I keep reading about how Russia’s economy is on the brink of collapse just like how I keep reading about how Trump’s voters are turning on him. I believe that both are (somewhat) true, but I don’t think anything will come from either one.
War is basically all logistics and the value Ukraine is getting out of their drone program is insane
A man fighting for his home is worth 100 fighting for someone else’s cause. Russia was never going to win the numbers game.
I read that as a man fighting for his drone…
Honestly when they’re done, that manufacturing capacity will do great things for their economy.
God knows we’ll need every little bit to rebuild
The second it is safe, the second the war is over, I’m coming over and spending tourism dollars over there.
They’ll need it because the war money will stop immediately. They’re being funded only as much as it hurts Russia. Just like Afghanistan in the 80s.
Love you. Greetings from elsewhere in Europe.
Slava Ukraine. Be safe if you can. Wish I could do more to help. I tried to do some things with the digital forces but there isn’t much left I can do that you all need.
The shareholders will benefit greatly from more war.
Never let a good tragedy go to waste.
And when enlistment keeps dropping like a rock they will give the suicide drones to our local PDs! :D
Do they manufacture them in Ukraine? I always assumed they got them for elsewhere.
Very much so, though they import lots of parts. Generally speaking the Ukrainian defence industry is operating under capacity because cashflow.
Ukraine builds rockets and the biggest airplanes in the world and has a vibrant IT sector, they can manage drones. Much of the Soviet high-tech design and manufacturing was Ukrainian, that’s one of the reasons why Russia wants its colony back.
Given the volume they quote each year they either have sourcing figured out or produce at least some of the parts internally. Keep in mind, in FPV drones a lot of the tech is not some cutting edge stuff.
Some of the strikes at the residential complexes can be targeted attacks at distributed micro factories.
It’s what many says, Europe needs Ukraine for many reasons and a big one is (sadly), their knowledge about a mordern war.
“We need people from this big war to fight the next big war!” is the line of thinking that’s going to burn everything to the ground, just like it did a century ago.
Between Ukraine/Russia, Israel/Iran, Britain floating warships off the coast of China, Indian and Pakistan firing on one another, North Africa in a decade long bloodbath, the US sending marines to suppress unrest in local cities… its not good folks.
Europe has not been aggresive at all. Being ready doesn’t mean you want to go to war.
Many are against reaming Europe, thinking weapon = war, but it’s not that simple. Nuke are scaring as hell, but we haven’t had such a long period of peace before nuke came.
Good god, I’m talking about today, and I’m confronting EU against Russia, USA or China.
Pray tell, how many times without explicit invitation/request by local government?
Because last I checked when the Sahel states wanted them gone they packed up and left. And then things went to shit quite quickly: In some areas Wagner has an even worse reputation among the civilian population than Jihadis (now that is an achievement), and figures because Wagner is not there to fix anything but to make money by “protecting” natural resources they don’t care much about fighting the Jihadis, either. France never shied away from throwing down with them, where they were reluctant is stomping Tuaregs, instead opting for endless negotiations and mediating. Which is perfectly sensible because the Tuareg are sane, they want stuff like autonomy within their regions, not massacre people.
Because last I checked when the Sahel states wanted them gone they packed up and left.
Check again.
Operation Barkhane dragged on for eight years. It sparked domestic protests within the first two years. By the end, the Sahel states were in full revolt against French occupation.
France never shied away from throwing down with them, where they were reluctant is stomping Tuaregs, instead opting for endless negotiations and mediating.
The problem is with your language. You seem to think dropping 200 lb bombs on a city to wipe whole neighborhoods off the map constitutes “throwing down”, like its a bar room brawl everyone will walk away from in the morning. You don’t seem to want to acknowledge that they killed thousands of civilians. A 9/11s worth of people, to put it in a parlance you might appreciate.
And much like in Israel and the US occupation of Iraq/Afghanistan, the response from French allies was always “those civilians had it coming”.
That is what spurred widespread opposition to Françafrique policy.
