5 ms·
> he Russian forces have enough firepower to level cities to the ground, but they have orders to minimize damage if possible How do you square that with the ma
by sofixa 5y ago
> he Russian forces have enough firepower to level cities to the ground, but they have orders to minimize damage if possible
How do you square that with the mass destruction of Ukrainian cities, including by aircraft bombing? It seems to be a ridiculous assumption long debunked.
> Air supremacy is already achieved (almost all Ukrainian war planes and strike drones have been shot down), so it does not make much sense to patrol the air space too much, since operating a plane is far from being cheap
Nope, Ukrainian drones continue to inflict heavy damage - either directly or indirectly with targeting, just this past day there were direct strikes on a railway bridge, command post deep in Russian held territory, and an indirect one with artillery on Russian troops in a forest. Check out Oryx the blog or twitter account, they verify posts and retract errors if any are detected. Furthermore, Ukraine still operated fighters as of what, 2-3 says ago at the latest? Russia does not have air supremacy, only local air superiority.
- ithkuil 5y ago> How do you square that with the mass destruction of Ukrainian cities, including by aircraft bombing? It seems to be a ridiculous assumption long debunked. One way to square it is that the perception of what is "minimal" is vastly different in their minds. Mind you, they decided to attack a well armed sovereign country that was definitely not welcoming them, and they have a total control of their media, so they don't really care about achieving surgical precision. That doesn't mean they must then choose to level cities to the ground. It's not a binary choice.
- fuoqi 5y ago>How do you square that with the mass destruction of Ukrainian cities, including by aircraft bombing? You can compare this "mass destruction" with the Grozny's state after the second Chechen war or, if you want a more recent example, with Mosul and Hudaydah.
- jacquesm 5y agoYou missed the 'after' bit in your own comment.
- hkpack 5y agoIt is not that different. Look up for example photos from Mariupol or Kharkiv and see for yourself. Smaller cities are being destroyed even more. City of Volnovaha for example is destroyed to the ground. The biggest difference is that the cities are much bigger, so it takes more time to completely level them.
- ashwagary 5y agoYou do realize all of this makes a lot more sense if you grant the Russian army one simple thing, that they actually aren't interested in harming civilians in the grand scheme of this operation. Constant aerial bombardment and complete immediate domination would massively increase the civilian casualty count and its clear from Crimea, Odessa, and other cities in the Donbas region, that Russians have a large Ukrainian support base that are anti-banderite and consider Zelensky's cooperation with Nazi groups a betrayal. Btw, applying Occam's razor here does not automatically make one a Putin supporter regardless of what some western media outlets might claim. Sad that many smart people voluntarily or involuntarily turn their brains off when jingoism is back in vogue.
- stavros 5y ago> You do realize all of this makes a lot more sense if you grant the Russian army one simple thing, that they actually aren't interested in harming civilians in the grand scheme of this operation. For someone not interested in harming civilians, they're doing an amazing job at it. > Btw, applying Occam's razor here does not automatically make one a Putin supporter Certainly not, but applying Occam's Razor to such a trivially debunked argument might?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dotancohen 5y ago> For someone not interested in harming civilians, they're doing an amazing job at it. I suspect that you have little reference about how many civilians are killed during conflicts. If Russia really wanted to kill civilians you would see tens of thousands of dead civilians already.
- stavros 5y agoI mean, they have nukes, if they really wanted to kill civilians I'd see the entire Ukraine population dead. It's a gradient, not a binary, isn't it.