Putin’s Bloody Revenge, After Russian Humiliation in Ukraine
Medium Mar 2, 2022



Itseems that Vladimir Putin’s war has thus far been a personal disappointment, with Russia’s sorry military performance, amid what appears to have been a major strategic miscalculation by the Kremlin regarding the ease with which Russian forces would put down Ukraine’s armed resistance to Russian domination.

The world has witnessed Ukraine fight back valiantly and effectively in the last week, with CNN showing footage of dead Russian soldiers lying frozen amid the charred debris of their destroyed armored vehicles, as the world celebrates Ukrainian bravery in the face of immense odds.

It’s the kind of stinging humiliation that Putin is unlikely to forgive, or forget, and it is far too early to celebrate. This has only just started.

Indeed, this appears to be the beginning of a much darker chapter of massive indiscriminate bombings on Ukrainian cities, as Russian forces attempt to flush out a dedicated resistance, and subdue Ukraine’s spirit of defiance.

As the world cheered on Ukraine’s early successes, they may have forgotten the fact that the Russian army remains a dangerous behemoth, capable of waging incredible destruction on a literally unlimited scale, regardless of how adroitly they do it.

It’s a stark reality.

In past military campaigns, Russia has responded to resistance by flattening entire cities into dust. They obliterated the regional capital of Chechnya, Grozny, in their war with separatists there. In Syria, Putin’s forces made good use of internationally-banned weapons in Aleppo and elsewhere, dropping cluster munitions and barrel bombs on densely populated cities, committing countless war crimes as they propped up Bashar Al-Assad’s murderous regime.

As a 40-mile-long convoy of Russian forces encircles Kyiv, we are likely to see a return to these brutal tactics, as rockets rain down on Ukrainian civilians, while the world watches in horror, and mounting anger. In the early stages of this conflict, the only certainty is that things will get much worse, unfortunately.

How bad things might get is a question reserved for Vladimir Putin himself.

A stumbling army
Vladimir Putin craved a quick and decisive military victory, enabling him to return Ukraine’s Slavic peoples back into the warm embrace of Mother Russia’s imperial fold. It was not to be.

Instead, Russian armed forces encountered extraordinarily inspired resistance from the outset, even as those same forces struggled to execute their missions, mired with fuel shortages and logistical headaches, amid degraded morale among poorly-trained conscripts.

It’s been a disastrous performance.

Rather than the modern sophisticated Russian military we’d all expected, military analysts in the West watched a clumsy and cumbersome giant flail, an army that couldn’t properly fuel its tanks nor feed its troops.

Worse, Russian soldiers appeared to be poorly trained, with widespread reports of sinking morale among Russian troops. It seems Russian forces weren’t eager to fight what the former Russian foreign minister, Andrei Kozyrev, today called a “bloody fratricidal war in Ukraine.”

It’s the classic difference between a war of necessity and a war of choice.

A democratic leader
Indeed, it’s the opposite mentality in Ukraine’s military and armed civilian resistance. They are highly motivated, led by an inspiring wartime leader in President Volodomyr Zelensky, who has stayed behind in Kyiv despite the immense danger to his own life, even as the Russian security services attempt to locate and assassinate him and his family.

The actor-turned-president, Zelensky has proven himself to be everything that Vladimir Putin is not, and his continued existence must grate severely on Putin’s nerves.

He’s young, charismatic, defiant, uncorrupted, and most importantly, he’s leading a democratic nation dedicated to preserving its precious freedom. Zelensky is the opposite of the dour kleptocrat spy, and he’s come to represent freedom in the face of brutal authoritarian aggression, and the struggle for democracy around the world.

Vladimir Putin represents violent power and malice, as his autocratic regime wages an unprovoked war against its smaller, weaker neighbor.

Yet in this contest of wills between the aging autocrat and the young democrat, Russia’s massive array of armed forces aren’t as fumbling as they initially appeared. Indeed, Russia has refrained, up til now, from the kind of massive (and illegal) carpet bombing campaigns that characterized Russian warfare in Syria, Chechnya, and Georgia.

Amid reports today of a hospital being bombed, and footage capturing the leveling of a massive civil administration building in Kharkiv, it seems that Russian restraint has come to an end. The clumsy giant is now wide awake.

Vengeance
As analysts pick apart Vladimir Putin’s statements, and attempt to assess what some believe to be his declining mental state, it seems the most important psychological trait is Putin’s endless cruelty. That trait isnotin decline.

He’s spent the last two decades assassinating his opponents with nuclear poisons and pistols in broad daylight, from London to Moscow, and his vengeance against his enemies is legendary, and terrifying.

He’s been a global menace for years.

As he wages this brutal war in Ukraine, he’s made it clear that he won’t be deterred, issuing numerous threats of nuclear warfare against the United States, and any other adversaries that may be considering stepping in to aid Ukraine.

Thus, Vladimir Putin is dedicated to this war, and he has gambled his life, legacy, and his leadership on its successful prosecution. This war is a personal project to solidify his aging, calcified autocracy, and to thwart the democratic forces swirling on his border in Ukraine, before they come for his throne.

As this war continues, it is likely to get much uglier. Putin simply can’t abide failure in Ukraine; the only other option is mass destructionofUkraine.

As for the rest of the world, we’re at the mercy of a nuclear-armed madman, intent on destroying and swallowing up his neighbor.

As Ukraine fights a worsening battle, world leaders may have to helplessly watch destruction on a level not seen since World War Two, or risk entering World War Three themselves.

It’s a grim thought.

When Russian forces today bombed Babi Yar, hitting the memorial at the mass grave where Nazis infamously murdered 30,000 innocent Jews, it also seemed like they were bombing something else, something more ephemeral.

Perhaps it was the old order, the peace and stability in Europe; or maybe it was our memory of these past atrocities, as humanity prepares to bear witness to brand new horrors. Nevertheless, we’re living in a new world now.

Perhaps the bombing was the destruction of the old one