Reinforced concrete shelters will be installed across the Kursk region, local Russian authorities announced Thursday as Ukraine keeps up its daring attack on Moscow’s territory.

“Today we began to install reinforced concrete shelters in Kursk. On my instructions, the Kursk city administration identified key points for placing concrete modular shelters in crowded places,” Aleksey Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, said in a statement.

Ukraine’s surprise cross-border incursion earlier this month caught the Russians on the hop, and Kyiv’s forces have expanded their offensive, capturing more towns and territory with little resistance.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    4 months ago

    Not too long ago, a Tankie demanded I find a quote of Putin saying the three days thing. As if he had to say it in some sort of press conference for pretty much the entire military leadership of Russia to say similar shit.

    • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      Putin technically never said it. Just a lot of his allies and media people did.

      Not that it really matters in the end. Russia was quite sure to take the country in less than a week and failed misserably

      • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        To be fair, I listened to a lot of military analysts that studied the first few days of the war and Russia was really fucking close to decapitating Kyiv. Ukraine just came in clutch in the crucial moments, Zelensky survived multiple assasination attempts, Ukranian forces prevented the taking of the Hostomel airport, and Ukranian forces were forward deployed (without having being given orders) prevented attacks into the city. Any one of those failed and Russia could have actually taken Kyiv in a couple weeks.

        • rammer@sopuli.xyz
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          4 months ago

          The best story I read about the defence of Hostomel was that UAF was handing out weapons to civilians in order to defend the airport.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          They were not that close, they just drove in from Belarus and dropped some paratroopers with no support. That’s a good strategy for losing your best troops.

          They also didn’t use a few days of bombing to soften up the targets. Ukraine was surprised but all of their equipment was intact. That’s like number one in any attack plan.

          They basically underestimated the Ukrainians and thought they would just run away. Those paratroopers were very good but they are only scary to local police, not to a trained military. Without heavy support, they were sitting ducks at the airport.

        • suction@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I’d be careful with these analysts, they’re mainly in the self-promoting business so they make up the most dramatic stories to sell themselves to the media.

          • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Michale Kaufman, Dimitri Alperovich, both people who have visited the front and are in contact with Ukraine officials. Center for Urban Warfare Studies, run by someone in the army. And veterans who were there. They are not random youtubers.

        • WhyFlip@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Is it safe to say that Zelensky is a total badass at this point? (And throughout the past 3 years)

      • ours@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        And it’s also a famously common mistake. WWI initially had a bunch of countries happily go to a quick and decisive little war.

        • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          Hell I remember Cheney (or was it rumsfelt) in 2003 talking about how Iraq would be ready for America to pull out within a year.

      • vxx@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Nah, there’s leaked emails of FSB feeding Putin the info that they could take Kyiv in 3 days.

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Didn’t they March in with victory day parade attire in their backpacks instead of a second round of ammunition, or rations?

      Said or unsaid, even if the war was going exactly as planned, it’s a shit war that’s executed poorly and will destroy the Russian economy and likely end up losing everything they took, even Crimea.

    • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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      4 months ago

      If all the joint chiefs and secretaries of [thing] said “we will be marching in Ottowa in 3 days” it really doesn’t matter if the president said it. Because even if he hasn’t said it in a press conference to the world, he most certainly agrees with the people who DO think it’s a slam dunk.

      I’m sure anything you said or linked would have been met with “that’s western propaganda” like they’re not shaking hands with MAGAts screeching fake news at things they don’t like.

    • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Show me where the entire Russian military leadership was saying similar shit.