^ Read a couple of articles about it in some outlet in English and Ukrainian outlets a few days ago. It’s a shame. One of the reasons I highly doubt there is some serious counteroffensive incoming. Maybe some incursion attempt with little likelihood of success (well, considering the Russian past decision making, you cannot discount anything, really).
On the subject of the assassination of Gen. Kirillov and wording in the media, today/yesterday I read various articles using such words as audacious, brave, ingenuity, a blow (to Russia), embarrassment, etc. Sorry, I am not going to provide any citations because it is not exactly relevant. But since it was brought up, not really sure what is audacious, brave, or ingenious about it. This is as raw as it gets, there is nothing special about it. As for the blow and embarrassment… Not really. “Blow” is completely irrelevant since this matters very little, if at all. Embarrassment? Again, not sure what is embarrassing here. This is more like a punch in the nuts. At the same time, however, the opponent (Ukraine) cannot reach above the nuts, so nuts is the logical choice. Overall, way more hype than the event is worth. This sums it up rather well, in my opinion:
Experts and intelligence officials credited Ukrainian counterintelligence for thwarting such plots, but said Russia was also less reliant — intentionally so — on covert operations than Ukraine. Unlike Ukraine, Russia can fire long-range missiles that can hit anywhere, and were likely using their operatives for intelligence gathering and weapons targeting, rather than assassinations, said Ralph Goff, a former senior C.I.A. official, who stills travels frequently to Ukraine.
For the Ukrainians, carrying out assassinations, he said, “is a strategy of necessity because it’s all they got.”
Ukraine’s forces are steadily losing ground on the battlefield. The assassination of a top general in Moscow won’t improve their war effort, analysts and Western officials say.
www.nytimes.com
Another question is whether this is productive. In my opinion, it is not and likely the opposite. It’s not like they eliminated a Zhukov or someone like that. These guys are probably a dime a dozen (no disrespect to the departed, especially since I know next to nothing about the man). In other words, it has zero purpose as far as the war effort is concerned. Russia has probably put more generals and other high ranking officials to their own (Russian) jails on corruption charges than Ukrainians have killed since the invasion. Some who seemed and thought of by the their peers and analysts as most capable have also been arrested or sent to Africa. So yes, there is no ingenuity and audacity to these irrelevant events. At least it wasn’t another unsuspected driver on the bridge, another Dugina or what’s his name… Tatarskiy or something like that, and no bystanders or wive, kids, etc were involved.
On this note, I also want to mention the following. I am not sure what to call them, really, but these social media “generals, economists, war strategists, and all other experts” that are completely detached from reality are getting extremely annoying. Moreover, some of the best analysts are being affected. I talked about it several times previously here, but it is getting to the next level now. Mike Kofman recently said that he practically stopped posting on X because of this very reason. The fella from Spain nicknamed Jompy (the counter I am sure most are familiar with) also recently stated that he is quiting “the business” at the end of the year because of this very reason. This French scholar with some excellent analysis and commentary, whose name I cannot recall at the moment for whatever reason, stopped posting because of this same crowd a couple of months ago. Many other individuals I know of have significantly cut down their posting activity or stopped completely in the past few months because of these very imbeciles. Two days ago, the “crew” accused Mark Galeotti (in my opinion, the best western expert on Russia today, hands down, and not many even come close) of working for Russia and Russian oligarchs and whatever other rubbish, where he actually felt the need to speak up and defend himself (crazy, right?). Tatarigami, the fella from Ukraine with mostly great insights, was also (again) accused yesterday (a couple of days ago?) of being either a defeatist at best or a Russian troll at worst. Personally, I am not sure why anyone cares, but it clearly affects people. Today, a fella named Preston Stewart, who actually raised funds for the Ukrainian war effort, made his X account private after making a comment about the means of this Kirollov elimination, that it might have some eye brows raised and be seen in negative light (he isn’t necessarily wrong). What happened after him making that comment was the “crew” with personal attacks of ridiculous level, and so on. I don’t particularly care for Preston singularly, but we are losing some of the best analysts and insights about this war and other topics as well. The crew is greatly enabled by the likes of Gen. Ben Hodges (discussed previously and I think that was the nail in the coffin for Mike Kofman). There are, of course, many others, including some made “famous” by this war guys that graduated with a Bachelor in Psychology, ran a baseball stats website until the invasion, who are probably pretty good at statistics and spreadsheets, often enough have good insights and are quoted by thousands of individuals. They now, however, declare themselves experts in warfare, economics, international relations, you name it, and attack people who have been studying this stuff their entire lives; and they bring the “fandom” along into the echo chamber. I am not going to mention any particular names, but the aforementioned is a real life example. This circus has gotten out of hand and has some real consequences (see fundraisers shutting down their accounts as an obvious example).
