Russell Bentley: Ukraine’s Manpower Problem

During its much hyped offensive, the Ukrainian army lost more than 90,000 people, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed in a speech last month. “Sometimes it seems that it is not their people who they throw into battle," he noted. And indeed they are not, anymore.

Two of my friends in the DPR/RF Army, each in different units, on different Fronts, one still fighting near Artemovsk, the other down around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, both told me that the number of foreign mercenaries and NATO soldiers now fighting in Donbass is much higher than most people are aware, and if it is not currently 50%, it soon will be.

The Ukrainian military is also increasingly relying on political extremists to help fill its depleted ranks. Roman Edwards, a British mercenary in Ukraine publicly acknowledged on X (formerly Twitter) that almost all Ukrainian fighters, that he is serving with, openly profess Nazi views: "I'm aware since I serve here. Literally everyone I serve with uses some sort of "N4zi" symbol: Swastika, SS lightning bolts, Totenkopf, etc. they even have a giant Swastika flag with blue and yellow... it's not a big deal."

So, the first category of enemies Russian soldiers face are hardcore Nazis and professional foreign mercenaries. These are the terrorists and war criminals who torture and slaughter P.O.W.'s and serve as "blocking troops" who even execute Ukrainian conscript soldiers who refuse or even hesitate to commit suicide by obeying impossible orders.

As noted by Vostok Batallion commander Alexander Khodakovsky, the second category of troops – forcibly mobilized Ukrainian conscripts – is much “larger than the Bandera lovers who hate Russia, whose ancestors licked the boots of the Nazis, leaving a will for their descendants to lick the boots of anyone who opposes Russia.”

“Look at these prisoners (Ukrainian conscripts). Who do you see? There are no swastikas, like on the bastards from Azov - there are not even tattoos. On his neck one has a large cross with the Savior, who brought him alive from the hell created by his fellow tribesmen," he explained.

Three different perspectives on the summer offensive, from different people –the Russian President, a British mercenary fighting alongside Ukrainian Nazis, and a frontline commander. To sum it up, many thousands have died, the Ukrainian conscripts are not Nazis, but the foreign mercenaries admit that "literally everyone" they serve with are.

What conclusions can be drawn? Simply this - that what is left of the Ukrainian Army is a two tiered system of cannon fodder and blocking troops, that sees untrained conscripts thrown onto the front lines, with battle hardened Russian troops in front of them, and blocking troops made up of foreign mercenaries and hardcore Nazis behind them, who will kill them if they retreat or refuse to advance when ordered to. So, the common Ukrainian citizens, primarily from the ethnically Russian and Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine, are kidnapped from the streets by press gangs and thrown directly into battle without adequate training or weapons, where they are forced to face impossible odds in combat.

The intentional genocide of ethnic Russian people in Ukraine proceeds not only by Ukrainian attacks on soldiers and civilians of the DPR (and in other parts of Russia) but also by rounding up and sending to the slaughter all ethnically Russian people on the territory under the control of the Kiev regime who were unable, for whatever reason, to escape. So, the description of this war as fratricidal is in fact correct, with the addendum that it is orchestrated by Ukrainian and Western Nazis. It is not inaccurate to describe the conflict in Ukraine as a modern day version of gladiator fights in the Colosseum.

What is the purpose of this hideous and inhuman spectacle, and what can be done to bring it to an end? The Special Military Operation has ushered in a totally new kind of warfare, on many levels, but most of all by the use of drones, for reconnaissance, for adjusting artillery, for bombing, and as "kamikazes". Not only was there never a "drone war" before in human history, but even in Donbass, during the eight years of the conflict prior to the SMO, drones were seldom used, and then, almost exclusively for reconnaissance. The impact of drones in modern and future warfare can no longer be overstated. Ukraine has become a laboratory for this new military innovation, much the same as the trenches of France in WW1 were the testing grounds for the machine gun and tank, the new and unimagined weapons of their day.

The real numbers of the depopulation of Ukraine are stunning, almost unbelievable, but according to Statista, a data gathering platform, between 2021 and 2023, the population of Ukraine was reduced by 9.5 million people, From 41.5 million to less than 32 million, almost 25% of its total population in 2021. Twenty five percent population reduction in 3 years. Other sources put the population reduction at around 5 million from 2021 to 2023, and still others, claim that the population of Ukraine is more or less stable, (an obvious lie).

I am telling you these statistics for a reason. I ask you to look at these facts, draw your own conclusions, and take a lesson from it. Whether 12% or 25%, the fact is that Ukraine, the largest country in Europe, with some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world, that once had one of the industrial powerhouses of Europe and great natural resources, has now literally been decimated, "reduced by 10%", in less than 1,000 days. The fact is, that the same powers and people who are doing this to Ukraine, the billionaires and international corporations, the Parasite Class, these Nazis of the 21st century, the same ones who have done it to Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and continue to do it to Syria and Yemen, and now Armenia, today, turning once proud and prosperous nations into shattered failed states. What reason do you have to believe they will not do the same to whatever country you live in today. What makes you think they are not already in the process? I have said since 2015, "As goes Donbass, so goes the world." We have stood up against these Nazis for almost a decade, and we still stand. Take a lesson from us, join us! You can be like Donbass, or you will be like Ukraine. The choice is up to you.