Diskussion om kriget i Ukraina, med deltagare - Discussion on war in Ukraine, with participant

adam7

Respected Leader
BAN
Olen TomTom:in kanssa keskustellut ja sopinut että avaamme säikeen jossa voimme keskustella Ukrainassa sodassa, Azov pataljoonassa taistelevan Carolus Löfroosin kanssa, joka on rekisteröitynyt foorumille nimimerkillä @Sinkomies.

Hän on Suomen kansalainen mutta hänen suomenkielen osaamisensa ei riitä keskusteluun suomeksi, joten tässä säikeessä keskustelemme joko ruotsiksi tai englanniksi.

Lue ystävällisesti ensin http://suomensotilas.fi/fi/artikkelit/dragsvikin-rannikkojääkäri-vapaaehtoisena-ukrainassa jottei ihan samoja asioita käydä läpi toiseen kertaan.

Ja tästä eteenpäin ruotsiksi tai englanniksi.
--------------------

I denna tråd kan vi diskutera vi med @Sinkomies (dvs Carolus Löfroos) som deltar i striderna i Ukraina i Azov bataljonen . Diskussionen går på svenska eller engelska.
Vänligen läs först http://suomensotilas.fi/fi/artikkelit/dragsvik-kustjägare-strider-i-ukraina så vi inte behöver ta precis samma frågor på nytt.


In this thread we are able to discuss with @Sinkomies (i.e. Carolus Löfroos) who participates in the war in Ukraine in the Azov batallion. The discussion will be conducted in Swedish or English.

--------------------

Välkommen @Sinkomies !

edit:namnet/name
 
Viimeksi muokattu:
Well, Ill start off and excuse my lack of finnish-speaking abilities. My mother is finnish, but we come from an small area close to Tammisaari where the Swedish language was, and still is the major spoken language. My mother speaks practicly no finnish, and some of my family who lives there speaks practicly none as well. I did manage to learn some finnish during my conscription, but since I rarely get to use it, having lived in Sweden most of my life, its been forgotten over the years.
And lets face it, your language isnt really the easiest to get a hang of ;)

At some point Ill try to get a hang of it again, but for now, English or Swedish is the only way to do this.

Any way, was asked if Id like to reg myself here, to answer questions and what not. Not sure exactly how much light I can shed on the situation in Ukraine, nor how much intresting information I can hand out, but Ill give it a try.

Name is Löfroos by the way, Adam.
 
Welcome to the forum, @Sinkomies . It might be useful to provide some pointers to your previous posts on various boards / fora that could be considered as a baseline, before you are drowned by a million repetitive questions.
 
Welcome to the forum, @Sinkomies . It might be useful to provide some pointers to your previous posts on various boards / fora that could be considered as a baseline, before you are drowned by a million repetitive questions.
Well, there isnt much really. Since I was about to be outed with different shit by people who dont know me/dont like me in Sweden, I wrote this short kind of presentation of me on the swedish forum flashback (in swedish), to have my own say on the nazi-matter, among other things before people started making up their own ideas on it.

Post: https://www.flashback.org/sp52126998
 
Well, Ill start off and excuse my lack of finnish-speaking abilities. My mother is finnish, but we come from an small area close to Tammisaari where the Swedish language was, and still is the major spoken language. My mother speaks practicly no finnish, and some of my family who lives there speaks practicly none as well. I did manage to learn some finnish during my conscription, but since I rarely get to use it, having lived in Sweden most of my life, its been forgotten over the years.
And lets face it, your language isnt really the easiest to get a hang of ;)

At some point Ill try to get a hang of it again, but for now, English or Swedish is the only way to do this.

Any way, was asked if Id like to reg myself here, to answer questions and what not. Not sure exactly how much light I can shed on the situation in Ukraine, nor how much intresting information I can hand out, but Ill give it a try.

Name is Löfroos by the way, Adam.

Welcome to the forum!:)

I'll start off with few short questions.

What's your own estimate of the share of Russian federation provided equipment on the separatist/terrorist side?

What do you think is the main reason for the separatist advance since last summer?

Your opinion on russian armour and any tips for stopping them in battle?

Thanks in advance for your answers!
 
Hi CL!

