Thread by @Rory_Johnston

This NYT long read on Putin’s war against Ukraine is truly flabbergasting.

Some of the more mind-blowing snippets to follow below.
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

“In interviews, members of the brigade said some of them had barely fired a gun before and described having almost no bullets anyway, let alone air cover or artillery.

But it didn’t frighten them too much, they said. They would never see combat, their commanders had promised.”

“Russian invasion plans, obtained by The NYT, show that the military expected to sprint hundreds of miles across Ukraine and triumph within days. Officers were told to pack their dress uniforms and medals in anticipation of military parades in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.”

“Putin associates said he spiraled into self-aggrandizement and anti-Western zeal, leading him to make the fateful decision to invade Ukraine in near total isolation, without consulting experts who saw the war as pure folly”

[I’m sure he found solace in a few accounts on here😒]

“The Russian military […] was severely compromised, gutted by years of theft […] One military contractor described frantically hanging enormous patriotic banners to hide the decrepit conditions at a major Russian tank base, hoping to fool a delegation of top brass.“

Parade of blunders:
- old maps, bad intel
- far less useful than expected hacker squads
- soldiers phoning home with cells, revealing positions
- “While their planes were being shot down, many Russian pilots flew as if they faced no danger, almost like they were at an air show.”

“Many of his fighters are commanded by people who are not even part of the military, like his former bodyguard, the leader of Chechnya and a mercenary boss who has provided catering for Kremlin events.”

Dear lord it’s too much:

“Putin’s fractured armies often function like rivals, competing for weapons and … viciously turning on one another … the clashes became violent, with a Russian tank commander deliberately charging at his supposed allies and blowing up their checkpoint”

Moscow blames the West & its weapons:

“This is a big burden for us,” Putin’s spokesman said, depicting Russia as taking on all of NATO’s military might in Ukraine. “It was just very hard to believe in such cynicism and in such bloodthirstiness on the part of the collective West”

“Russian soldiers [were] stunned when the orders came to invade. On Feb 23, [they] were at their camp celebrating the Defender of the Fatherland holiday … when their commander approached

“Tomorrow you are going to Ukraine to fuck up some shit”

There was no further explanation”

When you treat your soldiers like shit, don’t be surprised when they poke holes in your truck gas tanks or pour sand in your tank fuel tanks.

Solid entry in the book of give an inch and they’ll take a mile.

The experience in Crimea [understandably] emboldened Putin, demonstrating both weak Ukrainian resistance and anemic or at least short-lived Western sanctions consequences.

[weekend life intermission: reading break done, Jr Intern back awake; will continue this thread on Moscow’s bewildering military incompetence during Jr’s next nap ☝🏻]

Anddd we’re back for nap #2 quote roundup.

Solid system…

“Mr. Putin’s isolation deepened his radicalization … Those who got to see him in person saw their influence rise in a system in which access to Mr. Putin—referred to as “the boss” or “V.V.,” his first initials, by insiders—is the most valuable of currencies.”

*Everyone* overestimated Russian capabilities, a fact crystallized in what a US defence official called Gen. Milley’s (aka the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) “you’re going to die” speech

Few of Putin’s supposed closest advisors knew about the invasion plans before they were announced.

“The best that senior aides could do was to try to read Mr. Putin’s body language. Some reported with concern that “he’s got this warlike twinkle in his eyes””

“Unlike its more limited campaigns in places like Syria — or the big hypothetical war with NATO it had long planned for — the invasion of Ukraine was simply “not what the Russian military was designed to do,” putting it in a position it was probably “least prepared” to deal with”

““The collective system of circular, mutual self-deception is the herpes of the Russian Army,” the pro-Russian militia commander Aleksandr Khodakovsky wrote on Telegram in June.”

Russia is good at rockets, yet:

“came to rely on such battered, inexperienced troops after months of tactics that more closely resembled 1917 than 2022. Commanders sent waves of troops into the range of heavy artillery, eking out a few yards of territory at grievous tolls.”

/end

Great, very long piece.

Huge kudos to the NYT team (photo below for credits) for pulling it together.

Check out the full article, with so so much detail that I didn’t share in the thread, here: nytimes.com/interactive/20…