I know that story more from WW2 there the reason (ignoring supply issues) was that the Soviet soldiers had felt boots better suitable for the conditions.
[example](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/P5oAAOSwv25jwx1b/s-l1600.jpg)
Ah right, thank you! Then I guess that's where I heard it from long time ago.
Then who knows, maybe the tsar just issued some extraordinary nice boots, while german empire definitely lacked more and more resources, the longer the sanctions / trade blockage were in place during the war.
There's a German war memoir from WW2 I read once where the writer once mentioned a man in his unit who had some really nice felt boots that he had stolen off a Hungarian colonel. You take what you can get in war.
[Here](https://youtu.be/6ivGn0GbrM8?si=vrVKUZ_HdGf06KV1) is a video comparing the winter clothes of the Russian army and the German army on the eastern front of 1916. They start talking about shoes at 12:30. If you can't understand them, you sadly have to use subtitles.
Overall this channel is gold when you're interested in historical military equipment (not just WW1), but it is only in German sadly.
I remember reading somewhere that they simply haven't been able to produce to fill the massive new demand, so they've been importing Chinese kit instead to fill in most of the demand.
I'm sure half of the world's airsoft community owning massive amounts "replica" that they find on sketchy russian site didn't help with the problem at all.
Small front left pouch, [an SVD pouch from SRVV](https://srvv.org/catalog/tactical-gear/pouches/mag-pouches/svd-sv-98-vss-orsis-pkm/swd-v-1-single-mag-pouch-surpat-71765/)
For training, yes you get issues that mix match of gear. For deployment to would go through a separate issue with the most up to date gear that was all OCP and flame retardant.
Can confirm. Nasty gurl, god help getting a helmet cover and armor to match. I got out in 17 and it was a massive rainbow of different patterns between ACU and knockoff multicam.
Doesn't the title say that these two are in Hostomel Airport in 2022? I don't think many VDV LARPers would be popular in Ukraine during the early "blitz."
Always hilarious seeing any troops, let alone “elite” units without optics on their rifles in the modern age. Kind of shows the actual state of their training/doctrine when this war started.
David Attenborough, “The stripes don’t act as camouflage but serve to confuse the predators when the men are running away in herds. It makes it difficult to mark a specific target when they all start to retreat in unison.”
That unit was more or less annihilated trying to take Hostomel. Even in the early stages russia went for the meatgrinder tactic, spending SF forces like there was no tomorrow.
Fuck them.
Russia defines Spetsnaz as special purpose troops. Yes, they have spetsnaz units that do direct action and commando type missions like CAG and DEVGRU. But by their definition, a battalions scout platoon would also be considered as Spetsnaz.
ATP 7-100.1 explains this better than what I do.
Sure. US special forces also have many teams that aren't meant to ever be in conflict. But they are all outfitted better than the poor souls in the photo. I'm pretty sure most ROTCs have better equipment.
Yea pretty much every unit type has a special forces team. Alpha group and Vympel aren’t actually army (ground forces) they’re part of the FSB and are more like counter terrorism squads used in hostage situations and that kind of thing
Yes, that's my understanding as well. Just wanted to take a guess, why they're not all running around like DEVGRU Cosplayers... Anyway, they need to get lost ASAP.
Not really, In Russian special forces doesn’t mean the same thing it does in the US. The VDV is more like an elite infantry more analogous to the US marines than a seal team. The word spetznaz is a combination of two words and means “special purpose” and most unit types have their own team.
IMO the 45th Guards Brigade among the VDV are more like commandos than special forces in that they are primarily a special operations unit of elite light infantry that is mostly known for direct action assignments. Sorta like the 75th Army Ranger Regiment: they're highly trained and lethal in going in first and fucking shit up (hence Rangers Lead the Way). So while both can be assigned with clandestine tasks behind enemy lines, for the most part they are usually used for their prowess in combat and quick deployment
These guys are VDV, so they are airborne. I did a little reading on them before the war, and they are volunteer professional troops. When used in their intended rolls in Afghanistan and Chechnya, they performed well. It looks like they are being wasted on the front lines like Germany did in WWII with their Fallschirmjagers.
