Ukrainian servicemen are putting up great resistance, fighting like beasts, captive Russian officer, lieutenant of Russian tank troops Maxim Grishenkov said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Saturday.
“We were heading towards Sumy. The next task was to reach Kyiv as quickly as possible. The task was to smash everything that we see from military equipment or military people who are not related to our troops. But our column was ambushed and was completely defeated by the locals, who they fight like beasts with all weapons. They do not give up a single centimeter of their land. The command just threw us. There was no support,” Grishenkov said.
Another captured officer of the tank forces of Russia, Dmitry Koloyartsev, said that Ukraine has modern weapons.
“After we passed Sumy and Pryluky, my convoy came under fire from Ukrainian forces. The entire convoy burned down. You have modern weapons. We were bombed from everywhere – from the air and from the ground. Bayraktars, RPGs, machine guns. It was scary. I volunteered with my crew surrendered,” he said.
According to Andrei Chuvatarevsky, a captured soldier who served on a contract basis in the Moscow region, the Russians faced great resistance in Ukraine.
“We faced quite a lot of resistance. I have never seen anything like this. I want to ask that no one be sent here and that the troops simply withdraw from here,” he said.
As the captured soldier Dmitry Gagarin said, Putin sent the Russian military to their deaths.
“Russian conscripts, your children, are dying here. My comrades are dying. They are simply dying because they are being deceived. Putin is deceiving them, sending them to their deaths. a missing person’s notice, but that is a lie,” he said.
“Our young boys stay here because our president does not want us to tell our country what is happening here. Russia does not take the bodies of our dead,” Gagarin said.
© 2022 Interfax Ukraine
When I read this, I can’t help but think about one of two outcomes driven by what I’m seeing here.
One: the russians are intensely demoralized, to the point that they feel they can’t fight as much as they could be, while the Ukrainians are so strong in their defense that eventually the increasing russian casualties encourage a surrender, broadly across a sizable number of the invaders. Or that internally within Russia, citizens en masse, or the military, or both, put enough pressure on the kremlin to giving up the invasion, and pursue peace with Ukraine. Even an uneasy peace is preferable to war.
Two: putin’s violent, murderous, and indiscriminate attacks are successful in a similar way, against the Ukrainian people and military. Even with a massive amount of worldwide support for Ukraine, and foreign citizens like myself flying in to aid with defense, Russia has a massive amount of their own soldiers with resources to throw in. They obviously aren’t as good at fighting as Ukraine’s soldiers and equipment. Even the average Ukrainian seems fiercer than the average russian soldier, but there’s a lot more soldiers.
Ukraine needs to make sure the world doesn’t forget, or turn off their attention to what’s going on, to how evil putin is. They should also remind the russian citizens, that it is putin’s head they want, if a Russian really sides with Ukraine’s position on this, then those Russians are the true brothers of Ukraine. They might even fight for Ukraine, if they recognize how evil putin is.
I am convinced by their admiration of Ukrainian fighting spirit and skills, but I’m not convinced by their regret of being there to kill, destroy and main.
Here is an explanation of what is wrong with the Russian Army. It has long been a problem for the Soviet Union and later Russia.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htpeace/articles/20220303.aspx