Putin’s ‘incompetent’ air defences leave weapons stockpiles exposed across Russia | Matthew Savill

“Ukraine might have found a weak spot where in a country as vast as Russia, neither its long range defensive missiles nor its short range missiles can defend all of its airfields, refineries and military headquarters.”

Dwindling air defence systems and incompetence in weapons storage appear to have left Russian stockpiles exposed at a crucial moment, RUSI’s Dr Matthew Savill tells Kate Gerbeau on Frontline.

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25 comments

  3. Matthew Savill really does not understand the true implications of Kursk on this war and it's kind of sad to see him spouting his flawed understanding with such confidence and being considered an authoritative voice on the subject. It is an issue with very media facing "experts" who are turned to in order to discuss events. They may be very knowledgeable on a certain things, or events from a previous occasion / subject, but they then have to scramble to come up with an answer for stuff they have no clue of (and sound like they know) in order to keep their job.

    I mean his entire philosophy of deterrence via this strict method, thus needing to limit an ally to have a staggered system to match escalation of an aggressor to that ally to punish and dissuade them, is utterly flawed in the face of an adversary who does not care. He does not even understand it's flawed and is trying to attribute its failings to some misuse of the concept only recently, once its flaws are clear for all to see, rather than it an inevitable outcome if misunderstanding the people it's meant to work on… All it's done is hinder an ally, all it was ever going to do was hinder an ally which should have been very clear to see if they understood how Putin works. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the mindset of those his system intends to manipulate and control. That he hasn't even understood that and is still talking like he knows anything is really rather embarrassing as well as concerning because he has influence.

  6. Savill's not exactly bursting with new information is he. He likes talking about appearances, messaging and other political stuff, but the simple strategy is that Putin must lose this war. Everything else is Kismet.

  16. you are playing with fire as you UK direct an attack inside Russia. That may kick back for you guys, the Russian being incompetent or not is irrelevant

  17. Putin may be in a corner he can't get out of but, all he has to do is wait for the West to get tired, or for Trump to take power, or for one of his "meat assaults" to actually achieve something, or whatever.

    If you don't plan on winning, then you had better plan on losing. I hope NATO has plans on what to do when the Ukrainians have been pushed back to the Polish border.

  20. It just sounds like some Western army is just ante portas Moskva?! So Keir and his guys are winning the war? Really? With their highly sophisticated storm shadows? Or the other overly expensive garbage? I simply don't believe! I think all these guys are lying to us, as they are lying about immigration. You are no more allowed to speak about it? Gladly I am not from UK and I may speak out the truth.

  22. Low- level distraction conversations are an extension of the deceptive tactics used by the greedy Usery Based bankers' wars who run the world of money 💰
    Using terror is nothing for them – They just had to get the ball rolling. After that, they know that the weak part of human nature will take over….

  24. Russians got so incensed when their ultra along range radars were attacked. But it was a concerted plan over the last 12 months to take out AWACS, S400, S300 and all other radars that were linked into the coordinated net that Russia maintains. the aim was clear, to create holes or gaps that Ukraine could fly through to attack targets deep in Russia. Seems to have worked!!!

    S400 is a good piece of kit buts its range is extended by the AWACS. the A50U downings have signifcantly reduced the net.

    Moscow is well protected but ukraine still strikes anyway. Question, is this just a distraction? Does it keep air defence assets in one place?

    Perhaps we are now seeing a greater proportion succeeding to find their targets. And those drones or UAV are getting larger and more powerful and longer ranged. A juicy target such as an ammunition depot. Deep bunkers are safe but Russia is storing ammunition in surface buildings with bunds between them. Someho chain reactions are being set off, possibly due to Russian storage mistakes.

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