EVIL Vladimir Putin would not think twice before flooding another million soldiers to die on the battlefield, defence experts have warned.
It comes as Putin’s battlefield casualties have soared past the bloody one million milestone after 40 months of meatgrinder war.
ReutersFirefighters try to extinguish after a Russian drone attack in Kharkiv[/caption]
APUkrainian soldiers of 43rd artillery brigade fire self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions[/caption]
ReutersAn explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike[/caption]
Ukraine’s fierce resistance forced Russia to pay a mighty toll for every inch of land it has taken, and its advances remain painfully slow.
The staggering milestone includes troops who have been killed or wounded so severely that they cannot fight on.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, one million Russian military troops have been put out of action since February 24, 2022, with 628,000 of those casualties occurring in the last six months.
Burning through a million troops has won Putin just 20 per cent of Ukraine’s total territory – mainly in southern and eastern areas – which is a humiliating conversion rate.
Despite the devastating losses which have already ripped a scar in Russian society, experts fear that Putin is likely unaffected by the numbers.
And that’s because mass sacrifice is ingrained in his Soviet-style battle plan.
Russian people are also too scared to stand up to the monster they’ve created and would rather die killing Ukrainians
Ukrainian government source
Leading defence expert Philip Ingram told The Sun: “Putin does not care about the numbers. He has a huge number of people ready to go to war.
“Though he has been having difficulties in recruiting soldiers full-time, he is recruiting soldiers from rural Russia on contracts and paying them heavily.
“Russia is sending waves and waves of soldiers, often without the support of artillery and other fire weapons. They are being slaughtered.”
Mr Ingram said the Russian population may not be aware of the actual casualty rate of the war, which is being kept away the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.
He explained how soliders are being recruited from isolated parts of Russia where the population is often poor with low literacy levels.
And how Putin is “buying their silence” by offering them “life-changing compensations”.
The expert said: “Soldiers are coming in from vast parts of Russia where there is no connectivity. Their literacy levels are extremely low.
“What’s keeping them coming is the amount of compensation they are getting, which is often life-changing.
“It means they or their families would never have to work again for the rest of their lives.
“That’s how Vladimir Putin is buying their silence; he seems to have the population behind him.
Russia expert Bill Borwder told The Sun that Putin would lose “another five million soldiers” if it helps him to stay in power.
Putin will sacrifice one, two or even five million Russians just to make sure that he stays in power
Bill Browder
He said: “Part of the reason that Putin is at war is not because he wants a piece of Ukraine ot he’s upset with NATO.
“He’s at war because he’s desperately afraid of his own people, and the best way of having his people have their anger deflected is have them angry at some foreign adversary.
“Putin is so scared for losing his own life, he’s ready to sacrifice one, two or even five million Russians just to make sure that he stays in power.”
A Ukrainian government source told The Sun: “Putin doesn’t care and never cared for the people of Russian Federation, be it ethnic Russians or representatives of other minorities.
“For him, it is a matter of personal survival and he would be willing to send anyone to death – from a Russian soldier to a Ukrainian child – for his own miserable existence.
“Unfortunately, Russian people in majority are also too scared to stand up to the monster they’ve created, and would rather die killing other nation’s people than risk their lives standing up against it.”
Getty Firefighters try to extinguish after Russian drone attack in Kharkiv[/caption]
ReutersUkrainian service members firing an anti-tank guided missile weapon system[/caption]
ReutersServicemen of Armed Forces prepare to fire a self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops[/caption]
ReutersArtillerymen of the 15th Operative Purpose Brigade Kara-Dag firing towards Russia[/caption]
Dr Stephen Hall, politics lecturer at the University of Bath, said that as far as the warmongering dictator is concerned, things are heading in the right direction, so he will keep on condemning young Russians to their deaths.
He told The Sun: “Putin believes he’s winning the war. The Russian army is moving forward like it or not.
“He believes that he can outlast the West, that the West is weak.”
Russia’s strategy, Dr Hall said, has been one of “meat assault”.
This relies on the logic that if you flood the front line with overwhelming numbers, “eventually some will get through”.
Dr Hall said Putin has learned this strategy from his ruthless Soviet predecessors in World War Two.
Their idea was “ten men to every rifle”, which meant: “You pick up the rifle of a fallen soldier. You keep going, you get shot. You’re next. Your buddy picks up your rifle.
“The Soviet army would eventually push through. So that remains the case in Russia.”
Russians ‘know how to suffer’, which allows the regime to continue with its meatgrinder tactics
Dr Stephen Hall
And that approach suits Putin just fine, because he “doesn’t care about his men”, Dr Hall said.
He said the Russian people “know how to suffer”, which allows the regime to continue with its meat-grinder tactics.
The Kremlin also meets less resistance from the Russian people than a million losses should merit, because it simply lies to them, Dr Hall said.
He said: “They’re simply not going to be told, especially in the poorer areas where Russia is recruiting – like Buryatia and Bashkortostan and elsewhere.”
NO STOPPING
Even with the death toll climbing higher by the day — over 1,140 Russian soldiers killed or wounded on Tuesday — Putin appears to be doubling down.
The bloody milestone comes as Putin calls for a major upgrade to Russia’s ground forces, Ukrainian outlet Pravda reports.
The Kremlin tyrant declared them the “dominant force” in modern warfare and demanded faster development of “advanced weapons systems” with “the highest tactical and technical specifications.”
In a meeting on the state armaments programme, Putin also directed resources toward strengthening Russia’s navy, further signalling his long-term military ambitions.
It all comes as Russia is reportedly building up a 50,000-strong force alongside the border of Kharkiv amid fears of a fresh summer offensive to attack the city.
With the US backing out of direct negotiations to broker a peace deal and Putin stalling ceasefire talks, experts fear a major Russian offensive could mobilise in the coming weeks.
The Ukrainian military in April reported that the Kremlin was amassing troops to prepare for a fresh assault on Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second largest city.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that Moscow has been attempting to gain ground in the border regions of Sumy in the northeast.
Military analysts believe he is trying to press home his advantage and capture more Ukrainian land.
They warn that Putin only has a “four-month window” to get a breakthrough in Ukraine this year.
And this could be the beginning of Russia’s summer offensive targeting the border city of Kharkiv – the “fortress” city of Ukraine which put up the maximum resistance at the start of the invasion.
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