Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly planning to sacrifice his own troops in “mass suicidal attacks” on Ukraine over the next three months in a desperate attempt at victory.
With the Russia-Ukraine war marking its first anniversary on Feb. 24, Putin is now planning “mass suicidal attacks” on Ukrainians, a report claimed.
According to the report, a confidential assessment of Russia’s invasion claims that Russian army’s incompetence, failure, and military weakness has left it resigned to order the attacks that will likely result in the loss of many lives. The war has already claimed the lives of nearly 150,000 Russian soldiers since the full-scale invasion was launched.
The report stated that a Western expert on Putin’s Russia warned of three scenarios, the first of which was Russian military action threatening more of Russia’s neighbours with attacks.
The second scenario could be if the Ukrainian military has a breakthrough and ends the occupation, however, this would require a massive increase in arms delivery to the country by the West.
The third possibility is that Putin’s invasion campaign will fail due to “creeping Russian military stagnation and domestic loss of faith in Putin’s war.”
The latest assessment, which is provided to western governments, as per the report states, “Nowhere have the Russians been able to mass force densities to mount an effective offensive. has developed over the past few weeks is “more of the same”, i.e. grinding attrition stepped up.”
It further stated that so far, the Russian soldiers have proven to be unsuccessful in organising a combined arms assault, and have shown that they cannot offer sufficient logistics support for a breakthrough. The report also added that these kinds of attacks are beyond the ability of the Russian Army as it has not practised this for 30 years.
“The main ground forces’ tactic remains the near-suicidal mass infantry attack with inadequately trained troops under cover of heavy artillery,” the assessment stated as as reported by Mirror.
This is not, however, the first time such a threat has been interpreted. Earlier this year in January, an ally of President Putin had warned NATO that Russia’s defeat in Ukraine could lead to a nuclear war. Meanwhile the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said the world would end if the West tried to destroy Russia.
The threats were intended to deter the U.S.-led NATO military alliance from getting involved any further in the war.
As the war enters its second year, Russia isn’t fighting Ukraine alone as it is expected to receive critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world, including China.
Although Beijing claims to be neutral in the matter, it is observed that they’re attempting to preserve their ties to Moscow. According to officials from the U.S., China has been trying to take a more prominent role in the war and might provide “lethal support” to Russia.
Moreover, China’s President Xi Jinping ‘s upcoming meeting with Moscow allies has further thrown more fuel to the fire. Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko has also promised to deepen defence and security ties with Russia.
“This invasion (of Ukraine as per the West) reflects the reaction to the war the West was preparing for many years and that is why it was arming the Ukrainian regime”, said Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister during the G20 Foreign Ministers meet while hinting at the supply of weapons by the West to the East European country.
Meanwhile, Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer who played a key role in the country’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, stated that Russia will require China’s help if they want any chance at winning the war in Ukraine.
