Can’t find any English reports yet, but Ukraine claims that a Battle Tactical Group of Russia’s 70th Motorized rifle regiment of the 42th Guards Motorized Rifle Division have been annihilated in Donetsk.
Most of the members of the BTG were from the Caucasus and have participated in Syria. The commander and his chief of staff were killed in their BMP-3.
I heard an interview in which the US military guy explained how the Ukrainians are doing this (yes, there’s a strategy). As an example, Russia has these long convoys. They take out the first tank or truck and the convoy comes to a halt. The Russian military is very top-down so nobody does anything until somebody with authority goes to the front of the convoy to tell everybody what to do. The snipers then do their work.
It was something like this. If this is correct, what f(*&ing idiots the Russians are.
I’ve heard that the commanders are close to the action because of how they operate, but going to the front of a convoy seems to be too much of a risk taking.
Another theory I have heard is that one reason for the alleged brutality of Russian soldiers is that they are treated very badly by their superiors themselves (including being raped). But that is, of course, highly speculative. Sucks to be a Russian foot soldier or tank operator, for sure.
But to add a bit except for a silly screenshot, here is a bit about how the Ukrainians overcame this Soviet era stupidity which was prevalent in both RU and UKR:
the reality of the russian soldiers and their brutality comes from the fact that Putin’s military operates in the way of siphoning man power from Russia’s poorest areas. These guys fighting for Russia are generally damn poor as hell, some even stated they are willing to take the risk just for 50usd a month. These aren’t the educated people from st.petetersburg or Moscow.
Long story short, these are your redneck, hillbilly ass mother fuckers who according to my Russian friend from Vladivostok claims barely have an elementary school degree. These guys are robbing old ass tube tvs like its a fashion statement.
Now I feel a story coming on, I guess the way normal people feel a dump coming on.
Back in 1972, when I was with Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, I was on this boat on the sea, and there was this African-American Sergeant in charge of me and a bunch of other people. This man was a Vietnam combat infantry veteran,* and an up-front sort of person, and I admired him a lot. (Originally he was my platoon sergeant, but he got bumped down to being my section leader when a Sergeant who was senior to him joined our company). One day, this Sergeant said something to a young African-American man of lesser rank, something that was well within the scope of the Sergeant’s duties and rights, i. e., that he had an official right to say. But it didn’t sit well with the young man, and the young man said, “You know, some people around here like to hide behind their stripes.” To this statement the Sergeant smiled and calmly replied, “Oh, I’ll take these stripes off if you like. Back home in Compton, fightin’ was my bag.”
And that young fellow had nothing to say after that.
I was only eighteen, and not knowledgeable about these kinds of things, but because of the effect that that name had had on that young man (plus the offer of removing the stripes), I remember thinking, “Damn, that Compton must be a badass place.”
*I didn’t go to Vietnam, and I’ve never been in combat.
The Biden administration is vigorously debating how much the United States can or should assist an investigation into Russian atrocities in Ukraine by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations. . . .
But laws from 1999 and 2002, enacted by lawmakers wary that the court might investigate Americans, limit the government’s ability to provide support. And the United States has long objected to any exercise of jurisdiction by the court over citizens of countries that are not part of the treaty that created it — like the United States, but also Russia.
The memo also analyzes a 2002 law, the American Servicemembers Protection Act. It bars giving the court other kinds of support — like sharing intelligence, training its staff or lending it personnel. The memo concludes that the United States cannot offer general institutional support, but can provide such help for “particular cases.”
Unlike the funding ban, the 2002 law permits “rendering assistance to international efforts to bring to justice” a list of offenders from that era, like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, along with any other foreign citizens who are accused of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Pentagon officials, however, are said to be balking. They contended that moving to a case-by-case approach would be shortsighted because it would make it harder for the United States to argue against court investigations into potential war crimes by American forces, officials said. . . .