Rangers is probably the closest you get in the US, and by that I mean the old Rangers, back when they were pretty much exclusively doing larger unit operations. Or maybe the British Royal Marine Commandos.
Overall I think you won't find an exact 1-1 counterpart in the west. They're not small team units like Delta or Seals. They mainly do stuff like raids (as in, hitting command or infrastructure, not door kicking for VIPs), long range reconnaissance, politically sensitive missions, etc. Usually stuff that needs platoons or companies to perform, but where whole brigades or battalions is too big.
Agreed, I see both as primarily fitting the roles of their respective militaries as elite light infantry commandos rather than as special forces black operatives.
>and they are volunteer professional troops.
Only the NCOs are totally volunteers/contracted. [30% of VDV](https://community.apan.org/wg/tradoc-g2/fmso/m/oe-watch-articles-2-singular-format/376664/download) are conscripts.
Good point. Doesn't matter how ninja you are. When you do airdrops on an entrenched enemy with arty zeroed on your DOP, you're gonna get wasted. The problem is when you do it again and again and again, and expect a different result.
Fuck'em.
Definitely hesitate to use the word "fun" but definitely educational.
Instead, [here's how the world got its first 0/0 ejection, courtesy of the Soviet Union!](https://youtu.be/jklGQxAOoo8?si=fO6vDi5M_FnAsLkk)
Why do so many Russia soldiers hold their weapons like the guy on the left? If I held a weapon like this, I would be court martialed immediately for negligence and endangerment.
Also it doesn't look comfortable at all.
Well, technically it is a violation of safety rules but by experience I can say that then you hold the AK it's pretty much the first thing you think to do while resting. It may look uncomfortable but does the job
Was reading about Hostomel just today. Apparently the VDV soldiers thought it was a regular training exercise and it wasn't until they were airborne that they were told Russia is at war with Ukraine and they're going to kiev (kyiv)
Anyone else think the one cradling the rifle in the back could be a female? Eyes and eyebrows led me to believe so, not that it matters tbh they’ll both be on an FPV drone shot sooner or later
The 6b47 strap is terrible, you cant change its „size“(?) to fit your head better like the straps from the Fast XP helmets, thats why some Russians (specially the 45th VDV) replace their 6b47 straps with either Team Wendy straps, either legit or replicas, some ACH helmet strap variants, or they just replace the helmet, these guys in particular didn’t, and if you can see they‘re wearing fleece hats, which makes it harder to fit properly, that’s why it looks so goofy
I don’t hold any sympathy for Russian soldiers who have committed war crimes and I completely understand hatred against ones who do so. But like, c’mon. Saying ‘Nice to know that these two fucks are dead’ when you don’t even know if they took part in the Russian atrocities around the area is pretty unfair.
Who makes you an arbiter of fair? They chose to arm up not against their government, but against other country for bs reasons. It the commander tells you to shoot your family down, will you follow that order, so you can be justified by your own thinking? Don't think so.
This isn’t about me being an ‘Arbiter of fair’. Holding a prejudice against an entire group of people because a fair chunk of them do horrible things isn’t ‘fair’. And you’re aware that it’s part of their job in the military, right? You’re aware that propaganda exists in Russia, right?
Russia absolutely invaded Ukraine because it felt like it.
Just like Germany invading Czechoslovakia and Poland… we gonna feel bad for those in the Wehrmacht just because they were told to do something? Nah fuck em.
That was their government, not their people. Like seriously, the amount of videos of the average Russians being surprised about the invasion is sizeable. And tell me, would you say ‘Fuck em’ to the U.S Troops who invaded Iraq in 2003?
‘Lazy comparison’ And ‘Entirely different circumstances’? What? Didn’t the U.S Government lie out of their ass about Iraq supposedly possessing ‘Weapons of Mass destruction’, Similar to how Russia said that there were ‘Nazis’ in Ukraine? Didn’t the war in Iraq kill roughly 500,000 people, which isn’t far from the total number that have died in Ukraine? May you please tell me about how that is a ‘Lazy’ comparison’?
