UKRAINE’S audacious blitzkrieg against Russia may lead to a Hitler-style downfall of Putin, a former British army officer has said.
Colonel Hamish of Bretton-Gordon told The Sun that “Putin is panicking” following Kyiv’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region.
One thousand Ukrainians stormed Kursk this week, supported by tanks and armored vehicles.
Russian citizens in the region had to evacuate because they complained about the inability of Putin’s forces to reach them.
But de Bretton-Gordon warned that Putin blew up because of a “small” war in the context of the war, which he said is not a smart sign for his leadership.
He told The Sun: “The raid around Kursk in recent days is significant.
“Putin and Moscow are talking about it.
“The fact that Putin has reacted so strongly to this . . . He is the president of Russia, but he gets involved in small tactical battles, which is never good.
“It was Hitler’s downfall that he worried about this.
“Putin is panicking.
“Screaming in the media yesterday, when in reality a thousand Ukrainians have traveled between 15 and 20 kilometers to Russia, is crazy. ”
The bloody battles on the Ukraine front, de Bretton-Gordon says, are “incredibly similar” to the fighting of World War I: Ukraine’s advance toward Russia has advanced at a breakneck pace.
He said: “Over the last 12 months of this confrontation, we have counted movements on the front line almost in meters rather than kilometers.
“And the same thing happened in World War I. So a 15- to 20-kilometer raid is huge. “
Although it was officially shown in Kyiv, de Bretton-Gordon said the invasion appears to be an impressive “combined arms operation. “
“It appears to be a combined arms operation, something we had not noticed before.
“You have tanks, infantry, armored vehicles, artillery, electronic warfare, air defense, all running at the same time.
“The Russians were successful. »
He told The Sun that Putin’s invasion of Kharkiv failed earlier this year and that his troops were unable to do what the Ukrainians did this week.
Reports about the involvement of the Mechanized Brigade and the 82nd Air Assault Brigade point to “elite Ukrainian troops,” Hamish says.
“Whatever happens,” he added, “psychologically, it’s a big bravo for kyiv and a big bravo for Moscow. “
By James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
Ukraine has attacked Russia itself several times since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022.
The moves included both attacks on the ground with tanks and troops, as well as the use of long-range missiles.
In March, Russian rebels from the Freedom Legion of Russia (FRL), the Siberian Battalion (SB), and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) supporting Ukraine introduced a double assault.
In May last year, the Free Russian Legion attacked the country as it sought to “build a free Russia. “
None of the raids managed to seize land, and the invaders were rejected or retreated.
Ultimately, they seek to test Russian forces, attack Russia in unprotected areas, and destroy infrastructure such as logistics centers, ammunition depots, or disrupt Russian events.
“This is likely to be quite a large operation. “
de Bretton-Gordon added: “It’s ironic that the Russians call this a provocation when about a thousand Ukrainians have been crammed into Russia, when we have 600,000 Russian troops in Ukraine. “
He warned that Russian claims on social media “are not the truth. “
As Ukrainian forces struggle to contain Kremlin troops on their territory, it’s unclear exactly why they staged an incursion into Russia.
But some experts say there’s something to this madness.
It is believed that the counterattack may simply be a diversionary tactic to prevent Russia from advancing further into Ukraine, forcing Vlad to stay on his own turf.
Military analyst Mykhaylo ZhyrokhovIf told the BBC: “If we look at official reports, particularly fewer Russian bombs have been dropped in the Donetsk region. “
“This means that the planes carrying them are now in Russia. “
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