Russian soldiers in Ukraine are dissatisfied with leadership
2022.12.11 08:32
Russian soldiers in Ukraine are dissatisfied with leadership
Budrigannews.com – After visiting the conflict zone, an influential nationalist Russian blogger stated that some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are dissatisfied with the military’s top brass and President Vladimir Putin due to the war’s poor execution.
The bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II has not ended nearly ten months after Putin ordered troops into Ukraine.
Although nationalist bloggers have been outspoken about the conduct of the war, particularly the costly Russian defeats in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine in September, direct public criticism of Putin is uncommon in contemporary Russia.
Igor Girkin, a nationalist who was formerly a member of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and aided Russia in its 2014 annexation of Crimea before organizing pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, stated that there was some discontent with the upper echelons.
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Girkin said that the Russian military needed reform and an intake of competent individuals who could lead a successful military campaign in a scathing 90-minute video that looked at how Russia carried out the war.
Girkin stated that some mid-level military personnel were forthright about their dissatisfaction with Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“It is not just me; others are completely blind and deaf: According to Girkin, “people at the mid-level there don’t even hide their views, which, how do I put it, are not entirely complimentary about the president or the defense minister.”
The remarks made by Girkin, who has repeatedly criticized Shoigu, a close ally of Putin, for the war’s battlefield defeats, were not addressed by the Russian defense ministry.
Russia and Ukraine both claim that the other side has suffered a devastatingly high number of casualties, but neither provides specific information regarding their own losses.
On November 9, the top general of the United States estimated that Russia and Ukraine had each lost more than 100,000 of their soldiers. The number of civilian deaths is unknown.
Shortly after the invasion, Russia enacted laws that allow for sentences of up to five years in prison for actions interpreted as discrediting the armed forces or up to 15 years for deliberately spreading false information.
“1917” Putin last week used the term “war” to describe the conflict, which he dates to 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and supported separatist forces were fighting in eastern Ukraine after a pro-Russian president was overthrown in the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine.
After decades of humiliation since the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991, Putin describes Russia’s “special military operation” as a turning point when Russia finally stood up to the arrogant West, led by the United States.
Putin asserts that Russia is defending Russians in Ukraine from a tyrannical West that ultimately seeks to deplete Russia’s vast resources and wipe out Russian civilization. There is no such plot in the West.
The West and Ukraine claim that Putin has no reason to wage what they describe as an occupation war in the style of an imperial power. Ukraine declares that it will fight until every Russian soldier is driven off its land.
According to Girkin, the West wanted to create a revolutionary situation in Russia similar to the 1917 February Revolution, when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated amid popular and elite resentment over Russia’s failures in World War I.
Despite Russia’s failure to establish air superiority due to Ukrainian air defenses, he stated, Russia lacked effective tactical missiles and was unsure if it could produce enough.
He stated, “Our Ministry of Defense has simply slept through the fact that the world has moved to new tactical aviation.”
Due to his role in the shooting down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, which resulted in the deaths of 298 passengers and crew members, Girkin was found guilty of murder in absentia by Dutch judges. The verdict was rejected by Russia, which has repeatedly denied shooting down the plane.