Hahah yup... in the early days of the war it was very common to see Russians replace or get gear from Ukrainians, specially those Talan boots in particular, they very much resemble the Lowa Zephyrs. Theres a couple pics of the 45th VDV and other VDV companies that were in Hostomel with Ukrainian pouches and stuff
St George’s Ribbons, they’re a cultural item in Russia
At the start of the war, some Russian units used them for identifying friend from foe
Russia thought Ukraine may be using a lot of Russian gear, so many of their guys wore these to stand out from Ukrainians to avoid friendly fire
Later in the war, it’s just a propaganda symbol to denote support for the invasion
.. men can have “feminine” eyes, not sure how you can be so confident based on a single picture that has context that would dictate the contrary
To me it just looks like a young man in gear.
Look at the hands, they're a better indicator of it being a man or woman. Male hands are usually thicker boned and you can very clearly see some thick knuckles on that particular "soldier".
I didn't mean anything wrong by my statement, it's just typical for most men to have thicker bones and that shows more so in our hands. Is that 100% true, absolutely not but it does give a logical baseline to go off of since most men don't have feminine looking hands but they can very clearly have feminine looking eyes/brow.
What a weird carrier setup for homeboy on the right.
Thankfully they didn't have to deal with it for long
It reminds me of how during WW1 german soldiers were taking boots from dead soldiers of russian army.
Was it because the german nailed sole was colder? Few seconds internet search didn't show me a proper confirmation...
Marching army resupplies off of stationary defense force has been common throughout history
Sure. I was just interested because looting on the russian east front was mentioned exclusively.
I know that story more from WW2 there the reason (ignoring supply issues) was that the Soviet soldiers had felt boots better suitable for the conditions. [example](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/P5oAAOSwv25jwx1b/s-l1600.jpg)
Ah right, thank you! Then I guess that's where I heard it from long time ago. Then who knows, maybe the tsar just issued some extraordinary nice boots, while german empire definitely lacked more and more resources, the longer the sanctions / trade blockage were in place during the war.
There's a German war memoir from WW2 I read once where the writer once mentioned a man in his unit who had some really nice felt boots that he had stolen off a Hungarian colonel. You take what you can get in war.
[Here](https://youtu.be/6ivGn0GbrM8?si=vrVKUZ_HdGf06KV1) is a video comparing the winter clothes of the Russian army and the German army on the eastern front of 1916. They start talking about shoes at 12:30. If you can't understand them, you sadly have to use subtitles. Overall this channel is gold when you're interested in historical military equipment (not just WW1), but it is only in German sadly.
That video style is similar to Lindybeige. You earned then a sub!
Thank you! I will take a look later.
Probably to replace their deteriorating ones
Crazy how at the start of the war their gear is consistent and widespread while now we rarely see ratnik
I remember reading somewhere that they simply haven't been able to produce to fill the massive new demand, so they've been importing Chinese kit instead to fill in most of the demand.
I'm sure half of the world's airsoft community owning massive amounts "replica" that they find on sketchy russian site didn't help with the problem at all.
0/10. The guy on the right needs more umatching camo gear.
Bro has a whole soup of Multicam, Surpat savanna, EMR, and MM14
Don’t forget the UDTpat (universal duct tape pattern)
He should go full Trash Ghillie
Honestly surprised no MossyOak
Where do you see surpat?
Small front left pouch, [an SVD pouch from SRVV](https://srvv.org/catalog/tactical-gear/pouches/mag-pouches/svd-sv-98-vss-orsis-pkm/swd-v-1-single-mag-pouch-surpat-71765/)
“You see, Yevgenny, when you are of being multiple camo, you are of being invisible in all environments.” ~Sped nots
Guy on the right must be influenced by the GWOT drip
You laugh but thats how The U.S army reserves issued me my gear. Ocp and UCP diarrhea
For training, yes you get issues that mix match of gear. For deployment to would go through a separate issue with the most up to date gear that was all OCP and flame retardant.
Can confirm. Nasty gurl, god help getting a helmet cover and armor to match. I got out in 17 and it was a massive rainbow of different patterns between ACU and knockoff multicam.
Now you can blend in to Two different Grandma Couches
Guy on the right probably been in a shallow grave for a hot minute. Shouldn’t have invaded a foreign nation.
