Former CIA Analyst Breaks Down Russia's Latest Movement in Ukraine
Former CIA Russia analysis chief George Beebe explains why Russia has pulled back in parts of Ukraine, and what Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans going forward may be.
The Russian troops who attacked north kiev know too much and would be a liability to Putin if they ever return home to Russia. Hence Putin has sent them poorly equipped into Ukraine's eight year old killing field, the result is inevitable really but it is what Putin needs to do to get rid of his arkward human resources problem.
The request for 72 more M777 indicates to me the urgent need for an artillery batallion in each armoured brigade to be used in the counterattack - which means that they have enough infantry combat vehicles for an infantry batallion. This means the Ukrainians are going to go to maneuvre warfare on a brigade level - up till now they have functioned on a combined battallion level - this is on quite another scale.
There is indubitably a time factor involved here: The russians are mauled and the units transferred from Kiev and Kharkiev are unlikely to be any sort of reinforcement - they will have to be reconstituded (probably reformed - there has been a nasty fatality rate among russian officers - not only generals, but also field officers.
The defence of Mariupol, Odessa and Kiev can be left to local defence battalions - where the main task is to mob up enemy stragglers, ammunition dumps and generally clearing up the mess left by the russians - no need for regulars to do that job.
It is so heart-breaking to see the plight of the Ukraine's brave soldiers taking their last stand in Mariupol. They are the heroes and determined to fight till to their last drop of blood. Like the heroic people of Ukraine, the people of Burma are also taking their last stand to stamp out the military dictators from the land, once and for all. The National Unity Government (NUG) which is formed by the elected members of the parliament by the people in 2020 general election, which resides in the liberated areas, has declared to begin an “offensive war” from now on against the military regime, from the previous defensive positions. Loads of junta forces’ wives and children are now fleeing the city of Yangon, to the military stronghold city of Naypidaw in droves, in fear of attacks from the guerrilla forces. On 19 April 33 junta’s soldiers were killed and 42 wounded in a 15 days battle with the KNU. In other news, 5 police and 50 soldiers were killed by mines and attacks near Hteelin (ထီးလင်း) by the People’s Defence Forces - PDF (Democratic Voices of Burma DVB in Burmese 19 Apr 2022). For revenge, soldiers burned villages along the way. Students, who were protesting peacefully on the streets before, are now becoming PDFs and have trained systematically to fight back the military regime. At the beginning, they started with catapults and hunting rifles, but they now have some automatic weapons bought by donations from the people through black markets. They will not stop until they get the victory. They have trained well and are now gaining momentum (BBC in English 22 Apr 2022 “Myanmar - Young rebels fighting for democracy” & 01 Feb 2022 “The deadly battles that tipped Myanmar into civil war”). Fight on heroes of Ukraine till you defeat the Russian invaders! We will also fight on till we get our freedom and democracy! May the hero President Zelenskyy and the heroic people of Ukraine defeat the cruel Russian invaders!
