EXCLUSIVE: Voice message reveals Russian military unit’s catastrophic losses in Ukraine

https://kyivindependent.com ^ | March 2, 2022 | Illia Ponomarenko

[Meet the New Boss]

No one’s going to back this venture if he says he’s just trying to add another notch on his belt.

Yes, of course. That's why within Russia he plays up so hard the angle of NATO, as if not invading Ukraine means that NATO will have a springboard for invasion or missile attack, and the eight years-long suffering victims of Donbass. And that America is intriguing against Russia. These themes play very well among the Russian public.

But with Putin, one should never assume something is about what he says it is about.

What he says something is about, may well be what he thinks will have the maximum effect with the public or with other parties he is dealing with in order to achieve whatever his agenda actually is.

So one has to look first and foremost at his actions and draw the best conclusions. And I think he let things slip a bit in his rambling speech about Russian and Ukrainian history the other week.

He doesn't seem to be the same normal cold, calculating, high-functioning sociopath self.

Possibly he is consciously trying the Trump strategy, seem a little bit crazy to keep your opponent guessing.

But many close Putin observers are saying that he seems off.

[Zhang Fei]

[He doesn’t seem to be the same normal cold, calculating, high-functioning sociopath self. ]

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Here’s the thing. He knows if NATO gets into this with air support for Ukraine, his formations are scrap metal. So he needs to bluff - to suggest that he might use nukes against NATO forces, if they get involved. Faking madness is how you play chicken successfully. Throw the steering wheel out the window. I think he’s doing a pretty good job. Trump would have laughed at Putin, and the Euroweenies would have been appalled, convinced that Trump was crazier than Putin.

[unclebankster]

Don’t worry if left wing college professors had their way in the United States...Our agricultural, industrial, & Financial sectors would be completely destroyed beyond repair.

I’m so glad members of Free Republic like you:

“Are All Ukrainians now.”

Have fun losing your Ukraine jewels to Russian aggression.

[convoter2016]

I think Putin didn’t send his best ground troops into Ukraine. He figured that 50,000 of his mediocre troops should have at least took control of one of the 2 largest cities in Ukraine within a week of the invasion. Now Putin knows it will be harder so we send up to 150,000 troops (in total) in and wait for the results.

[Zhang Fei]

[So I TOTALLY agree the term fits Putin]

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One of the things a Tsar needs is a palace guard whose commander is answerable directly to him. You may know this already, but Putin allegedly has a National Guard numbering 400,000 in that capacity:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2017/05/03/why-putin-needs-a-praetorian-guard/

[NorseViking]

What sort of poor judgment could make NATO involved?
Putin “brandishing nukes” is his reaction on earlier French threat of Feb.24. The French foreign minister on TF1 said Russia needs to be aware that NATO has nuclear weapons. Russian defcon 2 came out following this comment.

[Zhang Fei]

[What sort of poor judgment could make NATO involved?
Putin “brandishing nukes” is his reaction on earlier French threat of Feb.24. The French foreign minister on TF1 said Russia needs to be aware that NATO has nuclear weapons. Russian defcon 2 came out following this comment.]

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The French statement was in response to Putin holding nuclear drills as an implicit threat to NATO on 2/18:

https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-oversee-nuclear-drills-during-standoff-over-ukraine-2022-02-18/

I think Putin exercised great judgment in invading Ukraine during Biden’s tenure. Trump would have laughed in his face and zapped some of his units just as he zapped the Russian mercs in Syria.

[Meet the New Boss]

Yes I do agree with that, but I was trying to get at a larger perspective on matters.

I believe his fantasy is in his lifetime to unite the Russo-Slavic peoples in some kind of pan-Russo-Slavic union.

And that this has been his dream for a long time. And if he is in fact seriously ill, he may be thinking he doesn’t have a lot of time left.

His concern, his paranoia stems from things that might interfere with this, and first and foremost that has been the EU, not NATO.

