The progress made in the Ukraine war does not correspond to Russian planning in Moscow. An adviser to Vladimir Putin speaks plainly.
Moscow/Kyiv – Russia’s military resources in the Ukraine war have been a political issue since the invasion began. International observers comment on the army’s losses on a daily basis. The Ukrainian military, for example, publishes statistics on this every day. The British and US Departments of Defense also regularly comment on Russia’s losses in Ukraine. Only from the Kremlin itself there are very few assessments.
President Vladimir Putin gave a rare insight in his speech on May 9, the “Day of Victory” over Nazi Germany: All that remained was a confirmation that there were losses – both human and material – and how high they were are, he left open. An adviser to Putin has now given new details. We’re talking about Ruslan Pukhow, a member of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Advisory Board in the Kremlin. He also heads the Moscow-based “Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies”, an institute that deals in particular with defense policy.
News about the Ukraine war: “They are cheap” – Putin adviser sees problem with Russian missiles
When it comes to military matters, Pukhow is apparently very well informed. In an interview with Russian state television, to which the news portal Focus Online , among others, refers, he made surprising predictions about the Ukraine war. According to Pukhow, the Russian army’s equipment is in poor condition: “We have far too few infantry soldiers.” There is also a lack of high-precision weapons: a problem that a Russian general has already recognized and the British Ministry of Defense assessed in a similar way. Apparently, Russia is using Soviet-era missiles en masse. These are very inaccurate and would therefore have fatal consequences for the civilian population, explained the brigadier general, who wished to remain anonymous. Putin’s adviser Pukhov also said: “We’re firing hundreds, even thousands, of unguided missiles somewhere. They’re cheap, but they don’t really hit the mark. Two of the enemy’s high-precision projectiles do significantly more damage.”
Instead of high-precision weapons, the Russian army relies on the massive use of artillery. “We have to break the Ukrainian front line with far too few soldiers and vulnerable tanks and military vehicles,” said the Putin adviser. Due to the poor equipment, Pukhow drew the following conclusion: “It’s like in a gladiator fight. One fights with sword and shield. The other with a trident and a net.”
That is why the Russian military is facing difficult months, he emphasized: “The situation could become dramatic for us at the end of the summer. We mobilize too few soldiers. And fight against an army that is already experiencing the fourth wave of mobilization. They don’t have a shortage of fighters.” Pukhow, meanwhile, assumed that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had not started by a long shot. However, the General Staff of Ukraine has already announced this several times. There were several coordinated attacks, especially in the south of the country, as reported by the news portals Kyiv Independent and Nexta . (do with dpa/AFP)