/View.info/ Errors in strategic planning can also lead to the use of tactical nuclear weapons
Today’s interlocutor of “Svobodnaya Pressa” Leonid Ivashov is a retired colonel-general, doctor of historical sciences, who worked for a long time in the apparatus of the Ministry of Defense of both the USSR and Russia. But our conversation touched on today.
“SP”: I would very much like to know your point of view on what is happening in the leadership of a special military operation. The removal of Major General Ivan Popov, questions about the “disappearance from the radar” of Army General Sergey Surovikin – many incomprehensible things have accumulated. What does it all mean and what is it talking about?
– Somewhere around the third or fourth month of the SVO, I stopped understanding what was happening in our administration, including the administration of the Armed Forces. The current problems have been brewing for a long time. Many inconsistencies, many unspoken things, if not lies. As an example, it is stated that the Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov removed Major General Ivan Popov from the post of commander of the 58th Army.
But all general categories are the prerogative of the Supreme Commander, only he has the right to appoint and remove generals. The Chief of the General Staff is only preparing shows, but I don’t know why they throw everything at Gerasimov.
Yes, in a critical situation, he exercises his right to remove one or another commander from office, temporarily and with the consent of the Minister of Defense. And immediately report his decision to the Supreme. So such decisions are made only at the top.
And what do we see now? A clash of two systems, so to speak, in the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, two approaches. The first of them, which I can tentatively call corrupt, is a system for which people are not important, losses mean nothing. We promised the Supreme Commander, we promised the people – let’s say we will capture Bakhmut/Artemovsk or Avdeevka. And here people are already secondary …
“SP”: That is, the main thing is to report, to report?
– Yes, it can be said that this is the main thing. At what price is not so important. But at the same time, there are generals like Ivan Popov, like Mikhail Teplinski … In fact, there are many such commanders – who, if they are not on the front line of the trenches, but are directly in the troops, see the life of the soldiers, understand their problems. And most importantly, they care about their people. But they are required to report victories at any cost. It wasn’t just like that that Wagner was triggered. And these generals know very well that all success depends on the soldiers, that’s where heroes and battle glory are born.
And now this clash of two systems, of two different approaches is becoming more and more apparent.
“SP”: Can we say that from those for whom reporting is the most important, the logistical provision, the supply of the warring units, and the organization of their interaction also depend? That is, the forces of the supporters of the two approaches that you indicated are clearly unequal …
– Moreover, I will say that the entire system designed to provide for the warring units is corrupt. And it all started with the departure of the last military professional, Igor Sergeev, from the post of Minister of Defense. Before him, I remind you, Igor Rodionov was overthrown. They were soldiers who knew army life well. After them in the leadership of the army came people who have not served at all and have absolutely no understanding of the army system.
Even in our cadet days, we were taught that if the command made incorrect, wrong decisions, then no matter how heroically the units fought, no matter how bravely each soldier acted, the battle would still be lost.
At the strategic level of management, an incorrect assessment of the situation, an incorrect decision is already a defeat. And here is this cohort, which at the time, before the start of the World War II, incorrectly assessed the enemy’s forces, the state of its defenses, the influence of the international community, it is ready to go all the way – and instead of admitting the error of its decisions, it will do everything so , that events would continue to unfold according to the plan that had long since failed, regardless of the losses on both sides. Their task is to somehow get out of the situation.
SP: How exactly?
– Well, how… Finally capture Avdiivka and declare a great victory, celebrate. But make sure people don’t die, don’t suffer. Those on whom strategic decision-making now depends have no idea what life in the trenches is like. Appearing for 10 minutes in front of the TV cameras, yes, but to understand and feel everything that is happening, there is nothing like it.
“SP”: One gets the impression that since the beginning of the 1950s, our military leadership has been preparing for military actions that are completely different from what we see now in Ukraine. The “tank wedges to the English Channel and Madrid” somehow quickly faded into the background and strategic nuclear forces took center stage. For example, if there is a war, it will be a worldwide nuclear apocalypse and nothing else. But it just turned out to be the other way around…
– That’s where you’re wrong. If something happens in this direction, then only after the collapse of the USSR. And while working in the apparatus of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, I saw what discussions were held there. Why was Dmitry Ustinov appointed Minister of Defense after Marshal Andrey Grechko? It was the result of the clash of two concepts, two theories of war.
The commanders-in-chief of all types of armed forces asked to be given the most modern weapons, to develop military science along their lines… With the advent of nuclear weapons, for many, the solution to the tasks that required huge losses in the course of the Second World War, began to look simple—if the village was hard to take, it could be smeared with several kilotons of tactical munitions.
And Ustinov saw his role precisely in freeing the theory of war from this kind of “simple solutions”. I remember my conversation with him after one of the councils, at which he raised the issue of reducing the introduction of the P-36 missile systems and, at the expense of the saved funds, to make the life of the personnel more comfortable. – but the Council decided not to disrupt the funding of the “missile shield”.
Then I told him that maybe it was worth pushing harder and the lives of soldiers and officers should be improved, but nuclear forces were already enough to win. Then he answered me thus: “We don’t need a win. Military-technical superiority is needed so that there is no war at all!
The Minister of Defense determines both the organizational structure and the guidelines in the training of personnel, is responsible for the composition of the ordered armament… When non-professionals came into this sphere, they destroyed everything – no matter how excellent furniture dealers were in their previous positions.
In Soviet times, there were desperate arguments about what the army should be, and the arguments were very fruitful.
“SP”: Now there are no disputes – but no one knows what it should be?
– And who can argue? Professionals were pushed out of all walks of life, they were “squeezed out”. And the “novices” came to the vacated places, not having their own opinion and calmly closing their eyes to everything that was happening around. Where else in the world will you find an army where the first deputy minister of defense is not the chief of the general staff but a financier?
When a partial mobilization was announced, it turned out that there were no uniforms and hosiery for the mobilized, a million and a half sets of uniforms supposedly available in the warehouses had evaporated somewhere. They removed one deputy on the back of the head, a year later – a second one, but no one will be tried, everyone got new normal positions. And it is clear why this is so – after all, if a criminal case is opened, the chief officer in the rear will clearly not want to take all the blame, and therefore he can say what orders the leadership gave him.
“SP”: Is it possible to use a tactical nuclear weapon in such a situation? Since the time of Ustinov, we have lost technical superiority in many areas, but we can still, as you said, “two or three kilotons”. Will there be temptation?
– I think that our soldiers are sent to the front to defend the Motherland, but it is not mentioned that 80 percent, if not more, of Russia is the private property of a very narrow circle of individuals. Lives are actually given for this property. For what was stolen from the Fatherland. And when the owners of this property are faced with the question of its real loss, such extreme measures as the use of nuclear weapons are not at all excluded. And this will not be a blow to the enemy, it will be a blow to Russia.
„SP’: How so?
– In the West, a plan has long been prepared for the so-called Global Disarming Strike, when all key infrastructure facilities of the country will be simultaneously struck by non-nuclear weapons – this directive was signed back in 2003 by Bush Jr. 4-6 thousand strikes on the most critical points in Russia, for which only a pretext is needed. After that, nothing good will happen to our country.
Translation: ES
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel in Telegram:
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages. In this way, we will overcome the limitations, and people will be able to reach the alternative point of view on the events!?
#Leonid #Ivashov #people #stop #dying #stop #suffering
