Russia Relying on 'Mass Over Quality' As Moscow Faces Rising Losses: UK

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published May 04, 2024 at 8:16 AM EDT


Russia's military has adapted to the high losses of troops on the battlefield in Ukraine and it is likely to continue its tactic of throwing troops forward during offensives until the end of the war, according to British military officials.

The term "meat grinder" is used to describe Russia's tactic of sending waves of often ill-trained and ill-equipped soldiers to wear down Ukrainian forces and expose their locations to Russian artillery. Using this method, Russia's gains have been incremental but its forces have built on momentum following the capture of Avdiivka in the Donetsk oblast, albeit at a huge cost.

According to Ukraine's latest figures released on Saturday, Russian forces suffered losses of more than 1,000 for the seventh day in a row, with the 1,260 casualties of both killed and wounded taking the war's total to 473,400.

While an accurate count of Russian personnel losses is tricky to calculate, it is not far off the 465,000 estimate given on Saturday by the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD) which said casualties will increase again in May and June amid renewed offensive operations in the east of Ukraine. This follows "a slight decrease in the pace of operations" over the last two months, it added.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-mod-losses-1897297

[JoseBalow]

1. This has been the traditional Russian strategy for centuries

Throw your numbers into the fight, then scorch the earth when you retreat.

[paleotn]

3. Yep. If anything, they're true to form.

[GB_RN]

4. "Join Russian Army..."

We invented Zerg Rush! See Ukraine, join Zerg waves!

Gotta say this with a Russian accent.😁

[Layzeebeaver]

18. this the first ZERG reference I've seen

Well Played!!!

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

30. World War Я

[2naSalit]

5. ...

Trademark of barbarians, I always thought.

[JoseBalow]

6. Semantics

[TheBlackAdder]

31. Hurry up spud, we need fresh meat for the grinder.

[Chainfire]

2. That is exactly the way that the pushed the Germans out of Russia.

It is certainly still in their game book. The problem that they might face is that in WWII they never ran short of volunteers to fight for the Motherland and Stalin to throw the Germans out of their country. The Russian men probably are as keen to fight for Putin in a land grab. They know who benefits from taking Ukraine and it sure as hell ain't them.

[LiberalArkie]

23. I believe they had the same problem in Afghanistan, didn't they. Moral back home caught up to what they

were doing?

[Salviati]

29. Another problem with that strategy is that they're still paying for it from WWII

That strategy killed so many russian men in WWII that they're still seeing echoes of it now in the demographics. Every 25 years or so there is a drastic decline in the birth rates, There's currently one going on about now, and there was one going on during the generation that is currently about 18-30, so just about the right age range to be drawing from for their military now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia

[Warpy]

7. I wonder which soulless and brain dead propagandist came up with that one

The translation is that they're now down to hardware they made back in the 60s that they're rushing into service, rust and all, if it can develop any forward motion and has a gun that will fire once or twice before it blows up.

They're rushing green kids into the front who barely know which end the bullet comes out of, not that they have many to fire.

The 'stands, which have been ordered to sell all their exports to Russia after spending years developing their own markets are going to be in no mood to comply, especially since Russia will want to pay in hastily printed rubles.

And with a generation of men slaughtered in a useless war, I don't see how they're going to recover, certainly not soon and not without the next generation being a lot browner than they'd like.

(You'll have to excuse me, I clicked on a video of a Russian soldier heading to the front acrsoss captured land and it took me a minute to realize those weren't downed trees I was looking at)

[GB_RN]

8. Think I Saw That One...

Or one very much like it in the last couple of weeks. The guy’s walking around, shattered dead trees litter what used to be a tree line between fields. As he walks, he pans his camera around, and you start making out the bodies of what were his comrades, their tan fatigues kinda blending in with the shattered wood. And you see dozens, if not closer to 100 bodies.
This guy was speaking as he walked around and the Russian was translated and subtitled into the video. He is complaining about the number men from his unit, laying on ground. Says it’s a message to anyone thinking of signing up for the rubles. Unspoken in that message, your family might get some money, but you won’t be here to spend it.

Have to wonder how long that guy lived after posting the video. After all, it’s a crime to disparage the “Special Military Operation”, the military itself, Putin, etc., etc.

OK, I might have tossed in Putin without it actually being true, but, like our own Cantaloupe Caligula, we all know he has very thin skin. And those who slight him have a tendency to fall out windows, drink polonium tea, come into contact with Novichok, or have their planes just fall out of the sky. But those were all “natural deaths!”🙄

[Warpy]

9. Another one I saw

was some village functionary presenting a dead soldier's parents with 500 rubles. That's just a little over five bucks these days!

I have to wonder what the original sum was supposed to be that he trousered because his kids in London say their underground swimming pool needs to be relined this year.

[HandmaidsTaleUntold]

10. Wow They Hate Their Own People

And they must keep them down by keeping them dumb and uneducated. That’s what Trumplestilscin wants here. Mindless dumb dumbs as cult followers.

[Aussie105]

11. No way to run a country . . .

Putin's death wish is less and less likely to be shared by the people of Russia.
Only a matter of time before Russia runs out of man power and weapons.

Russia is ready for a rethink and a rebirth, but not while Putin is around.
Or those who enable him.

Who will help rebuild Russia once this futile war is over?
Not the West.
Ukraine will get help from the West in rebuilding, Russia will not.

