Vladimir Putin could be running out of missiles and the equipment necessary to continue waging war in Ukraine – and his generals are now blaming each other amid fears of being ‘purged’ for the failed invasion.
Mr Wallace, who was observing a military exercise with British troops and tanks in Finland, said generals were getting nearer to the frontline in an attempt to ‘sort out this quagmire they’re in’ by ‘shouting and screaming at people’ – but said this does not typically get ‘the best result’, The Times reports.
When asked about if General Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff who went to the frontline last month, had been sent to Ukraine to be a ‘fall guy’ for the failure, Mr Wallace said: ‘They’re all in fall guy territory. Be careful if you’re out in sole command of something in the Russian system, because it may not be for long.
‘There is a point of tension in the system. As much as they respect the former KGB man [Putin] for being a strong leader, the Russian general staff are going to be made scapegoats for his mess.’
Mr Wallace also said there was no one close to Putin who has advised him to abandon his plans to seize Ukraine, and their ‘quagmire’ could soon turn into a ‘rout’ if they fail again, as they did north of Kyiv.
And Admiral Radakin said that while there were ‘real risks’ the Russians could gain ground in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine – the new focus of their offensive – they had little time to make the improvements needed after they were driven back from the capital.
You’re also seeing, on a daily basis, Russia struggling to get the momentum, struggling to align its air forces with its land forces and struggling to get what we call a modern campaign which creates that momentum,’ he said.
He said the Russians were in for a ‘hard slog’ and questioned whether the ‘rushed manner’ in which Mr Putin was seeking to achieve victory would succeed.
‘I think what we’re now seeing is incredible pressure – political pressure and military pressure – for a victory,’ he said.
‘This is going to be a tough fight. And it’s going to carry on being a tough fight. This is going to be a hard slog.
‘You’re seeing the tactical fight, where he’s trying to rush to a tactical victory, and then he’ll push that with his own people.’
Admiral Radakin confirmed Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had warned Chancellor Rishi Sunak that rising inflation and the need to arm Ukraine meant the UK could miss its commitment to spend 2% of national income on defence.
Mr Wallace was reported to have written to the Chancellor ahead of the Spring Statement in March that the Nato spending target was in jeopardy but had received no reply.
‘We’re a big-spending department and we have regular conversations at all levels with the Treasury,’ Admiral Radakin said.
The Defence Secretary writing to the Chancellor to say this is our view of where defence spending is going, I think is pretty normal business.
‘At the moment, under this spending review, we’re above 2% through the whole period. And then it starts to peter off, I think, in 2024/25.
A group of Russian soldiers are suing the army after they were fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine.
In a rare public spat involving the Kremlin, 25 National Guard ‘refuseniks’ defied their commanders’ orders to invade Ukraine.
The servicemen are taking North Caucasian District commander Lt-Gen Sergey Zakharov to court at the Vladikavkaz military base in south-western Russia.
Proceedings are set to begin tomorrow, according to lawyer and human rights campaigner Pavel Chikov.
Hundreds of guards from at least 17 cities and regions have sought legal advice and aim to follow the Vladikavkaz 25 in launching legal cases.
The true number of ‘refuseniks’ may be far higher, with some estimating that between 20 and 40 per cent of conscripted soldiers refused to join Putin’s war.
Many Russian fighters have complained about having to kill their Slavic neighbours. Vicious fighting in the eastern Donbas region has also reportedly put many off.
Russia’s National Guard is an ‘internal’ security force reporting directly to Putin.
source:dailymail
