and three were drones. Eight were downed, and 20 failed to hit targets.
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Russia has said it has destroyed its targets in a series of strikes on facilities producing ammunition and drones in Ukraine. Its ministry of defence said Russia said it had targeted facilities producing shells, gunpowder and unmanned aerial vehicles, saying “all designated facilities were hit”.
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A warehouse in St Petersburg owned by one of Russia’s biggest online retailers has gone up in flames, Reuters reports Russia’s ministry of emergency situations as saying, as firefighters battled a huge blaze on Saturday….
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Jan 13, 2024 – ISW Press
A recent video appeal by a Serbian mercenary addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed discussions about an ongoing “clan war” within the Kremlin and the Russian information space against the backdrop of the Russian presidential campaign. Serbian sniper Dejan Beric (also known as “Deka”) – who has reportedly fought with Russian forces in Ukraine since Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, conducts Russian mercenary recruitment in Serbia, and became a member Putin’s election team – published a video appeal on January 8 wherein he accused military commanders of the Russian 119th Guards Airborne (VDV) Regiment (106th Guards VDV Division) of mistreating Serbian mercenaries in the “Wolves” (Volki) detachment. Elements of the 119th Guards VDV Regiment are currently operating on Bakhmut’s southern flank near Klishchiivka. Beric claimed that commanders of the 119th VDV Regiment forced Serbian mercenaries to conduct an assault without sufficient weapons, which prompted the entire detachment to refuse to continue attacks and demand a transfer to the nearby Chechen “Akhmat” Spetsnaz units. Beric stated that Russian military officials and police declared that the Serbian mercenaries were deserters and war criminals, disarmed them, pushed them out of their trenches, and forced them to admit that they were spies.
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A look at the current battlefield in the Ukraine , where Russian sheer numbers are cutting into the Ukraine’s defense…
And the Ukraine is running out of ammo…
The joke among Ukrainian troops goes like this: The Russian army is not good or bad. It is just long. The Kremlin has more of everything: more men, ammunition and vehicles. And they are not stopping despite their mounting numbers of wounded and dead.
But the soldiers’ joke had another certain truth to it. Neither side has distinguished themselves with tactics that have led to a breakthrough on the battlefield. Instead, it has been a deadly dance of small technological advances on both sides that have yet to turn the tide, leaving a conflict that looks like a modernized version of World War I’s Western Front: sheer mass versus mass.
It is that tactic that provides Russia the advantage as it pushes to secure Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Moscow’s primary war aim after its defeat in 2022 around Kharkiv, Kherson and the capital, Kyiv. Russia has a population three times the size of Ukraine’s, and its military industrial base is operating at full tilt.
“The Russian advantage at this stage is not decisive, but the war is not a stalemate,” said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who recently visited Ukraine. “Depending on what happens this year, particularly with western support for Ukraine, 2024 will likely take one of two trajectories. Ukraine could retake the advantage by 2025, or it could start losing the war without sufficient aid.”
For now, Ukraine is in a perilous position. The problems afflicting its military have been exacerbated since the summer. Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted by long stretches of combat and shorter rest periods. The ranks, thinned by mounting casualties, are only being partly replenished, often with older and poorly trained recruits.
One Ukrainian soldier, part of a brigade tasked with holding the line southwest of Avdiivka, pointed to a video he took during training recently. The instructors, trying to stifle their laughs, were forced to hold up the man, who was in his mid-50s, just so he could fire his rifle. The man was crippled from alcoholism, said the soldier, insisting on anonymity to candidly describe a private training episode….
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Military officials reinforce the need for wider mobilization to win the war, but the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is apprehensive about introducing unpopular changes that could end with a drive to mobilize 500,000 new soldiers. That number, analysts say, takes into account Ukraine’s staggering losses and what is likely needed to push back the Russians.
While Ukrainian casualties remain a closely guarded secret, U.S. officials over the summer estimated deaths and injuries to be well over 150,000. Russian forces have also taken huge numbers of casualties, according to those officials, but the Kremlin’s forces still managed to repel a concerted Ukrainian counteroffensive, regroup and are now assaulting in frigid winter conditions.
“We’re tired,” a Ukrainian platoon commander said, speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of his comments. “We could always use more people.”….
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“Our guys are getting pounded heavily,” said Bardak, a Ukrainian soldier working alongside Jaeger next to the derelict tank. “It’s hot all over now.”….