Putin tries to hide human cost of war from Russians
VLADIMIR PUTIN’S defence chiefs are seeking to take control of compensation payments for families of soldiers killed in Ukraine in a suspected ploy to cover up huge Russian losses, British military intelligence officials said today.
The move, for the military rather than civilian officials to oversee the pay-outs, is believed to be an attempt to hide from the Russian people that many thousands of troops have been killed as the president’s invasion entered its third month. Estimates of Russian fatalities range from around 10,000 to more than 20,000. Three or four times as many soldiers are believed to have been injured or incapacitated.
In its latest intelligence briefing, the Ministry of Defence in London said this morning: “Russia’s ministry of defence has proposed compensation payments for the families of deceased service personnel be overseen by military rather than civilian officials. This likely reflects a desire to hide the true scale of Russia’s losses from the domestic population.”
The Kremlin has imposed a tough clampdown on media organisation, closing some down which refused to follow the official line that the invasion of Ukraine is a “special military operation” to disarm it. The UK military chiefs said Russian forces had made “minor advances” in the Donbas region after Mr Putin abandoned his original invasion plan, by retreating from around Kyiv and northern Ukraine, after it failed spectacularly.
The UK military chiefs added: “Without sufficient logistical and combat support enablers in place, Russia has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough. Russia’s decision to besiege rather than attack Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant means many Russian units remain fixed in the city and cannot be redeployed.
Ukraine’s defence of Mariupol has also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness.” Mr Putin is redeploying thousands of troops into the eastern region of Ukraine, which British intelligence chiefs say is being done in a “piecemeal” way.
Russia said its air force struck 56 Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities overnight, according to news agency Tass. However, former army officer Tom Tugendhat MP, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said the Russian president risks sending thousands of young Russians to their death if he seeks to grab some form of significant victory in Ukraine by May 9. This is a key date in the Russian military calendar as it marks the Nazis’ surrender in the Second World War and an annual parade is held in Moscow’s Red Square.
Military experts believe Mr Putin will have to start within days to make preparations for a major offensive in the Donbas if he is to snatch a meaningful victory. However, if he rushes the operation against well-trained Ukrainian forces it is expected to lead to more casualties if he does not give them more time to properly regroup and re-equip.
MrTugendhat told the Standard: “Moscow’s timetable is writing promises its generals can’t keep. They’re pushing a unified campaign now but without the logistics to support it. Putin will have to start making major preparations if he’s not going to just send thousands of young Russians to their deaths.”
After visiting Kyiv at the weekend, US secretary of state Antony Blinken claimed today that Russia had already “failed” in its war aims, given that Mr Putin has been forced to change his tactics, has united the West in its stance on Ukraine and strengthened Nato.
Mr Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin met Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky and other top officials. The US pledged new aid worth $713 million (£560 million) for Mr Zelensky’s government and other countries in the region, where Russia’s invasion has raised fears of further aggression by Moscow.
Russia has warned America against sending more arms to Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, told Russian state television. The US, UK and other allies have stepped up military support to Ukraine with Britain now also sending armoured personnel carriers.