The Russian army suffered the past New Years Eve one of its darkest days since it invaded Ukraine on February 24, after several Himmar missiless launched by local forces hit a vocational training center where hundreds of Kremlin military in the region of Donetsk. The Russian Ministry of Defense has acknowledged the death of 63 uniformed officers in the attack, a figure that kyiv rises to more than 400 and nearly 300 injured. The mess has been aggravated by the details of the lousy planning that emerges with the passing of the hours, and has re-launched the critics of Russian military commentators, politicians and bloggers with the war management. Criticisms that, as has become the norm, take great care not to aim at Vladimir Putin.
But the frustration exists and does not stop growing in the face of avalanche of casualties that the Russian troops are suffering, more than 108,000 military dead since the beginning of the invasion, according to the Ukrainian count, impossible to verify. To which should be added the terrible conditions faced by many soldiers, known through the letters of protest addressed by their relatives to the authorities of the Russian region on duty or the calls leaked from the front. They talk about citizens recently mobilized and sent to the front with hardly any training; of units that roam the woods no clear orders; or soldiers forced to seek their lives to get Warm clothing Y basic provisions.
“Our boys are just bait for the ukrainians, they are constantly under artillery fire & rdquor ;, the brother of a mobilized soldier recently told ‘The Moscow Times’. “Only 15% of their unit is still alive and they won’t even let them retreat or regroup. The army has betrayed us”. Also this time the details of the massacre in Makiivka, an industrial city occupied by Russian forces in Donetsk, are embarrassing. According to information aired by Russian military bloggers, part of the contingent massacred on New Year’s Eve I slept next to an ammunition depot that exploded in the deflagration and some of the soldiers used their phones in the previous hours Russian mobile phones, allowing Ukrainian forces to intercept the calls and discover their location.
palpable frustration
“What kind of conclusions will be drawn? Who will be punished?& rdquor ;, he wondered on social networks Mikhail Matveeva Russian deputy from the samara region, where many of the soldiers killed in the attack came from. In that region on the banks of the Volga, a hundred people gathered on Tuesday to pay tribute to the victims, as happened in other Russian capitals, according to Ria Novosti. “I haven’t slept in three days, Samara hasn’t slept. We are in permanent contact with the wives of our boys. It’s very hard and scary& rdquor ;, he said during the concentration Yekaterina Kolotovkina, wife of a general stationed in Ukraine and director of an organization to help soldiers. “Mourning unites us. We will not forget it and victory, without a doubt, will be ours.”
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But both there and in other public displays of mourning, spite was not directed against the high hierarchy of the Kremlin but against West Y military commanders no names or surnames. “Yes, Vladimir Vladimirovichwe love our country & rdquor ;, wrote the influential military blogger Anastasia Kashevarova referring to Putin. “I love Russia so much that I hate certain people around you”. The senator Sergey Mironov dared to ask for one internal investigation to impose criminal consequences to the officials responsible for the disaster in Makiivkawhom he blamed for “allowing the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building & rdquor;, as well as “all the high authorities who did not provide the required level of security & rdquor ;.
At the moment, everything indicates that Putin can continue sleeping peacefully. He has imprisoned the opposition or has forced their exile, has dismantled the independent press and has tamed all attempts at social response based on propaganda and a heavy hand. But as happened after the disaster in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the Russians tolerate authoritarianism and military fiascos well until they stop tolerating them. And if not, ask the Tsar Nicholas II.