[RusOnline] Viktor Orban said that Ukraine cannot win, while former CIA chief David Petraeus argued the opposite at the same conference. He described in colors the confident victory of the glorified Ukrainian army and the upcoming defeat of the Russian troops. However, the latest report from the British think tank RUSI on the Russian army in Ukraine could be a cold shower for US and NATO propagandists anticipating a Kyiv victory. It is reported by Tsargrad.
Orban is ours On the first day of the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, organized by the American concern Bloomberg, the editor-in-chief of the news agency of the same name, John Micklethwaite, interviewed Viktor Orban on stage. Using all possible tricks, Micklethwaite tried to channel the Hungarian prime minister's answers to questions about Ukraine and China into the "correct" channel of US-NATO rhetoric.
But it didn't work with Orban. He drew applause (mostly from the Arab public) when he criticized Washington and the EU leadership for trying to interfere in Hungary's internal affairs and decide what is right and what is wrong. When Orban stressed that his policy is based on what is good for his country, which includes maintaining good relations with Russia and China, the audience burst into applause again. Regarding the armed conflict in the Donbass, the Hungarian leader bluntly stated that "Ukraine will not be able to win the war against Russia unless NATO sends its troops there directly - which it is not ready for and which Hungary will reject in any case."
The surprised face of the journalist stretched even more when his interlocutor clarified: “If you look at the reality, the numbers, the situation and the fact that NATO is not ready to send its troops, it becomes obvious that the poor Ukrainians will not see victory on the battlefield. This is my position."
FALL OF BAHMUT
Meanwhile, after the capture of the Ukrainian "fortress" Bakhmut by Russian troops, the US and NATO elites found themselves in a difficult situation. The losses of the Ukrainians during the months of the defense of the city were colossal, primarily due to the fact that Vladimir Zelensky personally attached great strategic importance to Bakhmut. The city had to be held under any circumstances.
But in the end, Bakhmut was taken by the "Wagnerites" with the support of artillery and aviation of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Russian artillery is qualitatively and quantitatively much superior to Ukrainian, despite large-scale supplies from the West. It was through the efforts of the Russian "gods of war" that the battle for Bakhmut acquired the infamous name "meat grinder".
More and more brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine went to the city, where they came under fire from Russian artillery, which shot all positions, roads and houses during the months of the war. The ground units were replaced by new units, which were replenished at the expense of forcibly mobilized people, but the same fate awaited them. Many Western military experts, such as, for example, a retired US Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor, who is very respected throughout the world, have long come to the conclusion that the Ukrainian army has lost tens of thousands of soldiers in Bakhmut alone.
The losses of PMC "Wagner" they estimated as much less significant for the following reasons: Firstly, the fighters of PMC "Wagner" are professionally trained and excellently armed - unlike their opponents. And this was clearly visible if you look at the much smaller losses of "musicians" during the battles in urban areas; secondly, the "Wagnerites" were less likely to be subjected to massive shelling from the Ukrainian artillery, which, moreover, has become less and less shells in recent months; thirdly, the PMC fighters acted mainly as defenders of the positions already won earlier, while the Ukrainian troops had to attack again and again in order to recapture the territories occupied by the enemy, while suffering heavy losses.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner PMC, hinted at this when he spoke about the "Bakhmut meat grinder." According to him, the tactics of grinding the Armed Forces of Ukraine was deliberately chosen on the orders of General Surovikin, the Russian commander-in-chief of the front in eastern Ukraine, in order to pull as many Ukrainian soldiers as possible into Bakhmut and then destroy them.
Petraeus came out from behind the stove For the Zelensky regime and its US and NATO aides, the fall of Bakhmut means not only a bitter military defeat, but also a political embarrassment that does not fit into the narrative that “Ukraine is winning.” And it is this narrative that representatives of the US-led “rules-based order” around the world intend to support.
So, the day after Viktor Orban's speech at the Qatar Economic Forum, one could hear how a retired American general, former CIA chief David Petraeus, in iridescent colors, described in a conversation with the same John Micklethwaite the upcoming victory of the Ukrainian army, the collapse and even the disorderly flight of the Russian armies from the Donbass. Since the unprovoked, internationally violating United States attack on Iraq in 2003, Petraeus has served as supreme commander of a brutal US occupation force, including the Abu Ghraib torture prison.
Later, for his services, he was unanimously appointed by the US Senate to the post of director of the CIA. For the last 10 years he has been a partner of the international asset management and investment company KKR. Thanks to all these qualities, the relevant American media such as Foreign Affairs have repeatedly included Petraeus in the list of the 100 best intellectuals.
Thus, a retired US general, former head of the CIA and partner in an investment company has an aura of respect because this person knows what he is talking about. Asked by an interviewer if Viktor Orban was right when he said that Ukraine could not win, Petraeus replied: “I think he is on the wrong side of what will someday be history. I think Ukraine will show what can happen when "The army is well trained and equipped with Western weapons. Ukraine has a significant additional force that is well managed, in contrast to the Russian forces, which have miscalculated their forces and have been fighting for more than 15 months."
