The Russian army has big problems: Zhdanov about the use of weapons of the 40s by the occupiers
Military expert Oleg Zhdanov spoke about the use of weapons of 1943-1947 by the occupiers, commenting on the video of the Russian army carrying a D-1 howitzer. He stated this in an interview with UNIAN.
– Russian army has big problems, – he said.
According to Zhdanov, at first no one took into account the wars that Russia has conducted for 30 years, starting with two Chechen wars:
– Remember the first months. They followed the scorched earth tactics, when thousands of tons of ammunition were used up in short periods of time. And now we have a situation when, according to the Main Directorate, there are millions of tons of ammunition in the warehouses, but no one says that they are old.
These are weapons of the Second World War and the post-war period. And modern ammunition today is already in limited quantities.
He added that during the counteroffensive, Ukrainian defense forces captured ammunition depots with 122 mm caliber shells dated 2022 – actually from the assembly line.
– The D-1 howitzers of 1943 are in a terrible condition. While studying in the second year of the artillery school, we took ZIS-3 guns to the Zhytomyr training ground. We received ammunition from the warehouse of 1943. And it was 1984. The boxes were rotten, falling apart in our hands. The charges were rusted, the shells were completely oxidized. But there were practically no misfires. All the shells were fired from these guns.
In the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, every year we sorted through the ammunition racks, took out the shells that were 25 years old and took them to the firing range for explosion. It is believed, for safety reasons, that after 25 years they are unsuitable for use. But today Russia resorts to any methods to ensure its firepower.
However, as Zhdanov explained, such ammunition does not just explode. According to him, the shell is dangerous if a detonator is “screwed in”.
According to Zhdanov, the Russian General Staff is now trying to convey to Putin the real picture of affairs, and explains that the Russian Armed Forces have already lost their offensive potential completely, and tomorrow they will lose their defensive potential.
– Even the one million mobilized, which Putin dreams of gathering, will not fight. They will simply scatter. Putin understands this and says that he is ready for negotiations. This is also repeated by his officials Peskov and Lavrov.
In principle, they even agree to hold talks with our President. Previously, they did not see him as a party at all. For Putin, the important thing is not the meaning and content of these negotiations, but the fact. The fact is that one of the conditions will be a temporary ceasefire, which guarantees Putin a delay in losing this war.
