What is really happening in the Ukraine Conflict?

[Sampanviking]

You had the time to write an 800 word response today, but you did not (and do not) have the time to source a single factual statement you made 12 hours ago.

Which you clearly have not been bothered to read or have the good grace to respond too.
No, your right I have no intention of pilling through endless posts in feeds which to find copies of very obvious bollocks, from several days ago.
Like I said If I find them again I will post them.
However if you want to post what you believe to be abandoned Russian equipment feel free to post and I will comment.
Some of it will be real as some were left behind, but its not much.

[Sampanviking]

That is my problem it isn't "all online," from a credible source which is why I asked. If Putin had a million soldiers when the big recruitment drive? (and possible conscription.)

Just for you Pappy as a welcome back -

One million strong armed forces plus two million reservists according to the ISS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel

[papasmurf]

I dont waste my time with silly games like this. Its all there online, if you want to see it go and find it.
If I come across any of them again in the feeds I get, yes I will share them, but I am not going digging for them.

That is my problem it isn't "all online," from a credible source which is why I asked. If Putin had a million soldiers when the big recruitment drive? (and possible conscription.)

[Borchester]

Could you please supply some credible evidence that Putin has one million battle ready troops.

Sam counted them.

No one knows what is happening in the Ukraine because both sides lie automatically. Right now Zelensky is claiming that the Ukrainians have retaken 6,000 square kilometres of territory. I dare say that we will shortly hear that his armies can now see the onion domes of the Moscow tram terminus. That said, the Russians have admitted that they have fallen back to regroup, so maybe the Ukrainians now have the upper hand

[Nalaar]

I dont waste my time with silly games like this. Its all there online, if you want to see it go and find it.
If I come across any of them again in the feeds I get, yes I will share them, but I am not going digging for them.

You had the time to write an 800 word response today, but you did not (and do not) have the time to source a single factual statement you made 12 hours ago.

[Sampanviking]

That was a lot of words that did not answer the question I asked.

Can you please provide evidence that the tanks the Ukrainians are claiming were abandoned in the latest Russian retreat is "just Ukrainian BS"

I dont waste my time with silly games like this. Its all there online, if you want to see it go and find it.
If I come across any of them again in the feeds I get, yes I will share them, but I am not going digging for them.

[papasmurf]

Ironically Zelensky claims to have a million man army when he does not, when Putin actually does but seems reluctant to use those numbers to good effect.
This does now seem to be changing, because Russian public opinion is now demanding it.

Could you please supply some credible evidence that Putin has one million battle ready troops.

[Nalaar]

That was a lot of words that did not answer the question I asked. 

Can you please provide evidence that the tanks the Ukrainians are claiming were abandoned in the latest Russian retreat is "just Ukrainian BS"

[Sampanviking]

It would almost be funny.
I am one of the very few on this site that does not simply regurgitate State and Establishment media output from either side, yet I am the propagandist!

Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't true. The truth or at least much closer to it than you will ever read in the press, is out there, but you need to go and find it and be very careful in what you parse.

The Western output in this war is pure propaganda. There is an effective media black out on all the Counter Offensives, which means that Journalists are not able to get to the front and only have official handout to report. Any bad news for the Ukrainians is airbrushed out of the story and any victories, no matter how small are magnified and exaggerated out of all proportion.

Nobody on the Russian side is pretending that what happened in Kharkov over the weekend was good. A lot of people are very angry that the situation that caused this to happen was able to happen. Yes the Russians took causalities and lost equipment as they retreated. That is inevitable in any war zone. But it was a Tactical Retreat ordered by command and not a Rout.
How do we know this (beyond the Russians saying so)? Because we can see the result:
A Rout would have meant massive Russian fleeing in all directions, abandoning all weapons large and small and resulting in massive casualties and a total loss of equipment, all of which would be plain to see. We don't see this. We see that Russian forces pulled back quickly mostly in good order and with the vast majority of their equipment and then rapidly and efficiently setting the next defensive line within a few hours. They did this under the umbrella of Friendly Air and Artillery Cover, which did take a a very toll on Ukrainian forces (evidence easily available on line)
Routed troops cannot do this.
Interestingly there is a news black out on the Ukrainian side to hide bad news but not on the Russian. They all know exactly what has happened and no attempt has been made to hide it.
This is a segment from CNN who did manage to get close to the front on Sunday (note that Sunday!)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cnn-goes-to-verify-ukraine-s-claim-on-counteroffensive-see-what-they-found/vi-AA11JCdW?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=bac3f10fb9fc4ee98b12b54f71a9b225&category=foryou

Ukraine has achieved a tactical victory in Kharkov and Russia has suffered a defeat, but it is a million miles away from the Disaster that the West trying to paint. Eastern Kharkov is a largely forested wilderness; as Boycee has already said, with very few towns of any size or significance into except Izium, which the Russians will be very angry to lose. The small force that was left was able to get out intact and this army still remains in place.
Bad optics for the Russians but hardly a game changer in the overall scheme of things.
In terms of the BS that has been put out - key example was footage showing someone on a motorbike riding around a massive yard filled with Russian Armour of all types. It did not feature a single Ukrainian soldier on camera and all the vehicles seemed quite battered. OSINT brigade very quickly geolocated the video to a Military Repair yard in the Crimea taken a few months ago. This is not new and is typical of the BS put out by the pro Ukrainian side. Numerous examples of Ukrainian T-64 tanks just having a Z painted on them and claimed to be captured Russian tanks.
There is a lot of footage of hit Ukrainian forces burning or burnt out, but of course these never get published and even these often get tried to passed off as Russian casualties.

