https://www.quora.com/How(...)war-impacting-RussiaHow badly is the Ukraine-Russia war impacting Russia?Let’s put it this way. A few hundred Russian patriots, with help from Ukraine, invaded Russia, took over a few settlements and declared a republic there. Do you know what the Kremlin sent against them?
These guys:
Unleash the SOBR!
Kremlin sent the Special units for quick response, SOBR. These are militarized police units tasked with fighting organized crime in urban areas, by which I mean beating the crap out of unarmed civilians protesting against an injustice. They have automatic weapons, light ballistic gear and APCs. They lack armored fighting vehicles, anti-tank weapons, artillery and entrenching tools.
Kremlin sent their strongest police forces in a near-suicidal attack against entrenched soldiers with artillery and tanks. I expect the casualties amongst these Russian formations were severe and the ratio approached that of prisoners in Bakhmut, ten to one or worse.
Why did they send their police to do the job of the military you might wonder? Well, there wasn’t anything military they could send, the air farce helped out but the fighting on the ground was carried out by the police, because they’re the only ones who can do something vaguely similar to war.
Alledgedly Russia also removed a T-70 from a pedestal in Mariupol’ and sent it to St.Petersburg for servicing of the engine and other moving parts. The T-70 is a smaller, weaker counterpart to the T-34, it’s roughly equivalent to Panzer II. The implications are beyond dire, because pedestal tanks aren’t usually serviced and there is a clear implication why they might want one serviced.
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This is the equivalent of putting SWAT teams into action against an invading army division.
In fact, that’s exactly what it is.
Someone commented elsewhere that these SWAT units are more accustomed to brutalizing innocent civilians than doing actual policing, let alone standing up to a foreign army.
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Reportedly Russians sent FSB rapid response units (SOBR) to the site, because they had nothing else available.
FSB rapid response units are militarized police used against organized crime, urban security and above all, dispersing riots. They don’t have tanks, anti-armor capabilities, artillery or entrenching tools.
They faced proper soldiers, with tanks, artillery and preapred fortifications. It is likely a few hundred SOBR were killed or wounded and the operation isn’t even over yet.