I don`t have any questions for You right now, but I wish all the best for You while hunting russians. And keep Your head down and stay safe!
 
Hello @Sinkomies ! We really appreciate the time you take to answer our questions.

One follow-up question to the answer you gave to Suomen sotilas -magazine. You mentioned that Finnish military training is pretty good, altough it could concentrate more on how to deal with indirect fire. If you have any concrete tips, practices and/or guidelines based on your real experiences, please share with us.

Best of luck to you out there!
 
Viimeksi muokattu:
What's your own estimate of the share of Russian federation provided equipment on the separatist/terrorist side?

Honestly, cannot say I know much more than from what you can read/see on the internet. Most of the heavies you see is also in use with the Ukrainian army, but there have been reports that for example captured T-64 tanks which have been checked though have had serialnumbers tracking them to russian depos. Same is probably true with many of the T-72s for example, especialy the newer ones.

Ive also gotten some reports from inside Russia about troopmovements down to Rostov (close to the U border) consisting of lots of manpower and equipment. This is of course no secret, and not any hard evidence of the russian involment itself. But, well, if you think about it..

What do you think is the main reason for the separatist advance since last summer?

Short answer; sudden, massive russian support. Look at a map of Ukraine and mark out the area controlled the LNR and DNR. That theese small "states" would be able to suddenly knock off the Ukrainian army like they did back then is quite unlikley at best.

The Ukrainian army, with both its military and political leadership, or lack of it rather, is of course also responsible for that debacle.

Your opinion on russian armour and any tips for stopping them in battle?

I myself have been fortunate enough not having to engage any tanks. But as we all know, as far as infantry goes, most of our AT-weapons are more for self-defence rather than offensive ones. And especially since most russian tanks are hoarding ERA-plates - strike the tracks, get the hell out of dodge and if possible let artillery do the rest.

There have been some use of IED's for this matter here as well. Some guys here blew a T-72 to kingdom come in August, but it was before I arrived so cant say much about it.

Thanks in advance for your answers!

No problem, hope it was helpful.
 
Hello @Sinkomies ! We really appreciate the time you take to answer our questions.

One follow-up question to the answer you gave to Suomen sotilas -magazine. You mentioned that Finnish military training is pretty good, altough it could concentrate more on how to deal with indirect fire. If you have any concrete tips, habits and/or guidelines based on your real experiences, please share with us.

Best of luck to you out there!

I dont know if it is just me, but I found it very good that we used real explosives to simulate indirect fire during several of our exercises. Its of course far from the real deal - but you get a taste for when the ground shakes, dust flies and everything. I think it prepared quite good for the artillery, at least to some extent. So more of that would be advisable in my opinion - and bigger. Get people as used to explosions going off around them as possible - just the general feeling of it.
 
Thanks for joining and providing the first-person experiences!

As you probably well know, there is strong international debate as to whether Ukraine should be provided with more weapons or not. The hesitation of course stems from not wanting to escalate the conflict to a direct confrontation between West and Russia. But how do you see the need for weapons and equipment and such? Does not Ukraine already have lot's of old arsenal? In what state are they? What items would be most needed? What do you think would be the impact of new weapons? Would they help turn the tide of the conflict?

Sköt om dig :)
 
Thanks for joining and providing the first-person experiences!

As you probably well know, there is strong international debate as to whether Ukraine should be provided with more weapons or not. The hesitation of course stems from not wanting to escalate the conflict to a direct confrontation between West and Russia. But how do you see the need for weapons and equipment and such? Does not Ukraine already have lot's of old arsenal? In what state are they? What items would be most needed? What do you think would be the impact of new weapons? Would they help turn the tide of the conflict?

Sköt om dig :)

I of course dont know nor understand the big time politics here, but my view on this is that 1:
The rest of the west need to tell Russia; Fuck off fucking your neighbours, or we will interviene (and stand behind those words), and or 2:
Send military aid, weapons, trainers, everything. Push the russians out of the country. If we leave it like this, it will only continue. Then Ukraine will probably fall at some point, one way or another, and it continues to other countries (baltics maybe, I fear). You end it now by force, or you end it tomorrow having to use bigger force. Either way, you have to end it this way. Only difference is how many people get hurt in the meantime.

