AS impossible and absurd the suggestion conveyed by the title of this article might be, it was deliberately chosen given the present scenario being played out in the theatre of war by the two principal actors — the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

That its supporting military actor, in the form of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) led by the US, is also playing its part in this contemporary conflict exposes the seriousness of such military engagement for every global citizen.

Like many Jamaicans I was one of the people who used to greatly admire and respect the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and now the Russian Federation, but all this changed after its invasion of Ukraine. Prior to its inevitable collapse in 1991, the then USSR was seen as a formidable foe and equal military force to the USA. This was solidified by its large army, vast weaponry, and perhaps, most of all, its nuclear capabilities. I know that many people across the world held this view, even in the USA, until the invasion of Ukraine in February of this year.

The bare truth is that, with all the misinformation, propaganda, exaggerations, and blatant lies being fed to the Russian people and the world over the years by the Russian authorities, when one strips it down to the bare bones Russia is predominantly, in reality, a paper tiger with a military populated mostly by toy/tin soldiers, left, right, and centre. This is in regard to adequacy of training, availability of supplies, and the commitment of military personnel, among other factors. Essentially, the hypersonic hype that has been bandied about regarding Russia’s invincibility, superiority, reliability, and capability, among other things, were/are grand wishes and figments of the Russian authorities’ imagination. Such a combination is a sure policy for an imaginative victory almost anywhere Russia intends to send its troops to conquer.

The Ukraine is a classic example of one such country where Russia is bound to fail miserably. And I say this with confidence due to the rate at which Russia is going and its overall performance in this former member of the USSR. At the time of writing it is said that Russia’s military lost 1,794 vehicles — 877 completely destroyed; 34 seriously damaged; 288 abandoned; and 655 captured by Ukrainians. Twenty-seven thousand Russian soldiers are dead and many more are wounded and missing in action. And there are approximately 1,000 casualties per day. In comparison, the Ukrainian army has lost 536 vehicles — 205 destroyed, 16 severely damaged, 37 abandoned, and 278 captured. Alex Horton’s Washington Post article ‘In Ukraine, destroyed Russian tanks are the newest roadside attraction’ pretty much says it all about Russia’s great losses.

It said that the real casualties could be much higher. I tend to agree with this view for the simple reason that the Russian authorities almost always lie to its citizens (military or civilian). In fact, from the very early days of the former USSR to the present Russian Federation, Russian authorities pursued a consistent culture of lies, threats, intimidation, jail time, etc. Those who have opposed the Government are either dead or missing. The situation in Ukraine seems to be exposing these communist consistencies, along with the corruption that has become part and parcel of the Russian landscape.

In fact, the long-held myth about the invincibility, superiority, and might of the Russian army has been shattered by Ukraine using weapons supplied by NATO members as well as Soviet-made weapons to boot.

Now that it has shown itself to be a mere paper tiger, President Vladimir Putin must realise that, unlike the USSR of yore where lies, propaganda, misinformation, brainwashing, and Russian-style public relations and communications went unchallenged, misinformation will not go undetected, especially in this digital/technological/social media age in which information is beamed instantly to the world. Consequently, and ironically, Russia has become much weaker, more vulnerable, and more susceptible to the very concern it has about NATO/Western encroachment on its doorstep. The probability that this fear will become reality has increased and been made easier to accomplish by Putin and his minions.

Interestingly, it was Putin who referred to the dissolution of the USSR as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. Someone should tell him that the biggest blunder and the most massive military miscalculations of the 21st is the invasion of Ukraine orchestrated and engineered by “Mad Vlad” himself.

While Putin’s concern about NATO’s advancement and encroachment on Russia’s doorstep is quite legitimate — lest we promote and fully endorse a unipolar world that can be very dangerous in the long run and may very well lead to the exact thing that NATO is trying to prevent Russia from doing — his reaction to such threats are totally illegitimate, illegal, unconscionable, and cruel. Apparently Putin is viewing the world through rose-coloured spectacles and his modern-day quixotic moves and decisions are going to have the direct opposite effect on Russia and weaken it further. Putin does not see the world for what it is and prefers to imagine that he is living out a knightly story from that era.

Regardless of the angle from which it is viewed, the reality is that Russia is fighting a 20th-century war while Ukraine is fighting a 21st-century war.

This assertion can be made owing to the simple fact that Ukraine has consistently received modern and advanced weaponry and communication equipment from the West via NATO. Such military and communication supplies has given Ukraine a clear advantage over Russia’s invading forces. Russia is also, technically, fighting against itself because both the Russian and Ukrainian armies basically got the same training, weapons, equipment, etc when Ukraine was part of the USSR. There could be a serious problem in light of this fact.

In his desperation to be victorious and to save face, in terms of a former super power with the most nuclear weapons on the planet being severely humiliated by one of its former members, Putin just might use these weapons since he has effectively painted himself into a corner.

But this creates an even greater problem, whereby the USA and the Russian Federation would more than likely face off. Then again, the US would not use nuclear weapons to counter and stop Russia’s madness and aggression. Instead, it would decimate Russia with its vast and deadly arsenal of conventional weapons, along with the most brutal economic sanctions yet to be imposed. And, like the pariah State of North Korea, Russia will find itself ostracised.

Peter Price is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or sonumbonum360@yahoo.com