Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky
Yuri Baluyevsky, the former head of Russia’s General Staff has criticized Russian “humanitarian ceasefires” approach in Aleppo and the actions of Russian and Syrian military commanders in Palmyra, Interfax reported.
“I understand it is necessary to ensure the safety of the population…” Baluyevsky said. “But when these pauses last three weeks, and these militants – who are up to their elbows in blood – can restore their strength and are allowed to keep their personal weapons – well, that I don’t understand.”
The general also called the loss of Palmyra a blow to the “prestige” of the Russian and Syrian armed forces. He added that this became possible because of mistakes in planning by local commanders and Russian military advisers.
The Syrian army, supported by the Russian Armed Forces, liberated Palmyra from ISIS terrorists in March 2016. The terrorist group took back Palmyra on December 11, after a 4-day-long offensive in the area.
Lavrov will never resign as many mistakes he will make and as many Russians will sacrifice from his mistakes because he is under the protection of Russian elite and oligarchy.They planted him besides Putin and he leads the Russia foreign policy.Putin is a weak president.
Well the same thing can be said about Assad in Syria.He also made numerous mistake in his FP .
We can say the same for USA…they have made a numerous mistakes in past years and months- everyone makes a mistake( that makes us humans)
Putin is not weak….He has over focused on domestic affairs which have had some Setbacks. The Hardliners are going to remind Him they were correct on several geostrategic Issues facing Russia.
Vladimir can get off the mat quick…as his judo experience teaches. He now must act …to not just address Syria, He must act to signal to Empire that menace against Donbass, Crimea and Russian borders Is unacceptable
you know, it is impossible to sit in two chairs.
At least he appears to be.
Lavrov , it is time to go home.No more cease fires no more Russian lives lost for nothing and no more “after sex smiles” with your friend Kerry.Zaharova is a good choise to replace him.
Russia miss a great leader like Stalin to sent in the trial all these -Vlasov traitors like Lavrov, Surkov …act .
keep it up. You forgot to upvote your answer to your own comment.
Stalin? Really?
really. he was the only big stateman.
exactly Stalin was great leader
If you were a christian during his time you would have thought differently.
It’s interesting to follow the legacy of the Trotskyites of Russia, And how they squirrel ed their way into the Fake Right Conservative movement USA, And became the Kagan war cult side with John Hagee side Church screaming Rapture and Armageddon. Oft used as side tension in TV series…is the legacy of Russian agents living in Texas, Doing everything from spy on NASA to be on US military base and monitor The Drug/gun running of the USA crime networks into Central America. So ya…Russian spies…but yet not knowing…what type/kind…of Russian spy.
The McCain Lindsey Graham rage show against Russia is connected to this Kagan group and the PNAC…and the…and the…. Trotsky gets murdered by Ice Pick. In death. …something continues….
Katasonova for FM!
There is rumor that Lavrov is taking the heat for Vladimirs wonky foreign policy moves. The Donbass is getting the shit kicked out of it while Minski whatever does nothing to protect the Donbass from daily Kiev long range arty. While Russia did twice bomb the SAS operations in South Der Ezzor Prov/Jordan border. Empire has built bases and Airbases in Syria…. Tons of weapons and special forces go in here. Empire is signaling it wants Partition and Pipelineistan
Unless Putin already conceded to this ….did a deal with Snake Erdogan and Snake Saudi,….we are there now.
This is the way world is, Russia is very careful in this regards. As any wrong move will start big powers at each other and this is not good for anyone not US or Russia. Syria will prevaile out of this and will make sure nothing like this will happened again. Russia got a good live training. The only losers are arabs and US
The POS Lavrov is responsible for the fact that there is still battle in Aleppo.If there was no ceasfire SAA would have liberated Aleppo 3 months ago.
If Putin hadn’t stupidly pulled out the bulk of the Russian Airforce and forced a ceasefire as the Syrian army was winning in February 2016, not just Aleppo but MANY OTHER AREAS, maybe even ALL SYRIA, would likely have been liberated from jihadis by mid-2016.
Lavrov – it’s time to retire. Shame on Russian army for losing Palmyra. We had much higher expectations from you.
All things considered, there wasn’t much they could do to avoid this. Those civilians were being held hostage by Al-Qaeda, they had to be evacuated. My only issue is that they somehow didn’t see the attack coming even after the (((coalition))) had 9 thousand fighters transferred from Mosul BEFORE the offensive even started.
You see, I made reference to this unsavoury possibility when I suggested that the ISIS handlers were using diplomacy in Aleppo to fixate the Russian Coalition on the Aleppo crisis while the NATO Coalition plus Turkey were building up the capacity of ISIS through strategic ‘re-directioning’ and arming them for their suicidal March to relieve the trapped Al Nusra in Aleppo, of-course via Palmyra – the only ISIS corridor that the US and Turkey have planned for them. I am sure the Russian Coalition are up to the evolving task of salvaging Palmyra from sustained occupation by the demons of Hell. It may not be in Russian Coalition’s interest to completely wipe them (ISIS) out; they should instead re-channel them towards Turkey.The Kurds should also open a corridor for them towards Turkey without giving up strategic vital Ground. Remember they (ISIS) have developed their Dabiq Apocalyptic end time scenario and it is my belief that they are trying to reach that town early and concentrate there for their ‘martyric’ transition to Hell. But being human, many of them will crossover to Turkey where they will cause chaos on their way to Europe (in smaller groups) in pursuit of an illusive white Caliphate.
Alas, the truth has been spoken..
The problem is that there is no general mobilization in Syria of fighting age men to increase their numbers of soldiers. Draftees are not as good as special forces units yes, but hey could be used to hold territory taken by special units etc, freeing up better units to guard places like Palmaria and to make military offensives.The good part of this is that Russian air power and Syrian special forces can wipe out these ISIS fighters, while they are on this strategically stupid offensive, following the orders of their masters Israel and Saudi Arabia.