Ukraine was quite militarily weak, not surprising for such a poor country, at the time of initiating the process of accession to the EU.

Joining the EU doesn’t mean a country must join NATO.

But when Yanukyvich abruptly reversed course on the EU (in concert with Putin in my view), shocking the people of Ukraine and resulting in nationwide tumult and violence and the parliament rejecting Yanukyvich, Putin took advantage of the opportunity presented to try to carve out a large piece of Ukraine, this was the so-called Novorossiya, New Russia.

This piece could naturally be included in his plans for this pan-Russo-Slavic union.

However, Ukraine’s weak military, augmented by newly-formed militia regiments, including nationalist elements, was able to push back the effort and establish a line such that separatists captured only a relatively small part of Ukraine, the occupied LPR and DPR.

Putin assisted these separatist areas to a great extent with weapons and fighters and welfare, but always within the context that these were arguably Ukrainian separatists, not the Russian armed forces.

It was these events that led Ukraine to turn to NATO, and the complete revamping of its military command structure and tactics along NATO lines and equipment improvement, greatly strengthening their effectiveness to where prior to the invasion they quite possibly could have achieved the recapture of the separatist areas with a determined push.

So my larger point is that Putin himself pushed Ukraine into the arms of NATO. It could have been part of the EU without constituting any significant threat or hostility in the direction of Russia.

But Ukraine joining the EU would forever dash his hopes of a pan-Russo-Slavic union.

This is how we got here; NATO was a secondary level of consequence.

Similarly, Belarus. The prospect of Belarus joining the EU is what Putin was most concerned with, and which he has managed to frustrate through his management of the relationship with Lukashenko.

[Meet the New Boss]

Have you checked that link? It’s broken for me.

[Zhang Fei]

[Have you checked that link? It’s broken for me.]

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Works for me. I’m using Firefox. Try your smart phone or tablet.

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

No. Putin loves the absolute power communism gives him.

True, title “czar” is a term for certain high-level civil servants: “drug czar”; “terrorism czar”; “cybersecurity czar”; & “war czar”. Not sure, but I think I remember the term czar/tzar came from the Latin word caesar, intended to mean “emperor.” There is nothing in Putin’s historic or contemporary: Ukraine invasion, to indicate him as a benevolent dictator.

Putin is more like Stalin in a Neo-Red Czar form.
President Vladimir Putin privately threatened to invade Poland, Romania and the Baltic States, according to a record of a conversation with his ex-Ukrainian counterpart.
“If I wanted, in two days I could have Russian troops not only in Kiev, but also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucharest,” Mr. Putin. And I believe his intention is first to :neuter” nations keeping them in compliance to his will. Then, re-establish old USSR borders.

Putin is old KGB & will eliminate by assassination anyone, anywhere for his convenience. Putin uses social media sourced agents just like the tactics of USSR: KGB utilized to disrupt opposition. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-technology-europe-media-nationalism-2186dbc533560cb666f59655ecf1ee8e?fbclid=IwAR1rIvmNXAtd3yJJfjl8OqtE4Zb_NqJw7DoLlZlwAlA6ZFME-Nv9bTHjxXA

This is exactly what we are seeing today with crazy pod casts and internet shows making people think the “good guys” are “bad” and “the bad guys” “are good” with crazy conspiracy theories, i.e. Q-Anon political conspiracy theorists. The end result is rather than taking appropriate action, people fight one another while the real enemy just gets stronger! BTW, this usually stops the QAnon conspiracy theorists claiming Putin to be a ‘white hat’: https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/putin-appears-with-klaus-schwab-at-global-wef-forum/

[Zhang Fei]

[True, title “czar” is a term for certain high-level civil servants: “drug czar”; “terrorism czar”; “cybersecurity czar”; & “war czar”. Not sure, but I think I remember the term czar/tzar came from the Latin word caesar, intended to mean “emperor.” There is nothing in Putin’s historic or contemporary: Ukraine invasion, to indicate him as a benevolent dictator.]

