Ever since I saw bloggers’ videos of Putin’s forces retreating on scooters, I knew the game was up for the Russian president.
Where have all the Russian tanks and armoured vehicles gone? Russian tanks are rarely seen on the battlefield these days.
This is possibly because an estimated 10,000 tanks have been destroyed and there are very few replacements. There are 3,800 videos alone of Russian tank destruction and, of course, not all of them would be captured on video.
As reported by the Telegraph, Ukraine has had recent success in taking back the strategic town of Nadiya in the Russian occupied Luhansk region in Eastern Ukraine. This town and a couple of other small towns as reported by German newspaper Bild had been under Russian occupation for three years but are now in Ukrainian hands.
Ukraine was forced to withdraw from the Kursk region because of overwhelming enemy numbers and because of the sudden loss of support from Trump. In the seven months it took to relieve the Ukrainians of Kursk, it is estimated 50,000 Russian and North Korea soldiers were fed into the Ukrainian meat grinder. This is huge loss of life when you consider that many fewer Russian soldiers died in the entire war in Afghanistan.
Because of continued attacks during March on the Engels airbase in Belgorod, Russia was forced to remove its bombers further inland. The 20 March attack was another Ukrainian success, when 96 missiles were destroyed, along with an oil depot and other infrastructure. Recent events in Belgorod, which, after all, is Russian territory has seen surrender of Russian troops there to Zelensky’s men, as reported by Russian bloggers.
Troops in Sumy have also surrendered. They no longer believe the propaganda. One surrendered soldier in Sumy said he was bribed by assurances that two huge loans would be paid off, which they were not.
Zelensky must now think Crimea has been in Russian hands long enough and on 1 April destroyed the unlucky number of 13 radar stations, thus leaving the much-vaunted Russian radar defence system looking vulnerable. On top of this, three Raptor-class amphibious boats were destroyed, along with a Tor M2 defence system. All in a day’s work. Ukrainian water drones have been used to good effect there as well, bringing down aircraft.
Putin, who has been struck with heavy losses, has decided to go for civilians and Kyiv and Dnipro have felt the brunt of Iranian drones. Many have been hospitalised because of glass shards from high-rise apartment buildings and some have died after being trapped. Illegal chemical weapons have been used on the front lines.
The Russian premier thinks the new 160,000 conscription plan will solve his problems. But this time it will involve the children of the elite of Moscow and St Petersburg, who won’t be able to escape over the border like last time as there will be stricter measures in place. In previous wars it has been the babushkas, the mothers of killed soldiers or those fighting on the front lines, that have brought down Russian leaders by demonstrating en masse on the streets.
Down under has not been untouched by the war in Ukraine. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, an ex-British general, revealed on Times Radio that Australia has been producing for Ukraine what has been referred to as cardboard drones or the ‘origami of death’.
Once removed from their pizza-like boxes, these drones can be assembled in Ukraine using rubber bands. In reality these cardboard drones are wax-coated foam boards that are transparent to radar and hence more stealthy than normal drones.
New Zealand has also managed to make headlines when our ambassador to London was sacked for challenging Trump when he said Ukraine began the war with Russia. Trump has since denied saying it. Winston Peters, our foreign minister, said our ambassador Phil Goff was not entitled to “free think”. Anyone trying to curry favour with Trump and avoid further tariffs had better forget about “free think” for now.
