The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-27)

A10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022

war in ukraine

climax of his speech, and Biden
himself seemed caught up in the
force of his rhetoric — riding the
wave of his oration right into a
nine-word statement his aides
had not intended him to utter.
The remark surprised aides,
who knew it was not included in
his prepared remarks, said a per-
son familiar with the issue who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity to share candid details of a
sensitive situation. In the minutes
after the speech, administration
officials — who have long made a
point of not calling for regime
change in Russia — scrambled to
clarify Biden’s comments.
Russia was also quick to weigh
in, with Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov telling state news
agencies: “That’s not for Biden to
decide. The president of Russia is
elected by Russians.”
Biden’s tough words toward
P utin also took European policy-
makers by surprise, and sent some
scurrying to try to understand
whether the White House had just
changed its policy in favor of de-
posing the Russian leader.
“The speech was powerful, the
ending interesting,” said a senior
European diplomat, speaking on
the condition of anonymity to of-
fer a candid reaction to Biden’s
rhetoric. “I think Putin will see
this exactly as a regime change
speech.”
Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.),
who was born in Poland and
served as President Bill Clinton’s
chief foreign policy speechwriter,
said he would not have recom-
mended Biden make such a bold
declaration. Yet at the same time,
he said he disagreed with the
White House’s decision to walk it
back.
“Presidents in particular need
to be careful not to call for things
that we are not prepared to make
happen, but at the same, it was
undeniably morally true and the
implications are inescapable any-
way,” he said. “Namely, that no
president can have a normal rela-
tionship with Putin ever again.”
Biden spent much of his speech
denouncing Putin’s behavior and
warning that he was “taking Rus-
sia back to the 19th century.”
“It is Putin, Vladimir Putin, who
is to blame — period,” Biden said.
At times, Biden spoke directly
to the Russian public.
“Let me say this, if you’re able to
listen: You, the Russian people,
are not our enemy,” Biden said. “I
refuse to believe that you welcome
the killing of innocent children
and grandparents or that you ac-
cept hospitals, schools, maternity
wards, for God’s sake, being pum-
meled with Russian missiles and
bombs or cities being surrounded
so that civilians cannot flee.”
And he also directly addressed
the Ukrainian people, offering a

BIDEN FROM A

Biden

champions

democracy

in speech

pivotal speech in divided Berlin in

1987, Reagan declared, “Mr. Gor-

bachev, tear down this wall.”

Biden’s flurry of diplomatic ac-

tivity in Brussels included an an-

nouncement of a new package of

economic sanctions, a Group of

Seven statement sternly warning

Putin against using nuclear weap-

ons in Ukraine, and a new joint

task force between the U.S. and

the European Commission to re-

duce Europe’s reliance on Russia’s

fossil fuels.

Sullivan said Biden had pre-

pared, in part, by participating in

“speed dating” with subject mat-

ter experts on “every topic under

the sun.”

“He’s probably taken every

meal he’s eaten so far here over a

briefing,” Sullivan told reporters

Friday. “Right? Like, he’s not sit-

ting alone eating; he’s eating while

someone is going through some

element of this trip with him.”

And despite Biden’s gaffe in his

very last moments on Polish soil,

White House officials privately

said they hoped the message of

Biden’s three days abroad, and his

speech Saturday night, would

break through, ensuring the West

stays united against Russia in

what will probably be a long slog.

“In this battle, we need to be

clear-eyed,” Biden told the crowd

Saturday night. “This battle will

not be won in days or months

either. We need to steel ourselves

for the long fight ahead.”

Michael Birnbaum in Washington

contributed to this report.

had labored over and hoped

would serve as the apex of his

largely successful — and highly

choreographed — trip.

In addition to the ad-libbed re-

mark, the rhetoric from Biden

aimed at Moscow was striking

compared with that of his im-

mediate predecessors, including

his former boss, Barack Obama,

who was caught on a microphone

telling then-Russian President

Dmitry Medvedev in 2012 that

“after my election I have more

flexibility.” After a summit with

Putin in 2001, George W. Bush

declared the Russian leader “very

straightforward and trustworthy

— I was able to get a sense of his

soul.”

