Comments by "Aristocles Athenaioi" (@aristoclesathenaioi4939) on "Russia's Attempt to Surround Eastern Ukraine" video.

  1. There was another reason for the difficulty of crossing that river. The problem is mud as opposed to water. Amphibious may work in water, but mud is a different story.
    3
  2. The mayor of Kherson basically handed the keys of the city to the Russia. Therefore, the Russian could occupy Kherson without any losses
    1
  3. Here is a quote from your "Task & Purpose" web site: How Ukraine is using artillery to stop Russian forces in their tracks Another reason why artillery has proven to be so deadly in this war is the terrain itself. The Donets Basin, known as the Donbas, is defined by rivers that feed into a spiderweb of tributaries and ravines, which are all very difficult for tanks to cross, said retired Army Col. David Glantz, a military historian and an expert on the Red Army during World War II. Not only do tanks have to cross those water obstacles, but the ravines and gullies provide natural cover for anti-tank guns, and because Ukraine is typically very flat, gunners can see enemy tanks from great distances, Glantz told Task & Purpose. This terrain contributed to the horrendous losses the Red Army sustained during their three attempts to recapture the Donbas from the Germans in 1943. Glantz said he recently reviewed a survey of Red Army commanders taken in 1943 as part of his research for a book he is writing about the fighting in the Donbas, during which a Soviet tank corps would generally lose about 120 of its 200 tanks within a week “Universally, the commanders of those tank and mechanized corps tasked with breaking into the Donbas literally curse in their reports the balkas [ravines] and the ovrags [gullies] – basically, the terrain that makes using tanks very difficult in terms of where they can move because crossing the darn things is a task. It requires bridging in many cases.” The Red Army finally took the Donbas in 1943 through attrition. Their tank forces suffered heavy losses but the Germans could not withstand the sheer number of armies that the Soviets threw at them, he said. “I call the Donbas a graveyard for Soviet armor,” Glantz said. Nearly 80 years later, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces appear to be faring little better. The combination of difficult terrain and excellent Ukrainian gunners have turned the Donbas region into a killing ground, and the hard-learned lessons from the last time Russian forces fought there, appear to have been forgotten.
    1