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Lt Col Charlie Brown
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This brought Jed to the second subject he wanted to discuss: Russian tactics and doctrine. He said he had spent much of the past few weeks in the trenches northwest of Kyiv. “The Russians have no imagination,” he said. “They would shell our positions, attack in large formations, and when their assaults failed, do it all over again. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians would raid the Russian lines in small groups night after night, wearing them down.” Jed’s observation echoed a conversation I’d had the day before with Andriy Zagorodnyuk. After Russia’s invasion of the Donbas in 2014, Zagorodnyuk oversaw a number of reforms to the Ukrainian military that are now bearing fruit, chief among them changes in Ukraine’s military doctrine; then, from 2019 to 2020, he served as minister of defense.
(I've heard this from a number of different sources)
“Our motivation—it is the most important factor, more important than anything. We’re fighting for the lives of our families, for our people, and for our homes. The Russians don’t have any of that, and there’s nowhere they can go to get it.”
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SGT Unit Supply Specialist
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PO2 Marco Monsalve
"A few nights ago in Lviv, after an early dinner (restaurants shut at 8 p.m. because of curfew), I stepped into the elevator of my hotel. I was chatting with a colleague when a man in early middle age, dressed and equipped like a backpacker, thrust his hand into the closing door. "You guys American?" he asked. I told him we were and, as he reached for the elevator button, I couldn't help but notice his dirty hands and the half-moons of filth beneath each fingernail. I also noticed his fleece. It had an eagle, a globe, and an anchor embossed on its left breast. "You a Marine?" I asked. He said he was (or had been--once a Marine, always a Marine), and I told him that I'd served in the Marines too.

He introduced himself (he's asked that I not use his name, so let's just call him Jed), and we did a quick swap of bona fides, exchanging the names of the units in which we'd both served as infantrymen a decade ago. Jed asked if I knew where he could get a cup of coffee, or at least a cup of tea. He had, after a 10-hour journey, only just arrived from Kyiv. He was tired and cold, and everything was closed.

A little cajoling convinced the hotel restaurant to boil Jed a pot of water and hand him a few tea bags. When I wished him a good night, he asked if I wanted some tea too. The way he asked--like a kid pleading for a last story before bed--persuaded me to stay a little while longer. He wanted someone to talk with.

As Jed sat across from me in the empty restaurant, with his shoulders hunched forward over the table and his palms cupped around the tea, he explained that since arriving in Ukraine at the end of February, he had been fighting as a volunteer along with a dozen other foreigners outside Kyiv. The past three weeks had marked him. When I asked how he was holding up, he said the combat had been more intense than anything he'd witnessed in Afghanistan. He seemed conflicted, as if he wanted to talk about this experience, but not in terms that could turn emotional. Perhaps to guard against this, he began to discuss the technical aspects of what he'd seen, explaining in granular detail how the outmanned, outgunned Ukrainian military had fought the Russians to a standstill."...
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LTC Self Employed
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https://youtu.be/pkxbDwsJo38

Years ago, my belated father mentioned about Finland defending against Russia back in 1939. Here is a detailed story of how Finland made Russia pay for invading its territory.

Just like Finland in 1939, Ukraine in 2022 has the home turf advantage.

SGT (Join to see) Lt Col Charlie Brown
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SFC Senior Civil Engineer/Annuitant
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Very good historical video sir, I enjoyed it very much. I wish my father and grandparents spoke more of their work in Europe and the Pacific, especially some of my grandparents who immigrated. I know why they seemed to like their life here in America.
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