Ukraine: Retired Russian general says Putin is leading his country to defeat and humiliation

Vladimir Putin is leading Russia to defeat and humiliation in Ukraine, according to one of Moscow’s most respected military figures, who also blames the president for uniting the West with his disastrous invasion.

Retired army colonel-general Leonid Ivashov had called for the president’s resignation a year ago before the war began over a ‘criminal’ policy of ‘provoking’ an ‘artificial’ conflict, foreseeing it would unleash disaster.

Now he says the carnage across the border is worse than he imagined.

Ivashov, the chairman of the independent All-Russian Assembly of Officers and a former senior aide to a famous Soviet defense minister, criticized Putin, stating: “We did not expect such a series of mistakes, wrong actions during this military operation.”

‘What happened in the end? Basically what we expected, but much worse,’ the general, a key figure in the Soviet-era Red Army and later the Russian military, said in an interview with independent Republic media.

Ivashov, the chairman of the independent All-Russian Assembly of Officers and a former senior aide to a famous Soviet defense minister, criticized Putin, stating: “We did not expect such a series of mistakes, wrong actions during this military operation.” Pictured: Ukrainian servicemen sit atop a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle on a road outside the frontline town of Bakhmut on February 11.

“At the operational-tactical level, we do not think that within a year we would not be able to liberate the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

‘We didn’t think there would be such huge losses, although I later said there would be tens of thousands of deaths on both sides.

But everything turned out to be much worse.

Some estimates say that losses on both sides are now in excess of 200,000 and mounting rapidly. Russia alone is estimated to have lost up to 140,000 since February last year.

“It was not expected that there would be such destruction: in fact, small towns and entire villages were demolished to their foundations,” Ivashov said.

“Also, I wrote that we would become a pariah state, but frankly I did not think that we would not have a single ally who has serious influence at the political, economic or military-technical level.”

Ivashov blames Putin for triggering a new alignment between the US and China, and he hopes this will pay off as both have the most influence in the world.

“Russia in that picture of the world is not mentioned at all as a political actor,” he said. ‘So now they are going to create a bipolar world, but without our involvement.’

Pictured: A Ukrainian tank arrives at its front line position in Bakhmut on Sunday.

Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine had “saved NATO” with Finland and Sweden about to join, he continued. ‘We have delivered all of Europe into the hands of the Americans…’ due to Putin’s ineptitude.

“Before there was no Collective West, there were many contradictions there. And today we are creating this Collective West with our own hands.’

Ivashov said Putin made a mistake by not properly seeking other solutions in Donetsk and Luhansk before launching his invasion.

‘Shall we raise this issue in the UN General Assembly? No! We immediately moved tanks there. Every problem has multiple solutions. And most importantly: do not choose the worst.

But we, unfortunately, chose the worst.

He also scathingly criticized Putin for the use of private armies in the conflict, stressing that it leads to confused command structures.

Putin deployed the Wagner private military company to Ukraine, which has played an important role in the seven-month-long battles around the city of Bakhmut, a major target for Putin’s invading troops.

Wagner has claimed to have single-handedly taken cities in the region, publicly embarrassing the Russian military.

Pictured: Ukrainian servicemen rest on a road outside the town of Bakhmut on Saturday.

‘As to [regular] army, there is a problem of destroying professionalism,” Ivashov said.

Russia is paying the price for the debasement of military professions in the Putin era, and is instead bringing secret service cronies and even alcohol and furniture experts to key military posts,” the retired general said.

“Going to war with such an army is more than a crime,” he said.

He predicted failure if Putin forces a new mass mobilization and, as a hardliner, chided the dictator for trying to muzzle his critics.

“If you shut someone’s mouth, it doesn’t mean you’ve gotten stronger,” he warned. “If sober-minded people are silenced, then you only become dumber and more corrupt, but not stronger by any means.”

Using the intellect is the path to victory, Ivashov said.

‘In our country, instead of intellect, people are wringing arms, intimidating, imprisoning. In such a situation, the country always loses and does not live long.

“We have already experienced a systemic crisis, and what will happen next, I cannot say, I can only speculate.”

Ivashov, 79, was a senior aide to Soviet defense minister Marshal Dmitry Ustinov.

Later he headed the military cooperation department in the Russian Defense Ministry and later was president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems.

Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers walk down a street in Bakhmut on Sunday.

On Tuesday, Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions along the front in the eastern Donetsk region in what appeared to be the first volleys of the new offensive, as NATO allies met in Brussels to plan an increase in supplies to the Kiev government.

Ukraine said Bakhmut was in a precarious position.

“There is not a single square meter in Bakhmut that is safe or out of reach of enemy fire or drones,” regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukraine’s national broadcaster.

He said Russian artillery was hitting targets along the front lines in Donetsk, which together with the Luhansk region forms Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland and a prime target for the Russians.

As the first anniversary of the invasion approaches, the Kremlin has intensified operations in a wide area of ​​southern and eastern Ukraine and a major new offensive is widely anticipated.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that the shelling and ground attacks indicated the offensive was already underway.

Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday that its forces had repelled attacks on five settlements in Luhansk and six in Donetsk, including Bakhmut, in the past 24 hours.

They had also repulsed an attack on a city in the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia in northeastern Ukraine.

“The situation is difficult as a whole, but controlled,” Kyrylenko said. “The enemy has not been able to achieve tactical or strategic success there.”

From second left, US Admiral Rob Bauer, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Ukrainian Defense Minister Kyrylo Budanov and Lt. Ukraine’s Yevhen Moisiuk are seen during the North Atlantic Council roundtable meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, February 14

The Russian assault on Bakhmut has been spearheaded by mercenaries from the Wagner group. Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that mercenaries had made small gains on the northern outskirts in the past three days, but a southern drive by Bakhmut had likely made little progress.

Bakhmut’s capture would give Russia a new foothold in Donetsk and a rare victory after months of setbacks.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said the US-led NATO military alliance demonstrated its hostility towards Russia every day and was getting more and more involved in the conflict in Ukraine.

“NATO is an organization that is hostile to us and shows this hostility every day,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“He is doing everything possible to make his involvement in the conflict around Ukraine as clear as possible,” Peskov added.

Moscow has said that the supply of arms to Ukraine by NATO countries is prolonging the conflict and raising the possibility of further escalation. kyiv and the West say deliveries of advanced military equipment are crucial to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s offensive.