Putin ‘much weaker than we think’, says John Sweeney
Nico Lange, chief of staff to Christine Lambrecht, Germany’s federal defense minister, spoke days after British military intelligence claimed that Putin had fired several commanders due to the nation’s “poor performance” since the start of the war on February 24. Russia struggles to gain a foothold as massive amounts of military aid pour in to bolster Ukrainian president-led campaign Volodymyr Zelenskysaid Mr Tall.
The supply of equipment is coordinated at a US base near the German city of Stuttgart, with about 50 countries supplying equipment, a report from Deutsche Well suggested, including the highly effective High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), as well as PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers from Germany and the Netherlands.
Mr Lange claimed that the weapons changed the face of the conflict, explaining: “The crucial aspect of recent days is that Russia is now being forced to respond to the statements and actions of the Ukrainians.
“Until now it was the other way around: the Ukrainians were forced to react to everything Russia did.”
Vladimir Putin’s Russia is reportedly in “tremendous trouble” in Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine (Image: GETTY)
Ukrainian forces launch a HIMARS missile from an unspecified location in the country (Image: Reuters)
In recent days, Russia had “moved significant troops south, towards both Kherson and Zaporizhia,” which have become the focus of significant counter-offensive in recent weeks, Lange said.
He added: “A Ukrainian attack will not resemble that of the Russians: this rolling barrage that destroys everything in its path.
“On the contrary, it will also rely on partisans, on uprisings in the occupied cities, on mobile operations behind enemy lines.”
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HIMARS missiles are accurate to a range of up to 185 miles (Image: Reuters)
Mr. Lange continued: “The Russians have big problems controlling these areas.
“There is a lot of partisan activity in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhya Oblast. Russian patrols are killed at night.
“Also in Melitopol, as in Kherson, there are posters directed against the Russian occupiers, there are pamphlet campaigns. Something new is constantly being introduced to the market.”
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Vladimir Putin pictured earlier this month (Image: GETTY)
Zaporizhzhya: A Russian soldier stands guard at the nuclear power plant (Image: GETTY)
Because Putin was unable to “escalate indefinitely,” he now faced “huge” difficulties in continuing the conflict, Lange said.
The M142 HIMARS, touted by the West as a “game changer”, can be loaded with a total of six precision missiles, guided by GPS. A HIMARS can be loaded with six accurate GPS-guided missiles and can target targets as short as 185 miles.
Since they were initially delivered in June, a UN senior defense missile estimated that more than 100 “high-value” Russian targets had been destroyed by the end of last month.
A MoD tweet said yesterday: “The poor performance of the Russian armed forces during the invasion of Ukraine has been costly to the Russian military leadership, most likely leading to the resignation of at least six Russian commanders since the start of hostilities in February. 2022.”
Russian military power in numbers (Image: Express)
Russian air defense systems have repelled a Ukrainian attack on Melitopol in southern Ukraine, which was undertaken early this morning, a senior official in the government of the Zaporizhzhya region told the state-backed Tass news agency.
Vladimir Rogov, a councilor of the military-civil administration of the Zaporizhzhya region, said: “This night, Russian air defenses protected the civilians of Melitopol from yet another missile attack.”
Melitopol fell in the early stages of the war after heavy fighting between February 25 and March 1.
Massive civilian protests followed, and on March 13, the Melitopol City Council declared: “The occupation forces of the Russian Federation are illegally trying to establish an occupation administration of the city of Melitopol.”
Melitopol: A Russian flag flies over a municipal building (Image: GETTY)
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday to allow international inspectors access to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, after Ukraine and Russia exchanged allegations over the weekend over the shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
At a press conference in Japan, where he attended the Hiroshima peace commemoration ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb, he said, “Any attack on a nuclear power plant is suicide.”
Russian troops seized the plant in southeastern Ukraine in early March, but the plant is still run by Ukrainian engineers.
The Russian-installed authority in the area said Ukrainian forces hit the site with a multiple rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and an area near a storage facility.