Oh - do not misconstrue my intent… I am not saying do not act, I would say that whatever action is taken it must also ensure that they have no way to extract further cost 20 years down the line (or ever).
Ongoing action - constant vigilance.
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Ever is a very very long time. After WWI, the burdens placed on Germany to ensure they could “never ever” threaten global peace again led directly to the unrest that Hitler took advantage of. We can only do what we can do.
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Well, agreed up to a point, and ‘ever’ may also be metaphorical … but were there signs and things that could have been done to head off Hitler? (Rhetorical - let’s not derail the thread.)
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Ukraine has launched a website allowing users across the world to report the assets of those involved in the Ukraine invasion.
The website titled “Whistleblower Portal” allows users to submit “a whistleblower report on assets of persons related to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
From the Kyiv Independent:
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Except that the Russia of Stalingrad was a much more youthful country. Russia now has an aging population so it’s no longer a viable tactic
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WTAF?!?!
After the war, the Italian government held an inquiry to investigate the defeat at Caporetto. It was published in 1919 and was highly critical of Cadorna, at that time a bitter man busy with writing his own memoirs. Cadorna claimed that he had no responsibility for the defeat, despite fleeing to Padua during the battle and abandoning the entire Italian Second Army to its fate. Nevertheless, he was made a Field Marshal (Maresciallo d’Italia) in 1924 after Benito Mussolini seized power.
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It was never a viable tactic in the first place. The Soviet Defence of Stalingrad didn’t rely on Human wave tactics, because the Soviets never employed them. The horrific Soviet casualty rate at the start of the war was the result of lack of preparation for the German attack and a chaotic retreat. After they had a chance to reorganise, the Soviet casualty ratio dropped dramatically, and they mounted strong counter-attacks that turned the course of the war. To say that the Soviets relied on human waves is almost to fall into the Wehrmacht’s self-serving “asiatic hordes” excuse.
None of which reflects on Putin’s failures in this war. He’s a bullying little checkist- not a soldier, and it shows. He has no grasp of strategy, intimidating people has got him false information and enticed him into this unforced error, and he has no plan B when force and intimidation fail. apart from more of the same.
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I would have suspected the Ukraine would start fielding technicals first, given their numerical inferiority. But I guess they have so many surplus armored vehicles left behind by the Russians to get to that level of attrition.
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We lost about half that number with 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Even though I think the likelihood of Russia invading Poland is low, evidently people are taking training courses with the National Guard just in case.
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Stalingrad and Kursk were won by maneuver, battlefield intelligence and deception. The Soviets encircled the Germans at their weakest point at Stalingrad. At Kursk they had advanced warning and led the Germans into a trap. The defense of Moscow was aided by an espionage success. Siberian units where brought west when a key spy in Tokyo discovered Japan had no intention to fight the USSR.
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I’m recalling that the Italians in Greece had a similar story.
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I think you are mistaking North Africa, where the British beat the Italians badly and the Germans stepped in.
The Italians got their asses handed to them by the Ethiopians in the late 19th Century at the battle of Adwa. The Italians got revenge in the late 30’s using mechanized forces, airpower, genocide and notably, poison gas.
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That’s entirely possible. As i said, relying on hazy memories from long ago.
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And hellfire can take down hypersonic missiles.
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But can hellfire melt steel beams? 
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Ukraine has gained a lot of abandoned equipment and with captured/salvaged vehicles that are beyond repair, they apparently do take the heavy machine guns and convert trucks into technicals. Could be more of a TDF phenomenon vs other branches of their military.
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