According to the Russian POWs interrogated by the Security Service of Ukraine, the soldiers only received enough food and water for three days. The offensive began when the temperature was warm, so the troops received uniforms for warm temperatures; then, a week after that, ten-degree frosts followed, and the Russian troops were not ready for that.
The Kremlin believed its own myth about the invincibility of its army; it believed that the East and South of Ukraine, many of them Russian-speaking people, would greet them with flowers. And they did not take into consideration the power of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and the motivation of the entire Ukrainian society (regardless of the region) to resist the “Russian world” that brings oppression and suffering and to defend the Ukrainian world.
One of the first Russian prisoners of war, the platoon commander acknowledges the fact that he was not going to “military drills” - he was going to war. His unit had three days to capture Kharkiv. “They ordered us to capture the city, to occupy all main roadways, to close the exits for civilians and take Kharkiv. Besides, we were allowed to open fire on civilians and all residents of the city”. Only one officer and a soldier from this platoon survived; they surrendered.
Putin prepared the victorious parade on Khreshchatyk, Kyiv’s central street. All service branches of the Russian army were supposed to participate. Among them could have been military pilots that have been dropping 500-kg and 1000-kg bombs on Kharkiv, Mariupol, Chernihiv and other cities for 18 days in a row. Russians brought the parade uniforms to Ukraine even before the war began; these were supposed to be worn by “Putin’s aces”, too. Dozens of sacks with combat jackets and berets were found in the town of Irpin, in one of the rented garages. A Russian shell hit the garage, the building caught fire, and then people rushed in to put it out and discovered the storage. A local resident filmed how the Russian pilots’ uniform burns down and how the military decorations melt down. She put it on the Web then.
In Sumy, the defenders of Ukraine captured Russian parade-ready tank. It had St. George’s ribbons and the red star - the symbols that Russia uses when celebrating the victory over the Nazi Germany. “It’s the second one already, but it’s a combat-ready machine. They just abandoned it. The first one was blown up, and the other one is abandoned. This tank was present at a parade in Moscow. It came right from that parade! That first one already has no main turret, and this one is fine”.
POW, First Lieutenant Roman Nikanorov, the commander of reconnaissance platoon (military unit No.90600) says that his detachment was attacked by Ukrainian forces, and their APC ended up in the swamp: “I decided to burn the APC down and move towards the border”. While on their way to Hurivka village, the Russian fascists were taken by the local residents.
In Sumy region, fighters of the local territorial defense force captured 29 occupants over the last several days. According to them, Russian military leaders lie to them, saying that Ukrainians greet the Russian troops with flowers: “They lie that there are no combat casualties, and there’s only non-combat losses”. A captured Major continues: “We came in as fascists. People greeted us with rakes and pitchforks. “Occupants, go home!”, they cry.
According to the official data, the losses of Russian army are huge. After 18 days of the war, one can say that the Russian Armed Forces have never taken more casualties within such a period of time. That’s 360 tanks, 1.205 armored vehicles, more than 60 planes, more than 80 helicopters, and hundreds of other kinds of vehicles, including modern ones. “Most armies of the world don’t have such number of vehicles that the Russian troops lost since the invasion of our country started”, President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted. Besides, the Russian forces surrender in groups. The other groups are trying to reach the border and return home.
Drawing by Oleksiy KUSTOVSKY.
