WASHINGTON DC (The Hill): The United Kingdom’s defense ministry on Monday said Russia has likely experienced “devastating” losses among its mid- and junior-level military officers during its invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers in the conflict,” the ministry wrote in an intelligence update posted on Twitter.
“Brigade and battalion commanders likely deploy forwards into harm’s way because they are held to an uncompromising level of responsibility for their units’ performance. Similarly, junior officers have had to lead to the lowest level tactical actions, as the army lacks the cadre of highly trained and empowered non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who fulfill that role in Western forces,” it added.
The intelligence update comes more than three months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has gained control of a number of regions, namely the Luhansk and Donetsk areas, the BBC noted, but Ukraine has defended other regions from the offensive.
The U.K. on Monday said Russia’s significant loss of its “younger professional officers will likely exacerbate its ongoing problems in modernising its approach to command and control.”
“More importantly, battalion tactical groups (BTGs) which are being reconstituted in Ukraine from survivors of multiple units are likely to be less effective due to a lack of junior leaders,” the ministry added.
Additionally, the British intelligence said the decreased number of “experienced and credible” personnel will likely lead to a decrease in morale, in addition to poor discipline.
“With multiple credible reports of localise mutinies amongst Russia’s forces in Ukraine, a lack of experienced and credible platoon and company commanders is likely to result to a further decrease in morale and continued poor discipline,” the intelligence update reads.
NATO Secretary Gene-ral Jens last week said Rus-sian President Putin “made a big, strategic mistake” w-hen he launched an invas-ion of Ukraine, which spa-rked the beginnings of a N-ATO expansion, with Fin-land and Sweden looking to join the military alliance.
Both countries have submitted written applications to join the 30-member bloc.
“I will not speculate about his feelings, but he made a big, strategic mistake,” Stoltenberg said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“One of the stated purposes with this invasion of Ukraine was to get less NATO on Russia’s borders. … And now he gets more NATO enlargement,” he added.
Russian foreign minister denies speculation that Putin is ill: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sought to quell speculation over rumors around Russian President Putin’s health, saying on Sunday that “sane” people can see he is in good health.
In an interview with French television news TF1 and LCI, Lavrov shot down speculation that the 69-year-old Russia leader is in ill-health and said he is not suffering from any ailments.
Lavrov noted that “President Putin appears in public every day. “
“You can see him on the screens, read his speeches, listen to his speeches. I d-on’t think sane people can distinguish any symptoms of illness in this man,” he said.
His comments come after former British MI5 agent Christopher Steele – who wrote the highly publicized dossier on former President Trump – told Sky News that, according to sources in Russia and elsewhere, “Putin is, in fact, quite seriously ill.”
“It’s not clear exactly w-hat this illness is – whether it’s incurable or terminal, or whatever,” Steele added la-st week. “But certainly, I think it’s part of the equation.” New Lines magazine also reported earlier this month that an oligarch who is a Putin ally said in an audio recording obtained by the magazine that the Russian president is “very ill with blood cancer.”
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