Russia invaded Ukraine a month ago with the stated objective of “demilitarizing and denazifying” the country.
According to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, his military needed to liberate eastern Ukrainians who’d been persecuted and stop the “regime” in Kiev from imposing more injustice.
One month on and this war is not going well for Russia. Unofficial reports show they have already lost over 17,000 soldiers; leaked audio now shows just how desperate Russian troops are getting.
This is not the portrait of a competent modern army. This is the portrait of a poorly-run crap show.
Intercepts Show a Russian Military in Collapse
Russia has lost an enormous amount of soldiers in a month; they also have failed to take the key cities of Odessa or Kiev. They have committed numerous war crimes and bombardments of civilian areas in Ukraine.
Leaked audio from Russian troops show that already from the very start of this war, Russians have been fighting an uphill battle with poor communication between branches of their military and awful command and control.
One perfect example is the attack on the Ukrainian small city of Makariv, where Russian BTGs (battalion tactical groups) started coming in to take over.
The commander says on audio to hit the whole town, including where civilians live, once Russian allies are away from the strike zone. This is a war crime that a competent army wouldn’t do, and it didn’t work anyway.
Ukrainians fought back fiercely, with the commander pleading for more support, saying his boys are “suffering” badly and later yelling about where the “f**k” the air support was that had been promised.
“You f***ing forgot” about sending in the air support, the commander screamed at the air force angrily.
#Ukraine: New, detailed images of Russian hardware destroyed by what is suspected to be a TB-2 drone in the area of #Makariv in the first days of the war.
A Buk-M2 9A317 SAMR TELAR, 9A316 TEL, an MT-LB with a variant of EW truck, and finally a KrAZ-255B with EOV-4421 excavator. pic.twitter.com/beCKf6l0Xw
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 16, 2022
Busted Up and Broken
The Russian military has lost so many troops, tanks, aircraft and weapons that it’s hard to even keep track of at this point. Ukraine has also successfully sabotaged their supply lines, ships in port, and pushed back Russia in many areas it was expected to easily dominate.
This includes in the town of Makariv, where they retook control of the town; although Russia is still pushing hard on it and contesting Ukrainian control.
One reason Makariv is important is that it lies just north of Kiev and could be an important strategic point for Russia to launch a wider invasion of the capital.
The brave fighting and defense of Ukrainian units has prevented that from happening at this point.
Russian incompetence has also played a part; many young recruits sent in barely know where they are, and poor command and control are issues, as well. The Russian air force has even reportedly bombed its own troops by mistake on several occasions.
Intercepted call between #Russian soldiers in #Ukraine: "It’s a sh*tshow … They couldn’t even send off the 200s here. They rode with us for 5 days.
Even in Chechnya, there was nothing like this, this is a madhouse."https://t.co/fOOWNEuihr pic.twitter.com/CTn2pltVVZ
— Julie Laumann 🌻 (@Otpor17) March 24, 2022
The Bottom Line
Russia is losing this war, or at least, it’s not winning.
