Friday 27 May 2022

The Ukraine war will drain Russia of a huge chunk of its weapon resources but Putin is smiling

Even the Pentagon is now estimating that the Russians have lost at least 1,000 tanks. That's an incredible statistic. All the signs are that Moscow is now having to raid its storage depots for museum-age T-62 tanks to try and fill in the gaps. But these old beasts which are 50-years-old will be sitting ducks for Ukrainian anti-tank units, armed with the best weapons the West can provide. At this rate Russia will be getting through their whole inventory of tanks if the war continues at this pace for the next year or so. Even so, the invasion force seems to be ploughing slowly on, grabbing villages and towns and land in eastern Ukraine, and destroying everything in their wake. Is this what Putin planned to do from the beginning, just destroy as much of Ukraine as possible to prove a point? A thousand tanks gone, but who cares, Putin seems to be saying. No one truly knows how many Russian soldiers have died but the Ukrainians claim it's now as high as 30,000. In three months! But unless the US agrees to send the really big stuff, heavy long-range multiple-launch rocket systems and the HIMARS artillery monster, the Russians are going to outgun the Ukrainians and continue their remorseless way into eastern Ukraine. I have a feeling that Putin is quite pleased the way things are going now, never mind the losses and the early disasters and the catastrophic loss of the Black Sea fleet flagship cruiser, Moskva. He is stealing Ukraine's grain harvest and preventing Kyiv from exporting grain and wheat by blockading the Black Sea ports. It's not looking good for Kyiv suddenly. Yes Putin is definitely smiling.

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