Putin like a general: Kremlin boss apparently intervenes directly in Ukraine war - against normal military structure
Created: 05/17/2022Updated: 05/17/2022, 11:20 am
By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi
In the Ukraine war, Putin apparently intervened heavily in the fighting.
He should personally make tactical decisions about battles.
The news ticker.
Escalated Ukraine conflict:
Russia continues to try to make progress in Donbass.
Putin intervenes in battles
: Apparently, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin makes tactical decisions.
Evacuation from Azovstal
: Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from the besieged Azovstal Steelworks.
This
news ticker on the military situation in the Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Munich - In the Ukraine war, heavy clashes between the Ukrainian military and Russian troops continue.
This map shows where the Ukraine war is raging.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine hit Russia hard.
So far, Russian troops have been unsuccessful in encircling the outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers while Ukrainian units are advancing in Kharkiv.
In addition, Russia loses an extremely large number of soldiers and military equipment, for example in an attempt to cross the Severskyi Donets River, which ended in a debacle.
Aerial photographs from the area showed more than 70 destroyed Russian military vehicles in almost one spot.
The great success in the Donbass expected by Moscow has not materialized so far.
Ukraine war: Putin intervenes in fighting - "Decisions like colonel or brigadier general"
A report in the British newspaper
The Guardian
now suggests that the cause of the Russian army's military disaster may lie squarely within the Kremlin itself.
Accordingly, the Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is personally heavily involved in the fighting and even makes tactical decisions that dictate the movement of Russian soldiers in the field, the British newspaper reported, citing anonymous Western sources.
Putin is involved in this process together with the chief of staff Valeriy Gerasimov.
"We think Putin and Gerasimov are involved in tactical decision-making at a level that we would normally expect from a colonel or brigadier general," a Western military source told
The Guardian
.
The Russian military does not actually operate in such a way, the newspaper wrote.
But the faltering invasion of Ukraine, for example, has forced the Russian military to send generals closer to the front line.
According to the Ukrainian military, 12 Russian generals have been killed in skirmishes so far.
Vladimir Putin apparently makes tactical decisions in the Ukraine war.
© Sergey Guneev/Imago Images
War in Ukraine: Evacuation from Azovstal - Russia and Ukraine want to exchange soldiers
Meanwhile, more than 260 Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, which had been under Russian siege for weeks, and taken to Russian-controlled territory.
53 seriously injured were taken to Novoazovsk and 211 other soldiers to Olenivka for treatment, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said.
Efforts to evacuate the remaining soldiers should continue, according to Ukrainian sources on Tuesday
(May 17)
.
Novoazovsk and Olenivka are in areas under Russian military control.
The soldiers are to be “exchanged” at a later date, as Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said in a video message.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Kyiv and Moscow have already made several prisoner exchanges.
The Russian Defense Ministry earlier on Monday announced a ceasefire in Mariupol to get injured Ukrainian soldiers out of the Azov-Stahl group's steel mill.
Moscow had named "medical facilities" in Novoazovsk as the target of the evacuation operation.
(bb with material from AFP)