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RIGA, Latvia – Ukraine’s battlefield failures have sparked growing criticism of the Russian military among Russians who support the war but are increasingly disappointed with the way it is being conducted.
Military analysts, veterans, mercenaries and journalists are among those who have begun to speak on social media and state television against the mistakes and shortcomings that continue to hamper Russia’s efforts in Ukraine, even after the Russian military narrows its targets to capture territory. the eastern part of Donbass.
Thousands of Russians have been detained or harassed for opposing President Vladimir Putin’s decision to go to war. Pro-war critics are different – they support the war, but are disappointed with the pace of progress and in many cases want Putin to be tougher.
“Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, please decide whether we are at war or fooling around?” Asked Alexander Arutyunov, a military veteran who blogs under the name Razvedos, in his Telegram account. “If we fight, we must fight!” And we have to hit everything. There is no other way to win a war. “
Others are wondering whether Russia can win the war without radical adjustments in its tactics or the mass mobilization of Russian reservists. A British intelligence report earlier this week estimated that Russia had lost up to a third of its initial deployment of 190,000. Russia is also constantly sending reinforcements, including regular treaty forces, along with reservists, recruits and mercenaries, for a current total of about 167,000, according to a Ukrainian estimate on Wednesday.
“There must be mobilization or we will lose the war. It takes 600,000-800,000 people to defeat Ukraine, “wrote Vladlen Tatarsky, a former fighter with the Donbas separatist militia, who commented on his Telegram profile to more than 270,000 followers.
Criticism reflects that of US officials and Western military experts, who expressed astonishment at the grim performance of the Russian army, considered the world’s second-strongest on the eve of the war. Poor planning, tactical mistakes, poor equipment and weapons, as well as strong resistance from the Ukrainian armed forces, thwarted Russia’s original plan to take Kyiv and are now blunting its efforts to take Donbass.
Why Russia is fighting in eastern Ukraine, in maps
Russian troops are succeeding, but at a slower pace than planned by Russian military planners, US officials say. Russia, meanwhile, continues to suffer heavy casualties and equipment, prompting Western military experts to question how many more Russians will be able to withstand offensive operations.
Russian critics are asking the same question. A retired colonel and prominent military analyst stunned television audiences Monday with a candid assessment of Russia’s challenges. As the United States and its allies send large quantities of sophisticated weapons to Ukrainian forces, the situation for Russian troops will “frankly worsen,” Mikhail Khodaryonok said on the 60 Minutes talk show on Russia-1. “We are in complete geopolitical isolation and the whole world is against us, even if we don’t want to admit it.
In a statement earlier this month, he suggested that even mass mobilization would not help Russia, given the superiority of NATO weapons supplied to Ukraine. Recruiting more untrained men is not a solution, he said, “because we do not have modern weapons and equipment in our reserves.”
“Sending people armed with weapons from the past into the 21st century war to fight NATO with world-class weapons would not be the right thing to do,” he added, proposing a radical restructuring of Russia’s military-industrial complex as a solution. .
The Telegram, a social media channel that has emerged as the dominant forum for news and discussion of the war, is also widely condemned by both Russians and Ukrainians.
Russia’s battle for Donbass will be won only by “courage and political will – not by chatter and half-measures, but by decisive, swift action,” wrote Yuri Kotyonok, a journalist and military analyst with more than 290,000 followers on his Telegram account. He added that both appear to be missing.
He, meanwhile, noted that “the West is talking and acting, inflating Ukraine for war [with weapons]. Russia is waiting for this sinister pile to be blown away by the wind in our direction.
Russia’s failed attempt last week to cross the Seversky Donets River, which stands in the way of their advance westward, has provoked ridicule. Commentators expressed contempt for the tactical and leadership failures that contributed to what may have been Russia’s biggest failure in ground war to date.
About 485 soldiers were killed and 80 armored vehicles were lost when Russian troops from the 74th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 41st Armed Forces built a pontoon bridge across the river only to be wiped out by Ukrainian artillery, according to Ukrainian reports. a study of the war and a forensic study of the Atlantic Council.
The Russians then tried at least one more identical maneuver at exactly the same point, only to destroy that force, ISW said. According to the head of the Luhansk administration Sergei Haidai, the Russians have made a total of five failed attempts at the same point in the river.
– How much of an idiot can you be? German Kulikovsky, a Russian journalist, asked on his Telegram account. “Maybe it’s not idiocy, but sabotage?”
“Honestly, it’s much easier to explain this situation with sabotage,” he added sarcastically.
Tatarsky, a former Donbass fighter, called for a “military genius” who ordered the operation to be publicly named and held accountable. The Donbass offensive has been delayed in part because of the actions of such commanders, he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 12 that Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine would undoubtedly achieve its goals. (Video: Reuters)
Critics have expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the way the war is going in the Russian military and security services, Russian journalists and analysts say. And more freedom to speak to pro-war Russians who have shown undeniable patriotic qualities, said a Russian journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity because he opposed the war and feared the consequences would be quoted publicly.
Many in the military believe that limiting the original goals of the war, reduced after Russia’s failure to take Kyiv, is a mistake, write Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, prominent Russian investigative journalists and foreign staff at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
“Now they claim that Russia is not fighting Ukraine, but NATO. That is why senior officers have come to the conclusion that the Western Alliance is fighting to the end (by supplying increasingly sophisticated weapons) while its own forces are operating under peacetime restrictions as a barrier to air strikes against some key areas of Ukraine’s infrastructure. ” Soldiers and Borogan write. “In short, the military is now demanding a full war, including mobilization.
It is questionable whether the criticism reaches Putin and his inner circle. Putin has boasted in the past that he has no time for social media, and the Kremlin has said he does not have a cell phone.
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