Elsewhere the direction of travel is otherwise. There is fighting in the Donbas and Kherson which are going in favour of the Russians, this is the vast majority of the entire front and takes up the vast majority of the forces committed on both sides. Kherson has been a disaster for the Ukrainians with many thousands dead and wounded and very little left to show for it.

This is footage released yesterday of part of a failed Ukrainian assault against Russian positions near Peski near the ruins of Donetsk International Airport.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrx2XRJSJVg

All of this of course is designed by our Governments to justify continued wasting of tax payers money and military equipment on the Ukrainian proxy war.
On the other side it looks as though it might finally given the Mr Putin the kick up the backside he needed to realise that he needs to take the gloves off and start treating the SMO like the serious war that it is.

Ironically Zelensky claims to have a million man army when he does not, when Putin actually does but seems reluctant to use those numbers to good effect.
This does now seem to be changing, because Russian public opinion is now demanding it.

[Nalaar]

the Russians retreated in good order (pictures and images of large amounts of abandoned Russian equipment are just Ukrainian BS of the sort they usually produce)

This is a good example of what I have seen in several of your posts, a certainty of a fact that is unknowable. 
Can you please provide evidence that the tanks the Ukrainians are claiming were abandoned in the latest Russian retreat is "just Ukrainian BS"

[B0ycey]

They actually reported on this on last night's BBC News for once. The ground retaken from the Russians is very substantial. They have given up in days ground it took them weeks and months to capture. Why would they do that? Quite obviously it has been forced upon them.

They done it because it is insignificant land Steve. They would have fortified the Donbass border ready for the winter and they will ask the Ukrainians to take the fight to them during the cold months. All they are doing is moving troops to more friendly territory and the south where the real fighting is taking place and not be bogged down in a logistical nightmare by arming and feeding troops at Kharkov in the winter. The notion the Russians are trying to take all of Ukraine should have been expelled when they retreated from Keiv. It is perhaps true they are trying to increase the Donbass border as a land grab and that retreating is a coup for Zelensky but history has told us that overstretching your army has never been successful, it was after all the downfall of the Romans, and if we are to believe the Russians are in Ukraine to liberate the Donbass region from Keiv rule, there is no reason to be in Kharkov anyway.

[srb7677]

They actually reported on this on last night's BBC News for once. The ground retaken from the Russians is very substantial. They have given up in days ground it took them weeks and months to capture. Why would they do that? Quite obviously it has been forced upon them.

And most of us trust more reliable media sources than Russian propaganda, which a certain someone insists upon trying to spoon feed us here, entirely unaware of how unconvincing he is. We can see it for what it is.

[cromwell]

Where to start Sampan? With a bit more reality than propaganda might be good.

[Sampanviking]

So where to start with today?

First off, lets dispel the BS about a rout in Kharkov. What we had was a tactical retreat from the whole of Kharkov by the Russians, even those that could easily have stayed in position along the Russian border. We know this as there were no big battles, the Russians retreated in good order (pictures and images of large amounts of abandoned Russian equipment are just Ukrainian BS of the sort they usually produce) The Russians have formed up on the East Bank of wide River near the Kharkov/Lughansk borders and that front is now stable. The Ukrainians have only taken territory that the Russians gave up meaning it has been merely occupied and not conquered.
Where the Russians have stayed put; like at Lyman, the Ukrainian attacks have been defeated, repeatedly and the this line is being actively reinforced to ensure it holds.

So why did the Ukrainians counter attack at Kharkov and why did the Russians tactically retreat?
Its because the real target for the Ukrainians is the Southern Front from Zaporishshia to Donetsk, where the target for the Ukrainians is undoubtedly Mariupol. There have been reports of a build up of Ukrainian units on this front, just as earlier there were reports coming from Kharkov.
What the Ukrainians really wanted was for the Russians to deploy their full tactical reserve in the SMO to Kharkov to help defend the established positions there. Instead the Russians not only did not transfer their reserves, but they actually had been transferring their Kharkov garrison into the Reserve to prepare for the Southern Offensive.
Therefore when the Kharkov offensive began the Russians; reduced it is being said, to a force of less than five thousand, simply retreated . unfought and undefeated.

Without the Russian reserves being locked in position in Kharkov, the Ukrainians realised that they would need to rapidly transfer a large part of the Kherson counter offensive force to the South, if this new planned offensive was going to have any chance of achieving anything.
There is really only one way to move a large armoured military force over distance and that is by train and this is what they started to do on Sunday. Which is when and why the Russians launched missile strikes at the Ukrainian power stations, blacking out most of the East of the Country. This also knocked out the Rail network, which is also electrified, leaving military trains stuck out in the open and the fuel trains stuck in the West.

Russian aviation has spend a lot of time today hunting these powerless trains and there have been; by all accounts, a lot of attacks.

The attacks on the Power Stations is a major departure from the rules of engagement of the the SMO, enforced over the last few months and this is line with a huge amount of comment about the Russians being about to upgrade the legal status of the SMO to anti Terrorist Operation. This would give the Russian military the legal position from the Russian Government to attack critical Civilian Infrastructure and of course the leadership of Ukraine.

There has been a lot of anger in Russia itself over the Tactical Retreat in Kherson, despite it having been executed well enough. Many Russians want to know why the that front was so poorly manned that such a retreat was necessary. Public opinion in Russia is now firmly behind escalating the conflict and providing sufficient manpower to bring it rapidly to a close.
Whether by accident or design, the Russian government can now do this in response to public opinion and not; as Western MSM would wish us to believe, in spite of it.

[Barry]

There's plenty of news on Telegram channels. They are mostly partisan, so choose wisely which to view, or view several with different allegiances and become confused.