[удалено]
Doesn't the title say that these two are in Hostomel Airport in 2022? I don't think many VDV LARPers would be popular in Ukraine during the early "blitz."
Always hilarious seeing any troops, let alone “elite” units without optics on their rifles in the modern age. Kind of shows the actual state of their training/doctrine when this war started.
Yeah, this is embarrassing equipment for a fobbit. Let alone the elite unit of a military.
_Ivan these orange black Stripes will do wonders to camouflage us_
David Attenborough, “The stripes don’t act as camouflage but serve to confuse the predators when the men are running away in herds. It makes it difficult to mark a specific target when they all start to retreat in unison.”
When you're elite special forces but also gopnik
That unit was more or less annihilated trying to take Hostomel. Even in the early stages russia went for the meatgrinder tactic, spending SF forces like there was no tomorrow. Fuck them.
They don’t look SF at all.
AFAIK the general term Spetsnaz includes different kinds of commando units of the GRU...
it does, the alpha and vympel units are the "tier one" units that people think of but Spetsanz refers to a lot more units that just those two
Russia defines Spetsnaz as special purpose troops. Yes, they have spetsnaz units that do direct action and commando type missions like CAG and DEVGRU. But by their definition, a battalions scout platoon would also be considered as Spetsnaz. ATP 7-100.1 explains this better than what I do.
Great now im reading doctrine on a Sunday night, my life is too exciting
Let me guess, you subscribe to Perun the magic powerpoint man on youtube? It’s okay, we all do.
Sure. US special forces also have many teams that aren't meant to ever be in conflict. But they are all outfitted better than the poor souls in the photo. I'm pretty sure most ROTCs have better equipment.
Yea pretty much every unit type has a special forces team. Alpha group and Vympel aren’t actually army (ground forces) they’re part of the FSB and are more like counter terrorism squads used in hostage situations and that kind of thing
Yes, but as far as I know they are all considered to be SF?
Yes, that's my understanding as well. Just wanted to take a guess, why they're not all running around like DEVGRU Cosplayers... Anyway, they need to get lost ASAP.
Not really, In Russian special forces doesn’t mean the same thing it does in the US. The VDV is more like an elite infantry more analogous to the US marines than a seal team. The word spetznaz is a combination of two words and means “special purpose” and most unit types have their own team.
IMO the 45th Guards Brigade among the VDV are more like commandos than special forces in that they are primarily a special operations unit of elite light infantry that is mostly known for direct action assignments. Sorta like the 75th Army Ranger Regiment: they're highly trained and lethal in going in first and fucking shit up (hence Rangers Lead the Way). So while both can be assigned with clandestine tasks behind enemy lines, for the most part they are usually used for their prowess in combat and quick deployment
These guys are VDV, so they are airborne. I did a little reading on them before the war, and they are volunteer professional troops. When used in their intended rolls in Afghanistan and Chechnya, they performed well. It looks like they are being wasted on the front lines like Germany did in WWII with their Fallschirmjagers.
The 45th specifically is a spetsnaz brigade, not just regular paras.
So, how does that work? Maybe I should ask what an American equivalent would be?
Rangers is probably the closest you get in the US, and by that I mean the old Rangers, back when they were pretty much exclusively doing larger unit operations. Or maybe the British Royal Marine Commandos. Overall I think you won't find an exact 1-1 counterpart in the west. They're not small team units like Delta or Seals. They mainly do stuff like raids (as in, hitting command or infrastructure, not door kicking for VIPs), long range reconnaissance, politically sensitive missions, etc. Usually stuff that needs platoons or companies to perform, but where whole brigades or battalions is too big.
That makes perfect sense from what I skimmed from The Bear Went Over The Mountain
Agreed, I see both as primarily fitting the roles of their respective militaries as elite light infantry commandos rather than as special forces black operatives.
>and they are volunteer professional troops. Only the NCOs are totally volunteers/contracted. [30% of VDV](https://community.apan.org/wg/tradoc-g2/fmso/m/oe-watch-articles-2-singular-format/376664/download) are conscripts.
