Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Those T62s are still capable of killing soldiers Ukraine can't afford to lose.

[Berkut]

I am pretty sure the Russians didn't have T-55s in WW2.

[Josquius]

There are pictures of Russian T-62s going to the front. A 1960s upgrade of a WWII T-55.

Sure, modernised and improved, but the W40K feeling of the Russian army increases a lot.

Heh, I just saw the pictures. 

I suppose they will go to the DPR/LPR chaps, which they always give crap to. It would be a nightmare to integrate them in their existing units - T-62s have 4-men crews (no autoloader), and their gun is of a different caliber.

I assume they'll have been upgraded to fix these flaws?

[The Minsky Moment]

I assume they'll have been upgraded to fix these flaws?

I would make no such assumption.

[Admiral Yi]

I assume they'll have been upgraded to fix these flaws?

The lack of an arm-eater is not necessarily a flaw.

[celedhring]

Those T62s are still capable of killing soldiers Ukraine can't afford to lose.

If they're starting to equip units with T-62s then it looks like Russia can't afford to lose stuff, either. Again, the only way this looks "good" is if they're giving them to the separatist militias - they have shown time and time that they don't want to give them good equipment.

Also they've just raised the maximum age for contract soldiers from 40 to 65, so they're not that good in the manpower front themselves (and the fact they keep trying to avoid doing any kind of open mobilization is telling).

[Threviel]

I am pretty sure the Russians didn't have T-55s in WW2.

The first T-54 prototype was built in '45 and serial production started in '46. You are entirely correct, I forgot the word era in my T-62 post.

That's not entirely fair, by the 60s everyone still built tanks derived and upgraded from from WWII era designs.

It would be like the UK had to start using Centurions again.

[mongers]

I am pretty sure the Russians didn't have T-55s in WW2.

The first T-54 prototype was built in '45 and serial production started in '46. You are entirely correct, I forgot the word era in my T-62 post.

That's not entirely fair, by the 60s everyone still built tanks derived and upgraded from from WWII era designs.

It would be like the UK had to start using Centurions again.

I could get behind that, there are a few at Bovington here and some not so good condition ones on the ranges.

No doubt Sweden has a few doing service in community play centres and as wildlife refuges?

[Threviel]

We used Centurions until the early 90s, I think that there are still some Centurion based engineering vehicles around.

The tanks are where they belong, in museums.

[DGuller]

All the mockery of tank variants aside, it appears that the military situation is not developing to Ukraine's advantage at the moment.  Ukrainians are openly admitting that things are grim in Donbas and they're suffering heavy casualties.  Hopefully it's not a start of a trend of Russians becoming less stupid.

[Josquius]

All the mockery of tank variants aside, it appears that the military situation is not developing to Ukraine's advantage at the moment.  Ukrainians are openly admitting that things are grim in Donbas and they're suffering heavy casualties.  Hopefully it's not a start of a trend of Russians becoming less stupid.

Knowing Ukraine it could also fingers crossed be a troll to get the Russians to do something stupid.

[Berkut]

War is an amazing teacher. If Russia keeps fighting, they will by necessity get better at it.

[Barrister]

Given how catastrophically bad the initial Russian invasion went at first, they couldn't help but improve as time went on.

And Ukraine is still short on a lot of supplies.  The US Lend-Lease supplies haven't started arriving yet (earlier announced supplies have).

[celedhring]

All the mockery of tank variants aside, it appears that the military situation is not developing to Ukraine's advantage at the moment.  Ukrainians are openly admitting that things are grim in Donbas and they're suffering heavy casualties.  Hopefully it's not a start of a trend of Russians becoming less stupid.

Yet in order to do so they have had to downsize the Donbass operation - which now seems limited to the Severodonetsk salient rather than cutting off the entire region. I think this is going to be their high watermark.

That said, I'm not optimistic the Ukrainians have the ability to kick them out of what they currently occupy, outside of limited operations like the one around Kharkiv - this is headed towards a stalemate in the short/mid term.

[Legbiter]

Given how catastrophically bad the initial Russian invasion went at first, they couldn't help but improve as time went on.

And Ukraine is still short on a lot of supplies.  The US Lend-Lease supplies haven't started arriving yet (earlier announced supplies have).

Yeah the Russians are finally fighting the kind of war one was expecting on day 1. With sufficient logistics even. The Ukrainians will have to do defense in depth, whittle the Russian mass down and hope to retake ceded areas later.