![]() “I’d wager Ukraine is deeply inside Putin’s head at this point. “Dozens of towns cancelling the annual celebration of Russian military courage over fears of Ukrainian partisan attacks, Putin surrounding himself with the leaders of Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and others on the parade stand as a way to prevent a drone attack, and limiting the event to just 10 minutes in public,” said the official. “Putin probably thought he was being clever with the single T-34 tank but all it did was highlight how he’s running out of trained soldiers and modern equipment.”Īs Ukraine prepares for a long-anticipated counteroffensive later this spring, a number of attacks on Russian fuel depots, air bases and other infrastructure in areas of Ukraine currently occupied by Russian troops as well as suspected attacks on targets in Russian districts along the border have rattled Russia. “They’re low on modern equipment in Ukraine and will have to choose whether to risk what’s left of their better stuff deployed with units meant to protect Kaliningrad or fight a Polish-Baltic conflict,” said the NATO official. The single tank, NATO analysts believe, was intended to remind Russians of the World War II victory without focusing on the current losses of equipment and vehicles in Ukraine. Although Russia is estimated to have about 5,000 tanks left, many are very old models that have been in storage for decades, according to NATO. street before a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia April 28, 2022. Open source researchers have visually confirmed the destruction of more than 1,300 tanks as well as thousands of armoured fighting vehicles, artillery pieces and other equipment in just over a year. Putin attending the 2019 Victory Day military parade at Red Square in Moscow. “This tracks with our intelligence analysis that determined Russian elite units are barely functioning after massive losses in the first year of the war.” “Instead we mostly saw new conscripts and military cadets and the Russian’s didn’t announce the participation of their elite units with roots back to the Second World War as they normally would,” said the official. ![]() Military analysts have concluded that at least half the VDV’s manpower – representing a large portion of Russia’s better trained professional soldiers – have been killed or wounded since the invasion began last year. “We know why the VDV wasn’t there today, they’re mostly dead outside Kyiv and Kherson,” said the official of the paratroopers and their distinctive blue berets, which play an outsized role in Russian Army propaganda efforts. A NATO official in Brussels, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak on the record, said this year’s parade lacked the typical displays of Russian military technology such as the normally parade ubiquitous modern T-14 Armada and T-90 tanks, columns of long range ballistic missiles, motorised heavy artillery, and elite Russian paratroopers (known as the VDV) because of the heavy fighting taxing Russian forces.
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