War In Ukraine - How Putin's Generals Goofed Up

The Russians have goofed up, while the Ukrainian radars and anti-aircraft missiles are alive and shooting

- R. Prasannan, Pradip R. Sagar And Jomy Thomas

ON SUNDAY, MARCH 13, Vladimir Putin’s top aide and chief of Russia’s National Guard, General Viktor Zolotov, made a candid confession at a church service led by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church: “Yes, not everything is going as fast as we would like.” The general was referring to the war in Ukraine, the awesome march of Russian arms, which Putin likes to call a ‘special military operation’.

The western media grabbed it as the first admission by a Russian security czar about the slowness of the operation. They were wrong. The Russian high command had been indicating it in several of their daily briefings. On March 10, the day on which the forces captured Maryanovka, Lazarevka and Lesnoe, defence ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov admitted: “The march is progressing at about 10km a day.” In the days that followed, the war machine ground down to even 6km a day, though by March 14 it picked up speed up to 10km and, on some fronts, even 14km.