The UA has quite big arsenals of weaponry, as one would expect. The problems are they lack the manpower and training to use it, and much of it is old and/or neglected. What modern weaponry they have is often of decent quality or sometimes actually quite good, but then they lack numbers.

Tack!
 
Har du nån förklaring/gissning på varför Ukraina saknar manskap? Landet har ju 40 miljoner invånare och hade värnplikt till ca. ett år sedan.

Har sett uppgifter om mobilisering av 50 000 nu och putintrollen påstår att mansaket som blivit kallat in håller sig undan eller flyr till Ryssland. Jag förstår att det tar månader att få killarna till fronten efter inryckning, om ursprungliga skolningen var värdelös, eller de inkallade är rekryter. I mina ögon ser en inkallelse av bara 50 000 ut som en halvmesyr. Hur ser du och dina kompisar på detta?
 
Yep. Usually it's best to take care of a problem before it becomes a bigger problem.

I of course dont know nor understand the big time politics here, but my view on this is that 1:
The rest of the west need to tell Russia; Fuck off fucking your neighbours, or we will interviene (and stand behind those words), and or 2:
Send military aid, weapons, trainers, everything. Push the russians out of the country. If we leave it like this, it will only continue. Then Ukraine will probably fall at some point, one way or another, and it continues to other countries (baltics maybe, I fear). You end it now by force, or you end it tomorrow having to use bigger force. Either way, you have to end it this way. Only difference is how many people get hurt in the meantime.

The UA has quite big arsenals of weaponry, as one would expect. The problems are they lack the manpower and training to use it, and much of it is old and/or neglected. What modern weaponry they have is often of decent quality or sometimes actually quite good, but then they lack numbers.

We have also on this forum wondered about the lack of manpower. Obviously, they had to start basically from scratch, but they have had soon a year's time now to get things fixed. Ukraine has around 40 million people - one could imagine they were able to mass more people onto the front.

What do you think is the reason for lack of soldiers?
  • The government still tries to downplay the conflict and keeps a restricted ATO? If so, why?
  • People don't want to join the ranks?
  • There are other problems (lack of funds, shortage of talented military instructors, corruption, other reasons) which hinder the progress?
How many people are on the front on the Ukrainian side? Does rotation work, how many are in reserve?

Still, about the weapons and equipment. What would be most needed? Anti tank missiles alá Javelin / Spike I guess?
 
Hello sir!
I have a short question.

Let's imagine conflict escalates and Finland ends up brawling with Russia.
Could you name three things that will come like a slap in to the face to Finnish mentally and physically well prepared reservist who is dropped to a conflict zone?
On what should we wrap our minds around in advance if that happens?

Stay safe.
 
Yep. Usually it's best to take care of a problem before it becomes a bigger problem.



We have also on this forum wondered about the lack of manpower. Obviously, they had to start basically from scratch, but they have had soon a year's time now to get things fixed. Ukraine has around 40 million people - one could imagine they were able to mass more people onto the front.

What do you think is the reason for lack of soldiers?
  • The government still tries to downplay the conflict and keeps a restricted ATO? If so, why?
  • People don't want to join the ranks?
  • There are other problems (lack of funds, shortage of talented military instructors, corruption, other reasons) which hinder the progress?
How many people are on the front on the Ukrainian side? Does rotation work, how many are in reserve?

Still, about the weapons and equipment. What would be most needed? Anti tank missiles alá Javelin / Spike I guess?

All three problems you mention exist, and they are all related to each other.

1: Yes, this I am sure of. Exactly why, I dont know. To be honest, there is much I dont understand about this country.
2: The Ukrainians are definetly a patriotic people. Of course no one wants to go to war (with exceptions), but had problem no1 not existed, and they trusted their leadership - both military and political*, I think the turnup would have been different.**
3: Ukraines economy is falling. Just today, the Hryvnia (currency) dropped 30% (there went my already meager paycheck...). All problems you mention are huge obstacles for not only the Ukrainian army, but society as a whole, as I see it. This is what you get from living under Soviet-doctrines and communism for as many years as the Ukrainians have.

Uh, I have no idea how it works (if it works..). All I know is that Ukraine is trying to mobilize. How this works out, we will have to see.


