Russian special military operation in Ukraine #51

Odin of Ossetia wrote:
No, Stalin did not withdraw Soviet troops from Austria.

It is true that the Soviet's finally left Austria only after Stalin's death but Stalin had no plans to occupy Austria (despite anti-communist propaganda).

https://www.austriatradition.com/did-stalin-want-to-control-austria/

Experts like historian Jeremy Smith argue that while Stalin may have initially considered absorbing Austria, he ultimately prioritized maintaining a neutral Austria as a non-aligned state. Smith emphasizes the practicality of this viewpoint, as it allowed the Soviet Union to achieve its strategic objectives without provoking Western powers and potentially risking conflict. From this perspective, Stalin’s actions can be seen as a calculated attempt to control Austria indirectly, by preventing it from aligning firmly with either side.

Insights and Analysis

Examining Stalin’s intentions towards Austria requires careful consideration of the geopolitical context of the time. Stalin sought to safeguard the Soviet Union’s security and preserve its influence in Europe, particularly in neighboring countries. By keeping Austria neutral and preventing it from becoming a Western-oriented state, Stalin was able to achieve both objectives without provoking a military confrontation with the United States and its allies, which could have had disastrous consequences.

It is important to bear in mind that Stalin’s motivations were not solely driven by ideology, but also by practical considerations and the delicate balance of power in the aftermath of World War II. While evidence suggests that Stalin desired to exert influence over Austria, there is little conclusive evidence to support the claim that he aimed to fully control the country. Instead, his approach seems to have been more focused on shaping Austria’s foreign policy and preventing it from aligning with the West.

As far back as 1946 Soviet troops were withdrawn en masse from Austria. There were about 150 000 troops in Austria by 1946 - From an initial 700 000. Eventually there were only 50 000 troops in Austria by 1955 when they finally left.

General Staff: The Russian Armed Forces are expanding control in all directions in the Northern Military District zone, 12.21.2023.

Gerasimov: The Russian Armed Forces are expanding control of the Northern Military District zone, the enemy cannot move forward.

MOSCOW, December 21 – RIA Novosti. Russian troops are expanding control zones in all directions during the conduct of the Northern Defense Forces, Chief of the General Staff - First Deputy Minister of Defense, Army General Valery Gerasimov said at a briefing for foreign military attaches on the results of the Ministry of Defense in 2023.
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“Russian troops are successfully conducting an active defense, confidently holding positions along the entire line of combat contact, and constantly expanding zones of control in all directions. The enemy is constantly being hit by fire, preventing him from moving forward,” he noted.

Gerasimov emphasized that Russian military personnel act courageously and decisively in the most difficult combat conditions and effectively carry out their assigned tasks.

The Chief of the General Staff said that this year the main task of the Armed Forces was to repel the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces strike group, the backbone of which was made up of brigades trained and equipped by Western countries.

In total, by the beginning of June, the Kiev regime concentrated in the Zaporozhye direction an offensive group of up to 50 battalions, more than 230 tanks and over a thousand armored combat vehicles, half of which were modern foreign-made models. Subsequently, the group was increased to 80 battalions.
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“The enemy’s plan was to block Melitopol by the end of the 15th day of the offensive. Subsequently, to attack with access to the coast of the Sea of ​​​​Azov, the city of Mariupol and the border with Crimea,” the military leader specified.

But in the end, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, at the cost of colossal losses, were able to make only slight progress in the Zaporozhye direction, failing to even overcome the tactical defense zone of the Russian troops.

According to him, additional supplies of Western weapons to the Kyiv regime and the introduction of strategic reserves into battle by the Ukrainian command did not change the situation on the battlefield, but only increased the number of losses in the Ukrainian Armed Forces units.
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“In order to disrupt the plans of the Ukrainian command, our troops carried out large-scale measures to create a layered system of engineering barriers, defensive lines and positions,” Gerasimov emphasized.

According to him, in six months the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost about 160 thousand people, more than three thousand armored combat vehicles, including 766 tanks, 121 aircraft and 23 helicopters in all directions.

At the same time, he noted that the Kiev regime, seeing the inability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to achieve its goals on the battlefield, continues to use terrorist methods of struggle. In turn, Western intelligence agencies tacitly agree and often help the Ukrainian leadership in such steps.
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“Ukraine does not give up attempts to commit acts of nuclear terrorism; it systematically sends unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with explosive devices to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and the city of Energodar. In May of this year, an attempt by Ukrainian saboteurs to undermine the power lines of the Leningrad and Kalinin nuclear power plants was thwarted,” Gerasimov added.

The Chief of the General Staff also pointed out that on the territory of the DPR alone, since February 2022, more than 4.7 thousand civilians have died due to attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and attempts on journalists and government officials in four new regions of Russia remain the norm for Kyiv.

https://ria.ru/20231221/kontrol-1917181614.html

JohninMK wrote:Interesting tactic

https://twitter.com/i/status/1737815751770173449

Was this a friendly fire incident?

RF forces evacuate injured soldier during November battles in Maryinka, DPR




That woman deserves a medal, she saved her boyfriend...for now anyway.