No general mobilization in Syria?? How bad does it have to get before this is done??
ISIS have Russian weapons now.Look like Russia doesn’t have drones to detect large convoys of ISIS.I think Russian base can be easily over run as even Heimen base can’t detect anything.Keep on with NATO request cease fires until you regret Lavrov.ISIS will eat your warm food and attack you.
The possibility that this terrorist are the once that were disarm and release from Alepo is true.
Of course Turkey Nato member provided this weapons to attack and confiscated Russian weapons too.
Guys, I’m disappointed by the Palmira fiasco too, but let’s be realistic. SAA simply has too few men in regular battle worthy army units. Iranian NDF pet project can’t work in a country that’s secular for 50 years. These people are just not the material for religious indoctrination and mindless frontal attack tactics. I simply can’t understand that SAA can’t organize and equip a mobile tactical force at least 10 brigade strong – 40.000 men willing to fight. These troops should spearhead offensive operations with 2-3 brigades being a mobile reserve on “fire brigade duty”. It shouldn’t be so hard in a country with 15 million people under government control. Today we have Tiger force (probably 5.000 strong), Desert hawks (2-3.000), some Republican guard brigades and Hezbollah (2.000 tops) capable for a serious fight. That’s just not enough. In the end it’s up to Syrians to liberate their country.
AA simply has too few men
WHY DO NOT RECRUITE?!?!?!
It’s not even a large % to recruit. Give them a good salary, make them professional and in a country with virtually no economy you should have enough volunteers.
Syrians need military training by Russians or Chinese. A lot of Syrians died in this war.
A lot of Syrians left too. Coerced to migrate out of the country. From what I hear they are a lot of military aged men.
I think you guys over looking this and making blame game. SAA is more than capable of defending but you talking about 5000 strong ISIS rats with heavy weaponry coming from Raqqa, Der Ezzor, Jordan and Iraq under watch of so called coalition. The report say they send 20+ suicide car bombs first to distract and than send large number of terrorists to attack. Now SAA tried best to defend but surely 5000 was unexpected number as SSA numbers were in region of 1000, they still managed to take poplulation to safety and lost around 150 solders and lost not much ground. Aleppo once librated will free 20,000 soldiers to g oto other battle grounds. God bless ASSAD and PUTIN. Lavrov is doing his best but no more pauses for any reason. go and crush them from now on
Aleppo once librated will free 20,000 soldiers
this is nonsence, how you all believe in this shit. most of terrorist were transfered to dolib. that means, thay stood near aleppo, on western border. from east side come turks, isis and fsa. within several weeks aleppo will need more trops then now. and this is only the beginning.
I agree Aleppo will not free too much SAA units. Besides next logical step is reducing Idlib. Rebels are in much better tactical position there having shorter lines of communication and direct access to Turkey for supply. They can launch attacks towards Latakia, Homs or Aleppo making SAA run around the front lines losing strenght.
5.000 Daesh mounted on Toyota pickups in the middle of eastern desert should be sitting ducks to an army with complete air superiority. Somebody screwed up big time and not just in SAA HQ. Russians have enough modern surveillance equipment to detect them but I suppose not enough trained men to operate it – not in Syria anyway.
I think Russia knew ISIS was going to attack Palmaria all along. It’s a good trap. Russia probably thought that Syrian troops could at least hold out for a few days which they did not. Russia / Syria needed to keep second rate troops there to bate Israel / ISIS and Saudi into an attack and they fell for it. The ISIS move is too little too late. It does not matter. Aleppo has been won.
This Palmaria move was a stupid desperate attack to relieve pressure on Aleppo and has turned into a huge strategic mistake by Israel / ISIS and Saudi. Now this large ISIS force can be wiped out by Russian / Syrian air power and the Tiger forces. Their supply lines are long, with no Israeli or Turkish hospitals nearby, all the ISIS wounded will die. They are in the open with no tunnels to hide in. I bet less ten 10% of the ISIS solders in this attack make it back to ISIS territory alive.
To relieve Idlib not Aleppo IMHO. 1st half os Syrian war will be won with the reduction of Idlib salient. After Idlib SAA can pick it’s targets in the east.
You would be right if ISIS had not fallen for the trap. These ISIS troops must be wiped out now while they are out in the open, with long supply lines open to aerial attack as Russia and Syria control the skies.
ISIS drained most of their defenses in Deir Azour and Rakka for this attack. Now Syria can take Deir Ez or and Rakka quickly if they attack now after eliminating these ISIS soldiers.
You do have a point. Long supply lines are big no no.
The Russian air force and the Syrian Tiger forces must attack Palmyra and area now so ISIS can’t bring in its supplies without being bombed. If ISIS is allowed to keep Palmyra they will mass supplies there and then attack deep into western Syria. To not attack ISIS now while they are vulnerable and use the opportunity to wipe them out, would be real total incompetence.
Now they have the cover of a city. And city fighting is hard and laborious.
So what if they are in the city bomb them anyway. Almost all the civilians got out so no human shields this time.
All i would say that Russia got involved little late in fighting( Oct 2015) and the whole thing started back in 2011. US and Coliation was involved as ISIS air power on 2013. So alot of ground was lost when Russia got involved and now they are fighting in every front so offcourse army is limited since 150,000 brave soldiers lost thier lives fighting these rats since 2011. This is war with the elite (UK france US and ally dirty GCC arabs)
This is a humiliating defeat for Russia – no excuses!
This general I like.
I am totally in agreement with this general !! Lavrov must go now !!
The way to hell is paved by good intentions Mr Putin and Mr Lavrov