Encirclements need a lot of troops to hold. Ukraine might think they are prepared well enough to hold. A strong besieging force will result in thinly spread Russian troops elsewhere that could be easier to pick off fir the rest of Ukraine's army.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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Indeed. A possible Lost Battalion or Bastogne type plan.
What is that? Long range ground artillery? Or something airborne? Seems very fast and accurate.
That's quite far away from Ukraine.
Last time I was in Kherson I saw streets that were named after WW2 Soviet snipers who assassinated Nazi occupiers. One can only imagine how many streets and statues this guy will get after the war is over.
The 40 kills in general (or even 7 kills in the first two days) seems more like a legend to motivate the Ukrainians soldiers. Don’t believe it for the moment. More like the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ is a made-up story and this is some random pilot who was chosen to be it.
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Bet you’re fun at parties
Exactly, there just aren't enough confirmed Russian loses in total to believe this.
The Ukranian forces usually provide names of those generals.
But by waiting for ‘confirmed losses’ you are waiting for the Russians to confirm their own heavy casualties and disbelieving any other source.
I meant 40 kills in general. As in, they are claiming that this pilot dropped 40 Russian airplanes.
The Angelina Jolie stuff in Lviv is so weird. Crazy how Lviv has become one of the centres of the world right now.
Doesn't have to be confirmed by the Russians. The Ukrainians are certainly recording the planes they shoot down. They have no reason to keep those records secrets, and every reason to publicize them. Currently the (edit: independently confirmed) total number of Russian planes shot down is in the 20s, and probably as many helicopters.
Edit: Apparently Ukraine's military claims they've shot down 189 planes, which seems like a very high number, and orders of magnitude above the independently confirmed numbers. They also claim to have destroyed 986 tanks. Or at least, that's what the sources I can find claim the military claims.
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So basically you’re making up your own story that it’s made up because you’ve chosen not to believe the statement of the democratically elected Ukrainian government.
Yeah, I am choosing to believe that no pilot is gonna drop 40 airplanes, especially considering that the airplanes Russia and Ukraine uses are similar.
Btw, this is not the first time that the Ghost of Kyiv got an identity. Last time around it turned out to be some actor photoshopped, right?
Let’s not pretend that Ukrainian government is above propaganda. Zelenski gave medals of martyrs to the ‘Russian ship, go feck yourself’ sailors whom days later turned out to have surrendered and captured alive.
I think it was important for the morale to make up these stories and heroes, but do not see the need for this at this stage. It is the Ukrainian people who are the real heroes, not these invented stories.
We just need Elon to tweet it and then he'll believe.
I don’t think your view is correct and am in the process of concocting my own view to draw further attention to myself as an anti groupthink provocateur.
As much as I enjoy bullying Revan for that, I don't think he's out of line here to suggest that the Ukrainians are operating their own propaganda, just like every other side in every other war in human history. Democracies included.
Yeah, an Ukrainian pilot flying a Sukhoi-29 dropped 40 same/similar planes.
Santa Claus is real too.
No doubt the numbers are inflated, but to go from "the numbers are too high" to "the whole thing is made up" is a bit of a leap. I mean, guys might say they are lugging 12 inches around but just because it's actually 6 doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Ukraine dropped entirely around 100-120 Russian airplanes. That includes rockets and their Air Force. This guy was apparently killed in mid March, not sure Russia has lost that many planes at that stage.
This guy must have been a Jedi to drop 1/3 or so of them.
The poster I was replying to was doubting the Ukrainian ‘confirmed’ kills of generals I think. I was just making the point that if you’re only waiting for Russian confirmation you’ll be waiting a long time.
The notion of potentially parading with horses instead of vehicles is not a far cry after all, but that also means they lack 16% of the usual participating crew to even carry the bayonets.
I really had to make a referrence to that legendary Barack Obama rebuttal to Mitt Romney (horses and bayonets).
There's been some misunderstandings going on here, I think he was talking about losses in general, but it sounded like he was talking about.. well, losses in generals.
Definitely agree that the Russians aren't to be trusted about their own losses.
Thank you for making the comparison relatable to me.
Ha! Well that’s an amusing confusion in an otherwise not very amusing thread!
It's a gift.
Or maybe he dropped 10 or so and the numbers were inflated to boost moral. That is not the same as your supposition that the whole thing was made up and the pictured guy was a random pilot.
I would see published images of destroyed planes as confirmation. But we have seen far less wrecks than claimed Russian losses. That's why I believe the numbers are inflated, Ukraine do only prove some of their claims.
But how does that work with Russian generals? They’d likely be incinerated, buried or repatriated.
Oh I see. Misunderstood you, apologies.
This is the trouble with wars being fought on social media. If its not a in Twitter video clip, it didn't happen.
I don’t think there was ever a pilot who dropped 10 airplanes of similar quality. Not even Israeli pilots in the wars with the Arabs, despite having significant advantage in numbers.
Ghost of Kyiv legend was created in the first day or two, when apparently he dropped all 7 Russian airplanes that were lost back then. Of course it is a bullshit story, most Russian airplanes have been dropped from land to air missiles, not from other airplanes, and definitely not from the same guy.
Then no one talked about him till now.
Not that I believe it but the claim was 40 'aircraft'. There are 100+ confirmed downed Russian aircraft of various sorts, with documented photo evidence, so you could maybe double that.
Not doubting that 100+ Russian aircrafts been dropped. Just that I find it hard to believe that 40 of them were dropped from Ukrainian Anakin Skywalker.
Maybe it was more :O Fog of war and all that.
If you are referring to Oryx, who confirm only the basis of unambiguous photos or videos, the current number (including those damaged, abandoned or captured) is 26 aircraft, 39 helicopters and 49 UAVs ... but they have a backlog of material to work through, so those numbers would rise even if the fighting ended today.
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It's definetly artillery, could either be rocket artillery or a barrage from many artillery pieces. My guess is its from a Grad mlrs system.