The war in Ukraine has been going on for 804 days, and according to the Washington Institute, the Russians have started another round of information warfare.
“The Kremlin appears to be re-intensifying a reflexive control campaign aimed at Western decision-making through nuclear threats and diplomatic manipulation. Reflexive control is a key element of Russia’s hybrid warfare tool – a tactic that relies on shaping the adversary through targeted rhetoric and information operations in such a way that the adversary voluntarily takes actions that are advantageous to Russia.” pointed out by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Soviet mathematician Vladimir Lefebvre defined reflexive control as “the process of transferring the reasons for a decision” to an adversary through “provocations, intrigues, disguises, creation of false objects and lies of any type”.
This type of action also includes waving nuclear sabers, which the Russian ruler resorted to
Vladimir Putin, who ordered the military to conduct exercises with non-tactical nuclear weapons.
The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Russia would conduct nuclear drills in response to “provocative statements and threats” made by Western officials against Russia. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated that it would consider the arrival of the F-16s in Ukraine a provocation, as Russia would consider the F-16s to be nuclear weapons carriers. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, accused US, French and British officials of considering sending their troops to Ukraine, arguing that this justified Russia testing its tactical nuclear weapons. He directly threatened a “world catastrophe” as a result of Western involvement in Ukraine and thundered that Russia would strike against Washington, Paris and London.
Putin and his people are threatening nuclear weapons at a time when American military aid is due to arrive in Ukraine after many months. A warning sounded from Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned that it has summoned the British ambassador to Russia, Nigel Casey, in connection with the recent statement by the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, that Ukraine has the right to strike military targets in Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Cameron of “escalating” the conflict and that Russia may respond by striking “any British military facility and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and beyond its borders”.
Meanwhile, in Russia itself, a power struggle is gathering pace in the emerging new Putin government.
Russian opposition website Meduza reported on May 6 that its sources in the Kremlin say that Russian elites have begun actively speculating about who will join the new Russian government after Putin’s inauguration, noting that some elites are “tense,” hoping for promotion and they are worried about degradation. Another source close to the Russian government told Meduza that Kremlin officials and Russian elites are currently trying to fill the “highest possible position” in case Putin’s upcoming six-year term as president is his last due to his age. However, ISW adds in one breath that Putin is not going to leave his position in any case.
“A source close to the Russian presidential administration claimed that Putin is focused on conservatism, eliminating all dissidents, winning the war in Ukraine and ‘turning to the East,’ possibly referring to deepening Russian relations with China, Iran and North Korea,” the institute said.
Server Kyiv Post pointed outthat in Ukraine itself, the Russian army is intensifying the pressure on the defending Ukrainians.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday it had registered a total of 125 Russian attacks along the 700-kilometer front line in 24 hours. More than half of these attacks took place in the area around Očeretyne and the town of Časiv Jar. By comparison, on one day in March, Ukraine reported 53 attacks, including 21 in these two areas.
The DeepState Telegram channel, which is close to the Ukrainian military, accused the brigade command stationed in Ocheretyn of “collapsing the defenses in the area, which led to significant losses.”
“The enemy understands that (US) munitions will start appearing … in two months,” said Yuri Fedorenko, commander of the 92nd Brigade’s Achilles unmanned battalion operating on the Eastern Front. “These two months of war are going to be very, very, very intense. The enemy will try to take as much as possible by then,” he said.
Server Ukrainian truth claims, that this Russian procedure is relatively expensive. “In the last day alone, the defense forces neutralized more than a thousand attackers, burned 37 artillery systems and 25 tanks,” the server wrote.
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Ukraine (War in Ukraine)
Reports from the battlefield are difficult to verify in real time, regardless of whether they come from any side of the conflict. Both warring parties, for understandable reasons, may release completely or partially false (misleading) information.
PL editorial content discussing this conflict can be found on this page.
war in Ukraine
Reports from the battlefield are difficult to verify in real time, regardless of whether they come from any side of the conflict. Both warring parties, for understandable reasons, may release completely or partially false (misleading) information.
You can find brief information regarding this conflict updated by ČTK several times an hour on this page. PL editorial content discussing this conflict can be found on this page.
author: Miloš Polák
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