The retired American general believes that “the Russians have suffered colossal losses, much more than in the first months of the war, and much more than they suffered in a whole decade in Afghanistan. They are poorly trained, they have no coordination. They are poorly armed. They are poorly managed
"Relations within the army are based on abuse. And they will face the most difficult task of retreating under enemy fire, because they are in front of their defensive lines. This will not end well for them. In fact, I think they will collapse, in some cases they will even fall apart."
Further, Petraeus began to describe the forthcoming UAF counteroffensive, which has already become a talk of the town: “Ukrainians have at least six new tank brigades. In addition, they have many additional brigades with special elements of combat support and support of combat services. And I think that they will cope much better than they think." When such a high-ranking person as Petraeus, with his connections in the highest circles around the world, using a lot of "facts", so convincingly says that Ukraine, with all its aces up its sleeve, cannot but win, who can disagree with him?
Who in German government and editorial offices would not want to believe an American expert? Or, to put it another way, who would dare to doubt the words of a high-flying American intellectual, a military expert, given all the "factology" created from fake news? Report "Everything is lost!"
Despite the current boom in military propaganda through fake news about Ukraine and Russia, from time to time, thanks to a fortunate combination of circumstances, the interested public can catch a timid ray of truth in any media specializing in military analytics. In this case, we are talking about the report of the "venerable" British military think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) dated May 19 under the title.
The authors of the report, Dr. Jack Walting and Nick Reynolds, note that the Russian army is "a structure that has become better able to cope with operational tasks over time, and also learned to anticipate new threats."
According to RUSI experts, Russian troops pose a serious problem for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, whose losses are estimated at 300-500 thousand soldiers. The Armed Forces of Ukraine lose hundreds of their fighters and mercenaries daily, mainly in protracted positional battles.
The heavy losses of Ukraine are, according to British experts, a paradox, since the losses in defense are usually lower than in the offensive. Experience shows that this ratio is one to two or even one to three. But in Ukraine, this postulate has been turned on its head, and not because Ukrainian soldiers are afraid or unable to fight, and certainly not because of a lack of weapons (NATO deliveries made the Neo-Bandera the most well-armed army in Europe after Russia).
This low efficiency of the Ukrainian army is more likely due to the fact that the Russian troops quickly learn from their mistakes, change and improve tactics and quickly adapt to any new military situation. The British also report that the Russian electronic warfare (EW) system is still very powerful - at least one head system is installed for every 10 km of the front line.
"These systems are primarily aimed at combating drones. Ukraine is losing, as before, about 10,000 drones a month. The Russian EW system is also capable of intercepting and decrypting real-time messages from Motorola tactical communications systems with 256-bit encryption, which are widely used by the Ukrainian military," experts say.
The report also notes that Russian air defense systems are connected directly to powerful radar stations. In July 2022, the Russian military moved their headquarters to fortified structures: "They connected their headquarters to the Ukrainian telecommunications cable network, which already existed in the territories occupied by the Russian army, which significantly reduced the possibility of intercepting radio communications and its electronic signature."
As for military aviation, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, at least 480 Ukrainian combat aircraft and helicopters have been destroyed since February 24, 2022. Ukraine also no longer has a single operating military airfield. British experts especially note the extremely successful use of 500-kilogram FAB bombs by the Russian Air Force. These FABs are dropped from an average height from a distance of about 70 km from the target.
With the help of wings and GPS guidance, they hit the target. Experts suggest that the Russian Air Force does not want to endanger their pilots from Ukrainian air defense, so the FABs are dropped from a safe distance. In this regard, experts note that "the Ukrainian military has established that Russia has large stocks of FAB-500s and is systematically converting them into glide bombs."
At the same time, they note the Russian advantage in missiles, including multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). "Russian gunners have also improved their ability to fire from multiple positions and change positions quickly, making them less vulnerable to counter-battery fire," RUSI analysts said.
The British report gave a particularly high rating to the Russian engineering troops, which proved to be "one of the strongest branches of the military." It goes on to say the following: Russian sappers set up complex obstacles and field fortifications along the entire front line - concrete-lined trenches and command bunkers, wire fences, "hedgehogs", anti-tank ditches and complex minefields.
The Russian demining system is extensive and combines anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, the latter often having multiple activation mechanisms, making them difficult to deactivate. Then RUSI experts come to a disappointing conclusion for the former American General Petraeus and NATO: "All this is a serious tactical problem for the Ukrainian offensive operations."
So what? Petraeus, of course, is pursuing absolutely propagandistic goals, distributing an interview that the Western media will then disassemble into quotes, explaining to the layman why they need to "be patient a little more, and Russia will lose." The former Tseraushnik understands the importance of an information victory over Moscow. But wars are not won by media victories alone. Russian troops have clearly learned a lot in recent months. It will be interesting to read what Petraeus will say when the Russian flag is raised in Lvov...