Did they get that knowledge from 9 soldiers, one of which carries a cursed burden?
Then they can become the world’s supplier of battle-tested drones.
Ukraine playing it smart and understanding how modern warfare is done. Russia only throwing in more and more soldiers.
In Russia’s defence, who could have possibly have thought that invading Ukraine in the winter wasn’t going to be a simple 3 day weekend kind of thing?
Losing a generation in war that could have added much value to their economy can’t really be smart or worth it, can it?
If they assassinated Zelensky like they had planned, it probably would have been.
That feels like a big contingency that they failed to adequately plan for
Plus wouldn’t the armed forces still fight?
They would have fought, but they would have been demoralized.
They also would have likely been replaced by a Russian sympathizer or asset and the US/West would be very wary to send all sorts of expensive weapon systems to Ukraine.
All good points, thanks for expanding my understanding
It works though, that’s why they keep doing it. It’s slow as hell and inhumane, but they can afford it for many more years I’d wager. Their capabilities of data gathering/transmission are much better these days as well. Also don’t forget they set up wired drone production (in serious numbers at least) first, they can be smart at times.
Underestimating them irl is pointless.
Pulling a Napoleon when he went to Russia. Too cocky
I like to call it (Soviet) Star Wars: the Drone Wars (star for clarity)
What a fucking waste.
For context, the America lost about 55,000 soldiers in the Vietnam War, which lasted about 10-12 years. Russian has already lost at least 600,000 in a couple of years.
The article does not say that there have been 600k casualties. It says there are 600k fighting in Ukraine.
Where did you get “already lost at least 600,000”?
I agree that the 600K figure is a mis-read of the article; however:
According to figures from Ukraine's General Staff, Russia has lost 217,440 troops since Jan. 1, 2025. The discrepancy tallies with Western analysis of Russia's staggering losses. "They lose somewhere in the ballpark of 35,000 to 45,000 people per month, and perhaps they recruit a little bit north of that number," George Barros, Russia team lead at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told the Kyiv Independent earlier this month.I am generally inclined to believe Ukraine’s official figures of over 1 million dead, injured or captured Russian soldiers so far in this “3 day special military operation”.
Holy shit. Over 1k people killed every day? How the hell do you maintain any kind of morale?
You don’t. You have lots of conscription to supplant your front lines. You do all sorts of corruption in the middle-ranks of the military, so junior officers can generate income off the desperation of their greener soldiers. You create an industry around the war, such that everyone hates it but someone is always profiting off the misery of others.
And then the machine grinds on.
Talk about Gaza instead
Blocker units aren’t there for fun.
Its says 600,000 dead, wounded or missing in action and also usa wasnt the only one at war with north vietnam, they had help from their puppet south vietnam
Here’s to a million more.
They don’t all want to be there…
Then don’t sign up. 🤷 Article says they are being given incentives to sign up.
This spring marks the highest rate of military conscription that Russia has seen in 14 years. In late March, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree ordering 160,000 men aged 18 to 30 to be called up.
According to Ukraine’s Eastern Human Rights Group (EHRG), at least 300 people from the occupied territories were conscripted into the Russian army in fall 2024
“After their training, many conscripts are sent to the front upon signing a contract with the Russian army,” Lysianskyi says. This decision is sometimes voluntary, but often made under duress due to a lack of alternatives, he adds.
https://www.dw.com/en/how-russia-recruits-troops-in-occupied-ukrainian-territories/a-72289013
Russian authorities continue to conscript Ukrainian civilians in occupied areas or otherwise try to forcibly enlist them, including those in detention, into the Russian military
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/russia-forces-ukrainians-occupied-areas-military
“She explained that it was in a military camp, and that I would be like a caretaker with tasks like cleaning and cooking…”
But once in Russia, Samuel was in for a surprise. Instead of cooking utensils and cleaning products, he was given a Kalashnikov – which he accepted very reluctantly.
