One also has to wonder about the capability of the Russians to treat their wounded. Did they properly plan for wounded?
There were reports, prior to the invasion, of military hospitals being erected near the borders, where the 'just exercises' were taking place.
That explains the high casualty rates, if those military hospitals were not moved forward during the conflict.
Time to binge watch MASH to determine competence at 1970s levels.
Relevant
What I've been seeing sporadic reports of is that a lot of Russian infantry are dying because they're staying mounted in their IFVs which has the natural result of drastically increasing how many people die when those IFVs get hit by drones and AT teams. That would seem to mesh with their force composition and lack of coordination -- conscripts scared of disembarking while taking small arms fire who have limited contact with their own commanders and no enthusiasm about fighting are a lot more prone to that sort of behavior than veterans or heavily drilled troops.
That combined with so many vehicles being essentially stationary targets because of supply issues, traffic jams, &c. could go a ways towards explaining high casualty rates. Well, that and how many transports Russia seems to keep sending on suicide runs.
I mean for god's sake he hasn't even achieved air superiority and he's just pushing in waves of half-trained infantry who are dying in droves because they don't have the knowledge or discipline to get out of their IFVs.
Major air superiority is there. What Russia doesn't have is air supremacy. Something USSR\Russia had in every war since WW2. They don't have a clue how to fight when the enemy has their own airforce.
I would be wary of painting the Russians as incompetent here. By all counts they have a vastly superior air force that they simply aren't employing in its full capacity (yet). When your enemy has 15 aircraft/helicopters for each of yours, then you don't really have an air force.
Or their vastly superior airforce exists only on paper and the majority of aircrafts aren't combat-ready.
Given how many of their ground vehicles appear to be poorly maintained Soviet-era retrofits I wouldn't be surprised if the same was true of their air force. They also seem to be taking pretty steady losses. One of the post-action inspections that just went up was of a downed Ka-52, and there's footage of Su-25s in action (rather than any of their modern multirole fighters), so it definitely looks like they're just throwing piles of ordinance from the 80s/90s against a Ukraine armed with modern ATGMs and MANPADs.
I stand by what I said before, they don't have the sort of defense (kek) industry they need to mass-produce modern equipment. They've got fewer than 20 operational current-gen fighters and
no combat UAVs. Ukraine only has a relatively modest roster of 80s-era Soviet jets, but they've got probably a few dozen TB2s (which Russia evidently doesn't have the capability to counter outside of their failed attempts to hit potential bases) and plenty of capable anti-air platforms. If they actually get the jets they're asking for from the EU (particularly if things escalate to the point where their western neighbors pull a Rhodesian Bush War move and surreptitiously allow them to base inside their borders) Russia is going to have to start committed their limited numbers of modern aircraft and we all get to find out how good the stealth systems on the Su-57 are.
And yeah, I can't speak for anyone else, but this is 100% incompetence on Putin's part. There are no hidden daggers here, the man's just an egomaniac who doesn't listen to competent advisers. He sent possibly the worst force composition he could into superior numbers of highly motivated defenders with apparently no logistical planning and went all surprised Pikachu face when Ukraine didn't immediately capitulate and let him genocide them.