Kremlin reasserts its goal of regime change just a day after signs that it might be looking to end the war
ByJames Kilner 26 March 2022 • 1:38pm
The Kremlin has reasserted that it wants to “de-Nazify” Ukraine – code for regime change – less than 24 hours after its generals hinted that they wanted to pull back.
Commenting on peace negotiations with Kyiv, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, told the RIA-Novosti news agency that the Kremlin’s objectives had not shifted from Feb 24, when the war started.
He said: “The purpose of these negotiations is clear – to fix all the results that … the special operation is aimed at. Namely, the neutral status of Ukraine, its demilitarisation, the refusal to use Nazi ideological laws that were adopted by Ukraine.”
The Kremlin has been trailing some highlights from this interview since it was filmed two days ago. However, it was released in full on Saturday morning and appears to be aimed at dampening speculation that it wants to pull back its exhausted army after a month of tough combat.
On Friday, Russia’s three top generals said that their main focus for Vladimir Putin’s war was now military operations in eastern Ukraine, where the Kremlin has recognised two “People’s Republics” which broke away from Kyiv in a war in 2014.
But Mr Medvedev’s warning that Russia’s key goal is “de-Nazification” tallies with Ukrainian military briefings – which have said that rather than retreating, Russian forces appear to be preparing for another assault.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian military said: “Russian forces continue taking measures to restore the combat capability of their units, replenish ammunition, petroleum, oil and lubricants in order to prepare for the resumption of the offensive operations.”
Russia has taken far more casualties than it had expected in the war. Western military intelligence has said that its soldiers are exhausted and demoralised, that it has run out of laser-guided missiles and was resorting to indiscriminate siege warfare.
Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, has also appeared in a video briefing his top military advisers for the first time in two weeks.
The normally media-friendly and popular defence minister’s unusual absence from television, especially during a war, had triggered speculation that he was ill. Ukrainian ministers have been fuelling this speculation by suggesting that he had had a heart attack.
In his briefing to his advisers, Mr Shoigu urged them to keep up the steady supply of weapons and ammunition to frontline soldiers in Ukraine. He did not appear particularly ill or frail.
This unfortunately tallies with what Boris was saying earlier : “I see no signs that Putin is stopping.”
Hence the anti-missile batteries being sent.
This is a period of maximum danger for Ukraine and therefore the west; specifically Britain and America, must ramp up their efforts massively.
The Telegraph also reports today that “The Ukrainians are expected to retake Kherson in the next 24 hours.”
This is absolutely crucial.
I don’t know what Ukraine’s total manpower on the ground is now, but it is clear they need a lot more. I hope someone is hiring mercs right now.
I would work on the basis that Ukraine needs to be able to field 500,000 combat troops, plus reserves and support.
Ukraine has around 450,000 active and reserve forces and should have the capacity to draw on maybe another 200,000 to 300,000 men and women and perhaps even more. This does not include militias and civil defense forces. The biggest problem is having enough gear to equip such a large force. I hope that the West will address this problem, which I’m sure is one of the things they are doing, or will do.
Aside from the fact that mafia land’s demands are based on pure delusions, their space for allowing demands to be made is getting quite narrow, and it shrinks with each day they are not able to achieve a military victory in Ukraine.
Unfortunately that won’t concern them. They are using genocide and terror now, because they are both cowardly and evil.
Ukraine’s firepower is as yet not enough to stop the savages.
In many places, their firepower is already reduced due to supply issues. It’s not a walk in the park, for sure, but who would have thought even so far as we are today three weeks ago?
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