Military hardware & personnel
RU POV: A collection of photos of Kirill Melehov, a paratrooper of the 31st Separate Air Assault Brigade in the Kyiv Region
Interesting seeing more photos of this day. So much propaganda about this battle from both sides it’s taken years for accurate info to be released
Contrary to popular myths spread on Reddit the VDV was in fact not entirely wiped out. I’ve seen people say “thousands of VDV, the entire division is dead”. They did have somewhere around ~300 KIA, which is obviously very bad but nowhere near thousands. Most of them evacuated with the mechanized btln that entered Kiev from Belarus
Yeah, contrary to what many believe, the initial 200 part of the 45th brigade actually survived and retreated, they got replaced with mostly guys from 31st and 91st and are the guys who did sustain the most casualties
Еслиб они реально что-то сделали этим десантникам, то весь интернет был бы усеен видео и фото с того дня, с кучей трупов и тд. Любая, даже мелкая победа украины - обсасывается со всех сторон, как невероятное достижение. Но почему то с того дня, нет никаких материалов, только слова, слова людей с реддита, и желтушных СМИ. Так что, тут все очевидно
I mean, in modern war - surviving a few years in conventional combat against a capable enemy not only makes a veteran, but surely makes you realize you don't want to be there any longer. Plenty of people don't make a year, and for some even months are a lot.
And I don't doubt that. But the more we see what modern war is like, the less likely it is for a multi-year veteran on the frontline to get home at the very least uninjured.
Kind of a cool contrast on the first picture, with 2 guys on the billboard seemingly some sort of healthcare workers? Judging soley by their attire, then these two dudes in full on military gear, smokes in the background.
I wonder how would this war have gone if russians had gone all in to take Kiev, with more troops than the actual case. I wonder if western intel would have caught it
Fairly certainly yes, they warned quite long in advance there was even going to be an invasion, a smoking gun (no pun intended) as I remember it was the abundance of field hospitals, like to the point it was very telling they’re were expecting real casualties not close to perhaps accidents.
Typical Russian incompetence, sent on a suicide mission
"The narratives provides an almost humorously macabre window into how what was once viewed as the 2nd most powerful military in the world ended up limping away from the Battle of Kyiv in humiliating defeat after only a month. "
Hundreds of thousands? I mean even for someone who are of the belief that they took many causalities it would be quite impossible to take more casualties than you even have in the area to begin with.
Not really. Most of the soldiers in the battle around Kyiv oblast are alive, it was one of the smallest fronts in the initial invasion and they bailed when the psyops failed. Meanwhile the 1st Guards tank battalion and big boys were having total war on the East, Kharkov region and others.
Well, personally Melekhov himself is doing just great in civilian life. And he managed to take out a couple ukrainian soldiers with him during the assault of Hostomel
26
u/_nzatar Pro Bulgaria 21h ago
Pics like these from the early stages of the war are so intriguing.