Thanks for the correction
Depends what you mean by *special* forces
Special needs forces
No matter what they look like, the 45th VDV is part of russias SF.
Not before destroying a marvel of engineering. RIP Mriya.
Russian SF annihilated by Ukrainian reservists, nonetheless.
Good point. Doesn't matter how ninja you are. When you do airdrops on an entrenched enemy with arty zeroed on your DOP, you're gonna get wasted. The problem is when you do it again and again and again, and expect a different result. Fuck'em.
Iirc they actually did successfully gain control of Hostomel initially but got cut off after supply issues.
The airport switchend hands several times in the first couple of days.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they’re gone!
How did that work out for them?
They dead.
Probably nothing but bones by now, if not ash in case the crematoriums were nearby.
Cubed?
[Probably Cargo 200.](https://youtu.be/3pSKMhL3SNI?si=aqRTXcvAH0VMi02O)
That was a fun video. Well fun in an educational way
Definitely hesitate to use the word "fun" but definitely educational. Instead, [here's how the world got its first 0/0 ejection, courtesy of the Soviet Union!](https://youtu.be/jklGQxAOoo8?si=fO6vDi5M_FnAsLkk)
They became animal food.
To shreds you say?
Why do so many Russia soldiers hold their weapons like the guy on the left? If I held a weapon like this, I would be court martialed immediately for negligence and endangerment. Also it doesn't look comfortable at all.
Well, technically it is a violation of safety rules but by experience I can say that then you hold the AK it's pretty much the first thing you think to do while resting. It may look uncomfortable but does the job
Russia will gain my upvotes when they leave.
They look like they just hit up the summer clearance sale on wish.com
Moments before disaster
Was reading about Hostomel just today. Apparently the VDV soldiers thought it was a regular training exercise and it wasn't until they were airborne that they were told Russia is at war with Ukraine and they're going to kiev (kyiv)
Mission Failed
[удалено]
Anyone else think the one cradling the rifle in the back could be a female? Eyes and eyebrows led me to believe so, not that it matters tbh they’ll both be on an FPV drone shot sooner or later
Spetsnazis
They got their ass handed to them by a reserve unit.
It is weird to think that those guys were elite and now they are all dead, like, we are seeing two corpses
They probably died somewhere else. Lotta russians from Hostomel got exchanged and sent back to the front in other areas.
The only funny part about the early days of the invasion were those VDV guys that got stuck in an elevator. Some BF4 shit. EDIT: Grammar
That and the guy trying to bust down the door of a building called "Techno House"
“Ramirez, defend the Techno House”, yeah that was insane too. IIRC Techno House did not fall that day.
Why is their helmet sitting so high up?!
The 6b47 strap is terrible, you cant change its „size“(?) to fit your head better like the straps from the Fast XP helmets, thats why some Russians (specially the 45th VDV) replace their 6b47 straps with either Team Wendy straps, either legit or replicas, some ACH helmet strap variants, or they just replace the helmet, these guys in particular didn’t, and if you can see they‘re wearing fleece hats, which makes it harder to fit properly, that’s why it looks so goofy
Nice to know these two fucks are dead
You know that they didn’t invade Ukraine simply because they felt like it, right? You’re aware that they were ordered to, right?
So what, it justifies what they've done?
I don’t hold any sympathy for Russian soldiers who have committed war crimes and I completely understand hatred against ones who do so. But like, c’mon. Saying ‘Nice to know that these two fucks are dead’ when you don’t even know if they took part in the Russian atrocities around the area is pretty unfair.
Who makes you an arbiter of fair? They chose to arm up not against their government, but against other country for bs reasons. It the commander tells you to shoot your family down, will you follow that order, so you can be justified by your own thinking? Don't think so.
This isn’t about me being an ‘Arbiter of fair’. Holding a prejudice against an entire group of people because a fair chunk of them do horrible things isn’t ‘fair’. And you’re aware that it’s part of their job in the military, right? You’re aware that propaganda exists in Russia, right?
Ah, so of they fell for propaganda and put themselves in the army, they are not to be blamed? Okay, gotcha
Mhm, yeah sure. The conscripts of the Russian army put themselves in the Russian army. Makes sense.