When Donald Trump ran for

president in 2016, Russia actively

interfered in the election to help

Trump defeat his Democratic op-

ponent, Hillary Clinton, accord-

ing to the collective conclusion of

U.S. intelligence agencies. Once in

office, Trump frequently praised

Putin and, during a Helsinki sum-

mit in 2018, said he believed

P utin’s “extremely strong and

powerful” denial of election inter-

ference. And in late February,

Trump in a radio interview called

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “gen-

ius” and “savvy.”

Instead, the tough language

from Biden on Saturday — which

also included calling Putin a “dic-

tator” and a “butcher” — brought

to mind Reagan, who famously

labeled the Soviet Union an “evil

empire.” Referring to Soviet lead-

er Mikhail Gorbachev during a

ing.

Biden’s trip — and his handling

of the crisis in Ukraine — offered

an opportunity to highlight one of

the key successes of his presiden-

cy. European leaders this past

week praised the U.S. president,

lauding his leadership and close

collaboration with allies as they

punished Moscow and assisted

Ukrainians. After then-President

Donald Trump spent years deni-

grating NATO and threatening to

pull out of the alliance, Biden has

spent a considerable part of his

presidency reassuring the world

that “America is back.”

Biden and his team said they

made the transatlantic visit,

which came together at the last

minute, in part to fortify the West-

ern alliance against Moscow and

ensure further cooperation if Rus-

sia’s aggression continues for

months.

“Part of the reason that he de-

cided that we needed to do this is

because — the early weeks — unity

can be carried forward by momen-

tum and inertia and adrenaline,

but this could go on for quite some

time,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s na-

tional security adviser, told re-

porters aboard Air Force One en

route to Poland. “And to sustain

that unity as costs rise, as the

tragedy unfolds, that’s hard work.

And the president wanted to get

everyone together to say, ‘We’ve

got to do that work.’”

But Biden’s impromptu remark

about removing Putin from power

threatened to overshadow a

speech that Biden and his team

nuclear weapons, Biden’s visit

demonstrated both the peril and

the promise of trying to manage a

war against an unpredictable geo-

political foe like Putin.

“This is very uncomfortable

conversation for Western allies,”

said Ian Lesser, vice president of

the German Marshall Fund, which

works to strengthen transatlantic

ties. “They assumed a more or less

rational actor and they didn’t

price in the kind of ruthlessness

that we’re seeing from President

Putin, and this of course upsets

the traditional calculus in ways

NATO has not fully thought out.”

The success of the Ukrainian

military in fending off Russia thus

far has surprised Western and

Russian officials; both groups had

originally expected Moscow to

easily take control of its western

neighbor. But Ukraine still re-

mains outgunned by a much more

powerful Russian military. Ukrai-

nian President Volodymyr Zel-

ensky has repeatedly appealed to

the West for more military assis-

tance, including some requests —

such as a no-fly zone over Ukraine

— that the Biden administration

and NATO are not prepared to

grant.

In recent days, the Kremlin has

publicly focused on controlling

the Donbas region in the eastern

part of Ukraine — prompting

some speculation that Putin may

be preparing to cut his losses. But

on Saturday, officials in the west-

ern Ukrainian city of Lviv report-

ed powerful explosions, a sign the

war is showing no signs of abat-

message that he said he had con-

veyed to Ukraine’s top govern-

ment ministers earlier in the day:

“We stand with you — period.”

In many ways, Biden’s speech —

and his entire trip — provides a

significant test of one of the orga-

nizing principles of his presiden-

cy: the belief that the 21st century

will be defined by a global battle

between democracies and autoc-

racies, and that the United States

can help lead the way into a more

free and just future.