Odessa, Woman saves her boyfriend from Zelensky's Meatgrinder


the rear of the ambulance carries an "UUF" sticker on its rear left window.
This is an crowdfunded ambulance meant to "saving lives in the most affected areas of the country."

kvs wrote:The "annexation" of "Polish" territories by Stalin is endlessly bitched about but you never hear about Stalin's generous shift of Poland's borders
west at the expense of German real estate.    To this day the old border is manifest as the look and feel of these lands is distinct from original
Polish lands to the east.   If these annexation bleaters were consistent they would be calling this a Polish annexation of German lands.  

Similarly these pole-ack clowns choose to ignore the 1919-21 Polish-Soviet war where newly reformed Poland under the Pilsudski military dictatorship chose to invade the fledgling USSR in order to take advantage of the civil war. They siezed the territories to the East of the Curzon line and kept it until 1939 when Poland was defeated by the Nazis, and the USSR rolled back in to reclaim the stolen land. Western and Polish russophobes have always insisted that this was the Soviets "invading" Poland in concert with their "ally" Nazi Germany, a great example of the unmitigated lies and bullshit that Russias enemies will use in order to smear her.

I recall some Banderite here in Kanada back in the 1980s chirping as part of this historical fiction chorus when he trotted out the Molotov-Ribbentrop
pact as proof of a Soviet-German alliance. Yeah, retard is as retard does. The USSR sent Germany wheat and some non-military goods, but the
USA and pals sent Germany oil and machinery. In fact, the USA was key in Germany's re-armament during the 1930s and kept supplying it with oil
during the war. Hitler's real allies were the Americans who were under the thrall of eugenics at the time.

Anyway what we have today is a continuation of what we had 80 years ago.

The Ukrainian economy is headed back to its prewar level

JohninMK wrote:

mnztr wrote:

JohninMK wrote:Interesting tactic

Was this a friendly fire incident?

They say that it was intentional to clear mines.

Umm it is clearly explained what it was. And its fairly obvious by the explosion that the hull was packed and not crewed.

This tactic has been used before.

I am unsure why the tactic isn't used more if Russia has tanks to spare. It probably doesn't get used that much because any functional tank can be exported. Who knows at these tank graveyards, if they have good antifreeze in them and shit and have been mothballed properly. If not, they are just dead weight. They should send some Russian renecks out there to see if they can get them running. You never know.

franco wrote:

Hole wrote:

The Ukrainian economy is headed back to its prewar level

I wonder which war they are using as a reference point.

Crimean.

Interesting tactic

Looks like they were trying to get to what looks like a power substation and they drove a vehicle with a FPV drone sitting on the front presumably to drive the vehicle remotely and had another drone overhead watching the advance and when it got near the power station it exploded.

Now it might have been loaded with HE to destroy the power substation, but they wanted to check to see if the road to the substation was mined or not.

I would think hitting the substation with artillery would be a better way to destroy it so I have to assume they were looking for mines on the roads and used an FPV drone to make the vehicle they used a remote UGVIED.

Was this a friendly fire incident?

They would hardly have anyone inside the vehicle if they put a FPV drone on the front with its props clearly not running if someone was driving it.

They say that it was intentional to clear mines.

Seem to be checking for mines as a remote vehicle and seemed to make it all the way to near that electrical substation where it hit something.

Filling the vehicle with explosives would not clear any more mines than those it ran over, so I suspect the plan was to drive explosives up to that electric substation and blow it up but they thought the area was mined (even if they didn't you would need a remotely controlled vehicle for that job anyway.)

Must be a long way back or they would be prime drone targets. Crane is a sitting duck with a probably skilled operator, that don't grow on trees.

Probably in Poland where it is safer...

Western and Polish russophobes have always insisted that this was the Soviets "invading" Poland in concert with their "ally" Nazi Germany, a great example of the unmitigated lies and bullshit that Russias enemies will use in order to smear her.

Yeah, here in New Zealand we were told that Germany and the Soviets worked together on that but the reality is that Germany wanted the Polish bits of Poland but not the bits Poland stole from Russia a few decades before so he made a deal with Stalin. Stalin went to the British and the Poles for a defence agreement but they didn't trust the Soviets and preferred to trust the Germans. The result was Stalin know the Germans would invade Poland and he had the choice as to whether to get the Russian portion Poland had stolen back or to let the Germans move their forces that distance closer to Moscow. The choice was obvious.

I recall some Banderite here in Kanada back in the 1980s chirping as part of this historical fiction chorus when he trotted out the Molotov-Ribbentrop
pact as proof of a Soviet-German alliance.

It was a non aggression pact... something allies would not need. Ironically something Russia needed with the EU before this started and perhaps it might have prevented this from escalating as far as it has.

I see that Vladimir Putin has finally gave his admission about his own naivety regarding the West since early 2000s.

Putin said that the thing he most regrets about is trusting the West and giving the West the benefit of a doubt.

I have been writing about this for the last 10 years or so. As early as in 2014 I said how Putin made a BIG, BIG mistake signing those Minsk agreements and trusting Angela Merkel. I knew it back then. Too bad Putin knows it only now. How many thousands of lives could have been spared if Putin have had more foresight?