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I’m not using Tsar in the sense of high-level bureaucrats. When I say Tsar, I mean king - someone who can have one or many of his subjects killed for any or no reason whatsoever. Were some of the Tsars nice people? I couldn’t say - the issue wasn’t their personalities so much as their authority, in the short run, to do almost anything they wanted within their domain. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[alexander_busek]

That's why the Soviets lost 5 times as many soldiers as the Nazis and won defeated Operation Barbarossa.

Unternehmen Barbarossa was the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It failed because the Soviets defeated it.

Regards,

[NorseViking]

The alert was on Feb. 27.
As for Trump you might be kidding.

[Zhang Fei]

[The alert was on Feb. 27.
As for Trump you might be kidding.]

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In public, Trump was pretty pleasant to the leaders of America’s enemies. But that’s in public. In private, he kicked them bloody. Trump tightened the leash so hard on Kim, famines ensued. He was seizing ships at periodic intervals. Biden loosened those sanctions by ending that program. And lo - flush with cash, Kim started testing new missiles again.

Trump ramped up sanctions on Russia. He exited worthless missile and Open Skies treaties that Putin did not live up to, that Biden wants to revive. He struck Russian ground troops for the first time in a century*, killing 200 of them, something even Trump-hating Newsweek acknowledges:

https://www.newsweek.com/total-f-russian-mercenaries-syria-lament-us-strike-killed-dozens-818073

Trump’s relationship with the leaders of America’s enemies is a lot like domestic abuse - pleasant in public appearances together and serious beatdowns in private. That is why Kim and Putin respected Trump - his pimp hand kept them docile.

* The last time a president ordered US troops into action against Russian grunts was just after the Bolshevik Revolution. Woodrow Wilson sent the Polar Bears to help the Whites against the Reds.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Well there are battlefield deaths but also wounded and deserted numbers too. Also I’m sure some units are just going through the motions and are not at all effective. I want to see those numbers.

[Jimmy Valentine]

They have adjusted their tactics to terrorize the civilian population. My (Ukrainian) source tells me that hospitals and childrens schools are targeted too, This from a person on the ground.

[NetAddicted]

Rd later.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Wait a minute. I thought Russia was killing everyone.

[Paul R.]

Yeah, the propagandists on both sides aside, although I must admit that some of the Ukrainians are a hell of a lot funnier and spirited (like that tune on YouTube with the Ukraine flown Turkish drones blowing up Russki convoys)...

The Russians are advancing gradually with heavy casualties on both sides.

I do question if the under 40 crowd in Russia has the tolerance for heavy casualties. Anti-war songs* have been pretty popular amongst the younger set in Russia ever since Afghanistan. That might be something the West can exploit — “Vietnam them”. Employ Elon to pause Starlink** for a while outside of Ukraine** to work on thousands of satellites beaming down such on AM, FM, and TV frequencies. Train and equip tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who know Russian to deluge the web in Russia. Etc.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWyH_MA9tts

( Studio version w/ lyrics (scroll down), 23 million views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMs7SLDFZdI )

**SpaceX has already provided and is providing Ukraine with more Starlink terminals so Pooty can’t completely cut off communications and Internet to the West. When the unhinged Russian head of their space agency said, “who will keep the ISS from landing on the US or Europe”, Musk replied with an image of SpaceX. (Pretty easy, actually: The ISS has limited thrust capability. Even if Russia tried to deorbit it, I’m pretty sure SpaceX could quickly adapt and send up a small booster to nudge it back to a higher orbit. Or, if all you’ve got is a very small nudge, re-aim the de-orbit at Siberia. Or the Kremlin if you really wanna be obnoxious. It’s unlikely any pieces big enough to hurt anybody would come through re-entry anyway, but, it’d be a heck of a display if at night.)