“In the perennial struggle for

democracy and freedom, Ukraine

and its people are on the front

lines, fighting to save their nation,

and their brave resistance is part

of a larger fight for essential dem-

ocratic principles that unite all

free people,” Biden told the hun-

dreds gathered, a group that in-

cluded Poland’s president, mem-

bers of the Polish Parliament, local

officials and local university stu-

dents.

Outside the castle’s gates,

throngs more had lined up in the

cold for several hours, eager to

hear the American president’s

speech, which was also broadcast

on a large screen in Warsaw’s Old

Town.

Biden traveled to Europe — first

to Brussels for meetings with

NATO and other allies, then to

Poland — as part of an effort to

shore up the Western alliance and

keep it unified against Moscow.

But as concerns grow about the

war dragging on and Putin poten-

tially escalating his aggression

against Ukraine with biological or

EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Biden meets with Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian aid workers during a visit to the PGE Narodowy stadium in Warsaw. Later Saturday, he delivered a speech

at the city’s Royal Castle that was the most aggressive address about Russia by an American president since Ronald Reagan.

being told about the losses” by

his own military.

The reported high attrition

rate for Russian commanders in

Ukraine underscores the prob-

lem of invading the country on a

false set of assumptions, expect-

ing to swiftly topple Ukraine’s

government and install a puppet

regime to bring it back into

Moscow’s orbit. A military opera-

tion forecast by Russia to take a

few days has entered its second

month.

Russia is highly sensitive

about military casualties, in par-

ticular involving senior officers.

Calling the invasion a “special

military operation” to liberate

Ukraine from “neo-Nazis,” Rus-

sian authorities have banned

journalists from using the term

“war” and have criminalized crit-

icism of the military or the

release of any information that

could damage its standing.

After Russia’s initial failures,

Putin has simply doubled down

on the war effort, with the Krem-

lin dampening hopes of an off-

ramp through peace talks. Rus-

sian authorities appear to be

preparing for a long, bloody

campaign, drumming up domes-

tic unity through a propaganda

blitz, as the military intensifies

its pressure on Ukraine.

Booth reported from London, Dixon

from Riga, Latvia, and Stern from

Mukachevo, Ukraine. Liz Sly in

London contributed to this report.

through,” said Margarita Konaev,

an expert on Russian military

innovation at Georgetown Uni-

versity’s Center for Security and

Emerging Technology.

She said the nature of the

fighting — at close quarters in

urban environments — will prob-

ably add to the body count on

both sides, for civilians, ordinary

soldiers and commanders.

The urban dimension is espe-

cially deadly, she said.

Mason Clark, a senior analyst

and expert on the Russian mili-

tary at the Institute for the Study

of War, said Ukrainian reports

suggest that radio communica-

tions across the Russian forces

are vulnerable to interception

and location.

Before the war with Russia

began, Clark said Ukrainian forc-

es learned how to use communi-

cations to “target and pinpoint”

the sources of artillery fire in the

separatist enclaves in the Don-

bas region of eastern Ukraine.

“They’ve used this training at

scale,” Clark said.

Ruth Deyermond, an expert in

post-Soviet security in the De-

partment of War Studies at

King’s College London, said it

was unknown how the loss of

senior officers in Ukraine

might shape thinking in the

Kremlin.

As Putin’s circle has shrunk,

and decision-making become

more opaque, she said, “you

don’t even know what Putin is

was killed by a sniper at the

beginning of the war, Ukrainian

officials said. At his burial in

Novorossiysk, a port city on the

Black Sea, a deputy mayor said

Sukhovetsky “died heroically

during a combat mission during

a special operation in Ukraine.”

Christo Grosev, director of

open-source investigative group

Bellingcat, said he confirmed the

death of Gerasimov, which was

first announced by Ukrainian

intelligence. The Bellingcat in-

vestigator also reported on a

March 7 phone call from a Rus-

sian Federal Security Service

(FSB) officer, reporting the death

to his superior, a call captured by

Ukrainian intelligence and

shared with reporters.