[oldsoftie]

22. But russia wont run out of men before UKR does. Thats the problem.

And getting rid of Putin may not help much; I've read that his #2 is as bad or worse.
But let me add; I still want to see Putin in the GROUND

[IronLionZion]

12. All that death and destruction for what?

what a waste

[oldsoftie]

21. Putin's ego. And the ego of the Russian nationalists. nt

[AZLD4Candidate]

13. Old Chinese military tactic. . .you'll run out of ammo before we run out of people.

Worked in ancient wars with swords and arrows, but not with bomb and bullets.

[blue-wave]

14. Putin and his

cronies care not about anyone or anything except money and power. They are destroying not only Ukraine, but Ruzzia in the process.

[SalamanderSleeps]

15. It's simple, Pooty said, he'd be taking over Ukraine by chasing out the Nazis in 3 days.

Never start a land war in Asia cuts both ways.

He plays 3 dimensional chess like a sophomore with his balls on fire.

[DFW]

16. Too bad Putin isn't suffereing the same consequences Nikolai II did after a similar performance in World War I

One can still hope..........

[SalamanderSleeps]

17. There are open windows everywhere.

Let's hope for just one righteous finger between his shoulder blades.

Turnabout is fair play if you are an asshole.

[Botany]

19. And the Russian Troops will die, or get severely wounded, or will surrender by the tens of thousands

Anyplace the Russian Troops assemble has been or will be a target for Ukrainian forces
and their allies. They have to kill those Russians by the train load until the troops and
or the people of Russia raise up and take care of Putin.

[oldsoftie]

20. All authoritarian militaries fight this way; commies, dictators, Islamists, you name it

NONE of them have any regard for their troops or populations. Iran did it against Iraq, China against the Allies in. Korea, Vietnam, etc
Is there a magic number for russia where people start to revolt? Mass surrenders? This isnt WW2; the troops know what's going on these days.

[orangecrush]

34. ...

[oldsoftie]

36. I'd LOVE to see some of those fields now.

Although russia has cratered practically EVERY field

[orangecrush]

37. The fields of France

Look pretty good today.

Though there are still a lot of places one can't go.

[KG]

24. anybody really paying attention to the russian military since the soviet collapse knew they were a paper tiger.

years ago stumbled across things about the invasion of Chechnya and the hammering the army took in Grozny and elsewhere.

I wasn't surprised at all when the Ukrainians handed them their asses during the invasion. putin thought he still had the Red army.

[BobTheSubgenius]

26. In a way, he does.

Horrible planning and mismanagement, hopefully (for them) overcome by as many warm bodies as they have. In some ways, Putin doesn't even have that army. At least Soviet-era armies remembered to bring fuel and food.

Recently, I watched a report that was talking about the Russian throwing T-55 tanks into battle. T-55 tanks were built just before the start of the Cold War. Front line equipment that is decades old???

That "paper" was left out in the rain too long.

[BobTheSubgenius]

25. Stalin summed up the Russian approach very succinctly.

"Quantity has a quality all its own."

A glimpse into that ethos was shown in stark detail in a war movie - Enemy At The Gate I believe. A Russian infantry charge ran full tilt into blistering enemy fire, but only the front ranks had rifles. When one of those fell, a soldier in one of the following ranks would pick up the dead soldier's rifle and continue the charge.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

27. The Russian losses are staggering

Link to tweet

[malthaussen]

28. When have they not? n/t

[CarolinaNC]

32. What happened back in an earlier time when men were leaving Russia so they wouldn't be sent to Ukraine?

[orangecrush]

33. Sunflowers

Have to eat too.

[orangecrush]

35. In a mood for memes

[maxsolomon]

38. the Republican congress has facilitated Russia's advances but holding out on funding.

this war will leave both nations scarred for generations. despite the cost to Russia in personnel, Ukraine is being systematically destroyed as an economic entity. it's lost steel plants, vast farmlands, hydroelectric dams, a nuclear power plant.

it needs to end, Ukraine needs to escape Russia's orbit, and it's not going to do so without territorial concessions. retaking all the lost territory in grinding artillery battles would take years, and Ukraine doesn't have personnel for years.

does Russia have enough cannon fodder to keep up this strategy? probably.

[BumRushDaShow]

39. "does Russia have enough cannon fodder to keep up this strategy? probably. "

A lot of their native-born left the country or were slaughtered, which is why they have been bribing cannon fodder potentials from other countries like Cuba and India, to fill in as part of a spectacular bait and switch.

[Xolodno]

40. Quantity is a quality of its own.

- Joesph Stalin

With that said, I'm a bit skeptical about the casualty numbers coming out from our side, as they say, the truth is always the first casualty of war.

But using mass forces to subdue your foe has been a high success rate for them for centuries. Where it failed?

Afghanistan...but we had something to do with that, and the government actually lasted a lot longer than when we left. Irony, they are now working with the new government.

WW1...there was an inept and criminal Tsar, with inept and criminal Nobility and a Revolution that was brewing for decades.

Russo-Japanese war...Imperial Japan was practically broken, but, Russian Nobility no longer thought the cost was worth it and forced the Tsar to end it. During WW2, when Japan initiated some skirmishes with the USSR to test them, they got their asses handed to them...by the "B" team.

Iran/Persia...They fought like cats and dogs it seems like forever. Now they are allies, just wow.

Ottoman Empire (which is mostly Turkey now)...on friendly terms, so much so, they sold the Armenians, a traditional ally down the river. Another, "just wow".