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More Russian stuff blowing up, plus a harrowing tale of Russian captivity [1]

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Date: 2023-08-18  

Interesting, a bit long, post here from Russian Colonel Shuvalov discussing the effect of the Ukrainian cluster munitions and how the Russian equivalents are not nearly as good if exist at all, showing how Shoygu's threats are empty. (source: https://t.co/Bburalklwy ): "And again… pic.twitter.com/VicMjWwC1r

It is impossible not to take into account the factor of modern Western cluster munitions - they shamelessly mow down both fighters at the front (not only at the front) and civilian infrastructure in the rear.

Civil infrastructure is a separate topic. Recently, there was an arrival in Tokmak, which terribly slashed trucks and drivers. The Defense Ministry decided not to focus on this, because there was a risk of reciprocal publication of data from the enemy with arguments that the civilian targets were not quite simple and not very civilian.

But there were comrades in the camp of military correspondents who unleashed their anger towards the vile NATO members on the heads of readers, and attached videos as proof. This is something the enemy might not have had. And now the enemy can quite boldly show that the goals were legal from a military point of view. And all by our hands.

We had to throw all our efforts into blocking the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine: to declare that we would not use such munitions, to tear apart the Europeans, who have cluster munitions banned. There was a chance. But they played us, we happily fell for it and declared that we had these clusters munitions, whole landfills of them, not just stockpiles.

Yes, we have many. You can search for photos. For the most part, it’s an illiquid asset killed by time, the rest - is morally and technically obsolete. And things are not very good with carriers either.

Now you can’t roll back the situation, and when you are caught being weak, it’s silly to try and scare them. The General Staff already understands this, but they cannot bring the situation even higher, there is no solution. The guys on the front line are taking the beating, and it's not easy at all. In the context of problems with medicine, wounds from cluster munitions often result in death, and this is a very painful and terrible death. The enemy has learned (yes, imagine, they are also learning!) to cut off the path of reinforcements or withdrawal of forces with artillery, and trenches do not save from cluster munitions. You can’t save yourself with a bandage or a tourniquet, after being hit with cluster munitions you need solid medical care, if you managed to survive.

In the trenches, a terrible mess is formed from the living and the dying, who are sometimes completely impossible to help.

In such cases, the enemy methodically waits for those of our forces that rush to help their comrades. I saw all this in Chechnya, when a sniper left a wounded man to pull other guys to him. This happened in single occasions, but with cluster munitions, everything is the same, but scaled tens and hundreds of times. We need counter-battery fire, but it is not there. We need a lot of things, but first of all, need to finally admit the problem exists and start solving it, and not throw around the words like “we’re going to smash you!”

It is not some colonel in a hospital bed that is yelling about the cluster munitioins - the voices of hundreds of guys dying in terrible agony in the trenches and the widows of hundreds killed by them in just these couple of weeks are shouting to you about these problems. And I specifically do not specify whether there are really hundreds, or already thousands - we will not please the enemy with statistics.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/18/2188089/-More-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-plus-a-harrowing-tale-of-Russian-captivity

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