UKRAINE’S bold foray into Russia could trigger a Hitler-style downfall for Putin, says a former British army officer.
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told The Sun that “Putin is panicking” over Kiev’s shock invasion of Russia’s Kursk region.
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A thousand Ukrainian soldiers invaded Kursk this week, supported by tanks and armored vehicles.
Russian citizens in the region had to evacuate because they complained that Putin’s forces were unable to protect them.
But de Bretton-Gordon suggested that Putin is exploding over a “small” battle in the context of the war, which he says is not a good sign for his leadership.
He told The Sun: “The raid around Kursk in recent days is quite significant.
“Putin and everyone else are talking about this in Moscow.
“The fact that Putin reacted so strongly to this… He is the president of Russia, but he is involved in small tactical battles, which is never a good thing.
“It was the downfall of Hitler when he got involved in this.
“Putin is in a panic.
“To be all over the media yesterday, shouting about this, when in fact, a thousand Ukrainians appeared to have entered 15 to 20 kilometers into Russia, is crazy.”
The bloody battles on Ukraine’s front line, says de Bretton-Gordon, are “incredibly similar” to the conflict of the First World War – but Ukraine’s advance into Russia occurred at a lightning pace.
He said: “For the last 12 months of this conflict, we have counted frontline movements almost in meters rather than kilometers.
“And it was the same in World War I. So a 15 to 20 kilometer raid is huge.”
Although it has not been officially confirmed in Kiev, de Bretton-Gordon said the invasion appears to be an impressive “combined arms operation”.
“It appears this is a combined arms operation, something we have never seen before.
“We have tanks, infantry, armored vehicles, artillery, electronic warfare, air defense all working together.
“The Russians couldn’t do it.”
He told The Sun that Putin’s invasion of Kharkiv failed earlier this year because his troops were unable to do what the Ukrainians did this week.
Reports on the involvement of the 22nd Mechanized Brigade and the 82nd Air Assault Brigade point to “elite Ukrainian troops”, says Hamish.
“Whatever happens,” he adds, “psychologically it’s a big positive sign for Kiev and a big negative sign for Moscow.”
Why does Ukraine launch cross-border attacks against Russia?
By James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
Ukraine has attacked Russia itself several times since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022.
The attacks included ground attacks with tanks and troops, and also the use of long-range missiles.
In March, Russian rebels from the Russian Freedom Legion (FRL), Siberian Battalion (SB) and Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) supporting Ukraine launched a two-pronged attack.
In May last year, the Free Russia Legion attacked the country as it sought to “build a free Russia”.
So far, none of the incursions have managed to take over any land, with the invaders either being defeated or retreating.
Ultimately, they seek to build up Russian forces, attack Russia in unprotected areas and destroy critical infrastructure such as logistics centers, ammunition depots, or disrupt Russian events.
“We can consider this operation quite significant.”
de Bretton-Gordon added: “The irony of the Russians calling this a major provocation when about a thousand Ukrainians have piled into Russia, when we have 600,000 Russian troops in Ukraine.”
He warned that Russian claims on social media “are not necessarily true.”
With Ukrainian forces struggling to contain Kremlin troops on their home territory, it was unclear why they launched an attack on Russia.
But some experts say there is method to this madness.
It is believed the counterattack could be a diversionary tactic to distract Russia from advancing deeper into Ukraine, forcing Vlad to focus on his own territory.
Military analyst Mykhaylo ZhyrokhovIf told the BBC: “If you look at the official reports, you will see that there were significantly fewer Russian glide bombs dropped in the Donetsk area.”
“This means that the aircraft carrying them are now elsewhere in Russia.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
