6/18/23

By Aditi Jha

According to experts, Russia's military shortcomings last year are spreading a myth of weakness. Russian military analyst Ian Matveev told the Washington Post, "The Russians are fighting on well-prepared positions and have accumulated a sufficient amount of artillery ammunition, plus they have more drones, and in this aspect, at the moment, they are no worse than the Armed Forces of Ukraine." Russia has built more forts than troops it has to deploy, and they have created seas of trenches, obstacles, and land mines in key Ukrainian areas. And according to an expert with the BBC's Russian service, Pavel Aksenov, Russia has been changing its aviation tactics, making more decisive, effective attacks rather than just firing with attack helicopters from far away. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that Ukraine's war casualties were "ten times higher" than Russia's losses, though he had no evidence to back up that claim. Other perspectives suggest that Russia is doing worse than Ukraine. Ukraine is able to launch nighttime attacks, unlike Russia. They have all the necessary equipment, such as night-vision goggles, tanks with thermal/night-vision optics, and thermal imaging drones. A geospatial intelligence team lead and Russia analyst with The Institute for the Study of War, George Barros, told Business Insider that Russia has never had the same capabilities and resources, even prior to the war. "The Russian military is pretty well known for lacking some of these higher-end capabilities," he said, "even before the war and even before the military was stressed and degraded." He pointed out that some individual night-vision goggles would sell for tens of thousands of dollars. It's not just nighttime equipment as well. The average Russian soldier has poor-quality weapons, armor, and combat technology, with some reports even saying that soldiers are sent into battle with rusted, Soviet-era weapons that cannot function. Barros pointed out that, "it's difficult to see how the Russian Ministry of Defense could be able to afford to regularly equip its average infantry with really expensive night-vision goggles or other kinds of similar optics when they can't afford regular optics for most of these troops, let alone proper body armor and proper training." Ukraine's night raids have been more frequent and more successful after acquiring their equipment. Ukraine has been defeated in other areas, though; the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine has been destroyed and flooding has killed 16 people so far. Russian officials say 29 people died in Russian territories. The flooding has destroyed farmland and reduced resources for civilians. 31 people are missing and over 3,600 have been evacuated in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Around 1,300 houses are still flooded, according to Ukraine's interior ministry on Saturday. Ukraine says that Russia blew up the dam, and on Friday a team of international legal experts concluded that, based on their investigation, it was "highly likely" that Russians planted explosives and caused the destruction. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, 2022, at least 62,295 people have died, 60,117 people have had non-fatal injuries and 15,000 people are missing. Around 17 million people have been displaced, at least 140,000 buildings have been destroyed and the property damage is estimated to be around 411 billion dollars. A Ukrainian political analyst predicts that the war may continue into 2024 and 2025. 

That's the news for today! Stay safe!