How Ukraine exposed Putin's greatest weakness | Sean Bell

I think Sean forgot to mention that a huge part of why the Ukrainian Spring/Summer offensive failed was because the West sat on their hands arguing about sending tanks, planes and long-range weapons whilst Russia spent all that time building three lines of defence. Ukraine was then expected to break through all that without air support, which is something no Western armed forces would even contemplate. And here we are, still arguing about sending longer-range weapons. The F16s still have not arrived and the European nations cannot even organise the manufacture and supply of artillery shells. What is Ukraine supposed to defend itself with, harsh words?

You are forgetting the weapons didn't get to Ukraine until after Russia had time to fortify

This guy is a defeatist. How is Russia going to fight in Crimea when the Kerch Bridge falls into the ocean and the Black Sea fleet can't operate in the Black Sea?

Wrong information, Ukraine dit NOT received the weapons promised. Your argument fail.

As a former Air Force General officer I am surprised by his lack of explanation to such an obvious lack? West's utter failure to provide an effective air force to Ukraine was not one of the main reasons for such an ineffective Sunner offensive. plus we have given so few serious tanks and long-range missiles what do you expect to happen?

I beg to differ. We did not give them all the shells they needed. Nor did we give them enough long range missiles and were late to give them when we gave them. Aircraft which are necessary for any combined arms battle are not there yet. Attack helicopters and F-16 were not delivered for the 2023 offensive. We been given them are old stocks of weapons from the 80's and 90's. So we could do more. The US and its allies spent $2 trillion in Afghanistan and Iraq using the most modern equipment. So we could do more especially with antimining equipment.

Ukraine got 50 % of the land that Russia took from them, isn't that good comparing the size of Russia's military to Ukraine's military without a Navy, or Air Force. I hope Ukraine can get back what is rightfully there's. Ukraine didn't start this Special Military Operation they want nothing to do with Russia isn't that obvious. Ukraine needs help, help them, please. Slava Ukraini and Slava the Free World !!!!

Ukraine was never a county of the USSR. Instead, Ukraine was one of the 15 republics of the USSR. According to the constitution of the former USSR, each republic had a right to exit USSR. Ukraine had exercised her right to exit the USSR back in 1991 by a form a referendum. Slava Ukraine!

Ukraine wasn't a county in Soviet union, it was a seperate soviet republic with its own parliament etc.

I doubt there's a navy anywhere, including the U.S. navy, that was prepared to fight drones the way Ukraine has deployed them. Thar's a whole lotta larnin' goin' on by navies around the world. Air Vice-marshal Bell makes the point that Russia cannot seem to co-ordinate forces in order to minimize losses. They have been concentrating on the bling (superior armaments?) while failing on how to most effectively use those assets. This is not a situation which can be corrected anytime soon. "They gave him (Zelensky) the weapons. He was not able to finish the job." WRONG!!! They gave Ukraine a lot of weapons with a lot of strings attached. They did NOT give enough weapons or enough (any?) advanced weapons to allow Ukraine to even have a chance of succeeding. Damn Republicans.

Why did he state that the Russian Black Sea commander Admiral Sokolov was fired recently when he was killed by Ukrainian missiles September 25th? Just mind blowing how detached he is from the war.

Well, I’m afraid the UK military is also a much diminished force. Europe has let its guard down.

Territory recaptured is not the only measure of Ukrainian success or failure. Ukraine has taken the war into Russia, quite effectively.! Russia does not control the skies or the sea. This is a crucial point that Bell ignores. Given adequate resources Ukraine could drive Russian aggressors out of Ukraine entirely.

But we never gave Ukraine the weapons? We gave them NATO doctrine, tactics and advice, which requires air superiority in order to move large formations unobserved, as I understand it? Which today would require drone suppresion as well, and no one has that capability yet? We did not even give Ukraine the planes, and now we are failing to supply the basics like artillery ammunition. This can only embolden Iran, North Korea and others, which will ultimately only make everything so much more expensive for us, already the Houthis are forcing the container ships, which global trade are so entirely dependent on, to take longer routes. I do not understand the arguments here?

Sean Bell consistently reveals a lack of understanding of a ground war; no doubting his experience in the air, but he just doesn't 'get' how it works on the ground. He also displays an astonishing ignorance of historical facts; Russian oblasts went to Ukraine, and Ukrainian ones to Russia.

Crimea is Ukraine they voted in 1991 for independence that’s the end of it.

When did any Western/NATO country last win a major battle without air superiority? Sometime in the 1950's I understand, wish Bell would stop conviently ignoring this fact when he harps on about Ukraine being unable to use ALL the masses of weapons it received to mount a successful counter offensive!

what is he smoking? " We gave Ukraine everything and there was no breakthrough", you gave like pretty much nothing of what you should of, no planes no helicopters, small amount of air defense, very few tanks, no ATACMS no TAURUS very little support vehicles be it demining or striker/bushmaster/bradley/cv40, basically no artillery shells, pathetic amount of rifles, and even ammo for these, like wake up and start providing real help, instead of just sending a few bits and bobs and saying "oh we are helping, look at us"

Mr. Bell completely lost me with his ridiculous comment that "Ukraine was a county in the former USSR." A "county" larger than France? A "county" that (same as Poland) was recognized as a separate nation under the treaty of Brest-Litovsk? A "county" with its own seat in the UN? A "county" with its own language, customs and 1170 year history? If that's the extent of his knowledge about Ukrainian history, I'm not interested in any of his other blatherings.

This kind of talk serves no purpose other then to support Russia.