Lack of ammunition and mistakes in the defense: Russia’s president admits to pro-Russian military bloggers that he has problems defending against the counter-offensive.
Moscow – At a two-hour meeting with 18 pro-Russian bloggers and war correspondents, the Russian President Wladimir Putin admitted military errors on Tuesday (June 13). According to the Kremlin chief, Russia could have prepared the country’s southern border regions better for the Ukrainian counter-offensive. It was the first time in a long time that Russia’s president addressed the media in detail Ukraine war expressed – probably to win the trust of the public.
Counter-offensive in the Ukraine war: Putin admits mistakes in the Belgorod border region
Recently, there had been more and more drone attacks on Russian territory, with the Belgorod region in particular being affected. The oblast was shot at 130 times in May alone, according to Russian authorities. At the beginning of June, the governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, called on the residents of the border region to leave the area after days of shelling. At the meeting with selected pro-Russian war correspondents and bloggers on Tuesday, Putin also addressed the attacks as part of the counter-offensive.
“Of course, there is nothing good about that,” Putin said according to the transcription of the Kremlin. “But in principle one could have assumed that the enemy would behave like this and one could have prepared better,” the Kremlin chief admitted to mistakes and also spoke of a lack of ammunition. “High-precision ammunition, communications equipment, drones […]. We have them, but unfortunately they are not enough,” Putin said loudly Moscow Times and also promised better anti-aircraft protection at the meeting. It is not an easy but solvable task, said the Kremlin chief in Moscow.
Putin contradicts second wave of mobilization and reports 156,000 new volunteers
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is underway, but Russia has everything under control, it was said at the meeting on Tuesday. “The enemy has not succeeded in any of the sectors,” Putin told a report by the New York Times according to At the meeting with military correspondents, however, Putin denied that a second wave of mobilization was imminent. At the end of October last year, the Russian President announced the official end of the partial mobilization without signing a corresponding decree.
A recruitment campaign has been running for months, with which Moscow has recruited 400,000 new volunteer fighters to recruit for his war of aggression. The Kremlin presents the campaign as a call for volunteers. With regard to the ongoing recruitment campaign, 156,000 new contract soldiers have been recruited so far, Putin said at the meeting with military correspondents. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared at the end of December that it was “necessary” to increase the Russian army to 1.5 million soldiers.
Putin supports the Ministry of Defense in the dispute over compulsory contracts for mercenary groups
According to his own statements, the pro-Russian military correspondent Alexander Kots addressed the discrepancy in the pay of different units when meeting with the president. In the same trench there is “for example, a border guard with a salary of 50,000 rubles, a conscript with a salary of 200,000 rubles and a simple conscript with a salary of 2,900 rubles. And they do the same job.” wrote Kots in a post on Telegram.
The forced conscription of mercenary groups “is the only way to get social guarantees [für Söldner] to ensure there [derzeit] There is no contract with the state and no contract with the Defense Ministry,” Putin defended on Tuesday the Defense Ministry order that mercenary troops must sign contracts with the ministry before July 1. The The head of the paramilitary Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had already publicly announcednot wanting to comply.
Russian military correspondents as part of wartime propaganda in Ukraine war
War correspondents are part of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine. The Russian public often trusts bloggers more than the Defense Ministry. The blogger Semyon Pegow from the project WarGonzo for example, is one of the few who was granted direct access to Russian troops by the Kremlin in the Ukraine war. Pegow supplemented the war propaganda with pictures of the “common soldiers” directly from the front. The blogger had already reported on the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and was also on site during the Russian military operation in Syria. Pegov wrote down Telegram from the meeting with Putin and praised the President for “detailed” responses to his questions.
However, Putin did not invite critical military bloggers to the meeting. Ultranationalist and former intelligence officer Igor Girkin, for example, was not at the scene but made a statement in a Telegram post disparaging about the media representatives present and what was said. Putin said Russia could create a “restricted zone” so that its territory would no longer be accessible from Ukraine. “And with what forces?” Girkin asked in his post, questioning that the vaguely announced “exclusion zone” could hold. “Oh those storytellers,” said the former secret service agent and Putin critic. (mind)
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