One of the first commanders

that Ukraine claimed to have

killed, in late February, was Tu-

shayev, a right-hand man to

Chechen leader Ramzan Kady-

rov.

Kadyrov denied the claim on

his Telegram channel, and

Chechen Information Minister

Akhmed Dudayev posted an au-

dio message purportedly from

Tushayev, which he said proved

he was alive.

The deaths of senior officers

are celebrated on Ukrainian so-

cial media — but kept out of

Russian news.

Killing Russian generals “feels

consequential to Ukraine,” espe-

cially in “the David versus Goli-

ath narrative they are living

army has focused its efforts on

“slowing the pace” of the Russian

invasion, in part by “beheading”

forward command posts, mean-

ing killing, not literally behead-

ing.

Killing senior officers can

slow down the Russian advances

by “three or four or five days”

before new command structures

can be put in place, Arestovych

said.

He attributed successful tar-

geting to both “excellent intelli-

gence” and numerous Russian

vulnerabilities.

Arestovych claimed that in

addition to slowing Russian mo-

mentum, killing their generals

undermines Russian morale,

while bolstering Ukrainian re-

solve.

“The death of such command-

ers quickly becomes public

knowledge and it is very difficult

to hide,” he said. “Unlike

the death of an ordinary soldier,

it makes an outsized impres-

sion.”

Ukrainian officials and West-

ern officials have named seven

Russian generals killed in action:

Magomed Tushayev, Andrei Suk-

hovetsky, Vitaly Gerasimov, An-

drey Kolesnikov, Oleg Mityaev,

Yakov Rezanstev and Andrei

Mordvichev.

Russian officials and Russian

media have confirmed the death

of only one general.

Sukhovetsky, a deputy com-

mander of Russia’s 41st army,

the action to cut through the

chaos.

One Western official suggest-

ed that Russian generals were

also needed to push “frightened”

Russian troops, including raw

conscripts, forward. Earlier this

month, Russian President Vladi-

mir Putin ordered the Defense

Ministry to withdraw conscripts

from combat, having publicly

pledged that they would not be

deployed.

Pentagon, NATO and Western

officials say the Russian army in

Ukraine is struggling with poor

morale.

Russian soldiers attacked and

injured their commanding offi-

cer after their brigade suffered

heavy losses in the fighting out-

side the capital, Kyiv, according

to a Western official and a Ukrai-

nian journalist.

Troops with the 37th Motor

Rifle Brigade ran a tank into Col.

Yuri Medvedev, injuring both his

legs, after their unit lost almost

half its men, according to a

Facebook post by Ukrainian

journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk.

The post said the colonel had

been hospitalized.

A senior Western official said

he believed Medvedev had been

killed, “as a consequence of the

scale of the losses taken by his

own brigade.”

Oleksiy Arestovych, a military

adviser to Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky, told The

Washington Post the Ukraine

and-control units near the front
lines.
Jeffrey Edmonds, former di-
rector for Russia on the National
Security Council and now a sen-
ior analyst at the CNA think tank
in Washington, said Ukrainian
forces appear to be targeting
“anyone with gray hair standing
near a bunch of antennas,” a
signal they may be senior offi-
cers.
Some experts suggest the Rus-
sian military has struggled to
keep its communications secure
and that Ukraine intelligence
units have found their targets
through Russian carelessness,
with Russian forces reduced to
using unencrypted devices.
There have been reports of Rus-
sian soldiers using mobile
phones.
Pentagon and other Western
officials say that Russian gener-
als generally serve closer to the
front lines than their NATO
counterparts. By design, the Rus-
sian army is top heavy with
senior officers, which makes
them numerous, though not ex-
pendable.
Military analysts and Western
intelligence officials say the Rus-
sian generals in Ukraine may be
more exposed and serving closer
to the front because their side is
struggling — and that senior
officers are deployed closer to

GENERALS FROM A

Pace of g eneral killings ‘highly unusual,’ o∞cial says