Russia Victimized by its Military Incompetence
"Today I have sent letters to the investigative Committee and the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation with a request to check on the fact of the commission of a crime during the preparation and during the conduct of the SMO [Special Military Operation] by a host of senior functionaries of the Defence Ministry.""These letters will not be published due to the fact that the investigative authorities will deal with this."Yevgeny Prigozhin, Chief, Wagner Group
Russia's unpreparedness for Ukraine's aggressive and hugely effective
military reaction to Moscow's invasion of its neighbour has the Kremlin
and President Putin on their back foot, embarrassed by their own
vulnerability in facing drone incursions into the heart of Moscow, over
the Kremlin, targeting the areas where the elite of Russian corporate
interests live in their mansions. The ability of a suspected Ukraine
offensive to hit Russian border towns and energy and munitions storage
depots is bringing home to Russia that they are as likely to suffer the
extremes of conflict as what they have imposed upon Ukraine.
The
bad-tempered complainant and vociferous critic of the Russian military
who has been careful not to criticize Vladimir Putin, his dear friend
for whom he has boundless admiration, has turned his sights once again
on the Russian top military, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of
the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, both of whom Yevgeny Prigozhin
detests, claiming they are jealous of the successes gained by his Wagner
Group, withholding badly needed weaponry in their nefarious plan to
have Wagner mercenaries suffer losses from the Ukrainian military's
defenses, while the Russian military gains control and prevails.
Now
the most public challenge against the top military brass has been
lodged front and centre for prosecutors to investigate crimes committee
by the senior Russian defence officials, prior to or throughout the
Ukraine war. Prigozhin's vendetta-laden accusations against the two
senior leaders for their poor performance, for ignoring his demands for
weapons supplies, for alleged treachery is the culmination of his
months-long insults and charges of incompetence and stupidity in the
prosecution of the conflict and their responsibility in the massive
Russian death count of both the military and the Wagner mercenaries.
EPA-EFE/Sergey Kozlov |
Prigozhin's
outrageous charges and his hysterical performances represent an
embarrassment to Moscow, which appears never to have responded to any of
his charges. He has never launched a challenge against President Putin,
and he has high popularity among those Russians dissatisfied with the
Russian military role in the conflict imposed upon Ukraine. Their dismay
at the losses in the conduct of the war, from war blogger buffs and
influential oligarchs to the vast public whose sons have been killed
through inept strategies, support the former
restaurateur-turned-mercenary chief.
Ukrainian
artillery hit a Russian town for a third time, with drones striking two
oil refineries, as attacks on Russian territory gain traction. Ukraine
bring the war that Russia brought to Ukraine, right back to Russia.
Which seems reasonable enough, despite Moscow fuming that such attacks
represent terrorist war crimes. Russian citizens are being wounded in
their own towns, shells damaging apartments, homes and schools and power
lines and industrial facilities. Details quite familiar to Ukrainians
living in towns and cities across the vast territory of Ukraine.
Both
Ukraine and Russia have committed to targeting each other's forces and
military equipment building up to the anticipated Ukrainian
counteroffensive in weeks or days to come. In eastern Ukraine its
general staff described Ukrainian forces fending off 22 Russian attacks
in one day alone, when Ukrainian aircraft carried out 11 strikes on
Russian personnel and military equipment.
Ukrainian service members from a 110th Separate Mechanis\zed Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, prepare fire a self-propelled howitzer "Dana", amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photo by Sofiia Gatilova/REUTERS |
"This duality [inequality between the elite and the ordinary Russian citizen] may end like it did in 1917, with a revolution, when first the soldiers rise up, and after that their loved ones do.""[Russian citizens could raid the elites' homes with] pitchforks… and don't think there are hundreds of them, now there are now tens of thousands of relatives of those killed, and there will probably be hundreds of thousands.""We stormed in an aggressive manner and stomped our boots all over Ukraine while looking for Nazis. We approached Kyiv, s**t our pants, and retreated. Next onto Kherson, where we also s**t our pants and retreated, and nothing seems to be working out for us.""There are optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. The optimistic one, which I don't really believe in, is that Europe and America will get tired of the Ukrainian conflict, then China will put everyone at the negotiating table.""We will agree that everything that we have already seized is ours, and everything that has not been seized is not ours. It is unlikely that this scenario is possible."Yevgeny Prigozhin
Labels: Incompetence, Inept Military Strategies. Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Gains, Wagner Group
<< Home