Putin Fires Generals After Ukraine Invasion Falters – Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly fired as many as eight of his generals over a multitude of military losses in Ukraine, as Ukraine hangs on to control of Kyiv and Ukrainian troops and civilians continue pushing back against invading forces.
The news comes from Ukrainian Defense Secretary Oleksiy Danilov, who made the claim on Ukrainian television on Wednesday. Danilov said that Russia had removed eight generals from their posts “because they did not complete the task” and that new generals have been appointed.
“We clearly understand what is happening in the Russian federation. What’s more, I can tell they’re desperate,” he said.
Danilov also claimed that Russian propagandists are changing their rhetoric about Ukraine, as U.S. intelligence units “said in the forecasts that the victory will be ours.”
While Danilov expressed confidence in Ukraine’s ability to hold off the Russian invaders, he admitted that the fight will not be easy and could take time.
“Will it be difficult? Yes, it will be difficult. Do not underestimate the enemy,” he said. “We loop it in all directions, but it crawls and crawls like locusts. I know for sure that we will survive.”
Putin Running Out of Options
Jeffrey Edmonds, a Russian military expert at the Virginia-based think tank, told Insider that he is “highly skeptical” of Russian forces being able to secure Kyiv.
“They can level it, which is what their preferred technique is,” he said. “It remains to be seen if they try to actually control the city street by street or if they just level it in the hopes that the Ukrainians give up.”
Despite Putin’s military being significantly larger than Ukraine’s, a constant supply of Western military equipment, missiles, and rockets has made it difficult for Russian forces to take control of Kyiv, one of Europe’s largest cities.
President Putin watches the Zapad 2021 joint strategic exercises of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.
Roughly a million Ukrainians remain in the city, with many taking to the streets and fighting alongside the nation’s armed forces.
It means that Putin is beginning to run out of options and may soon be faced with the choice of retreating or continuing to suffer heavy losses as his forces continue and fail to take control of the nation’s capital city. An estimated 4,000 Russian troops have already died in the Ukraine conflict, which is around the same number of American troops who died in Afghanistan over 20 years.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and report on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