Samuel found himself in uniform without knowing exactly who he was fighting for, or in which unit. “The contracts they made us sign are doctored. We don’t have a copy of the document, so we don’t get the salary we were supposed to. Apparently, the Russian commander who made us sign gets part of it back, so it’s a whole chain.”
I was under the impression that many were outright forced to fight, as opposed to signing up.
Nope, by law Russia cannot use conscripts outside their own borders. All of them signed a contract to be there.
Russia also has the warped idea that Ukraine is part of Russia and they’re reclaiming it, so who really knows whether any law is being honored.
Legally true, but there is of course plenty of coersion.
Learn something new every day
Desperate people do desperate things
The amount of money they get for signing on is so staggeringly huge, it is one of the drivers of the high inflation they are having.
The amount of money they are told they get for signing…
Some of it goes to corrupt commanders and various middle men.
Finally a trickle down economy that works!
Which means the money they get is less and less valuable the more people sign up.
If they’re lying about the casualty rate then even rational people aren’t given the facts to make intelligent decisions.
I’d bet if they were told the truth no amount of incentive would get them to sign up.
Russia it was already a mess before but considering their median age, after a 1mln loss they’re as good as fucked.
Putin doesn’t care about his country, but Russians then?
They don’t care either. The majority, that is, there are some good apples who left the bunch
Tho’ it is hard – the earthly load,
The Cart is easy in its move,
The reckless couch-time, on road,
Will not get of his bench above.In early morn we take our places;
We glad to break our empty head,
And leaving leisure for the races,
We cry, “Go on, you idler, damned!”At noon, our bravery’s diminished;
We have been tossed and more afraid
Of slopes, steep, and ravines, peevish,
And cry, “Be easier, you, brat!”The cart rolls in the former fashion,
By evening, we have used to it,
Wait for night lodgings, doze, patient, –
And Time tends horses to full speed.– Pushkin, “The cart of life”, translated by Yevgeny Bonver
tl;dr it doesn’t really matter the cart keeps on racing until it crashes. And then they Slav it back up and it keeps on racing. Nobody knows who or what the fuck actually holds the reigns. Also that “go on, you ildler, damned” does not give the profanity used in the original credit. Like, not even close. English isn’t capable of it.
Reminds of of that scene in tiberian sun when NOD installs the new AI
EVA: “Casualties rates unacceptable, this course of action -”
Anton: “stop, Activate the reprogramming”
EVA:“Casualty rates well within acceptable parameters”
I get the feeling they take ww2 loses before they even notice.
Kelin was then asked about Russian army recruitment.
“I’m not a specialist in this area, but as I understand it we have 50-60,000 a month, those volunteers who are coming, recruiting, posting, and they would like to get engaged in this thing (in Ukraine),” he replied.
He did not explain why the size of the Russian army fighting in Ukraine has gone down despite what would amount to around 250,000 extra troops being recruited and sent to the front since the beginning of the year.
From I figure, basically by giving recruitment numbers and total numbers in Ukraine, the West can calculate number of casualties, which the West figures is 1 million. Remember casualties includes injured.
Ukraine has been keeping a tally of Russian losses since pretty early on, and it’s been pretty much perfectly accurate.
Maybe they should pull out of the region entirely.
So there’s a stable inflow and outflow. I wonder what fractions are dead, wounded (disabled permanently), wounded (temporary), and retired (back to civilian life in one form or another, likely traumatized).
Alternatively, Russia is building up a massive army outside of Ukraine. That seems unlikely though, there’s no news about that, I’ll discard that hypothesis for now.
It alludes to the staggering number in the title and in the abstract but does not give the number which means it’s clickbait.
The discrepancy tallies with Western analysis of Russia’s staggering losses. “They lose somewhere in the ballpark of 35,000 to 45,000 people per month, and perhaps they recruit a little bit north of that number,” George Barros, Russia team lead at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told the Kyiv Independent earlier this month.
I fall asleep at night watching Russian soldiers get droned. Helps me sleep well.