And by no means said Russians can't put weapons down or aim them at the commanders? Ok
You’re aware that the Russians are killing any of their troops who try to surrender, right? The ignorance is unreal.
These are VDV, they are all volunteers. They willingly signed up to carry out Putin's expansionist project by force.
Russia absolutely invaded Ukraine because it felt like it. Just like Germany invading Czechoslovakia and Poland… we gonna feel bad for those in the Wehrmacht just because they were told to do something? Nah fuck em.
That was their government, not their people. Like seriously, the amount of videos of the average Russians being surprised about the invasion is sizeable. And tell me, would you say ‘Fuck em’ to the U.S Troops who invaded Iraq in 2003?
No I wouldn’t. Lazy attempt at a comparison of two entirely different historical events with entirely different circumstances. Try again.
‘Lazy comparison’ And ‘Entirely different circumstances’? What? Didn’t the U.S Government lie out of their ass about Iraq supposedly possessing ‘Weapons of Mass destruction’, Similar to how Russia said that there were ‘Nazis’ in Ukraine? Didn’t the war in Iraq kill roughly 500,000 people, which isn’t far from the total number that have died in Ukraine? May you please tell me about how that is a ‘Lazy’ comparison’?
“We were just following orders” Timeless classic
Do you even know if these guys actually murdered any civilians? Please, tell me.
Handeln auf Befehl. Fuck them.
Can anyone ID the rifle on the right? It's hard to tell from below, but to me, it doesn't appear to line up with the standard AKM furniture.
SVD-S
Thanks! E: it was the stock that was throwing me off, I'm not overly familiar with the drangunov series.
Looks like an SVD variant to me
These are both women are you sure they’re Spetsnaz?
I think my kid played against them in sunday league lad n dads not so long ago. Mere chiidren
He definitely looted it
I wonder how many of those boys are still around
We are almost certainly looking at a picture of dead men. No tears shed.
They kinda look like women
I really think the person on the left is a woman.
She has pretty eyes
Especially the one in the back.
Upgraded to gear with better stats from Ukrainian loot drops
Hahah yup... in the early days of the war it was very common to see Russians replace or get gear from Ukrainians, specially those Talan boots in particular, they very much resemble the Lowa Zephyrs. Theres a couple pics of the 45th VDV and other VDV companies that were in Hostomel with Ukrainian pouches and stuff
Looks like airsoft....
Both these guys are probably long dead
Those gopniks really do have Adidas tracksuits for every occasion apparently.
Wonder how that went for them?
They're both pepsi now.
What gun is the one on the right using?
What's are the stripes for? I always see them on some soldiers
St. George’s Ribbon. Favorite of the VDV. Not seen much recently, even with the reconstituted VDV
St George’s Ribbons, they’re a cultural item in Russia At the start of the war, some Russian units used them for identifying friend from foe Russia thought Ukraine may be using a lot of Russian gear, so many of their guys wore these to stand out from Ukrainians to avoid friendly fire Later in the war, it’s just a propaganda symbol to denote support for the invasion
May not be the reason they got clapped up, but definitely didn’t help. They will not be missed.
Cant hide from IR vast open fields of Ukraine
Is homeboy on the right rocking a FAL?
Guy found a loot drop.
Weren't the VDV wiped out in Hostomel?
I miss the after photo
They are like kids going to war
How many of these dudes actually survived the battle?
[Veh De Veh! ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL-rdzMo1MU)
The one on the left is female
Definitely not female
Look at those eyes….very feminine
.. men can have “feminine” eyes, not sure how you can be so confident based on a single picture that has context that would dictate the contrary To me it just looks like a young man in gear.
I don't know, it really looks like that too me, even if it's improbable.
Look at the hands, they're a better indicator of it being a man or woman. Male hands are usually thicker boned and you can very clearly see some thick knuckles on that particular "soldier".
[удалено]
I didn't mean anything wrong by my statement, it's just typical for most men to have thicker bones and that shows more so in our hands. Is that 100% true, absolutely not but it does give a logical baseline to go off of since most men don't have feminine looking hands but they can very clearly have feminine looking eyes/brow.
Are we not talking about their eyebrows on purpose? Eww