Cold War 2 is definitely with us as a direct result of the Ukrainian problem.
Feanor I'm wondering if all of this excessive military posturing by Russia is in preparation for phase 2 of the ground war. Take a look:
That's not what the treaty does...
Driver was drunk apparently and a number of suspects have arrested and are in court, for instigating the riots in Konstantinovka.
Haven't heard anything un-concrete either. There were no major troop formations there at any point recently, only some squishy checkpoints. Though I suppose it would be clever for one or the other side to secretly relocate a significant unit over there and push hard and fast. But honestly, I've got no actual info.
Ok, thanks for reply.
They look like typical Russian strategic exercises. Just really big.
Russia doesn't have any airmobile brigades. Russia has para-assault brigades, that don't use IFVs. They use unarmored trucks and jeeps. Actually at least one Ukrainian airmobile brigade also used UAZ jeeps, and little else. Russia has para-drop divisions, that use IFVs. Namely the BMD-1/2/4. Some of the brigades had BMDs, some had trucks and jeeps, and once the fighting started they were given whatever was available, including BTRs, and more trucks.
Thanks Feanor. Apologies, I should have corrected myself.
Ukraine does not have para-drop or para-assault bdes. They have airmobile bdes.
Cheers again
Seperately, Looks like Ukraine is upgrading their stock of reserve T-72's (x300), to the Polish PT-91 MBT standard (NATO).
It's getting really weird and the names of units are less and less reflective of their contents and capabilities. I'm honestly doing my best to get some sort of clarity into the situation.Cheers again
Then why the distinction? Example 25th Airborne (and the recent 81st Airborne) vs. 79th Airmobile?
I think you mentioned the new 81st Bgde, as 'Para-Assault' originally, but your detailed response above, helps me understand a little more
As far as I can tell this is more of an idea, then a concrete plan. Given the hefty price tag, the large scale proposed, and the awful condition of Ukrainian T-72s, I don't think this is going to happen.
I don't know if Ukraine is going to resume the offensive, but it's looking more and more like fighting will resume. The Occupied Territories Law the Rada passed is a direct attempt to sabotage Minsk-2, and the list of cities and villages that get self-government under the Special Status law passed doesn't match the actual cities and villages under rebel control. As far as I can tell, they're intentionally keeping the conflict alive, instead of trying to wind it down. It doesn't help that the west seems to have placed the responsibility for maintaining Minsk-2 squarely on Moscow. It's slightly disconcerting that they're unwilling to consider that Kiev might be the one to break the agreement.
I know and appreciate all the detail you have provided. I was just doing a paper exercise and looking at capability-variance at the Bgde level.
Very true, I guess we will have to watch for further developments on this. Its quite possible there is another angle to this story, but that would be me speculating a little further than I want to for the moment.
The last Mi-6 flew in Ukraine 8 years ago. Now they're all retired. There's even a video of the last flight. There are Mi-26s in Ukraine, but how many can fly is unclear. Maybe none, since we haven't seen any used in this conflict. Wikipedia says Ukraine inherited 22 of them, but they're all in storage.
Same as the idea of upgrading their T-72 fleet. Expensive, complicated, and rather unrealistic. The T-64 IFV project has been around for a little while. They have a hard time producing small batches of BTR-3/4s. They can't mass upgrade their T-64s under the very simple Bulat program, even though they did manage to upgrade iirc ~90 tanks during the Yanukovich era. How are they going to pull off the much more complicated task of re-manufacturing them into those IFVs?
Wiki numbers - as I'm sure you do - are always taken with caution.