this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024

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French journalists were able to get access to a confidential report from the French Defense Dpt. on the war. (www.marianne.net)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

TLDR

Western planners underestimated Russian strength and assumed their defense lines would collapse upon breach.
Ukrainian brigade training was insufficient, too administrative, and short.
Western equipment is considered less efficient than Soviet due to maintenance issues and degraded mode capabilities.
The report emphasizes Russian superiority in defensive tactics with heavy machinery for fortification.
The Russian army is recognized as the technical reference for defensive strategies.
Western press reported Moscow's lack of interest in soldiers' lives, but confidential reports suggest otherwise.
Russians practice "Maskirovka," appearing weak to hide their true strength.
A stampede occurred during the loss of Avdiivka on February 17.
Macron presented other reports to political opponents, challenging Western press's underestimation of Russian capabilities.
Ukrainian general staff lacks a critical mass of ground forces capable of breaking through Russian defensive lines.
The most serious error is seeking exclusively military solutions to end hostilities.
A French officer concludes that Ukraine cannot win the war militarily due to insufficient forces.
Ukrainian soldiers' fighting spirit is affected by ongoing conflict.
Zelensky needs 35,000 men per month but isn't recruiting half of them while Putin draws from a pool of 30,000 volunteers each month.
The Ukrainian failure at Avdiivka demonstrates that Kiev is not capable of re-establishing the collapsing front with an "elite" brigade's dispatch.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Just giving a bit of context here:

Marianne is a french far-right sovereignist newspaper. I'm not surprised it's spreading this kind of informations as its goal is definitely to weaken Macron's government. Plus a lot of its headlines are clickbaity bullshit serving a far-right agenda.

I'm not saying it's a direct propaganda newspaper, but their interests are inline with those of Russia. It's easy to get an officer to say this or that so I wouldn't trust anything written here as it's just opinions from some french officers.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Are you disputing the factual basis of the article or just attacking the source?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Western equipment is considered less efficient than Soviet due to maintenance issues and degraded mode capabilities.

"How often do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?"

Russians practice "Maskirovka," appearing weak to hide their true strength.

Fair enough. You could only know this if you studied an obscure conflict called "World War 2". Very esoteric knowledge.

The Ukrainian failure at Avdiivka demonstrates that Kiev is not capable of re-establishing the collapsing front with an "elite" brigade's dispatch.

Throwing an "elite" (read: more well equipped than usual) formation to stop an advance is what the Nazis resorted to doing after the war had decisively turned against them. Didn't work for them then, doesn't seem to work for Ukraine now. Almost as if it's a bad strategy only employed by losers.

[+] [email protected] -10 points 7 months ago (3 children)

There has always been a non-military solution... Russia can go the fuck home and stop trying to invade other countries.
Putin doesn't have "volunteers", he has a pool of what he considers undesirable citizens that he can trick or force into serving his meat grinder. Not to mention a seen in other articles recently he's now resorting to essentially kidnapping citizens from other countries to fight his war for him. Funny, I would think if he had that many volunteers he wouldn't have to resort to these tactics.

I can't really comment on the rest as I can't read the article and have no reference on which these claims were made.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago (2 children)

There has always been a non-military solution... Russia can go the fuck home and stop trying to invade other countries.

Wouldn't that just lead to the citizens of the Donbas Republics being forced to fight alone against Ukraine and its remaining far-right paramilitaries?

[+] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Donbas is part of Ukraine.

Donbass was part of sovereign pre-2014 Ukrainian state. The people of Donbass will not bow to the ethno-state insurrectionists who overthrew the constitutional goverment. In any case, it's some kind of karma that American fans of post-Maidan Ukraine would have orange bigot imposed on them before the end of this year.

It means getting their asses out of every part of Ukraine that they’ve been infiltrating, including Crimea too.

Last census held by Ukraine in 2001 has shown that nearly 60% inhabitants of Crimea were Russians. How you can drive them out without ethnic cleansing? Well, it's obvious that it's impossible to be supportive towards current Ukrainian regime without being at least a bit nazi.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Donbas is part of Ukraine. "Russia going home" doesn't mean they just retreat to areas where they already removed a significant portion of the Ukrainian population and replaced them with Russian sympathizers

You know I've never heard about this. The line I usually hear is Russia has brainwashed the Ukrainians there into becoming "Russia-backed separatists". How much of the population of Donbas has been forcibly removed and are there any reputable western media sources where I can read more about this?

