Thread by @kamilkazani

How is the war in Ukraine going? Today they confirmed the death of Russian General Major Suhovetsky. He's unsurprisingly a paratrooper. So let's discuss the role of paratroopers in Russian military doctrine. That'll shed a light on the course of this war and why Russia lost it🧵

Paratroopers hold more legendary status than any other troops in Russia. They are elite force comprising the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. They are supposed to lead the offensive, being dropped behind the enemy lines and holding the ground before the rest of the army comes

Except they aren't used this way. If you look at this picture you'll understand why. It's just to easy to shoot them all in the air before they reach the ground. That's why in pretty much every conflict - Afghanistan, Karabakh, Georgia, Chechnya they were used as regular infantry

Since WWII there were only three cases when Russian paratroopers were actually dropped on the enemy from the air:

Hungary 1956
Czechoslovakia 1968
Ukraine 2022

Ergo, paratroopers act as paratroopers only when they don't expect resistance from another regular army

Paratroopers aren't that strong. The firepower of an "elite" paratrooper regiment is way weaker than that of regular, "non-elite" infantry regiment. They can't defeat an army. But they aren't supposed to fight against an army. They are supposed to suppress mutinies and rebellions

The entire concept of VDV, Russian paratroopers makes total sense if we consider that they are not so much soldiers as the riot police. They don't need to fight other regular armies, they need to suppress disorganised mutinies and protests

Since paratroopers are the shock troops of regime, they absolutely need to look scary to scare off any mutineers. Their entire legendary status is one huge psyop. That's not a secret, really well-trained forces such as those of GRU consider these guys to be fraudsters

For this reason paratroopers absolutely need to be very tall. Physical fitness is not enough, you need to be very big. Why? Because they need to be scary. Because their main weaponry is purely psychological. People should see these big guys and realise resistance is meaningless

Hence the entire "legendary" status, well-developed mythology and iconography. There's no other troops with so developed symbolics, such as paratroopers. Consider this one where Elia the Prophet gets a blue paratrooper beret

Tons of songs, visuals etc are dedicated to paratroopers, more than to any other troops. Why? Again, because VDV are psyop troops and they are powerless without a thoroughly developed mythology. Thus government heavily invests in building this mythology

2nd of August is the VDV day. So every year ex-paratroopers (or whoever decided to west the light blue vest and beret) jump into the public fountains

... harass civilians

.. and the police. Regular people (or soldiers) would get long prison terms for beating up the cops. But not the paratroopers. They are shock troops of the regime and the regime gonna maintain their badass status. They are so badass because they have full support of the state

That's why "elite" paratroopers comprise the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. It's not a reserve for a big war. Nope. It's a reserve for suppressing mutinies within Russia or in neighbouring countries. And that's largely done through psyops. Thus they work hard to seem scary

When Russia decided to suppress the insurrection in Kazakstan last year, it sent there its glorified riot police - the paratroopers. See the light blue stripes on their vests? Only VDV wears it

Let's be honest, Kremlin sees Ukraine as a rebel province. The very existence of this country is mutiny. And if you need to suppress a riot, you send the riot police. So Putin sent there paratroopers and they were completely routed. Because they didn't expect organised resistance

Russian paratroopers were used as paratroopers only during the suppression of "fascist revolt" in Hungary 1956 and in Czechoslovakia 1968. Why? Because they knew they're not gonna face another regular army there. So they can unleash their psyop without fearing any consequences

When Putin invaded Ukraine he thought he's suppressiing yet another Eastern European mutiny. And sent his riot police expecting Ukrainian army to run or surrender. But it didn't. And once it didn't his entire special operation modelled after Whirlwind 1956 or Danube 1968, failed

Paratroopers were supposed to take control of the main cities and logistical clusters, so the occupation of the country by the army would go smoothly. But Ukrainian army opened fire and they failed. And after that initial failure the entire plan was broken

The most dramatic example of this failure were Russian vehicles stuck in the early spring mud. You see they are trying to put tree logs under its wheels to get it out. Sounds good, doesn't work

Putin expected Ukrainian army to surrender. Unexpectedly not only the army but even regular civilians whom government gave guns started attacking Russian supply lines. Russia didn't plan for war and simply pushed forward with just one army echelon, so supply lines are unguarded

As a results those columns that pushed forward run out of fuel and simply get stuck on the roads and in the fields. That's the most plausible explanation for this Russian column simply staying in the field and being filmed by civilians

Putin's Blitzkrieg failed because it wasn't a Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg is a war operation against an enemy who fights. But Russia launched a special operation expecting Ukrainians to surrender. That's why they sent forward their glorified riot police. Of course, they were beaten

They sent only one echelon of troops by land. They wanted to occupy a defenceless country and didn't care about covering their supply lines. Of course they were cut off and now thousands of Russian vehicles are stuck with no fuel

Putin's plan failed and that's why he started escalating the violence. Here you see a student dormitory of Kharkiv university after a Russian bombardment

Or residential districts of Kyiv

The only question is whether Ukrainians will be able to stand their ground until the imminent economic collapse of Russia. It will happen much sooner than most expect, gonna write about it tomorrow in a more detailed way. In any case, Putin's plan of a special operation failed

It failed for two reasons. Firstly, after 2014 Ukrainians rebuilt their army and state for the imminent clash with Russia. Secondly, when Russia finally attacked, Ukrainians didn't fall for an empty psyop and didn't get scared. And if you don't fear, psyop doesn't work. End of🧵