To break the stalled Ukraine invasion, Russia sent airborne troops to Ukraine. President Putin hoped that the 331st airborne would capture Kyiv in a few days when the regular regiment failed. Russian media glorifies how great and mighty the Russian military is.
Russian disinformation
Russian disinformation is well known, but now it seems to me to be running out of ideas. In this war, perhaps one should ask whether Putin has become a victim of his own propaganda. The hypothesis that he was the first to overstate the capacity of his army, and to mythologize its role, is not without grounds.
From the performance data of Russian military hardware to Vodka, everything is so exaggerated in Russia and overseas buyers that Putin is deeply shocked and mistrusts his Generals and Admirals for misguiding him about Russia’s military capability. Vladimir Putin’s advisors may be too scared to tell the Russian leader the truth about his botched invasion of Ukraine.
Most of the 150,000 troops are conscripts, except the 331st Guards Airborne Regiment is a formation of the Russian Airborne Troops. Being a part of the 98th Guards Airborne Division, the regiment is considered to be one of Russia’s elite units.
The regiment is part of the 98th Guard Airborne Division and has around 2000 soldiers and over 200 armoured fighting vehicles.
The 331st airborne is backed by Mi-28N attack helicopters, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-82 armored vehicles, Russian PK machine guns and assault weapons.
Putin’s advisor afraid to tell him the truth
Vladimir Putin has made a strategic miscalculation in launching the invasion of Ukraine and his advisers are “afraid to tell him the truth” about the extent of his error, the boss of British spy agency GCHQ said in a speech on Thursday.
“We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership,” said Kate Bedingfield, director of communications at the White House.
“We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth.”
Sir Jeremy Fleming, in a speech given in Australia, said the Russian leader had misjudged the strength of Ukrainian resistance, the western response and the ability of his forces to deliver a rapid victory.
Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country, citing his opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the situation, becoming the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion.
Jewish President Zelenskyy
Putin claims that he wants to “liberate” Ukraine, while in reality he is subjugating it; he claims that his goal is to “de-Nazify” it, but it is precisely himself who is using “Nazi” propaganda and rhetoric: that Ukrainians are not part of a true nation, while reinforcing the Russians’ national identity. Perhaps this is the most obvious paradox: the more he insists on unity between Ukrainians and Russians, the more he makes their differences wider. Another paradox is that this mission to impose his legacy through violence may bring about his own end.
Putin wanted to oust President Zelenskyy hence he said “de-nazify” for his domestic propaganda mouthpiece RT news to broadcast a narrative that would favor Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and has zero ties to any neo-Nazi movement. In fact members of his family were murdered during the Holocaust and others fought in the Red Army against Nazis.
“How can I be a Nazi?,” Zelensky said in a speech after the invasion. “Explain it to my grandfather, who went through the entire war in the infantry of the Soviet army, and died a colonel in an independent Ukraine.”
Ukraine fightbacks
According to the BBC reports, the regiment’s commander, Colonel Sergey Sukharev, was also confirmed as killed during the fierce battle near Kyiv on March 17. Reports claim that the Russian 331st Guards Airborne Regiment was destroyed after coming under fire from Ukrainian forces. This comes from the background of reports claiming that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has stalled on all fronts.
It is known that Sukharev’s regiment had fought against Ukraine outside the city Ilovaisk in Donbas back in 2014 and took part in both Chechen wars. The Russian-Georgian war of 2008 was noted by Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security.
“Most of the Russian units suffered enormously high casualties they never had since world war 2. As of April 2 2022, BBC news had verified the deaths of 39 soldiers from the regiment but noted that “since none of those fatalities is more recent than March 17, it can be supposed that dozens more will emerge in the coming weeks.
“The only Survivors of the Battle are reported to be 1 Severely Wounded Airborne Soldier who is Currently under Ukrainian Medical Care and up to 100 Russian Airborne prisoner of war (POW) that have been captured over the last few days during the Fighting.”
MSNBC news showed footage of destroyed armoured fighting vehicles and trucks scattered over the battlefield and twisted metal shards. According to MSNBC News, Russia had withdrawn special forces from Kyiv, retreated to Belarus due to fierce resistance by Ukrainian special forces and later redeployed to the Donbas region.
© 2022, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Be the first to comment