Here is a twit by Christo Grozev of Bellingcat:
“An important side effect of Russia’s invasion is Russia’s huge loss of domestic repressive troops. In this incident, what appears to be a big chunk of riot police from Vladimir has been destroyed. Who will beat up protesters during the next rally there?”
Not everyone, including Christo Grozev, understands why Russia sent so many “domestic repressive troops”, “riot police” with its “special military operation” to Ukraine.
As we know, Putin planned a blitzkrieg hoping within three days (Russian soldiers were given three-days food supplies) to occupy Ukraine and to replace national, regional and local leaders by pro-Russian ones.
Because it was expected that Russians would be greeted by traditional Ukrainian bread and salt, Putin used highly mobile armored forces with little to no infantry support.
Instead of infantry, Russian guards, special police units and ordinary police units were sent to Ukraine, whose task was to clear the occupied territories from pockets of resistance, disperse possible protests of Ukrainian citizens and, of course, replace local police units with Russian ones.
It seems that coordination between Russian motorized military units and police formations was either broken or not provided at all, Russian police units unprepared for combat operations suffered the largest losses in manpower. It was easy for the Ukrainian military, the National Guard and the police to liquidate them.
Not supported by the infantry, cut off from the supply bases, primarily with fuel, the armored forces of Russia turned out to be a good target for the Ukrainian military.
There is something else that needs to be said here. The Ukrainian military has a huge historical experience of participating in successful military operations. Ukrainian Cossacks are known to have taken part in many battles and decided the fate of many wars in Europe. The Russian imperial army and the armed forces of the USSR were strong primarily due to officers and generals of Ukrainian origin. It was thanks to them that the USSR was able to become the winner in the Second World War, which Putin cannot understand.
At present, the Russian army is fundamentally different from the armies of the Russian Empire and the USSR, despite the fact that Russian Federation armed forces are formally among the three most powerful armed forces in the world, and this is due to a huge nuclear potential.
Unfortunately, experts on Russia and governments in many countries of the world, and above all in the United States and the European Union, overestimate the power of the Russian armed forces, and this is a deterrent in resolving issues of supporting Ukraine in repelling Russian aggression.
Ukraine has no choice but to win this war. This war must be the last war in the history of Russia, and the devil Russian Empire must be defeated.
Therefore, we call on the President and the Government of Ukraine not to make any compromises in negotiations with Russia, and the governments of the United States, Europe and other countries of the world to act decisively and uncompromisingly in expelling the Russian Federation from all international organizations, primarily the UN, its complete isolation from the international communities. More here: “Appeal by representatives of Ukrainians Worldwide and Peoples all over the world who support Ukraine and Ukrainians in their war against Russian aggressor”.
Volodymyr Ivanenko