This month was a reality check for Russia: after so much “winning”, they went back to Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov threatening “nuclear weapons” left and right. They’ve failed with everything else, so threatening to turn Ukraine into a nuclear wasteland is all terrorists can do these days.
Are we afraid? Of course, we are. We gave up our nuclear weapons in exchange for guarantees of peace, protection and untouched borders from Russia, the US and the UK.
The irony is mind-blowing, right? Take this as a reminder to never sign a deal with Russia — it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. But I digress.
Yes, of course, we are afraid of a nuclear attack from terrified terrorists, who wouldn’t be? It’s frightening.
But are we going to give up? Never.
Nevertheless, I don’t want to talk about Russia’s nuclear terrorism; instead, I want you to understand why it is constantly threatening the world: Putin miscalculated. His “special military operation” has failed and most of its regular army are either dead, injured, have deserted or are missing. A few days ago, Putin hysterically announced mobilisation. So, let’s talk about facts.
Reality check for Russia #1: Putin lost his so-called “Special Military Operation” and now he is dragging his country into a war.
Putin’s bravado is nowhere to be seen these days. I urge everyone to compare the angry speech on 24 February when he ordered the bombing of Ukraine and demanded demilitarisation and denazification with his latest press conference at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit where he quietly complained that the Ukrainian government doesn’t want to negotiate with him.
We’re witnessing this miraculous transformation because over the past couple of months, the Ukrainian army has destroyed a huge number of weapons storage, military bases and essential logistics infrastructure in all of the occupied territories, including the Crimea and Donbas regions. Those regions were supposed to have top-notch antimissile defence and be fully protected. A lot of top-ranking Russian military have been eliminated.
In the liberated territories, the Ukrainian military discovered many Russian tanks, artillery pieces, ammunition, radar systems and drones. We call it our “land-lease” from Russia. Furthermore, over the past seven months, Russia has recruited about 330,000 people for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This includes everyone, even its air and sea components, as well as military units and units of the mobilisation reserve. Where are all these soldiers? Why is Russia mobilising if its regular army is well and, most importantly, healthy and alive?
Absolutely fascinating Russian maths and logic: you have three days and 330,000 troops to take over Ukraine. Then seven months go by, everything is going “according to the plan”. You’ve lost only close to 5,000 soldiers and yet you’re conducting full-scale mobilisation?
One should pay good money to see that brilliant plan!
Over the past week, Russian men have fled in droves from mobilisation to neighbouring countries. Sales of plane tickets out of Russia reached an all-time high. People are posting videos of teachers working for the military commissariat who are ringing doorbells and knocking on people’s doors at all hours of the night to serve summons. There are videos surfacing that show soldiers being given rusty weapons, that they have no ammunition or equipment and are being robbed of everything they bring. And there are a lot of videos showing Russian police beating up those who are protesting the war.
So, to sum up: The Russian "special military operation" is going 100% according to plan, that’s why they aren’t even mentioning its regular army or where it went and why they’ve declared “partial” mobilisation that mobilises literally everyone they can grab.
Reality check for Russia #2: Declaring yourself an almighty army with the best military equipment that has “no analogues” and at the same time asking Iran for drones and North Korea for weapons and ammunition is laughable. At the very least.
I visited the Africa Aerospace and Defence expo last week and, somehow, wasn’t able to find any of that famous Russian military machinery or equipment. The logistics must have failed the “second” army in the world once more. That seems to be happening a lot lately. Though, honestly, at this point, ought we to assume that literally tens of thousands of images of destroyed Russian military machinery are also a part of Putin’s brilliant plan?
During seven months of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia has lost 14,506 pieces of equipment worth tens of billions, excluding missiles:
- Tanks: 2,275
- Armoured personnel vehicles: 4,832
- Artillery systems/Multiple launch rocket systems: 1,368/328
- Anti-aircraft warfare systems: 171
- Aircraft/Helicopters – 259/220
- Unmanned aerial vehicle (operational-tactical level): 966
- Cruise missiles: 241
- Warships/boats: 15
- Vehicles and fuel tanks: 3,701
- Special equipment: 130
A month ago, the top 10 most expensive losses of the Russian army per unit were:
- Missile cruiser Moscow: $750-million
- Il-76 aircraft: $86-million
- Amphibious assault ship Saratov: $75-million
- Su-30SM aircraft: $50-million
- Su-34 aircraft: $40-million
- Su-35 aircraft: $32-million
- Il-22PP aircraft: $30-million
- Tor-M2 air defence system: $25-million
- Vessel Vasyl Beh: $21-million
- OTRK Iskander: $21-million
This is what inadequate military equipment looks like. And this is exactly why the Russians only fight civilians and not our army. And the only reason they’ve succeeded anywhere — and it’s a well-known tactic — is because they are shelling villages or cities to the ground and only then coming in and claiming victory.
The number of their destroyed, damaged, abandoned or captured military weaponry is mind-blowing. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time in a month for me to gather all of the photos of the destroyed Russian army that came to murder and torture Ukrainians, but I’m happy to show you some of them.
But, before you move to the gallery, I want to show you a true “no analogues” Russian military machine. A couple of months ago, a Russian general wanted to open a military vehicle’s front passenger door for Putin. They were “inspecting” this miracle state-of-the-art Russian military jeep … and the handle came off in his hand. Here’s the video. Enjoy. DM
Photos: Reuters, Ukrinform, Facty ICTV, Espresso.tv, NV, BBC, 7 dniv, KOLO, Hromadske, Focus, LB.UA, Suspilne, Radio Svoboda
