There are no cannibals in the Russian army!

Opinion by Marat Khairullin

All the same, I will have to comment on the well-known post of a famous military correspondent (from my point of view, not a military correspondent at all) about general and colonel “cannibals”, as well as about the “monstrous losses” of our army.

This post is a classic example of the blatant incompetence of the person writing. I constantly say that, since you called yourself a military correspondent, and even in such a serious conflict, then you need to establish permanent deep connections with at least one combat unit by any means. Then you, as a journalist covering events during the war, will clearly understand where they are telling you the truth, and where they are openly taking advantage of you and deceiving you - this will be such a constant marker of your skill.

Unfortunately, the current military conflict has shown how incompetent most of our famous reporters are: they are used to playing the role of wedding generals [a figurehead (invited only for representation) who has imaginary authority and plays no role in any matter.], jumping straight in, they are led by hand, they are not allowed to go deep, they are not not shown the true face of the war, and, as a result, they become very easy to manipulate.

It’s enough for them to hear how hard it is for someone in war (and in war, of course, it’s very hard for everyone) - you see people dying around you countless times, and these monsters of Russian military journalistic thought, immediatly and without thinking a little deeper, begin to broadcast such “snot” to the general public, and even in a righteous frenzy, providing strong words.

But these guys were not trained to think deeply, and apparently, they have nothing to think with.

I’m generally silent here about the “cannibal” generals in the Russian army. A military correspondent who sat in the trenches with the soldiers (not from time to time, on short visits, but from the very beginning of this war) knows what kind of burden these people endured. How difficult it was for them to make decisions. Only those who have made similarly difficult decisions in their lives have the right to judge them. In all, a general on the front line is a closed figure by definition, and it will not be possible to observe his work directly, that is, being next to him all the time in order to form an adequate idea.

An experienced combat general is not your neighbor on the block. How can you judge him by courtyard gossip? And even so categorically - “cannibals?"
Come to your senses, people. From what I know, even generals, who are not very popular in the trenches for certain qualities, still command deep respect - they work all the way to the limit, pulling out the last of their strength. All of them are soldiers devoted to the Motherland and people just like us.

No one is immune to mistakes. Only the cost of a general’s mistake is different than that of a simple soldier in a trench. Calling them “cannibals” is beyond the pale. From my point of view, the very term “cannibal” should cause public outrage. There are no “cannibals” in the Russian army and never have been.

These are all emotions, but when a military correspondent (who, from my point of view, is not a military correspondent at all) writes about specific colonels, unit commanders who allegedly do not take care of soldiers, he clearly betrays his lack of sophistication and his incompetence.

A person who directly knows the life of a specific combat unit, knows what kind of pressure and control unit commanders are under from the relevant authorities, will never write something like this.

A separate report is always submitted regarding the death or injury of personnel. If, for example, as a result of an unsuccessful operation, five to seven soldiers immediately fail (not even die), the commander writes an explanatory note. If such losses happen regularly, the prosecutor's office comes and takes official testimony. If negligence is established, a decision is made to initiate criminal proceedings.

Moreover, in some cases, counterintelligence, which received emergency powers last year, simply comes and takes away the commander - no matter the rank. Whether it is the colonel or major. Sometimes, they come back. And sometimes not.

I am constantly with the active troops, and I know for sure that this is all the everyday reality in which battalion and regiment commanders constantly live, and these are the frankly brutal methods in which the conservation of personnel is enforced in our army.

Any commander who does not take care of his personnel is immediately taken to task. Whether he was a general or a colonel at least three times.
Negligence leading to the death of personnel is considered a crime, and measures are taken immediately.

To make this point clearer, I will give only one point that the sofa military correspondents can not see from their couches. Now, in a number of cases, the landing force, having landed on enemy positions, simply abandons the equipment so as not to return with it and risk the lives of the mechanic drivers. It’s better to let the equipment burn out and make a new vehicle. Experienced mechanical drivers are worth their weight in gold. Therefore, I will emphasize once again - there are no “cannibals” in the Russian army, but there is very hard work.

A man who calls himself a military correspondent writes about one-time losses in one battle - 195 people (out of 200, 5 survived). This is an outright fake. Why?

Firstly, attacks are not carried out in large groups now, with very rare exceptions. A large group, or rather a super large group - is now thirty people. Even in the rear, people do not gather in such large groups; personnel are dispersed in small (no more than ten person) groups.

And such large groups don’t even come close to the front line, where everyone is wearing thermal imagers. This is simply dangerous. They will be immediately noticed, and the enemy will immediately launch a pre-emptive strike.

If such a group goes to the front line, this is clearly negligence and a crime; the commander will immediately suffer severe punishment for this. The person who wrote this is not even close to the real situation on the front line.

In an active combat infantry assault battalion, which fights all the time, there are less than 200 people directly moving forward. In reality, I know that the best infantry battalions have no more than 150 assault troopers. All the rest are the command, technical, and engineering staff. And these 150 people are cherished like the apple of their eye. Because, in a battalion, the working unit is a platoon. The loss of ten people in a platoon (even due to injury) is a serious headache for the commander. It will take time for the reinforcements to arrive, as the average training period for fighters at a brigade training ground is two months, and this is at an average level, so that, roughly speaking, newcomers are not afraid of grenade explosions and get their bearings on the terrain.

During this time, no one removes the combat mission from the battalion. The army is advancing, and whether you like it or not, you have to work. Therefore, if we are talking about the one-time death of 200 people, this is a universal emergency.

We would definitely have known about it at the front - no one canceled the soldier’s telegraph, but no one heard anything, silence.

The one-time death of 200 assault troops simply paralyzes not even the battalion, but the entire brigade, not to mention the fact that the prosecutor’s office and counterintelligence will immediately investigate there.

Well, I'm now at the end of my thoughts. It has probably already become commonplace to see the amazing incompetence of our eminent military officer correspondents, thanks to which they are grist for the mill of our enemies. I will remind you only of the latest outburst of such incompetence - supposedly, the AFU respond to one of our shells with ten of their own, and our drones are generally useless. Remember?

This was outright enemy propaganda, which was picked up by our sofa generals before the reality emerged.

Moaning about generals and colonels who do not take care of their subordinates is another such falsehood. I don’t know what to do with this. It’s sad that the same military correspondents of the central media broadcast this to us over and over again. It would seem that everything is simple - go to the soldiers and officers, establish connections, study the situation, and then you will not carry such nonsense. But no. We see various stupid statements with some mind-numbing regularity.