Russian special military operation in Ukraine #38

@FP.

You gotta stop with the Rosgvardia only comment.

There were obviously elements of the 1st Guards Tank Army as they left T-80BVMs behind, plus some other rather good gear.

Someone has said on Slavyangrad that Russia has 2, maybe one high res imaging satellite in orbit? Sounds rather dismal - Shoigu even admitted with not quite such words.

Dunno what the Ukrainians found there

But considering the Ukrainians found some abandoned Ka-52 after the Russian pullout from around Kiev, I wouldn't be surprised if said left behind T-80BVMs date back to the initial phases of the operation. There has been something awfully dismal about Russian equipment retrieval efforts throughout this operation. Tons of shit left behind at every turn for random Ukrainian villagers to rampage through, up to and including Pantsir-S1s

Getting back to Kharkov, I don't think there were any serious Russian formations in that region by the time the Ukrainians attacked. If you have sources to the contrary, then by all means.

And IRA, Scottish Liberation Army - you guys are on Cloud 9

If you want to piss off London so then arm the Argentinians with some Kalibrs and Tsirkons.
Only thing is they'll probably sell that stuff to Washington before they make a play for the Falklands again

Face it, NATO has withdrawn from the last place they were vulnerable in; Afghanistan - before provoking this whole mess.
Well, there is still Syria, where the US is still encamped in quite shamelessly, and some British and French SF are with them on the down-low.

Lots of information about Pakistani arms deliveries to the Ukraine. Zelensky started making demands of India, they weren't too plused about it and started publicizing some sensitive info  

@FP why would there be no elements of some serious formations there? What would have supposedly happened to them? It's not like we saw them active elsewhere around that time.

How silly is it so assume 3 battalions of Rosgvardia was holding a 100 to 150KM long front line?

That's what the info we got said. Vague though it was. That some 1500 Russian forces were overwhelmed by 7k, 8k or so Ukrainian forces. Maybe there were a few tanks, but I don't think we're even talking about a full battalion here.

If there were more Russian forces there and they had armour support, and presumably helicopter gunship support and artillery and so on - then they would have managed to resist the advance, at least for enough time for Russian to send reinforcements there. That's self-evident. And certainly this Ukrainian tactic of using HMMWVs, pickup trucks, and small-unit advances to penetrate through wouldn't have worked.

The other thing is, and this is confirmed by various sources - is that the Russian defense in the Kharkov region was based on a system of checkpoints along various roads.
Not on defensive lines of deployed formations, along with entrenchments, dug-ins, and so on, as one might expect on a front-line. This again indicates that the Russians had only light units there such as the Rosgvardia, who deployed only as they were trained; not some armour-tank, motor-rifles and so on.

As to why this would be - well it could be as it was supposed, that Russian forces were in the process of withdrawing from there. I'm not sure it makes sense either, the article after all goes into the importance of holding the region and Izyum for the process of encircling the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass.
But as outside observers we can only judge based on the facts we see plain as day. All conjecture and speculation on the objectives of the Russian military at that stage, or the apparent importance of this or that area to them - is just that.

If NATzO thinks it will be flying its jets with its own pilots into Ukraine and that Russia will not shoot them down, then they will be in
for a nasty surprise. They can't hide behind Article 5 over Ukr territory. The UN hasn't authorized a military intervention by NATzO
to save its quislings in Kiev. These retards still think that Russia is just another Iraq and that their wunderwaffen jets will be immune
to Russian SAM systems.

No, nato isn't flying jets in. They have lost so much that flying jets in while their proxy is getting its shit pushed in isn't an ideal tactic, even by amateur armchair general standards.