Ukraine war: Russia's army now 'incredibly vulnerable'

Created: 2022-03-20 06:34

By: Caroline Schäfer

The Ukraine war is not going as planned by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The military leadership in particular is increasingly being criticized.

• The war of aggression by Russia* on Ukraine* causes more losses than assumed by President Vladimir Putin*.

• The big cities like Kyiv* and Mariupol in particular are highly competitive.

  Even after three weeks, the Russian troops have not succeeded in bringing the cities fought over in the Ukraine conflict* under control.

• So far, five Russian generals alone have died in the fighting with Ukraine.

  More news in our Newsticker.

Update from Sunday, 6:25 a.m .:

In the Ukraine war, Russia has to accept further heavy losses.

On Saturday, Andrei Mordvichev is said to have been the fifth general in the Russian army to die in the fighting with Ukraine.

According to estimates by Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense of the USA*, the main problem with Russian troops is poor leadership.

"The soldiers are not motivated," Austin told CNN.

The Kremlin's army has modernized successfully in recent years, but it is "poorly managed".

According to Austin, "there is nothing worse for an organization than bad leadership and that's exactly what the Russians are doing here."

In many places, such as on the front in Kyiv, the Russian army is now being forced onto the defensive.

In addition, the army's logistics would not function as required for a war of this magnitude.

"Russia's army is now incredibly vulnerable," Austin said.

An armored vehicle of the Ukrainian army in Kyiv.

Russia's offensive appears to have stalled in Ukraine.

© Fadel Senna/afp

Ukraine war: Russia's morale broken?

More and more reports of deserters

First report from Saturday, March 19, 2022:

Kiev – The Ukraine war * now lasts more than three weeks.

Fighting and attacks continue on the 24th day of the Russian invasion.

As reported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around three million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since the beginning of the war.

But the first people seeking protection have also arrived in Germany.

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Germany has made itself impossible again.

Nowhere else was Volodymyr Zelensky treated so undignified as in the Bundestag.

There is method to this, comments Georg Anastasiadis.

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Not only people living in Ukraine want to escape from the war.

According to media reports, Russian soldiers shot themselves in the legs to avoid the fighting.

As reported by the New York Post newspaper, the armed forces are said to have used Ukrainian ammunition.

This should give the impression that Russia's soldiers were hit by the defenders.

War in Ukraine: Russian soldiers apparently inflict gunshot wounds on themselves

"They've been shooting at us for 14 days.

We are scared.

We steal food, break into houses.

We are killing civilians,” the US newspaper The US Sun quoted a conversation between soldiers that was apparently intercepted by the Belarusian media project Nexta.

“Russian officers shoot themselves in the legs to get home.

There are dead bodies everywhere,” the conversation is said to have continued.

Soldiers are said to have been looking for "Ukrainian ammunition" "to shoot themselves in the legs and go to the hospital." So far, this has not been definitively verified.

However, deserters tend to suffer draconian penalties in Russia, which is why self-inflicted wounds using Ukrainian weapons and ammunition give at least the appearance of being inflicted in combat.

According to the Geneva Refugee Convention, deserters fleeing the Ukraine war of authoritarian Russia are entitled to asylum in an EU member state.

Ukraine War: Footage shows Russian prisoners of war

As the Tagesschau reported, videos of captured Russian soldiers are said to have shown that they apologized for the Ukraine war and the civilian victims.

According to the New York Post, the prisoners admitted that Putin's invasion of Ukraine was a "horrible mistake".

Putin gave orders to commit crimes.

It's not just about demilitarizing Ukraine or defeating Ukraine's armed forces, but now cities with peaceful civilians are being destroyed," Russian POWs are quoted as saying by CNN.

Stefan Oeter, professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hamburg, criticizes such recordings of the Ukraine war.

"Television pictures of prisoners of war are often problematic insofar as they show prisoners in degrading situations or degrade them in some other way," Oeter explained to the Tagesschau.

According to estimates by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, more than 14,000 casualties have been reported on the Russian side so far.

The ministry announced this on Friday (March 18, 2022) via Twitter.

Allegations of rape against Russian soldiers are also being raised.

Politicians from Ukraine are said to report on rapes by Russian armed forces.

(kas)