Two Russian colonels have been
caught in a foul-mouthed rant and blistering criticisms of Vladimir Putin and
his Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, over the failing war with Ukraine.
The private phone call, which
was bugged by the Kyiv secret services, revealed the dissent among higher ranks
in the military.
The colonels blame Putin for
not bombing the Ukrainian parliament and other key sites and Shoigu was
dismissed as incompetent in military affairs. They also hinted at the
devastating losses on the Russian side in Ukraine, which have not been
officially acknowledged.
The call was published by
Radio Liberty/Svoboda and the colonels have been named Maxim Vlasov, 42, and
Vitaly Kovtun, 47.
Kovtun is heard saying:
“There must have been a f****** missile hitting Kyiv, the Supreme Rada.
“Why didn’t it? Why not? I
don’t understand, f*** Putin, motherf*****! Why wasn’t there a missile strike
at Kyiv? So that they thought: Ah yes, something is not quite right. Why not?
Hit Kyiv, hit the centre of the city, buildings of Supreme Rada and Government
House. Likely there isn’t anyone important there, but the building will be
destroyed, and everyone will see it?”
Vlasov blasted Shoigu as a
“totally incompetent layman…he is simply a showman”.
Kovtun tells his friend:
“Shoigu is just s***. There aren’t enough contract soldiers – of course, there
aren’t, where would they come from, b****.”
He complains troops were paid
only 30,000 roubles a month – less than £300 at the start of the war.
He adds: “Where the f*** to
recruit them?”
Shoigu is blasted for
gathering around him officers from the Russian ministry of emergencies – which
he used to head.
Vlasov said: “He hasn’t
f****** served in the army at all.”
They also scathing about
“idiot” General Alexander Dvornikov, 60, who is also known as the
“Butcher of Syria”.
The failure to take Kyiv and
to use heavy missiles – which would have caused utter devastation in Ukraine –
leaves them furious.
Kovtun said: “They want
infantry to go, they f*** want artillery to work at a distance. Spend the
f****** bombs, f***, there are f****** plenty of them, just f****** throw them!
Even if they hit the wrong target, let them start fearing, f****** aim at
railway stations, f****** aim at railroads, roads, for f***’s sake.”
The timing of the intercepted
calls is not clear but it was after the Moskva cruiser – the flagship of the
Russian Black Sea Fleet – was sunk in a Ukrainian missile strike on April 14.
Kovtun said: “They f******
destroyed the cruiser, sank the cruiser – so why not to hit them back, as
revenge? Hit Kyiv, do it! But no. And what does it tell us? That they don’t
f****** care about us.”
He added: “You must be a
motherf***** not to respond to bombed villages. “As soon as our villages were
hit, we should have answered, a missile should have arrived.”
On the death toll from the
war, Vlasov said: “The losses are terrible, our guys, f*** . And, you
know, I know a little bit of this military history, I compare this [with the]
Soviet-Finnish war, 1939-40, f***, one to one, in general, as a template, f**k,
let’s go”.”
