Voice of Ukraine

From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (404th day of ruzzzian invazzion):

I open news digest and see headlines like this:

• Former Russian commander in Ukraine says Moscow was unprepared for a protracted war and is now ‘heading for military defeat’
• Russian army grows weaker and covers up failures with fakes about capturing Bakhmut
• Putin will soon face his Julius Caesar moment in the Kremlin

It sounds good. We are all praying for and anticipating the spring counteroffensive of our army! We are praying for the defeat of ruzzzian army. The world will be a better and safer place after that.

Putin is also working on destroying his army and the future of his country. Here is what The Telegraph say in the article “Putin’s meatgrinder tactics are destroying a generation of Russian men”:

“Putin’s regime is in its death throes. His “special military operation”, far from disarming Ukraine, has only succeeded in disarming Russia. Moscow has lost over 220,000 soldiers to death or injury alongside 1,900 tanks. (Ukrainian estimate puts the number of ruzzian dead soldiers around 175,690 and destroyed ruzzian tanks – 3,627). These are the sort of numbers we associate with the first world war; modern militaries are rarely built to handle such catastrophic losses.

It’s no wonder that videos on social media appear to show burgeoning mutinies in the ranks of Russian units, or the much-feared criminals of the Wagner group complaining that they have no ammunition. The fighting around Bakhmut resembles Passchendaele or the Somme, with barely trained recruits sent into killzones to die.

So desperate is Russia for manpower that we are now hearing credible reports that the Kremlin has identified around 4 million people across the country that it believes could be press-ganged into the army. These, it believes, are men whose absence would be little missed; those with no fixed abode, with no close family, and sometimes with intellectual disabilities or drug use issues that make it difficult to hold down work. If these reports are correct, they will be given a day or two of training, a gun – and ammunition if they are lucky – before they are pushed to the front.

There it is believed that Putin’s conscripts last little more than seven days before they leave. If they are lucky, they are wounded. If they are a little less lucky, they leave in a coffin. And for some, they will be left to rot where they fall with nobody at home much the wiser. Is this really so difficult to believe when Moscow has already emptied its jails of murderers and rapists to fight and die in these same trenches?”