Quote (ofthevoid @ Apr 3 2022 07:19pm)
Where did I defend this dawg? Even if they were soldiers and/or civilians who were fighting the Russians they don't deserve the fate of a bullet to the back of the head.
I don't know the full details and all of details that are coming out are from Ukrainian sources but it seems most of the victims are men. If what you say is true that they were simply civilians who failed to escape in time, then it makes little sense that it would be only men left in the villages? Women & kids somehow escaped in time but the men didn't, idk doesn't add up to me.
To me the most believable scenario here is these were Ukrainians who were fighting the Russians, probably got captured, and when the Russians decided to pull back from the Kiev flank, instead of leaving a bunch of POW's who most likely might pick up arms against them again, they just killed them in cold blood. What's the alternative, you either let them free and the continue to fight or haul them back to Russia?
I don't think that's the answer, as it's clear some of those people had been dead for a while. Some women and children would also have been there, but presumably most would not have been killed (TBC)
I just think they're trying to annihilate Ukrainian resistance in the long term. Destroying military and economic infrastructure, killing as many men of fighting age as possible, and reducing cities to rubble. It makes a lot of sense in the context of Putin's 'Ukraine isn't even a country' speech
Quote (chopstickz777 @ Apr 3 2022 07:20pm)
The key point is that they cannot reinforce either the troops that are getting wiped out as we speak in Mariupol nor can they reinforce the massive Donbass battalion soldiers that are already encircled near the city of Donetsk.
They can reinforce other areas, but they cannot reinforce the areas where their troops are getting wiped out and where reinforcements are most badly needed, because it is already too late for them.
Russia is fighting their battles WW2-style, slowly and calmly partitioning parts of the enemy, picking off pieces of their military one by one, to be eventually encircled and destroyed, or forced to surrender.
There are some 60-80 thousand Ukrainian soldiers that are already screwed, about to be wiped out and which the Ukrainian army is as of now completely incapable of supporting beyond sending in a few civilian cars worth of material at a time, which have the highest chance of not being shot at during the way in. But this is not enough to support such a large force.
Destroying this hostile grouping will ensure the absolute safety of Donetsk and Luhansk, which is one of the main goals of the Russian operation. After that, it's anybody's guess what will happen.
The JFO isn't encircled yet, we're weeks away from that happening, if it does even happen. Below is an open source map of territorial gains, you can see in the bottom right that Russian forces are in Izyum but still need to capture Slovyansk before an encirclement occurs around Severodonetsk. Izyum to Slovyansk is 50km, Slovyansk to Severedonetsk is 80km. With the JFO being highly experienced and defending this long stretch of highway, my guess is we're in for a long and attritional conflict in the Donbas
This post was edited by dro94 on Apr 3 2022 01:36pm