Putin promises that whatever the troops need, they will get
Whatever you need, we’ll get you. This, in a nutshell, is what Vladimir Putin promised his troops today.
He had heard the criticism over the supplies – some legitimate, some “emotional”, he said – and he would make sure the armed forces learned from their experiences and lacked nothing for the future. .
This even extends to all military personnel with access to drones – an interesting nod to the ubiquitous role drones play in Ukraine, in combat and intelligence, on a scale yet unheard of in modern warfare.
Whether all that support materializes is a whole different story.
Corruption has long been endemic in Russia’s armed forces, one reason why recent months have seen ordinary citizens shelling out huge sums for kits like body armor and tourniquets for their drafted relatives.
This “special military operation”, as Putin still insisted on calling it, showed that the Russian armed forces are simply not quite the high-tech, ultra-modern military he envisioned.
Its factories are in overdrive and additional supply is coming from Iran, North Korea and Belarus.
Sanctions complicate things on the defense side, although Russia is good at finding workarounds.
Saying you’ll get everything money can buy is not the same as delivering it. But it shows he has no intention of giving up.
