There are multiple reliable reports of Ukraine retaking formerly Russian occupied territory due to the Starlink cutoff.

https://united24media.com/latest-new...sia-hard-15971

Basically, this rolled back about 77 square miles of Russian advance, much of which Russia captured back in toast summer in an area that was sparsely settled, with few cities, and relatively difficult to defend. It was mostly open territory except for Hulaipole but even it - a city with a prewar population of 19,000 but now down to about 12,000 was sparsely defended.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/w...uliaipole.html

What is clear is that open country is now harder to defend by either side in the era of drone warfare - especially when one sides drones become suddenly inoperable.

 

Artillery platforms aren’t in constant use because they sound cool. Precise and devastating, they’re adaptable to several payload options, extended range and guidance kits. Drones are hot items of course. A predator wing or two wouldn’t hurt. There’s some 2000 Starlink sats zooming along in low orbit these days. Won’t take long before Ivan’s bootstrapped a means to restore service or disrupt the whole thing. Let’s see if faithful nato friends can recall Budapest ‘56 & Bratislava ‘68 long enough to do the right thing next week as the pipeline remains shut.

 

A Ukrainian soldier’s story: years of war and fading hope

Kostiantyn Honcharov
4 hours ago4 hours agoFormer DW correspondent Kostiantyn Honcharov joined the Ukrainian army in 2022. He describes the grim front-line situation after four years of fighting.

https://www.dw.com/en/a-ukrainian-so...ing/a-76049822


an excerpt:

 

Signals are far from encouraging. To the point Euro powerbrokers are likely bracing themselves for Kiev’s offensive collapse and how best to mitigate a fresh flood of refugees. Betting as well Ukraine’s occupation should at least create some leverage bargaining reconstruction business & discounted energy contracts with old partners at Russian consortium Gazprom.

 

I remember a while back there were multiple reports of the "cities" that were taken back by Ukraine. When all there were were small villages. Good for morale and PR, tactically/strategically, meh......

Quote:

Originally Posted by Excargodog

Problems facing Ukrainian forces

Apples to oranges, but semi applicable;

In WW2, on the Eastern front, German troops were just dropping dead randomly. To the point it was drawing attention, so a team of pathologists was sent to try and investigate. It was physical fatigue/stress/exhaustion. Their hearts were found to be about 2/3 the size of what they should have been, as well as mis-colored.

Granted, what we know now, it could be partially attributed to stimulants, as well the malnutrition and the physical aspect, etc.

But any way you slice it, 4 years of constant combat is going to take a toll......

 

Depressing. Grim harbinger of things to come.

 

Don’t assume it’s not happening:

https://www.lvivherald.com/post/amph...ers-in-ukraine

Nor should we be ‘holier-than-thou” about such use:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7661838/

 

Indeed. Would be interesting to see how many Ukrainian soldiers are STILL left that have been fighting for fours years straight now.

Nevermind that the average age of a Ukrainian soldier had INCREASED by as much at 10 years according to some.

Never did.

Never was. It’s not like “go pills” were ever a secret.

It’s been a “thing” among warriors forever.

DARPA, and I’m sure others were doing studies on things like quercetin before anybody knew what the hell it was.

My dad spent most of his time in Vietnam pre 1965. Unconventional gun, unconventional uniform, and, for U.S. troops (seemingly), unconventional methods of staying awake/alert when out in the jungle for days/weeks at a time.

Supplied by Uncle Sam hizself……

 

true, but only one in 16 US citizens has military experience.

This article is about 8-9 months old but it’s increasingly relevant.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/articl...05/16/7455980/

The population pyramid of Ukraine (well, it’s SUPPOSED to be a pyramid, Ukraine’s is looking nore like a tree) is telling. While the article talks about the paucity of young males, the long term problem is the dearth of young females.

Ukraine population has been dropping since 1991 and there are now so few females of childbearing age or younger that further population decline and aging of the population is inevitable. Even if the fertility rate went up to 2.1-2.2 babies per woman, that would simply maintain a much reduced birth rate and a much smaller next generation with fewer young people of what most of us would consider military age. Nor is Russia in a much better situation except that they are starting from a baseline 4.5 times that of Ukraine.

Neither of these countries actually need more territory. Ukraine is 153 out of 245. countries in the world in population density. Russia is even worse at 228 out of 245. Yet both are sacrificing hundreds of thousands to this war.

if this goes on another few years both sides will have to field mobility scooters for their ancient troops.

 

Not sure what that has to do with the discussion (shrug).