World News: Putin, Russia, and The Weight of War

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Sunday, 11 June 2023 14:49

Written by Olivier Longhi

Confronted with an underestimated and despised Ukrainian resistance, Vladimir Putin is reduced to destroying civilian facilities to dash Kiev's hopes. More than psychological warfare, these acts demonstrate the failure of an unfounded military operation without vision.

Because he knows that he cannot use the nuclear army against Ukraine without incalculable consequences, Vladimir Putin has therefore chosen, to further undermine the integrity of Ukrainian national territory, to destroy the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on 6 June.

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The physical effects of this destruction were immediate as thousands of hectares of arable and/or inhabited land were flooded, sometimes to heights three or four meters above the ground. Because Ukraine has today become, and more than ever, for Vladimir Putin an obsession that borders on pathology as all Russia's efforts are now turned towards this single objective: to crush the country led by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a humiliation intended to be total but which is slow to emerge if it is ever taking shape.

Nuclear Consequences

So much for the facts. But let us dwell for a moment on this dam, which was destroyed, certainly for strategic, although questionable, purposes, but also in order to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian population.

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First element of answer, rich in lessons for the Kremlin: officially, the Ukrainians give more the feeling of having overcome this ordeal, one more, to federate even more around the common cause, defend Ukraine and, incidentally, around their president. The water that Putin wanted to see extinguish Ukrainian ardour has only exacerbated them.

However, since the beginning of the conflict, Vladimir Putin has not ceased, in grotesque television staging's, to recall that Russia has nuclear fire and that doubt hovers over its potential use. However, all the chancelleries of the world know full well that Vladimir Putin will never use nuclear weapons first in view of the consequences generated (Western nuclear counter-offensive). And to prove by this nuclear inaction, a military-diplomatic paradox, that eponymous deterrence is more a trap than a solution from the moment other countries also possesses it.

So, to counter this reality Putin opts for a new form of war that is ultimately nothing so new. By opting to terrorize populations with acts of destruction of this kind, as well as the threats exerted on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Putin is returning to almost ancestral military tactics, some dating back to the nineteenth century.

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Civilian Facilities

As a historical example, the mere announcement of the arrival of the Napoleonic armies was enough to make thousands of men and women flee, terrified at the idea of the looting and abuse that the latter were capable of perpetrating.

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Typical example of an effective form of psychological warfare. However, and this is perhaps the ultimate point of this reflection because by noting that conventional war has not broken the Ukrainian enthusiasm to defend its territory, that nuclear fire is not usable in view of the side effects, it appears that Vladimir Putin and his army are reduced to attacking civilian installations to try to bend the Ukrainian will.

In short, Putin is now forced to fight with the weapons at his disposal. Some among the defenders of the Kremlin's action will evoke a psychological war but it testifies above all to the failure of the military strategy which carried out a special operation intended and presented as rapid. Cornered in a military and diplomatic stalemate, with China as his only way out (which is not necessarily the best way out), Vladimir Putin is certainly playing among these last cards in the hope of tipping Ukraine towards the slope of defeat as the military counter-offensive elaborated by Kiev begins.

Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.