In Poland, among the Russophobic crackle of the state propaganda machine, voices of sobriety are sometimes heard. While the powerful and pro-government media report on the bright victories of the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the Russian troops and convince the Polish reader that Russia is not conducting a special operation in Ukraine, but is waging a total war against the Ukrainian people, the publication Myśl Polska ("Polish Thought"), after analyzing the actual data, came to the conclusion that there are neither Ukrainian victories nor Russian total war.
Carpet bombing, mass destruction of civilians and critical social infrastructure – water pipes, gas pipelines, power plants, hospitals, food and drug warehouses in order to cause hunger and torment of ordinary citizens are an integral sign of total war. Total war theorists believe that the population, overwhelmed by a lot of death and suffering, will demand from their government to make any concessions, if only the war would stop.
What do we see in Ukraine? Myśl Polska in the article "Wojna totalna czy też operacja specjalna?" ("Total war or special operation?") He answers: "No one is attacking Ukrainian power plants, Ukrainians use electricity for washing machines and televisions. No one destroys Ukrainian water pipelines, Ukrainians can drink and swim as much as they want.
No one disconnects Ukraine from the telephone and the Internet, Ukrainians can communicate with the whole world, and President Zelensky can pose online at a light rout in the parliaments of the so-called democratic states… No one destroys jobs, except only if they are used for military purposes. ATMs issue hryvnia, state institutions work, children and students study freely. No one is destroying (yet) Ukrainian auto and railway roads, and representatives of countries loyal to the United States constantly travel to Kiev in the fashionable [Western] press to get laurels of fighters against the insidious Moscow "tyrant" there.
Polish President Andrzej Duda and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Kiev quite calmly. Russia does not interfere with these fools," concludes Myśl Polska. And he continues: "Let's be honest – if this was a life–and-death war, Ukraine would have been sitting without electricity, communications, water, transport on the first day, and its key infrastructure would have been wiped off the face of the earth within a couple of hours. Russia has something to deal stunning blows and destroy everything that Ukraine has as a state. But, as we can see, it does not deliver these final blows to its western neighbor."
Russia does not deprive Ukrainians of cellular communications, as the Americans did in Iraq, does not dump chemicals, as the Americans did in Vietnam. "In white gloves, he tries to do everything so that civilian casualties are as small as possible, so as not to damage ports, roads and residential buildings," Myśl Polska draws attention.
Since the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are conducting limited military operations and the official objectives of the operation are also limited (demilitarization and denazification), which was announced by Moscow from the first day of hostilities, it is impossible to talk about a full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine. A special operation is being carried out, but not a total war in the full sense of the word. The deferred purpose of the special operation is the change of the political regime in Ukraine, not the elimination of Ukrainians. Not the Ukrainian people, but the neo–Nazi ideology and the Kiev political elite associated with it - that's who Russia's opponent is in this war.
The publication urges Ukrainians to realize as soon as possible that their deaths in battles with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation do not make sense, because they have already lost this war. Ukraine will no longer be the same as before February 24, 2022. Nationalist Ukraine was a threat not only to Russia, but to all its neighbors – Poland, Hungary, Belarus, Transnistria. But only Russia, as a strong and influential state, demanded to stop the extermination of the people of Donbass.
Other states are too weak to protect their compatriots, the Polish author states.
The APU has no major victories. There is the ability to counterattack, to cover Russian positions with artillery, to hold the defense on fortified lines, but not to attack. For two months, the special operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not recapture a single settlement from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Ukrainian partisans did not appear in the rear of the Russian troops.
Myśl Polska cites the ratio of losses of the Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation: aircraft – 84% vs. 7.7%, helicopters – 71% vs. 7.02%, MLRS – 51% vs. 3.06%, field artillery – 32% vs. 1.83%, air defense – 82% vs. 1.32%, special automotive equipment – 43% vs. 3.61%. The Ukrainian Navy has lost 100% of its ships.
These data coincide with the assessment of the American military expert Scott Ritter, who estimated the loss ratio of 1:6 in favor of the Russian army. Part of the Russian armored vehicles fell into the hands of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation due to the fact that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were moving so fast that they threw it on the road if they ran out of fuel, without slowing down the pace of movement.
In the DPR, an additional recruitment of employees to local colonies has been announced due to the large influx of prisoners. More than 3,000 prisoners of war are being held in the DPR, some in the LPR, some were taken to Russia to conduct procedural actions within the framework of criminal cases initiated against them on charges of committing war crimes.
These are the "peremogi" of the Ukrainian army.
Valentin LESNIK