Russia's War Of Defence And Security

"We are not in an easy situation. The enemy is increasing its army."

"Our people are braver and need more powerful weapons. We will pass it on [Ukrainian flag ] and pass it on from the boys [Ukrainian servicemen at the front] to the Congress, to the president of the United States."

"We are grateful for their support, but it is not enough."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Washington visit

"We have no restrictions on funding. The country and the government are giving the army everything it is asking for."

"We're not going to militarize our country or our economy. We simply don't need it."

"[Russia's nuclear arsenal remains the main guarantee for our security and territorial integrity".

Russian President Vladimir Putin

The launch of Russia’s new ‘Sarmat’ or ‘Satan II’ intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk on 20 April 2022

 

While Russia is destroying its neighbour's territorial integrity, its president remains focused on his own 'territorial integrity'. Which includes of course annexed territories Putin has torn from its rightful owner. Both countries have exhausted their supplies of munitions. Hundreds of missiles are shot off by both sides daily; from the Russian military to strike at Ukraine's civilian infrastructure; from the Ukrainian counteroffensive to rout the Russians and to strike down their missiles before they hit their targets.

 

Western intelligence estimates that 100,000 servicemen on both sides have died in this contest of wills and war machinery. On average 500 members of each side's military are killed daily. Numbers hard to credit considering the wholesale bloodbath they represent. Which does not include the tens of thousands of civilians injured and killed by continual Russian attacks and deliberate murder.

 

Ukraine's dire need for additional munitions to allow it to continue its hugely successful counteroffensive which has succeeded in good measure in pushing back Russian troops, securing some of the territory that Russia had declared incorporated into the Russian Federation. The rate at which munitions are being used is unsustainable. The manufacture of replacement weapons in the West is unable to keep pace with the dwindling arsenals.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 21, 2022. (Mikhail Kuravlev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Vladimir Putin has declared yet again his intention to continue pursuing his goal; destroying Ukraine and enriching Russia in the process. He is now claiming that he has the most profound love for Ukraine, brotherly love that moans in pain at Ukraine's losses. But it is not his fault that Russia's 'special military operation' has destroyed Ukraine's power grids leaving its people to freeze in the dark without water and sufficient medical supplies. 

The nefariously malicious actions of the United States whose purpose it is to destroy Russia is to blame, along with its manipulations through NATO, intruding on Russia's near abroad despite Moscow's warning that it was intolerable, that its incursions toward the former Soviet satellites' wish to join NATO impairs Russia's security. Leaving the Kremlin no option but to impose its own response on Ukraine as a lesson to the Baltic nations that their future is with Russia, not NATO.

Russia's defence minister Sergei Shoigu, has requested that his army's strength be increased from a million to one-and-a-half million troops. When it was announced months ago that new recruits were needed, a rushed stampede of Russian men sought to salvage their futures by fleeing abroad. New recruits were brought to the front insufficiently trained and ill equipped. Where will another half-million fighting men be drawn from?

Mercenaries and reluctant holdbacks, raising the age of acceptable qualifications to fight the noble fight until the goal has been achieved. The earlier mobilization saw drafted men reporting reluctantly at the front lines lacking adequate kit, but this is not to happen again; corruption and inefficiency and poor management are to become the sins of the past. In praising the performance of the Russian army, no mention was made of Russian losses in Ukraine on the battlefield.

 

Next on the agenda for the Russian Army, receipt of state-of-the-art Sarmat (Satan II) intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying ten nuclear warheads and decoys.  

The launch of Russia’s new ‘Sarmat’ or ‘Satan II’ intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk on 20 April 2022   EPA