An idiot’s guide to the current state of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
11/18/22 • 33 min
It’s been more than 266 days since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In more recent few months, the war’s momentum has swung dramatically in Kyiv’s favor amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has Russian troops retreating from areas that Moscow has formally annexed.
To get a grasp on where things stand currently in the war, Meduza spoke to military analyst Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), who’s been meticulously gathering operational data about the conflict since before Russian troops started pouring over the Ukrainian border.
Timestamps for this episode:
- (2:38) What’s so special about HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems?
- (10:22) What other advanced weapons could give Ukraine new advantages in the war?
- (14:57) What’s the military impact of Russia’s airstrikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure?
- (18:57) How far might Ukraine’s counteroffensive reach into occupied territory? Will Russian defenses hold at some point?
- (25:19) Is the Russian military regrouping or on the verge of collapse?
- (27:41) What happened with the missile(s) that recently killed two civilians in Poland?
- (30:26) Is Russia going to run out of rockets or ammunition?
Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно
It’s been more than 266 days since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In more recent few months, the war’s momentum has swung dramatically in Kyiv’s favor amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has Russian troops retreating from areas that Moscow has formally annexed.
To get a grasp on where things stand currently in the war, Meduza spoke to military analyst Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), who’s been meticulously gathering operational data about the conflict since before Russian troops started pouring over the Ukrainian border.
Timestamps for this episode:
- (2:38) What’s so special about HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems?
- (10:22) What other advanced weapons could give Ukraine new advantages in the war?
- (14:57) What’s the military impact of Russia’s airstrikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure?
- (18:57) How far might Ukraine’s counteroffensive reach into occupied territory? Will Russian defenses hold at some point?
- (25:19) Is the Russian military regrouping or on the verge of collapse?
- (27:41) What happened with the missile(s) that recently killed two civilians in Poland?
- (30:26) Is Russia going to run out of rockets or ammunition?
Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно
Previous Episode
What if Russian commercial aviation cuts too many safety corners?
It’s an exaggeration to say that Russian aviation has been cut off from the outside world, but the loss of routes to popular Western destinations has squeezed airlines profits while sanctions complicate basic maintenance. In late July, for example, several Russian airlines reportedly advised pilots, not to use their brakes so much when landing, in order to extend the equipment’s lifespan. To keep its fleets in the air, Russia must now rely chiefly on repairing planes using spare parts from other aircraft.
The country already operates a policy charmingly known as cannibalization.
The Naked Pravda spoke to two experts to find out more about the risks of safety lapses in Russia’s aviation industry amid international sanctions that could soon jeopardize domestic commercial air travel.
Timestamps for this episode:
- (4:28) Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory
- (19:38) Dr. Pavel Luzin, visiting scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно
Next Episode
Who the hell is Evgeny Prigozhin?
A couple of months ago, videos from Russian prisons started appearing online showing a beefy-looking, bald man addressing large crowds of inmates, trying to recruit them as mercenaries to go fight (and quite possibly die, he admitted) in Ukraine. “Do you have anybody who can pull you out of the slammer when you’ve still got 10 years on your sentence? There are two who can get you out: Allah and God, and it will be in a wooden box. I’ll take you alive, though I won’t always return you that way.” He then gives the prisoners five minutes to decide if they’ll join his private military company.
The man speaking here is Evgeny Prigozhin, an ex-con himself and now a jack of all trades when it comes to the dark side of the Russian elite. He’s known as Vladimir Putin’s favorite chef, a restauranteur from St. Petersburg who caters for the president and supplies food to the military and many public schools. He operates so-called “troll farms” and an empire of fake news outlets that he now openly admits were created to meddle in politics, particularly in the United States. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (not just this February but all the way back to the start in 2014), Prigozhin’s most important dirty work for the Kremlin has been through his mercenary group Wagner.
For a better understanding of Evgeny Prigozhin’s current significance as a public figure in Russia, The Naked Pravda spoke to five journalists and experts.
Timestamps for this episode:
- (3:40) Alexandra Prokopenko
- (11:58) Roman Badanin
- (18:24) John Lechner
- (33:50) Roman Dobrokhotov
- (42:37) Liza Fokht
Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно
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