What is missing in this Russian invasion of Ukraine? Well, for one thing, ten top field commanders of the Russian army. Six of those commanders are generals, the other four are colonels. They were all taken out by snipers or drone strikes. The general in charge of Russia’s “elite” paratroopers, Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, was killed on the first day of the war in a botched operation to take Hostomel airport near Kiev. A Russian-Chechen general, Magomed Tushaev, was also killed in the same battle when Ukrainian troops decimated his Chechen troops.
Major General Vitaly Gerasimov of the 41st Army, was iced by a sniper. He was using an unsecured ordinary cell phone! Ukrainian Intel found out about this, tracked his location, and popped him. Apparently Russian communication lines are so good, that their generals have to steal Ukrainian sim cards and talk on unsecured, unencrypted lines. Bad move.
The most recent Russian general killed is Lt. Gen. Yakov Resantzev of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Southern District. He was taken out by a Ukrainian sniper team on March 26. This high count of dead generals may be another reason for Russia’s stalled invasion. They simply don’t have a corps of junior grade officers and NCOs who are trained to take the initiative if a higher leader is taken out.
A high ranking naval officer, Captain Andrei Paly, was killed in the siege of Mariupol. He was the deputy commander of the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet.
What else is missing? How about the new Russian “super tank”– the T-14 Armata. This thing was supposed to be the baddest, scariest thing on the planet. It was supposed to be invincible; better than the American Abrams tank. Where is it? We see plenty of shattered, smoldering T-72s littering Ukraine. No Russian super tanks anywhere though. Now would be a good time to scare the Ukrainans with this amazing thing, I would think. But apparently they are still sitting somewhere in Russia.
Where is the much vaunted Russian cyber-warfare capability? We’ve been told for years that Russian hackers can shut down power grids in the United States (and indeed some major businesses have been shut down and held hostage by cyber terrorists). But if the Russians can shut down entire power grids, why haven’t they done that in Ukraine? The Ukrainian government continues to send out videos every day. Ukrainian civilians and military, and foreign reporters continue to send out messages. Electricity and water continue to flow in Western Ukraine.
If the Russians can merely press a button and shut down a power grid, why have they fired missiles at Ukrainian TV and radio towers? (Missiles are expensive.).
Like so much of Russia’s military capabilities, their cyber-warfare technicians are long on advertisement and short on performance.
Finally, thousands of civilians are missing. We can’t lose sight of that. Not only are they missing under the rubble of hospitals and shopping malls blasted by Russian artillery, but also in Mariupol some 6000 Ukrainans have been forcefully removed and trucked into Russia. Deporting whole groups of people and “relocating” them in remote areas of the empire are typical tactics of the Russian government for the past two hundred years (at least).
This war is not over, not by a long shot. It is truly a close quarter slugfest at this point. Plenty of things have gone wrong for Putin’s army, but don’t start making predictions about victory for either side.