Why Russian Military is SO Unprepared for War Against Ukraine

The news coming out of Ukraine aren't good for Russia. 10,741 visually confirmed losses of pieces of heavy equipment, 2054 of which are tanks either destroyed, abandoned, or captured. Estimates without visual confirmation place this at around 3,000. Over half of its Ka-52 attack helicopter fleet destroyed, with five in one week during the June Ukrainian counteroffensive alone. So why is everything going so badly for the Russian military? Check out today's epic new video that looks at the serious flaws that are now dooming Russia.

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All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted.

[BanginSevenGrams]

The moral of the story, Russia became complacent once they developed a nuclear arsenal. They didn't think they would be involved in a conflict because they thought they could use their nuclear capabilities as a form of intimidation. That's why corruption was bold enough to rot through it's military resources.

[brandonscott]

I spent my time overseas stationed on the Russian border. Obviously the Russian military was our central focus, their tactics, strategy, and how a conflict between us might play out. Though we were confident in our overall capabilities, a disadvantageous defensive position and the relative weakness and unwillingness of European powers to dedicate the necessary resources to their militaries did make us concerned that in the event of a conventional war in Europe, we may very well find ourselves in a titanic struggle, perhaps even facing a devastating defeat if we weren't prepared.
Those fears have since evaporated. While we still take the relevant precautions, the Russian military has been completely exposed as a corrupt, inefficient, incompetent, mismanaged and outdated nightmare of an armed force that is woefully unprepared for a conflict with even a fraction of NATO, let alone the full power of the alliance. Failures of intelligence, communications, and logistics, a horrific attempt at establishing air dominance, a complete inability to properly wage combined arms warfare at the operational level, ineffective leadership that has consistently focused more on loyalty to the regime than professional competence, and decades of hollowing out by a corrupt sector of the nation's political elites have turned what was once a near-peer adversary to be feared into an absolute laughingstock.
I hope we never find ourselves at war, because the loss of life and destruction would still be horrible for all involved, but in my professional opinion, I have no doubts about our ability to fully and completely emerge victorious in such a conflict.

[Jkend]

If you want a professional military, you have to treat them with respect, pay them commensurate with the risks entailed by military service and provide them with equipment/training that is the best currently available. Russia doesn't do any of that...

[gordonwilkinson]

It's mind boggling that the same flaw in the present Russian army was the one I was trained to look for in the Soviet army of the late '70s. The lack of a professional NCO cadre had subalterns doing the NCO jobs. The lack of widespread literacy and technical education had officers doing mechanics job too. This made officers in the field prime targets. There was no initiative encouraged Then or apparently today

[george]

I've said it before, I'll say it again.
"We have been afraid of a paper tiger all these years".

[aowbsx]

Fun fact, decimated means a loss of 10%, more like annihilated.

[midgetydeath]

If your country is attacked, conscripts/draftees are quite well motivated and generally don't even need to be forced to join up as they do so voluntarily in retaliation.

[adamb]

They don't really have any experienced soldiers anymore. One minute you're some 18 year old working at Dairy Dork, home of the Banana Ballslap, then you're whisked off to a whirlwind of confusion for two weeks of extremely minimal training, and sent to the front lines without a gun and told to just pick one up off the dead guy you're replacing.

[janko]

There is a reason we have in Finnish verb "Ryssiä", roughly meaning "to totally fail something".

[jedgarren]

General Patton was 100% correct about the Russian soldier.

[DNG]

I remember a comment from the many videos on Russian army done by Russians. One comment said this:
"I knew that our army was in a bad situation and have been telling that for years, but none of my friends and relatives listened to me. When the war started and my fears were confirmed, my friends still refused to listen. How is our army any good if our education, science and Healthcare is falling apart at the seams?"

[vodekz]

Never place your best at the front line at the start of the battle. Old military rule

[joshuaevans]

Here's some perspective:
Over 10, 000 heavy vehicles have been lost in this war so far. Probably well over that number because that's a bare minimum

Under 5, 000 American soldiers (not crazy expensive vehicles, "just" soldiers) died in the ENTIRE war in Iraq

[whitethunderwhitethunder]

I don't see Russia surviving as a country, let alone a super power, after this conflict. Even if they get out of this with some sort of peace treaty the changes necessary to turn around their military in terms of fire power, personnel restock, and weeding out corruption will break Russia's back completely because of how ingrained the corruption is in the highest positions of power in both their military and government, the loss of military personnel, overusing military supplies from bullets to bandages, and the destruction of military weapons and vehicles are gonna break the bank IF they even wanna make any changes.

I'll truly be surprised if Russia doesn't become a vassal state for China or gets outright conquered by the country at some point in the future. China's only your friend if you can defend yourself.

[ccoder]

While China doesn't want Russian instability to be threat to China's own security, China wouldn't mind seeing Russia weak. Russia and China have had their share of conflict over their borders, particularly in Manchuria. I could see China being rather eager to put Russia in their place, keep Russia from ever being a threat to them again, or even turn parts of Russia into a vassal state.

[crandonborth]

I will be soooo glad when this war is over and we can get new topics to talk about.

[Nturner]

Russia could have become a peaceful thriving nation over the last 20yrs instead of a hopeless mess

[corymorimacori]

“Your moves are miscalculated, and underestimating your enemies—your biggest mistake. You will find the will of a single man can be broken.” Captain Price

[nicklindberg]

Here come the Kremlin employees! I hope you aren't still getting paid in rubles! ;)

[Tekdruid]

One of the major problems of Russian military is the authoritarian "top-down" leadership style where tactical or even operational level decisions are made far away from the front lines and enforced via high ranking officers directly. As a result, the rank and file has no initiative and will simply stand around and get drunk unless there's an officer yelling at them. This is compounded by the lack of a competent NCO corps.