““This is absurd, this was not foreseen.” Why Russia is constantly advancing throughout 2024 – an interview with Yigal Levin December 26, 20:55 NV Premium Share: Artillerymen of the 109th brigade in a firing position (Photo: 109th separate brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Facebook) Author: Oleksiy Tarasov Israeli military commentator Yigal Levin told in an interview with Radio NV why Russia continues to advance on in the east, despite the huge loss of life”, — write on: ua.news
Gunners of the 109th brigade at a firing position (Photo: 109th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Facebook)
In an interview with Radio NV, Israeli military commentator Yigal Levin explained why Russia continues to advance in the east, despite huge losses in manpower and equipment, and also shared his opinion on how to fight alcoholism in the army.
— The end of December is a formal reason to sum up certain results for 2025. Indeed, most of the views are now focused on what is happening in Donbas. According to military estimates, Russian troops are located two kilometers from Pokrovsk, and the battles for Pokrovsk will begin soon. If we talk about what happened during the year, in your opinion, what does the Russian army succeed, what does the Ukrainian army fail? Is it only about the number of troops that the Russian army can use?
— Discipline. In the Russian army, there is a discipline that is supported by fear, because man is such a creature that does not want to die. That’s why any army is afraid. It just happens differently. When you have fear, it is not necessarily fear of the pit or zero. It can be a fear of letting down one’s team, disappointing one’s loved ones, more broadly — one’s community, the nation. General shame, for example.
In Israel, a conscript can be ashamed, because the whole school, everyone is conscripted, and a young conscript would like to do IT, he doesn’t like all this military… He thinks: ok, I’ll enlist, in the rear [підрозділи]please, not in the combat unit. But he will not try to somehow escape from all this – an 18-year-old boy – because the whole school is called, the whole class.
How to meet friends later? This one is a tank operator, this one is a cook, gunner, logistician, submariner, and this one went to be a pilot in general. And he will say: “And I – just like that, messed up.” We are currently struggling to figure out what the risks are, there are evaders in Israel, but very few, I mean young people, 18-year-olds. There are isolated cases. Everyone is leaving en masse, because there is a fear of condemnation, public opinion, for example.
We see, fear is always at the foundation. Russian (it’s not some complex society) people are simply lured with money, large payments. A person goes for money, not for patriotism, not for an idea “of great Russia”, but simply because she is offered unheard of money, such as she would not have earned in her entire life.
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This is a very important point. It is necessary to understand that if he, as an honest citizen, would have worked at a normal job in Russia, he would not have accumulated as much money as the one-time payment offered during his entire life. He thinks that this is easy money, and if not easy, then at least with some rules. You can, of course, die, but you can also die somewhere on the outskirts of Moscow, some gopniks or alcoholics will beat you up. Such is his logic.
But when he sees that this is not the case at all, it is just a conveyor, a “meat grinder”, of course, he does not want to fight. Then the next stage is included — these are pits, zeroing, shootings. He is clearly shown that where you step forward, the chances of dying are high, but not 100%, let’s say, but 80%. And in the rear – 100% you will be taken, imprisoned, searched, sorry, you will die somewhere in the cold or you will be shot, killed.