[+] [email protected] -8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Then again, Donbas backed by fascist Russia and Ukraine having neonazi groups fighting each other, anti-fascists can't support either. Mathematically considering, Russia's invasion succeeding would promote more fascism to spread. What would prevent them or others in the future?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Then again, Donbas backed by fascist Russia and Ukraine having neonazi groups fighting each other, anti-fascists can't support either. Mathematically considering, Russia's invasion succeeding would promote more fascism to spread. What would prevent them or others in the future?

Which Donbas neonazi groups are you talking about? The only one I'm familiar with is Rusich group, which consisted of 30 or so guys. That's less neonazis than you find in single US marine battalion. The other example I can think of is that one Senior Lieutenant who wore the R3ICH operator skull and a valknut while receiving an award. There's been back and forth on that guy and if those patches were looted. The R3ICH skull in particular is heavily associated with the Ukrainian military's neonazis and is sold by the same company that makes Zelensky's famous green clothes, Zelensky himself has been photographed with his bodyguard prominently displaying the R3ICH skull. It was a bad look for the Lt. either way but he's still just one guy.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Azov battalion

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, Azov is a bad look for Ukraine, even though they fight against Russia's fascist forces

Edit: some seemed to misunderstand. Nazis are always horrible, even when used against a larger threat.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's not just the optics that are bad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

True

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"The Waffen-SS is a bad look for Germany, even though they fight against Russia's judo-bolshevik forces"

Did the fact that Zelensky and the entire Canadian Parliament give a standing ovation to a Waffen-SS member cause you any sort of ideological dissonance? Or do you agree with Zelensky that its "normal and cool" for people to support Nazi collaborators?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

No, you skipped the whole thread. There's nothing cool about nazis. They're a plague to everyone. When invading countries and when infighting against the invaders.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No, you skipped the whole thread. There's nothing cool about nazis. They're a plague to everyone. When invading countries and when infighting against the invaders.

That's great, so you would you agree that the US should stop providing money, training, and weapons to Ukraine and its Nazi (and Neonazi) paramilitaries?

By the way, here's a source of Zelensky saying it's "normal and cool" for people to think that Stepan Bandera is a hero: https://www.kyivpost.com/post/6768

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I was just reading about this the other day: Like Bernie wants to stop resourcing Israel, some US politicians had a condition that Azov would not be assisted. But apparently the Pentagon got that overruled

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I was just reading about this the other day: Like Bernie wants to stop resourcing Israel, some US politicians had a condition that Azov would not be assisted. But apparently the Pentagon got that overruled

I think that was way before Israel's current massacres. Congress banned providing direct support to Azov in 2015 and then unbanned direct support in 2016 under pressure from the Pentagon. There might have been another attempted ban after that, I don't remember. Even when the ban was in place it's not like it was hard to get around, they just had the Azov guys join a different battalion for the duration of the training (and wear long sleeves).

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/congress-has-removed-a-ban-on-funding-neo-nazis-from-its-year-end-spending-bill/

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Russia can go the fuck home

The US should probably have considered not backing the fascist coup in 2014 then. Crimeans and ethnic Russians and eastern Ukrainians in Donbas wouldn't have been bombed by the coup gov and it wouldn't have gotten to this point.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Agreed. When I was growing up we were getting towards the end of the cold war and Republican's stance was "better dead than red". Now look at them, getting all cozy with a communist dictator who cares more about giving the illusion of strength over the welfare of his own people. This reflects the position of all the modern Republicans as well, who are nothing more than performance artists bent on destroying education, health care, and anything else that benefits the public, as long as their wealthiest contributors are happy. What ever happened to stepping in and helping those who couldn't help themselves?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

What "communist dictator" are you talking about?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Do you have the same opinion about Gaza and conscription in Isreal, by chance?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Most likely, yes. I haven't been following this as closely but Israel certainly hasn't hidden the fact that they are willing to commit all-out genocide just to get some land.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Good for you for at least caring about Gaza.

I haven't been following this as closely

I think you mean that the Western media isn't reporting atrocities on non-white people. This isn't your fault, per se, just that that system is very broken.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I think most of us do, yes. This is whataboutism.