Are These the Kind of People You Want to See Defeated? Really?
If We Do, It Will Be a Shame on Our Generation That No One Will Ever Forgive in the Future.
A few days ago, the Black Swan Strike Group, one of the frontline defenders of Ukraine, released footage of a Ukrainian MaxxPro racing through the highly contested streets of Chasiv Yar, under intense shelling by Russian forces.
Seconds after the MaxxPro speeds along the dirt road adjacent to a row of apartment buildings, the Russians drop their artillery on the road. The Ukrainian driver, Mikhalych, and his navigator, Kesha, do not flinch. The MaxxPro, carrying supplies for the troops but first heading towards an evacuation of a wounded soldier in the nearby area, neither slows down nor accelerates. It maintains its speed, racing towards the location where a bomb was dropped moments ago.
Then it turns left, racing towards an intersection that looks like one of the favorite kill zones for the Russian army. Three destroyed and abandoned vehicles, hit on the parallel road before they reached the intersection, highlight the danger. The driver would have obviously known that Russian drones were watching the intersection, delivering notes to ground troops that would have marked the coordinates, giving second-by-second updates on the MaxxPro’s movements.
As expected, a series of bombs start exploding right around the vehicle. One bomb explodes directly in front of the speeding vehicle. For a moment, I thought it was over. But the superior design of the MaxxPro, protects the vehicle. The V-shaped hull of the MaxxPro is designed to deflect the force of explosions away from the vehicle and its occupants, and it does.
The driver was literally daring the Russians to keep firing, but showed no sign of stopping even for a second. No hesitation whatsoever. They ride through the kill zone with bombs exploding all around and exit it unharmed.
The MaxxPro then heads towards the extraction point, where they evacuate a wounded soldier, then drive to another location to drop off the supplies they are carrying.
And the video ends.
The importance of armored vehicles keeps increasing every day. With both sides piling up infantry, the side with a better supply of infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers will be able to protect its troops, remain highly mobile, and maintain superiority on the ground.
More than the bravery of the driver and the navigator of the MaxxPro, I was struck by the immense effort the Ukrainian troops place on saving every life. They do everything possible to protect the lives of their fellow soldiers. Some times risking ten lives to save one.
If I were the commanding officer, I would do the same. You fight as a team. You want your team to know that you will do everything in your power to save them and expect them to do the same for you . That is the kind of team I want to fight with, not the other one.
In stark contrast, the Russian armed forces force their soldiers to drive to the frontline in golf carts and motorcycles. The odds of these men reaching the frontline with their clothes intact are close to zero. There are reports that many Russian soldiers are given drugs before being sent to the frontline.
A Royal United Services Institute study released last year stated:
Ukrainian troops report that Russian troops often appear to be under the influence of amphetamines or other narcotic substances, with material recovered from the battlefield indicating that these are commonly taken in liquid form.
It makes a lot of sense.
Would anyone in their right mind ride a motorcycle to the frontline? For two full years, the entire world has known that the line of contact in Ukraine is one of the most highly watched zones from the air. First-person drones are almost always present, watching.
Russian army proudly call these tactics ‘human wave attacks.’ In what world are we living? Even during the Crusades, I doubt this ever happened. They killed each other, but I don’t think they sent waves of men to be sacrificed as an operational strategy.
We are already witnessing the side effects of the Kremlin’s ‘who cares about average Russians’ strategy, endorsed by their higher-ups and supported by some in the West. The death toll has reached staggering proportions.
In May, the Russians lost more troops than they ever have since the start of the war in February 2022. This outcome was predictable given the way the Russian armed forces conduct their operations.
Not once. If my memory serves me right, I wrote this will happen at least four times. I found two of my earlier reports. I am hunting the other two, if I find them, I will add it here.
On April 8th, I wrote the following, which circles back to the first report I made this year.
The manpower draw down is escalating
In the first year of the war, in 2022, the Russian army lost 400 soldiers per day. In 2023, that number increased to 658 per day. In the first three months of 2024, it has risen sharply to 913 per day.
There are plenty of reasons why the number of losses suffered by the Russian army would continue to increase at a sharp rate.
After observing the Russian recruitment strategy and battlefield tactics, I reached the conclusion that the Russian army will incur significantly greater losses in 2024 compared to last year.
I documented my findings in a story published on January 1, 2024
“The quality of recruits this year will be notably inferior to the previous year’s, and the recruits for the upcoming year will be even less capable than the current batch. This pattern is unavoidable. Each new iteration of the Russian military is bound to be less trained, less equipped, and less motivated to engage in combat. The accelerated attrition rates will intensify the strain on recruitment efforts”.
I believe we are not yet at the end of the cycle of rising casualty rates. The Russians are likely to keep breaking their monthly records. Why? They cannot stop their counter-attacks. This is their final surge; they need to do something outrageous to seek a ceasefire. If they allow the West to think they are done, their game is over. So, they have no choice. They will risk their economy and continue sending human waves.
One liar was replaced by another liar
This is from the supposedly god-fearing, anti-corruption, honest economist leading the Russian armed forces: Belousov.
According to him, “The Russian armed forces are systematically reducing the combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In May, the enemy lost more than 35,000 military personnel and 2,700 units of various weapons. Among them were 290 tanks and armored combat vehicles, including four Abrams, seven Leopards, and 12 Bradleys. In addition, 11 airplanes and four helicopters were shot down, and 730 field artillery pieces and multiple rocket systems were destroyed.”
Oh. My.
I wish the West had given 2,700 units of various weapons to Ukraine. Had they done that, Ukraine would have won this war a long time ago. Maybe the Russians are counting the artillery shellsand missiles they intercepted with their weapons, warehouses and oil depots (pun totally intended).
And then he added, “Literally the night before yesterday, there was the most massive attack by ten ATACMS on the Crimean Bridge with a flight time of less than two minutes. All missiles were shot down. As a result, hundreds of lives were saved.”
Oh. My.
If all missiles were shot down, then why is NASA’s fire map still showing this?
What you’re seeing in the image above is Port Kavkaz near the Kerch Bridge, where Ukraine struck two ferries. The damage must have been severe enough for the fire to be picked up by NASA.
Oh. My. Belousov.
You cannot work with Putin for such a long time and not understand the job description.
Fair enough.
To be honest, I was slightly worried that he may actually have an honest bone and it might help the Russian armed forces. Now, I’m happy to report that my fear was unfounded.
He’s just the same vodka in a different bottle.
Good luck, Russian armed forces, and the poor Russians he’s going to recruit. But I do think he might refrain from using the term “meat grinder,” which the Kremlin’s minions love to use. Maybe he will prove me wrong again. I have faith.
So, this is the kind of army the MAGA in the United States and the right-wingers in Europe want to win. These are the kinds of people we need to make peace with. These are the kinds of people whose ideology that we need to embrace.
We have a responsbility to save not only the Ukrainians from the Kremlin, but the average Russians who are stuck in a doom loop because of one man’s fantasy. A region with nearly two hundred million humans is paying the price because of one man and his minions. We have seen this happen before. We are watching this happen again. We stopped this before. We need to stop this again.
The choice before us is very clear. Which ideology do we want our children to grow up with? Do we want them to learn from the MaxxPro crew or do we want them to follow in the footsteps of drugged motorcycle riders?
Thanks for reading. Making critical information on Ukraine accessible is one way to fight misinformation. That’s why I’ve made 182 stories free to the public in 2024, including this one. Feel free to share it with anyone.
