So, Noway, what he said that I didn't know yet was that initially, Russia indeed had relied on the intelligence (forget what he called it) of those commanders who were to go into Ukraine and secure a kind of pre-surrender from the mayors, different units etc. These were those commanders Putin was reportedly mad at for providing bad intelligence. Their orders were to go in soft, they were not expecting the Ukrainians to fight. So they went in and found a full-fledged war. Only then did they decide to fight a conventional war.
Even then, they did not follow their traditional doctrine of shock and awe but what they're calling 'the Syrian' strategy or something: basically, how they fought in Syria. It appears from the low number of civilian casualties-to-Soldiers that the main aim was to avoid wrecking civilian people or civilian infrastructure. Like 3/4 casualties are military, which he says is highly uncommon in war.
I didn't know this. That indeed the Russians went in soft not expecting a real war.
But he rubbishes the Ukrainian figures too. If it was true 15-20,000 Russians had been killed, it'd mean like 60-80,000 are wounded, per normal combat patterns, which would take out like 50% of the Russian forces. This would have destroyed any cohesive/functional operation of the army, he says, and yet we are seeing the exact opposite. He says Russians are reporting and transferring dead soldiers to their families and their operations and these reports back home match their own claims to have lost around 1,500 soldiers so far (after Maripol). Believe Ukrainian numbers at your own risk.
Ukrainian soldiers dead are at least 30,000 after Maripol, says Ritter. There were about 14/15,000 in that city before the battle and that fight was intense, the most committed Russian battle so far, and the city has been completely taken. These guys were not conventional Ukrainian soldiers/marines but Azov (Nazi) forces/units, so it's a good bet they were killed rather than taken prisoner. Russians are killing them straight up without mercy. If you add to the numbers before Maripol, that's like 30,000 at least. He says the number is more like btw 2,000-3,000 Russians to 30,000 Ukrainians, given what we're seeing.
Now that the Russians have created their land bridge and cut off Kyiv from the East, they are taking their best soldiers to the East to destroy another 60,000 or so. Like the other Colonel, he thinks this war is over. It's more important to destroy the military than to take territory because without the military, the territory is all yours for the taking.
What do you think? Are Russian sources saying the same thing? His analysis is based on his military know-how and speculation as nobody has access to Russian plans. The Western media are simply reporting ANYTHING the Ukrainians claim as fact, but they don't know either.
