The war in Ukraine has not been stopped even after half a year has passed. Putin’s forces are cornered in the face of Ukraine’s tough resistance. The unprecedented success of momentary attacks and counter-attacks by Ukrainian fighters left the powerful Russian forces in a critical situation. The so-called story of Russia’s reputation as a military superpower has been brought to the fore by the ongoing war in Ukraine. At least one thing has become clear over the course of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, that Putin’s military is a deeply flawed institution.
The Red Square parade or the Kremlin, which is talking about the huge fighting force to assert the capabilities of the Russian forces, does not find any similarity with the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. Rather, it is observed that the supposedly clean Russian military is mired in irregularities and corruption. Demoralized troops suffer from weak leadership. Due to the meager supply of troops, individual enterprise prevails in most cases, with heavy costs for the fighting soldiers. Another point worth noting is the reluctance of Russian commanders to accept responsibility. Many also spoke of personal reluctance to continue fighting. Additionally, the catastrophic defeat in northeastern Ukraine is complicating the situation. All in all, the army officers are surrounded by ‘extreme fear’. One of the reasons for their fear is,
Ukraine’s recent victories in various regions of the ongoing war have shocked the world. Perhaps the most surprised is Russia itself! Maybe no one else was surprised like them. The Kremlin tried to cover up reports of a retaliatory attack by Ukrainian fighters in response to the attack by Russian forces. But in this case, too, Putin has failed. It is easy to understand by seeing the scene of the incident and the face of the Russian forces, that Putin has tried his best to cover up the failure! However, despite many efforts, the real truth could not be suppressed in the end. What resulted was a massive psychological blow to the Russian public perception. When the Russian people learned for the first time that their troops were failing in Ukraine, and even that captured soldiers were being brutally beaten, It makes them extremely frustrated. The collapse of Russian forces in Kharkiv and Blast has shocked Ukraine’s allies. They start thinking different thoughts. They realize that over-reliance on Russia would be a great folly. So it would be logical and wise not to think twice about leaving Putin’s company.
Beyond these issues, the Ukraine counter-offensive continues to reveal many predictions about the overall state of the Russian military. Putin’s preoccupation with the Ukraine war says a lot. In the coming days, there are indications that Russia or its military forces have the ability to fulfill the expectations. The fear that surrounds the Russian commanders is not easy to overcome. The fear of losing one’s own precious life rather than the loss of Russia’s national interests and the overestimating of personal concerns will inevitably lead to the downfall of the Russian military. As a result of the weak leadership of the Russian army, Russia will continue to interfere in Ukraine.
Two facts are sufficient to understand the weakness of the Russian military. These two issues are the inefficiency and lack of accountability of the Russian forces in the Ukraine war. It is important to note here that the Ukrainian military has moved away from the Soviet tradition in recent years; So soldiers are active through a radical change. At the same time, they have adopted NATO-led reforms and modern techniques of warfare. These made the Ukrainian forces a strong unit. The Russian army, on the other hand, remains a formidable ‘rigid fighting machine’. Moreover, various top-down decisions have hindered the improvement of Russian military capabilities. What Russian forces have achieved in terms of modern tougher warfare, It is completely inappropriate in the modern world. Even today, Russian commanders continue to seek inspiration from the military achievements of the Red Army during World War II—how strange! Mainly because of these reasons, the Russian forces are being forced to surrender to the Ukrainian forces, which are much more active, modern, intelligent and tactical. Putin’s ‘overpowering’ forces are steadily retreating.
Recent events in Ukraine have revealed the underlying truth behind many of Russia’s exaggerated claims. According to international experts, Russia is ranked as the world’s number 2 military power, but does it look like today’s Russia? Although everyone believed such misconceptions in the peacetime world order, no one would want to accept this claim after observing the end of the war in Ukraine. According to official statistics, Russia has an annual defense budget of more than $60 billion, the third largest in the world. But despite this huge amount of investment in the defense sector, seeing the poor condition of the Russian forces, not only this budget, various questions and controversies may arise with Putin’s statements.
As it is now clear, Western observers had miscalculated Russia. Most of the analysis focused on the number of troops, tanks, missiles, and aircraft. But now it turns out, that every statistic was misleading. It is absolutely true today, every piece of information about Russia is completely false, and fabricated.
An important point is that the difficulties the Russian military is facing in Ukraine are exposing the limitations of Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian rule. When Putin invaded Ukraine in early 2022, nobody dared to stop him. As evidenced by Putin’s personal obsession with the destruction of Ukraine, no one dared warn him of the danger. Added to this is Putin’s blind faith in the invincibility of the Russian military. And there was his accumulated eternal insistence on Ukraine. Putin became desperate to crush Ukraine by attacking everything.
With the conflict, Putin’s fantasy vision (mission to remake Russia) has vanished. Self-confessed Russia today stands on the edge of the abyss. Russia has tried to paint both the withdrawal of Russian troops from northern Ukraine in April 2022 after the defeat in Kyiv and the subsequent retreat from Snake Island. Their expression was as if nothing had happened! Similarly, when the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moscow was sunk by Ukraine, Moscow tried to pass off the incident as an ‘accidental fire on board. How amazing! The Kremlin did not hesitate to distort and propagate these events. Every piece of information the Kremlin disseminated was a sheer fabrication. Despite resorting to various absurd excuses, Putin failed to suppress the real truth in the end. Putin’s desperate attempt to cling to lies to admit defeat has magnified Russia’s incompetence in front of the world.
Exactly what is going to happen in the coming days will largely depend on the supply of arms to Ukraine. Ukrainian fighters need tanks and fighter jets as well as more artillery, ammunition, and armored vehicles to drive Russia out of Ukraine forever. Arms supplies seem to continue to increase so far. Both the type and quantity of weapons are increasing. The democratic world should arm Ukraine to shatter Russia’s military superpower status and, above all, for a decisive victory. This will establish peace in Europe. The world will be saved. Putin’s imperial ambitions will crumble.
By Andriy Zagorodnyuk
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