Well, lots of things would be needed or at least useful. But considering the terrain of this country, you could go a long way with just good AA-systems and long range AT-wapons. Javelins, as stated, would not be a bad at all. Beats the RPG18, 22 and 26 everyday.


*Because the Ukrainians (along with many other post-USSR states have always been fucked by their leaders, they instinctivly distrust them. For good reasons too often, Im afraid.
** I was interviewd by a young journalist in Kiev when I was new here. We came to the topic of the mobilisation of the army, and I said I found it odd that they didnt have voluneers for the army when they were being attacked by Russia. She replied that many men volunter to go to the front, and I in turn said that if a country like Finland with only 5 million population can probably can turn up 250 - 500 000 men in wartime, the huge Ukraine should be able to be better. She had no understandig that a country even could mobilize like that, but later agreed. She had never thought of it, she actually saw it as the Ukrainians are doing the best they can. They have a very different understanding of things here, because of their heritage.
 
Hello sir!
I have a short question.

Let's imagine conflict escalates and Finland ends up brawling with Russia.
Could you name three things that will come like a slap in to the face to Finnish mentally and physically well prepared reservist who is dropped to a conflict zone?
On what should we wrap our minds around in advance if that happens?

Stay safe.

Some of the biggest problems according to me here is rumour-spreading/desinformation, the problem with spies/saboteurs (many civilians here, you never know who to trust..) and maybe just the general chaos caused by theese and other things. The problem of spies means that you never know whats happening. You can stay in base for a week, doing nothing and then, suddenly:

You go! 10 minutes!
- Where?
Dont know
- How?
Maybe car
- To do what?
Dont know
- How long?
Maybe one to five days (this suggestions never add up)
- What should we bring?
Explosives.

The more questions you ask, the less you know.-

Thats some of the things I can think of wich can really make your head spin sometimes. Things wich at least I was not really prepared for.

In general though, I am confident the finns would give the russians a brawl that would make them long back to Ukraine, Georgia, maybe even to Chechnya, should they try something like that. Russia has lots of good equipment, and lots of manpower.. but hey, no need for me to say much more on the matter. We know how issues like theese usually end up..
 
Viimeksi muokattu:
Har du nån förklaring/gissning på varför Ukraina saknar manskap? Landet har ju 40 miljoner invånare och hade värnplikt till ca. ett år sedan.

Har sett uppgifter om mobilisering av 50 000 nu och putintrollen påstår att mansaket som blivit kallat in håller sig undan eller flyr till Ryssland. Jag förstår att det tar månader att få killarna till fronten efter inryckning, om ursprungliga skolningen var värdelös, eller de inkallade är rekryter. I mina ögon ser en inkallelse av bara 50 000 ut som en halvmesyr. Hur ser du och dina kompisar på detta?

Se tidigare post på engelska. Att inkallade skulle fly till Ryssland är ju befängt. Säkert finns det kräk eller lurade stackare som gör det också, men att större delen skulle göra det är ryskt skitprat av den sort man kan vänta sig.

Vi har nog inga uppfattningar om det för närvarande, vi väntar och ser vad som händer, som vanligt.
 
Honestly, cannot say I know much more than from what you can read/see on the internet. Most of the heavies you see is also in use with the Ukrainian army, but there have been reports that for example captured T-64 tanks which have been checked though have had serialnumbers tracking them to russian depos. Same is probably true with many of the T-72s for example, especialy the newer ones.

Ive also gotten some reports from inside Russia about troopmovements down to Rostov (close to the U border) consisting of lots of manpower and equipment. This is of course no secret, and not any hard evidence of the russian involment itself. But, well, if you think about it..



Short answer; sudden, massive russian support. Look at a map of Ukraine and mark out the area controlled the LNR and DNR. That theese small "states" would be able to suddenly knock off the Ukrainian army like they did back then is quite unlikley at best.

The Ukrainian army, with both its military and political leadership, or lack of it rather, is of course also responsible for that debacle.

I think we've come to the pretty much same conclusions here at maanpuolustus.net too. It looked like Ukraine was about to end the insurgency in eastern Ukraine when things changed without any plausible official explanation from Russia or "Novorussia". Everything pointed to the direction of Russia supplying equipment and manpower.

What do you think happened with MH17? Russian BUK with russian operators or some variation with local captured equipment and operators?
 
Back
Top