“This is not a ‘special military operation,’ this is a special terrorist operation. Bombing and killing civilians and destroying infrastructure is not what the military does. Soldiers fight against other soldiers. This is absolute terrorism and instills panic. Putin is paranoid and frankly psychopathic.”
Tatyana Popova’s special interview “23rd Day of the War” with Gary Tabach (Excerpts), retired captain of the 1st rank of the US Navy and former head of the NATO mission in Moscow. His role involved coordinating contacts with the Ministry of Defense in the Russian Federation. The full interview can be viewed here.
POPOVA: How do you estimate the situation on the frontline?
TABACH: The Ukrainians are doing well and are constantly moving. But I get the impression that the Russian officers and generals were trained 2-3 days before the attack from watching Soviet feature films about World War II. It’s crazy. I’m surprised because I know a lot of Russian officers and they are normally capable guys.
POPOVA: The day before yesterday, a Syrian journalist wrote that after the bombing of the Mariupol theater, as soon as the Russians found out where the refugees were hiding, they instantly appeared and killed those civilians. This seems to be their standard tactic – “carpet bombing”.
TABACH: Okay, what’s the point of this?
POPOVA: I don’t even understand the meaning of war. Maybe you can explain it to me. You worked there and interacted with the Russian military.
TABACH: I didn’t think they’d go to Ukraine because I didn’t see any point in it. They didn’t have any obvious planning or preparation. It doesn’t matter how many troops they have allocated to occupy Ukraine, they won’t have enough. Apparently, someone told them that the Ukrainians would simply roll over and be glad for Russia to supposedly rescue them.
POPOVA: Maybe they only need Mariupol, Kherson, and Kharkiv. We don’t know their plans.
TABACH: Okay, so why bomb Kyiv? Why draw troops to Kyiv?
POPOVA: Probably to intimidate. But surely Putin achieved what he needed before the war started?
TABACH: Under Trump, he sat quietly and did nothing. Oil prices were low and Nord Stream 2 was blocked. Then Biden came along, Nord Stream 2 was unblocked, oil prices went up and Putin was invited everywhere. But why would he attack and take such a risk? What did he think he would achieve? I don’t understand what the plan was nor what he is thinking now. It seems like the goal is to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and massacre the civilian population. Does Putin think Ukraine will capitulate this way? Sorry but it doesn’t work like that and violating all the rules of war is not a way to be accepted. I can’t even call them soldiers; they are terrorists. This is not a “special military operation”, this is a special terrorist operation. Bombing and killing civilians and destroying infrastructure is not what the military does. Soldiers fight against other soldiers. This is absolute terrorism and instills panic. Putin is paranoid and frankly psychopathic.
POPOVA: But at the same time the West is afraid of him. Biden won’t introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Is this Biden’s stance as a Democrat or is that what Republicans think too?
TABACH: Biden is not thinking anything anymore.
POPOVA: Really?
TABACH: Unfortunately, I think that he is senile. Listen, he calls Ukrainians Iranians in his conversations. When we say Biden, we mean, of course, the Democratic Party and all the left-wing pack. Why should Russia listen to what the U.S. or NATO says? They won’t they give planes, they won’t give the S-300 and they won’t close the sky over Ukraine.
POPOVA: Do you think the EU is also afraid of Putin?
TABACH: I don’t think anyone is afraid of him. But there was an error. A “clown” appears in Ukraine, who becomes the president. It would seem that getting rid of him would be easy. After all he has no experience. But he isn’t a clown. He turned out to be a man with balls. Immediately they call him: “Come to America. Come to Brighton. You are loved here.” And he says: “Give me weapons” but they weren’t ready for it. And then the Russian army turned out not to be combat-ready, with an aptitude only to kill civilians, including children. One minute we’re giving planes, then we’re not giving planes. Then the planes are being offered by European countries, but the American president forbids it. Strange, right?
– POPOVA: Yes.
– TABACH: Still, the sky is not closed. They say “we don’t want a nuclear war”. But Russia is already hitting nuclear reactors; they’ve captured and cut off Chornobyl. How about saying that we also have nuclear weapons? Why not tell Putin that we will use our Armed Forces if he attacks Ukraine? If there’s a significant invasion, that’s one thing, but if it’s less severe that’s something else. Even Putin sees that NATO is nothing. We always say that we have the option of using our powerful and strong. If we’re not going to use it, why do we need it? What kind of Commander-in-Chief is this, who immediately removes this option in front of such a psycho as Putin? And he removes our ambassador from Kyiv knowing that there will be an attack and without doing anything at all. We didn’t withdraw the ambassador from Afghanistan.
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